Kathryn Hahn

Kathryn Marie Hahn, born July 23, 1973, in Westchester, Illinois, is an American actress and comedian. She grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where she attended St. Ann School and Beaumont School and was raised in the Catholic faith. Her parents are Karen Bunker and Bill Hahn, and she is of German, Irish, and English descent. Hahn earned a BA in theater from Northwestern University before completing an MFA in drama at Yale University, where her stage work included the role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret and Célimène in Molière's The Misanthrope. During her early twenties, while auditioning for roles, she supported herself working as a receptionist and a waitress.

Before transitioning to film and television, Hahn built substantial stage experience. She appeared in productions with the Huntington Theater Company, including Jon Robin Baitz's Ten Unknowns and Sidney Kingsley's Dead End. At the Williamstown Theatre Festival she performed in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet, John Guare's Chaucer in Rome, and Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. Her Broadway debut came in 2008, when she appeared in the revival of the comedy Boeing-Boeing, playing Gloria, an American fiancée and airline stewardess.

Hahn's television career began with an appearance on Hickory Hideout, a local children's puppet show on Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC. A chance meeting at a festival with creator-producer Tim Kring led to Kring developing the character of Lily Lebowski specifically for her in the series Crossing Jordan, which ran from 2001 to 2007. She went on to have recurring roles on HBO series Hung and Girls, and from 2012 to 2015 appeared on the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation as Jennifer Barkley, a campaign manager, earning a 2012 Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series.

Her film career began with a supporting role in the 2003 romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. She followed that with appearances in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and Around the Bend, all in 2004. Additional supporting roles came in A Lot like Love (2005), The Holiday (2006), The Last Mimzy (2007), Step Brothers (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009), How Do You Know (2010), Our Idiot Brother (2011), and Wanderlust (2012).

Hahn took on her first film lead in 2013 with Joey Soloway's comedy-drama Afternoon Delight, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and earned her a Gotham Independent Film Award nomination for Breakthrough Actor. That same year she appeared in the box-office hit We're the Millers and co-starred in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In 2014 she reunited with Soloway by joining the Amazon series Transparent as Rabbi Raquel Fein, a role she continued through the show's run from 2014 to 2019 and for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2017, along with a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with the cast. Also in 2014, she appeared in Bad Words and the ensemble film This Is Where I Leave You.

Hahn starred in the Showtime series Happyish in 2015, though it was canceled after one season. That year she also appeared in the science-fiction film Tomorrowland, the horror film The Visit, and Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way. In 2016 she appeared in the drama Captain Fantastic, for which the ensemble cast received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, and starred in the comedy Bad Moms, which earned more than $183.9 million against a $20 million budget. The sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas, followed in 2017 and grossed more than $130 million against a $28 million budget. Also in 2016, she appeared in the Amazon comedy series I Love Dick, directed by Joey Soloway. In 2017, Hahn authored her first children's book, My Wish for You.

In 2018, Hahn starred in Tamara Jenkins's drama Private Life and provided voice performances in two Sony Pictures Animation films: Ericka Van Helsing in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and Dr. Olivia Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. She starred in and produced the HBO comedy miniseries Mrs. Fletcher in 2019, and in 2020 appeared in the HBO drama miniseries I Know This Much Is True, based on Wally Lamb's novel of the same name. In 2021, she starred in the Apple TV+ dark comedy series The Shrink Next Door and joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Agatha Harkness in the Disney+ limited series WandaVision, a role that earned her both a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award nomination. She reprised the character in the 2024 spin-off series Agatha All Along. Hahn also received Emmy nominations for her work in the Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things (2023), in which she played a writer turned popular columnist, and for the Apple TV+ comedy series The Studio (2025), in which she plays a film studio's head of marketing.

In 2024, Hahn delivered the commencement address to Northwestern University's graduating class and received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the institution.