Richard Wright Nowels Jr. is an American songwriter and record producer. He has co-written and co-produced over 90 hit singles with multiple artists, and albums his songs have appeared on have sold over 250 million copies. In 2020, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 1985, Stevie Nicks co-wrote "I Can't Wait" with Nowels and recorded the song in Los Angeles, giving Nowels his first major songwriting and production credit. He was later asked to co-produce Nicks' album Rock a Little alongside Jimmy Iovine. The album was released in November 1985 and featured five songs produced by Nowels and one co-written by him ("If I Were You"). "I Can't Wait" peaked at number sixteen for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and is one of only four of Nicks' singles to enter the Dance Club Songs chart.

In 1987, Nowels produced Belinda Carlisle's album Heaven on Earth. The album also featured four songs written or co-written by Nowels, including "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" and "Circle in the Sand", which went to number one and number seven, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Nowels co-wrote with Ellen Shipley on that album and on other projects. In 1989, Nowels produced Carlisle's third album, Runaway Horses. Nowels wrote six of the ten songs, including "Leave a Light On", which went to number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and to number four in the UK.

Nowels co-wrote the title track from Celine Dion's album Falling into You, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1997.

Nowels co-wrote and co-produced the hit single "The Game of Love", performed by Santana and Michelle Branch, which won ASCAP Song of the Year in 2003. He also co-wrote the global hit single "White Flag" for Dido, which won the 2004 Ivor Novello Award for International Hit of the Year.

In 2013. Nowels collaborated with Adele on the song "Why Do You Love Me?", released as part of the deluxe version of her album 25. Nowels co-wrote and co-produced the hit single "Out of Love" with Alessia Cara from her sophomore album, The Pains of Growing. In collaboration with R&B singer-songwriter Miguel, Nowels co-wrote the hit single "Lost in Your Light" for Dua Lipa's self-titled debut album. Nowels has been a longtime collaborator of Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li. He has co-written songs on 3 of her albums—Wounded Rhymes, I Never Learn, and So Sad So Sexy—including the international hit single, "I Follow Rivers". Nowels co-wrote the hit single "Loud Places" from In Colour, the solo debut album of Jamie xx.

In 2016, Nowels co-wrote and co-produced the British artist FKA Twigs' single, "Good to Love". The same year, Nowels co-wrote five songs for Tom Odell's third album, Wrong Crowd, along with the hit single, "Magnetized". In 2021, Odell released "Monster", the title track for his fourth album, which was co-written with Nowels.

While Nowels was in New York for the Grammy Awards in 1997, he met Madonna during a shopping expedition at Barneys. She later booked two weeks worth of writing time with Nowels in his Hollywood Hills studio. Together, they wrote "The Power of Good-Bye", "Little Star" and "To Have and Not to Hold", all featured on Madonna's seventh studio album, Ray of Light.