Best Known As: Music Performer

Gist:  Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Grammy-nominated, Canadian-American singer-songwriter. He has recorded five albums of original music, several EPs, and numerous tracks included on compilations and film soundtracks. He is the son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, brother of Martha Wainwright, and half-brother of Lucy Wainwright Roche.

Life Facts:  Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III (a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director-General of New Netherland). His parents divorced when he was three years old, and he lived with his mother in Montreal, Canada for most of his youth. Wainwright is both a U.S and Canadian citizen. He attended high school at the Millbrook School in upstate New York (which would later inspire his song "Millbrook"), and later briefly studied piano at Concordia and McGill Universities in Montréal. He began playing the piano at age six, and started touring at thirteen with "The McGarrigle Sisters and Family", a folk group featuring Rufus, his sister Martha, his mother Kate, and aunt Anna. His song "I'm a-Runnin'", which he performed in the film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller at the age of fourteen, earned him a nomination for a 1989 Genie Award for Best Original Song. He was also nominated for a 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year.

Wainwright came out as gay while still a teenager.{{cite web|title=The Wainwright Stuff|first=Randy|last=Shulman|publisher=Metro Weekly|date=2009-03-11|accessdate=2008-03-18|url= In 1999, he told Rolling Stone that his father recognized his homosexuality early on. "We'd drive around in the car, he'd play 'Heart of Glass' and I'd sort of mouth the words, pretend to be Blondie. Just a sign of many other things to come as well."{{cite web|title=Rants & Raves - Brief Article|publisher=The Advocate| date=1999-12-07|accessdate=2006-10-20|url= Wainwright later said in another interview that his "mother and father could not even handle me being gay. We never talked about it really."{{cite web|title=Wainwright Feared Being HIV Positive After Rape|publisher=Contactmusic|date=2005-02-22|accessdate=2006-10-20|url=

Wainwright became interested in opera during his adolescent years, and the genre strongly influences his music. (For instance, the song "Barcelona" features lyrics from the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Macbeth.) During this time, he also became deeply interested in Édith Piaf, Al Jolson, and Judy Garland.

At the age of 14, Wainwright was sexually assaulted in London's Hyde Park after picking up a man at a bar. He remained celibate for seven years after the incident, which he claims postponed his becoming promiscuous. In an interview several years later, he described the event: "I said I wanted to go to the park and see where this big concert was going on. I thought it was going to be a romantic walk in the park, but he raped me and robbed me afterwards and tried to strangle me".{{cite web|title=Rufus Wainwrights Rape Tragedy|publisher=FemaleFirst.co.uk|date=2005-03-01|accessdate=2006-10-20|url= Wainwright states that he survived only by pretending to be an epileptic and faking a seizure.{{cite web|first=Richard|last=Goldstein|title=A Torch Song Named Desire|publisher=The Village Voice|date=1999-08-25|accessdate=2006-10-20|url=

Wainwright's album Want Two, from which four songs were released as the EP Waiting for a Want, was released by DreamWorks/Geffen on November 16, 2004. It is a companion/sequel to the 2003 release, Want One. Afterward, a live iTunes Sessions EP entitled Alright, Already: Live in Montréal was released on March 15, 2005. A DVD entitled All I Want, featuring a biographical documentary, music videos, and live performances, was released internationally in 2005. That same year, Wainwright made two major contributions as a solo vocalist to a pair of records: the Mercury Prize-winning Antony and the Johnsons' I am a Bird Now and Burt Bacharach's At This Time.

Want One and Want Two were repackaged as Want for a November 2005 release to coincide with the beginning of a British tour. This version of Want One contains two extra songs: "Es Muß Sein" and "Velvet Curtain Rag". The Want package in the UK has two bonus tracks: "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" (a Leonard Cohen cover) and "In With the Ladies", which replace "Coeur de Parisienne ? Reprise d'Arletty" and "Quand Vous Mourez de Nos Amours" from 2004's augmented edition.

In addition to his baritone singing voice, he plays both piano and the guitar, often switching between the two instruments when performing live. While some songs feature just Wainwright and his piano, his later work is often accompanied by rock instrumentation or a symphony orchestra, displaying complex layering and harmonies with an operatic feel. Wainwright is an avid fan of opera and Franz Schubert's Lieder. Some of Wainwright's songs have been described as "popera" (pop opera) or "baroque pop". Many of his compositions are densely packed amalgams of strings, horns, operatic choruses, ragtime rhythms, and his own distinctively warm vocal timbre.{{cite web|first=David|last=Sason|title=Busting at the Seams|publisher=metroactive.com|date=2007-07-25|accessdate=2008-01-29 |url=

He often performs with his sister, Martha Wainwright, on backup vocals. Despite a growing cult following and critical acclaim, Wainwright has experienced somewhat limited commercial success in the United States, although the release of Release the Stars saw increased media attention there, as did the associated 2007 U.S. tour.{{cite web|title=The Superfabulous World of Rufus Wainwright|publisher=The New York Times|date=2007-06-04|accessdate=2007-06-06 |url=