Karen O

From fierce frontwoman of the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Academy Award-nominated songwriter, Karen O breathed life into the indie rock renaissance of New York and maintained a lengthy career of diverse works while many of her peers flamed out. Known for her outrageous stage costumes and visceral live performances, she was a bona fide rock star and post-feminist icon.

Before she became that tights-ripping tour de force, she was born Karen Orzolek on November 22, 1978 in Busan, South Korea. Before she was three, her Polish-American father and Korean mother, Chris and Munja Orzolek, moved Karen and her older brother to the states and settled in suburbs of Englewood, New Jersey. Like many biracial children, Karen had a hard time adjusting at school and retreated into art and music at an early age. She would attend local punk shows in high school and her early interest in the arts led her to attend the liberal arts school Oberlin College in Ohio. While her time at Oberlin was short-lived, it was there she met future Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase. After transferring to New York University's prestigious Tisch School to study film, she struck up a friendship with photography student Nick Zinner. The two hit it off immediately and formed an experimental folk duo called Unitard. When their initial concept failed, the duo quickly switched gears and recruited Orzolek's former Oberlin classmate Chase to play drums with them for an opening gig for the White Stripes, and thus the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came into existence in 2001. During that time, a neo-post-punk scene was slowly forming in New York. Along with the Strokes and Interpol, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were earning serious buzz for their electric live shows with Zinner's innovative guitar work, Chase's uninhibited drumming and Orzolek's melodic howls front and center. Following their first performance, the shy, quiet film student created a loud rock star persona called "Karen O," who would dominate much of the band's public image. With a few songs in their pocket and a significant buzz going, the band released their self-titled debut EP in late 2001, followed by a year of touring the U.S. as a supporting band and headlining their own U.K. tour. After a few indie labels distributed their EP in the U.K. and reissued it in the states, the band created a bidding war among the major labels and ended up signing with Interscope in 2002 to release their full-length debut. Fever to Tell was a raucous debut and was immediately embraced by the music media, but it wasn't until the single "Maps" was released that the band gained national attention and went from playing small clubs to becoming an MTV favorite. While the emotional single made them famous, things died down a bit after the album and the group became bicoastal, with Karen moving out to in Los Angeles. It was during this time that she met and became romantically involved with the music video director turned screenwriter Spike Jonze. The two collaborated on the music for a Nike commercial, and while their romantic relationship was brief, their professional one was just beginning. Eventually the group reconnected, and Karen convinced Zinner and Chase to come out to Los Angeles to record their next record. Time apart worked in the long run, and their 2006 record Show Your Bones was some of their most polished work yet. After touring for the record, Karen started doing more film work and composing for the film " Jackass Number Two" (2006) and the beginnings of Spike Jonze's movie adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are" (2009). Having avoided the sophomore slump, the band came back stronger than ever with their pop-rock third effort It's Blitz (2009) to widespread acclaim. At this time, her work on the original score of "Where the Wild Things Are" was released and she earned a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for her childlike compositions. Having proved her knack for crafting a sellable soundtrack, she collaborated with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to cover Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" for the David Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2011) soundtrack. With Hollywood accolades under her belt, Karen returned to New York to rekindle things with the band and work on her indie opera, "Stop the Virgens," which debuted in Brooklyn that same year. When it came time to record their next record Mosquito (2013), the band knew that didn't want to make just another rock record and started experimenting with electronics while maintaining their original appeal. Despite the somewhat lukewarm reception compared to their previous albums, the record still had some shining moments, most notably on the single "Sacrilege." But Karen wouldn't have to fret over cultural criticism for long. Her original song "The Moon Song" that she penned for Spike Jonze's futuristic love story "Her" (2014) was nominated for an Academy Award and featured her performing a duet with Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig during the awards ceremony. Karen O released her first solo record, Crush Songs, in September 2014.