Rooney is the primary musical project of singer-songwriter Robert Schwartzman, evolving from its origin as an American rock band formed by high school friends in Los Angeles. Before Schwartzman decided to continue with the project and take it in a different direction, the band's most enduring line-up consisted of Schwartzman, Louie Stephens, Taylor Locke, Matthew Winter and Ned Brower. The band is named after Ed Rooney, the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off portrayed by actor Jeffrey Jones.

Robert Coppola Schwartzman, also known as Robert Carmine, is an American director, screenwriter, actor, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock/pop band Rooney. Schwartzman directed the films Dreamland (2016), The Unicorn (2018), and The Argument (2020), acted in his cousin Sofia Coppola's projects Lick the Star (1998) and The Virgin Suicides (1999), and starred in The Princess Diaries (2001).