Ed Sheeran

Sheeran has sold 200 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists. He has 119 million RIAA-certified units in the US, and two of his albums are in the list of the best-selling albums in UK chart history. In December 2019, the Official Charts Company named him its artist of the decade, with the most combined success in the UK album and singles charts in the 2010s. As of July 2024, he is the third most followed artist on Spotify. Several of his tours are amongst the most-attended concert tours, and his ÷ Tour became the highest-grossing of all time in August 2019. An alumnus of the National Youth Theatre in London, Sheeran's acting roles include appearing in the 2019 film Yesterday, playing himself. In 2025, Time magazine listed him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

As a teenager, he was accepted into the National Youth Theatre in London. He successfully auditioned for Youth Music Theatre UK in 2007 and joined their production of Frankenstein – A New Musical in Plymouth. He later became a patron of Youth Music Theatre UK, now renamed British Youth Music Theatre, and of Access to Music, where he studied Artist Development. Sheeran is a second cousin of Northern Irish broadcaster Gordon Burns, who hosted the British game show The Krypton Factor.

Sheeran began recording music in 2004, and at the age of thirteen independently released his first collection of work, titled Spinning Man. He has been friends with fellow English singer Passenger since he was 15, with the two playing the same gig in Cambridge. He moved to London in 2008 and began playing in small venues. In 2008, he auditioned for the ITV series Britannia High. He also opened for Nizlopi in Norwich in April 2008, after being one of their guitar technicians. In the autumn of 2009, Sheeran began studying music at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, Surrey, as an undergraduate at the age of 18, but left without permission in the same year to support hip-hop artist Just Jack.

He released another EP in 2009, You Need Me, and also collaborated several times with Essex singer Leddra Chapman, including CeeLo Green's "Fuck You". In February 2010, Sheeran posted a video through SB.TV—a channel launched by British entrepreneur Jamal Edwards—and rapper Example invited Sheeran to tour with him. In the same month, he also released his critically acclaimed Loose Change EP, which featured his future debut single, "The A Team".

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