He lived in Highbury, Greenhithe, then Croydon, attending Archbishop Lanfranc School, then studied to be a chef for four years and worked at the Army and Navy Club.

[4] Paul Oakenfold describes his early life as a "bedroom DJ" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew up listening to the Beatles.

Oakenfold and Fung used fake identification[7] to sneak into various dance clubs, like Studio 54, where they met members of the band Maze, Bobby Womack and Bob Marley, whom they also interviewed, claiming to be NME and Melody Maker journalists.

Artists like Alex Paterson DJ'd in the VIP chillout area known as the "White Room", which gave Oakenfold more free time, and then he began producing music under the alias "Electra" in 1988.

Pleased with the last single, the Happy Mondays gave Oakenfold and Osborne the opportunity to produce their third studio album, Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches.

[14] This is a tremendous record and a gauntlet chucked at all the other would-be legends in town... Wild, brash, corrosive funk rock, grimly northern and yet pan-cultural in a Tesco shoplifter kind of way.In 1991, they remixed Massive Attack's "Safe from Harm" as well as many others.

In 1993 with the success of his last remix as Perfecto, he was hired by U2 to provide the warm-up sonics to their Zoo TV world tour, and replaced BP Fallon in the 1993 legs of Europe and Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, with more than fifty shows in Zooropa '93 and Zoomerang from 7 May to 10 December of the same year.

The project was dissolved in 1997 as Oakenfold was touring as a performance DJ more frequently and could not commit to recording, though a remixed version of "Not Over Yet" was issued under the 'Planet Perfecto featuring Grace' name in 1999.

Twenty-four FX and scratches loops and sounds were included too, each consisting of six seconds; the album cover says "Only for DJs and Producers" and was released on Music of Life.

In March 2000, he teamed up with Steve Osborne, Andy Gray and Bruno Ellingham to remix Moby's song "Natural Blues".

Sometime before July 2000, he teamed up with Andy Gray to write and produce the theme for the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother under the name Elementfour.

An estimated 80,000 dancers and music lovers from Seattle, Reno, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego were welcomed that day.

The event featured Paul, Armand van Helden, De La Soul, LTJ Bukem, Josh Wink, Derrick Carter, Roni Size, Deep Dish, BT, The Crystal Method, Carl Craig and Überzone.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Shellshock said that the track known as "Starry Eyed Surprise" was created after the pair met at a Crazy Town show.

I grew up on pop music, I love guitar bands and I was very influenced and involved in hip-hop during the early days, so I wanted to build from those roots upwards rather than doing a contemporary dance record."

The album features vocals from Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell on "Time of Your Life" and Shifty Shellshock of Los Angeles rock and rap band Crazy Town on "Starry Eyed Surprise"; Ice Cube on "Get Em Up"; and Tricky and Nelly Furtado on "The Harder They Come".

The album contains appearances by Asher D of So Solid Crew on "Ready Steady Go", and Grant-Lee Philips, founder of the '90s Los Angeles rock band Grant Lee Buffalo is also included with Carmen Rizzo's version of his song "Motion".

Bunkka also provided the start to three new artists, Carla Werner on the single "Southern Sun", Tiff Lacey on "Hypnotised" and Emiliana Torrini on "Hold Your Hand".

[36][37] In 2002, Oakenfold remixed David Arnold's "James Bond Theme"; the song was released under Warner Bros. Records and was followed by the album's next two singles after "Starry Eyed Surprise", "Ready Steady Go" and "Southern Sun".

"Southern Sun" with Carla Werner was first issued as a B-side of "Ready Steady Go" until it was included on Tiësto's In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama compilation with his own remix of the song.

In an earlier episode of Radio Free Roscoe, "The Imposter", a 2005 series on The N, a character Travis Strong DJed to the song, acting as if it were his own.

At the Creamfields event in 2002 at Speke Airfield, DJs such as Oakenfold, Seb Fontaine and Paul van Dyk performed along with Dave Clarke, Jon Carter, Richie Hawtin and Felix Da Housecat.

[40] In 2003, Oakenfold released the fourth single of his album, "Hypnotised" which became successful enough to be included on his next compilation from the Perfecto Presents... series, Perfecto Presents: Great Wall which also included the Deepsky remix of the song as well as tracks like Motorcycle's "As the Rush Comes", Björk's "Pagan Poetry", UNKLE's remix of Ian Brown's "F.E.A.R."

With the event of Creamfields that took place in 2004, Oakenfold released a compilation of songs he played during the event as well as tracks influenced by the environment and the vibe of deejays such as Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Judge Jules, Fergie, Tall Paul, Eddie Halliwell, Chris Lawrence, Adam Sheridan, Shan, and Alex Kidd at the Cream/Goodgreef and Mixmag Arena.

The likes of Frank Sinatra and the Beatles had performed there so it's a truly magnificent place – it holds about 15,000 – and it was a big achievement for me as much as Wembley and the Great Wall because it had never been done.

The compilation consists of tracks which influenced his career and musical persona, with artists such as The Cure, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Massive Attack, U2, Olive, The Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, and Underworld.

He also joined Madonna again in her Sticky & Sweet Tour in London, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

[53] In February 2012 Oakenfold headlined a huge one-off event for club brand Goodgreef at the famous Tall Trees venue in the UK.

[57][58] On September 25, 2020, Oakenfold launched the English-language electronic single, "The Perfect Song" featuring Mexican pop icon Fey, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her career.

[59] On 2 June 2023, a lawsuit was filed against Oakenfold in the Los Angeles Superior Court by his former personal assistant, accusing him of sexual harassment.