Catherine O’Hara Biography

Canadian comic legend Catherine O’Hara was known for her long series of iconic character roles, from the frantic mom in Home Alone (1990) to her awkward mom on the TV series Schitt’s Creek (2015-20).

Catherine O’Hara was part of the Toronto comedy group Second City in the early 1970s, and one of the original founders (along with John Candy, Eugene Levy, and others) of the satirical TV show SCTV in 1976.

In the 1980s, O’Hara started making movies and appeared in a variety of Hollywood comedies. She was best known for her turn as the mom who leaves her son (Macaulay Culkin) behind in Home Alone (1990). O’Hara was also a familiar cast member of Christopher Guest’s “mockumentaries,” including Waiting for Guffman (1996) and Best in Show (2000).

Her other notable roles include: the neurotic wife in Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice (1987); the mom in Home Alone and its first sequel (1990 and 1992), though she was not in Home Alone 3 and beyond; the voices of Shock and Sally in Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas (1993); and the kooky ladies in A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006). She was also in The Paper (1994), Penelope (2006) and Where the Wild Things Are (2009).

In 2020 she won an Emmy for her performance as Moira Rose, the eccentric mom and former soap opera star on the sitcom Schitt’s Creek. Her co-stars on that show included Dan Levy, her son on the show and the real-life son of her SCTV collaborator Eugene Levy.

Catherine O’Hara died in 2026 after what her agent described as a “brief illness.” Her death certificate, released a few days later, said O’Hara died of a pulmonary embolism, which had an underlying cause of rectal cancer.