Caitlin Kinnunen | |
|---|---|
 Kinnunen in 2019 | |
| Born | November 8, 1991 Washington, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Website | caitlinkinnunen |
Caitlin Kinnunen (born November 8, 1991)[ citation needed ] is an American actress. She is best known for playing Emma Nolan in the musical The Prom , for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2019.
Kinnunen grew up in Camano Island, Washington. Her parents are Betsy Stam, an administrator at Everett Community College and Randy Kinnunen, a former law enforcement agent. [1] [2] She was homeschooled. Her parents enrolled her and her sister in theatre classes as children so they would not be afraid of public speaking.
She moved to New York in 2008 to pursue her theatre career. [1]
Kinnunen made her Broadway debut at age 16, as a replacement for the role of Thea in Spring Awakening. In 2010, Kinnunen was the understudy for the role of Natalie in the national tour of Next to Normal . [3]
Following these theater performances, Kinnunen took on a number of television and film roles. She was the lead character in the film Sweet Little Lies in 2011 and a minor character in It's Kind of a Funny Story , We Need to Talk About Kevin , and The Intern . [4]
She was next seen in the 2013 pre-Broadway performances of The Bridges of Madison County as Carolyn, and she continued the role when the production moved to Broadway the following year. [5] The show closed on May 18, 2014, after 137 performances. [6]
In 2014, Kinnunen auditioned for the role of Alyssa in a reading for The Prom . [7] She ultimately was cast as the lead character, Emma Nolan, and went on to perform the role in Atlanta in 2016, before the show moved to Broadway in 2018. For this performance, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. [8] Kinnunen and co-star Isabelle McCalla's kiss during their performance at the 2018 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade made national news as the first LGBT kiss in the parade's history. [9] The production closed on August 11, 2019, after 23 previews and 309 regular performances. [10]
In May 2024, Kinnunen originated a lead role in the play Choice by Winnie Holzman at McCarter Theatre Center in New Jersey. [11]
In 2019, in an interview for Nylon, Kinnunen announced, after years of identifying as a straight ally, that she was dating a woman. [12] She has since come out as bisexual/queer. [13]
She has type 1 diabetes. [14]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | It's Kind of a Funny Story | Science Geek | |
| 2011 | We Need to Talk About Kevin | Student | |
| 2011 | Sweet Little Lies | Bess | Lead role |
| 2012 | Legacy | Claire | Short film |
| 2015 | The Intern | Techie #2 | |
| 2022 | You're the Best | Emmy | Short film |
| Year | Network | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Law & Order: SVU | Amy Wagner | Episode: "Turmoil" | |
| 2015 | The Knick | Suzy | Episode: "Whiplash" | |
| 2017 | American Vandal | Anonymous Student | Episode: "Nailed" | |
| 2017 | Younger | Heidi | Episode: "Post Truth" | |
| 2021 | Our Ladies Of Brooklyn | Sister Frances | Episode: Pilot | Lead role |
| Year(s) | Production | Role | Location | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Spring Awakening | Thea (replacement) | Eugene O'Neill Theater | Broadway |
| 2010 | Next to Normal | Natalie (understudy) | National Tour | Regional |
| 2013 | The Bridges of Madison County | Carolyn | Williamstown Theatre Festival | Out-of-town tryout |
| 2014 | Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre | Broadway | ||
| 2016 | The Prom | Emma Nolan | Alliance Theatre | Regional |
| 2018 | Fun Home | Medium Allison | Weston Playhouse | Regional |
| 2018-19 | The Prom | Emma Nolan | Longacre Theatre | Broadway |
| 2021-22 | Rescue Rue | Alex | Daryl Roth Theatre | Off-Broadway |
| 2022 | Jesus Christ Superstar | Mary Magdalene | ACT of Connecticut | Regional |
| 2022 | The Magnificent Seven | Jaycie Phelps | Theatre Row | Off-Broadway |
| 2024 | Choice | Zoe/Leah or Lena | McCarter Theatre Center | Regional |
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 20th Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards | Favorite Leading Actress in a Musical | The Prom | Nominated | [15] |
| Favorite Onstage Pair (with Isabelle McCalla) | Nominated | ||||
| 73rd Tony Awards | Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical | Nominated | [16] | ||
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Bella and Samuel Spewack. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.
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The Bridges of Madison County is a 1992 best-selling romance novel by American writer Robert James Waller that tells the story of an Italian-American World War II war bride living on a farm in 1960s Madison County, Iowa. While her husband and children are away at the State Fair, she engages in an affair with a National Geographic photographer from Bellingham, Washington, who is visiting Madison County to create a photographic essay on the covered bridges in the area. The novel is presented as a novelization of a true story, but it is in fact entirely fictional.
Jason Robert Brown is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for his work on Parade and The Bridges of Madison County.
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