Canadian comedy giant Catherine O’Hara dead at 71

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Alex Nino Gheciu and Nicole Thompson, January 30, 2026

Canadian comedy giant Catherine O’Hara, known for over-the-top performances in “Schitt’s Creek” and “SCTV” and a memorable turn as a stressed-out mom determined to reunite with her kid in Home Alone, has died at 71.

Her agency says the actress died at her home in Los Angeles on Friday “following a brief illness.”

Further details were not immediately available.

O’Hara got her start at Second City Toronto, working as a waitress, before joining the sketch comedy troupe’s cast and the television adaptation, “SCTV.”

That series earned her a writing Emmy in 1982. She’d earn her second Emmy nearly 40 years later for her role as outlandish matriarch Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek.”

She received numerous Canadian Screen Awards for her scene-stealing portrayal of the egomaniacal fashionista.

Last year, O’Hara was nominated for two Emmys — one for supporting actress in a comedy for her role in Seth Rogen’s “The Studio” and one for guest actress in a drama for an appearance on “The Last of Us.”

She received the Order of Canada in 2018 and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards lifetime achievement award in 2021.

-With files from The Associated Press