Alanis Nadine Morissette (born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American alternative rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards. Morissette began her career in Canada, and as a teenager recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis (1991) and Now Is the Time (1992), under MCA Records Canada. Her first international album was the rock-influenced Jagged Little Pill, released in 1995. Jagged has sold more than 33 million units globally. Her following album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Morissette took up producing duties for her subsequent albums, which include Under Rug Swept (2002), So-Called Chaos (2004), and Flavors of Entanglement (2008). Her eighth studio album, Havoc and Bright Lights, was released in 2012. Morissette has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. Morissette is also known for her powerful and emotive mezzo-soprano voice. She has been dubbed by Rolling Stone as the "Queen of alt-rock angst".
Morissette was born June 1, 1974, in Ottawa, Canada, to teacher Georgia Mary Ann (née Feuerstein) and high-school principal Alan Richard Morissette. She has two siblings: older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade is a musician. Her father was of French and Irish descent and her mother had Hungarian ancestry. Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move. From 1977 to 1980 Morissette spent three years of her childhood in Germany. When she was six years old, she returned in Ottawa and started to play the piano. In 1981, when she was seven years old, she began dance lessons. Morissette had a Catholic upbringing.[18] She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before completing the rest of her high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute (Ottawa, Canada). She appeared on the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in elementary school.
