Flying Lotus, (born Steven Ellison) is an experimental multi-genre music producer and laptop musician from Winnetka, California. His debut album, 1983, was released on Plug Research Records in 2006. He produced much of the bumper music on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, for which he is uncredited, and he also contributed remixes for fellow Plug Research artists including Mia Doi Todd. He is often referred to as "FlyLo" by fans and critics. His grandmother is songwriter Marilyn McLeod. He is the great-nephew of the late Alice Coltrane, whose husband was John Coltrane. He is also the cousin of musician Ravi Coltrane.

In 2007, he announced that he signed with Warp Records. Following his Warp debut, the six-track Reset EP, he became one of the label’s cornerstone artists and released his second album, titled Los Angeles, on June 10, 2008. His third album, Cosmogramma, was released on May 3, 2010, in the UK and May 4, 2010, in the US.

Recently, Flying Lotus collaborated with the Ann Arbor Film Festival in the performance of a live scoring of the 1962 avant-garde film Heaven and Earth Magic.In a post-viewing interview with the audience, Flying Lotus said he was unsure whether or not a recording of the performance (or a recreation of it) would be publicly released, but he would be enthusiastic toward similar projects in the future.