Julia Kathleen Murney is an American actress and singer, also known for television commercial voice-overs. Until 2005, she was commonly known as the Broadway actress who had technically never appeared on Broadway. This was because her fame came mostly from her performances on the Broadway charity circuit, and not traditional Broadway productions. She played the role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked, both on the US national tour (2006) and on Broadway (2007). She is also a two-time Drama Desk Award nominee, for The Wild Party (2000) and Falling (2013).

Elphaba Thropp is the protagonist in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, and in its musical theatre adaptation Wicked. The character is identified with the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.