Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His showmanship, artistry, and flamboyant fashion have had a significant impact on popular culture.

Styles's musical career began in 2010 as part of One Direction, a boy band formed on the British music competition series The X Factor after each member of the band had been eliminated from the solo contest. They became one of the best-selling boy bands of all time before going on an indefinite hiatus in 2016. Styles released his eponymous debut solo album through Erskine and Columbia Records in 2017. It debuted at number one in the UK and the US and was one of the world's top-ten best-selling albums of the year, while its lead single, "Sign of the Times", topped the UK Singles Chart.

His second album, Fine Line (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with the biggest ever first-week sales by an English male artist. Its fourth single, "Watermelon Sugar", topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Styles's widely acclaimed third album, Harry's House (2022), broke several records and received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single, "As It Was", became the number-one song of 2022 globally, according to Billboard.

Styles has received various accolades, including six Brit Awards, three Grammy Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards. Fine Line and Harry's House were both included on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Styles's film roles include Dunkirk (2017), Eternals (2021), Don't Worry Darling (2022), and My Policeman (2022). Wearing a blue Gucci dress, he became the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue. Styles contributes to various charities and advocates for gender, racial, and LGBTQ equality.

Harry Edward Styles was born on 1 February 1994 in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, the son of pub owner Anne Twist (née Selley) and finance worker Desmond "Des" Styles. When he was a child, he moved with his parents and older sister, Gemma, to the village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire. His parents divorced when he was seven years old. His mother later married her business partner John Cox, although they divorced years later. Through her subsequent marriage in 2013 to Robin Twist, who died of cancer in 2017, Styles gained an older stepbrother Mike, and a stepsister, Amy.

Styles described his upbringing as a "great childhood" and recalled always feeling supported by his parents. As a child, he sang covers on a karaoke machine he was given by his grandfather, and the first song he recorded was Elvis Presley's "The Girl of My Best Friend". Styles attended the Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, where he was the lead singer for the band White Eskimo, which won a local Battle of the Bands competition. At the age of 16, he took on part-time work at the W. Mandeville Bakery in Holmes Chapel. During his adolescence, he also delivered newspapers and worked at a stable, mucking out horses.

Following a suggestion from his mother, on 11 April 2010, Styles auditioned as a solo contestant for the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor, singing a rendition of Train's "Hey, Soul Sister". After Simon Cowell suggested that the track was not right for him, he instead sang a rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely". He advanced to bootcamp but failed to progress further. Four others in his age group who were also eliminated were put together to form a boy band in July 2010 to compete in the "Groups" category, mentored by Cowell. The group consisting of Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik practised for two weeks; Styles suggested the name One Direction to his colleagues which they agreed to. They began to gain considerable popularity in the UK, and within the first four weeks of the live shows, were Cowell's last contestant in the competition. The group eventually reached the final of The X Factor and became the last contestant eliminated on the show.

In January 2011, One Direction signed a recording contract with Cowell's label Syco Records. Their UK number one debut single, "What Makes You Beautiful", and their debut studio album, Up All Night, were released later that year. The album, which contained three songs co-written by Styles, debuted at number one in the United States. Their four succeeding studio albums—Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), Four (2014) and Made in the A.M. (2015)—all debuted at number one in the UK. Midnight Memories was the world's best-selling album of 2013, and its accompanying Where We Are Tour was the highest-grossing tour of 2014. After the release of Four, One Direction became the only group in the 58-year history of the Billboard 200 albums chart to have their first four albums debut at number one. The albums spawned a string of successful singles, including "Live While We're Young", "Little Things", "Best Song Ever", "Story of My Life", "Drag Me Down" and "History". Styles also co-wrote the song "Just a Little Bit of Your Heart" for Ariana Grande's 2014 album My Everything.