Lady Gaga

Born in New York City in 1986, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is better known by the stage name, Lady Gaga. She began receiving piano lessons at the age of four, and by her teens, Gaga was writing her own songs and performing at open-mic nights around the city. Though she would enroll at the Tisch School of the Arts program Collaborative Arts Project 21, Gaga dropped out during her sophomore year to pursue a professional career, eventually coming up with her moniker inspired by the Queen song "Radio Gaga," and working with performance artist Lady Starlight to develop her avant-garde stage persona. Gaga signed a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV in 2007, writing songs for artists such as Fergie, the Pussycat Dolls, and Britney Spears, and she signed a recording contract with Interscope the same year. Her debut album, The Fame, was released in 2008 to major success, with an eight-song EP, Fame Monster soon to follow. The two releases included such massive hit singles as "Poker Face," "Just Dance," and "Bad Romance." Her second studio album, Born This Way, came in 2011 and was another commercial and critical hit. The following year, Gaga impressed audiences with a sophisticated collaborative jazz album with vocal legend Tony Bennett titled Cheek to Cheek. In 2015, Gaga fulfilled a lifelong desire to pursue a concurrent career as an actor, starring in the fifth season of the anthology series "American Horror Story" (FX, 2015-16). She would return for a recurring role on the following season, even as she released her next album, Joanne, to major acclaim. She sang one song from the album, "Million Reasons," during her landmark performance at the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, which also included hits such as "Poker Face" and "Born This Way." The next year, Gaga found a project that combined her passions for both music and acting, starring as a burgeoning pop vocalist alongside writer and director Bradley Cooper in the fourth remake of the classic film "A Star is Born" (2018). The film was a popular and critical success, earning Gaga a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a win for Best Original Song for the film's centerpiece ballad "Shallow."