Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 18, 2001, to actor and teacher Maggie Baird and actor Patrick O’Connell. Raised in Highland Park and homeschooled alongside her brother, Finneas O’Connell, she joined the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus at age eight. Her breakthrough came from “Ocean Eyes,” a song Finneas wrote and uploaded to SoundCloud in 2015 for Billie’s dance teacher. The track spread online, leading to a deal with Interscope Records and establishing the sibling songwriting and production partnership that would define her recordings. Her debut extended play, Don’t Smile at Me, arrived in 2017 and included “Bellyache,” “idontwannabeyouanymore,” and “My Boy.” In March 2019, she released her first studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, co-written and produced with Finneas, largely in his bedroom studio. Its single “Bad Guy” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist born in the 2000s to top that chart. At the 2020 Grammy Awards, she won five prizes, including Album, Record, Song, and Best New Artist, becoming the youngest person then to win the four general-field categories in one night. Eilish wrote and performed “No Time to Die” for the 2021 James Bond film of the same name. The song, created with Finneas, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2022, after also receiving a Grammy and Golden Globe. Her second album, Happier Than Ever, was released in July 2021. Its title track moves from a restrained opening into a loud guitar-driven conclusion, while “Your Power” addresses exploitation and abusive power dynamics. The album debuted at number one in numerous territories, including the United States and United Kingdom. In 2023, “What Was I Made For?” from Greta Gerwig’s Barbie became another major collaboration between Eilish and Finneas. It won the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song; Eilish, aged 22 at the ceremony, became the youngest person to receive two competitive Oscars. Her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, followed in May 2024. Released without advance singles, it contains ten tracks, including “Lunch,” “Chihiro,” and “Birds of a Feather.” Eilish and Finneas created its songs as an album-length sequence, rather than presenting unrelated recordings. She portrayed Eva in Amazon Prime Video’s Swarm in 2023, receiving a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.