Jonathan Michael Batiste is an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, bandleader, television personality and actor. He has recorded and performed with artists including Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, ASAP Rocky, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Roy Hargrove, Juvenile, Mavis Staples and Lauryn Hill. Batiste appeared nightly with his band, Stay Human, as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022.
Batiste also serves as the music director of The Atlantic and the Creative Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. In 2020, he co-composed the score for the Pixar animated film Soul, for which he received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award and a BAFTA Film Award (all shared with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). Batiste has garnered eight Grammy Awards from 25 nominations, including an Album of the Year win for We Are (2021).
In 2023, Batiste was featured in the documentary film American Symphony, which records the process of Batiste composing his first symphony.