Courtney Michelle Love (born Courtney Michelle Harrison, July 9, 1964) is an American alternative rock singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and visual artist. Prolific in the punk and grunge scenes of the 1990s as the frontwoman of Hole, Love became a fixture in alternative music, drawing public attention for her uninhibited stage presence and confrontational lyrics, as well as her highly publicized personal life following her marriage to Kurt Cobain.
The daughter of psychotherapist Linda Carroll and publisher Hank Harrison, Love mainly grew up in Portland, Oregon, where she was in a series of short-lived bands before landing roles in films by British cult director Alex Cox. After forming Hole in 1989, Love received substantial attention from underground rock press for the group's debut album, produced by Kim Gordon, while their second release, Live Through This (1994), lent her a more high-profile renown, receiving critical accolades and going multi-platinum. In 1995, she returned to acting, earning a Golden Globe Nomination for her performance in Milos Foman's The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Shortly after, Hole's third release, Celebrity Skin (1998), earned Love recognition as a mainstream musician, and was nominated for multiple Grammy Awards.
Love continued to work as an actress, appearing in big-budget pictures such as Man on the Moon (1999) and Trapped (2002), and released her first solo album, America's Sweetheart, in 2004. In 2010, she released Nobody's Daughter under the Hole moniker with a reformed band. Love debuted a new solo single in early 2014, and also saw a return to acting after being cast in the FX series Sons of Anarchy, the Fox series Empire, and the ABC series Revenge. On December 1, 2014, it was announced that Love would be touring with Lana Del Rey as an opening act for Del Rey's Endless Summer Tour in 2015.
In addition to music and film, Love has had ventures in modeling and visual art, and has advocated for victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence, AIDS research, and LGBT rights. She has one daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, from her marriage to Kurt Cobain.