Catherine O'Hara

Catherine Anne O'Hara OC (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian-American actress, writer, and comedian. She first drew notice as an actress in 1974 as a member of The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Toronto. She landed her first significant television role in 1975 starring opposite John Candy and Dan Aykroyd in the main cast of the Canadian sitcom Coming Up Rosie (1975–1978). The following year, she and Candy began work on Second City Television (1976–84), where she drew acclaim for both her work as a comedic actress and writer, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1981.

O'Hara has appeared in several films directed by Tim Burton, beginning with the role of Delia Deetz in the 1988 film Beetlejuice. Other roles she has portrayed in Burton films include the voices of Sally/Shock in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Susan Frankenstein in Frankenweenie (2012). She has also frequently collaborated with director and writer Christopher Guest, appearing in the mockumentary films Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). In 2000, she won a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for the film The Life Before This. She is also known to audiences as Kate McCallister, the mother of Kevin, in both Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).