- Gerard Way is a famous musician
- He wrote the successful Netflix series The Umbrella Academy
- Learn more about him here
The Umbrella Academy's Gerard Way is an incredible talent from humble beginnings who knew his passions very early on. The brilliant mind of Gerard way birthed countless successful projects like his band My Chemical Romance and his hit graphic novel series and now the Netflix series! This is The Umbrella Academy's Gerard Way!
The Umbrella Academy's Gerard Way
The Umbrella Academy's Gerard Way was born on April 9th, 1977 in New Jersey to a humble family of Italian and Scottish descent. Gerard's grandmother Elena Lee Rush inspired his creative side and encouraged him to sing, paint, and perform which led him to pursue his passions. He sang in his school's musical productions and spoke on Sally Jesse Raphael about comic book controversy and eventually earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999 from the NYC School of Visual Arts.
Gerard went on to perform with a few bands and then form his own group My Chemical Romance with his brother Mikey Way, Ray Toro, and Frank Lero in 2002. They released their first album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, and grew great attention on MySpace.
The alt-rock and punk band went on to take the world by storm, growing in popularity and releasing record after record like The Black Parade and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. They broke up in 2013 much to the heartbreak of countless fans, but eventually reunited in 2019! It turns out the group had been working together on secret projects since 2017 and planned a major tour for 2019 and 2020. Gerard had also released his own personal solo albums and singles during the band break.
Gerard Way and The Umbrella Academy
Gerard had been writing graphic novels since 1993 and began his work creating The Umbrella Academy in 2007. He even did the original drawings for it until professional cartoonist Gabriel Bá redrew the art for it. His first series The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite was released by Dark Horse Comics on May 5th, 2007 and it won the coveted Eisner Award for Best Limited Series in 2008! Then in November Gerard and Dark Horse Comics released the sequel, The Umbrella Academy: Dallas, and did not release the 3rd until 2018 and 2019! Fans were relieved after their long wait for the mind-bending The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion.
Now he is an executive producer for the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy starring Elliott Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Mary J. Blige, and Cameron Britton. The series became an instant success! It is a wildly fun, dark, and captivating story. During a cosmic battle 43 women suddenly gave birth to children with superpowers when none of them were pregnant earlier in the day and strange billionaire "Sir Reginald Hargreeves" adopted 7 of the children. They were raised to fight crime using their individual unique abilities and have to band together when their adoptive father suspiciously dies.
Also Interesting:
The Original Graphic Novel
Gerard has had a long and difficult road, struggling with alcoholism and prescription drug addiction, and gender identity issues. He has been sober since 2007 and is a great fighter for the LGBTQ+ community, even featuring some of his comic book superheroes as LGBTQ+.
He married Mindless Self Indulgence bassist Lindsey "Lyn-Z" in 2007 and the two had a beautiful daughter Bandit Lee Way in 2009! Gerard is proud of his work and family and fans are dying to see what he comes up with next!
Interesting Gerard Way Facts
- Gerard was once held at gunpoint when he was only 15! He told Rolling Stone the attack led him to have an interesting mindset of " no matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith [in it]."
- He released many comic collaborations and even contributed to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!
- Gerard was in NYC during the September 11th attacks while working for Cartoon Network. He wrote the lyrics for the first My Chemical Romance song "Skylines and Turnstiles" to process the emotional effects the attacks had on him.
- He is the cousin of famous stand-up comic and podcaster Joe Rogan! Both have confirmed this although the two have yet to meet in person.
- Gerard was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on The Aquabats! Super Show!
We love The Umbrella Academy's Gerard Way!
