Dan Levy says he wrote Moira Rose for Catherine O’Hara — 'dream come true'

Years before her death, Dan Levy told Page Six that it was a "dream come true" to work with family friend Catherine O’Hara, saying in a March 2018 interview that he had written the Schitt’s Creek matriarch Moira Rose with O’Hara in mind. "We wrote the character with the intention of Catherine playing the part," Levy said, adding that the cast were "crossing our fingers, crossing our toes" before she signed on.

He recounted that when they learned she would take the role they sat down "over breakfast." Levy praised O’Hara’s role in shaping Moira, saying she "came with references in terms of how she wanted the character to look, and pitched the accent," and that "Catherine has really shaped that character herself." He lauded her "brilliance," "incredible insight" and comedic "impulses," calling writing for Moira "one of the most hysterically rewarding experiences" in the writers' room.

Levy noted O’Hara had been in his life "in a very peripheral way" since he was born because his father, Eugene Levy, had worked with her since their Second City days in the 1970s. O’Hara ultimately won a 2021 Golden Globe for the role she nearly turned down, she told Vulture in 2019.

Catherine O’Hara, 71, died Friday at her Los Angeles home following a brief illness, her agency CAA confirmed to Page Six. The Los Angeles Fire Department told Page Six it responded to a call at her Brentwood home at 4:48 a.m.

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