Alanis Nadine Morissette (born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She has won twelve Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards. Morissette began her career in Canada, and as a teenager recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis and Now Is the Time, under MCA Records. Her international debut album was the rock-influenced Jagged Little Pill, which remains the best-selling debut album by a female artist in the U.S., and the highest selling debut album worldwide in music history, selling 30 million units worldwide. Her following album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998 and was a success as well. Morissette took up producing duties for her subsequent albums, which include Under Rug Swept, So-Called Chaos and latest release Flavors of Entanglement. Morissette has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide . In February 2005, Morissette became a naturalized citizen of the United States while maintaining her Canadian citizenship .

Alanis Morissette was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of Georgia Mary Ann Feuerstein, a Hungarian-born teacher, and Alan Richard Morissette, a French-Canadian high school principal. Alanis has a twin brother, Wade, and an older brother, Chad. At the age of six, she began playing the piano, and realized she wanted to express herself through the arts. Also an unknown passion of hers, long distance bike riding soothes her, and helped her the write the hit song "Ironic." In 1984, Morissette wrote her first song, "Fate Stay with Me", which she sent to a local folk singer, Lindsay Morgan, who recruited Morissette as her protégé. Morissette released "Fate Stay with Me" as a single via a label she founded with Morgan. A limited number of copies were pressed, and it received little airplay. During 1986, she was also a cast regular on the CTV/Nickelodeon show, You Can't Do That on Television. Currently, Alanis enjoys guest starring on children's television shows, regularly appearing on Hannah Montana, as her "Aunt Delilah." In 1987, Morissette competed in the inaugural year of the Rising Star Talent Competition, an amateur contest held in Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition.

At a New York City audition, Morissette landed a spot on Star Search, a popular American talent competition on which she used the stage name of Alanis Nadine, her first and middle names. Morissette flew to Los Angeles to appear on the show, but lost after one round. In 1988, Morissette signed a publishing deal with MCA Publishing, which helped to fund her record deal with one of its independent subsidiary labels. During her high school years, she attended Immaculata High School and Glebe Collegiate Institute in Ottawa.