Karen Olivo

Karen Olivo, now known professionally as KO, is an American actor, singer, and theater educator born on August 7, 1976, in the South Bronx, New York City. KO's father is of Puerto Rican and Native American descent, and their mother is of Dominican and Chinese descent. Raised in Bartow, Florida, KO attended the Lois Cowles Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in Lakeland, Florida before enrolling at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. They left the program before completing their final year to join the original Broadway production of Rent.

KO's professional career began in 1997 when they joined Rent as a replacement swing, also understudying the roles of Mimi and Maureen. The following year they joined the first national tour of the show, known as the "Angel Tour," again as a replacement swing before taking on the role of Mimi in late 1998, a role they performed until January 1999. After returning to New York City, KO appeared in a small part on the soap opera As the World Turns before joining the regional tryout of the musical Brooklyn in 2003. Prior to Brooklyn's Broadway transfer, they participated in a regional staging of Children of Eden and filmed guest appearances on All My Children and Law & Order. Brooklyn opened on Broadway in October 2004 and ran through June 2005. Following that production's closure, KO joined the off-Broadway musical Miracle Brothers, which closed in October 2005. In 2006, they appeared in small roles in NBC's Conviction and the independent film Adrift in Manhattan, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

KO rose to broader prominence in 2008 when In the Heights opened on Broadway, with KO originating the role of Vanessa opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda. That same year, they received an Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer for the performance. The following year, KO won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for their portrayal of Anita in the Broadway revival of West Side Story, becoming the first and only actor to win a Tony Award for a performance in that show. The role also earned them nominations for a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award, as well as a second Astaire Award nomination for Best Female Dancer. KO was contracted with the West Side Story production at the Palace Theatre through 2010, but during the May 8, 2010 matinee performance, they broke their foot; standby Natalie Cortez assumed the role through the show's closure. KO subsequently appeared in the world premiere of Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theater.

During this period, KO also built a television career. They had a recurring role on CBS's The Good Wife, playing wealthy law student Giada Cabrini, and served as a series regular in the second season of NBC's Harry's Law, portraying lawyer Cassie Reynolds. KO appeared in multiple Law & Order franchise episodes, including roles in the original series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the spin-off series. Film credits from this period include Make Yourself at Home, The New Twenty, Shanghai Hotel, and The Orphan Killer.

In March 2013, KO announced a break from acting and relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, where they taught classes for the University of Wisconsin–Madison theater department, became involved in the local theater community, and opened a private studio to coach young performers. They returned to professional performance in June 2014 with New York City Center's Encores! production of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM!, alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr. In February 2018, KO played Florence Vassy in the Kennedy Center's revival of Chess. From October 2016 through August 2017, KO portrayed Angelica Schuyler in the Chicago production of Hamilton.

On July 25, 2019, KO originated the leading role of Satine in the Broadway premiere of Moulin Rouge! The Musical at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. The performance earned them a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, announced on October 15, 2020. On April 14, 2021, KO announced they would not return to the production once it reopened, citing the industry's silence regarding allegations against producer Scott Rudin.

In 2021, KO publicly announced via Instagram that they are non-binary and use they/them pronouns, and since 2022 have gone by KO professionally rather than Karen Olivo. That same year, KO joined the bio-musical We Won't Sleep, based on the life of Jeannette Rankin, for industry readings in New York City in December 2021; the planned world premiere at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having begun teaching theatre in 2020, KO relocated to Evanston, Illinois in 2022 to become an associate professor and the Donald G. Robertson Director of Music Theatre in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. KO is married to Jim Uphoff, a marketing manager and former New York theater sound technician; the two wed in September 2014 and share two stepchildren.