Biography

Known for her high-pitched voice and dynamic delivery, singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth became a Tony Award winner with her performances as Sally in the Broadway revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (1999) and as the original Glinda in Broadway's Wicked (2003). Also a solo recording artist, she debuted with the standards collection Let Yourself Go in 2001 before making her first appearance on the Billboard 200 with 2008's A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas. In the meantime, she built an acting CV that includes her own sitcom (2001's Kristin) in addition to series like The West Wing, Glee, and Pushing Daisies -- for which she won an Emmy -- and films such as Bewitched (2005) and Hit & Run (2012). Chenoweth also moonlighted on the "Elmo's World" segments of Sesame Street as the Chaplin-esque Ms. Noodle. Featuring classics by the Gershwins, Hoagy Carmichael, Bacharach and David, and others, she topped the Billboard jazz chart in 2016 with The Art of Elegance and had another hit holiday release with Happiness Is...Christmas! in 2021. Kristi Dawn Chenoweth grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and attended the nearby Oklahoma City University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in musical theater in 1990 and a master's degree in opera performance in 1992. She also won a Most Talented Up-and-Coming Singer award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, which entitled her to a full scholarship at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Before matriculating, however, she auditioned for an off-Broadway production of Dames at Sea and landed the part, which prompted her to relocate to New York and turn professional instead. She followed Dames at Sea with a stint in the long-running off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, played leading roles at such prestigious regional theaters as the Goodspeed Opera House and the Guthrie Theater, and served as Jerome Robbins' guest soloist in his West Side Story Suite of Dances at the New York City Ballet. In 1997, Chenoweth made her Broadway debut in the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical Steel Pier, for which she won a Theatre World Award. It wasn't long before her work as Sally Brown in the 1999 Broadway revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown won her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (along with similar accolades from the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle). In the 1999-2000 season, she appeared in the Broadway comedy Epic Proportions and an ABC-TV adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie, while also starring in the City Center Encores! production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (February 2000). On May 29, 2001, Chenoweth's first album as a solo recording artist, Let Yourself Go, was released by the Sony Classical label. Her NBC-TV situation comedy, Kristin, had its premiere several months later, cementing her star power across several media formats. On the loosely autobiographical show, Chenoweth played Kristin Yancey, an Oklahoma native who comes to New York City to make it in show business (unlike the actress herself, however, the character had to settle for an office job). Chenoweth embarked on her first national tour that summer, accompanied by the Seattle Men's Chorus, but she returned to Broadway soon after, having landed a lead role in The Wizard of Oz-derived musical Wicked. Co-starring Chenoweth as Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba, it opened in October 2003 and was a massive commercial success (eventually passing Les Misérables as Broadway's fifth-longest-running show in 2019) as well as garnering nine Tony nominations including Chenoweth's loss to Menzel for Best Actress in a Musical. A recurring role in the acclaimed television show The West Wing followed in 2004, and Chenoweth also furthered her music career with albums including 2005's As I Am and the holiday-themed A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas. The latter marked the singer's Billboard 200 debut in late 2008. During the span between those albums, she appeared in films like Running with Scissors and Four Christmases, and was cast as Olive Snook on the TV comedy-drama Pushing Daisies. Chenoweth won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Pushing Daisies in 2009. By the time 2010 rolled around, she'd landed another Broadway role -- this one in the revival of Promises, Promises -- and begun a series of appearances on TV's Glee. In 2011, Chenoweth celebrated her Oklahoma upbringing with the country-tinged album Some Lessons Learned; it debuted at 14 on Billboard's country albums chart. She returned to the stage for 2014's Coming Home, a live album recorded in her hometown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The following year, she returned to Broadway, this time alongside Peter Gallagher in a revival of On the Twentieth Century that earned her another Tony nomination as well as wins from the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle (Outstanding Actress in a Musical). In 2016, she released The Art of Elegance, a collection of songs from the Great American Songbook. It reached a career-high number 36 on the Billboard 200 and spent three weeks at the top of the Jazz Albums chart. Chenoweth starred in the self-penned, limited-run Broadway revue My Love Letter to Broadway in November 2016, which she followed with TV and film appearances including Hairspray Live!, the Eric Stoltz-directed Class Rank, and NBC's Trial & Error. On her 2019 album For the Girls, Chenoweth turned her attention to mainstream pop songs popularized by female artists. It featured cameos by Dolly Parton, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, and Reba McEntire. A role in Schmigadoon!, a send-up of the Golden Age of musicals, followed in mid-2021, and that October, her eighth studio album, Happiness Is...Christmas!, marked her second appearance in the Top 20 of the Billboard Holiday Albums chart. ~ William Ruhlmann & Marcy Donelson, Rovi