Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986, in New York City.[6] Brought up in the family home in Manhattan's Upper West Side,[7] Gaga is of the Italian[8] and more distant French-Canadian descent[9] of her parents Cynthia (née Bissett) and Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur.[10] The elder of two children, Gaga has one sister, Natali, who was born in 1992.[11] Gaga has stressed that – despite her seemingly affluent upbringing – she did not come from a wealthy background, stating that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything—my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."[12]
From the age of 11, Gaga – who was raised Roman Catholic[13] – attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side.[14][15] She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn't fit in, and I felt like a freak."[16][17] Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in at school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate.[18]
A keen musician, left-handed Gaga began playing the piano at the age of 4, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13, and started to perform at open mike nights by the age of 14.[19][20] Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school productions, including Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.[21] She also appeared in a very small role as a mischievous classmate in the television drama series The Sopranos in a 2001 episode titled "The Telltale Moozadell"[22] in addition to unsuccessfully auditioning for parts in New York shows.[7] When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to apply for the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), a musical theatre training conservatory at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[7] After gaining early admission at 17, she eventually lived in an NYU dorm on 11th Street.
Being part of such a prestigious performance course, she sharpened her songwriting skills while composing essays and analytical papers on art, religion, social issues and politics[20][23] including a thesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst; such research prepared her for her future career focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity."[24] Gaga also tried out for and won auditions while at CAP21,[7] including the part of an unsuspecting diner customer where MTV's Boiling Points – a prank reality television show – was being filmed.[25] Notwithstanding these achievements, Gaga felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career.[26] Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll at Tisch if unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she remembers.[21]
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