Lady Gaga

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born on March 28, 1986, she is recognized for her image reinventions, flamboyant fashion, and versatility across the entertainment industry. With estimated sales of 124 million records, she is one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Gaga was born at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and was raised in a Catholic family on Manhattan's Upper West Side. She began playing piano at age four and took lessons throughout her childhood. From age 11, she attended the private all-girls Convent of the Sacred Heart. During her youth, she starred in school plays and studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for ten years. In 2003, she gained early admission to Collaborative Arts Project 21 at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, but withdrew during her second year in 2005 to focus on music.

After leaving university, Gaga formed the SGBand and performed in clubs across New York's Lower East Side. She collaborated with producer Rob Fusari, who helped develop her material and contributed to her stage name. In 2007, producer Vincent Herbert signed her to Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, where she worked as a songwriter for established performers. She released her debut album, The Fame, in 2008, followed by the reissue EP The Fame Monster in 2009. The projects achieved global success and produced chart-topping singles including "Just Dance", "Poker Face", and "Bad Romance", which she supported with her debut headline tours.

In 2011, Gaga released her second studio album, Born This Way, which explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold 1.1 million copies in the United States in its first week. She followed this with the electronic dance music album Artpop in 2013. Expanding her repertoire, she recorded the jazz collaboration Cheek to Cheek with Tony Bennett in 2014 and explored soft rock on Joanne in 2016. Her later projects include the pop albums Chromatica in 2020 and Mayhem in 2025, the jazz record Love for Sale in 2021, and the soundtrack Harlequin in 2024.

In addition to music, Gaga expanded into acting, appearing in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel and starring in the films A Star Is Born and House of Gucci. Her contributions to the A Star Is Born soundtrack and its lead single "Shallow" made her the first person to win an Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Grammy Award in a single year. Across her career, she has earned seven number-one albums on the Billboard 200, 16 Grammy Awards, and 22 MTV Video Music Awards.

Outside her entertainment projects, Gaga has launched business and philanthropic initiatives. She founded the vegan cosmetics brand Haus Labs and co-founded the non-profit Born This Way Foundation to support youth wellness, alongside her ongoing activism for mental health awareness and LGBTQ rights.