Gerard Way's Real Name: Gerard Way

Quick answer: The musician is known professionally as Gerard Way. Britannica and Encyclopedia.com independently date his birth to April 9, 1977, in New Jersey, but they disagree on the town, so this page does not treat the birthplace as settled in the summary. A longer middle name sometimes repeated elsewhere is not independently confirmed here by two independent publishers, so this page titles him under the public name.

Real name and early life

Independent publishers identify him under the professional name Gerard Way. Britannica, in its article on My Chemical Romance, dates the birth to April 9, 1977, in Summit, New Jersey. Encyclopedia.com independently gives the same date but places the birth in Belleville, New Jersey, a town it describes as ten miles outside Manhattan, and says he and his younger brother Mikey were drawn to comics, horror films, and music, and that he later enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in New York, hoping to work as a comic-book illustrator. This page records both Summit and Belleville. Encyclopedia.com also says that by 2001 he had graduated from the School of Visual Arts and had been working in a comic-book store before turning more fully to music.

Career highlights

Britannica says he founded My Chemical Romance in 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, with an original lineup that included his brother Mikey Way on bass, drummer Matt Pelissier, and guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero. The same account dates the debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love to 2002, on Eyeball Records, and the major-label album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge to 2004, with the songs "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)," "Helena," and "The Ghost of You." Encyclopedia.com independently dates those same early albums and singles and describes the 2004 record as a concept album. Britannica says The Black Parade (2006), a rock opera produced by Rob Cavallo, was followed by a theatrical tour, and that Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys appeared in 2010, after which the band announced a breakup in 2013, later reunited, and released the single "Foundations of Decay" in 2022. Encyclopedia.com independently records the 2003 signing that preceded Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, naming Warner Bros. Records.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Gerard Way are looking for the same My Chemical Romance singer. This page uses the public professional name.