Troy Cook’s life has followed a singular narrative: music and entertainment.
Born in Solana Beach and raised in Granite Hills in El Cajon, Cook is a native East County boy. After investing more than fifteen years in radio and thirteen years performing on-stage, Cook created TNT Entertainment, a family business that offers DJ services, photo booths and event lighting throughout San Diego.
It all started when he was six years old and his parents gave him his first keyboard. He took piano lessons for a few years and loved to play classical music.
Troy Cook’s life has followed a singular narrative: music and entertainment.
Born in Solana Beach and raised in Granite Hills in El Cajon, Cook is a native East County boy. After investing more than fifteen years in radio and thirteen years performing on-stage, Cook created TNT Entertainment, a family business that offers DJ services, photo booths and event lighting throughout San Diego.
It all started when he was six years old and his parents gave him his first keyboard. He took piano lessons for a few years and loved to play classical music.
“Later on, I became really interested in pop and rock,” he said. “Jerry Lee Lewis and Elton John were my big influences on piano.”
As of right now, Cook said, “I spend more time playing guitar, singing and writing music as a performer in the local band ‘Ready, Set, Survive.’”
Cook’s experience in radio started as a young assistant to his dad’s trivia game show airing on the radio, “Hooked on Trivia.” He helped on his father’s show from the age of ten, gaining a kind of experience that propelled him later on in his career.
“I produced other live radio programs on AM stations in San Diego up until I reached the age of twenty,” he said.
Cook and his dad, Mike Cook, are working as a team now – the son is the DJ and the father still offers trivia shows at different corporate events.
The whole family is involved in the TNT Entertainment business. Getting ready to turn five-years-old next month, Cook’s young daughter, Lyric Harmony, already has quite a few performances under her belt, starting as a singer at a family member’s wedding when she was just three years old. Her father said, “I try to expose her to my events as much as possible.”
The name of the company, TNT, is an acronym for Troy & Tiffany, as the wife is also involved in managing the photo booth side of the business, and “being a symbol for energy and explosive entertainment.”
“The most satisfying part of my work is meeting new people and interacting with the people on the dance floor,” said Cook. “I love entertaining. There’s nothing more satisfying than to have a bride come up to me at the end of the night to tell me how I made her big night the most fun night of her life.”
Cook performs at corporate events as well, and considers them “a lot of fun because everyone works together and they can just let lose.”
If Cook said if he had to pick one experience that would illustrate the way he makes a difference in people’s lives through his music, he said he would recall the countless glowing customer reviews and especially his performances at weddings, where he makes people “laugh and dance on the biggest day of their life.”
Cook donates his services to several charities in town, such as “Run for the Hungry” to help benefit the homeless, and he DJs every year for the Zero Prostate run at Dana Cove in Mission Bay.
Cook said “I consider myself fortunate to have TNT as my only job and to have the luxury in making my own schedule,” as a way to balance a busy work life with the personal expectations of having a family as well.
For more information on TNT Entertainment services, check out the company website at www.tntmobiledj.com.
