Babydaddy

Babydaddy born 1 September 1976

Scott Hoffman, known by his stage name Babydaddy, is the bearded multi-instrumentalist and lyricist for the American band, Scissor Sisters.

He was born in Houston, Texas to a Jewish family. Hoffman attended Columbia University, where he studied writing and music production, and subsequently worked in the field of dance music. He had previously met Jake Shears - then still known as Jason Sellards - through a childhood friend, and Hoffman asked Shears to provide vocals for his tracks. When Scott moved to New York to study writing at Columbia, the duo officially joined forces and took stage names to become the first two members of Scissor Sisters in 2001. At the time, the band was just a combination of Babydaddy’s music and Jake’s vocal and visual performances.

The band logo was designed by Babydaddy, who has since said that 'it was sort of the first couple of days, and we decided to record music, and Jake had the name on the tip of his tongue. He told it to me, and I made the logo the next day. It was sort of done and made sense. And then we performed.'

Since then, the band has grown and recruited further members, in the process expanding its original musical style to cover rock, disco and dance music and becoming hugely successful in the UK and Europe - and much less so in their native US.

Babydaddy plays a number of instruments including keyboards, guitar, bass and the banjo, and is, along with Shears, the main lyricist for the band. He also wrote the hit single I Believe In You for Kylie Minogue with Jake Shears.

Babydaddy is considered a bear or cub by many members of the gay community due to his husky frame, beard and friendly demeanor. He became a sex-symbol for other bear admirers after the launch of the Scissor Sisters' first album Scissor Sisters. He has even acknowledged this status by stating 'Jake gets a lot of attention just by virtue of being the lead singer, but when the boys want a little beef, they come to me.'

Del Marquis

Del Marquis born 31 August 1979

Del Marquis (born Derek Gruen in New York) is the lead guitarist for the group Scissor Sisters - and one of three gay band members.

He was introduced to the band at the insistence his best friend, David Russell, who was dating lead singer Jake Shears at the time. He originally hated the band when he first saw them perform in a gay bar named 'The Cock'. His current membership of the band is due to his reappraisal of their music when he next came across them some months later, and subsequent reply to an advertisement the band had placed in a newspaper for a guitarist. According to his own account on the band DVD, he has stalked several renowned guitarists, sometimes sleeping outside the hotels they were sleeping in. One of these was Robert Smith of The Cure.

Unlike the outrageously flamboyant stage image of Jake Shears and Ana Matronic, his fellow band members, Del possesses a slightly more subdued image on stage, although still has a recognisable style of his own. He has a keen interest in graphic design and film, is known as an advocate for civil rights and 'liberation concepts', and possesses an unofficial fan group who call themselves the Deltoids, with whom he has a relatively good relationship.

Jake Shears

Jake Shears born 3 October 1978

Jake Shears is the vocalist for the American group Scissor Sisters.

Born in Arizona, Sellards grew up and went to high school in Friday Harbor, Washington. Sellards attended Occidental College in Los Angeles. When Sellards was 19, he traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to visit a classmate, who introduced him to Scott Hoffman (Babydaddy). Sellards and Hoffman hit it off immediately and, a year later, both moved to New York.

In New York, Sellards attended Eugene Lang College, where he studied fiction writing, and wrote pieces for the gay magazine HX. For a while, Sellards was a fixture on the New York gay and electroclash scene, as well as a stripper in alternative clubs (including the legendary IC-Guyz).

In 2000, Sellards also worked as a music reviewer for Paper magazine.

Sellards and Hoffman formed the Scissor Sisters in 2001 as a kind of performance art lark, playing outrageous shows in clubs like Luxx, the heart of the electroclash scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Sellards lived. After a couple years struggling in New York (working with record label A Touch of Class, who produced Comfortably Numb and Filthy/Gorgeous), the Sisters finally found success in the UK and Ireland - ending 2004 with the biggest-selling album of the year in the UK. Their much-anticipated second album Ta-Dah (2006) saw them capitalise on their inital success, although it failed to match the sales of their debut.

In concert, Shears is known for provocative dancing, flamboyant outfits, and occasional near-nudity. He, along with his band - who feature no fewer than three gay members - have become especially popular in the LGBT community, although they have achieved enormous crossover success in the UK and elsewhere.