You may not recognize his name, but chances are that you have heard Jeremy Little’s voice and songs — a lot.

            The Ohio native’s husky tenor has animated dozens of commercial jingles, as well as “Operation New Me” in The Lego Ninjago Movie. Keen-eyed viewers may also have spotted him masquerading as an overalls-wearing banjo picker backing David Arquette’s singing ventriloquist in a 2017 episode of The Gong Show. Over the past decade Jeremy’s music has been licensed more than 10,000 times for use in film, cable and TV, including Almost Human, The Big C, Castle Rock, Fringe, Queer Eye, Shameless and The Voice.

            That includes his acoustic rendition of Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s beloved 1939 classic “If I Only Had a Brain,” from The Wizard of Oz. Playing it as a lovelorn ballad with understated wit, it became a staple of his live shows across Los Angeles. When Fringe producers caught his performance at a local dive bar, they not only asked him to record the song, they even wrote a scene around it. “It was the first song I ever recorded and produced on my own, so it still makes me cringe to hear it,” he admits. “But it got my producing career going so I’m proud of it.” His single sold around 10,000 copies and for a time was second only to Ray Bolger and Judy Garland’s original version on the iTunes chart, where it still ranks in the 10 most popular recordings of the song.

            His own smart, melodic songs and dynamic shows continued to win fans, including charismatic ’80s Power Station vocalist Michael Des Barres. He calls Jeremy “a rare and unique artist whose derivations are untraceable — a great songwriter and performer.” That fan club expanded in 2016 and 2017 when Jeremy was a featured singer on the global Celebrating David Bowie tours, joining Bowie’s own band and fellow singer Holly Palmer in backing Ian Astbury, Adrian Belew, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot, Perry Farrell, Spandau Ballet frontman Tony Hadley, Fishbone’s Angelo Moore, Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman, and Gavin Rossdale. Jeremy knows his way around a stage — he started his first rock band at 13 — but holding your own amid veteran artists of that caliber is no small feat. So it’s telling that he earned their respect. “Jeremy has a beautiful voice and sang a great version of ‘Man Who Sold the World’ with me on a Bowie Celebration,” says longtime Bowie keyboardist Mike Garson. “One big talent.”

A frequent collaborator with J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot, Jeremy has composed scores for documentaries (2014’s Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show and 2016’s BAFTA-nominated The Eagle Huntress) as well as film (director Trevor Ryan’s award-winning Welcome to Willits). Now based in Nashville, he still shuttles regularly to LA for recording sessions. He’s made three solo EPs and in February he released the two-track reggae-pop set “Beggar’s Earth” — songs he describes as his struggle to understand impermanence and make peace with time’s relentless passage. “I hope this music conveys my hope and my optimism because at the heart of it, I’m nothing if not a dreamer.” He premiered those songs to a cheering, packed house at a recent underground show in LA and, when he isn’t posting photos to social media from the studio or scenic hikes around Tennessee, he’s making plans to do more of the same.