The call came on a Friday.
Sara Chase was still performing as Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby on Broadway. She was also, at the same time, undergoing chemotherapy for fallopian tube cancer. She had been planning to cut her hair short — a Julie Andrews crop — to make the shedding easier. The appointment was scheduled for the following week.
Then someone asked if she could come in for a reading of Schmigadoon! on Monday.
“I was like, ‘You know what? I think I should hold off just for one more week,'” she recalled in an interview with Broadway.com. She went in, did the reading during the day, performed Gatsby at night, and then the following week had to step away from the show for medical leave. “Schmigadoon! was such a nice little gift to have right before I had to go away for a little bit.”
That reading became the role. That role became a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical — her first, at 42, for a show that won Best Musical at the 79th Annual Tony Awards on June 7, 2026.
Sara Chase is a 42-year-old American actress and singer, born on August 3, 1983, in Hartford, Connecticut. She is best known to mainstream audiences for playing Cyndee Pokorny in Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and to theater audiences for a two-decade Broadway and Off-Broadway career that has included First Date, The Great Gatsby, and now Schmigadoon! at the Nederlander Theatre. She plays Melissa Gimble, one half of a New York couple trapped in a magical town that runs on Golden Age musical theater logic.
The show received 12 Tony nominations. It won Best Musical. Chase was nominated alongside Caissie Levy, Stephanie Hsu, and others in the Best Leading Actress category — a competitive field in one of Broadway’s stronger seasons in recent memory.
Her story of getting there deserves more than a paragraph.
Hartford, Boston, and the UCB: Building a Comic Foundation
Chase grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Arnold and Sandy Chase. She describes a childhood steeped in Golden Age musicals — cast recordings of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon, anything with the theatrical architecture of the 1940s and 50s.
“I was obsessed with The Sound of Music,” she told Boston University. “I still believe the most beautiful melodies and lyrics come from this era, and that is why they endure. They are timeless and poetic.”
The irony that she would eventually star in a loving Broadway parody of those same musicals is not lost on her.
She attended Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, graduating in 2005 with a BFA. What came next was not a straight line to Broadway. After graduation, she and a partner performed a two-woman sketch comedy show called Jen and Angie at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in both New York and Los Angeles. Her comedy work was seen at the Women in Comedy Festival, the NY Comedy Festival, and on UsWeekly.com.
The UCB foundation matters for understanding how Chase operates as a performer. Her skills are rooted in scene work, listening, and commitment to absurdist premises — not the classical singer-dancer-actor pipeline that Broadway typically prizes above all else. She can do the singing and dancing. What makes her distinctive is the comedy underneath everything she does.
Early television appearances put her in front of small but relevant audiences: a regular role on Comedy Central’s Michael and Michael Have Issues opposite Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black, plus guest spots on The Office, Arrested Development, and Mercy. Film credits included The Other Guys, Arthur, and Hello I Must Be Going.
The Long Road to Broadway: Toxic Avenger, First Date, and School of Rock
Chase’s pre-Broadway theater career was the kind that builds genuine craft without public recognition.
She was set to make her Broadway debut in the 2008 production of Godspell at the Paper Mill Playhouse, which was announced for a Broadway transfer. It was postponed. Instead, she landed in the Off-Broadway cast of The Toxic Avenger (2009), a deliberately low-budget musical adaptation of the cult film. It developed a cult following of its own, and Chase can be heard on the original cast recording.
The pre-Broadway production of The First Wives Club gave her one of her more unusual credits: she played all three mistresses simultaneously across the run. That performance earned her a Best Supporting Actress Award from the San Diego Theatre Critics. The production did not ultimately transfer to Broadway, but the award went on her resume and stayed there.
Her Broadway debut finally came in 2013 with First Date, an original musical about a blind date gone chaotic. She was part of the ensemble, not a lead, but the show put her on the Main Stem for the first time after years of working toward it.
What followed was a string of significant pre-Broadway and development work that rarely gets proper credit. She created the role of Principal Rosalie Mullins for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Julian Fellowes’ School of Rock Off-Broadway at the Gramercy Theatre. The show eventually opened on Broadway in 2015 in a configuration that changed some roles — but Chase had been part of building it.
She also appeared in the pre-Broadway production of Roman Holiday (2017), reinforcing a pattern: she was consistently being called into the room for new shows that needed someone who could combine technical skill with comedy intelligence.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: The Role That Made Her Name
The mainstream breakthrough came not from Broadway but from television.
Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt premiered on Netflix in March 2015. Chase plays Cyndee Pokorny, one of the “Mole Women” — survivors of an underground bunker cult who are released into the modern world after fifteen years of captivity. She appeared across all four seasons of the show through 2019, and returned for the interactive special Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend in 2020.
Cyndee is a supporting role, not a lead — but it is one of those supporting roles that leaves an impression disproportionate to its screen time. The character is a specific kind of comic creation: deeply sincere, completely earnest, and operating on a logic that the audience gradually realizes is more coherent than anyone else on the show. Chase played her with a warmth that kept the character sympathetic even when the jokes required her to be oblivious.
For most television viewers, Cyndee Pokorny is how they found Sara Chase. The show’s Netflix platform gave it a reach that no regional theater run could match, and the comedy writing that Fey and Carlock brought to it was a perfect fit for what Chase had been developing at UCB and in smaller theater rooms for years.
She also voiced Sasha Reed in a 2021 episode of The Simpsons — Season 33, “The Star of the Backstage.” It is a footnote in the resume, but it places her in a club of guest actors that most performers never reach.
The Great Gatsby, Cancer, and the Friday Phone Call
In 2023, Chase originated the role of Myrtle Wilson in the new Broadway musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby at the Broadway Theatre. The production featured music and lyrics by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen, direction by Marc Bruni, and a cast that eventually rotated through several major names over its run.
Myrtle Wilson is not the show’s romantic lead. She is the tragic figure at the periphery of the story — used, discarded, and killed by the collision between Gatsby’s dream and Tom Buchanan’s carelessness. Playing her requires a performer who can make a limited stage presence feel fully realized. Chase did that.
What the production reviews did not capture, and what Chase has since spoken about directly, was what was happening offstage.
During her time in The Great Gatsby, she received a diagnosis of fallopian tube cancer and began chemotherapy while continuing to perform. In July 2024, she made what she describes as one of the hardest decisions of her career: stepping away from the show to complete her final rounds of treatment. She took a nearly three-month medical leave before returning to the Broadway Theatre stage in October 2024.
“Working toward getting back to such a challenging role is something I am so grateful for,” she told Boston University afterward. “It really helped keep me focused.”
The timing of the Schmigadoon! call — the Friday after her second round of chemo, two days before the hair appointment, with the Monday reading sandwiched between a Gatsby performance — is the kind of detail that sounds constructed for a narrative. It happened exactly that way.
Schmigadoon!: The Show Built for Her, Just in Time
Schmigadoon! began as an Apple TV+ series, premiering in 2021 with Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key in the lead roles. Created by Cinco Paul (of Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets), it follows a real-world couple who stumble into a magical town where life operates exactly like a 1940s-1950s Golden Age musical. The first season pastiches Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Carousel, and the broader Rodgers and Hammerstein canon. The second season, Schmicago, moved into 1970s musical territory. Apple cancelled the planned third season while it was still in production.
The stage adaptation brought the story back. Chase and co-star Alex Brightman (Tony-nominated for Beetlejuice, School of Rock) originated the Broadway roles of Melissa Gimble and Josh Skinner — the characters played by Strong and Key on screen — at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in a world premiere engagement from January 31 to February 9, 2025.
The Broadway production opened at the Nederlander Theatre on April 20, 2026, directed and choreographed by Tony winner Christopher Gattelli (Death Becomes Her, Newsies). The cast includes Ana Gasteyer as Mildred Layton, Brad Oscar as Mayor Menlove, Ann Harada as Florence Menlove (reprising her TV role), Isabelle McCalla, and Max Clayton.
Produced by Lorne Michaels and No Guarantees Productions — yes, the same Lorne Michaels who has been running Saturday Night Live since 1975 — the show is a prestige production with the infrastructure to match.
The character of Melissa Gimble is a Broadway-obsessed OB-GYN who ends up in Schmigadoon with her partner Josh during a rough patch in their relationship. The show’s internal logic requires her to simultaneously be a modern person completely out of her element and someone who secretly understands and loves the world she has stumbled into — because Sara Chase, in real life, grew up loving exactly these musicals.
“What attracted me to this show is that I not only genuinely love golden age musicals, but I also love comedy,” she said. “I have never been cast in a classic musical. However, in Schmigadoon! I get to be in ten of them.”
The Act Two song she refers to in interviews — the one where she names the body parts she had removed — arrived in the show as a piece of comedy. Standing on a Broadway stage doing it every night, after what the past two years required of her, has been something different.
“There’s a song in act two where I name the body parts that I not only had removed but had cancer, and that was at first very difficult,” she told Broadway.com. “But now it’s healing to face that every night on stage. And as a comedian, I find it funny and poetic.”
Schmigadoon! received 12 Tony nominations and won Best Musical at the 79th Annual Tony Awards on June 7, 2026. It also won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical and collected nominations across multiple categories, establishing itself as one of the stronger new musicals Broadway has produced in the post-pandemic era. The show is currently scheduled through September 6, 2026 at the Nederlander.
Chase’s friendship with Brightman predates Schmigadoon! by over a decade. They first worked together in 2011 on Spidermusical, an unauthorized parody of the troubled Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. They have described their working dynamic with the shorthand that actors use for collaborators who are also genuinely funny: he recognized her from a single improv moment and knew immediately. “How seriously she takes her comedy and how unseriously she takes herself,” Brightman told Gold Derby, “is how I function.”
The Career in Full
Chase’s career resists the standard narrative of overnight success because it is not that story. It is twenty-plus years of building something specific, role by role, in rooms that range from Off-Broadway cult productions to pre-Broadway tryouts to network television to a show co-created by the architect of modern American sketch comedy.
| Year(s) | Role | Production | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Post-graduation | Jen and Angie (sketch) | UCB New York / LA |
| 2009 | Sarah | The Toxic Avenger | Off-Broadway |
| 2012 | All three mistresses | First Wives Club | Pre-Broadway (San Diego) |
| 2013 | Ensemble | First Date | Broadway debut |
| 2013-14 | Principal Rosalie Mullins | School of Rock | Off-Broadway (development) |
| 2015-20 | Cyndee Pokorny | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Netflix (4 seasons + special) |
| 2017 | Francesca Cervelli | Roman Holiday | Pre-Broadway (San Francisco) |
| 2023-24 | Myrtle Wilson | The Great Gatsby | Broadway |
| 2025 | Melissa Gimble | Schmigadoon! | Kennedy Center world premiere |
| 2026 | Melissa Gimble | Schmigadoon! | Broadway (Tony nomination) |
She also appeared in the films The Other Guys (2010), Arthur (2011), Hello I Must Be Going (2012), and Little Black Book (2004), and had television guest appearances on The Office, Arrested Development, Mercy, and Blue Bloods.
Personal Life
Chase was briefly married to Dr. Elliot Stieglitz in 2012, with the marriage ending in 2013. Beyond that, she has maintained a largely private personal life, and there is no confirmed current partner.
What she has shared publicly in 2025 and 2026 is the experience of her cancer treatment and recovery, which she has discussed with openness and specificity in industry press rather than keeping entirely private. The decision to speak about it — in the context of how Schmigadoon! arrived in her life and what the Act Two song means to her — reflects the same instinct that has defined her comedy career: taking real and difficult things seriously enough to find them, eventually, a little funny.
She does not have children and has not addressed future family plans publicly.
Net Worth and What This Season Means Financially
Chase’s estimated net worth is approximately $1 to $2 million, built across two decades of theater, television, and film work. A figure at that level reflects consistent employment rather than any single windfall, and the range exists because Broadway performers at her tier rarely have publicly disclosed income data.
Her Kimmy Schmidt run across four seasons from 2015 to 2019, plus the interactive special, would have constituted her most significant single television income stream to date. Broadway leading actress salaries at a show like Schmigadoon! (Nederlander Theatre, produced by Lorne Michaels) are in the $5,000 to $15,000 per week range for a principal role, with the production running through September 2026.
The Tony nomination changes the arithmetic going forward. Tony-nominated leading actresses receive significantly more interest from casting directors, producers, and development projects than before. For someone in Chase’s position — respected by peers, beloved by the comedy community, with twenty years of reliable work behind her — the nomination is the kind of industry recognition that compounds.
The show’s win for Best Musical makes it more likely to have an extended life: touring production, licensing, potential return engagements. Chase’s connection to the role, having originated it alongside Brightman from the Kennedy Center through Broadway, positions her well within whatever that future looks like.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Sara Chase?
Sara Chase is 42 years old. She was born on August 3, 1983, in Hartford, Connecticut.
What is Sara Chase known for?
Chase is best known for playing Cyndee Pokorny in Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015-2020), and for her Broadway roles as Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby (2023-24) and Melissa Gimble in Schmigadoon! (2026), for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.
What is Schmigadoon! about?
Schmigadoon! is a Broadway musical based on the Apple TV+ series of the same name. It follows two New York doctors, Melissa and Josh, who stumble into a magical town called Schmigadoon where life operates like a Golden Age musical from the 1940s and 1950s. The show parodies musicals including Oklahoma!, The Music Man, and Carousel. It won Best Musical at the 2026 Tony Awards.
Was Sara Chase nominated for a Tony Award?
Yes. Sara Chase received a 2026 Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her portrayal of Melissa Gimble in Schmigadoon! It was her first Tony nomination. The award in that category was won by Caissie Levy for Ragtime.
Where is Sara Chase from?
Sara Chase was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. She is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts (BFA, 2005).
Is Sara Chase still in Schmigadoon! on Broadway?
Yes, as of June 2026, Schmigadoon! is running at the Nederlander Theatre and is currently scheduled through September 6, 2026. Chase plays Melissa Gimble throughout the run.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Sara Chase |
| Date of Birth | August 3, 1983 |
| Age (2026) | 42 |
| Birthplace | Hartford, Connecticut |
| Education | Boston University College of Fine Arts (BFA, 2005) |
| Broadway Debut | First Date (2013) |
| Best Known For TV | Cyndee Pokorny, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt |
| Best Known For Stage | Melissa Gimble, Schmigadoon! |
| Tony Nomination | Best Leading Actress in a Musical (2026, Schmigadoon!) |
| Current Show | Schmigadoon!, Nederlander Theatre (through Sept 6, 2026) |
| Former Spouse | Dr. Elliot Stieglitz (m. 2012, div. 2013) |
| Medical History | Fallopian tube cancer treatment (2024, publicly disclosed) |
| Net Worth | Est. $1M-$2M |