Katherine Heigl was born November 24, 1978, in Washington D.C. Katherine is of German and Irish extraction, and is the youngest of four children. At an early age, the Heigl family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Katherine was to spend the majority of her childhood. Katherine or "Katie", as she is known, has an elder brother, John, and sister Meg. Tragically, a second older brother, Jason, died when Katherine was young, whom she cites as giving her a greater perspective and appreciation for life.
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Katherine's career started as a child model at the young age of nine. While living in New Canaan, a visiting aunt, took a number of photographs of her niece Katherine, in series of poses to advertise a hair care product she had invented. With permission from Katherine's parents, she sent the photos to a number of modeling agencies, and in a few weeks Katherine had been signed to Wilhelmina Modeling agency.
Katherine made her debut in a magazine advertisement, and soon followed this with a television appearance in a national commercial for Cheerios cereal. Following a number of modeling assignments for Sears and Lord & Taylor, Katherine made her big screen debut in "That Night" which starred Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell. Katherine soon realized that acting, rather than modeling, was her passion. Katherine appeared in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed depression era drama "King Of The Hill" before landing her first leading role as a rebellious teenager alongside Gerard Depardieu in "My Father The Hero".
Katherine continued to attend New Canaan High School, balancing her academic studies with work on films and modeling. Acting was now becoming a greater focus for Katherine, although she still modeled extensively, appearing in magazines such as Seventeen. She has appeared in such films as "Under Siege 2" and "Bride of Chucky" before beating out hundreds of other girls for her role on "Roswell". Katherine made appearances on The Tonight Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Her next lead role was in Disney's "Wish Upon A Star" in 1996. It was during this time that Katherine's parents divorced.
Following her high school graduation, in 1997, she moved with her mother into a four bedroom house in Malibu Canyon, Los Angeles. This move allowed Katherine to focus upon acting with the guidance and support of her mother, who now manages her career. During this time, Katherine portrayed Taffy Entwhistle, Rita Hayworth's stand-in, in the movie "Stand-ins" and was also cast as Princess Ilene in "Prince Valiant".
Katherine has also branched into television, co-starring with Peter Fonda in a re-working of the classic Shakespearean play "The Tempest". Most recently, Katherine has turned her attention back to television, in the hit series "Roswell", in which she portrays Isabel Evans. The show focuses on a group of aliens and their lives in Roswell, New Mexico, from evading the FBI, to their day-to-day interaction with humans.
Katherine has recently graced the covers of magazines such as TV Guide and Maxim and has been interviewed on "Later with Cynthia Garrett" and "The Craig Kilborn Show". As Katherine's popularity on "Roswell" has grown, her role is now being expanded for the second season of the show. In between episodes of "Roswell", Katherine found time to act in recent horror feature "Valentine", which also stars David Boreanaz and Denise Richards.