Carla Hassett is a Los Angeles based singer, songwriter, producer, recording artist, session singer, and music educator. Born in São Paulo Brazil, Carla was raised in Chicago and schooled in the city’s great recording studios where she learned to be a studio rat and jingle singer. Soon after moving to Los Angeles, Carla began touring with bands like Curiosity Killed the Cat, REO Speedwagon, and artists like Billy Idol, Sergio Mendes, Christopher Cross, Cristan Castro, and actor/musician Gary Sinise. Carla has backed up soul legend Solmon Burke, and performed with Brazilian artists Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, and Faith No More’s lead singer, Mike Patton. She sang on numerous albums for artists like Gino Vannelli, Spanish rock artist Enrique Bunbury, Brazilian country music superstar Paula Fernandes, Michael Bublé, and Mike Patton. At the Latin Grammy Person of the Year Show honoring treasured Brazilian artist Caetano Veloso, Carla sang for Veloso and other artists like Natalie Cole, Nelly Furtado, Seu Jorge, Lila Downs and other Latin music superstars.

Carla has performed on TV shows like The Tonight Show, Dante Night Show, The Grammy Awards, and Pee Wee’s Playhouse. More recently, Carla was featured soloist in the Sonorama project for Pacific Standard Time LA/LA at the Getty, The LA Tribute to Luiz Melodia, the Film Composer Collective concert at the Theatricum Botanicum for film composer Matthew Ferraro, and the rock opera Feast of Friends at the Rio Threatre in Santa Cruz. Carla sang on several feature films, including the Oscar nominated (for best original song) RIO for composers Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and John Powell, and RIO 2 with Janelle Monae and her band. In Brazil, the song “Teu Olhar,” which Carla produced and co-wrote, became the lover’s theme song for the popular telenovela Amor e Ódio.  Back in the states, Carla sang and contracted vocal sessions for numerous Disney recordings in Portuguese and Spanish, and on countless commercial jingles. Carla sang on the pilot for the Amazon original Mozart In the Jungle, and on the Netflix original film, Like Father.

 Inspired by her work with Caetano Veloso, Carla explored tropicália and jazz for her self-produced 2016 album, +Blue (whose title, “More Blue” was inspired by Veloso’s song “A Little More Blue”). On +Blue, Carla explored the meaning of “home” and the complexities of growing up between two countries and cultures: her birthplace, Brazil, and her adopted country, the U.S. NPR featured +Blue and interviewed Carla on Weekend Edition with Linda Wertheimer.  

In 2019, Carla released a vinyl single, Adriana, on the Burlacticus Recording Company label. Adriana, written by the great bossa nova guitarist and composer Roberto Menescal, was chosen by the label especially for Carla and her band for its exquisite groove in 5/4 meter, and intimate vocal style. During the recording session for Adriana, Carla tracked and produced an additional two songs of her own, Three Kings and Sempre Odara, which went on to win the John Lennon Songwriting Contest grand prize in jazz.

Carla graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Music Production from Berklee Online and is currently a professor of commercial music at California State University, Los Angeles. She is on the songwriting team for the children’s web series, Outta The Books, and continues to perform, write, and produce music both in-house and remotely from her studio in Los Angeles.