Please Rewind Talent Wall

Alex Greenwald

Born in Los Angeles on October 9, 1979, Alex Greenwald has built a career that refuses to sit comfortably under a single job title. He is an actor, singer, model, musician, composer and record producer, though music has provided the clearest through-line in his work. Greenwald formed Phantom Planet as a teenager in 1994, starting the band with four friends at a Los Angeles Pizza Hut. Named after the 1961 B-movie The Phantom Planet, the group became best known for “California,” later used as the theme song for the teen drama The O.C. It is the sort of track that can define a band from the outside, but Greenwald’s wider career shows a consistent interest in collaboration and experimentation. With Phantom Planet bandmate Sam Farrar, Greenwald worked with Mark Ronson on a cover of Radiohead’s “Just.” He later appeared with Ronson at the 2007 Glastonbury Festival and shared writing credits on six tracks from Ronson’s 2010 album Record Collection. Greenwald also became part of Ronson’s band, The Business Intl. His work away from Phantom Planet has been similarly varied. Greenwald co-produced and appeared on The Young Veins’ debut album, Take a Vacation!, and played bass while producing several tracks on The Like’s Release Me. He was also a member of Blackblack and later played bass and keyboards, as well as providing secondary vocals, in Phases, previously known as JJAMZ. Phantom Planet went on hiatus in 2008, staged several one-off reunions between 2011 and 2013, and reunited permanently in 2019. The following year, the band released Devastator through Greenwald’s own Gong Records. Onstage, his 1980s-style dance moves drew inspiration from Talking Heads singer David Byrne—a fitting detail for a performer whose creative identity has always extended beyond one medium or role.