Katherine "Kate" Mulgrew is an actress known for playing Captain Kathryn Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager" and Galina "Red" Reznikov in "Orange is the New Black."
Mulgrew was born and raised in Dubuque, Iowa. At age 17, she left for New York City to study acting. Kate enrolled at New York University and was accepted to Stella Adler's Conservatory. However, at the end of her junior year, she left the university to commit herself full-time to acting. Kate was immediately cast in the ABC daytime drama, "Ryan's Hope" as the role of Mary Ryan, a role she played for about two years. At the same time, she earned the role of Emily in a production of "Our Town" at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut.
When she was 23, Kate was approached by then-head of NBC programming, Fred Silverman, who offered her a starring role in a series he had created with her in mind -- "Kate Columbo." In this series, Kate played the wife of one of TV's most beloved detectives, Lieutenant Columbo. This series was a critical success but was canceled nevertheless.
In the following years, Kate's career led her to star in several feature films. In 1988, Kate returned to television to star in the ABC drama, "Heartbeat." Kate portrayed Dr. Joanne Springstein/Halloran, head of a co-op medical group center for women. This series aired for two seasons and won a People's Choice Award for Best Drama.Â
In addition to television and feature films, Kate's career also consists of numerous theatrical productions including her Broadway debut in "Black Comedy," a play written by Peter Schaeffer.
In 1993, Kate separated from her husband, Robert H. Egan, with whom she had two sons and had been married for 12 years. In 1995, the divorce became final, and she was on the verge of having to sell her house and move into an apartment in Westwood when something incredible happened. She had been called to resume a role in a television series after the original actress, Geneviève Bujold, left two days into filming. What she did not know then was that this role was going to become her most famous one. The role in question was Captain Kathryn Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager."
After "Voyager" came to the end of the full seven seasons, Mulgrew returned to the theater, and in 2003 starred in a one-woman play called "Tea at Five," a monologue based on Katharine Hepburn's memoir, "Me: Stories of My Life." "Tea at Five" was a critical success and Mulgrew received two awards, one from Carbonell (Best Actress), and the other from Broadway.com (Audience Award for Favorite Solo Performance). Mulgrew also kept active in doing voice-over work for video games, most notably voicing the mysterious Flemeth in the Dragon Age video game series, a role she described as "delicious."
In 2009, Mulgrew returned to television in the NBC medical series, "Mercy," playing the recurring role of Jeannie Flanagan. In 2010, Mulgrew starred as Cleopatra in William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra."
Mulgrew began starring as Galina "Red" Reznikov in the Netflix original series, "Orange Is the New Black," in 2013. She was nominated for her first Primetime Emmy Award for that role in 2014.
Mulgrew also starred as Alma Lane in the crime-drama series "Mr. Mercedes," which is based on Stephen King's Bill Hodges trilogy.
Mulgrew is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Alzheimer's Association. Her mother, Joan Mulgrew, died on July 27, 2006, after a long battle with the disease.
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