Katharine McPhee

Katharine Hope McPhee is an American singer and actress born on March 25, 1984, in Los Angeles. She gained national prominence in May 2006 as the runner-up on the fifth season of the television competition show American Idol. Since her music breakthrough, she has released multiple studio albums and established a career in television, film, and theater.

McPhee grew up in Los Angeles, moving to the Sherman Oaks neighborhood at age 12. Her father, Daniel McPhee, worked as a television producer, and her mother, Peisha McPhee, was a vocal coach who recognized and trained her daughter's musical talent. After graduating high school, McPhee attended the Boston Conservatory for three semesters as a musical theatre major. She left college prior to graduation on her manager's advice and returned to Los Angeles to audition for television pilots and theatrical productions, landing a role in a 2005 production of Annie Get Your Gun.

In 2005, McPhee auditioned for American Idol in San Francisco. Her performances throughout the fifth season earned her a spot as a finalist, ultimately finishing as runner-up in May 2006. Following the show, she signed with 19 Recordings Limited and RCA Records. Her debut single, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/My Destiny," was released in June 2006. In January 2007, she released her self-titled debut album, Katharine McPhee, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and featured the gold-certified Billboard Top 30 single "Over It."

McPhee continued her recording career with Verve Forecast Records, releasing her second album, Unbroken, in January 2010. The album debuted at number 27 on the Billboard 200 and featured the single "Had It All." She followed this with a holiday album, Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You, in October 2010. McPhee later released her fourth studio album, Hysteria, in September 2015, and her fifth album, I Fall in Love Too Easily, composed of jazz standards, in November 2017.

Alongside her music career, McPhee established an acting career in feature films, television series, and stage productions. She made her feature film debut in the 2008 comedy The House Bunny and appeared in Shark Night 3D. On television, she starred as Karen Cartwright in the drama series Smash from 2012 to 2013, and portrayed Paige Dineen in the series Scorpion from 2014 to 2018. McPhee made her Broadway debut in 2018 playing the lead role of Jenna in the musical Waitress, a role she subsequently originated in the West End production in 2019 before returning to the Broadway show through early 2020.

Throughout her career, McPhee has participated in commercial endorsements and charitable initiatives. She served as a spokesperson for Sexy Hair Concepts and Neutrogena. In 2006, she founded McPhee Outreach, a charitable foundation that partnered with organizations such as the Lollipop Theater Network to bring music outreach to hospitalized children, and Global Compassion Services to assist in constructing a preschool in Burkina Faso.