Norman Quentin Cook, known to the world as Fatboy Slim, is one of the most influential figures in modern electronic music, a pioneering DJ and producer who brought the big beat genre into the mainstream during the 1990s. Born in Bromley, Kent on 31 July 1963, Cook’s musical journey began in an unlikely place: as the bassist for the indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a number-one single in 1986 with their cover of "Caravan of Love." Despite that success, Cook felt uncomfortable within the confines of pop music, and when the band dissolved, he relocated to Brighton to immerse himself in the burgeoning dance scene. There, he formed the electronic group Beats International, whose 1990 single "Dub Be Good to Me" topped the UK charts, and he also played in the band Freak Power. Under a variety of aliases, including Pizzaman and the Mighty Dub Katz, Cook honed a distinctive sound built on eclectic samples, pop structures, and processed rhythms, laying the groundwork for the project that would define his career.

In 1996, Cook released his debut album as Fatboy Slim, "Better Living Through Chemistry," which was followed by a string of acclaimed remixes for Wildchild and Cornershop. His breakthrough came with the 1998 album "You've Come a Long Way, Baby," a platinum-certified landmark that spawned the massive singles "The Rockafeller Skank," "Praise You," and "Right Here, Right Now." The album’s fusion of funk, hip-hop, and dance music, punctuated by sloganistic vocal samples, became the blueprint for big beat and turned Cook into a global superstar. He continued this momentum with "Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars" in 2000, which featured the iconic track "Weapon of Choice," a collaboration with Christopher Walken that won six awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Direction and Best Choreography. The follow-up, "Palookaville" in 2004, was less commercially successful, a fact often attributed to the waning popularity of dance music and the album’s more obscure stylistic direction, but it did little to diminish his legacy as a live performer.

In the years that followed, Cook shifted his focus from studio albums to DJ performances, but he remained creatively active. He released an album as the Brighton Port Authority in 2009, collaborating with artists including David Byrne, and reunited with Byrne for the concept album "Here Lies Love" in 2010, a project about Imelda Marcos that was later adapted into a stage musical in 2013. That production earned Cook a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score in 2024, cementing his versatility across musical and theatrical forms. His trophy cabinet is staggering, including a Grammy Award, nine MTV Video Music Awards, two Brit Awards, and an Ivor Novello Award, alongside Guinness World Records for the most MTV Video Awards won by a DJ, the most MTV Video Awards for a single video, and the most UK number-one singles by one musician as a member of different acts. Beyond the studio and stage, Cook serves as an ambassador for Martlets Hospice in Brighton and has contributed to numerous community projects and charities, while his high-profile marriage to BBC presenter Zoe Ball kept him in the tabloid headlines for years. Today, Fatboy Slim remains a beloved and enduring figure in dance culture, celebrated as much for his genre-defining records as for his electrifying live sets.