Candy Ken

Born in Bregenz, Austria, Hellrigl studied photography and film design at the Lette-Verein college in Berlin, but dropped out of his studies in 2014.[2] He attended Wenatchee High School at Wenatchee, Washington for a year where he played football. During his high school years, he met his two best female friends, whose whereabouts are unknown, Isabella and Payton, who he has said inspired him to pursue his music career.[3] While studying at college, he invented the gender-bending persona of Candy Ken,[4] incorporating imagery from Hello Kitty,[5] Japanese Kawaii culture,[6] Barbie dolls[7] and pink clothing in his dress style and visual appearance.[8][9] Welcome to Candy Land in 2014 as a self-directed video series on YouTube.[10] The music is produced by Lets Go Radio, and distributed by Spinnup.[11]

The video series was re-made as a short film Welcome to Candy Land, which won an award at the Austrian short film festival Alpinale in 2015.[12] In September 2015 he released the second EP Candy Ken Paradise produced by DJ Smokera and distributed by Spinnup.[13] In November 2015 he released a third EP, Daddy 69, containing five songs and five videos. Four videos are directed by him, and the video for the song "69" is directed by London-based underground director Kassandra Powell.[14]

In June 2016 he released his first album Real Talk containing twelve songs, ten of which were made in collaboration with the rapper Gigi Tays.[15] The release of the album was promoted with a club party at Visions Video Bar in London.[16] The album was also produced by Smokera and the video for the song "What I Like" directed by Powell.[17] He mentions the American rapper Riff Raff as his main musical and artistic influence for the album.[18] Candy Ken appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in April 2018, on a segment of Guess Who's High.[19]