Introduction
Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (born February 20, 2003) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She began her career as a child, appearing in commercials and the direct-to-video film An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success (2015). She rose to prominence for her leading roles in the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark (2016–2019) and the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019–2022). Shifting focus to her recording career, Rodrigo signed with Geffen Records to release her 2021 single “Drivers License“, which peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and brought her international recognition.
That same year, she released her debut studio album, Sour, which spawned her second number-one song “Good 4 U” and other successful singles including “Deja Vu”, “Traitor”, and “Brutal”. The documentary Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home
2 U, chronicling the creative process behind Sour, was released the following year. In 2023, Rodrigo released her second studio album, Guts, supported by her third number-one song “Vampire” and singles “Bad Idea Right?” and “Get Him Back!”. Overall, Rodrigo has released three Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, two US Billboard 200 number-one albums, and eight songs with multi-platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her accolades include three Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and seven Billboard Music Awards. She was recognized as Time’s Entertainer of the Year in 2021, Billboard’s Woman of the Year in 2022, and twice as ASCAP’s Pop Music Songwriter of the Year in 2022 and 2024.
Early life
Olivia Isabel Rodrigo was born on February 20, 2003, at the Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, California, to Jennifer, a school teacher, and Chris, a family therapist. She is an only child and grew up in neighboring Temecula. Rodrigo was born half-deaf in her left ear. She is half-Filipina and identifies as Filipino American. Her paternal grandparents and great-grandparents emigrated from the Philippines, and her family follows Filipino traditions, including the preparation of cuisine. Her mother has German and Irish ancestry. She grew up listening to her parents’ favorite alternative rock music, such as No Doubt, Pearl Jam, the White Stripes, and Green Day.
Rodrigo attended Lisa J. Mails Elementary School in Murrieta, participating in their after-school musical theater program. At age five, her parents signed her up for vocal lessons with Jennifer Dustman, who began enrolling Rodrigo in various local singing competitions. Under Dustman’s guidance, her parents also enrolled her in acting lessons. She began taking piano lessons at age nine. Rodrigo first became interested in songwriting after listening to country music by Taylor Swift, and she was playing guitar by age twelve. In May 2010, at age seven, she first appeared onscreen in an Old Navy commercial.
2015–2019: Career beginnings and acting
In 2015, at age twelve, Rodrigo made her acting debut portraying the lead role of Grace Thomas in the direct-to-video film An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success. She attended Dorothy McElhinney Middle School in Murrieta for a year, until moving to Los Angeles after landing an acting role in Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark in 2016; she was homeschooled from then until her graduation in 2021. Starring as the character Paige Olvera, a guitarist, she played the role for three seasons.
In February 2019, she was cast in the starring role of Nini Salazar-Roberts on the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which premiered in November of that year. Rodrigo was praised for her performance, with critics describing her as “especially magnetic”. For the series, Rodrigo wrote and performed the promotional single “All I Want”, released in November 2019. She left the show at the end of its third season to focus on her music career.
2020–2022: Sour
Rodrigo signed with Geffen Records in 2020. She negotiated the record deal to secure ownership of the masters of her music. On January 8, 2021, she released her debut single, “Drivers License”, which she co-wrote with producer Dan Nigro. Within the week of its release, “Drivers License” received critical acclaim and broke Spotify records for most daily streams ever for a non-holiday song, with over 15.7 million global streams on January 11 and over 17 million the next day. It went on to break another Spotify record as the first song in history to hit 80 million streams in seven days.
The song debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one in numerous other countries. Rodrigo described the experience as “the absolute craziest week of my life … My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant.” On April 1, 2021, Rodrigo released her follow-up single, “Deja Vu“, which debuted at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist to debut their first two releases in the top 10 of the Hot 100. The third
single preceding her debut album, “Good 4 U”, followed on May 14, 2021, and became her second single to debut at number one on the Hot 100. Sour, her debut studio album, was released on May 21, 2021, to critical acclaim. Critics noted that its first three singles alone established Rodrigo’s early status as one of Generation Z’s most versatile new artists. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart and spent a total of five weeks at the spot, becoming the longest reigning number-one album by a female artist in 2021.
2023–present: Guts
On August 16, 2023, Rodrigo became the youngest artist to receive the BRIT Billion Award for achieving over one billion digital streams in the United Kingdom. She was the 19th artist to receive the award. Rodrigo’s second album, Guts, was released on September 8, 2023, and debuted atop the Billboard 200. She described the album as exploring “growing pains” and self-discovery, noting that she felt she had grown “ten years” between the ages of 18 and 20. Guts received critical acclaim and was later declared by BBC News as the most
critically acclaimed album of 2023. The album’s lead single, “Vampire”, was released on June 30, becoming Rodrigo’s third single to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist ever to debut the lead singles from two career-opening albums at number one on the Hot 100. The album’s second single, “Bad Idea Right?”, was released on August 11, 2023, reaching the top 10 in both the US and UK.
On October 9, 2023, Rodrigo performed songs from Guts in an exclusive concert in partnership with American Express at the Los Angeles Theater at Ace Hotel, with all proceeds going to her Fund 4 Good nonprofit organization. On October 18, 2023, she announced that four secret tracks released on limited vinyl editions of Guts would be compiled into a limited vinyl-exclusive EP for Record Store Day Black Friday.
The EP, Guts: The Secret Tracks, ranked among the top sellers during Record Store Day. On November 3, Rodrigo released the song “Can’t Catch Me Now” for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which won the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Song in a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Horror Film in 2023.
To support Guts, Rodrigo embarked on her second headlining tour, the Guts World Tour, which ran from February 2024 to July 2025 across North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. On March 20, 2024, she announced a deluxe version of Guts with five additional songs, including the four secret tracks from the vinyl variants, released as Guts (Spilled) on March 22, 2024.
On April 13, 2024, Rodrigo made a special guest appearance at No Doubt’s Coachella show, performing their 2000 single “Bathwater” alongside the band. On October 2, 2024, she announced the release of the Guts World Tour concert film, which premiered on Netflix on October 29, 2024.
Personal life
Rodrigo has discussed being partially deaf in her left ear. She said in interviews that she did not know until kindergarten, when routine hearing tests revealed she was a little hard of hearing. Raised in a vegetarian household by her mother, she later shared that she grew up vegetarian, but eventually started eating chicken tenders and never went back. In 2018, Rodrigo began dating her Bizaardvark co-star Ethan Wacker after meeting him in 2016 during filming; they later broke up in 2019.
From 2019 to 2020, she was linked to her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star Joshua Bassett. In 2021, she reportedly dated producer Adam Faze, with the relationship ending in February 2022. In early 2022, she was briefly linked to DJ and executive Zack Bia. Since October 2023, Rodrigo has been in a relationship with English actor Louis Partridge. Rodrigo identifies as a feminist and has spoken publicly about mental health awareness and reproductive rights. In July 2021, she visited the White House to encourage COVID-19 vaccination among young people. Her song “Hope Ur OK” references religion critically, suggesting that some parents prioritized the Bible over kindness toward their children.
Achievements
Rodrigo has received numerous music accolades, including three Grammy Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, five iHeartRadio Music Awards, and four People’s Choice Awards, as well as an American Music Award, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award. She was named Time’s Entertainer of the Year for 2021 and was placed on the 100 Next list. Billboard honored her as Rookie of the Year in 2021 and Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music event in 2022. She was also included on Billboard’s annual 21 Under 21 list, topping it the following year.
Rodrigo was featured in Bloomberg 50, Forbes 30 Under 30 in the music category, Fortune’s 40 Under 40 for two consecutive years, and Elle 100. Variety named her “Songwriter of the Year” for 2021 and “Storyteller of the Year” for 2023 at the Variety Hitmakers Ceremony. She was recognized as the top songwriter of 2021 by the music rights platform Blokur and The Ivors Academy.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) named her “Songwriter of the Year” at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards in 2022 and 2024. In 2024, Billboard included her among the honorable mentions in its “25 Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century” list, describing her as “a new-school rock star as much as a pop phenom,” and Rolling Stone called her “Gen Z’s preeminent rock star.” In March 2025, Billboard ranked her number 21 on the “Top 100 Women Artists of the 21st Century” list.
Transition from Acting to Music
Her early work on Disney Channel laid the foundation for a versatile career, allowing her to transition seamlessly from acting to music. With each album release, she has explored new sounds and artistic directions, earning critical acclaim while breaking records on streaming platforms and charts globally. Rodrigo’s combination of commercial success, artistic growth, and social impact highlights her as both a musical talent and a cultural figure.
Discography
Main articles: Olivia Rodrigo discography and List of songs recorded by Olivia Rodrigo
Studio albums
- Sour (2021)
- Guts (2023)
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success | Grace Thomas | Direct-to-video film |
| 2021 | Sour Prom | Herself | Concert film |
| 2022 | Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U | Herself | Documentary film |
| 2024 | Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour | Herself | Concert film |
| 2025 | Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery | Herself | Documentary film |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–2019 | Bizaardvark | Paige Olvera | Main role |
| 2017 | New Girl | Terrinea | Episode: “Young Adult” |
| 2019–2022 | High School Musical: The Musical: The Series | Nini Salazar-Roberts | Main role (seasons 1–2); recurring role (season 3) |
| 2020 | The Disney Family Singalong | Herself | Television special |
| 2020 | High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special | Herself / Nini Salazar-Roberts | Holiday special |
| 2021–2023 | Saturday Night Live | Herself | Musical guest; episodes: “Keegan-Michael Key/Olivia Rodrigo”, “Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo” |
| 2025 | Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music | Herself | Documentary special |
For more
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