Karen O

Karen Lee Orzolek (born November 22, 1978) is a South Korean-born American singer, musician, and songwriter.

She is the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Karen Lee Orzolek was born in Seoul, South Korea, the daughter of a Korean mother and a Polish father.

The family eventually moved to Englewood, New Jersey, where she grew up and graduated from The Elisabeth Morrow School and Dwight-Englewood School.

About her childhood, she stated that "it's almost embarrassing how well-behaved I was, which is probably why I do things like spit water on myself on stage as an adult".

She attended Oberlin College before transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Karen O is known as the lead vocalist for the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

She has also been noted for her fashion, often wearing outfits made by her friend, fashion designer Christian Joy.

In the early days of the band, she became well-known for her antics during live shows.

During a tour for the 2003 Livid Festival in Australia, at a sideshow at The Metro in Sydney, Karen O accidentally danced off the stage and was reluctantly taken to a hospital.

A few days later, at the Sydney leg of the Livid Festival, she appeared in a wheelchair pushed onstage by Angus Andrew.

In 2004, Karen O, using the moniker Marshmellow, directed the music video for "We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own" by Liars, fronted by her then-boyfriend Angus Andrew.

Karen O was featured in the track "Cut Me Up" by Har Mar Superstar for the soundtrack to the 2005 horror film House of Wax.

For the movie Jackass 2, Karen O collaborated with electronic artist Peaches and Johnny Knoxville to record a track entitled "Backass"; for Jackass 3D, she covered Roger Alan Wade's "If You're Gonna Be Dumb" under the alternative title of "If You're Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough".

Karen O and Spike Jonze collaborated on a 2005 Adidas commercial, Hello Tomorrow, after Jonze had directed the video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 2004 single "Y Control".

Karen O composed all songs on the soundtrack of Jonze's film Where the Wild Things Are (with the exception of a cover of the Daniel Johnston song "Worried Shoes") in collaboration with Carter Burwell.

She is listed on the soundtrack as "Karen O and the Kids".

In 2007, Karen O was placed at number three on Spinner's "Women Who Rock Right Now" list.

The following year, she debuted a side project called Native Korean Rock with fellow New York City musicians, with two intimate performances at Union Pool in Brooklyn on July 21.

In 2007, she also contributed vocals to a version of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" for the I'm Not There film soundtrack.

At the end of episode 409, "Brothers Cinco", of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! she performed a short song.

She also has a song titled "Strange Love" on the album "Frankenweenie Unleashed!"

In 2009, she contributed backing vocals, screaming animal sounds, and noises to the songs "Gemini Syringes", "I Can Be A Frog", and "Watching the Planets" on The Flaming Lips album Embryonic.

The song "All Is Love", written by Karen O and Nick Zinner and included in this soundtrack, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, a songwriter's award, at the 2010 Grammy Awards.

In 2011, she contributed vocals on the song "Pinky's Dream" on the David Lynch debut album Crazy Clown Time.

Karen O collaborated with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" for the soundtrack to the 2011 film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, for which Reznor and Ross composed the score.

In 2012, she collaborated with experimental rock group Swans on the song "Song for a Warrior" on their album The Seer.

She also lends vocals to the song "GO!"

on Santigold's 2012 album Master of My Make-Believe.

On the collaboration project with N.A.S.A. on The Spirit of Apollo, she appears on the track "Strange Enough", together with Ol' Dirty Bastard and Fatlip.

Karen O's vocal approach has been described as "ethereal", and has been described as "yelping" at times.

She described her approach:

"We still have to grab people by the collar ... We put out a record every three years now; we could easily be forgotten. If you look at a lot of our peers that we came up with, a lot of them have disappeared."

Karen O has also collaborated with James Iha on his second solo LP Look to the Sky in 2012.

Karen O also contributed "The Moon Song" to Jonze's 2013 film Her.

In 2014, Target used a version of the song "A Marshmallow World" sung by Karen O. In 2015 she did a remake of Animotion's Obsession, written by legendary songwriter, Holly Knight for a new STARZ show, Flesh and Bone.

Karen O and Jonze were nominated in 2014 for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Moon Song".

Jonze shot the video for Karen O & Danger Mouse's "Woman" live in one take as the duo performed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

On May 5, 2015, a song by Karen O in tribute to Nellie Bly was used as part of a Google doodle commemorating Bly's 151st birthday.

The same year, Microsoft approached Karen O to pen a theme song for Square Enix's game Rise of the Tomb Raider, which resulted in the song "I Shall Rise".