In 1999 Hanley began a shift in her music career. She wrote and performed songs for the
Kids' WB cartoon series
Generation O! along with the rest of Letters to Cleo and provided the singing voice for
Rachael Leigh Cook's character Josie in the movie
Josie and the Pussycats. In 2002, she released her first solo album,
Cherry Marmalade. That same year saw the release of
Face to Face vs. Dropkick Murphys, a split
EP by
Dropkick Murphys and
Face to Face that featured Hanley on the original version of the Dropkick Murphys' song "The Dirty Glass". The song would be re-recorded a year later for the band's album
Blackout with their merchandise seller Stephanie Dougherty replacing Hanley on vocals. In 2003, Hanley was approached by
Jun Senoue from
Sega to co-write and perform on an original song for the video game
Sonic Heroes. The result was the song "Follow Me." In 2004, Hanley released a follow-up to Cherry Marmalade,
The Babydoll EP. That same year, she and her then-husband Michael Eisenstein had their second child, Henry Aaron, the name given in honor of baseball player
Hank Aaron and their love for baseball. In August 2005, Hanley recorded a cover of
Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" for the soundtrack of the
Reese Witherspoon film
Just Like Heaven. In September 2005, she appeared on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as part of a pre-taped man-on-the-street segment, singing a song about falling in love at
Starbucks. Hanley is popular with fans of the
New England Patriots thanks to the team at one point going after she sang the pre-game National Anthem at
Gillette Stadium. The streak came to an end when the Patriots lost on January 10, 2010, to the
Baltimore Ravens. Hanley is also very involved with the Boston-based charity "Hot Stove, Cool Music," both as performer and spokesperson for the semi-annual event, which has raised over 6 million dollars for The Foundation To Be Named Later She sang the theme song for
My Friends Tigger & Pooh, a half-hour Disney Channel TV show that premiered on Playhouse Disney on May 12, 2007, and "We Are Care Bears" from
Care Bears: Oopsy Does It! and its tv series' theme song
Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot. Hanley and longtime writing partner Michelle Lewis currently compose all-original songs for animated television shows such as the hit Disney series
Doc McStuffins., Cartoon Network/WB's
DC Super Hero Girls, and
Harvey Girls Forever and
Ada Twist, Scientist on Netflix. Hanley won a 2022
Emmy Award for songwriting on
We The People. She and writing partners
Michelle Lewis, Dan Petty, and Charlton Pettus created
Kindergarten: The Musical, which debuted in 2024 on
Disney Junior. Hanley serves as
executive producer. She is co-executive director of
Songwriters of North America, an LA-based non-profit which advocates for fair pay and other rights for songwriters. Due to her work with SONA in getting the
Music Modernization Act passed into law in October 2018, Hanley was elected Vice Chair of the
Mechanical Licensing Collective's Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee in August 2019 On
Thanksgiving Day 2007, Hanley sang a song called "Caring Changes The World" in the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the
Care Bears float. In 2007–08, Hanley toured as a back-up singer with
Miley Cyrus for
Hannah Montana concerts and events. Hanley's latest album,
Weaponize, was released May 27, 2008. Hanley co-wrote "Don't Wanna Be Famous" on the band
The Dollyrots' eponymous album. In 2014, Kay Hanley appeared in the
Parks and Recreation season 6 finale, performing her song "Here & Now" at the Pawnee-Eagleton Unity Concert. The character of
Ben Wyatt, played by
Adam Scott, is seen offstage in his Letters to Cleo t-shirt, blissfully watching the band as Hanley winks at him. Hanley is seen later in the episode entering
Tom Haverford's new restaurant, ''Tom's Bistro''. In 2020, at the height of the
COVID-19 pandemic, she appeared as lead vocalist in a "distanced" music video, a cover of
Donnie Iris's "Ah! Leah!" Later that year, she appeared on
Saving for a Custom Van, a
tribute album for
Adam Schlesinger, with whom she had worked on
Josie and the Pussycats, following his death from COVID-19. She performed the
Fountains of Wayne song "
Radiation Vibe" in his memory. Hanley married audio engineer Clayton Janes in 2021 in
Bentonville, Arkansas. Oh 2023, Hanley and her Letters to Cleo bandmate Tom Polce wrote the songs for “Subspace Rhapsody,” an episode of
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds performed in the style of a broadway musical. ==Discography==