Early life

Mulgrew was born in 1955 in Dubuque, Iowa, into an Irish Catholic family, to Thomas James "T.J." Mulgrew II, a contractor, and Joan Virginia Mulgrew (née Kiernan), an artist and painter. She attended Wahlert High School in Dubuque.

Aged 17, she was accepted at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in conjunction with New York University in New York City. Mulgrew left NYU after one year. During this time, to earn money while in New York, Mulgrew was employed as a waitress at Friar Tuck, a now defunct restaurant previously at 914 Third Avenue.

Career

Earlier career (1975-1995)

Her early career included portraying Mary Ryan for two years on the ABC soap Ryan's Hope (1975). She became a fan favorite and is still associated with the show long after its cancellation. Mulgrew remains friends with former co-star Ilene Kristen and presented a special Soap Opera Digest Award to Ryan's Hope creator Claire Labine in 1995. While in Ryan's Hope she also played the role of Emily Webb in the American Shakespeare Theatre production of Our Town in Stratford, Connecticut. In 1979, she played Kate Columbo in Mrs. Columbo, a spin-off of the popular detective series, created specifically for her, which lasted 13 episodes.

In 1981, Mulgrew costarred with Richard Burton and Nicholas Clay in the Arthurian love triangle Lovespell as Irish princess Isolt who casts a spell on Mark, King of Cornwall, and his surrogate son, Tristan.

In 1985 she appeared in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins in the role of Major Fleming.

In 1986, she appeared on Cheers as Janet Eldridge. In 1992, Kate appeared on Murphy Brown as Hillary Wheaton, a Toronto-based anchorwoman brought in to replace Murphy Brown during her maternity leave, but who turned out to have the same problem with alcoholism as Brown had previously dealt with at the beginning of the series.

Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)

In 1995, Mulgrew's divorce from her husband became final. She was on the verge of selling her house and moving into a less-expensive apartment in Westwood when she received a call to take the part of Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager.

Mulgrew auditioned for the role of the captain, originally named Nicole Janeway, when producers announced casting for Star Trek: Voyager. She initially submitted a videotaped audition, which she made in New York City in August, 1994. However, she was unhappy with this audition and auditioned in person a few weeks later. That day, film actress Geneviève Bujold was selected to play Janeway, but left the role after only two days of filming, due to the demanding production schedule required for a television show. Mulgrew was then offered the role, which she accepted.

Mulgrew made history in the Star Trek franchise when she became the first female captain as a series regular in a leading role. Voyager was the first show broadcast on the new UPN channel, the only series renewed after the channel's first programming season, and its only show to run for seven seasons, making it UPN's longest running. Mulgrew won the Saturn Award for "Best TV Actress" in 1998 for her performances as Janeway.

Mulgrew also voiced the character of Janeway for various Star Trek video games: Star Trek: Captain's Chair, a virtual-reality tour of various Starfleet vessels for home computers; the Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force series, and Star Trek: Legacy.

About her years on Voyager, Mulgrew said:

I'm proud of it. It was difficult; it was hard work. I'm proud of the work because I think I made some little difference in women in science. I grew to really love Star Trek: Voyager, and out of a cast of nine, I've made three great friends, I managed to raise two children. I think, "It's good. I used myself well."

Speaking about the best and worst part about playing a Star Trek captain, she said:

The best thing was simply the privilege and the challenge of being able to take a shot at the first female captain, transcending stereotypes that I was very familiar with. I was able to do that in front of millions of viewers. That was a remarkable experience—and it continues to resonate. The downside of that is also that it continues to resonate, and threatens to eclipse all else in one's long career if one does not up the ante and stay at it, in a way that may not ordinarily be necessary. I have to work at changing and constantly reinventing myself in a way that probably would not have happened had Star Trek not come along. I knew that going in, and I think that all of the perks attached to this journey have been really inexpressively great. So the negatives are small.

During Voyager, Mulgrew also played the role of Titania in the animated series, Gargoyles (along with other Star Trek alumni, Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes) and Victoria Riddler in Riddler's Moon, a made-for-TV movie.

After Voyager and her subsequent Star Trek appearances finished, Mulgrew continued to feature at various Star Trek conventions and events, as she does today.

After Voyager (2001-2012)

After Voyager came to the end of the full seven seasons, Mulgrew returned to theater, and in 2003 starred in a one-woman play called Tea at Five, a monologue reminiscence 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 in 2009 voicing the mysterious Flemeth in the Dragon Age video game series, a role she described as "delicious".

Mulgrew returned to television in 2006, guest starring in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mulgrew also performed in The Exonerated at the Riverside Studios in London, England.

In the spring of 2007, she appeared in the NBC television series The Black Donnellys as Helen Donnelly which lasted for one season. She also performed the lead role in an off-Broadway production called Our Leading Lady written by Charles Busch in which she earned a nomination from the Drama League for her performance. Also in that year, Mulgrew played Clytemnestra in New York for Charles L. Mee's Iphigenia 2.0. She won the Obie Award for outstanding performance.

In June 2008, Mulgrew appeared in Equus on Broadway, playing Hesther Saloman, a public official who is empathetic toward the play's central character. The play opened on September 5, 2008 for a strictly limited 22-week engagement through February 8, 2009. Also in 2008, Mulgrew filmed the 30-minute courtroom drama The Response which is based on actual transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay tribunals. It was researched and fully vetted in conjunction with the University of Maryland School of Law and was shot in three days. Mulgrew portrays Colonel Sims and she, the other cast members and crew agreed to defer their salaries to cover the production costs. The film has been screened at a number of sites and is available on DVD.

In 2009, Mulgrew returned to television in the NBC medical series, Mercy playing the recurring role of Jeannie Flanagan (the mother of the show's lead, Veronica). Due for release in 2010 is the film The Best and the Brightest, a comedy based in the world of New York City's elite private kindergartens. Mulgrew will play The Player's wife. Also in development is the film The Incredible Story of Joyce McKinney and the Manacled Mormon.

In 2010, Kate Mulgrew starred as Cleopatra in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage.

In 2011, Mulgrew appeared in the feature-length documentary The Captains. The film, written and directed by William Shatner, follows Shatner as he interviews each of the other actors who played a Starfleet captain within the Star Trek franchise. During that same year, on another science-fiction series, she began a recurring guest-starring role on the third season of the series "Warehouse 13," as the mother of one of the main characters.

As of July 2011, Mulgrew has appeared as a main cast member on Adult Swim's NTSF:SD:SUV:: as Kove, the leader of the titular terrorism-fighting unit and ex-wife of series lead Paul Scheer's character.

Orange Is The New Black (2013-present)

From 2013, Mulgrew stars as Galina "Red" Reznikov in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, the role for which she was nominated for her first Primetime Emmy Award in 2014. The popular character was re-signed for seasons two and three. On working in the series she was reunited with her Mercy co-star Taylor Schilling.

In 2014, Mulgrew narrated a documentary film, The Principle, which explores the Copernican principle. Mulgrew said that she was misinformed as to the purpose of the documentary, going on to say "I am not a geocentrist, nor am I in any way a proponent of geocentrism... I do not subscribe to anything Robert Sungenis has written regarding science and history and, had I known of his involvement, would most certainly have avoided this documentary."

Personal life

Mulgrew married Robert H. Egan in 1982. They have two sons, Ian and Alex. The couple separated in 1993. The divorce became final in 1995.

In April 1999, Mulgrew married politician Tim Hagan, a former Ohio gubernatorial candidate and a former commissioner of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. In an interview on April 15, 2015, Mulgrew stated she and Hagan were divorced, something she regrets.

Mulgrew is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Alzheimer's Association. Mulgrew's mother, Joan Mulgrew, died on July 27, 2006, after a long battle with the disease.

Mulgrew is an opponent of abortion and capital punishment. She received an award from Feminists for Life, a pro-life feminist group. She is quoted as saying "Execution as punishment is barbaric and unnecessary," "Life is sacred to me on all levels," and "Abortion does not compute with my philosophy." In her 2015 memoir Born with Teeth, referring to her being born with a full set of neonatal teeth, Mulgrew tells the story of being raped at knifepoint, being an unmarried mother who gave up her daughter for adoption during the start of her career, their reunion in 2001, and "the costs and rewards of a passionate life".

Mulgrew is Catholic.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Lovespell	Isolt
1982	Stranger Is Watching, AA Stranger Is Watching	Sharon Martin
1985	Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins	Maj. Rayner Fleming
1987	Throw Momma from the Train	Margaret Donner
1992	Round Numbers	Judith Schweitzer
1994	Camp Nowhere	Rachel Prescott
1995	Captain Nuke and the Bomber Boys	Mrs. Pescoe
2002	Star Trek: Nemesis	Admiral Kathryn Janeway
2004	Star Trek: The Experience - Borg Invasion 4D	Admiral Kathryn Janeway
2005	Perception	Mary
2008	Response, TheThe Response	Colonel Simms	Short film
2010	Best and the Brightest, TheThe Best and the Brightest	The Player's Wife
2012	Flatland 2: Sphereland	Over-Sphere
2013	Drawing Home	Edith Morse Robb
2014	The Principle	Narrator	Documentary

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Wide World of Mystery, TheThe Wide World of Mystery	Susan	Episode: "Alien Lover"
1975-1978	Ryan's Hope	Mary Ryan Fenelli	408 episodes
1976	American Woman: Portraits of Courage, TheThe American Woman: Portraits of Courage	Deborah Sampson	Television movie
1978	Word, TheThe Word	Tony Nicholson	Television movie
	Dallas	Garnet McGee	Episode: "Triangle"
1979	Jennifer: A Woman's Story	Joan Russell	Television movie
1979-1980	Mrs. Columbo	Kate Callahan Columbo	13 episodes
1980	Time for Miracles, AA Time for Miracles	Mother Elizabeth Bayley Seton	Television movie
1981	Manions of America, TheThe Manions of America	Rachel Clement	3 episodes
1984	Jessie	Maureen McLaughlin	Episode: "McLaughlin's Flame"
1986	St. Elsewhere	Helen O'Casey	2 episodes
	Cheers	Janet Eldridge	3 episodes
	Carly Mills	Carly Mills	Television movie
	My Town	Laura Adams	Television movie
1987	Roses Are for the Rich	Kendall Murphy	Television movie
	Hotel	Leslie Chase	Episode: "Reservations"
	Murder, She Wrote	Sonny Greer	Episode: "The Corpse Flew First Class"
1988	Roots: The Gift	Hattie Carraway	Television movie
1988-1989	HeartBeat	Dr. Joanne Halloran	18 episodes
1991	Daddy	Sarah Watson	Television movie
	Fatal Friendship	Sue Bradley	Television movie
1991-1992	Man of the People	Mayor Lisbeth Chardin	10 episodes
1992	Murphy Brown	Hillary Wheaton	Episode: "On the Rocks"
	Murder, She Wrote	Joanna Rollins	Episode: "Ever After"
1992-1995	Batman: The Animated Series	Red Claw (voice)	3 episodes
1992	Pirates of Dark Water, TheThe Pirates of Dark Water	Cressa (voice)	4 episodes
1993	For Love and Glory	Antonia Doyle	Television movie
1994	Murder, She Wrote	Maude Gillis	Episode: "The Dying Game"
	Mighty Max	Isis (voice)	Episode: "The Mommy's Hand"
1994-1995	Aladdin	Queen Hippsodeth (voice)	2 episodes
1995-2001	Star Trek: Voyager	Kathryn Janeway	172 episodes
1996	Gargoyles	Titania / Anastasia Renard (voice)	3 episodes
	Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles	Titania (voice)	Episode: "For It May Come True"
2006	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Donna Geysen	Episode: "Web"
2007	Black Donnellys, TheThe Black Donnellys	Helen Donnelly	9 episodes
2009-2010	Mercy	Mrs. Jeannie Flanagan	10 episodes
2011-2013	Warehouse 13	Jane Lattimer	6 episodes
2011-2013	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Kove	33 episodes
2013-present	Orange Is the New Black	Galina "Red" Reznikov	38 episodes
2015	American Dad!	June Rosewood	Episode: "A Star Is Reborn"
	I Live with Models	Joanna Vermouth	Episode: "Editor"
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	General Zera (voice)	Episode: "Half Shell Heroes: Blast to the Past"

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Our Town	Emily Webb	American Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut
1976	Absurd Person Singular	Eva Jackson
1977	Uncommon Women and Others	Kate Quin	Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
1978	Othello	Desdemona	Hartman Theater Company
1980	Chapter Two	Jennie Malone	Coachlight Dinner Theater
1981-1982	Another Part of the Forest	Regina Hubbard	Seattle Repertory Theatre
1982	Major Barbara	Major Barbara Undershaft	Seattle Repertory Theatre
	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Margaret	Syracuse Stage, New York
1983	Ballad of Soapy Smith, TheThe Ballad of Soapy Smith	Kitty Strong	Seattle Repertory Theatre
1984	Philadelphia Story, TheThe Philadelphia Story	Tracy Lord	Alaska Repertory Theatre
	Misanthrope, TheThe Misanthrope	Celimene	Seattle Repertory Theatre
1985	Measure for Measure	Isabella	Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles
1986	Hedda Gabler	Hedda Gabler	Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles
	Real Thing, TheThe Real Thing	Charlotte	Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles
1987	Film Society, TheThe Film Society	Nan Sinclair	The Los Angeles Theater Center
1989	Titus Andronicus	Tamora	New York Shakespeare Festival
1990	Aristocrats	Alice	Center Theater Group, Los Angeles
1992	What the Butler Saw	Mrs. Prentice	La Jolla Playhouse
1993	Black Comedy	Clea	Roundabout Theatre Company, New York
2002	Dear Liar	Mrs. Patrick Campbell	Youngstown State University
2003	Tea at Five	Katharine Hepburn
2004	Tea at Five	Katharine Hepburn
	Mary Stuart	Mary Stuart	Classic Stage Company, New York
2005	Tea at Five	Katharine Hepburn
2006	Exonerated, TheThe Exonerated	Sunny Jacobs	Riverside Studios, London, England
2007	Our Leading Lady	Laura Keene	Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center
	Iphigenia	Clytemnestra	Signature Theatre Company
2008	Farfetched Fables and The Fascinating Foundling	Anastasia	Project Shaw Reading - The Players Club - New York
	American Dream and The Sandbox, TheThe American Dream and The Sandbox	Mommy	Cherry Lane Theatre, New York
2008-2009	Equus	Hesther Saloman	Broadhurst Theatre, New York

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Star Trek: Captain's Chair	Capt. Kathryn Janeway
2000	Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force	Capt. Kathryn Janeway
2002	Run Like Hell	Dr. Mek
2003	Lords of EverQuest	Lady Kreya
2003	Star Trek: Elite Force II	Capt. Kathryn Janeway
2006	Star Trek: Legacy	Admiral Kathryn Janeway
2009	Dragon Age: Origins	Flemeth
2011	Dragon Age II	Flemeth
2014	Dragon Age: Inquisition	Flemeth

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1980	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Drama	Mrs. Columbo	Nominated
1992	Tracey Humanitarian Award	Herself	Murphy Brown	Won
1998	Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Drama	Star Trek: Voyager	Won
	Saturn Awards	Best Actress on Television		Won
1999				Nominated
2000				Nominated
2001				Nominated
2003	Broadway.com	Audience Award for Favorite Solo Performance	Tea at Five	Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle	Outstanding Solo Performance	Tea at Five	Nominated
	Lucille Lortel Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress	Tea at Five	Nominated
2004	Carbonell Awards	Best Actress (Touring, Independent Production - Cuillo Centre)	Tea at Five	Won
2007	Drama League Award	Distinguished Performance	Our Leading Lady	Nominated
2008	Obie Award	Outstanding Performance	Iphigenia 2.0	Won
2014	Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Orange Is the New Black	Won
	Satellite Awards	Best Cast - Television Series		Won
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series		Nominated
2015	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Won
2016				Won

Memoir

Mulgrew, Kate (2015-04-14). Born with Teeth: A Memoir. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0316334310.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]