Megan Hilty

Stage and television actress/singer Megan Hilty is best known for her turns on Broadway as Glinda in Wicked and Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5: The Musical, and for her role as Ivy Lynn on NBC's musical drama Smash. Born in Bellevue, Washington, Hilty started her vocal training at age 12 and studied at Redmond's Washington Academy of Performing Arts Conservatory High School. After graduating from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, she moved to New York City, making her Broadway debut in August 2004 as the standby for Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in the Oz-themed musical Wicked, which was based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Hilty took over the role in 2005 and after ending her run in 2006, played Glinda in Wicked's first national tour and in a sit-down production in Los Angeles throughout 2007 and 2008. Late that year, Hilty joined the production of the musical adaptation of the film 9 to 5 in the role of executive secretary Doralee Rhodes, which was played in the 1980 film by Dolly Parton. With songs composed and written by Parton, the production included Hilty's Wicked collaborators actress Stephanie J. Block and director Joe Mantello, along with Allison Janney and Marc Kudisch. For her performance as Doralee, Hilty earned acting nominations from the Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Drama League Awards, and the Drama Desk Awards. At the same time, Hilty was establishing herself on the stage, she was also accumulating several television credits, with parts on shows ranging from children's fare such as The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Phineas and Ferb to comedies like American Dad!, Family Guy, and Louie to dramas including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Desperate Housewives. Starting in Feburary 2012, Hilty starred as veteran stage actress Ivy Lynn on Smash, a musical-within-a-musical that followed the development of a Broadway production about Marilyn Monroe; one of the songs she and co-star Katharine McPhee performed, "Let Me Be Your Star," was nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy that year. Early in 2013, Smash's second season premiered, and Hilty's debut album It Happens All the Time -- which featured songs by written Damien Rice, Ne-Yo, and Carrie Underwood -- arrived shortly after. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi