Manou Rao is a French-Indian guitarist, born in France on December 26, 2003. His early years were spent in India, where he started learning the tabla at the age of 4. He was immersed in a musical environment from a very young age with his paternal grandmother, the famous Hindustani classical singer Vidushi Lalith J Rao.
David Gilmour, Slash, Bumblefoot, Jimmy Page and many others inspired him to start learning the guitar at the age of 7. He was taken under his wing by the immensely talented Tony Das, who nurtured him amazingly through his younger years, allowing him to truly blossom. However, it was undoubtedly his meeting with the famous music producer Sandeep Chowta that changed his life, inspiring him to open up to diverse musical influences and pushing him to always strive for excellence. It also gave him the opportunity to interact with some of the great musicians like Scott Henderson.
He was then closely followed by the renowned French musician and teacher Renaud Louis-Servais and also shared privileged exchanges with legends such as Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal and Tony MacAlpine through the Corfu Rock School. In 2016 (12 yo) he participated in the Young Performers Program at Berklee College of Music. In 2017, his family moved back to France. He entered the Montpellier Conservatory under the personal mentorship of the famous jazz guitarist and director of contemporary music, Serge Lazerevitch. He also took guitar lessons with the highly talented Richard Daudé at the Guitar Academy in Nîmes. In 2019 he was invited to be the guitarist of the Stuart Craig Band and toured with them in Thailand. This culminated at the Burapa Bike Festival where he shared the stage with some great musicians including his childhood hero Bumblefoot.

Manou wants to follow his passion for rock and progressive music to create his own style, he strongly believes that the goal of music is to share and is currently working on collaborative projects with different musicians from around the world.