Carrie Brownstein - Class of 1992

Carrie Brownstein (’92), lead singer of rock trio Sleater-Kinney, was raised in Redmond and attended Overlake for her senior year. In 2024, Sleater-Kinney released their 11th studio album, Little Rope, and has toured throughout the year making stops in the PNW including Tacoma.   

Carrie is a triple threat: a musician, a writer, and an actor/producer. In 2010, Carrie launched the TV show Portlandia and has been working on a music blog since 2006 called Monitor Mix and is a frequent guest on NPR’s All Things Considered. In 2015, Carrie released her memoir titled Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl where she candidly details struggles from her childhood and the new family she created within the music community.  

In an interview with NPR, Carrie reflects on her life as a rockstar saying that performing is “an allowance of chaos. But it’s also a moment where you feel able to steer that and to harness it and to move it through a room in a way that carries other people along with it and yourself. And it feels like a magic trick. Like you’re holding some orb in your hand and it’s all the things you fear and love and you’re like, ‘For this hour, I can make this ball of light spin.’”