Leah Nobel

Leah Nobel pursued multiple creative outlets at once, directing her flair for polished pop through the Hael project while balancing it with the playful rap alter ego Lil Cheesecake. On her own, she merged those contrasting impulses into atmospheric, melody-driven songs built around narrative detail. Her bright, buoyant vocals convey sharp insights into behavior and motivation, some of which she gathered directly by conducting one hundred interviews that supplied material for the 2019 debut album Running in Borrowed Shoes. That light, melodic approach reached a broader audience in 2021 after “Beginning Middle End” appeared in the Netflix feature To All the Boys: Always and Forever.

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Nobel first performed at open-mike nights while studying at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and French, she moved to Austin, Texas in the mid-2000s and later established herself in Nashville. The 2015 EP Strangers Again preceded the 2016 launch of Hael, whose electro-pop tracks secured placements in Grey’s Anatomy and Lucifer. Although Hael continued to thrive—culminating in the 2020 mini-LP Mood Ring—Nobel increasingly focused on solo work, issuing singles that began with 2016’s “Christmas in My Hand” and continued with 2017’s “Strawberry Fields” and “Not Ready to Say Goodbye.”

Her first full-length album, Running in Borrowed Shoes, produced by Pete Stewart and released on Big Yellow Dog Music in 2019, coincided with Lil Cheesecake’s tracks “Buy It” and “Cardio.” The solo single “Last One to Know” followed in 2020 alongside Hael’s Mood Ring. Early the next year, “Beginning Middle End” gained widespread attention after featuring prominently in To All the Boys: Always and Forever.