Singer, “X Factor UK” star and Brian Moote’s new wife Katie Waissel is taking on her latest role—Atlantan.

Growing up in North London, Katie Waissel promised her beloved grandfather she’d get his name in lights via her music career, and she’s been working to make it happen ever since.

By her late teens, Waissel, who took up piano at age five, was performing steadily in England, and in 2009 she earned the starring role in a YouTube series produced by The Coca-Cola Company called “Green Eyed World,” which followed the emerging musician—performing as Katie Vogel, the surname borrowed from her late grandfather—on a professional odyssey from Europe to L.A. and points in between. In 2010, while living in West Hollywood, Waissel headed back to England to audition for the U.K. version of “The X Factor.” She made the initial cut and landed a seventh-place finish, in the process becoming one of the show’s most buzzed-about contestants. “I gave it my everything,” she says. “It was the most insane journey of my life.”

In 2014 Waissel met Brian Moote in L.A. through a mutual friend, and they married the following year. A move to Atlanta soon followed, when Moote began his new gig at “The Bert Show.” Of the Moote’s gig and cross-country move, Waissel says, “I was like, ‘Come on, let’s go! I am so proud of him.”

Now 30, Waissel has made a few appearances on the hit Q100 show herself and, though they haven’t been in an official capacity, the singer says she’d love to do more. If Waissel’s track record is any indicator of her star power—and her staying power—it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing her name in lights all around her new hometown.

STORY: Jim Farmer