He won the 2011 Welsh Music Prize for his album Hotel Shampoo, which was followed up by American Interior in 2014, accompanied by a film, a book and a mobile app.

[1] He has a brother and a sister; his father was Ioan Bowen Rees (13 January 1929 – 4 May 1999), a "poet, essayist, polemicist, mountaineer, internationalist ... and a White Robe Druid of the Gorsedd of Bards".

[4] Rhys was educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen, Bethesda, Gwynedd, North Wales and was awarded a degree in art at Manchester Metropolitan University.

As a teenager in 1985, Gruff Rhys played drums for the North Wales band, Machlud, appearing at the Pesda Roc festival in Bethesda.

[5] After playing drums for the band Emily, Rhys found fame in Wales as the front man of Ffa Coffi Pawb.

On signing to Ankstmusik, Ffa Coffi Pawb became one of the leading bands on the Welsh music scene during the Cool Cymru movement, and released three albums – Clymhalio, Dalec Peilon and Hei Vidal!.

[10][11] When Ffa Coffi Pawb disbanded in 1993, Rhys and drummer Dafydd Ieuan, of Rhoscefnhir, Anglesey, who had played for Catatonia, Anhrefn, Hanner Pei and many other Welsh language bands, formed the basis of Super Furry Animals.

Super Furry Animals went on to release their critically acclaimed first album, Fuzzy Logic, in 1996 – the first time Rhys had recorded in English.

They also became particularly famous for their 40-foot inflatable bears and a blue tank with 'SFA' written upon it which toured summer festivals playing techno music at high volume.

Super Furry Animals made a further mark on history in July 2001, when they released their first album for the Sony label, Rings Around the World, on CD and DVD simultaneously.

After Super Furry Animals signed to Rough Trade, the new label agreed to take on his solo works as well, and on 8 January 2007 they released Candylion, a batch of acoustic pop songs in English, Spanish and Welsh, which Rhys wrote whilst touring Love Kraft but which did not fit with the direction of the new Super Furry Animals album.

In May 2014, Rhys released his new work, American Interior (I Grombil Cyfandir Pell), a combined project of an album, a film, a hardback book and an app for mobile devices.

The musicians appearing with Rhys were Lisa Jên Brown (who also sang on the original album), Sweet Baboo, Emma Daman Thomas and Kliph Scurlock.

The show also included actors Remy Beasley, Matthew Bulgo, Dyfan Dwyfor, Natasha Lewis and Dyfrig Morris.

He also eats carrots on the Misty's Big Adventure album Television's People, continuing the vegetable relay started by Brian Wilson on Smile.

Rhys also collaborated with influential hip-hop group De La Soul on a Gorillaz track titled Superfast Jellyfish.

The track is on the third Gorillaz studio album, Plastic Beach, and provided vocals on the song "We Won't be Broke Forever Baby" on Akira the Don's LP The Life Equation.

[21] In 2016 Rhys composed and sang "I Love EU" to support the Remain campaign in the UK European Membership Referendum.

The jazz group he formed to record the music features drummer Chris Walmsley, double-bassist Jim Barr (Portishead), Gavin Fitzjohn on trumpet and pianist Osian Gwynedd (formerly of Big Leaves and Sybridion) on piano, with strings arranged by Gruff Ab Arwel (Y Niwl).