Caroline Rhea life and biography

Caroline Gilchrist Rhea is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actress who was the original host of the reality television show The Biggest Loser on NBC until she was replaced by Alison Sweeney after the end of the third season. She is also known for her role as Hilda Spellman from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and for replacing Rosie O'Donnell as the hostess of her syndicated talk show, renamed The Caroline Rhea Show. Rhea provides the voice for Linda Flynn, mother of Phineas and Candace Flynn, on the Disney Channel series Phineas and Ferb.

Rhea was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of Marjorie, an antiques dealer, and David Rhea, an obstetrician and gynecologist. On the set of the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the cast referred to her as Cathy, a name that has stuck with her in her comedic career. She has two sisters, Cynthia and Celia. She attended The Study, an all-girls private school in Westmount, Quebec and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

Her film debut was as a bikini-clad extra in the film Meatballs III, shot on location near Montreal. She moved to New York in 1989 to study stand-up comedy at the New School for Social Research.

Rhea has said that her true training came from her first gigs at the comedy club, Catch a Rising Star. Performing around New York City, she quickly gained a reputation in the city's competitive comedy scene. These performances were augmented with appearances on MTV's Half-Hour Comedy Hour, Comic Strip Live and Caroline's Comedy Hour. She decided to move to Los Angeles for a career in Hollywood, debuting in NBC television series Pride & Joy co-starring with Jeremy Piven. She gained fame for her role as Aunt Hilda on the ABC and (later) The WB's Sabrina the Teenage Witch, as well as being a regular on the latest incarnation of Hollywood Squares.

In 2002, Rhea landed her own syndicated daytime talk show, The Caroline Rhea Show. Rosie O'Donnell hand-picked Rhea as her replacement. In 2004, Rhea became the first host of the series, The Biggest Loser on NBC, a weight loss reality show in which overweight members of two teams try to lose the most weight. After her 3rd season, Rhea was replaced by Alison Sweeney. In 2005, Rhea was in the movie The Perfect Man, playing a co-worker of Jean (Heather Locklear).

She has appeared in Comic Relief 8, as well as the Ms. Foundation's "Women of Comedy from Caroline's Comedy Club" (no relation to Rhea). She appeared as a contestant in 2001 on a special edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, winning $125,000 for charity. She had her own stand-up special as part of Bravo's three-part Funny Ladies series, along with Joan Rivers and Paula Poundstone. Rhea has had a recurring role on the hit Disney Channel Original Series, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody as Ilsa Shickelgubermeiger-Von Helsing der Keppelugerhofer, an inspector turned manager of the rival hotel. In the series, she is well known for a large mole on her cheek. She has appeared on Disney's Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire as the mother and also Christmas with the Kranks in 2004. She has competed on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown and GSN's World Series of Blackjack.

She now does the voice of Linda Flynn in Phineas and Ferb, an animated show with Ashley Tisdale, Mitchel Musso, and Alyson Stoner. Rhea will next appear on the upcoming Fox animated series Two Dreadful Children. Caroline Rhea also plays Noleta Nethercott on the TV series Sordid Lives: The Series. She has also been in the original Lifetime Television movie To Be Fat Like Me with Kaley Cuoco. Rhea stars as a down on her luck waitress alongside Justin Guarini and Mircea Monroe in the Marvista Entertainment production of Fast Girl. Rhea has also done a live webcast with author, Meg Cabot.

Rhea and her longtime boyfriend Costaki Economopoulos were engaged on December 31, 2010. Their daughter Ava was born in New York on Thursday, October 23, 2008.

Rhea currently resides in Los Angeles and New York, but vacations in Kennebunk, Maine.

Filmography:

Phineas and Ferb (TV series)
Mom / Grandma / Additional Voices / …
– Tour De Ferb (2011)
– Mommy Can You Hear Me?/Road Trip (2011)
– Boys Interrupted/A Real Boy (2011)
– Bad Hair Day/Meatloaf Surprise (2011)
– Last Train to Bustville (2011)
See all 76 episodes »

2011 Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension - In Fabulous 2D (TV movie)
Linda Flynn-Fletcher (voice) / Alternate Linda (voice)

2009 Larry the Cable Guy's Hula-Palooza Christmas Luau (TV movie)

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