Seth Rogen Details How ‘The Studio’ Season 2 is Tackling Catherine O’Hara’s Death
Seth Rogen is working to fill an immeasurable void.
The Emmy winner offered insight into how The Studio will address the absence of Catherine O’Hara—who died in January at age 71 following a brief illness—during its upcoming second season, admitting that her passing will be impossible to ignore.
“If anything, we’re acknowledging the idea that we are a little anchorless,” he told The Times of London in an interview published April 3. “But, honestly, that is a part of life and what we all experience. And so while we try to not dwell too much on heavy themes in this show, they will be there in this second season. We are not ignoring it.”
Still, carrying on without the Schitt’s Creek alum—who portrayed Hollywood executive Patty Leigh in season one—won’t be easy for Seth and his creative partner Evan Goldberg, who acknowledged that reworking the new season after her death was “an unbelievable challenge.”
“Obviously emotionally, dealing with the loss, but also when it comes to the show itself,” Evan explained. “We wrote it for her to be there. We had it all set and the shock waves permeate throughout the entire new season. It’s been difficult.”
“She was the anchor,” he continued, “and now the anchor is gone.”
Eric Charbonneau/Apple TV+ via Getty Images
Catherine didn’t just contribute to the Apple TV comedy with her scene-stealing performance. In fact, Seth, 43, previously shared how she elevated the production as he accepted her posthumous Actor Award for her role in the show last month.
“Pretty much every evening before she had a shooting day on our show, she would email me and Evan an email that always was pretty similar,” he told the audience during the March 1 ceremony. “It said, ‘Hello, I hope you’ll consider the following,’ and then there would be a completely rewritten version of the scene she was in.”
And by Seth’s account, his late costar’s edits were always more than welcome.
“Literally 100 percent of the time,” he raved, “it made not just her character better, but it made the scene better and the entire show better as a whole.”
The Studio was just one project that put Catherine’s singular talent on full display. For a look back at her best roles throughout her career, keep reading.
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Second City TV (1976 TO 1984)
Catherine’s big break came in 1976 with the debut of NBC Canada’s comedic variety series. It was there Catherine stood out amongst Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin and more stars flexing her comedy chops for six seasons. One of her most iconic SCTV characters to date was Lola Heatherton a melodramatic show girl.
“Everybody had a Vegas character except me,” Catherine said of the reoccurring character in an interview with the New Yorker published in 2019. “I was called Lola Heatherton because I had seen Lola Falana, the singer who used to be on The Tonight Show and Merv Griffin. I stole the stupid lip-quivering thing from her, and the kitten-with-a-whip thing from Joey Heatherton.”
Parisa Taghizadeh/Warner Bros. Entertainment
Beetlejuice (1988)
It was showtime for Catherine as she marked her Hollywood breakout in Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic. Starring as Delia Deetz, the self-absorbed interior designer and wife to Charles Deetz (Jeffery Jones) and stepmother of Lydia Deetz (Wynonna Ryder), who alongside her husband, tried to outsmart the antics of Lydia and ghosts of their new residence Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) who wanted them out of their home.
Catherine went on to reprise her role in 2024’s Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
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Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Starring as Kate McCallister, the mom who went through hoops to get back to her son Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) not once—but twice—after she and husband Peter (John Heard) left him home alone during the holiday season. Of all Catherine’s iconic character catch phrases, fans will remember how she pledged to stop at nothing to get back to KEVIN!
(Photo by Manoli Figetakis/Getty Images)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Lending her voice for another Tim Burton classic, Catherine played Sally the ragdoll of Jack Skellington’s (Danny Elfman) dreams, who followed him as she navigated the alternate worlds of Christmas and Halloween.
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Christopher Guest Mockumentaries
Throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s, Catherine starred alongside Eugene, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard, Parker Posey and more in Guest’s beloved slate of mockumentaries. Just a few of her iconic turns were in 1996’s Waiting for Guffman, 2000’s Best in Show, 2003’s A Mighty Wind and 2006’s award season classic For Your Consideration.
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Glen Martin, DDS (2009)
In the claymation comedy Catherine lent her voice as Jackie Robinson Martin, the wife of Glen (Kevin Nealon) who takes his family—including their teenage daughters—on a road trip after accidentally burning down their home. Ever the supportive wife, Jackie was along for the ride and family’s adventure for the two-season series.
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Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020)
Is there a more iconic role? Catherine starred as Moria Rose, the former Hollywood actress who packed up as many of her wigs, outfits and dramatic phrases as she could, after being left penniless in the titular town with her husband Johnny Rose (longtime pal Eugene) and their adult children David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy). During the six-season run, Catherine marked Moria’s fav season (awards) with an Emmy for her role.
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Modern Family (2015)
Catherine was one of the many celebrities to make a cameo in the ABC comedy during its 11-season run appearing in season seven’s “Clean Out Your Junk Drawer” as Dr. Debra Radcliffe, an unconventional couple’s therapist who needed a little therapy of her own.
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The Last of Us (2025)
Catherine wore her heart on her sleeve as Gail, a character created in season two of the HBO series to help Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) repair their relationship as they settled into a new town, leaving the first season’s death and destruction in the past.
Apple TV
The Studio (2025)
In her final credit before her death, Catherine played Patty Leigh, and eccentric studio executive, based loosely on producer Amy Pascal in Seth Rogen’s Emmy-winning Apple TV comedy. In her role, Catherine traded in her usually structure blonde hair for all over tresses and she made her presence known around town while trying to recover after being ousted by Continental Pictures.
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