Celebrities

From Shaq to Paris to the Prime Minister: 8 celebrities who moonlight as DJs

Some of these might surprise you...

If you've been following the cricket, you'll be aware of the Netherlands' opening batsman, Max O'Dowd, who just faced off against the Black Caps last week.

Were you aware though, that when he's not smashing sixes, old mate is spinning tunes?

Max refers to himself as a part-time DJ who grew up on a soundtrack of deep house music and watched Carl Cox videos when he was a kid.

This got us thinking about the other sports stars, actors and miscellaneous celebs that have also been known to hit the decks - and they make for a surprising bunch.

Here are 8 DJs who are also famous for other stuff:

Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1 Driver) The F1 racing world champion's skills have gotten the seal of approval from Rudimental's DJ Locksmith, who told Wired in 2019: "He is constantly in the studio. I have heard some of his music he is really, really good, he is really, really talented, too."

Back in 2010, he was a special guest DJ during a cocktail event at a Hugo Boss store, where he played tracks from Snoop Dogg and Alicia Keys, but these days he's debuting his own tunes on his social media and sharing playlists on Spotify.

Shaquille O'Neal (Former NBA Player) Shaq AKA DJ Diesel calls himself "the biggest DJ in the world" - see what he did there? - and while that title is debatable, his love for dance tunes is not.

His sets are dubstep and trap heavy, and he often throws in the odd sample from movies like 'Scarface' for good measure.

Paris Hilton (Reality TV star/Heiress) Having first learned her skills from the late DJ AM, and a then largely unknown DJ named Steve Aoki in the late 2000s, Paris has played Tomorrowland twice and held down a five-year residency at Ibiza clubbing institution Amnesia.

Back in the day, Paris' DJ debut was slammed by the likes of Afrojack, Samantha Ronson and Deadmau5, but she went on to become one of the highest-paid female DJs in the world.

Also, lest we forget that her original track 'Stars Are Blind' is an undeniable banger?

Brad Weber (NZ Rugby Player) The All Black and Chiefs halfback first taught himself how to DJ while stuck in isolation after the 2020 Tri-Nations tournament, and George FM invited him in to throw down a DNB 10-minute hot set after he shared his new skills on social media.

From there, the career of 'The Janitor' (because he cleans up the dancefloor) blew up - with him performing an impromptu set at RnV at the end of 2020, which lead to a call from Netsky who asked him to open for him at Spark Arena.

Idris Elba (Actor) 'The Wire' star produces his own tunes and performs as DJ Big Driis, with his biggest gig arguably being Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding.

The tracklist at the royal wedding apparently included 'I Wanna Dance WIth Somebody' by Whitney Houston and 'Still D.R.E' by Dr Dre ft. Snoop Dogg, but his 2019 set at Coachella was mostly house tunes, according to festival-goers.

Elijah Wood (Actor) Disappointingly, the Lord of the Rings star's DJ name is not DJ Frodo, a rumour he dismissed on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2016. He's part of an all-vinyl DJ Duo called Wooden Wisdom that spins a seriously eclectic mix.

"We play everything from stuff from the 70s through to the 90s, a lot of international stuff - African, Turkish," he said.

It's an acquired taste - so much so that the actor admitted they had been shut down at club and hotel gigs in Vegas where promoters had misinterpreted the vibes they'd be bringing.

Kristian Nairn AKA Hodor from Game of Thrones (Actor) He became world-famous for one word - "Hodor" - in GoT, but Kristian Nairn has actually been one of Ireland's most prolific resident house DJs for the last 20 years.

He's played alongside Steve Aoki, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, Fatboy Slim, Danny Howard and more.

Off the back of the success of GoT, began touring his 'Rave of Thrones' show, where audiences cosplayed as characters from the show and DJ Hodor - who stands at nearly 7 foot tall - played progressive house tracks.

Jacinda Ardern (Prime Minister of New Zealand) This list wouldn't be complete without the addition of our very own Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who got stuck into a bit of DJing during her time as an MP - although her music career apparently started much earlier. According to the Spinoff, her first gig was the Morrisonville College after-ball in 1997, where she "played some Spice Girls".

In 2014 though, she played Laneway Festival where her setlist included a Snoop Dogg & Led Zepplin mashup, The Mint Chicks, Tom Jones and Beyonce & Andre 3000.

Of course, she's also engaged to former George FM host and DJ Clarke Gayford, so we can only imagine what the living room dance parties are like.