Adrian Besley - Billie Eilish, The Unofficial Biography: From E-Girl to Icon

Billie Eilishs first song was about falling into a black hole.

S he was just four when she wrote it, and although she was astonishingly young when she became a star, at that age even she was still a work in progress. However, the fact that she wrote it, and continued to write songs through her childhood (on James Cordens Carpool Karaoke she shared What a Wonderful Life, a song she wrote with a friend when she was seven), gives some insight into the creativity and desire to perform she had as a child.

Billie was born on December 18, 2001, in Highland Park, a neighborhood a few miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. In the 1990s it had appealed to people living on a budget, like Billies parents, who were willing to brave an area with a high crime rate; but twenty-first-century gentrification changed the vibe. The Highland Park that Billie grew up in still had an edge, but was increasingly full of renovated houses and new bars, coffee shops, music venues, and restaurants. By 2019 Time Out magazine was featuring it as one of the top-ten coolest neighborhoods on the planet!

Here Billie Eilish Pirate Baird OConnell entered the world. Eilish was originally going to be her first name (her parents had liked it since hearing it on a documentary about Irish conjoined twins), but when her maternal grandfather, Bill, died shortly before she was born, she was named Billie in his memory. Meanwhile, the fabulous Pirate moniker was insisted upon by her then four-year-old brother, Finneas. Baird came from her mother, Maggie Baird, and her father, Patrick OConnell, provided the last name.

Maggie and Patrick were actors. They had met back in 1984 when they were both working on a play in Alaska, moved to LA in 1991 in order to find TV and movie opportunities, and were married in 1995. They were clearly talentedboth had performed on Broadway in New Yorkbut show business is a tough world. Although Maggie appeared on Friends and Curb Your Enthusiasm and joined the comedy troupe the Groundlings (where she appeared alongside Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, and Melissa McCarthy), and Patrick had parts in The West Wing and Iron Man , these roles were minor and short-lived.

It is often assumed that growing up in LA with actor parents, Billie had a privileged and affluent upbringing. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Long periods of unemployment are a regular occurrence for so many actors, and Maggie had to fall back on teaching jobs, while Patrick earned money through his carpentry skills or as a home repairer. They even renovated a house across the street from their own to sell and make a little money.