Katherine Shindle

Katherine Renee Shindle is an American actress, singer, dancer, and AIDS activist. She achieved national recognition after being crowned Miss Illinois in 1997 and subsequently Miss America 1998. In addition to her creative and advocacy work, she served as the President of the Actors' Equity Association from 2015 to 2024 and works as a licensed real estate agent.

Shindle was born in Toledo, Ohio, on January 31, 1977. She grew up in Brigantine and Moorestown, New Jersey, attending high school at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School. She went on to attend Northwestern University, where she completed a double major in sociology and theater alongside a minor in musical theater.

Beginning her professional acting career in New York in 1999, Shindle joined the Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde as an understudy for the role of Lucy and several other characters. She later performed as Lucy in a September 2004 concert version at the Mohegan Sun Casino's Cabaret Theatre in Uncasville, Connecticut, subsequently joining a U.S. tour in September 2005 and recording the role on the Jekyll & Hyde: Resurrection album.

Shindle was cast by co-directors Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall to play Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret. She performed the role on a national tour from 2000 to 2001 and on Broadway during June and July 2001. She later reprised the role of Sally Bowles at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter, Florida, beginning in January 2012.

Her prominent stage roles also include originating the character of Vivienne Kensington in the Broadway musical Legally Blonde from 2007 to 2008. In 2011, she portrayed the Mad Hatter in the Broadway production of Wonderland.

Throughout her career, Shindle has earned professional recognition for her stage performances, including a nomination for a 2013 Carbonell Award for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in Florida. In 2014, her memoir, Being Miss America: Behind the Rhinestone Curtain, was published by the University of Texas Press.

In 2015, Shindle was elected President of the Actors' Equity Association after defeating incumbent Nick Wyman. She held the leadership position for nine years until 2024, when she chose not to run for another term.