Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 17 Grammy Awards and been nominated 39 times.

In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival.

Born into a Jewish family in New York City, Béla Anton Leoš Fleck was named after three classical composers his father admired: the Hungarian Béla Bartók, the Austrian Anton Webern, and the Czech Leoš Janáček. The little boy was just one year old when his father left the family, and Bela didn't meet him until he was in his 40s.

Fleck was drawn to the banjo at a young age when he heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies television show, and when he heard "Dueling Banjos" by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell on the radio. At the age of 15, while visiting his grandparents in New Jersey, he received his first banjo, which his grandfather had found at a garage sale. During the train ride home, a man who was waiting for the train tuned the banjo for him, and suggested he learn to play from a book called How to Play the Five String Banjo, by Pete Seeger. Fleck attended the High School of Music & Art in New York City, where he played French horn until he flunked and was transferred to the choir. He spent most of his time on the banjo; he studied the book Bluegrass Banjo by Pete Wernick, and took lessons from Erik Darling, Marc Horowitz, and Tony Trischka.

After graduating from high school, he moved to New York City and became a member of the bluegrass group Tasty Licks, with whom he recorded two albums. He released his debut solo album, Crossing the Tracks (1979), and it was chosen Best Overall Album by the readers of Frets magazine.

Fleck played on the streets of New York City with bassist Mark Schatz. Along with guitarist Glen Lawson and mandolinist Jimmy Gaudreau, they formed Spectrum in 1981. That same year, Sam Bush asked Fleck to join New Grass Revival, with whom Fleck would perform for nine years. In 1984, he played on the album Snakes Alive!, by the Dreadful Snakes (Rounder 0177), along with Jerry Douglas, Roland White and Blaine Sprouse. During this time, in 1987 Fleck recorded another solo album, Drive, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Bluegrass Album. During the 1980s Fleck and Bush also performed live with Doc and Merle Watson in bluegrass festivals, most notably the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Bela also played with Jerry Garcia at the Hearst Greek Theatre, on August 5, 1990.

In 1988, Fleck and Victor Wooten formed Béla Fleck and the Flecktones with keyboardist and harmonica player Howard Levy and Wooten's brother, Roy "Future Man" Wooten, who played synthesizer-based percussion. They recorded numerous albums, most notably Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, their second album, which reached number one on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and found increased popularity among fans of jazz fusion.

Levy left the group in 1992, making the band a trio until saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the group onstage in 1997. His first studio recording with the band was their 1998 album, Left of Cool. Coffin left the group in 2008 to replace the Dave Matthews Band's saxophonist, the late LeRoi Moore. Levy returned to the Flecktones in 2009. Béla Fleck and the original Flecktones recorded Rocket Science and toured in 2011.