Ronson was born at the Wellington Hospital, St John's Wood, London, to Jewish parents, Laurence Ronson, a real-estate speculator and music manager, and Ann Dexter. His ancestors emigrated from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania. Ronson was brought up in Masorti Judaism and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. The Ronson family had been one of Britain's wealthiest families in the 1980s; however, "the Ronson family lost $1 billion of its own money in the property crash of the early 1990's."

Mark made the leap from DJ to producer after Nikka Costa's manager heard one of his sets and introduced the musicians. Ronson produced Costa's song "Everybody Got Their Something," and Ronson soon signed a record contract with Elektra Records. He had already produced tracks for Hilfiger ads and, in 2001, used the connection to have Costa's single "Like a Feather" used in an advertisement. Ronson's debut album, Here Comes the Fuzz, was released in 2003. Despite poor initial sales it was well received by critics. As well as writing the songs on the album, Ronson created the beats, played guitar, keyboards, and bass. The album featured performances from artists from diverse genres, including Mos Def, Jack White, Sean Paul, Nikka Costa, Nappy Roots and Rivers Cuomo. The best known song from the album, "Ooh Wee," samples "Sunny" by Boney M and features Nate Dogg, Ghostface Killah, Trife Da God, and Saigon. It was featured that year in the movie Honey and its soundtrack. The song was later used in the movies Hitch and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Two weeks after releasing Here Comes the Fuzz, Elektra Records dropped him. Ronson has since produced multiple songs on the albums of singers Lamya, Macy Gray, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, and Robbie Williams. In 2004, Ronson formed his own record label, Allido Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG's J Records, along with his longtime manager Rich Kleiman. The first artist he signed to Allido was rapper Saigon, who later left to sign with Just Blaze's Fort Knox Entertainment. He has signed Rhymefest, most well known for winning the Grammy for co-writing Kanye West's "Jesus Walks."

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