Brittany Howard (born October 2, 1988) is an American musician, best known as lead vocalist and guitarist of American rock bands Alabama Shakes and Thunderbitch. Howard was born in Athens, Alabama to a white mother and an African American father. The family house was in a junk yard, and once burned down due to a lightning strike. She learned to write poetry and play the piano from her older sister Jaime, who died from retinoblastoma in 1998; Howard got the same affliction but survived with partial blindness in one eye. She began playing the guitar at age 13, and later attended East Limestone High School, where she met future Alabama Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell.

She worked for the United States Postal Service until becoming a full-time musician as lead singer of Alabama Shakes.