Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis, Haitian composer and record producer

In the years of their producing partnership, Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis and Wyclef produced a Caribbean-flavored group soon to be known as "The Fugees". "The Fugees" and Wonda/Wyclef struck gold with a cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" on Pop and R&B charts, their success reaching an even higher peak, when their album "The Score" achieved global success as one of the best-selling hip-hop albums of all time.

Duplessis went on to produce for such artists as Destiny's Child, Santana, Shakira, Whitney Houston, and Justin Bieber, eventually launching his own music publishing company, Wonda Music in 2009. He credits his success in music, producing for well-established artists, to making "the beat for the specific artist" and finding out "what fits each artist before delivering the song." His foray into film scoring netted him more success, including music for the Muhammad Ali documentary "When We Were Kings"; Warren Beatty's "Bulworth"; "Hotel Rwanda" (Golden Globe nomination), and "The Manchurian Candidate."

Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis and Wyclef have given back, co-founding the not-for-profit Yéle Haiti, which provides funding for education and social service agencies, for Haiti's poor. Jerry explains that "we created Yéle Haiti because we are from Haiti" and "we want to give people . . . equal access to education and (the) opportunity . . . to be self-reliant

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