Nicholas Ryan Waterhouse (born February 8, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Los Angeles. He is a guitarist and singer known for a sound rooted in rhythm & blues, jazz, and soul.

Waterhouse was born in Santa Ana, California. He was raised in Huntington Beach, California, the son of a fireman and a saleswoman. He took up guitar at age 12. As a young teen he found himself more interested in increasingly obscure and eclectic Americana outside of the pop and contemporary rock of his peers.

Waterhouse started his career as guitarist and singer-songwriter with Intelligista (2002–2003), a combo compared to the Animals and High Numbers-era Who. This band performed in the Orange County underground music scene that yielded artists such as Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, The Growlers, Cold War Kids. In 2002, the band entered the Distillery in Costa Mesa to record a radio broadcast and a 7-inch single, beginning a friendship between Waterhouse and owner-engineer Mike McHugh. At the end of high school, the band split, finding Waterhouse attending San Francisco State University in San Francisco...