Ingrid Michaelson

Ingrid Ellen Michaelson, born December 8, 1979, in New York City, is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and Broadway performer. She grew up on Staten Island, where she participated in a musical theatre group called Staten Island Kids On Stage. Michaelson began studying piano at age four, training until age seven at Manhattan's Third Street Music School before continuing her studies at the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island's Dorothy Delson Kuhn Music Institute, where she also worked with vocal coach Elizabeth McCullough through high school. Her father, Carl Michaelson, was a copyright manager for the publishing company Carl Fischer Music and a composer, while her mother, Elizabeth Egbert, was a sculptor of Dutch ancestry. Michaelson graduated from Staten Island Technical High School and later earned a degree in theater from Binghamton University, where she was a member of the Binghamtonics, a co-ed a cappella group, the Pappy Parker Players, an improv comedy group, and the theatre repertory company under Sue Peters.

Michaelson self-released her debut album, Slow the Rain, on January 10, 2005, while living on Staten Island and busking in Lower Manhattan. Her second album, Girls and Boys, was independently released in 2006 and streamed on Myspace, where a music producer from the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy discovered her work. Rather than signing with a major label, Michaelson developed a distribution arrangement with Original Signal Recordings to retain her rights as an independent artist, and Girls and Boys was re-released into mainstream marketing on September 18, 2007, peaking at number 63 on the Billboard charts. A track from the album, "The Way I Am," was featured in an Old Navy commercial and appeared in more than 65 prime-time television slots in under three weeks, including 17 season premieres. Also in 2006, Michaelson collaborated with William Fitzsimmons on his album Goodnight.

In October 2008, Michaelson released Be OK, a charity compilation album supporting cancer research. That December, she and Sara Bareilles released the holiday duet "Winter Song," which appeared on the compilation The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs. The two performers later sang the song for Barack Obama and his family at the National Christmas Tree Lighting in December 2010. Michaelson's fourth album, Everybody, followed in 2009, debuting at number 18 on the Billboard charts and featuring the single "Maybe." In 2010, she co-wrote "Parachute" with Marshall Altman for British singer Cheryl Cole, a track that reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and appeared on Cole's debut solo album 3 Words. Michaelson subsequently released her own version of the song after producer Dan Romer reworked it. Her fifth album, Human Again, was released on January 24, 2012, debuting at number 5 on the Billboard chart, and was supported by a multi-leg North American and international tour. That same year, she co-wrote and performed the duet "Landline" with her then-husband, musician Greg Laswell, for his album of the same name.

On April 25, 2014, Michaelson released Lights Out, preceded by the lead single "Girls Chase Boys" on February 4, 2014. The single reached number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, along with her 2006 single "The Way I Am," earned platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America and charted on Billboard's Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 charts. A deluxe edition of Lights Out, containing six additional tracks, was released in November 2014. Her seventh studio album, It Doesn't Have to Make Sense, was released on August 26, 2016, led by the single "Hell No," which was released on April 29, 2016, and accompanied by a video featuring members of the Deaf West theater company performing the lyrics in American Sign Language. Michaelson supported the album with the Hell No Tour, which began in Cincinnati on October 6, 2016. Also in 2016, she co-wrote the AJR single "The Lotto." On May 12, 2017, she released the five-track EP Alter Egos, consisting of reworked songs from It Doesn't Have to Make Sense featuring guest vocalists including Sara Bareilles, Tegan and Sara, AJR, Lucius, and John Paul White of The Civil Wars. In 2017, Michaelson also contributed the songs "Smallest Light" and "Stay Right Where You Are" to the soundtrack for the film The Space Between Us.

Michaelson made her Broadway debut in 2017, playing the role of Sonya Rostova in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, performing in the production from July 3 to August 13 of that year. She has also been associated with the Broadway musical The Notebook as a composer. Her Broadway work represents an extension of her longstanding connection to musical theatre, which began in childhood on Staten Island.

Beyond Broadway and recording, Michaelson has worked extensively in film and television. She made her film debut in the comedy Humor Me, released January 12, 2018, alongside Jemaine Clement and Elliott Gould. On October 26, 2018, she released the Christmas album Ingrid Michaelson's Songs for the Season, featuring collaborations with Christina Perri, Grace VanderWaal, Leslie Odom Jr., and Will Chase; a deluxe version released in 2021 added collaborations with Jason Mraz and Zooey Deschanel. Her ninth studio album, Stranger Songs, was released on June 28, 2019, inspired by the Netflix series Stranger Things and preceded by the lead single "Missing You" on May 10, 2019. In 2021, Michaelson collaborated with Zayn Malik on the single "To Begin Again," released March 17. She scored songs for the television series Little Fires Everywhere and Tiny Beautiful Things, both for Hulu, with her work on Little Fires Everywhere earning an Emmy nomination, and served as executive music producer for Apple TV+'s Slumberkins, for which she created original songs. Michaelson also appeared as a guest star in Season 3 of Netflix's Girls5Eva. Across her recording career, she has released eight independent albums.