Untold truth of Stephen Colbert’s wife

Evelyn McGee Colbert is an actress, theatre producer and director, who could be seen in Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”. She is also famous for being the wife of the popular American TV host, Stephen Colbert. They often work together on mutual projects.

Early life and family

Evelyn Brabham McGee was born on 23 July 1963, in Charleston, South Carolina USA, so she holds American nationality and her zodiac sign is Leo. Evelyn’s father worked as a litigator for the “Buist Smythe McGee” firm; nothing is known about her mother, yet it is known that Evelyn comes from a very well-established family. From her early years Evelyn has been enjoying performing; she used any opportunity to sing a song for her grandparents or to land even a small role in a school musical production.

Her passion for performing made her choose an acting career as her future professional path.

Educational background

Evelyn matriculated from her local all-girls high school in Charleston in 1981. After that, she enrolled at the University of Virginia’s College of Arts and Science, graduating from there in 1985, majoring in English and Drama (Evelyn took a double major). She also graduated from the Circle in the Square Theater School.

Career

Theatre career

Evelyn started her career performing on stage of various American theatres. She soon understood that she was also interested in working on the other side of the footlights, so she tried herself as a director and producer.

In 2009 with Eva Price of Maximum Entertainment Productions, she co-produced the comedy “Circumcise Me”, Yisrael Campbell’s play, who also starred in it. Performed at The Bleecker Street Theater, the production was a great success,. In 2010 Evelyn produced a special reading of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal”, performed by her husband, Stephen Colbert, who tried himself in a dramatic role which was new for him after so many years of his comic experience. Evelyn and another actor, Jay O. Sanders, also joined Stephen in the three-person reading. In 2013 Evelyn was an executive producer for the television version of the concert of the New York Philharmonic, staging the musical “Company”, directed by Stephen Sondheim. Evelyn’s husband landed the role of Harry in this performance.

Since 2017, Evelyn has performed as an actress in the Emerson String Quartet’s production “Shostakovich and the Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy”, which tells the story of the Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovich, struggling with challenges and trials of writing an opera on Anton Chekhov’s “Black Monk”. Evelyn portrayed Margarita Shostakovich, Varvara Nikolayevna and some other roles in this production. The play has been rather successful, and was to be performed again in 2020 with Evelyn in the cast, also having David Strathairn as Shostakovich, but the performances were cancelled due to the worldwide quarantine.

Other theatre and producing activities

For many years, Evelyn worked in a non-profit theater.

She also held the position of the director of development for the Remains Theater of Chicago, and for the Drama League of New York. At Spartina Productions, Evelyn works as an independent film producer. Evelyn is a member of the founding board of Montclair Film, and has recently become the Board of Directors’ President. Evelyn is the member of the International African American Museum board, which is located in Charleston, South Carolina.

TV and cinematography career

Evelyn landed her first role on TV only in 1999, debuting as Nurse Chestnut in the short TV movie “Strangers with Candy: Retardation, a Celebration”. Later, she also appeared in a couple of episodes of the sequel to this short movie, which became a series of three seasons “Strangers with Candy”, starring Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello.

The comedy about a former 46-year-old drug-addicted woman, who returns to high school as a freshwoman to complete her education was quite popular; however, the ratings were not as high as the producers wanted them to be, so the series was suspended in 2000. In 2005 the “Strangers with Candy” movie was released, with Evelyn as Clair Noblet.

In 2013 Evelyn landed the role of the Laketown Spy in Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”, the second film of the adventure fantasy trilogy based on John R.R. Tolkien’s book “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again”. The movie was a great success, taking more than $1 billion at the box office.

In 2014 Evelyn appeared in two episodes of the series “Alpha House”, starring John Goodman and Clark Johnson; she could be seen in the episodes “In the Saddle” as a Correspondent and “The Nuptials” as a Booker.

From 2015 to 2020 Evelyn appeared in several episodes of her husband’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”.

Personal life, husband Stephen Colbert

Both Evelyn and Stephen Colbert were surprised to find out that even though they met in their early 20s, their parents knew each other, and they lived in the same neighborhood, yet went to different schools. At the time when they met for the first time, Stephen was having a hard period in his relationship with his then-girlfriend, who wanted Stephen to make a choice – to marry her or to separate. Doubting about the next step in his life, Stephen took a break and went to visit his parents, who still live in Charleston. To entertain himself during that period of consideration, Stephen went to see Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg’s musical “Hydrogen Jukebox”, where he occasionally met Evelyn in the line to the theatre cafe.

‘Her. That’s your wife. You’re going to marry her’, Stephen later shared what thoughts sprang in his mind as soon as he saw Evelyn. He was brave enough to finally say hello to her, and the couple started dating. They married in 1993, and in 1995 Evelyn gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Madeline. In 1998 the couple welcomed their second child, a son Peter, and in 2002 Evelyn gave birth to their third child and second son, John.

Evelyn admits her husband Stephen Colbert is very romantic

In 2012, Evelyn and Stephen were interviewed by the legendary Oprah Winfrey for her show “Oprah’s Next Chapter”. In that interview Evelyn remembers that Stephen didn’t make a lot of money at the time they met and were getting married, and she was a bit scared of that, but then things went just right, and Evelyn didn’t have to worry about money.

She also shared that she was impressed by how smart he was, how generous he was. Evelyn also states that her husband is very romantic. She shared her memories of the time when Stephen had to learn how to play the baritone horn for one of the plays he was in, and had only six days before using the instrument on stage; when Evelyn waited for Stephen to come to her place (as they were going to meet that day), surprisingly, she saw him standing in front of her window (Evelyn was living at the ground floor) and playing a serenade for her – he finally learnt to play the baritone horn, though he didn’t ever even try to play any brass instruments.

Who is Stephen Colbert?

Born on 13 May 1964, Evelyn’s husband, Stephen Tyrone Colbert is a popular actor, producer, writer and comedian. His show “The Colbert Report” ran from 2005 to 2014, eventually transforming into “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”.

In his late 20s he was an actor in improvisational theatres. He tried himself as a writer for the first time in 1999, preparing the script for the series “Strangers with Candy”, also landing the role of the history teacher named Chuck Noblet in the series. Stephen was also in the cast of “The Daily Show”, launched by Comedy Central, however, his biggest success has always been his own show, which gained him an invitation to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where Stephen performed. The list of his awards includes two Peabody Awards, nine Primetime Emmys, and even two Grammys. In 2017 Stephen hosted the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, held in Microsoft Theater.

Hobbies, favorite things and interesting facts

Evelyn is a women’s rights activist; in 2017 she participated in Women Entrepreneurship Week at Montclair State University.

Thank you for this amazing birthday cake from Little Daisy Bakery! pic.twitter.com/WCfqQrZfMh

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) May 14, 2020

The list of Evelyn’s hobbies includes walking, running and swimming. She also likes spending her spare time in the close circle of her family members. Her favorite drink is a black coffee, and her favorite meal is pasta.

Appearance, clothing style

Evelyn has middle length dark brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5ft 7ins (1.70m) tall and weighs around 143lbs (65kgs); her vital statistics are not available at the moment. As to her clothing style, Evelyn has always enjoyed wearing long dresses; she charmed her husband at their first meeting with her long black lace dress, and Stephen still remembers how beautiful she looked when he first saw her. Evelyn’s favorite necklace is a pearl thread.

Net worth and salary

As of 2020, Evelyn’s net worth is estimated to be around $1 million, while her husband, Stephen Colbert, has accumulated a fortune of $75 million, successfully running his own show “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and some other side projects. He is reported to earn $15 million per year.