Audrey Hobert

While Audrey Hobert grew up in a show business family, it was a collaboration with another well-connected rising singer that helped her gain attention for her singer/songwriter skills. With childhood friend Gracie Abrams, Hobert helped pen several songs on Abrams' 2024 breakthrough The Secret of Us, striking gold with the worldwide hit “That’s So True.” That collaboration drew attention to her own quirky confessional pop, featured on her 2025 debut Who’s the Clown? and its viral single “Sue Me.”

Hobert, a New York City native born in 1999, had a front-row seat to the creative arts: her father Tim is a television veteran with writing and production credits on sitcoms like Spin City, Scrubs, Community, and others. (Her brother, like her, is also a musician, performing under the name Michael Todd.) Audrey tried her hand at the family business after graduating from New York University, working as a staff writer for Nickelodeon sitcom The Really Loud House. Ultimately, though, she was most passionate about music, and had the perfect outlet to work on it: her childhood friend and roommate, Gracie Abrams (also the daughter of a TV and film veteran, writer/director J.J. Abrams), started working with her on a batch of songs for Abrams' sophomore album The Secret of Us, released off the back of several dates opening for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.

Some of their collaborations, including “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” “Risk,” and “Blowing Smoke,” were considered highlights of the album -- Hobert even directed the videos for “I Love You” and “Risk” -- but when the album was reissued with additional tracks including their collaboration “That’s So True,” Abrams finally scored her first Top Ten hit: it peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and was streamed more than a billion times. The windfall netted Hobert her own deal with RCA, which released her debut album Who’s the Clown? in the summer of 2025. Her specific, confessional style on tracks like “Sue Me,” “Phoebe” and “Bowling Alley” indicated a promising future away from television writers’ rooms. ~ Mike Duquette