Sara Bareilles

Sara Beth Bareilles is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and Broadway book writer born on December 7, 1979, in Eureka, California. She has sold more than three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States, and has earned two Grammy Awards along with nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards. In 2012, VH1 included her on its list of the Top 100 Greatest Women in Music.

Bareilles grew up in Eureka as the youngest of three daughters, with a younger half-sister as well. Her father, Paul Bareilles, works as an insurance adjuster and has Swiss-Italian, Italian, and French ancestry, while her mother, Bonnie Jean, is a funeral home worker with Portuguese and German ancestry. Her parents divorced when she was twelve. Raised Catholic, Bareilles attended parochial school through junior high before transferring to public school, and she participated in her high school choir, Limited Edition, as well as local community theater productions, including a high school staging of Little Shop of Horrors in which she played Audrey. After graduating from Eureka High School in 1998, she studied communication studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was a member of the co-ed a cappella group Awaken a Cappella. The group's recording of her original song "Gravity" appeared on the Best of College a Cappella 2004 compilation. During her time at UCLA she also won the annual student concert UCLA Spring Sing twice, and she taught herself to play multiple instruments, including piano. She also lived in Bologna for a year during college and speaks some Italian.

Following her 2002 graduation from UCLA, Bareilles began performing at local venues and self-published her first studio album, Careful Confessions, in January 2004. She signed with Epic Records on April 15, 2005. Her major-label debut, Little Voice, was released on July 7, 2007, and debuted at number 45 on the Billboard 200 before eventually peaking at number seven on that chart and number nine on the UK Top 40. Its lead single, "Love Song," entered the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 on December 27, 2007, and peaked at number four, also reaching number one on the Pop 100 and Hot AC charts. The single earned Grammy nominations for Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards and was later certified triple platinum. Little Voice itself was certified platinum by the RIAA as of 2010.

Bareilles made her Broadway debut as a composer and lyricist with the 2015 musical Waitress, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. Her fifth studio album, What's Inside: Songs from Waitress, released in 2015, features several songs from the production alongside others that were not included in the show. The West End transfer of Waitress in 2019 brought her additional Olivier Award nominations. Bareilles subsequently contributed to other Broadway productions, including Into the Woods. Her Broadway performing career spanned 2016 to 2022, and she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2023.

Beyond the stage, Bareilles received critical recognition for her portrayal of Mary Magdalene in the NBC television special Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert in 2018, a performance that earned her an Emmy nomination. She also played the lead role of Dawn Solano in the musical comedy series Girls5eva, which ran on Peacock and Netflix from 2021 to 2024.