Jemma Griffiths was born in June 1975 in Penarth, a small town near Cardiff, in Wales. Despite starting to sing and write songs as early as 13, she decided to tackle law, attended Sussex University, and received a law degree. However, during her time at uni, she focused on being a DJ agent, promoting club nights in and around Brighton, helping set-up and run the specialist breaks label Marine Parade. In November 1999, she assembled a mobile studio, further developing her songwriting and music production skills, and completing 4 demos. From there, she moved to London, where she collaborated with electronic producer Guy Sigsworth (Björk, Frou Frou), and then to Brooklyn to work with Ge-Ology (Mos Def, Talib Kweli).

In 2002, a demo version of the song "Finally Woken" was played on L.A. radio station KCRW, and became one of the most listener-requested songs, landing Jem in their list of top 5 played artists, triggering her solo career. After listening to more of her demos, Bruce Flohr was impressed enough to offer her a record deal with Dave Matthews' ATO record label, under whom she released an EP “It All Starts Here”, in Autumn 2003. This was followed by debut album "Finally Woken" in March 2004.

Jem wrote a song called "Once In Every Lifetime" for the "Eragon" movie soundtrack, and along with Sigsworth, she wrote “Nothing Fails”, which was reworked by Madonna and included on her 2003 “American Life” album.

Second album, “Down To Earth” was released in September 2008, and the first single from the album is "It's Amazing", from the "Sex and the City" movie soundtrack.