Catherine O'Hara

Catherine Anne O'Hara (March 4, 1954 – January 30, 2026) was a Canadian and American actress, comedian, and screenwriter, whose career spanned over 50 years. O'Hara started in sketch and improvisational comedy in film and television before taking dramatic roles to expand her career. She received various accolades including two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her films have grossed more than US$4.3 billion worldwide. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017.

O'Hara began her career in a starring role on the CBC Television children's television sitcom Coming Up Rosie in 1975, and came to prominence in the sketch comedy series Second City Television (SCTV; 1976–1984), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She gained acclaim acting in films such as After Hours (1985), Heartburn (1986), Beetlejuice (1988), Home Alone (1990), and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). She frequently collaborated with Christopher Guest, acting in his mockumentary films Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). Her voice roles include the films The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Chicken Little (2005), Over the Hedge (2006), Monster House (2006), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), Frankenweenie (2012), Elemental (2023), and The Wild Robot (2024).

Appearing opposite Eugene Levy, a frequent castmate in SCTV and Guest's films, O'Hara gained a career resurgence for her role as Moira Rose in the CBC sitcom Schitt's Creek (2015–2020), earning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. Her portrayal of Temple Grandin's aunt in the HBO film Temple Grandin (2010) earned an Emmy nomination. Other television credits include the HBO drama series Six Feet Under (2003–2005), the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017–2019), the Apple TV+ comedy series The Studio (2025), and the HBO post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us (2025).

Early life

Catherine Anne O'Hara was born on March 4, 1954, in Toronto, and grew up there. Her family is Catholic and of Irish descent. She was the sixth of seven children of Margaret Ann (née Meehan), and Marcus Charles O'Hara, and a sister of musician and actress Mary Margaret O'Hara. She graduated from Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute in 1974, where she was taught by future Mississauga mayor Carolyn Parrish.

Career

1974–1987: Breakthrough with SCTV

O'Hara started her comedy career in 1974 as a cast member of The Second City (SC) in her hometown, Toronto. Her brother Marcus was also a performer with the company. She originally worked as an understudy and in the Sunday night cast of alternates which performed when the main company had the night off. She was an understudy for Gilda Radner until Radner left for Saturday Night Live. She then joined the touring company of Second City, and had her big break replacing an ailing Rosemary Radcliffe in the lead female part when this touring group was in Chicago. By 1976 O'Hara was SC's resident leading female comic, and her sister Robin was employed with the company as her understudy.

In 1976 SC created the sketch comedy show Second City Television (SCTV), for which O'Hara became a regular performer. In the late 1970s, she provided voice-overs for a number of cartoons, work which would continue throughout her career. During a short period in the early 1980s when SCTV was in between network deals, she was hired to replace Ann Risley as Saturday Night Live was being retooled in 1981. However, she quit the show without appearing on air, choosing to go back to SCTV when the show signed on with NBC. She was long rumoured to have left SNL due to conflicts with volatile writer Michael O'Donoghue, but O'Hara denied these claims and said she had left the show due to her dislike for living in New York City.

O'Hara expanded her career on television in the mid-1970s. She appeared in a small sketch role as a maid in a 1975 Wayne and Shuster special on CBC. She appeared in the 1976 television film The Rimshots, the children's television series Coming Up Rosie for a season (1976–77), and television specials, such as Witch's Night Out and Intergalactic Thanksgiving. Her performances on SCTV, which began airing locally in Southern Ontario in the fall of 1976, earned her fame in Canada. The show gradually built up a national and then an international following in syndication. O'Hara left SCTV for a time, missing the 1980–81 season, but returned to the show in time for its pickup by the NBC television network in the US, when it became known as SCTV Network 90. O'Hara's work as a writer on the show earned her an Emmy Award for outstanding writing and three Emmy Award nominations. She left SCTV again prior to its fifth season in 1982, but did return for occasional guest appearances through the show's end in 1984. O'Hara appeared in a number of television series and television films and continued to work in television until her death.

1988–2014: Prominence in film

During the 1990s, she made guest appearances on Tales from the Crypt, Oh Baby, Morton & Hayes, and The Larry Sanders Show. She acted in and directed episodes of Dream On and The Outer Limits, the revival of the 1960s series of the same name. O'Hara guest-starred on top-rated television series including Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm. In May 2008, it was announced that she had signed on to star in the upcoming ABC dramedy Good Behavior. Her role in the 2010 television film Temple Grandin earned her three award nominations: a Primetime Emmy Award, a Satellite Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

O'Hara had a successful career in film. She made her feature debut in the 1980 film Double Negative, which also starred her SCTV co-stars John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Joe Flaherty. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, O'Hara appeared in many supporting roles, including Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985) and Heartburn (1986). She appeared as Delia Deetz in the horror-comedy film Beetlejuice (1988). In 1990, O'Hara had roles in the films Dick Tracy and Betsy's Wedding. She starred as Kate McCallister in the blockbuster comedy film Home Alone (1990) and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Also in 1992, O'Hara appeared in the comedy There Goes the Neighborhood.

O'Hara continued to appear in many films during the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century. In 1994, she appeared in the comedy-drama film The Paper and the Western film Wyatt Earp. She received roles in four of Christopher Guest's mockumentary films, three of which earned her awards and nominations: Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). Her role in 1999's The Life Before This won her a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. She appeared in the tenth series of the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? In 2004, she appeared with Jim Carrey in the black comedy film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and in 2006, she starred with Christina Ricci in the fantasy film Penelope. O'Hara served as a voice artist in a number of animated films, including Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Bartok the Magnificent (1999), Chicken Little (2005), Over the Hedge (2006), Monster House (2006), Brother Bear 2 (2006), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Frankenweenie (2012).

2015–2025: Schitt's Creek and other roles

From 2015 to 2020, O'Hara co-starred as Moira Rose in the CBC sitcom Schitt's Creek, alongside Eugene Levy, with whom she had previously worked on TV, in films, and as a Second City cast member on stage in 1974. Her performance in Schitt's Creek earned her six Canadian Screen Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She swept the five major TV awards for the sixth and final season, winning a TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy, a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series. During this time she also starred in The Addams Family (2019), Extinct (2021), Elemental (2023), and The Wild Robot (2024).