Sara Bareilles's Real Name: Sara Beth Bareilles

Quick answer: Sara Bareilles was born Sara Beth Bareilles on December 7, 1979, in Eureka, California, according to the Recording Academy's Grammy.com profile and Biography.com. AllMusic lists Sara Beth Bareilles as her full name, and a Library of Congress record gives the same name, date, and town. Bareilles is her family surname; Beth is her middle name.

Real name and early life

Biography.com says her father, Paul Bareilles, was an insurance adjuster and logger, and her mother is Bonnie. She was the youngest of three girls. She later recalled that childhood was not always easy and that she changed schools at one point because other children were unkind.

She sang in school choirs and played Audrey in a high school production of Little Shop of Horrors. At the University of California, Los Angeles, she majored in communications and, Biography.com says, found her voice in an a cappella group. AllMusic says she learned piano while at UCLA. Grammy.com notes that before music paid the bills, she worked at a petting zoo, as a pizza maker, as a janitor, and as a waitress.

Career highlights

After graduating in 2001, she spent three years playing open-mic nights and clubs. AllMusic says she co-produced her first demo, Careful Confessions, in 2003 and signed with Epic Records in April 2005. Her major-label debut, Little Voice, arrived in July 2007. Its single "Love Song," which Biography.com says grew out of her frustrations with the label, reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Grammy.com says it earned nominations for Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Kaleidoscope Heart (2010) brought "King of Anything" and another Grammy nomination. She became a judge on NBC's The Sing-Off, then released The Blessed Unrest (2013), featuring "Brave"; it received an Album of the Year nomination. She wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Waitress, earning a Tony nomination for Best Original Score, and in 2017 made her Broadway debut in its lead role, AllMusic says.

Grammy.com lists her wins for Best American Roots Performance ("Saint Honesty," 2020) and Best Musical Theater Album for Into the Woods (2022 Broadway Cast Recording). AllMusic says she earned a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for that revival. She also played Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018) and released a memoir, Sounds Like Me, in 2015.

Name notes for searchers

The surname is easy to misspell, and variants such as Bareillis or Barielles refer to the same singer-songwriter. Grammy.com notes her support for causes including Save the Music and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and her 2018 advocacy in Congress for fair pay for music creators.