Born in Los Angeles, California, McPhee moved with her family to Sherman Oaks at age 12. McPhee is of Irish, Scottish, and German descent. McPhee attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, where she performed in school plays and musicals. She left college on the advice of her manager and returned to Los Angeles to try out for television pilots. On the show, McPhee stated that she was misdiagnosed with a learning disability during her middle school years but was finally correctly diagnosed with a vision problem that caused her to have trouble reading in class. During the third round, she sang “My Funny Valentine” a capella and advanced to the top 40.
