Marissa Paternoster


Marissa Paternoster is an artist, singer and guitarist active in New Jersey's New Brunswick music scene. She is the lead singer and guitarist in the bands Screaming Females and Noun.

Biography

Paternoster's mother and father met while both teachers for the Elizabeth Public Schools. Her mother, Leslie Okun, was an art teacher who now resides in Florida. Her father, Angelo Paternoster, taught her how to play guitar. Paternoster grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey and attended Roselle Catholic High School and later Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she became interested in music and formed Screaming Females. An only child and an introvert, she grew up with a passion for comics, drawing, and, before long, guitar. She taught herself how to play guitar as a teen.

Recording career

influenced her to start a band with bassist Mike Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty in 2005. In a 2012 list she was named the 77th greatest guitarist of all time by Spin magazine.

Personal life

She is openly lesbian. Her go-to karaoke song is Meat Loaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.