Birthdate: August 16, 1980

Birthplace: Mitford, PA

Parents: Ed and Heidi Carlton.

Siblings: younger sister, Gwen

Instruments: piano, guitar

Favorite color: blue

School: Montessori at age 2; School of American Ballet at 14; Professional Children's School for high school; Columbia University

She first discovered she loved music when she played "It's A Small World" on the piano at age two.  Her mom became her first music teacher and began exposing her to classical composers.  At eight, she wrote her first piece of music.  She fell in love with ballet when she was 9.  At thirteen, she started traveling to New York to study with some of the great ballet dancers and teachers.  She was on the brink of becoming a professional ballerina when everything fell apart.  At seventeen she started writing songs again, and a year later, signed with Interscope, Geffen, A&M Records.  Her debut album, Be Not Nobody, was released in March of 2002.  A thousand miles was her first single from that album.

Click on each picture for a larger view:

 Performing at               MTV's Rock the             MTV's American             2003 Grammy                  Vanessa Carlton       Vanessa Carlton

 MTV's 2002                  Vote Awards                  Music Awards             Awards with Third                                                           Live

 Shore Thing                                                                                           Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins