Katheryn Elizabeth "Katy" Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. After singing in church during her childhood, she pursued a career in gospel music as a teenager. Perry signed with Red Hill Records and released her debut studio album Katy Hudson in 2001, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles the following year to venture into secular music after Red Hill ceased operations. After being dropped by The Island Def Jam Music Group and Columbia Records, Perry signed a recording contract with Capitol Records in April 2007.

Perry rose to fame in 2008 with the release of the singles "I Kissed a Girl" – which had attention-grabbing and somewhat controversial lyrics – and "Hot n Cold" from her second album, a pop rock record titled One of the Boys. Her third album, Teenage Dream (2010), ventured into disco, and contained the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" as well as the number-three single "The One That Got Away". The album became the first by a female artist to produce five number-one Billboard Hot 100 songs, and the second overall after Michael Jackson's album Bad (1987). In March 2012, she reissued the album as Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, which produced the chart-topping singles "Part of Me" and "Wide Awake".

Her fourth album, Prism, was released in 2013, and is influenced by pop and dance. It has spawned the number-one singles "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Her songwriting is mostly done in collaboration with others, especially Dr. Luke and Max Martin, and in songs such as "Firework" and "Roar" she stresses themes of self-empowerment and self-esteem. Perry is known for an idiosyncratic and fun-based sense of personal fashion that incorporates bright colors and food-based themes. Her concert performances feature elaborate stagings and costumings.

Perry has received many awards, including three Guinness World Records, and been included in the Forbes list of "Top-Earning Women In Music" (2011–14). Throughout her career, she has sold 11 million albums and 81 million singles worldwide. Perry has also made celebrity endorsements and released perfumes Purr, Meow!, and Killer Queen. In July 2012, she released an autobiographical documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me, which concentrated on her life as a touring artist and the dissolution of her brief marriage to English actor and comedian Russell Brand in the early 2010s.