administering - Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American singer-songwriter and comic book writer who has served as lead vocalist and co-founder of the band My Chemical Romance since its formation in 2001. He is also the writer of the Eisner Award-winning comic book The Umbrella Academy. Gerard Way was born in Summit, New Jersey to Donald and Donna Lee Way. He was raised in Belleville, New Jersey and first began singing publicly in the fourth grade, when he played the role of Peter Pan in a school musical production. His maternal grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, was a great creative influence who taught him to sing, paint, and perform from a young age; he has said that "she has taught me everything I know". At the age of 15, Gerard was held at gun point, as he stated in a recent Rolling Stone article: "I got held up with a .357 Magnum, had a gun pointed to my head and [was] put on the floor, execution-style." He went on to say that "no matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith."