Catherine O’Hara

Catherine Anne O'Hara was a Canadian and American comedic performer and actress whose career spanned more than five decades. Born in Toronto, Ontario, on March 4, 1954, she was raised in a Catholic family of Irish background alongside six siblings. She completed her high school education at Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute in 1974. Her professional journey began in theatrical improv and television sketch comedy before expanding into dramatic roles, ultimately achieving global film box-office earnings surpassing 4.3 billion dollars.

In 1974, O'Hara joined the Toronto branch of The Second City comedy troupe, initially serving as an understudy for Gilda Radner. After moving up through the touring cast, she became the venue's top female comedian by 1976. That same year, she joined the cast of the television sketch production Second City Television (SCTV), where her acting and Emmy Award-winning writing gained her wide recognition in Canada and internationally. During this era, she also worked on children's programming such as Coming Up Rosie and lent her voice to animated programs.

O'Hara made her feature film debut in the 1980 movie Double Negative. Over the following decades, she built a notable film career with roles in comedies and dramas including After Hours, Heartburn, and Beetlejuice. She achieved widespread mainstream popularity portraying Kate McCallister in the blockbuster hits Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Later film projects included Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and four mockumentaries directed by Christopher Guest, such as Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.

Throughout her career, O'Hara provided voice performances for numerous animated features, including Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as roles in Monster House, Frankenweenie, Elemental, and The Wild Robot. On television, she guest-starred on programs like Six Feet Under and earned critical acclaim for her performance in the 2010 television film Temple Grandin. From 2015 to 2020, she starred as Moira Rose on the sitcom Schitt's Creek alongside long-time collaborator Eugene Levy, sweeping major television honors including an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

In her final years, O'Hara reprised her role as Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, appeared in the television series The Last of Us, and held a main role in the comedy series The Studio. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017 and served as the honorary mayor of Brentwood, Los Angeles, in 2021. Following her performance in The Studio, she became the first woman to win an individual Actor Award posthumously.

Offscreen, O'Hara met production designer Bo Welch on the set of Beetlejuice, and the couple married in 1992, subsequently raising two sons. She possessed a rare anatomical condition known as dextrocardia with situs inversus, where internal organs are positioned opposite their typical locations. O'Hara died on January 30, 2026, at the age of 71 in Santa Monica, California, from a pulmonary embolism linked to underlying rectal cancer.