Kate Mulgrew

Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew was born on April 29, 1955, in Dubuque, Iowa, the second of eight children born to Thomas James Mulgrew Jr., a contractor, and Joan Virginia Mulgrew, an artist and painter. She attended Wahlert High School in Dubuque before being accepted at age 17 to the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting, affiliated with New York University, where she supported herself by working as a waitress before leaving after one year.

Mulgrew first gained widespread attention playing Mary Ryan on the ABC daytime soap opera Ryan's Hope beginning in 1975, a role she held for two years and which made her a fan favorite. Concurrent with that work, she portrayed Emily Webb in the American Shakespeare Theatre's production of Our Town in Stratford, Connecticut. A November 1978 episode of Dallas featured her as country singer Garnet McGee, and from 1979 to 1980 she starred as Kate Columbo in Mrs. Columbo, a thirteen-episode spin-off of the detective series Columbo created specifically for her. In 1981, she co-starred with Richard Burton and Nicholas Clay in Lovespell as Irish princess Isolt, and that same year appeared alongside Pierce Brosnan in the six-hour miniseries Manions of America. Her film credits from the mid-1980s include Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins in 1985, in which she played Major Fleming. Television appearances during this period included a recurring role in Cheers in 1986 as Janet Eldridge and a part in the 1987 film Throw Momma from the Train as Margaret, Billy Crystal's character's ex-wife. In 1992, she guest-starred on Murphy Brown as Hillary Wheaton, a Toronto-based anchorwoman, and also appeared in Murder, She Wrote and voiced the terrorist Red Claw in three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.

In August 1994, Mulgrew submitted a videotaped audition for the role of Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, then auditioned in person weeks later after finding the tape unsatisfactory. Although film actress Geneviève Bujold was initially cast, she departed after two days of filming, and Mulgrew was offered the role. She became the first female captain to serve as a series regular in a leading role in the Star Trek franchise, and Voyager ran for seven seasons as the only series renewed after UPN's first programming season. Mulgrew won the Saturn Award for Best TV Actress in 1998 for her performance as Janeway. During the Voyager years she also voiced Titania in the animated series Gargoyles and played Victoria Riddler in the television film Riddler's Moon. She later reprised the Janeway role in multiple Star Trek video games, including Star Trek: Legacy and Star Trek Online, and beginning in 2021 returned to voice the character in the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy, earning an Emmy Award nomination at the 4th Children's and Family Emmy Awards.

Following Voyager's conclusion, Mulgrew returned to the stage and in 2003 starred in Tea at Five, a one-woman play built around a monologue based on Katharine Hepburn's memoir Me: Stories of My Life. The production earned her a Carbonell Award for Best Actress and a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Solo Performance. In 2007, she played the lead in the off-Broadway production Our Leading Lady, written by Charles Busch, receiving a Drama League nomination for her performance, and that same year portrayed Clytemnestra in Charles L. Mee's Iphigenia 2.0 in New York, a performance for which she won the Obie Award for outstanding performance. Also in 2007, she appeared in the NBC series The Black Donnellys as Helen Donnelly.

Mulgrew's Broadway career spanned 1993 to 2008. She starred in White Liars and appeared in Equus, the latter opening on September 5, 2008, for a limited 22-week engagement through February 8, 2009, in which she played Hesther Saloman, a public official empathetic toward the play's central character.

Beyond acting, Mulgrew is the author of a memoir and serves as a member of the Alzheimer's Association National Advisory Council. She is also the voice of Cleveland's MetroHealth System. Her awards and nominations include a Critics' Choice Award, a Saturn Award, an Obie Award, and nominations for both the Golden Globe Award and the Primetime Emmy Award.