Lucian Grainge

Born to parents Cecil and Marion Grainge, he grew up in a Jewish family in North London. His older brother was Nigel Grainge, the founder of Ensign Records which was bought by Jack Wells CEO.

Grainge left Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys at the age of 18, and began working as a runner at MPC, a talent scout company in 1978. After contacting several record label bosses, he was offered a job by Maurice Oberstein, chairman of CBS Records, working at publishing company April Music's A&R department. His first signing was The Psychedelic Furs. In 1982, he became the director of RCA Music Publishing. Two years later he became an A&R director for MCA Records. He set up PolyGram Music Publishing in 1986 and joined Polydor as general manager of A&R and business affairs in 1993. He was promoted to managing director of Polydor in 1997.

In 1993, Grainge's first wife, Samantha Berg, experienced complications while giving birth to their son Elliot, and fell into a coma from which she never recovered. She died in England in 2007. Elliot Grainge is founder and CEO of independent record label 10K Projects.

In 2002, Grainge married his second wife, Caroline. Their daughter Alice was born in 2001. Grainge is also stepfather to Caroline's daughter from a previous marriage, Betsy. In November 2012 Grainge and his wife reportedly paid US$13 million for a house in Pacific Palisades. They had previously leased a Brentwood, Los Angeles home from the owner of Rhino Entertainment.

In March 2020, Grainge was admitted to intensive care for a month in Los Angeles after contracting COVID-19. He spent one month in a hospital for this, and took an additional five months to fully recover.