He was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania.
Reznor produced Marilyn Manson's album Antichrist Superstar and the soundtracks for the films Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway. He is also fond of video games, and has soundscaped several, including id Software's hit Quake.
Trent returned to working with id Software in 2003 as the chief sound engineer for the widely anticipated upcoming video game DOOM³. Trent later quit the project to return to working on his upcoming album.