Early Life
McPhee was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Daniel McPhee, is a television producer. Her mother Patricia (née Burch) (stage name Peisha Arten), is a vocal coach and accomplished cabaret singer. The family moved to Sherman Oaks in L.A. when Katharine was 12 years old. Katharine's mother recognized her daughter's musical talent and decided to train her. McPhee has an older sister, Adriana. McPhee is of Irish, Scottish, and German descent. McPhee attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, where she performed in school plays and musicals. She graduated in 2002. She attended Boston Conservatory for three semesters, majoring in musical theater. She left college on the advice of her manager and returned to Los Angeles to try out for television pilots. McPhee was cast (during the time she had dropped out of college and was auditioning in Los Angeles) in a mall-based MTV soap opera pilot, You Are Here, playing the older sister of a more popular younger sister. MTV never aired the pilot and did not pick up the series. In March 2005, McPhee starred as Annie Oakley in a Los Angeles-based production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun. McPhee was nominated for an L.A. Stage Ovation Award in the category of "Lead Actress in a Musical". McPhee had a small role as Paramount Girl in the 2007 musical film Crazy, based on the life of Hank Garland. McPhee filmed the role in early 2005, before she auditioned for American Idol.
McPhee has struggled with eating disorders in the past. She told People that at age 13 she began starving herself and exercising compulsively and at age 17 became bulimic. McPhee gained weight in college due to her binging. After seven years of illness, McPhee finally entered a three-month rehabilitation program for her eating disorder after successfully passing her American Idol audition; her rehab stint ended just before the Idol semifinals started in February 2006. During her run on American Idol, she lost 30 lb (14 kg) due to eating better as part of her treatment. Now, as she told Teen Vogue in May 2007, "I eat whatever I crave—I'm just really careful about portions." McPhee and her sister appeared on the debut of The Dr. Keith Ablow Show on September 18, 2006, to discuss her struggles with bulimia and her childhood fear of her father. Also on the show, McPhee stated that she was misdiagnosed with a learning disability during her middle school years but was finally correctly diagnosed with a vision problem that caused her to have trouble reading in class. McPhee claimed she was known as the "pretty but stupid" girl in school because she had trouble reading.
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