Danielle Brisebois was born on June 28, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York. She began acting very early, appearing in her first movie (The Premonition) at the age of five. In 1977 she appeared in an episode of Kojak and began starring in the Broadway play Annie as the youngest of the orphans, Molly. (Jay-Z later sampled a clip of Brisebois from Annie for his song "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)".)
In the late 1970s she joined the cast of All in the Family and later also starred in its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place in early 1980s.
She was nominated for six Young Artist Awards from 1980 to 1984 and won two of them, in 1981 as Best Young Actress in a TV Special for Mom, the Wolfman and Me and in 1982 as Best Young Actress in a Television Series for Archie Bunker's Place. In 1982 she was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, again for Archie Bunker's Place. She also appeared in several episodes of Battle of the Network Stars and Circus of the Stars in the early 1980s and played the daughter of William Devane's character on Knots Landing in the series' fifths season.
In the late 1980s, she had several single-episode appearances in various TV series, including Hotel, Mr. Belvedere, Murder, She Wrote, Tales from the Darkside, Days of Our Lives.
Brisebois began her career as a recording artist in the early nineties, providing backing vocals on Intoxifornication, the 1992 album by rock singer Gregg Alexander. Alexander also co-wrote and produced her first solo album, 1994's Arrive All Over You, and when Alexander formed the New Radicals in the late 1990s, Brisebois also became a member of the band. After Alexander disbanded the band in 1999 to focus on producing and writing music for other artists, Brisebois was set to release a second solo album, Portable Life, again produced and co-written by Alexander, but RCA Records canceled the album.
Since the New Radicals broke up and her second album was shelved she has written and produced numerous songs for various other artists, including Carly Hennessy, Clay Aiken, Kelly Clarkson, and Natasha Bedingfield, most notably Bedingfield's top 10 hit "Unwritten".
A compilation album of Arrive All Over You-era tracks entitled Just Missed the Train was released through the Balzout Inc label on September 26, 2006. Brisebois herself was completely unaware of such a release.
