Kelli O'Hara

Kelli Christine O'Hara, born April 16, 1976, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is an American actress and singer whose career has centered on Broadway and the opera stage. She grew up in Elk City, Oklahoma, in an Irish American family, attended Deer Creek High School, and earned a bachelor's degree in music with a concentration in vocal performance and opera from Oklahoma City University. There she studied voice with Florence Birdwell, the same teacher who had trained Kristin Chenoweth four years prior. O'Hara and Chenoweth are both alumnae of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

O'Hara's professional career began with a national tour of Jekyll and Hyde before she reached Broadway. Her early New York stage work included the 2001 revival of Follies, where she played both Young Hattie Walker and Young Phyllis Rogers Stone, followed by the 2002 production of Sweet Smell of Success as Susan Hunsecker. In 2003 she played Albertine in the Off-Broadway Playwrights Horizons production of My Life with Albertine, and in 2004 she appeared on Broadway as Lucy Westenra in Dracula, the Musical.

Her breakthrough came with the 2005 Lincoln Center production of The Light in the Piazza at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, where she originated the role of Clara Johnson. She had previously workshopped the piece at the Sundance Theatre Lab and in tryouts in Seattle and Chicago, performing the role of Franca Naccarelli in those earlier stagings. Her performance earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 59th Tony Awards. From that point forward, O'Hara received a Tony nomination or win for every subsequent Broadway role she took on. The following year she played Babe Williams in the 2006 revival of The Pajama Game, earning a nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical at the 60th Tony Awards.

Between Broadway engagements, O'Hara took on a range of concert and stage work. In 2007 she played Dot and Marie in the Los Angeles Reprise! staging of Sunday in the Park with George and portrayed Eliza Doolittle in the New York Philharmonic's semi-staged My Fair Lady at Avery Fisher Hall. From 2008 to 2010 she starred as Nellie Forbush in the Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, a run during which she took maternity leave in March 2009 and returned in October of that year. The role brought her a third Tony nomination at the 62nd Tony Awards. In 2010 she played Ella Peterson in the New York City Center Encores! presentation of Bells Are Ringing and appeared as Ellen in the film Sex and the City 2.

O'Hara starred as Billie Bendix in Nice Work If You Can Get It on Broadway from April 2012 to March 2013, receiving her fourth Tony nomination at the 66th Tony Awards. In 2013 she played Julie Jordan in the New York Philharmonic's staged concert of Carousel at Avery Fisher Hall. From January to May 2014 she portrayed Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County on Broadway, earning her fifth Tony nomination at the 68th Tony Awards. That same year she played Mrs. Darling in the NBC telecast Peter Pan Live! and performed two concerts titled Kelli and Matthew: Home for the Holidays at Carnegie Hall alongside Matthew Morrison and the New York Pops. On December 31, 2014, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Valencienne Zeta in Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, with Renée Fleming in the title role.

In March 2015 O'Hara returned to the Vivian Beaumont Theatre to star as Anna Leonowens opposite Ken Watanabe in the Lincoln Center Theatre revival of The King and I, opening in April of that year. The role brought her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 69th Tony Awards in 2015, her first win after five prior nominations. Her final performance in the production was in April 2016. She reprised the role at London's Palladium for a limited West End engagement from June to September 2018, which earned her a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 2019 ceremony.

O'Hara gave her debut solo concert at Carnegie Hall in October 2016. In November 2017 she played Fiona MacLaren in the Encores! production of Brigadoon at New York City Center. That same year she starred as Kate Bonner in the web drama series The Accidental Wolf, a role that brought her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series at the 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2018. She also appeared in the second season of 13 Reasons Why as Jackie and returned to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte.

In February 2019 O'Hara returned to Broadway in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Kiss Me, Kate at Studio 54, playing Lilli Vanessi and Katharine Minola in a production directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. The role earned her a seventh Tony nomination at the 73rd Tony Awards. In 2022 she starred as Laura Brown in Kevin Puts' The Hours at the Metropolitan Opera, a role she shared with Renée Fleming and Joyce DiDonato, and the three reprised those performances for eight shows in May 2024.

O'Hara's Broadway career has also included Angels Fall and the musical Kiss Me!, and her active stage work has continued through 2026. Her performance in Days of Wine and Roses earned her an eighth Tony nomination at the 78th Tony Awards in 2024 as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical that same year. Her television credits additionally include recurring appearances on Masters of Sex and a role in The Gilded Age. Born in Tulsa and raised in Elk City, Oklahoma, O'Hara has maintained a career spanning Broadway, the West End, the Metropolitan Opera, television, and film across nearly three decades.