Birthday: Nick Valensi

Nick Valensi, guitarist for The Strokes, turns 28 today.

Valensi was born on Jan. 16, 1981 in New York City. While he was at Manhattan's Dwight School as a child, Valensi began playing music with Strokes singer Julian Casablancas and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.

Their collaboration ended when Casablancas was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland to solve his drinking problem. Casablancas met guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. there. He and Hammond later formed The Strokes with Moretti, Valensi and bassist Nikolai Fraiture (who Casablancas had met before going to Switzerland) when Hammond moved to New York.

Valensi is known for his guitar, an Epiphone Riviera with Gibson P-94 pickups. This guitar was not commercially released until Gibson released a model called the Nick Valensi Riviera P-94 in 2005.

Valensi is married to British actress and photographer Amanda De Cadenet, with whom he has two children.