Catherine O’Hara Profile, Family, Affairs, Net Worth, Biography & More

Catherine O Hara Profile, Family, Affairs, Net Worth, Biography & More

Catherine O Hara is a Canadian-American actress. Catherine O’Hara is known for her comedy work on Second City Television (1976–84) and Schitt’s Creek (2015–2020) and in films such as After Hours (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Home Alone (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Her other film appearances include the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest; Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006).

Catherine O’Hara won the 1982 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for SCTV Network, the Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1999 film The Life Before This, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the 2010 television film Temple Grandin . From 2015 to 2020, she starred as Moira Rose on the CBC sitcom Schitt’s Creek, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, TCA Award and six consecutive Canadian Screen Awards.

O’Hara started her comedy career in 1974 as a cast member of The Second City in her hometown, Toronto. She was an understudy for Gilda Radner until Radner left for Saturday Night Live. Two years later, this theater troupe created the sketch comedy show 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 time in the early 1980s when SCTV was in between network deals, she was hired to replace Ann Risley when Saturday Night Live was being retooled in 1981. However, she quit the show without ever appearing on air, choosing to go back to SCTV when the show signed on with NBC.

In 1983, O’Hara told Rolling Stone, “I’m pretty much a good Catholic girl at heart.” O’Hara puts production designer Bo Welch on the set of Beetlejuice. They married in 1992 and have two sons, Matthew (born 1994) and Luke (born 1997). Her sister is singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O’Hara; Catherine is a singer-songwriter in her own right, having written and performed songs in Christopher Guest’s film A Mighty Wind. She holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

O’Hara was named honorary mayor of Brentwood for 2021. She has situs inversus.