Katie Marie Harman Ebner (born August 18, 1980) is an American classical vocalist and actress who won the

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

2002 and

Miss Oregon The Miss Oregon competition is a regional scholarship competition and Beauty contest, beauty pageant that selects the representative for the US state of Oregon in the Miss America pageant. The annual event includes contestants from across the st ...

2001 pageants. She is the first and only contestant from the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

ern United States to hold the title of Miss America. After her pageant career, Harman has worked as a singer and actress, appearing in stage productions in the United States, as well as having a guest role on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series ''

Big Love ''Big Love'' is an American drama television series that aired on HBO from March 12, 2006 to March 20, 2011. It stars Bill Paxton as the patriarch of a fundamentalist Mormon family in contemporary Utah that practices polygamy, with Jeanne Tripp ...

'' in 2010.

Early life

Harman was born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. Her family relocated to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

during her childhood, but returned to Oregon when she was eight years old, settling in Gresham. She graduated from Centennial High School in Gresham in 1999, where she was involved in the drama department. After high school, Harman enrolled at the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound (UPS or Puget Sound) is a private university in Tacoma, Washington. The university draws approximately 2,600 students from 44 states and 16 countries. It offers 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 traditional an ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, later transferring to

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

, where she graduated ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' with a bachelor's degree in communications.

Career

Miss America 2002

In 2001, she was selected as Miss

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

, and then won the

pageant, allowing her to compete for Miss America. She was selected as Miss America the Saturday after the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. Her first official appearances in the new role of Miss America were at the

World Trade Center site The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground zero#World Trade Center, Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounde ...

and

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

to visit rescue workers, at the request of journalist

Janet Langhart Cohen Janet Leola Langhart Cohen (née Floyd; born December 22, 1941) is an American television journalist and anchor, and author. Beginning her career as a model, she started in television reporting the weather. She serves as president and CEO of Lan ...

. In her speech, Harman said: "This is an opportunity for Miss America to rally the hopes of the American public. I want to make sure that this tragedy does not bring America down."

Post-Miss America

Since completing her duties as Miss America, she played Kathie in ''

The Student Prince ''The Student Prince'' is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play '' Old Heidelberg''. The piece has a score with some of Romberg's most enduri ...

'' with the Gold Coast Opera in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. She also played Barbarina in ''

Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

''. As a vocalist, she has performed with pianist

André Watts André Watts (born June 20, 1946) is an American classical pianist and professor at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University. In 2020, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. Life and early performances Born in Nuremberg ...

with the Shreveport Symphony and others. Katie also appeared as herself in an episode of the

improvisational comedy Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

show ''

Whose Line Is It Anyway? ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show originating as a British radio programme, before moving to British television in 1988. Following the conclusion of the British run in 1999, ABC began airing an American ...

'' in 2002. She delivered the keynote address for

's 2002 Commencement. This resulted in protests from the Progressive Student Union and other students and faculty who expressed concerns related to her credentials as Miss America and the pageant's promotion of a "sexist" attitude. In response to the controversy, Harman stated: "The Miss America program is offering young women to have a voice. The elements of competition and judging is such that it doesn't concentrate on a woman's appearance. It's about intellect and passion for issues. It has little or nothing to do with the way she looks. I'm 5'3", and I grew up never thinking I could be a supermodel. Miss America embraces women who have inner beauty. If you have joy and hope, it makes you beautiful. This is not a sexist competition in any way. Harman acted in a production of "The Secret Garden" at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, she released her first music CD, ''Soul of Love'', featuring light classical music. In 2010, she made her acting debut as Miss Provo in an episode of the

series ''

'', during which she performed a musical number at a campaign rally. She has appeared in several

television commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

in the

Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...

, including promotional spots for Portland Rescue Mission. In September 2016, she appeared onstage as Emma in a production of '' Jekyl & Hyde'' at the Brunish Theatre,

Antoinette Hatfield Hall Antoinette Hatfield Hall, formerly known as the New Theatre Building, is a complex located in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. It is one of three buildings in the Portland'5 Centers for the Arts (formerly known as PCPA), which also include ...

in Portland.

Personal life

Harman married

Oregon Air National Guard The Oregon Air National Guard (OR ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Oregon, United States of America. It is, along with the Oregon Army National Guard, an element of the Oregon National Guard. As state militia units, the units in the Ore ...

pilot Tim Ebner in 2003 and she gave birth to a son Tyler Glen Ebner in 2005. In 2005, Harman moved with her husband and son to Klamath Falls, Oregon where he continues to work for the Oregon Air National Guard. In 2009 she gave birth to a daughter.

Works

Filmography

Discography

*''Soul of Love'' (2007)

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Katie Harman's official website
*

at

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

"Miss America 2002 Katie Harman Sings Romantic Favorites"
''Oregon Symphony'', January 24, 2003. (press release)
Interview with Katie Harman by TravelAndLeisure.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harman, Katie 1980 births American beauty pageant winners American opera singers Living people Miss America winners Miss America 2002 delegates Miss Oregon winners Miss America Preliminary Talent winners People from Gresham, Oregon Actresses from Portland, Oregon Portland State University alumni University of Puget Sound alumni 21st-century American singers