Katy Perry performs at the Festival Di Sanremo in Italy on February 17, 2009

Katy Perry (born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson; October 25, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents, Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her first year of high school, she began to pursue a career in music. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001, which was unsuccessful. She later recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–05, neither of which were released.

After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single "Ur So Gay" that November, which garnered public attention but failed to chart. She rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first mainstream studio album One of the Boys followed later that year and subsequently became the thirty-third-best selling album worldwide of 2008. It was accredited platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America, while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single "Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Her second studio album Teenage Dream was released in August 2010 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album included the Billboard chart-toppers "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", and "E.T." and most recently the Hot Digital Songs topper "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". The album produced four Hot 100 toppers, making the Teenage Dream album one of only nine albums to ever produce four or more Hot 100 number ones. With "E.T." at number one on the chart of May 12, 2011, Perry became the first artist in history to spend a whole year, 52 consecutive weeks, in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Perry was credited as a guest judge on the seventh series of British television show The X Factor, has released a fragrance called "Purr", and appears in the 2011 film The Smurfs. Perry had a long relationship with Travie McCoy; she married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010.