Vonda Shepard (born July 7, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, music director, and actress. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as a fictionalized version of herself on the television series '' Ally McBeal'' (1997–2002), for which she recorded five

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

s as well as the series' theme song " Searchin' My Soul", which saw international commercial success. Shepard has otherwise released nine

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s and three

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

s. She received a

Screen Actors Guild Award Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as SAG Awards) are accolades given by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The award was founded in 1995 to recognize outstanding performances in movie an ...

as a cast member of ''Ally McBeal'' in 1999 among two additional nominations, and received a ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' award for selling the most television soundtrack albums in history.

Life and career

Vonda Shepard was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1963. Her family relocated to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

when she was a child, and she played piano from an early age. Her father was Richmond Shepard, a

mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

and improvisational actor. She has three sisters. After performing as a backup singer, Shepard received her own recording contract and made her first chart appearance in 1987 with her duet with Dan Hill, " Can't We Try." Her self-titled debut studio album followed in 1989. It saw the moderate commercial success of the single "Don't Cry Ilene", which peaked at number 17 on the ''

'' Hot Adult Contemporary chart and remained there for 12 weeks. While promoting her third studio album ''It's Good, Eve'' (1996), Shepard performed at the Key Club in

Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

, and at one point she invited Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband David E. Kelley to come watch her perform. Kelley decided during the performance that he wanted Shepard to record the soundtrack for his forthcoming television series ''Ally McBeal'', having been looking for a singer to be the voice and inner thoughts of the character. Her biggest commercial success while starring on the series was the theme song " Searchin' My Soul", an original selection that originally appeared on her second studio album ''The Radical Light'' (1992), jointly written and composed by Shepard and Paul Howard Gordon. Her version of Kay Starr's Christmas classic " (Everybody's Waitin' for) The Man with the Bag", after it was featured on a season 4 episode of ''Ally McBeal'', became a popular holiday song. Shepard went on to record four soundtrack albums and one

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

for ''Ally McBeal''. Additionally, she released nine solo studio albums and three live albums to date. She married music producer

Mitchell Froom Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician and record producer. He was a member of the bands Gamma and Latin Playboys, and is the keyboardist for Crowded House. He has produced albums for several artists, including David LaFl ...

in 2004; they had their first child in 2006. In 2010, she provided vocals for "I Need You," whose music had been composed by James Newton Howard, for the film '' Love & Other Drugs''.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Soundtrack albums

Live albums

Singles

References

External links

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Vonda Shepard
at Richard De La Font Agency {{DEFAULTSORT:Shepard, Vonda 1963 births Living people American contraltos American women singer-songwriters American women pop singers American television actresses Singer-songwriters from California Singers from New York City Reprise Records artists 550 Music artists Singer-songwriters from New York (state) 21st-century American women