Nikki Leonti-Edgar is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Prior to her work in urban, R&B, and electronic dance music, Leonti recorded contemporary Christian music albums. She lent her vocals to over 100 songs during 4 seasons of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee.
Early life
Nicole Marie Leonti was born on August 20, 1987 in Corona, California. Her father Greg Leonti was a pastor at the Calvary Southern Baptist church. She began singing at age five, as a church soloist in the Nondenominational Christianitychurch in Corona. At 13, she made her first recording on a small local label.
Career
In 1998, Leonti recorded her debut full-length album, Shelter Me, which reached No. 179 on the Billboard 200, and No. 7 on the Contemporary Christian chart. Her second album, Nikki Leonti was released in 2001. Both were produced by brothers Dino and John Elefante, and issued on the independent Christian label, Pamplin. Shortly after her 18th birthday, Leonti got pregnant out of wedlock and was shunned by the CCM community with many Christian music stations pulling off broadcasting of her records. She retired from the Christian music industry not long after. In 2006, Leonti was hired as a backup singer for Carrie Underwood, performing on tour and on various television shows. After three years with Carrie Underwood, Leonti began working with Rich Velonskis, forming the R&B group, Nikki & Rich, retro neo-soul duo. Velonskis, also known as Rich Skillz, producer of various artists, including Ludacris, Lil' Kim, and Robin Thicke. Nikki & Rich released their debut album, entitled Greatest Hits, on September 27, 2011, issued on the Reprise Records/Born Rich label. The duo has performed live on Ellen and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Together, they were named as one of the New York Post's "10 New Artists to Watch in 2010" and "10 Artists to Know in 2011". Nikki & Rich confirmed their split in January 2015. Nikki lent her vocals to over 100 songs during 4 seasons of the Fox hit show, Glee. She has written songs for artists, including Robin Thicke, Jessie J, Candice Glover, Rebecca Ferguson and Ivy Quainoo. In early 2015, Nikki announced that she had founded a band called Edgar with her husband Ryan Edgar, whom she married in November 2014. On June 7, 2016, she appeared alongside her husband and daughter Jaslyn as a trio on America's Got Talent, auditioning on episode 2 of season 11. They performed "I'll Stand by You" by The Pretenders. The group progressed through the preliminary rounds and took one of 36 live performance show spots. In 2018, she performed alongside Crystal Lewis, Stacie Orrico and Rachael Lampa for a special event called REUNITE CCM.
Personal life
Leonti was married in 1999 to Ryan Gingerich, lead guitarist of the Christian band, Scarecrow & Tinmen. They divorced in 2002, having become the parents of one daughter, Jaslyn. They later discovered the marriage was never legally documented. In 2004, she married Aaron Dame and gave birth to their son, Jordan. She married singer-songwriter Ryan Edgar on November 6, 2014. Ryan Edgar and Leonti have a daughter, Frankie.
