A LIFE IN MUSIC
Billie Eilish
b. 2001 · Musician
Early Life
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was born on December 18, 2001, in Los Angeles, California, to Maggie Baird, an actress and teacher, and Patrick O’Connell, an actor. Both of her parents were musicians, and Eilish and her older brother, Finneas O’Connell, grew up immersed in music, homeschooled in a household that encouraged creative pursuits over conventional schooling.
Eilish began writing and recording music with Finneas in 2015, at just 13 years old, working out of his bedroom studio. Their breakthrough came almost immediately with “Ocean Eyes,” a song Finneas wrote and produced that Eilish originally recorded for her dance teacher — it built momentum on SoundCloud before crossing over to radio, leading her to sign with Darkroom and Interscope Records in August 2016.
Rise to Fame
Eilish’s debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, arrived in 2019 and debuted at number one on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. Its lead single, “Bad Guy,” became the first number-one hit by an artist born in the 21st century and went on to earn Diamond certification, establishing Eilish’s whispery vocal style and genre-blurring, bass-heavy production as a defining new sound in pop music.
At the 2020 Grammy Awards, at just 18 years old, Eilish became the youngest artist ever to win all four of the ceremony’s general field categories in a single night — Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year — an unprecedented sweep that instantly cemented her as one of the most significant new artists of her generation.
Career Highlights
Eilish followed her debut with Happier Than Ever in 2021, another number-one album that produced hits including “Therefore I Am” and “Your Power,” and continued to build a body of work marked by emotional candor and musical experimentation. In 2022, she won her first Academy Award for Best Original Song for “No Time to Die,” the theme to the James Bond film of the same name.
Her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, released in 2024 to widespread critical acclaim, and its single “Birds of a Feather” became the most-streamed solo song by a female artist on Spotify. That same period, her song “What Was I Made For?,” written for the 2023 Barbie film, won both the 2024 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy for Song of the Year — making her the youngest person in history to win two Oscars. Altogether, Eilish now holds ten Grammy Awards.
Her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour ran across multiple continents through November 2025, and a concert film of the tour, co-directed and produced with James Cameron, was released theatrically in May 2026. She was also reported in March 2026 to be in advanced talks for her film acting debut, playing Esther Greenwood in a Sarah Polley-directed adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.
Personal Life
Eilish has spoken openly about living with Tourette syndrome, which she was diagnosed with at age 11, as well as synesthesia, and about her past struggles with depression. She has described being attracted to both men and women, and has dated Brandon Adams, Matthew Tyler Vorce, and musician Jesse Rutherford; since 2025 she has been in a relationship with actor Nat Wolff.
Raised vegetarian, Eilish is now vegan and has become an outspoken environmental and social activist, focusing on climate change awareness, women’s reproductive rights, and gender equality. She has also spoken candidly about body image and the judgment she faced over her choice to wear oversized clothing early in her career.
Net Worth & Legacy
Billie Eilish’s net worth is estimated at between $50 and $70 million, built from album and streaming royalties, touring income, brand partnerships, and her film and soundtrack work.
Still in her early twenties, Eilish has already reshaped what mainstream pop stardom can look like — combining critical acclaim with commercial dominance, ten Grammy Awards, two Academy Awards, and a body of work defined as much by vulnerability and experimentation as by chart success. Named Apple Music’s Artist of the Year in both 2019 and 2024, she remains one of the most influential and closely watched artists of her generation.