A native of Edmond, Oklahoma, Kelli O’Hara made her Broadway debut in 2000 as the replacement for Kate in Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll & Hyde. After appearing as Young Hattie in the 2001 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, O’Hara earned her first starring role on Broadway as Susan in the 2002 musical adaptation of the film, The Sweet Smell of Success.
After starring as Lucy Westenra in Dracula, the Musical in 2004, Kelli O’Hara began receiving a string of Tony Award® and Drama Desk Award nominations, first with her performance as Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza, the 2005 musical by Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel, then in the role of Babe Williams in the 2006 revival of The Pajama Game. In 2008, she earned Tony Award® and Drama Desk Award nominations for her portrayal of Ensign Nellie Forbush in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific.
Off-Broadway, O’Hara appeared in two musicals – as Albertine in My Life with Albertine and in Beauty in 2003 at the La Jolla Playhouse. A graduate of Oklahoma City University in vocal performance and opera, Kelli O’Hara is a sorority sister of Kristin Chenoweth in Gamma Phi Beta.
