Brandy

Brandy is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She portrays Naomi aka Xplicit Lyrics on ABC's Queens.

Biography
Brandy was born on February 11, 1979, in McComb, Mississippi, to gospel musician and choir director Willie Norwood and his wife, H&R Block district manager Sonja Norwood (née Bates). Brandy is Ray J's older sister, as well as the cousin of rapper Snoop Dogg and WWE wrestler Sasha Banks. Brandy was raised in a Christian family and began singing as a member of the local church choir via her father's employment, performing her first gospel solo at the age of two. Brandy attended the Hollywood High Performing Arts Center after her parents moved to Carson, California, in 1983.

Brandy's passion in music and performance grew after she became a fan of singer Whitney Houston at the age of seven, but she had to persuade instructors to send her on auditions at school since she had little support from the faculty. Brandy began competing in talent contests at the age of eleven and performed at a number of public events as part of a young singing ensemble.

In 1990, she joined with Teaspoon Productions, run by Chris Stokes and Earl Harris, who hired her as a backup vocalist for their R&B boy band Immature and arranged for a demo tape to be made. After auditioning for Darryl Williams, the company's head of A&R, in 1993, Brandy's parents negotiated a recording deal with the Atlantic Recording Corporation, despite continued talks with East West Records.

Brandy made her television debut in 1996 as the lead character in Ralph Farquhar's UPN comedy Moesha, which ran for six seasons and generated plenty of additional roles. In 1998, she returned to music with "The Boy Is Mine," a massively popular duet with fellow R&B contemporary Monica that went on to become one of the best-selling female duets of all time. Brandy won her first Grammy Award for her second album, Never Say Never, which contained two number one hits.