Carly Hughes

Carly Hughes is an American actress and singer born on October 1, 1982, in St. Louis, Missouri, who was raised in Columbia, Maryland. Her first stage experience came in fifth grade, when she played Robin Hood in a production at Clemens Crossing Elementary School. She later attended Wilde Lake High School before enrolling at Pennsylvania State University, where she earned a degree in musical theater in 2004.

Hughes built her early professional career on Broadway, with credits spanning from 1996 to 2014. Her stage work includes Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Ragtime, Ghost The Musical, The Book of Mormon, Pippin, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Cabin in the Sky, and Chicago.

In 2016, Hughes transitioned to television with a series-regular role on the ABC comedy American Housewife, in which she played one of the title character's best friends alongside Ali Wong. She remained with the series for four seasons before departing in 2020. In a November 2020 press statement, Hughes cited her reason for leaving: she stated she was no longer able to work in what she described as a toxic environment and made the decision to leave in order to protect herself from discrimination. ABC Signature conducted an investigation in response, after which the production company stated that positive changes to the workplace and improvements to the culture had been made; series creator Sarah Dunn and line producer Mark J. Greenberg subsequently exited the series.

Following her departure from American Housewife, Hughes took on her first leading role in the Lifetime Christmas television movie The Christmas Edition.