Brandy Rayana Norwood was born on February 11, 1979, in McComb, Mississippi, to Willie Norwood Sr. and Sonja Bates.  She has a younger brother, William Raymond Norwood, a singer and actor who performs under the name Ray J.  After his birth in 1988, Brandy's father found a position as a music director with church in California, and moved his family to Carson, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Brandy began working as a backup singer when she was just 11 and won a recording contract in 1993 with Atlantic Records at the age of 14.With the record deal underway, Brandy also landed a part on the sitcom, Thea, playing the part of Danesha but the show was cancelled after only eight months on the air.
In 1994, Brandy Norwood released her first album titled Brandy, and her singles "Baby", "I Wanna Be Down" and "Brokenhearted" remained on the charts for weeks. The single "Baby" was nominated for Best R&B Single at the 1996 Grammy Awards.

In 1995, Brandy returned to television playing Moesha in the sitcom of the same name. The show became one of the most watched programs on the UPN network. Two years later Brandy took a part in Disney's made-for-TV remake of Cinderella, playing the role of Cinderella. Then in 1998, she returned to music and released her second album, Never Say Never which sold more than five million copies and is best known for the hit "The Boy is Mine," a duet with the R&B singer Monica. The single was an instant hit and remained number one on the Billboard charts for a consecutive seven weeks, winning a Grammy Award for the duo for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1999.

IN 1998 Brandy Norwood got her big screen debut in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, with Jennifer Love Hewitt. The film grossed over $40 million at the box office.The sitcom Moesha stayed on the air until 2001, and after the show ended its six-year run, Brandy turned her focus to her music career. While making of her third album, Full Moon, Brandy became involved with producer Robert Smith. In June 2002, three months after Brandy's third album was released the couple’s daughter, Sy'rai Iman Smith was born. The birth was the subject of a four-part MTV reality series called Special Delivery.While they were together, Robert Smith and Brandy Norwood claimed they were married, but that later proved to be something they made up in order to protect Brandy's wholesome image. After their relationship dissolved, they both admitted that they were never legally married.

In 2003, Brandy began dating NBA player Quentin Richardson. The couple became engaged in 2004 and that same year, Brandy's fourth album, Afrodisiac, was released. Thus far, Afrodisiac has sold over half a million copies.
Brandy broke up with Richardson in 2005 and in the summer of 2006, she served as a judge on NBC‘s amateur talent show America's Got Talent. On December 30, 2006, Brandy was involved in a fatal vehicle accident in Los Angeles when her SUV crashed into another vehicle.  A 38-year-old woman was critically injured in the crash and died the following day. Brandy was not injured nor arrested, but as of December 2007 the case is still open and Brandy Norwood is being sued in a civil suit by the husband of the deceased woman.