R&B singer Macy Gray made a splash in the music scene in the late '90s, gaining attention for her songwriting style and distinctive, raspy voice. Her recording career had only recently skyrocketed when she decided to try out acting, appearing in projects like a 2000 episode of Ally McBeal, and 2001's Training Day. She would continue to maintain a sideline in acting throughout the years, most notably in movies like Domino, and in 2009 she ventured into reality TV, joining the cast of the popular Dancing with the Stars.
Macy Gray
Share on
Biography by AllMovie
Movie Highlights
Factsheet
- Had formal piano training as a child.
- Attributes much of her shyness to her unusual voice and being teased in school.
- Attended a predominately white boarding school where she encountered taunting because of her race.
- Studied screenwriting at the University of Southern California's film school.
- Adopted her stage name as a homage to a hometown neighbor.
- Music critics often draw likenesses to Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Eartha Kitt, Etta James, Janis Joplin and Tina Turner.
- First album, On How Life Is, released in 1999, had gone platinum three times over by the time she released her second album, The Id, in 2001.
- Started the M. Gray Music Academy as an afterschool arts-education program for kids in L.A.