She started working the door at Second City before anyone put her on stage

Catherine O'Hara

O'Hara grew up in Etobicoke and got her start doing coat check at Toronto's Second City — a job that turned into a stage role once Gilda Radner left for Saturday Night Live.

Catherine Anne O'Hara was born in 1954 in Toronto, the sixth of seven children in an Irish Catholic family. She grew up in Etobicoke and attended Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute, where a classmate was future fellow comedian Robin Duke.

From coat check to the stage

O'Hara's entry into Second City Toronto was informal: she began working there as a waitress and in coat check before being pulled into the cast, stepping into a regular performing role in 1974 after Gilda Radner left the Toronto troupe for the original Saturday Night Live cast in New York. O'Hara went on to become one of the defining performers of SCTV, creating characters such as Lola Heatherton and Dusty Towne, and has continued to describe Second City's Toronto stage as foundational to her career.

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