Three-time Emmy® Award winner creating bold, deeply human work across theatre, film and television.
Cady McClain is a three-time Emmy® Award-winning actor whose career spans theatre, television and film.
Most recently on stage, McClain starred in Beneath the Ice of the Vistula by Roman Freud at the West End Theatre. Other New York theatre work also includes Joan Plowright in Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow at Theater for the New City, The Slide Is the Negative by Jake Shore, and What Happened Was by Walter John Thompson, directed by Austin Pendleton at The Chain One Act Festival. She has also starred as Shirley in Shirley Valentine at Cape May Stage and as Heidi in What the Constitution Means to Me at Axial Theatre. Additional credits include David Ives’ The Red Address at Second Stage, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at Lincoln Center Theater, A Comedy of Errors at the Hudson Guild, Barefoot in the Park at Westbury and Valley Forge Music Fair, and Quiet on the Set at Westbeth.
On television, McClain made Daytime Emmy® history with wins for three different characters on three different series: Dixie Martin on All My Children, Rosanna Cabot on As the World Turns, and Jennifer Horton on Days of Our Lives. She currently appears as Pamela Curtis on CBS’s Beyond the Gates. Additional television credits include Law & Order: SVU, Cheers and St. Elsewhere.
Her film work includes Soldier’s Heart, winner of Best Narrative Film at the GI Film Festival in Washington D.C., Home Movie, released by IFC Midnight; Alma Mater, nominated for the Hampton's Film Festival Golden Starfish Award; Simple Justice; and Retreat, winner at the Woods Hole Film Festival.
Starring in Beneath the Ice of the Vistula by Roman Freud, directed by Eduard Tolokonnikov, February 2026
Starring in What Happened Was by John Walter Thompson, directed by Austin Pendleton, July 2025
Starring in The Slide is the Negative by Jake Shore, directed by Paul Smithyman, Fall 2025
"Three-time Emmy Award winner Cady McClain delivers a performance of remarkable complexity as Kelly, a photographer who exists perpetually in the shadow of her husband Barry’s literary success. McClain, who made history as the first woman to win Daytime Emmys for three different characters on three distinct series, brings to Kelly a wounded intelligence that makes her subsequent betrayal both comprehensible and tragic." - Opening Night Reviews
"McClain is intense, aggressive, but gentle, half angel and half devil... a play that is a virtual chemistry class when it comes to performances." - Claude Solnik, Encore Theatre Reviews
"If you like to see theater as a tightrope walked by daring actors with a dangerous abyss all around, that’s what’s here in a drama where words bear so much weight they could nearly make the stage sag beneath the sheer strength of performances." - Claude Solnik, Encore Theatre Reviews
Starring in Orson's Shadow by Austin Pendleton, directed by Austin Pendleton and David Schweizer
"McClain carries herself like Plowright, speaks like her, and showcases marvelous timing. The actress projects secure intelligence as she calms down her lover and makes him see reason while never
appearing to exert control." - Woman About Town
"Cady McClain as Joan Plowright perfectly captures a swingin’ 60s London vibe while dispensing common sense." - Theater Pizazz
"Cady McClain as the young Plowright simply glowed as the sanest and most grown up character in the ensemble. She navigated the tricky role of conveying her love for Olivier without a specific romantic scene, while conveying a great deal of concern towards her lover’s unraveling wife. - Nitelife Exchange
"Cady McClain provides a convincing portrait of the young soon to be third wife of the English stage legend." - Splash Magazine
As "Shirley" in Shirley Valentine at Cape May Stage
As "Heidi" in What the Constitution Means to Me at Axial Theatre
“Cady McClain is masterful not only of her portrayal of Valentine but also of her distant husband, friend, and a half dozen other characters that she introduces the audience to in this not to be missed play.”
"...flashes of wit and inventiveness, particularly surrounding Cady McClain’s Jackie Kennedy look-alike wife, make the… going worthwhile.”
- Variety
“Cady McClain’s performance was dignified and touching as the woman who helps Anderson fulfill his fantasies.”
-The Daily News
“…the sublime and subdued Cady McClain plays her character with equal parts strength and vulnerability, giving her turn as a mother/psychologist the genuine pain of a mother intent on protecting her increasingly dangerous children. If this woman can’t get more solid work in feature films after HOME MOVIE, then I’m not sure what’s going on. Many fine actresses have come from daytime sudsers including Julianne Moore, Meg Ryan and Marissa Tomei. I can see her becoming a much sought after character actress in film for years to come after this.”
- Ryan Bruce Levy Montreal Fantasia Film Festival
Cady on "Entertainment Tonight" for Beyond the Gates