Kara DioGuardi on AllMovie

Kara DioGuardi established herself as one of the most prolific pop songwriters of early 21st century Top 40. She specialized in up-tempo female-driven pop with a litany of chart-busters authored for such artists as Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Kylie Minogue, and Hilary Duff -- to such a degree that the said artists owed a significant degree of their success to her involvement. As an entrepreneur, DioGuardi established the corporation Arthouse Entertainment, designed as a launching pad to develop and mentor up-and-coming artists in the music industry -- and quickly pushed the company to number seven on the Billboard List of Top Ten National Music Publishers for three quarters in a row. By that point, DioGuardi had also established a catalogue of well over 250 songs. The songwriter stepped in front of the cameras in 2009 as a judge on season eight of the white-hot Fox reality series American Idol, making her the second female judge opposite Paula Abdul. DioGuardi wouldn't stick with Idol, but despite remaining an extremely active force in the record industry, she would later go on to judge the series Platinum Hit.