Katherine Grace McNamara (born November 22, 1995 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American actress. Following a few minor roles with Disney, she became well-known for playing young Action Girl roles, notably Clary Fray on Shadowhunters, Sonya on The Maze Runner Series, and Mia Smoak on Arrow.
Filmography:
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2011) as Jasmine
- 30 Rock (2011) as Meagan (uncredited)
- Drop Dead Diva (2011) as Ann Logan
- New Year's Eve (2011) as Lily Bowman
- Kickin' It (2012-13) as Claire
- Last Ounce of Courage (2012) as Caroler
- Glee (2012) as Bunhead #1
- Girl vs. Monster (2012) as Myra Santelli
- Touch (2013) as Evie Woods
- Jessie (2013) as Bryn Breitbart
- The Haunting Hour (2013) as Jodanna
- The Thundermans (2013) as Tara Campbell
- Transformers: Rescue Bots (2014-16) as Priscilla Pynch (voice)
- Unforgettable (2014) as Young Carrie Wells
- Workaholics (2014) as Haley
- CSI (2014) as Angela Ward / Tangerine
- The Fosters (2015) as Ekaterina
- The Maze Runner Series as Sonya
- Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)
- Shadowhunters (2016-19) as Clarissa "Clary" Fray
- The Grinder (2016) as Ginger (uncredited)
- Arrowverse (2018 - 2021) as Mia Smoak-Queen / Blackstar / Green Arrow
- Arrow (2018-20)
- Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019)
- The Flash (2021)
- Assimilate (2019) as Hannah
- The Stand (2021) as Julie Lawry
- Walker: Independence (2022 - 2023) as Abby Walker
Tropes associated with the actress and her works:
- Action Girl: As Sonya in The Maze Runner Series, Clary in Shadowhunters (though she starts the series as an Action Survivor), and Mia in Arrow.
- Advertised Extra: She received prominent billing in The Maze Runner The Death Cure, even though she only appears at the beginning and then at the end.
- The Cast Showoff: For the TV film Contest, she provides a tie-in song called "Chatter"
. She also performs a song in Little Savages. - Dye Hard: She is a natural strawberry blonde and got her big break as Fiery Redhead Clary, but is currently known as a full blonde.
- Dyeing for Your Art: She dyed her hair red for Shadowhunters and then pink for The Stand (2020).
- Enforced Method Acting: She opted to wear a corset for Walker Independence, even though they gave her the option not to, because she wanted to properly feel what it was like to wear one.
- Irony as She Is Cast: As a southerner herself, she noted the irony that on Walker Independence, where the cast is putting on fake southern accents, she can't tap into her natural one, as she's playing a Bostonian.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: She's Katherine to her family and people she grew up with, and is called 'Katie Mac' in New York, which she had to be nicknamed that to distinguish her from Catherine Zeta-Jones in a play they were both doing. In LA, she's just Kat.
- Playing Against Type: Before Shadowhunters and The Maze Runner had her in Action Girl roles, she normally played the Alpha Bitch or very rarely the love interest.
- Star-Making Role: Shadowhunters marked her transition to respectable adult roles.
- Teen Genius: She graduated high school at fourteen and college at seventeen, albeit an online one.
