Caitlin O'Heaney

O'Heaney was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised in Whitefish Bay. Her great-great-great-grandfather is Jacob Best, founder of what became the Pabst Brewing Company. O'Heaney was raised Roman Catholic.

She won a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City when she was 17. Then known as Kathleen Heaney, she was a member of the Juilliard Drama Division's Group 3 (1970–1974) where she studied under Academy Award-winning actor John Houseman. Her performances at Juilliard included several classic roles, such as Masha in The Seagull; Doreen in Tartuffe; Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; Mary Boyle in Juno and the Paycock; Maryanne in Measure for Measure; and Esmeralda in Camino Real.O'Heaney made her off-Broadway debut as Loretta in The Hot House at the Chelsea Theatre, then remained at the Chelsea to play Finkel in Yentl and to understudy Tovah Feldshuh in the title role. She moved to Broadway to understudy the role of Elizabeth in A Matter of Gravity, starring Katharine Hepburn and co-starring her Juilliard friend and colleague Christopher Reeve.

She relocated to Seattle to appear as Celia in As You Like It, Gwendolyn in Travesties, and Eylie in Ladyhouse Blues at ACT/Seattle, then returned to New York to play the double roles of Belle and Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at Playwrights Horizon. When A Christmas Carol closed, O'Heaney moved to Los Angeles, and five weeks later she was cast as Anna Marie Hollyhock in the 1978 ABC comedy series Apple Pie, which was produced by Norman Lear, directed by Peter Bonerz, and starred Rue McClanahan, Dabney Coleman, Jack Gilford, Derrel Maury, Mike Binder and Richard Libertini. This was a highlight of O'Heaney's career. She says with regard to the experience, "It was pure magic and incredible fun working every day with these wonderful people!"

O'Heaney remained in Los Angeles to play fourteen-year-old Bianca in White Marriage at the Odyssey Theatre and won a Drama-Logue Award for Best Actress for the role. She then returned to the East Coast to star as Ersilla Drei in Pirandello's Naked at the Syracuse Stage, and performances in Ape Watch at the Mark Taper Forum Lab and in The Brides at the Lenox Art Centre soon followed. She appeared off-Broadway as Olive Lashbrook in The Voice of the Turtle, for which she received a very positive review in The New York Times, and in Scenes and Revelations.