Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5, is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. His musical style mostly includes progressive house and electro house genres, though he also produces and DJs other genres of electronic music, including techno under the alias Testpilot. Zimmerman mostly appears and performs with a custom helmet called the "mau5head". He has received seven Grammy Award nominations and won four Juno Awards for his songs.
Zimmerman has collaborated with other artists, such as Wolfgang Gartner, Rob Swire, and Chris Lake. He collaborated with Steve Duda to form the duo BSOD and later joined Tommy Lee, DJ Aero, and Duda in the electronic band WTF?. In 2007, he founded his own record label, Mau5trap. Zimmerman later formed electronic music supergroups such as Kx5 with Kaskade and Rezzmau5 with Rezz.
Zimmerman first gained recognition for his breakthrough album Random Album Title (2008), which was certified gold in Canada and silver in the United Kingdom. The album included the single "Faxing Berlin", and the moderate chart hit "I Remember", a collaboration with Kaskade. He won a Juno Award for both this album and the song "All U Ever Want" with Billy Newton-Davis. His fourth studio album, For Lack of a Better Name (2009), was released to critical acclaim, featuring "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" with Rob Swire of Pendulum, "Hi Friend" featuring MC Flipside, and the critically acclaimed "Strobe". The album earned Zimmerman another Juno award. He released his fifth studio album, 4×4=12 (2010), which was supported by singles "Some Chords", "Animal Rights" with Wolfgang Gartner, "Sofi Needs a Ladder" with the singer Sofi, and "Raise Your Weapon" featuring Greta Svabo Bech.
Zimmerman's sixth studio album, Album Title Goes Here (2012), featured the singles "The Veldt" featuring Chris James, and "Professional Griefers" with Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance. The album released to commercial success. Following his departure from long-time label Ultra Records, Zimmerman released his seventh studio album, While(1<2) (2014), supported by its singles "Avaritia", and "Seeya" featuring Colleen D'Agostino of The Material. After a brief hiatus, Zimmerman released his eighth studio album, W:/2016Album/ (2016) with singles "Snowcone", and "Let Go" featuring Grabbitz. He subsequently composed the score for the action film Polar (2019), and In 2020, "Pomegranate" with the Neptunes and "Bridged by a Lightwave" featuring Kiesza were released. Zimmerman's next album is slated to release in 2026, the second single of which is "Science" with Stevie Appleton.
Zimmerman was born on January 5, 1981 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. His mother, Nancy (née Johnson), is a visual artist, and his father, Rodney Thomas "Rod" Zimmerman, is a General Motors plant worker. He has two siblings, Jennifer (older) and Chris (younger). His ancestry includes German, Swiss, and English heritage. Zimmerman went to Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls.
Zimmerman's interest in technology began at a young age; he would disassemble and reassemble several household electronics, and later, he received his first computer. Inspired by his interest for video games, Zimmerman started making chiptune music. When Zimmerman was a teenager, he also started going to raves.
The name "Deadmau5" originates from an incident with his computer; when his computer began to smell, Zimmerman dismantled it and found a dead mouse inside. Zimmerman then became known as the "dead mouse guy" among friends, and tried to change his name to "Deadmouse" in an online chat room. The name was one character too long, so he shortened it to "Deadmau5". "Maus" is the German word for "mouse" and is pronounced the same as in English; the ending character 5 instead of an 's' is a form of leetspeak.
Zimmerman's music career began in the late 1990s and he was heavily influenced by chiptune music and demoscene, producing his early work with the program Impulse Tracker. He briefly worked with an online music licensing company and was a programmer. In 1999, while learning how to use 3D modelling software, Zimmerman created the "mau5head". The logo since has since appeared in many different colors and designs, and is included on the cover art of Zimmerman's albums.
In 2000, Zimmerman and Derek Caesar, under the group name Dred and Karma, released the vinyl singles "I Don't Want No Other" and "Suck This". Zimmerman was hosting a radio show in Niagara Falls, and often stayed at a local record shop's recording studio making music. Zimmerman began uploading songs to SectionZ and producing under the alias "Deadmau5" in 2002. On July 26, 2005, Zimmerman released his debut studio album, titled Get Scraped. Around the same time, Zimmerman teamed up with producer Steve Duda to form the electro house duo BSOD. Their single "This Is The Hook" released in 2006 and topped the Beatport Top 100 chart. The duo would go on to release music spontaneously.
In 2006, Zimmerman signed to Play Records and would release various collaborations with Melleefresh. Zimmerman also self-released two compilation albums, first releasing Deadmau5 Circa 1998–2002, which consisted of older tracks, and later, A Little Oblique, which contained new songs.
2006–2008: Breakthrough with Random Album Title
In 2006, Zimmerman released his second studio album, Vexillology, on November 6, 2006, also through Play Records. In 2007, Zimmerman founded his own record label, Mau5trap, which, along with Ultra Records and Ministry of Sound first released the single Faxing Berlin. Zimmerman was given the idea to wear a helmet based on the "mau5head" by one of his friends, Jay Gordon of the industrial metal band Orgy. He wore the helmet for the first time In 2008. Project 56, a compilation album of earlier music, also officially released in 2008, and that same year, Zimmerman and Play Records parted ways, with Play Records retaining ownership of Zimmerman's earlier releases. In 2008, Zimmerman joined the electronic band WTF?, which includes the members Tommy Lee, DJ Aero, and again Steve Duda. The band only has four tracks and rarely performs.
In 2008, the album Random Album Title released. It included Not Exactly, Faxing Berlin, and saw the first collaboration of Zimmerman and Chicago producer Kaskade with "I Remember". "I Remember" became the most popular song on the album, and Rolling Stone later listed it as one of the 200 greatest dance songs of all time. Random Album Title was certified gold in Canada, and it received a Juno Award. Also in 2008, Zimmerman's song with singer Billy Newton-Davis "All U Ever Want" won a Juno Award.
Zimmerman again collaborated with Kaskade in 2008, and in the United States, the song "Move for Me" reached number one on Billboard magazine's Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart in its September 6, 2008, issue. In 2008, Zimmerman received his first Grammy nomination for Best Remixed Recording on "The Longest Road (Deadmau5 Remix)", a remix of a song by DJ and producer Morgan Page.
In 2008 Deadmau5 entered the Top 100 DJs poll, as a new entry, at 11 - representing one of the all-time highest entries of any artist. By 2010 Deadmau5 was the number 4 DJ in the poll.
2009–2011: For Lack of a Better Name and 4×4=12
On September 22, 2009, Ultra Records released Zimmerman's album For Lack of a Better Name. "Ghosts 'n' Stuff", featuring vocals from Rob Swire of Pendulum, reached number one on Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, becoming one of their most popular songs. Despite being reluctant to release the track, "Strobe" was praised by critics and fans, and In 2017, Billboard Dance listed "Strobe" as Zimmerman's best song of all time on their list of the artist's 20 best tracks. For Lack of A Better Name went on to win a Juno Award in 2010.
In April 2010, Zimmerman unveiled his "Cube" stage at Coachella. MTV named Zimmerman as the house DJ for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and MTV PUSH artist of the week on August 16, 2010. He expressed gratitude towards Lady Gaga and David Guetta for bringing dance into the pop music scene and paving the way for him to the mainstream. At the awards, Zimmerman performed with Jason Derulo and Travie McCoy.