Some people are born tall. Some people are born driven. Ben Gorham somehow got both — and then used one to play basketball professionally and the other to build one of the most respected luxury fragrance brands in the world.
Standing at 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm), Ben Gorham is hard to miss in a room. But his height is honestly the least interesting thing about him.
What is interesting? He went from playing professional basketball to making candles in a Stockholm kitchen — and then built a company that sold for over €1 billion.
If that doesn’t earn your attention, nothing will.
So, How Tall Is Ben Gorham?
Let’s answer the main question first.
Ben Gorham’s height is 6’5″ (196 cm). This has been confirmed across multiple sources, including The Perfume Society and Coveteur, both of which describe him as a towering, tattooed presence — hard to overlook at any fashion event or fragrance launch.
His height played a big role in his early life. It’s one reason basketball felt so natural to him. It’s also one reason he looked every bit the part of a professional athlete long before he ever wore a suit to a brand meeting.
But as we’ll see, his story is far more layered than just his stature.
Who Is Ben Gorham? A Quick Bio
Ben Gorham was born on 5 July 1977 in Stockholm, Sweden, to an Indian mother and a Canadian father. His parents separated when he was young, and he was raised largely by his mother.
That multicultural background — Indian, Canadian, Swedish — shaped almost everything that came after. His sense of identity was never fixed to one culture, one city, or one idea of success.
Growing up, he moved between Toronto, New York, and Stockholm for his education and early life experiences. Three cities. Three different cultures. One kid trying to figure out who he was.
Spoiler: he figured it out. It just took a basketball court, an art school, a chance meeting with a French perfumer, and a kitchen full of candle wax.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Ben Gorham |
| Date of Birth | 5 July 1977 |
| Birthplace | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Height | 6’5″ (196 cm) |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Heritage | Indian mother, Canadian father |
| Brand Founded | Byredo (2006) |
| @bengorham |
The Basketball Years: When Being 6’5″ Was His Whole Identity
Before anyone knew Ben Gorham as a fragrance entrepreneur, he was known as a basketball player. And not just a casual weekend-league type — he was serious about it.
He attended high school in New York and then went to business school in Toronto before leaving to play basketball professionally in Europe.
He says: “That was it, that was like my passion and my ambition, what I imagined myself doing for the rest of my life.” He was dead serious about it.
For someone 6’5″, with the drive of a competitor and the mindset of an athlete, this wasn’t a hobby. It was a calling.
Then, bureaucracy happened.
Although he was a Swedish native, Gorham was unable to obtain a European passport. Visa issues and professional eligibility complications cut his basketball career short before it ever really got the chance to bloom.
He later reflected: “It’s almost as if I’ve had two lives. My first life was as an athlete. I was completely focused on sports and then, in my early 20s, I started to realise that it wasn’t going to be a lifelong career so I had to reinvent myself.”
Most people would have crumbled. Ben Gorham went and enrolled in art school.
From the Court to the Canvas: Art School in Stockholm
After basketball, Gorham didn’t take a quiet desk job. He did something far bolder.
As the legend goes, Ben worked long hours on construction sites before enrolling in the Stockholm Art School, studying everything from painting to history to photography.
He graduated from art school with a degree in fine arts.
Here’s what’s worth noting: this wasn’t a man taking the easy path. He went from elite athlete to construction worker to fine arts student. Each transition required him to completely rebuild his sense of self.
That kind of resilience? That’s not something you get from comfort. It comes from hitting walls — literal and figurative — and learning to build doors in them.
The Perfumer Who Changed Everything
In 2004, something happened that changed the entire trajectory of Ben Gorham’s life.
A chance encounter with perfumer Pierre Wulff led him to connect with two of the most influential noses in fragrance today — Jérôme Épinette and Olivia Giacobetti.
He said: “I had no experience when it came to perfume, but I became interested in this idea of smell as a medium and in the connection between memory and smell, and I asked this perfumer to help me put together a creative project and the interest grew into an obsession.”
He had already become fascinated by the link between scent and memories. He told Vanity Fair: “I remembered the fragrance my father wore when I was a child. I told Pierre that it smelled like the essence of green beans, and he was able to tell me what the fragrance was. It was a bittersweet memory for me, because my father left when I was six or seven, but I wanted to recreate that scent in a modern way.”
That’s the soul of Byredo right there — not chemistry, not marketing, not trend-chasing. Just a man trying to bottle a memory.
Founding Byredo: Starting Small, Thinking Big
Ben began with candles, made at a tiny scale — with glasses sourced from IKEA, no less. Friends wanted them. Then strangers began calling.
That’s how empires start sometimes. Not with investors and pitch decks. With IKEA glasses and a good idea.
Over the next two and a half years, Gorham created four more scents, and in 2006 he launched the Byredo collection — Green, Chembur, Pulp, Rose Noir, and Gypsy Water — in Paris.
The name Byredo comes from the old English word “redolence,” meaning sweet-smelling perfume. He shortened it, registered the website, and got to work.
In 2008, he brought the brand to Barneys New York, and by the end of that year, it had become that store’s second-best-selling fragrance collection.
From a Stockholm kitchen to Barneys New York in two years. Not bad for a former basketball player with an art degree and an obsession with smell.
Reference: Offseason World — Who Is Ben Gorham?
How Ben Gorham’s Height and Athlete Mindset Fuelled Byredo’s Growth
Here’s something people don’t often talk about: the way his years as a basketball player shaped how he ran Byredo.
During an interview, Gorham said that every Byredo product that appears on the shelves has gone through roughly 150 different iterations.
- Not 5. Not 20. One hundred and fifty.
That level of obsessive iteration is not a fragrance industry habit. It’s an athlete habit. It’s the kind of discipline that comes from training the same move thousands of times until it becomes second nature.
He explained: “I had a call with somebody the other day and I made the point that Michael Jordan was directly responsible for the success of Byredo Makeup… there is so much truth in that because I obsessed over that launch.”
A 6’5″ Swede crediting Michael Jordan for his makeup brand. Honestly, that’s the most Ben Gorham thing possible.
He also said: “One of the best conscious decisions I made in the beginning was to grow the business slowly, to always consider the long game. I aspire to brands like Hermès and a world of timeless luxury.”
That patience. That long-game thinking. That’s not perfume school. That’s sports psychology in a bottle.
Reference: Coveteur — Inside the Mind of Byredo’s Ben Gorham
Byredo’s Billion-Euro Moment: The Puig Acquisition
In May 2022, Swedish luxury brand Byredo was acquired by Puig, a Spanish beauty giant, for a reported €1 billion.
Let that number sink in. A brand that started with candles in a kitchen — funded partly by IKEA glassware — reached a valuation north of a billion euros.
As part of the agreement signed in 2022, Gorham maintained creative leadership until June 2025, at which point he formally departed from the brand he built over nearly two decades.
By 2021, Byredo’s annual revenue had surged to around €119 million, nearly doubling pre-pandemic figures, thanks to strong demand in Asia and North America.
Ben Gorham’s net worth is estimated to be in the tens of millions, largely due to the success of Byredo, which expanded rapidly over the past decade, opening boutiques worldwide and diversifying into skincare, makeup, and leather goods.
Reference: IBTimes UK — Who Is Ben Gorham?
Ben Gorham’s Personal Life: Family, Home, and a Quiet Life in Sweden
Away from the brand, Ben Gorham is a fairly private person.
He is married to Natasha (also spelled Natasa Skutgard in some sources), and together they have two daughters, Inez and Anouk. Gorham has maintained a notably private family life over the years.
He lives in Sweden and built a home on the Swedish island of Gotland, which he shares with his wife and daughters as a retreat from urban life in Stockholm.
He often describes himself as a gypsy — and Byredo’s iconic fragrance “Gypsy Water” draws directly from this feeling that the whole world is his home.
There’s something poetic about that. A man who never quite fit into one country, one career, or one creative field — building a brand entirely around the idea that identity is fluid and memory is universal.
Ben Gorham on Instagram
Ben Gorham is active on Instagram under the handle @bengorham, where he has over 107,000 followers.
His Instagram feed is a carefully edited blend of personal interests, artistic sources, travel, and glimpses at design and creative culture. He does not use social media heavily for promotional purposes, preferring quiet visual storytelling over brand noise.
Follow him here: instagram.com/bengorham
Frequently Asked Questions
How tall is Ben Gorham? Ben Gorham’s height is 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm), as confirmed by multiple sources including The Perfume Society and Coveteur.
Was Ben Gorham a professional basketball player? Yes. He pursued a professional basketball career in Europe but had to stop due to visa and professional eligibility issues.
When did Ben Gorham found Byredo? He founded Byredo in Stockholm in 2006.
What is Ben Gorham’s net worth? His net worth is estimated between $50 million and $80 million as of 2025, largely from the sale of Byredo to Puig at a valuation exceeding €1 billion.
Does Ben Gorham still run Byredo? No. He formally departed from Byredo in June 2025 after fulfilling his post-acquisition creative leadership role.
What is Ben Gorham’s Instagram? His handle is @bengorham.
The Takeaway: What Ben Gorham’s Story Actually Teaches Us
Ben Gorham’s height — 6’5″ — is a fun fact. But it’s not the story.
The story is a man who lost his biggest dream (basketball), rebuilt himself twice (construction worker, art student), stumbled into a new obsession (perfumery), and built something so powerful that it sold for over a billion euros.
He didn’t follow a straight path. He followed curiosity. And then obsession. And then patience.
He said: “I was a pro athlete, and when that fell apart, I was forced to completely rethink and reinvent. A lot of my drive and entrepreneurship comes from that: having the only thing you know taken away from you.”
