With numerous prestigious national awards, ROONIE G continues to focus on developing live visual art and boldly go where no entertainer has gone before!

His innovative “Video” mixing creates a truly unique, immersive and high-energy experience. Recognized as the “best of the best” by Nightclub and Bar Magazine, DJ Times, Las Vegas Weekly, Club-World Awards, The Boston Globe and many more, including the Fortune 500 community. His innovative style combines the use of Audio and Visual and is mesmerizing, creative and highly entertaining. From his residencies in LAS VEGAS, to performing at Donald Trump’s Birthday Party, and super bowl parties on main stages with the likes of Snoop Dogg, 3 Doors Down, Diddy and Kid Rock, Roonie is an artist, craftsman and innovator.

THE EARLY YEARS

Born Roongsak Griffeth and of Thai descent, ROONIE exhibited a knack for performance from an early age. ROONIE’s first professional DJ gig came at the tender age of 14. An Army brat, he grew up in various countries and attended high school in Hawaii and Japan before his parents settled down in Columbus, GA. He received an electrical engineering education in Macon, GA and DJed his own prom and homecoming celebrations. As a youth, ROONIE landed a gig DJing at a club in Macon (hometown of LITTLE RICHARD and OTIS REDDING) frequented by older African-American patrons. He’d drive hours with heavy crates of vinyl, bringing his own sound system. “I played these clubs…and I was playing all these old R&B tunes for a mature crowd. It was great, because it educated me a lot on good rhythm and soul,” ROONIE recalls. He later got a gig DJing Columbus’ Chickasaw Club bar, where he held an impressive 10-year residency. It was during ROONIE’s residency at the Chickasaw that he began doing his own remixes, winning regional – and then national – DJ competitions, including winning First Place in the Nightclub & Bar Awards in 1996. That year, he “did this JIMI HENDRIX thing [with vinyl] where I was mixing [Hendrix’s] ‘Purple Haze,’ and I ducked-down and came back up with a big Afro wig and lit the turntables on fire,” ROONIE chuckles. His brazen showmanship was instantly appreciated, and the crowd ate it up. 1996 was indeed a big year. Already having produced major remixes, including NAUGHTY BY NATURE’s “O.P.P.” (Tommy Boy) in 1991, 95 SOUTH’s “Whoot There It Is” (Ichi Ban) in 1993, and SOUTHSIDE BOIZ’s “Get Ready Here It Comes” (LaFace) in 1996, ROONIE’s inventive remixes earned attention from the major labels and he was commissioned to produce a club remix of HANSON’s pop hit, “MMMBop.” The money ROONIE earned was always reinvested into buying better and more expensive DJ equipment. Before long, ROONIE was investing money into his own nightclubs and promoting events. One such party was New Year’s Eve 2000, which was attended by over 3,000 people. By this point, promoting parties had become lucrative – although ROONIE asked himself what he really wanted to do. The answer was simple: “I have to please myself from an artist’s standpoint,” ROONIE decided.

PIONEER PRO DJ
Also in 1996, Pioneer Pro DJ’s KARL DETKEN caught a glimpse of ROONIE DJing at the Nightclub & Bar Show. Sensing a DJ with finely-tuned skills, Pioneer approached ROONIE with the manufacturer’s earliest prototype of the CD turntable, the Pioneer CDJ-700. ROONIE demonstrated using three 700s, replaying the beats live using the cues. Witnessing the way ROONIE used the 700’s cues prompted Pioneer to develop the “Hot Cue” function on the CDJ-1000, today’s industry standard.

In 2001, with the official release of the Pioneer CDJ-1000, ROONIE met with DETKEN and a few of Pioneer’s engineers, and the concept of the “world’s first DVD turntable” was born. Today, ROONIE is endorsed by PIONEER PRO DJ. In the booth, ROONIE uses two Pioneer DVJ-1000 DVD turntables, a Pioneer mixer, and he often incorporates computers and live cameras to enhance his audio/video show.

LAS VEGAS, HERE I COME
For New Year’s Eve 2004, ROONIE debuted the prototype DVJ at The Beach in Las Vegas. Shortly thereafter, a DVJ residency followed at Ra in The Luxor in Las Vegas. What started out as a special guest performance quickly became a monthly, then bi-weekly, and then weekly residency, during which time ROONIE reigned Ra for 12 straight months. After Ra closed, Las Vegas club guru STEVEN LOCKWOOD brought ROONIE to the Light Group’s venue, Jet, at The Mirage (MGM/Mirage). It’s at LOCKWOOD’s hugely popular “A/V” parties at Jet where ROONIE gets to shine. The club is tricked out in numerous closed-circuit flat-screen TVs, allowing ROONIE limitless opportunities to express his audio-visual fantasies. ROONIE’s proven performances induced Light Group to sign him to an additional two-year exclusive contract for Las Vegas which included the highly-anticipated City Center project (2009).

High-End Corporate Events
2008 started the current path for ROONIE. Encompassing his skills and passion for music and videos, he began combining corporate documentation footage, content, branding and messaging. His ability to weave a client’s message into a fun event is second to none. Listening attentively to clients and using his unique abilities to create an end result that exceeds the client’s expectations has become commonplace for this artist. ROONIE performs publicly and privately throughout the US and internationally.