“I have never been able to do anything but tell the truth. Since I was young, it’s been with me to the core. And as I’ve grown, it’s only magnified the more I get to know myself...”
- Carrie Manolakos
Carrie has dedicated her life to understanding the outer voice as much as the inner voice and frequency as it relates to the human spirit, not just externally in how it’s heard, but internally in how it feels. ‘It certainly takes a deep understanding to tell the truth even before you make a sound. I am a student of life in every sense of the word, there is nothing more curious to me than where that truth begins, how to know it and how to share it.”
Carrie’s debut short film, ‘Metanoia’ was shot in fall of 2021, and released in February of 2022 after the entertainment industry had been closed for 18 months. She got hit in the gut, a feeling she knows well, and chose to listen and move forward lighting her own path based solely on intuition and trust. She had heard a voice say to her ‘sing and the rest will follow.’ So she showed up in a field, with a sound system she set up herself so she could have a space to simply be honest.
Metanoia is a Greek word with no English equivalent. It is defined as ‘the journey of changing one’s mind, heart or self’ with a second definition : ‘to turn from the darkness and face the light.’
Carrie’s lifetime commitment to the truth in her artistry means she feels her way through it, always taking her audience by the hand as she pushes forward, bringing us through what she feels, and eventually leading us to the other side, transformed. It is that experiential grit, and that commitment to the heart that has made her interpretations of others’ work, her original music and her words hit home no matter where she is.
Originally from Syracuse, New York, she graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, spending most of her life and career in New York City, and now happily resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Carrie is 2nd generation Greek and 12th generation American, with several family members settling in America directly from the Mayflower. She is equally proud of the ancient warrior philosophical half as she is to have a direct line to those who were here when the country began and fought for its independence. ‘It’s a pretty powerful mix of lineage. I’m not at all surprised that I turned out this way,’ she says with a laugh.
Carrie performed for her last concert before her industry shut down in February of 2020, making her Carnegie Hall debut to a sold out concert hall. She received a standing ovation mid act for her performance, singing the songs of her heroes as well as her original song ‘The Nothing’ orchestrated and conducted by Steven Reineke and The New York Pops and says it was ‘the greatest night of her life.’
She began her New York professional career on Broadway, as the lead role of Sophie in MAMMA MIA!, Elphaba in the 2nd National Tour of WICKED, and she also starred as Natalie in the multi-media stage premiere of LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE at the Wallis in Los Angeles.
Carrie can be heard on the film THE GREATEST SHOWMAN and has been a guest artist with Hugh Jackman while also performing at the 2018 OSCARS singing ‘This is Me.’ She has guest starred with Phish at Madison Square Garden and has been a guest for symphony orchestras across the globe. Other major films include INCREDIBLES 2, CROODS : A NEW AGE, FOSSE / VERDON, DEAR EVAN HANSEN and more.
The spring of 2019 welcomed Manolakos’ solo record The 44th Chord, a magnetic tour-de-force of organic emo pop that highlights not only her ability to interpret other work, her vocal prowess and her equally poignant pen. She was featured on New York’s biggest radio station, Z100 along with Madonna, Ariana Grande, Celine Dion and Katy Perry. Her previous record, ‘Echo’ hit #44 on the iTunes pop charts and with it she became internationally recognized for her haunting interpretation of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ now at over 4 million views.
Her viral performance of the song was praised by Entertainment Weekly proclaiming her live rendition among the “Top 12 Best Radiohead Covers of All Time” with addition writeups in the The New York Times, The New Yorker, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, MTV, and Gawker and was chosen as Elle Magazine’s ‘30 Under 30: Essential Names to Know’ and voted #1 by readers. In addition, she was listed on MSN’s ‘15 Covers that Transcend the Original Hits’ and voted #2 just after Johnny Cash and in company with Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse and Jimmy Hendrix to name a few. And all this, as a completely independent artist.
Carrie is founder and CEO of Carrie U, an online mentorship program originally created for singers tapping into a deeper relationship with their sound. However, it has shifted as she shifted and grown as she’s grown, and now trains people in entertainment in developing an unwavering relationship with their intuition, a learned practice and understanding in courage, and tools to stand and speak that inner knowing no matter the circumstances.
The driving force behind all that she does is an enduring commitment to people, to the human spirit and to the emotional resonance over time that manifests through our relationship to others.
In times of struggle and disconnect, the common and innate human response is to go inwards and recoil. Carrie’s voice and vision challenge that notion, demanding that human connection and shared experiences are the way we can see ourselves through and continue to live the lives we call our own.
Charting her own path, in community over industry, in love over fear and in acceptance over division, she asks her audience to join her on this liberating and unflinching exploration of the one thing that connects us all : the human heart.