Brandy Norwood Biography
Brandy Norwood's profile page at Celebrity Index
Born: 11 February 1979, McComb, Mississippi, USA (age 28)
Birth Name: Brandy Rayana Norwood
Height: 5' 7" (1.70 m)
Also Known As: Brandy Norwood / Brandy
Awards: 2 wins & 15 nominations
Credited Years: 1990 - 2006
Profession: Actress / Soundtrack / Producer
Known for: I Still Know What You Did Last Summer / Cinderella / Osmosis Jones
Biography
Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), known professionally as "Brandy", is an American actress and Grammy Award-winning R&B singer. She is best known for her starring roles in the sitcom Moesha and the 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and for her hit songs such as "Sittin' up in My Room" and "The Boy Is Mine". Brandy has gone on to sell more than 18 million albums and singles in the US alone and 35 million albums and singles worldwide. More recently, she has been cast as being one of three judges on the TV reality show America's Got Talent.
Brandy is the elder of two siblings born to Willie Ray Norwood, a pastor and choir director, and his wife Sonja Bates-Norwood, a former financial analyst, in McComb, Mississippi. She is the sister of singer and actor William Raymond "Ray J" Norwood Jr, and a cousin of blues singer Bo Diddley, and rapper Snoop Dogg.Due to her father's work Brandy started singing at their minister, Curtis W. McCullom's Brookhaven church at an early age of two. By the time she was four, Norwood's parents moved the family from McComb to Carson, California, in hopes of jump-starting careers for their children. Inspired by singer Whitney Houston, Brandy began performing at many West Coast functions as part of a youth singing group and then, at 11, barely a teenager herself, met manager Chris Stokes who landed her gigs as backup singer for the group called Norment and more successful teen R&B trio Immature.In 1993, while shopping around record companies, seeking a record deal, Norwood attended a party held by the Atlantic Recording Corporation. After performing in front of hundreds of people, an executive indicated interest in her persona and eventually offered Brandy a recording contract with Atlantic Records.