Mary Kate Morrissey

Mary Kate Morrissey is an American stage actress born on June 18, 1989, in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Her father, John Morrissey, is a founding partner at Jackson Cross Partners, and she is of Irish ancestry. As a child, she learned to play the trombone and later took voice lessons, joining ensembles including the Philadelphia All Catholic Chorus. She attended Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown before earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater from Syracuse University, where she performed as Meg March in a stage adaptation of Little Women.

Morrissey made her professional acting debut in 2013, taking on the role of Sheila in the national tour of Hair. That same year, she appeared in Tamar of the River at the Baruch Performing Arts Center and attended the 2013 Emery Awards in New York City. In 2014, she played Sharon Falconer in Elmer Gantry at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, and Lizzie Borden in Portland Center Stage's rock musical Lizzie.

Her connection to Wicked dates to around 2004, when she saw Shoshana Bean and Megan Hilty perform the show on Broadway. Beginning in 2015, she served as the Elphaba standby on the national tour, then assumed the role full-time from 2017 to 2018, performing opposite Ginna Claire Mason as Glinda. The two developed a close friendship during that period. In 2019, Morrissey joined the national tour of Mean Girls as Janis Sarkisian, a credit later verified in her Broadway appearances. That same year, she served as standby for Joan and Isabelle in Joan of Arc: Into the Fire and played Sara, the Magician's Lovely Assistant, in The Disappearing Man at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Rehearsal Studio. On May 25, 2019, she performed songs from Wicked at Side By Side: A Celebration of Service in New York City, an event honoring United States Army veterans and their families.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Morrissey and Mason co-founded Double Name Witches, a virtual theater and voice school serving students between the ages of five and thirty with an interest in pursuing Broadway. The program enrolled more than one hundred students. Morrissey has also taught masterclasses and theater programs for aspiring performers across the country and offers private lessons from her studio in Brooklyn.

In 2023, Morrissey joined the Broadway production of Wicked as the official Elphaba standby. On March 5, 2024, she began playing the role full-time alongside Alexandra Socha as Glinda, succeeding Alyssa Fox in the part while Socha replaced McKenzie Kurtz. She held the role until March 2, 2025, when she was succeeded by Lencia Kebede.

Following her Broadway run, Morrissey was cast as Beverly and Anette in a production of Come from Away at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine, with performances running from May 15 to June 14, 2025. She subsequently played Elsa in Paper Mill Playhouse's stage production of Frozen, scheduled from November 2025 through January 2026. In 2024, she performed "Defying Gravity" at New York City Pride wearing a shirt that read "Here, Queer, and Wicked."

Morrissey identifies as queer and advocates for queer rights and representation. She has been vegan since 2012. In 2021, she revealed that she had married her longtime partner, Trevor Blake. She owns a dog named Bear.