Ben McCann, Adelaide University

Funny, tender, goofy – Catherine O’Hara lit up the screen every time she showed up

Catherine O’Hara, the beloved actor and comedian who has died aged 71, occupied that rare position in contemporary screen culture: a comic actor, a cult figure and a mainstream star.

Her work spanned more than 50 years, from improv sketch comedy to Hollywood features and off-beat TV classics.

She was celebrated for her unmatched comic timing and chameleon-like character work. Her roles were often absurdist and quirky, but they hid a razor-sharp humour.

Born and raised in Toronto in a close-knit Irish Catholic family, O’Hara was one of seven siblings. She once remarked humour was part of her everyday life; storytelling, impressions and lively conversation helped hone her comedic instincts.

After high school, she worked at Toronto’s Second City Theatre, a famed breeding ground for comedy talent, and sharpened her deadpan improvisational skills.

Big break

O’Hara’s break came with Second City Television (SCTV), a sketch comedy series that rivalled Saturday Night Live in creativity and influence. Alongside contemporaries Eugene Levy, John Candy, Rick Moranis and Martin Short, she defined her distinctly smart, absurdist comedic voice.

O’Hara was not merely a performer on SCTV; she was also a writer, winning an Emmy Award for her contributions. This dual role shaped her career-long sensitivity to rhythm, language and character construction.

Unlike sketch performers who rely on repetition or catchphrases, O’Hara’s humour emerged with a different comedic logic. Audiences laughed not because the character was “funny”, but because the character took herself so seriously.

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Though briefly cast on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s, O’Hara chose to stay with SCTV when it was renewed, a decision she later described as key in letting her creative career flourish where it belonged.

The transition to film

By the mid-1980s, O’Hara was establishing herself as a screen presence. She appeared in Martin Scorsese’s offbeat black comedy After Hours (1985), and showcased her comic range in Heartburn (1986).

In 1988, she landed what would become one of her most beloved film roles: Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s left-field Beetlejuice (1988).

Delia – a pretentious, New York art-scene social climber – allowed O’Hara to combine physical comedy and imbecilic dialogue (“A little gasoline … blowtorch … no problem”).

Burton once noted

Catherine’s so good, maybe too good. She works on levels that people don’t even know. I think she scares people because she operates at such high levels.

She went on to play Kate McCallister, the beleaguered mother in the holiday blockbusters Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Audiences loved the fact that this rather thinly written role became the films’ beating heart.

Working with Christopher Guest

Another distinctive phase of O’Hara’s career was her work with writer-director Christopher Guest on a series of largely improvised mockumentaries that have become cult classics.

Three standouts were Waiting for Guffman (1996), where she plays a desperate local performer in a small-town theatre troupe, and A Mighty Wind (2003), where she teamed up with old pal Levy as an ageing folk duo.

Her best turn came in Best in Show (2000), in which she and Levy played a couple competing in a national dog show. Her character Cookie Fleck remains one of the finest examples of improvised comedy on film. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ay1cJ1QMOms?wmode=transparent&start=0

Her relentless monologues about former lovers are objectively inappropriate, yet O’Hara delivers them with such earnest enthusiasm that they become strangely compelling.

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Her gift for improvisation glittered in these films: these eccentric characters were often laugh-out-loud funny – but O’Hara never mocked them.

Late success

She returned to TV in Six Feet Under (2001–05) and guest appearances on The Larry Sanders Show (1992–98) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (1999–2024). More recently, she appeared in prestige shows such as The Last of Us (2023–) and The Studio (2025–).

But it was the role of Moira Rose, the eccentric, ex-soap opera star in the Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek (2015–20), created by Eugene Levy and his son Dan, that would become O’Hara’s most significant late career move. And what a role it was!

Written for O’Hara’s unique talents, Moira was a larger-than-life character with a bizarre, unforgettable vocabulary, dramatic mood swings and a wardrobe that became nearly as famous as the character herself.

Feminist media scholars have noted the rarity of such complex roles for older women, particularly in comedy, making O’Hara’s performance culturally significant.

The show became a global streaming blockbuster during COVID lockdowns and O’Hara’s multi-award-winning performance became a social media phenomenon, spawning memes and viral clips.

There are so many standout moments – her drunken meltdown after losing her wigs, her audition for The Crows Have Eyes 3 and the show’s moving finale where she performs Danny Boy at Alexis’s graduation.

An enduring legacy

O’Hara had a remarkable ability to play flamboyant, self-absorbed characters who were often uproariously funny.

Many comedians and actors have cited O’Hara as an influence for her fearlessness, her ability to blend absurdity with emotional truth, and her steadfast commitment to character integrity. She influenced performers like Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

O’Hara also refused to chase conventional stardom. Rather than choosing projects designed to flatten her eccentricities, O’Hara favoured collaborative environments that valued creativity over control.

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For her, comedy was always an art of intelligence, empathy and generosity.

Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, Adelaide University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Spatial filmmaking is having a moment—but at CES 2026, the more interesting story wasn’t a glossy trailer or a perfectly controlled demo. It was the workflow.

According to a recent GIGABYTE press release, VR filmmaker and educator Hugh Hou ran a live spatial computing demonstration inside the GIGABYTE suite, walking attendees through how immersive video is actually produced in real-world conditions—capture to post to playback—without leaning on pre-rendered “best case scenario” content. In other words: not theory, not a lab. A production pipeline, running live, on a show floor.

A full spatial pipeline—executed live

The demo gave attendees a front-row view of a complete spatial filmmaking pipeline:

• Capture
• Post-production
• Final playback across multiple devices

And the key detail here is that the workflow was executed live at CES—mirroring the same processes used in commercial XR projects. That matters because spatial video isn’t forgiving. Once you’re working in 360-degree environments (and pushing into 8K), you’re no longer just chasing “fast.” You’re chasing:

• System stability
• Performance consistency
• Thermal reliability

Those are the unsexy requirements that make or break actual production days.

Playback across Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro, and Galaxy XR

The session culminated with attendees watching a two-minute spatial film trailer across:

• Meta Quest
• Apple Vision Pro
• Newly launched Galaxy XR headsets
• Plus a 3D tablet display offering an additional 180-degree viewing option

That multi-device playback is a quiet flex. Spatial content doesn’t live in one ecosystem anymore—creators are being pulled toward cross-platform deliverables, which adds even more pressure on the pipeline to stay clean and consistent.

Where AI fits (when it’s not the headline)

One of the better notes in the release: AI wasn’t positioned as a shiny feature. It was framed as what it’s becoming for a lot of editors—an embedded toolset that speeds up the grind without hijacking the creative process.

In the demo, AI-assisted processes supported tasks like:

• Enhancement
• Tracking
• Preview workflows

The footage moved through industry-standard software—Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve—with AI-based:

• Upscaling
• Noise reduction
• Detail refinement

And in immersive VR, those steps aren’t optional polish. Any artifact, softness, or weird noise pattern becomes painfully obvious when the viewer can look anywhere.

Why the hardware platform matters for spatial workloads

Underneath the demo was a custom-built GIGABYTE AI PC designed for sustained spatial video workloads. Per the release, the system included:

• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor
• Radeon AI PRO R9700 AI TOP GPU
• X870E AORUS MASTER X3D ICE motherboard

The point GIGABYTE is making is less “look at these parts” and more: spatial computing workloads demand a platform that can run hard continuously—real-time 8K playback and rendering—without throttling, crashing, or drifting into inconsistent performance.

That’s the difference between “cool demo” and “reliable production machine.”

The bigger takeaway: spatial filmmaking is moving from experiment to repeatable process

By running a demanding spatial filmmaking workflow live—and repeatedly—at CES 2026, GIGABYTE is positioning spatial production as something creators can depend on, not just test-drive.

And that’s the shift worth watching in 2026: spatial filmmaking isn’t just about headsets getting better. It’s about the behind-the-scenes pipeline becoming stable enough that creators can treat immersive production like a real, repeatable craft—because the tools finally hold up under pressure.

Source:PRNewswire – GIGABYTE press release

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Black History Month is often a time for big names and headline moments—but some of the most powerful chapters in American history were written by people whose stories never made it into the spotlight. This February, a new documentary aims to change that.

Vision Films has announced the North American transactional VOD release of Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II, arriving February 3, 2026 across major streaming and cable platforms in the U.S. and Canada. The film is directed, written, and executive produced by Gregory S. Cooke, with executive producers Ethel “Becky” Cooke and Basil Spalding Jones, and associate producer Joyce Licorish.

At the center of the documentary: the 600,000 African American women who served on the home front—many as “Rosie the Riveters”—while fighting a second battle against racism and sexism at home.

A WWII story we rarely hear—told by the women who lived it

Invisible Warriors is built around first-person accounts and rare archival footage, giving audiences a direct line to the voices of women who stepped into factories, shipyards, and government offices at a time when opportunity was heavily gated by both race and gender.

These were not symbolic roles. These women helped power the war effort, kept industries moving, and proved—daily, publicly, and under pressure—that they belonged in spaces America had never intended to share with them.

The documentary frames their contributions as more than wartime necessity. It positions them as trailblazers whose work helped reshape what was possible for generations of Black women in industry, civil service, and beyond—opening doors that had been locked for decades.

Why this release hits differently in 2026

Vision Films Managing Director/CEO Lise Romanoff calls the documentary “an important” tribute that keeps alive the legacy of women who joined the war effort “despite racial, gender and societal obstacles,” adding that it celebrates heroines who paved the way for working women—and for those still fighting for racial and gender equality today.

Cooke, an educator and historian, puts it even more plainly—and personally. He describes these women as “arguably… the most significant group of Black women in the 20th Century,” noting that his own mother was also a Rosie. In his view, their story isn’t optional history—it’s foundational.

A film with a classroom mission baked in

This isn’t just a documentary release—it’s part of a larger educational push. Cooke’s nonprofit, The Basil and Becky Educational Foundation (BBEEF), has developed companion Social Studies and STEAM curricula tied to the film, targeting grades 8–12. The goal: move African American experiences from the margins to “the main pages” of history, and make that history relevant to students now.

That educational angle feels especially aligned with the film’s purpose: not simply to honor the past, but to make sure it’s taught accurately, widely, and with the context it deserves.

International recognition—and a long list of supporters

The film was originally co-sponsored by the Dutch government, which sought to honor African American women for their role in the WWII liberation of the Netherlands. Additional support came from organizations and foundations including Drexel Alumni, Better Angels/Lavine Fellowship, Gift of Life Donor Program, Always Best Care Senior Services, Darryl & Leslye Fraser Foundation, and CARIE: Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly.

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That range of backing signals something important: this story resonates far beyond a single community or a single country. It’s a missing piece of WWII history—period.

Where to watch (and where to start)

Pre-orders are already live on:

• iTunes/Apple TV: https://bit.ly/4pJ6fXN
• Fandango at Home: https://bit.ly/4qUj0zU

For updates and more info, visit: https://invisiblewarriorsfilm.com
About BBEEF: https://bbeef.org
About Vision Films: https://www.visionfilms.net

The takeaway

Invisible Warriors isn’t positioned as a niche WWII documentary—it’s positioned as a correction. A long-overdue recognition of women who helped win a global war while being denied full equality at home, and who still showed up anyway.

If Black History Month is about remembering, this film is about restoring.

If you tell me where you’re publishing this (STM Daily News vs. Sleeves vs. TNC Network) and your preferred word count, I’ll tailor the headline, subheads, and meta description to match that outlet’s style.

Sources: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vision-films-brings-invisible-warriors-african-american-women-in-world-war-ii-documentary-to-audiences-for-black-history-month-302666270.html

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