Ariana Grande-Butera is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Florida to a family of New York-Italian origin, she began her career in 2008 in the Broadway musical 13, before playing the role of Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious (2010–13) and in its spinoff Sam & Cat (2013–14). Grande made her first musical appearance on the soundtrack for Victorious and was signed to Republic Records in 2011 after music executive Monte Lipman came across one of her YouTube videos covering songs.