Katherine Renee Shindle (born January 31, 1977) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and AIDS activist. She is currently serving as the President of the

Actors' Equity Association The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a boo ...

. She was

Miss America 1998 Miss America 1998, the 71st Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday, September 13, 1997 and was televised by the ABC Network. ABC replaced NBC as the pageant's television home. Results Place ...

in 1998 and

Miss Illinois The Miss Illinois is a pageant program affiliated with Miss America, which is competition for women models representing the state of Illinois. The first "Miss Illinois" sent to the national pageant was Lois Delander who subsequently won the Mi ...

in 1997.

Biography

Shindle was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, grew up in Brigantine, New Jersey and

Moorestown, New Jersey Moorestown is a township in Burlington County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is an eastern suburb of Philadelphia and geographically part of the South Jersey region of the state. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township's population was ...

and attended high school at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School. She was a double major in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

(with a minor in

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

) at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. She has worked as an actress in New York since 1999. Shindle is also a licensed real estate agent. Shindle appeared (as a replacement) in the Broadway production of ''Jekyll & Hyde'' as understudy for the role of Lucy and several other roles. After being cast by co-directors Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall, she played the role of Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of ''Cabaret'' on the national tour in 2000–2001, and on Broadway during June–July 2001. She played this role again in the Maltz Jupiter Theatre (

Jupiter, Florida Jupiter is the northernmost town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the town had a population of 61,047 as of April 1, 2020. It is 84 miles north of Miami, and the northernmost community in the Miami met ...

) production, starting in January 2012, and was nominated for a 2013 Carbonell Award. In 2007-2008 she appeared in the Broadway musical ''Legally Blonde'' as Vivienne Kensington. She played the Mad Hatter in the Broadway production of ''Wonderland'' in 2011. She appeared in a concert version of ''Jeykll & Hyde'' in September 2004 at the

Mohegan Sun Casino Mohegan Sun is an American casino, owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe on of their reservation, along the banks of the Thames River in Uncasville, Connecticut. It has of gambling space. It is in the foothills of southeastern Connecticut, ...

's Cabaret Theatre in

Uncasville, Connecticut Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River where it flows into the Thames River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the ea ...

, playing Lucy. She then toured in the United States with the concert version, starting in September 2005, and recorded the role on the ''Jekyll & Hyde: Resurrection'' album. In 2014, she wrote a memoir, ''Being Miss America: Behind the Rhinestone Curtain,'' published by the

University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books and journals in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texan ...

. In 2015, she defeated incumbent

Nick Wyman Nick Wyman (born May 18, 1950) is an American stage, television, and film actor, and is a former president of the Actors' Equity Association. Early life and education Wyman was born in Portland, Maine and raised in Summit, New Jersey and atten ...

for the presidency of the

Filmography

Theater

Broadway

* ''

Jekyll & Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...

'' (1997) – A Young Girl; Bet; Bridesmaid; Housemaid; Nurse; Lucy u/s * ''

Cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

'' (1998) – Sally Bowles * ''

Legally Blonde ''Legally Blonde'' is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Robert Luketic in his feature-length directorial debut, and scripted by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith from Amanda Brown's 2001 novel of the same name. It stars Reese Wit ...

'' (2007) – Vivienne Kensington * '' 8'' (2011) – Court Clerk * '' Wonderland'' (2011) – The Mad Hatter * ''

Dracula, the Musical ''Dracula, the Musical'' is a musical based on the original 1897 Victorian novel by Bram Stoker. The score is by Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics and book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The show had its regional premiere at the La Jolla Pl ...

'' (2011) – Mina

National Tour

* ''

'' (1999) – Sally Bowles * ''

Fun Home ''Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic'' is a 2006 Graphic novel, graphic memoir by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For''. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, Uni ...

'' (2016) – Alison Bechdel

Regional

* ''The Sting'' (2018) – Billie – Paper Mill Playhouse

Publications

*Shindle, Kate. ''Being Miss America: Behind the Rhinestone Curtain,''

, 2014. *Shindle, Kate.
The Real Housewives of Miss America
"

Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

, September 21, 2014. *Shindle, Kate.
Running_low_on_role_models:_Miss_Nevada's_out,_Tara_Conner
's_wobbly_reign_continues,_and_we're_left_wondering:_What_are_beauty_queens_for,_anyway?.html" ;"title="Tara Conner">Running low on role models: Miss Nevada's out, Tara Conner
's wobbly reign continues, and we're left wondering: What are beauty queens for, anyway?">Tara Conner">Running low on role models: Miss Nevada's out, Tara Conner
's wobbly reign continues, and we're left wondering: What are beauty queens for, anyway?" Salon (website), December 26, 2006.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shindle, Katherine 1977 births Living people American musical theatre actresses Bishop Eustace Preparatory School alumni Miss America winners Miss America 1998 delegates Miss America Preliminary Talent winners Northwestern University School of Communication alumni Actresses from Toledo, Ohio Actresses from New Jersey 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses People from Brigantine, New Jersey People from Moorestown, New Jersey 21st-century American memoirists American film actresses American stage actresses American women memoirists HIV/AIDS activists 21st-century American women writers Beauty pageant controversies Presidents of the Actors' Equity Association