Katharine McPhee

Katharine McPhee

Katharine Hope McPhee Foster is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. In May 2006, she was the runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol. Her self-titled debut album was released on RCA Records on January 30, 2007, and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 381,000 copies. She has also established an acting career, co-starring in The House Bunny and Shark Night 3D. She played Karen Cartwright, one of the lead roles on Smash.

About Katharine McPhee in brief

Summary Katharine McPheeKatharine Hope McPhee Foster is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. In May 2006, she was the runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol. Her self-titled debut album was released on RCA Records on January 30, 2007, and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 381,000 copies. Her second album, Unbroken, was released on January 5, 2010. Her fourth album, Hysteria, on September 18, 2015. She released her fifth album, I Fall in Love Too Easily, composed of jazz standards, on November 17, 2017. She has also established an acting career, co-starring in The House Bunny and Shark Night 3D. She played Karen Cartwright, one of the lead roles on Smash. From 2014 to 2018, she starred in CBS’ Scorpion as Paige Dineen. Her older sister, Adriana, has been a vocal coach on American Idol since 2012. She is of Irish, Scottish, and German descent. Her father was a television producer. Her mother, Peisha Mcphee, is a vocal teacher on the show. She was born in Los Angeles, California. She attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, where she performed in school plays and musicals. She left college before graduation on the advice of her manager, and returned to Los Angeles to try out for television pilots. She filmed a mall-based MTV soap opera pilot, You Are Here, playing the older sister of a more popular younger sister. She also had a small role as Paramount Girl in the 2007 musical film Crazy, based on the life of Hank Garland.

She lost 30lb due to eating better as part of her treatment. She told People that at age 13, she began starving herself and exercising compulsively, and at age 17, became bulimic. After seven years of illness, she finally entered a three-month rehabilitation program after successfully passing her American Idol audition; her rehab stint ended just before the Idol semifinals started in February 2006. She sang in a group singing, “I Can’t Help Myself” during the second round, but forgot the words. During the third round, she sang, “My Funny Valentine” by the Four Tops, forgetting the words, but the judges decided to advance the entire group to the next round. In March 2005, McPhea starred as Annie Oakley in a Cabrillo Music Theater production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun. She won a Los Angeles Stage Ovation Award in the category of \”Lead Actress in a Musical\”. In May 2005, she appeared on The Dr. Keith Ablow Show to discuss her childhood fear of her father and her struggles with bulimia. In September 2005, her husband Nick Cokas and her parents tried out for the television series American Idol, and her husband persuaded her to join them. She originally sang  God Bless the Child and Billie Holiday, originally performed by the Child.