Jenny Lewis Biography

American musician and actress Jenny Lewis was born in 1976 in Nevada. That Jenny would grow up with aspirations to become an entertainer is little surprise; her mother is a singer and her father a musician. While growing up in the Las Vegas area, Lewis began modeling and acting as a young child; some of her early work includes appearances in Barbie doll commercials, Jello-o commercials, and print work for various clothing lines.

Between 1985 and 1998, Lewis appeared in small roles in television shows such as The Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Growing Pains, and Roseanne. In the late 1990’s, Jenny teamed up with musicians Blake Sennett, Dave Rock, and Pierre De Reeder to form the indie rock band Rilo Kiley. After signing with Warner Bros., Rilo Kiley released its debut album More Adventures in 2004, earning some critical praise and moderate commercial success, reaching into the top ten on the independent charts but not into the top one hundred on the mainstream charts. Between 2005 and 2013, the group released the additional albums Under the Blacklight (2007) and Rkives (2013); Blacklight rose into the top twenty on the mainstream charts and spawned the singles “The Moneymaker,” “Silver Lining,” and “Breakin’ Up.”

While performing with Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis simultaneously began to pursue a solo career, releasing her debut solo album in 2006. The debut, Rabbit Fur Coat, was internationally successful, charting not only in the United States but also in the UK and Norway. In the United States, the album rose into the top ten on the independent charts and spawned the singles “Rise Up with Fists!” and “You Are What You Love.” The album Acid Tongue followed in 2008, featuring the singles “The Next Messiah” and “Carpetbaggers.”

Jenny Lewis continues to perform and record, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with a number of other projects, most recently as a member of the rock trio known as Nice as Fuck. Lewis most recently released her latest solo album, The Voyager, in 2014. The album rose into the top ten on the indie charts in the United States.