Kristin Chenoweth

Kristin Dawn Chenoweth (born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth; July 24, 1968) is an American actress and singer, with credits in musical theatre, film, and television.

She earned a bachelor's degree in musical theatre in 1990 and a master's degree in opera performance in 1992, studying under voice instructor and mentor, Florence Birdwell.

While at OCU, Chenoweth competed in beauty pageants, winning the title of Miss OCU and was the second runner-up in the Miss Oklahoma pageant in 1991.

In 1992, Chenoweth participated in a studio recording of The Most Happy Fella.

While she was in college and working towards her master's degree, Chenoweth performed at the Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City, among other regional theatres, in roles like June in Gypsy, Liesl in The Sound of Music, Fran in Promises, Promises and Tuptim in The King and I.

As she completed her master's degree, Chenoweth participated in several vocal competitions and was named "most promising up-and-coming singer" in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, which came with a full scholarship to Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts.

Two weeks before school started, however, she went to New York City to help a friend move.

While there, she auditioned for the 1993 Paper Mill Playhouse production of the musical Animal Crackers and was cast in the role of Arabella Rittenhouse.

She turned down the scholarship and moved to New York to play the role and pursue a career in musical theatre.

After Animal Crackers, Chenoweth continued to appear in regional theatre productions, such as Babes in Arms at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and Phantom (as Christine; she also toured in Germany in this role), playing roles in Off-Broadway productions like Luisa in The Fantasticks and Kristy in Box Office of the Damned (both in 1994).

In 1997, she made her Broadway debut in Steel Pier, winning a Theatre World Award, before appearing in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Wicked.

In 1997, she appeared as Hyacinth in the Roundabout Theater Company production of Moliere's farcical Scapin, earning her first New York Times review, with Ben Brantley writing "Kristin Chenoweth's sob-prone ingenue is delightful".

She made her Broadway debut in the spring of 1997 as Precious McGuire in the musical Steel Pier by Kander and Ebb, for which she won a Theatre World Award.

In 1998 she appeared in the City Center Encores! staged concert of the George and Ira Gershwin musical Strike Up the Band as Anne Draper and created roles in the original Lincoln Center Theater production of William Finn's A New Brain.

Ben Rimalower, in Playbill, wrote: "It's unlikely anyone will equal Kristin Chenoweth in the role of 'Nancy D., the waitress.'"

In 1999, she won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway.

In 1999, Chenoweth performed in the Broadway revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown as the title character's little sister, Sally, a character that was not present in the original production.

She won the Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Later that year, she starred on Broadway in the short-lived comic play Epic Proportions, followed by starring as Daisy Gamble in the "Encores!"

production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in February 2000.

Chenoweth had her own sitcom, Kristin, in 2001, and has guest-starred on many shows, including Sesame Street and Glee, for which she was nominated for Emmy Awards in 2010 and 2011.

After this, Chenoweth split her time between stage and TV or film roles and released her first solo album, Let Yourself Go (2001).

In 2002, she performed in the City Center Encores!

In 2003, Chenoweth received a second Tony Award nomination for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked.

In films, she has played mostly character roles, such as in Bewitched (2005), The Pink Panther (2006) and RV (2006).

Her other Broadway roles were in The Apple Tree in 2006, Promises, Promises in 2010 and On the Twentieth Century in 2015, for which she received another Tony Award nomination.

She has also appeared in five City Center Encores!, Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions.

Her television roles include Annabeth Schott in NBC's The West Wing and Olive Snook on the ABC comedy drama Pushing Daisies, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2009.

Chenoweth also wrote a 2009 memoir, A Little Bit Wicked.

Chenoweth was adopted when she was five days old by Junie Smith Chenoweth and Jerry Morris Chenoweth, both chemical engineers from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa, and named Kristi Dawn Chenoweth.

She revealed in her 2023 book I'm No Philosopher, but I Got Thoughts that her biological parents were bassist Billy Ethridge (briefly a member of ZZ Top) and "Mama Lynn".

She has stated that she is of one quarter Cherokee descent and that she eventually met her biological mother.

At an early age, she performed gospel songs for local churches.

A performing highlight of her childhood was a solo appearance at the Southern Baptist Convention national conference at the age of 12, where she performed the Evie song "Four Feet Eleven".

The chorus begins, "I'm only 4 feet 11, but I'm going to Heaven" (Chenoweth is 4 ft in height).

After graduating from Broken Arrow Senior High School, where she participated in school plays, Chenoweth attended Oklahoma City University, where she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta (Beta Omicron) sorority.

10th Anniversary Bash.

She also starred in the ABC TV series GCB in 2012, played Lavinia in Trial & Error in 2018, and played the characters Mildred Layton and Miss Codwell in the Apple TV+ musical comedy Schmigadoon! in 2021 and 2023, respectively.

Chenoweth sang gospel music as a child in Oklahoma and studied opera before deciding to pursue a career in musical theatre.

She has played roles in made-for-TV movies, such as Descendants (2015); done voice work in animated films such as Rio 2 (2014) and The Peanuts Movie (2015) along with the animated TV series Sit Down, Shut Up and BoJack Horseman; hosted several award shows; and released several albums of songs, including A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas (2008), Some Lessons Learned (2011), Coming Home (2014), The Art of Elegance (2016) and For the Girls (2019).