Mike Kenji Shinoda

Date of Birth: 11th February 1977.

Marital Status: Engaged to Long term girlfriend Anna .

Location: Originally from Agoura, CA but lives in LA now.

Height: 6’0”

Ethnic Origin: Half-Japanese. Mike is Yonsei, which means he is fourth generation Japanese born in America. That means that his Japanese great grand parents were born in Japan and they immigrated to the US.

Siblings: One brother called Jason (Mike calls him Jay).

Pets: A Collie dog called Bessie (who lives with his mother) and a fish.

School: Agoura high school.

College: Graduated from the Pasadena Art College of Design were he majored in illustration but studied graphic design heavily. Whilst there Mike had to do his finals in the same week that LP did a showcase for 6 record lables!

First Record Bought: Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet! :-)

Previous jobs: Mike got a graphic designer right out of high school. He did the artwork for Styles of Beyond's 2000 fold CD. Mike went on to do most of the art work for Linkin Park merchandise including the album cover.

Inspiration: Mike was inspired to become a musician after his first concert experience. It was a Killer B's show, which was anthrax and public enemy.

Instruments played: Mike took classical piano lessons for 10 years. He got sick of playing classical music though and moved into jazz then hip-hop. He also plays guitar and Decks. Mike began rapping along with the likes of Run DMC, Eric B AndRakim,Grandmaster Flash and LL Cool J, trying to capture their flow and inspired,freestyling wordplay.He soon began inventing his own rhymes and would perform these for fun to his friends in the playground or after school.

On Mike: Mike wears contacts and says that dark blue is his natural hair color, the light blue was just a phase. Mike doesnt NOT have any tatoos or a tongue peircing. Mike is a DISTANT relative of the composer Tchaikovsky!

Solo Ventures: Mike has started his own Imprint Lable and has signed the up and coming band Simplistic