Bio
Reba McEntire is a Grammy Award-winning American singer and one of the best-selling country music performers of all time best known to television audiences for her eponymous role in the sitcom Reba, from 2001-2007.
She also has a starring role as Reba MacKenzie, a Nashville native who relocates to California after she discovers her country star husband is cheating on her, in the television sitcom Malibu Country.
In early 2001, country music legend Reba took Broadway by storm, receiving rave reviews and playing to packed houses as backwoods sharp-shooter Annie Oakley in the hit revival of Annie Get Your Gun.
Later that year, McEntire took her talents to the small screen and made her television series debut as a Texas soccer mom in the acclaimed WB comedy, Reba.
Raised on a cattle ranch just outside of Chockie, Oklahoma (population: 18), McEntire traveled the rodeo circuit during her youth with her champion steer-roper father. She competed on horseback as a barrel racer.
Along with her siblings, McEntire was taught to sing by her mother and formed the vocal trio The Singing McEntires, performing at social events and dance halls.
Her father, Clark McEntire, was world steer roping champion for the years 1957-1958 & 1961. He was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the Rodeo Historical Society (a support group of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum) in 1988.
Her grandfather, John Wesley McEntire (1897-1976), was world steer roping champion for 1934 and was also a calf roper. He was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the Rodeo Historical Society (a support group of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum) in 1984.
After graduating from high school, she studied violin and piano at Southeastern Oklahoma State University while majoring in elementary education.
Her life changed dramatically when a songwriter named Red Steagall heard her sing the national anthem at the National Finals Rodeo and convinced her to make a demo recording in Nashville. She was soon signed to a record contract and her star took off from there.
Over the course of her career, McEntire has established herself as country music's leading lady, rising to become the best-selling female country singer of the 20th century with tens of millions of records sold.
She is a multiple Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year and one of only a handful of women to win the CMA's coveted Entertainer of the Year honour.
She has won Grammy Awards, multiple People's Choice and American Music Awards, and released a string of chart-topping hits.
In 2005 McEntire headlined the Habitat for Humanity Two Hats and a Redhead tour, named one of Pollstar's largest grossing mid-year tours in the country genre. Along the way, she played to thousands of fans and raised a quarter of a million dollars for the Habitat cause.
McEntire has found success as an actress as well. She made a memorable feature debut in the 1990 cult classic Kevin Bacon horror film Tremors as a gun-toting survivalist. She also appeared on the big screen in the dark romantic comedy One Night at McCool's, as well as North and The Little Rascals.
On television, she played Annie Oakley in the miniseries Buffalo Girls and has appeared in the original movies The Gambler IV with Kenny Rogers, Secret of Giving, Forever Love and Is There Life Out There?.
She was James Cameron's first choice to play "the unsinkable" Molly Brown in Titanic (1997), but had to decline because her touring schedule overlapped the filming date.
McEntire is also a successful author. Following her 1995 New York Times Best Seller List autobiography Reba: My Story, she published Comfort from a Country Quilt: Find New Inspiration and Strength from Old-Fashioned Values, a collection of personal essays. Her written works have sold a combined total of over 1 million copies.
McEntire added clothing designer to her long list of career accomplishments with the 2005 launch of a women's collection, REBA.