Katherine Marie Heigl was born in Washington, DC, on November 24, 1978, to Nancy and Paul Heigl. A short time afterward, the family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Katherine was to spend the majority of her childhood; the youngest member of her family, Katherine--or "Katie" as she is nicknamed--has two elder siblings, John and Meg. Tragically, her older brother Jason died in 1986 of brain injuries suffered in a car accident, after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck. When doctors determined he was brain-dead, the family made the difficult decision to donate his organs. Not only did this painful chapter give Katherine a greater perspective and appreciation for life, but it motivated her to use her celebrity to promote the importance of organ donation.
Katherine was first thrust into the limelight as a child model. An aunt, visiting the family in New Canaan, took a number of photographs of Katherine, then aged nine, in a series of poses to advertise a hair care product she had invented. Upon returning to New York, with permission from Katherine's parents, she sent the photos to a number of modeling agencies. Within a few weeks Katherine had been signed to Wilhelmina, a renowned international modeling agency. Almost immediately she made her debut in a magazine advertisement and soon followed this with an inaugural television appearance in a national commercial for Cheerios breakfast cereal.
Following a number of commercials and modeling assignments for Sears and Lord & Taylor, she made her big-screen debut in That Night (1992), which starred Juliette Lewis and C.Thomas Howell. It was then that she realized that acting rather than modeling was her passion. In 1993 Katherine appeared in Steven Soderberghs's critically acclaimed Depression-era drama King of the Hill (1993), before landing her first leading role as a rebellious teenager alongside Gerard
Depardieu in My Father the Hero (1994). During this time Katherine continued to attend New Canaan High School, balancing her academic studies with work on films and modeling, which she undertook during holidays, vacations and weekends.
In 1995, she played Sarah Ryback, the niece of Steven Seagal's character, in Under Siege 2: Dark Territiry (1995), which was her "debut" in the action film genre. Acting was now becoming a stronger focus for Katherine, although she still modeled extensively, appearing regularly in magazines such as "Seventeen." Television appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992) and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"(1993) soon followed, before she took the lead role in Disney's Wish Upon a Star in 1996. It was also during that year that Katherine's parents divorced and, following her graduation from high school in 1997, she moved with her mother into a four-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Malibu Canyon area. This enabled her to focus upon acting with the guidance and support of her mother, who now managed her career.
In 1997, Katherine portrayed Taffy Entwhistle, Rita Hayworth's stand-in, in Stand-Ins (1997), and was also cast as the beauteous Princess Ilene in the European production Prince Valiant (1997). She then made a tv movie co-starring Peter Fonda in a re-working of the classic Shakespearean play The Tempest, updated with an American Civil War theme. In this film, she played Miranda Prosper, a young woman torn between her love for both her father and a Union soldier. Bug Buster (1998) and Bride of Chucky (1998) represented a venture into the horror genre for Katherine. While both films could be described as rather tongue-in-cheek despite their gory emphases, Bride of Chucky was the better received, both critically and commercially.
In 1999, Katherine decided to branch out into series television when she accepted the role of the haughty yet vulnerable Isabel Evans on "Roswell" (1999), a show that blended teen angst with sci-fi drama. Though she had never planned to embark on a career in television, the role of Isabel, a teenager with a secret life, was an offer she found impossible to refuse. In the series, Isabel, her brother Max (Jason Behr) and their friend Michael Brender Fehr are aliens passing as humans in Roswell, New Mexico, as they desperately try to hide the truth from government agencies, the people of Roswell and even their own adopted families. To publicize her role on the show, Katherine graced the covers of magazines such as "TV Guide," "Maxim," and "Teen", and various talk shows.
During the three years "Roswell" was in production, Katherine found time to work on several movies. 100 Girls (2000), an independent film released in 2001, is the story of a college freshman who meets the girl of his dreams in an elevator during a blackout, and spends the rest of the movie trying to find her again. Her cameo role is that of Arlene, the competitive tomboy. The second film, Valentine (2001), a horror film starring David Boreanez and Denise Richards, appeared in U.S. theaters on February 2, 2001. In this movie, which is based upon the 1996 novel by Tom Savage, Katherine plays Shelley, a medical student who meets a sudden demise.
In the spring of 2001, Katherine accepted a role in NBC's Critical Assembly (2003) (TV), a two-hour original television thriller. Katherine and Kerr Smith co-starred as brilliant and politically concerned college students who build a nuclear device to illustrate the need for a change in national priorities, but are betrayed by a fellow student when the bomb ends up in the hands of a terrorist. Unfortunately, the telefilm, directed by Eric Lanueville, written by Tom Vaughn, and based on the best-seller "The Seventh Power" by James Mills, was shelved when its storyline was deemed too close for comfort to the events of September 11, 2001. It was eventually broadcast in 2003.
Since the cancellation of "Roswell" in the spring of 2002, Katherine has been busy with various projects, including an appearance on UPN's update of the classic television series, "The Twilight Zone (2002). That episode, entitled "Cradle of Darkness", aired October 2, 2002, and featured Katherine in the role of a woman who goes back in time to stop one of the most notorious murders in history. In addition, she completed a movie, Descendant (2003), a psychological thriller inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." She has also starred as Romy in ABC/Touchstone's two-hour telepic Romy and Michele: In the Beginning (2005).
In early 2003, Katherine's returned to the horror genre with "Evil Never Dies", a modern-day variation on the Frankenstein story co-starring Thomas Gibson as a police officer who discovers that the executed murderer of his wife is being brought back to life as part of a professor's sordid experiment. Katherine plays the role of the professor's assistant, whose motives are not as clear-cut as the police officer is first led to believe. "Evil Never Dies" was filmed in Melbourne, Australia, and broadcast on June 1st 2003 as TBS Superstation "Movie Of The Week".
In October 2003, Katherine was cast opposite Johnny Knoxville, as the female lead in Fox Searchlight Pictures’ comedy "The Ringer". Shot in Austin, Texas and directed by Barry Blaustein, the Farrelly brothers’ comedy sees Katherine portray Lynn, a beautiful Special Olympics volunteer and the love interest of Knoxville’s character Jimmy. Although filming wrapped early in 2004, the cinematic release was delayed until December 23rd, 2005. The movie was received well by critics and performed respectably at the US box office earning over $35 million. "The Ringer" saw continued success when released to DVD on May 16, 2006, where it was the number 1 seller in its first week grossing over $7 million.
Continuing with her busy schedule, Katherine soon began filming a pilot medical drama for ABC centred on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors at a Seattle hospital called "Grey's Anatomy". She was cast as Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens, a small-town girl who grew up in poverty and in spite of paying for her medical career by modeling, struggles with her self-esteem.
The Show was a big hit and has been running for 5 successful seasons. On September 16, 2007, Heigl won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Izzie Stevens.
In 2006, she filmed
Knocked Up, a comedy from writer/director Judd Apatow starring opposite Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann. Upon its June 2007 theatrical release, the film received largely positive reviews from critics, and proved to be a box office success.She starred in the film,
27 Dresses which was released in January 2008, playing alongside James Mardsen.
Katherine Heigl wed Josh Kelley on December 23, 2007 in Park City, Utah. For their honeymoon they went to the Esperanza resort in Cabo San Lucas.
On September 9, 2009, a representative for Katherine Heigl confirmed that her and husband Josh Kelley were in the process of adopting a child from Korea. They finally adopted a 10-month-old Korean girl from South Korea. Josh Kelley and Katherine Heigl's daughter is named Nancy Leigh, after Heigl's mother and sister (Nancy and Leigh, respectively), although they have nicknamed her Naleigh.
Katherine Heigl is currently filming Five Killers with Ashton Kutcher. She has signed on to star in and produce the big-screen drama Life as we know it. Life as we know it revolves around a woman and a man whose respective best friends die in a car accident. Following the tragedy, they are left to share in caring for the deceased's orphaned daughter.
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