Charlie Puth hails from Rumson, New Jersey near the famed Jersey Shore. He is the son of Debra and Charles Puth. "I didn't grow up wealthy," he said. "We couldn't even afford spaghetti sauce when I was first born, but my mom and dad worked really hard and came from the bottom up."
James Taylor was a very early influence. "My mom would put headphones on her belly," he said, "and play his records to me while she was pregnant."
27 years later Charlie Puth got to collaborate with his mother's hero when he recorded "
Change" with James Taylor for his
VoiceNotes album.
Puth's unique set of eyebrows are the result of a near-fatal dog bite when he was 2 years old.
In 2009 when he was still in high school, Charlie Puth started his YouTube channel, CharliesVlogs. A version of Adele's "
Someone Like You," which he did for for a Perez Hilton covers contest, went viral and landed the young singer a deal with Ellen DeGeneres' now-defunct eleveneleven label in 2011. "It got me in front of 30 million people," he said of the experience. "It pushed me into a different area I never thought I would reach."
Puth graduated in 2013 from the Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship. He majored in music production and engineering.
He has the gift of perfect pitch. If someone plays a note on an instrument Puth recognizes immediately what key it's in. The singer explained to
Entertainment Weekly:
"If you take a glass that's half-filled with water, and you tap and it makes that sound we all know, well, I know that that's a 'G.' It's like seeing the color red, and your brain knowing that that's red. Everything in this world has a tone and I'm learning more and more every day how to shut if off when I don't need it. The good thing is that it comes in handy when I'm producing a record."
Puth moved to Los Angeles to pursue songwriting in September 2014. In his first day in town he was sitting at a coffee shop on Cahuenga Boulevard when the melody for "
Marvin Gaye" struck him - he found himself tapping his foot and clapping out the beat. The very next day, he met with the producer-DJ Frank E, and within ten minutes, the pair had come up with most of "
See You Again." The song was recorded by him and Wiz Khalifa for the climactic scene in
Furious 7 and went on to top the charts throughout the world.
Puth was signed to Atlantic Records in January 2015 and he recorded "Marvin Gaye" as his debut solo single. It was a worldwide hit reaching #1 in the UK, France, New Zealand and several other countries.
He is an introvert and very shy. Puth decided to bring Brady, his King Charles Cavalier, on his first date, and his pooch turned out to be the perfect wingman. He recalled to MTV News: "My first date ever, I was kind of nervous so I was like, 'I'm going to bring Brady to this walk on the beach with this girl,' and she was like, 'Oh my gosh I have a King Charles Cavalier too.' I'm like, 'Perfect, amazing.'"
Puth began perfecting his beatboxing skills in 8th grade and in the back of his parents' car. "My dad would listen to Motown' R&B. My mom would listen to folky, Americana stuff and the classical music. I got a nice smorgasbord of musical offerings," the singer recalled to Fresh 102.7. "I would harmonize with every song. I would beatbox' And that's how I make music on the fly: I'll just click my teeth and annoy the crap out of everybody around me."
Charlie Puth began dating digital marketing professional Brooke Sansone, an old family friend, in 2022. They tied the knot in Montecito, California, at Puth's parents' home in September 2024.
Charlie Puth writes all his lyrics by hand, and he swears by a Bic 4-Color Pen to do it. The pop star told The Hollywood Reporter that typing on a phone or computer makes a song feel impersonal, while handwriting with different ink colors helps him literally see the music.
Each shade has a meaning: red is used to strike out bad lines, green marks the best ones ("green means go"), and the others highlight passages he wants to emphasize. He takes the pen everywhere: on tour, on airplanes, even backstage.
Puth brings along a small keyboard when he travels. It's not just for songwriting - he'll play it during conversations to help him talk more easily, especially when he's anxious about meeting fans or guests.
Growing up in Rumson, New Jersey, Puth's daily alarm clock wasn't an alarm at all, but his music teacher mother playing piano every morning while he woke up.
As a child, he could hear a Beatles song once and immediately play it back on the piano. It took him a while to realize this was a special talent: for years he assumed it was something anyone could do.
At age 10, Puth filled in as a church organist on the spot when the regular player didn't show up, performing the entire mass from memory, even though his feet didn't reach the organ pedals.
