Liz Callaway

Liz Callaway, born April 13, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois, is an American actress, singer, and recording artist whose career spans Broadway, animated film, television, and cabaret. Her mother, Shirley Callaway, worked as a singer, pianist, and vocal coach, and her father, John Callaway, was a journalist. Her sister, Ann Hampton Callaway, is also an actress, composer, and singer; both attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. The two sisters have collaborated extensively throughout their careers, including singing the theme song for the television comedy series The Nanny, which Ann Hampton Callaway composed.

Callaway made her Broadway debut in 1981 in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, launching a long professional association with Sondheim that included live concerts in his honor, an appearance with Sondheim on Inside the Actors Studio, and the role of Young Sally in the Lincoln Center concert production of Follies alongside Mandy Patinkin, Barbara Cook, George Hearn, Lee Remick, Carol Burnett, Elaine Stritch, and the New York Philharmonic. That production was both recorded and filmed as a documentary. Her Broadway work continued with Baby, in which she played Lizzie and for which she received a 1984 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, as well as The Three Musketeers, Sunday in the Park with George, Evita, and The Spitfire Grill, the latter earning her a Drama Desk Award nomination. She also played Grizabella in Cats for five years as a replacement, and appeared in The Look of Love, a 2003 musical revue built around the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Her Broadway activity extended through 2009, with credits also including Hair, Something Wonderful, and Miss Saigon, in which she originated the role of Ellen.

Outside of Broadway, Callaway hosted a children's television program called Ready to Go on WNEV-TV in Boston, which ran from 1987 to 1991 and earned her an Emmy Award. She left the series to begin rehearsals for Miss Saigon. In July 2012, she starred as Norma Desmond in the Pittsburgh CLO's production of Sunset Boulevard.

Callaway is also widely recognized for providing the singing voices of animated characters across several major film productions. She voiced Anya/Anastasia in Anastasia, Princess Odette in The Swan Princess, Princess Jasmine in The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, and adult Kiara in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. She also voiced the Speaker of God in Hazbin Hotel.

Her solo discography includes Anywhere I Wander (1993), The Story Goes On (1995), The Beat Goes On (2001), and Passage of Time, released October 20, 2009, on PS Classics, which featured a contribution from her sister Ann Hampton Callaway. In 2015 she released The Essential Liz Callaway, and in 2022 she released To Steve with Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim, recorded live at 54 Below. She has also released two Christmas recordings. With her sister, she released Sibling Revelry, recorded live at Rainbow and Stars in 1995, and Boom!, recorded live at Birdland in 2011. Callaway has performed cabaret at venues including Joe's Pub, Rainbow and Stars, the Russian Tea Room, 54 Below, Lincoln Center, and the Donmar Warehouse in London, and was honored at the 25th Annual Bistro Awards in New York City.

In 1985, Callaway married theatre director and producer Dan Foster, a founding producer of the Hudson Stage Company, a nonprofit professional theatre company in residence at Pace University in Westchester County, New York. They have a son.