Born in Edinburgh in 1966, Shirely Manson was brought up in the Stockbridge area of the Capital and was educated at Broughton High, where she performed in school plays and musicals.
Originally she wanted to be an actress, but failed to get into the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and worked in a number of temporary jobs, before working as a shop assistant for Miss Selfridge.
Her musical career began in Scottish band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, playing keyboard, providing backing vocals and developing an arresting screen presence that led to her record label encouraging her to front her own group called Angelfish.
A successful audition for Garbage, who saw an Angelfish music video on MTV, led to her joining the band who released their critically acclaimed and commercially successful eponymous debut album. Seven studio albums later Garbage have toured the world, sold over 17 million records and been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards.
Manson has also written and recorded solo material, as well as appearing as a Terminator called Catherine Weaver in the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Here are 13 interesting and amusing things she’s said in interviews.
9. Shirley Manson on...feeling like an outsider
"I think a lot of people in their lives feel like they don't fit in, even if it looks like they do. People feel like outsiders even if others think we, the lives we live, have everything. If they are popular or they have everything they are supposed to have. Even then, people still don't feel quite included." Photo: Michael Loccisano
10. Shirley Manson on...equality
"Until we command the exact same salary as every male counterpart, I feel a political desire to stand by other women. If we don't stand together, that equality will never be fully realized, and that bothers me." Photo: Jesse Grant
11. Shirley Manson on...fame
"A lot of people these days are not music lovers - they just want to be famous which is a very different thing to what I grew up believing in." Photo: Michael Caulfield
12. Shirley Manson on...the music industry
"And then there's all these other creeps that surround your band and suck off you like leeches and try to manipulate you and your business. You have to watch like a hawk. I'm always ready to fight. I see it very much as a battle." Photo: Neilson Barnard