Oliver Tree's Real Name: Oliver Tree Nickell

Quick answer: Oliver Tree's full name is Oliver Tree Nickell. He was born on June 29, 1993, in Santa Cruz, California, and performed under Oliver Tree—using his given middle name as the public surname form (Biography.com; AP News).

Real name and early life

Biography.com and Associated Press obituaries identify Oliver Tree Nickell as his full name. Oliver is the first name; Tree is a middle name he elevated into his stage identity; Nickell is the family surname. His parents, Christine Marie Begin and Jesse Louis Nickell III, worked as traveling circus performers; he spent early years in a mobile home before the family settled in Santa Cruz. He studied piano young, played in a middle-school ska band, later DJed, released music as Kryph, then as Tree, and earned a music-technology degree from California Institute of the Arts after time at San Francisco State.

Career highlights

A viral stretch with “When I’m Down” helped land an Atlantic Records deal. The EP Alien Boy and debut album Ugly Is Beautiful (2020) framed his absurdist bowl-cut persona and yielded tracks such as “Alien Boy,” “Hurt,” and “Life Goes On,” which reached the Billboard Hot 100. The Robin Schulz collaboration “Miss You” broadened international reach, while his videos and live stunts made him a meme-era pop figure as much as a charting songwriter. He mixed alternative pop, hip-hop, and comedy visuals until his death in a helicopter collision in Rio de Janeiro on June 14, 2026, at age 32; an official confirmation named Oliver Tree Nickell with those life dates (AP News).

Name notes for searchers

“Oliver Tree” is the performing name built from first + middle; Nickell remains the legal family surname in obituaries. Prefer AP and Biography.com over fan edits. Wikipedia is a pointer after primary citations.