Katharine McPhee

Katharine McPhee was born on March 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, to Daniel McPhee and Peisha McPhee. Her father works as a television producer and her mother is one of the vocal coaches on American Idol since 2011. She has an elder sister Adriana.

McPhees’ moved to Sherman Oaks neighbourhood of Los Angeles when Katharine was 12. There she attended Notre Dame High School. Since an early age, Katharine displayed a talent for music. While at school, she participated in school plays and musicals. To nurture and hone her musical skills further, Peisha started training her daughter early on.

Graduating from the high school in 2002, Katharine McPhee attended Boston Conservatory for three semesters, majoring in Musical Theatre. However, she left college before graduation and moved back to Los Angeles to try her luck in television.

During the struggle period, Katharine McPhee found the role of an elder sister in a mall-based MTV soap opera pilot, ‘You Are Here’. However, the series never aired as MTV did not pick up on it.

In 2005, she was cast as Annie Oakley in a Cabrillo Music Theatre production of the musical ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. McPhee was nominated for a Los Angeles Stage Ovation Award in the category of ‘Lead Actress in a Musical’.

Her next project was the role of Paramount Girl for the musical film ‘Crazy’, which was eventually released in 2007.

Around the same time as Katharine was working on a couple of television shows, her parents and future husband coaxed her to explore her musical skills further and try out for season 5 of American Idol. Katharine not just passed the audition but went on become one of top 3 finalists of the show. Though she finished it at the third spot, the influence was such that even after the show ended ‘McPheever’ didn’t seem to die out.

In June 2006, McPhee signed a deal with Simon Fuller's 19 Recordings Limited and Sony BMG's RCA Records. Around the same time, she performed at the J.C. Penney Jam: Concert for America's Kids, soloing with the song ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’. It was later released as a single by RCA Records. Upon its release, it peaked at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually rose to the number 4 position. In no time, it became the second highest best-selling single of 2006, remaining in the chart for 58 weeks.

Though Katharine had gained prominence after her runner-up victory at the American Idol show, her musical career experienced a major boost in 2007 when she came up with her debut self-titled album, ‘Katharine McPhee’. The album was an instant hit, selling 116,000 copies its first week itself. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart with its single ‘Over It’ peaking at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. What followed was s string of successful albums and singles.

Her musical career did not come in between her acting skills. In fact, after she found success as a singer, she found meaty roles come her way, both in films and television. ‘The House Bunny’ ‘You may Not Kiss the Bride’ are a few films McPhee starred in. In 2012, she found lead role as Karen Cartwright in ‘Smash’. The series lasted for two seasons. In 2014, she bagged the female lead Paige in CBS series ‘Scorpion’. Currently running in its fourth season, ‘Scorpion’ has made her a household name.