Artist bio: Macy Gray

Birth Name: Natalie McIntyre.
Born: Sept. 6, 1967 in Canton, Ohio.

Macy Gray grew up as Natalie McIntyre, a shy, awkward girl who was frequently teased about her odd-sounding voice. While growing up, she said, she studied classical piano but also was a fan of '60s and '70s Soul artists like Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, as well as old-school hip-hop. As a teenager, she was exposed to rock & roll as well while staying at a boarding school. She later moved to Los Angeles to enroll in the screenwriting program at the University of Southern California, where she began to write song lyrics for a musician friend.

Macy's singing career began almost by accident. A singer who was slated to record some of her song lyrics during a demo session never showed up and Gray wound up singing on the recordings herself, but under the name of an elderly former neighbor in Canton, Ohio - a neighbor named Macy Gray. One of the songs was never overdubbed with another vocal, and when the tapes started making the rounds of the local music scene, Gray's raspy growl attracted enough attention that she was offered a job singing jazz and pop standards with a band that performed in hotels around Los Angeles.

Eventually, Macy was signed to Atlantic Records in the mid-1990s and recorded an album that was never released. She bounced back and accepted a publishing deal with the Zomba label, which in turn helped her get a new record deal in April 1998, this time with Epic Records. She spent the next year recording her official debut album, On How Life Is, which was released in the summer of 1999. The album was a commercial and critical hit thanks to the single "I Try," and Macy won a Grammy for the song. None of her subsequent albums have been as successful, but as of 2010, she was stillactive in the recording industry.

Macy graduated from the University of Southern California in 1990.
She has three children: Aanisah (born in January 1994), Tahmel (born in 1994), and Cassius (born 1997).
She is also an actress and has appeared in numerous high-profile films, including Idlewild 2006; Spider-Man (2002); and Training Day (2001).

"I love music. I like doing movies, but I don't have the attention span to stay on the set. After four or five days I'm ready to go on to something else." -- Macy Gray to about.com Guide Ramon Johnson in 2007.

2010: The Sellout
2007: Big
2003: The Trouble with Being Myself
2001: The Id
1999: On How Life Is