Chris Merrick is the Co-Founder and CTO of Omni, a $1.5B-valued AI analytics platform that raised $120M in Series C funding in April 2026. A Princeton physics graduate and longtime Philadelphia resident, Merrick shaped the modern data stack long before Omni existed - he wrote the first lines of code for dbt, co-created the Singer open-source ETL standard at RJMetrics, and led engineering through Stitch's acquisition by Talend. At Omni, he reunited with college friends Colin Zima and Jamie Davidson to build a BI platform that combines governed semantic modeling with the flexibility of ad-hoc SQL analysis, serving customers like BambooHR, Perplexity, and BuzzFeed.
Linda Haviv is a Staff Developer Advocate at Anyscale and founder of CodingCrystals.com, best known for her wildly nonlinear path from philosophy major and professional singer to site reliability engineer and AI infrastructure advocate. After graduating summa cum laude as Baruch College's salutatorian, teaching herself to code at The Flatiron School, and spending years as a JavaScript developer and SRE at Fox Corporation, she joined AWS as a developer advocate before landing at Anyscale — the company behind Ray, the open-source distributed computing framework that powers OpenAI's ChatGPT training. She uses her platform to demystify AI infrastructure for developers everywhere, and sells STEM-inspired crystal jewelry on the side.
Kehlani Ashley Parrish is an Oakland-born R&B and neo-soul singer-songwriter who turned a childhood of hardship into one of the most compelling careers in contemporary music. After finishing fourth on America's Got Talent as a teen, surviving homelessness, and years of near-misses with mainstream recognition, she finally broke through with 'Folded' - a Grammy-winning hit that charted in the top 10 for 33 weeks in 2026 and led to her landmark self-titled album. Known for radical emotional honesty, political outspokenness, and a voice that channels Brandy and Erykah Badu simultaneously, Kehlani has become both a commercial force and a genuine cultural touchstone for queer communities and R&B lovers worldwide.
Lana Del Rey (born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant) is an American singer-songwriter whose haunted, cinematic sound redefined indie pop in the 2010s and continues to dominate streaming charts and TikTok culture into the 2020s. With nine studio albums, 11 Grammy nominations, and a philosophy degree from Fordham University, she has built one of the most distinctive and enduring catalogs in contemporary music - blending melancholic Americana, baroque orchestration, and hip-hop beats into something entirely her own.
Lil Nas X (born Montero Lamar Hill) is an Atlanta-raised rapper, singer, and cultural provocateur who turned a 99-cent beat, a TikTok meme, and sheer internet genius into a record-breaking 19-week #1 hit before he had a major label deal. Since 'Old Town Road,' he has released three #1 Billboard Hot 100 singles, two Grammy wins, a debut album with universal acclaim, a Satan Shoes controversy that sued Nike, and a documentary on Max - all while being one of the most openly gay, openly himself artists in pop music history. Now in his Dreamboy era with a second studio album on deck, Lil Nas X remains the internet's favorite provocateur.
MOIO (Moyo Mobolaji) is a Nigerian-Irish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Dublin whose 2023 single 'Moments' went viral in late 2024 - racking up 19M+ Spotify streams and hitting #1 on Spotify's Viral 50 in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and New Zealand. His debut EP 'Earthday' (October 2025) announced him as one of Ireland's most compelling new artists, blending R&B warmth with indie introspection and self-produced bedroom-pop textures. A co-founder of the Chamomile Club collective in Dublin, he now performs internationally and is signed to Republic Records.
REI AMI (born Sarah Yeeun Lee) is a Korean-American singer, rapper, and genre-bending artist from Germantown, Maryland, who blends hip-hop, R&B, alternative pop, and pop-punk aggression into a sound entirely her own. After breaking through with Sub Urban's viral 'Freak' (2020) and debuting with her mixtape FOIL (2021), she catapulted to global stardom in 2025 as Zoey in Netflix's animated film KPop Demon Hunters, voicing and performing as part of the fictional K-pop trio HUNTR/X. Their single 'Golden' became Netflix's most-watched film's signature track, hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won both a Grammy and an Oscar — firsts for any K-pop song.
Ozuna (Juan Carlos Ozuna Rosado) is Puerto Rico's reigning melodic reggaeton king — the artist who spent more consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Latin Albums than any male in history, held four Guinness World Records simultaneously, and became the most-viewed artist on YouTube globally in 2018. Raised by his grandmother above a San Juan bodega after losing his father at age three, he turned hardship into a sonic empire spanning seven studio albums, 23+ million Instagram followers, and collaborations with Cardi B, Selena Gomez, DJ Snake, and Rosalía. His smooth melodic tenor and genre-fluid approach — blending reggaeton, melodic trap, Afrobeats, and Latin pop — have made him a defining voice of the streaming era.
Post Malone (born Austin Richard Post) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for pioneering a genre-less sound that fuses hip-hop, pop, rock, country, and R&B. Rising to fame with his 2015 debut single 'White Iverson,' he has become one of the best-selling digital artists of all time, with six studio albums, nine Diamond-certified songs, and six Billboard Hot 100 number-ones. His 2024 country album F-1 Trillion debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and featured collaborations with Tim McGraw, Morgan Wallen, Dolly Parton, Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, and others, cementing his cross-genre appeal.
Sabrina Carpenter is an American singer-songwriter and actress who transformed from a Disney Channel kid into one of pop's sharpest wits. Her 2024 album Short n' Sweet debuted at #1 in 18 countries and yielded global smashes 'Espresso' and 'Please Please Please,' earning two Grammy Awards. Known for confessional lyricism wrapped in bubblegum-pop hooks, she headlined Coachella 2026, released her seventh album Man's Best Friend to another Billboard 200 #1, and remains one of the defining pop voices of her generation.
Reneé Rapp is a 26-year-old actress and singer-songwriter from North Carolina who rocketed from high school theater champion to Broadway's Regina George to pop music headliner - all before most people her age have a LinkedIn. She won the Jimmy Awards at 18, debuted on Broadway in Mean Girls a year later, built a cult following as Leighton Murray on HBO Max's The Sex Lives of College Girls, reprised Regina George in the 2024 film musical that grossed $101M worldwide, and has since released two critically acclaimed albums (Snow Angel and BITE ME) while selling out arenas on the Bite Me Tour. Known for radical candor, zero media training, and a goose-like live performance ad-lib that became a fan religion.
Rosé (Park Chae-young) is a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised South Korean singer-songwriter and main vocalist of BLACKPINK, one of the world's best-selling girl groups. Her 2024 collaboration 'APT.' with Bruno Mars became the best-selling global single of 2025 per IFPI, making her the first K-pop artist nominated for Grammy Record of the Year and Song of the Year, the first to win a Brit Award, and the first female K-pop act to crack the US Billboard Hot 100 top 3. Signed to The Black Label and Atlantic Records for her solo career, Rosé is simultaneously the most-followed K-pop solo artist on Instagram and a global fashion icon as YSL's first-ever global brand ambassador.
Teddy Swims (born Jaten Collin Dimsdale) is a Georgia-raised soul-pop singer whose tattooed exterior and raw emotional delivery mask a voice that sounds like it was forged in a Pentecostal church and tempered by decades of Marvin Gaye records. After years in Atlanta metalcore bands and a viral YouTube cover career, he signed with Warner Records in 2019 and spent the next few years quietly building toward an explosion - 'Lose Control' (2023) became the #1 song in America for 2024, spent 112 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, earned Diamond certification in four countries, and accumulated 1.7 billion streams. His debut album project 'I've Tried Everything but Therapy' (Parts 1 & 2) earned Grammy nominations and festival headlining slots worldwide, cementing him as one of the defining voices of mid-2020s soul-pop.
Tems (Temilade Openiyi) is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and producer from Lagos who built a two-Grammy career on a contralto voice she once tried to hide. Self-taught on production via YouTube, she went from quitting a digital marketing job in 2018 to becoming the first African female artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first Nigerian female Grammy winner, and a co-owner of an MLS soccer team — all while redefining what Afro-fusion sounds like on a global stage.
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor who transformed R&B from the shadows of a Scarborough upbringing into a global phenomenon. With 75+ million records sold, a billion-dollar touring empire, and the most-streamed song in Spotify history, he is redefining what a career exit looks like — retiring the Weeknd persona after his 2025 album and film 'Hurry Up Tomorrow', the closing chapter of a dark pop trilogy, to begin again as Abel Tesfaye.
Tyla (born Tyla Laura Seethal, January 30, 2002) is a South African singer-songwriter who made history when her debut single 'Water' became the first-ever Grammy Award-winning Best African Music Performance in 2024. Blending amapiano, pop, and R&B into a genre she calls 'Popiano,' Tyla broke onto the global stage at 21, charting higher on the US Billboard Hot 100 than any African female soloist in history. By 24, she had two Grammy wins, a platinum-certified self-titled debut album, and a highly anticipated second album A*POP on the horizon — cementing her as the defining voice of Africa's pop moment.