Kenny Segal > Elias Arts, Los Angeles
Just the facts: Age - 28; Hometown - Rockville, Maryland; Education - switched from computer engineering to music engineering at USC; Employ - joined Elias Arts in 2006.

Previous Experience: A DJ and producer who has continued to work with a number of hip-hop and electronic artists since moving to LA in 1997, Segal got into the ad business through local rapper Phoenix Orion, who introduced him to Tom & Andy EP Scott Cymbala. Eventually, Cymbala moved to Elias, calling on Segal to join him and fill in a niche for electronic and hip-hop music that the piano and guitar-strong music house needed.

Best Work: The electro hip-hop of Nationwide "Federline" exemplifies his favored genre, but he's as comfortable working with lo-fi jazz (Nissan "Individuality") or unusual challenges like Nike's respiration-based "Breathe". "They had originally hired Timbaland to work on it, but what he submitted they found unacceptable so they came to us at the eleventh hour, 6pm on a Friday night, and said we need this to be mixed by 9am Monday. They brought us all the elements that Timbaland had made. We stayed until 4am that night recording our own breaths."

Jack of all trades: Although he was hired on as the go-to man for electronic and hip-hop-based composition, he's broadened his horizons to accommodate the variety of requests that Elias caters to. "Certainly electronic styles are still my forte, but I think the longer I've been here I've grown a lot more rounded," he says. "I've always loved challenging myself with music. I look at it like a puzzle you've got to put together every day when you get to work."

Kenny on collaboration: Part of Elias' appeal to Segal is the team effort mentality that pervades there. "I have friends who work at other music houses and at Elias we definitely have a very collaborative team vibe where everyone works on everyone else's stuff a little bit," he says. "I work with Jonathan Elias a lot, where he'll lay down a string or a piano part and let me finish the song."

Keeping it fresh: Segal is still recording and is about to tour for his latest solo release "Ken Can Cook". He says it's essential to keep a thumb on the pulse of new music and stay hungry as a working artist. "Being a composer you get coddled, you're given what you've got to do [and] you come to work every day. It's exciting to get out there and remember what it's like to go on tour."

Elias Arts http://www.eliasarts.com