Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986, in New York City. From the age of 11, Lady Gaga, who was raised Roman Catholic attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. A keen musician, left-handed Lady Gaga began playing the piano at the age of 4, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13, and started to perform at open mike nights by the age of 14. Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school productions, including Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, she attneded the Collaborative Arts Project 21, a musical theatre training conservatory at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She soon began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band with some friends from NYU. Having already served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Lady Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV. As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. By 2008, Lady Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles, where she worked extensively with her record label to complete her debut album. A sleeper hit, "Just Dance" hit the summit of the charts in six countries in January 2009. The Grammy Award-nominated song provoked the instant success of The Fame. Receiving positive reviews from contemporary critics who commended Lady Gaga's ability to discover a melodious hook and compared her vocal abilities to those of Gwen Stefani, the album went to number-one. Lady Gaga achieved an even greater unexpected success when "Poker Face", another sleeper hit, reached number-one. Her book Lady Gaga and Terry Richardson made the New York Times Best Seller list for 2011.
