Who

The diminutive Chenoweth and her distinctive voice have starred on both the Broadway stage (Wicked) and the small screen (The West Wing).

Backstory

Born in Oklahoma and raised by adoptive parents, Chenoweth got her start singing in the church choir and working it on the local beauty pageant circuit: She won "Miss OCU" and was first runner-up in 1991's Miss Oklahoma contest. In 1997 Chenoweth made her Broadway debut in a revival of Moliere's Scapin; soon afterward she auditioned for the role of Patty in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, but wound up winning a Tony playing Sally Brown, a role the producers created just for her and her Betty Boop-esque voice. Charlie Brown proved a major springboard for her career; before long she'd parlayed her newfound fame into long list of wide-ranging gigs. In 2001, she released an album of classic Broadway standards called Let Yourself Go, which met with strong sales; later that year she fronted a mercifully short-lived sitcom called Kristin for NBC. She returned to Broadway in 2003 as good witch Glinda in Wicked before moving to the small screen a year later as press secretary Annabeth Schott on The West Wing. She's since released a second album, As I Am, and taken several roles in movies including the Will Ferrell bomb Bewitched, the Steve Martin bomb The Pink Panther, and the Robin Williams bomb RV.

Recently

Chenoweth has continued to bounce between stage, film, TV and recording work of late, returning to Broadway in December 2006 in a limited-run of the Gary Griffin-directed revival of The Apple Tree at the Roundabout Theater, part of City Center's Encore! Program. (Chenoweth booster Ben Brantley called her performance "blindingly radiant.") In her latest television foray, in 2007 she debuted in a supporting role in the ABC dramedy Pushing Daisies alongside Swoosie Kurtz.

Trophy case

She snagged Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for her role as Sally in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Personal

The 4'11" actress gets around. She was engaged to actor Mark Kudisch (they called it off in 2001), dated violinist Josh Bell (although she was rumored to just be his beard), and was involved with West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin (who modeled the character Harriet Hayes on Studio 60 after her). In 2006, she was seeing Prison Break actor/vehicular manslaughterer Lane Garrison, and was also linked to Nick Lachey the same year. One constant companion, however, is Chenoweth's dog, Maddy, who's named after the actress Madeline Kahn. Kristin and Maddy live at Trump Place on the Upper West Side.

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