Carrie Brownstein

Carrie Rachel Brownstein, born on September 27, 1974 in Seattle, Washington, grew up in Redmond as the daughter of a housewife‑teacher mother and a corporate‑lawyer father. After her parents divorced when she was fourteen, she was primarily raised by her father alongside her younger sister Stacey, in a household that celebrated its Jewish heritage. She attended Lake Washington High School before finishing her senior year at The Overlake School, and began learning guitar at age fifteen under the informal tutelage of neighbor Jeremy Enigk, a period she later described as the moment she “saved up her own money” to buy a guitar and never looked back. Brownstein pursued higher education at Western Washington University and later transferred to The Evergreen State College, graduating in 1997 with an emphasis on sociolinguistics, a field that would later inform her incisive lyrical style.

Emerging from the vibrant Olympia music scene, Brownstein co‑founded the riot‑grrrl band Excuse 17, which quickly became a cornerstone of third‑wave feminist punk. Her partnership with Corin Tucker birthed Sleater‑Kinney, a trio that released a seminal self‑titled debut in 1994 and went on to produce seven more albums before a hiatus in 2006, later reuniting to release No Cities to Love in 2015 and touring through 2023. During Sleater‑Kinney’s break, she formed Wild Flag and collaborated with artists like Mary Timony and The Spells, demonstrating her versatility across punk, indie, and experimental rock. Beyond music, Brownstein co‑created the iconic sketch series Portlandia with Fred Armisen, earning Emmy and Peabody honors, and she appeared in TV hits such as Transparent and The Nowhere Inn. A prolific writer, she contributed to The Believer, Slate, and NPR’s “Monitor Mix” blog, and authored the memoir Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl (2015). Openly bisexual and later identifying as queer, she has been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ visibility, while personally navigating loss after the tragic death of her mother and stepfather in 2022, an event that deeply influenced her artistic output.