She has played roles in made-for-TV movies, such as Descendants (2015) and several Christmas-themed ones; done voice work in animated films such as Rio 2 (2014) and The Peanuts Movie (2015) along with the animated TV series Sit Down, Shut Up and BoJack Horseman; hosted several award shows; and released several albums of songs, including A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas (2008), Some Lessons Learned (2011), Coming Home (2014), The Art of Elegance (2016) and For the Girls (2019).

[6] She revealed in her 2023 book I'm No Philosopher, but I Got Thoughts that her biological parents were bassist Billy Ethridge (briefly a member of ZZ Top) and "Mama Lynn".

[25] In 1997, she appeared as Hyacinth in the Roundabout Theater Company production of Moliere's farcical Scapin, earning her first New York Times review, with Ben Brantley writing "Kristin Chenoweth's sob-prone ingenue is delightful".

[26] She made her Broadway debut in the spring of 1997 as Precious McGuire in the musical Steel Pier by Kander and Ebb, for which she won a Theatre World Award.

[30] After playing Glinda for nine months, Chenoweth left Wicked, on July 18, 2004,[38] soon joining the cast of The West Wing in Los Angeles.

presentation of the piece, Chenoweth starred on Broadway as Eve in a revival of The Apple Tree with co-stars Brian d'Arcy James and former fiancé Marc Kudisch.

[48] In 2009, Chenoweth was part of the rotating ensemble cast of Nora and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore off-Broadway at the Westside Theater.

[54] Chenoweth played Lily Garland in a Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century, opposite Peter Gallagher, which began previews on February 12 and opened on March 12, 2015, for a 22-week limited engagement through July 19, 2015, at the Roundabout Theatre Company.

[55][56] Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote that Chenoweth "uses [her character's] histrionics to create one of the most virtuosic portraits in song ever on Broadway.

The vocal vocabulary she deploys here ranges from jazz-baby brass to operatic silver, often in a single number, and she switches among them with jaw-dropping ease.

For her performance, she "became a favorite for her musical numbers and bright personality"[65] and was nominated two years in a row for an Emmy Award,[72] winning in 2009 as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

Later that year, Chenoweth began a recurring role as April Rhodes in Glee, singing several songs, earning enthusiastic notices.

A review in USA Today observed, "Her presence may not make much sense, but if it means hearing Chenoweth sing, we can put up with any explanation the show cares to offer.

[84] The series debuted in 2012 but lasted only one season, despite "the cast's comedic wit and strong performances";[65] Chenoweth generally sang a song in each episode.

[86] However, she soon left the show after sustaining a skull fracture, broken nose, spinal and rib injuries and cracked teeth when she was struck by equipment on the set.

[90] She later expressed regret at not pursuing legal action for her injuries,[91] which she said caused her to endure "hundreds of doctor appointments", "head-to-toe pain on a daily basis".

[103] In 2017, Chenoweth played the role of Easter in the Starz TV series American Gods[104] and guested on Younger[105] In 2018, a guest spot on Mom[106] was followed by the main cast role, on Trial & Error, of Lavinia Peck-Foster, an eccentric heiress accused of her husband's murder, who hires Josh Segal and Associates to defend her.

[110] The same year, she appeared on British TV as a judge on an ITV special "All Star Musicals", where she and Elaine Paige performed the song "I Know Him So Well" together.

[112][113] In 2021, PBS aired a Wicked concert special, hosted by Chenoweth and Menzel, with "a starry line-up" of singers and actors performing the musical numbers.

[118] She returned in 2023 for season 2 of Schmigadoon!, this time as Miss Codwell, owner of an orphanage, receiving another Hollywood Critics Association TV Award nomination.

In 2006, Chenoweth played supporting roles in five films, The Pink Panther, RV,[65] Running with Scissors, Deck the Halls[65] and Stranger Than Fiction.

[121] In animated films, she voiced "a little charmer" called Kilowatt in Space Chimps[122] and another role, Rosetta the garden fairy, in Tinker Bell (both 2008).

[127] In 2015, she appeared in the thriller The Boy Next Door and voiced the Sugar Plum Fairy in Strange Magic[128] and Fifi, Snoopy's love interest, in The Peanuts Movie.

[65][131] In 2017, she played Janet Krauss in Class Rank and voiced Princess Skystar in the 2017 animated My Little Pony: The Movie,[132] and Abby the Mouse in The Star.

[30] The same year, she appeared as Fanny Brice in the Actor's Fund Benefit Concert of the musical Funny Girl in New York City.

[30] From the TV show GCB, in 2012, Chenoweth released "Blessed Be the Ties that Bind",[159] "Jesus Take the Wheel",[160] "Prayer of St. Francis" (which was also on Some Lessons Learned)[161] and "This Little Light of Mine".

[196] In December 2018, Chenoweth performed with and narrated the Tabernacle Choir's yearly Christmas concert series in Salt Lake City, Utah.

[199] According to The New York Times, when Chenoweth "assured her theater fans that she supports gay rights, her Christian base was outraged; she was disinvited from performing at a Women of Faith conference in September 2005".

[203] Chenoweth called the article "horrendously homophobic" and criticized Setoodeh's view as rationalizing "the same kind of bullying" that gay youths face in high school.

[206] Chenoweth has dated several men in Hollywood, including producer Dana Brunetti,[207] actors Seth Green, Lane Garrison and Marc Kudisch (to whom she was engaged from 1998 to 2001),[208] and producer/writer Aaron Sorkin.