My Stuff: My Babes List (#76)

#76 Katherine Heigl

Katherine Marie Heigl (b. November 24, 1978) is an American actress, best known for her roles on the TV series Roswell and Grey's Anatomy.

Early life

Heigl was born in Washington, D.C. to parents Nancy and Paul, of Irish and German descent; she was raised a Mormon. The family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut a short time later. Tragedy struck her family when her older brother Jason died in 1986 of brain injuries suffered in a car accident. He had been thrown from the back of a pickup truck, and doctors determined Jason was brain-dead. Despite their grief, the family decided to donate his organs. This has motivated Katherine to become a strong proponent of organ donation.

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Career

When she was nine years old, an aunt visiting the family decided to take a number of photographs of the young Heigl. After returning to her home in New York, the aunt sent the photos to a number of modeling agencies, all with the permission of Katherine's parents. Within a few weeks, Heigl had been signed as a child model.

Almost immediately, a client slated her for use in a magazine advertisement. Television jobs soon followed, the first in a national spot for Cheerios breakfast cereal. It was not long until she landed her first big-screen debut in the 1992 movie That Night. After meeting such fast success and enjoying her new-found career, she realized that acting was her passion.

Heigl then appeared as Christina Sebastian in Steven Soderbergh's Depression-era drama King of the Hill before landing her first leading role as Nicole in the 1994 comedy My Father The Hero. During this time, Heigl continued to attend New Canaan High School, balancing her film and modeling work with her academic studies.

She then played opposite Steven Seagal in the role of Sarah in the 1995 action thriller Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. Despite an increased focus on acting, she still modeled extensively, appearing regularly in magazines such as Seventeen. She took the lead role in Disney's Wish Upon a Star in 1996. It was also in 1996 that Heigl's parents divorced. After her high school graduation in 1997, she and her mother moved into a 4-bedroom house in Malibu Canyon, Los Angeles. Heigl's mother then became her manager.

In 1998 she co-starred with Peter Fonda in a re-working of the classic Shakespearian play The Tempest, set during the American Civil War. Later in 1998 Heigl was featured in the 1998 films Bug Buster and Bride of Chucky. In 1999, Heigl turned her attention to television when she accepted the role of Isabel Evans on the science fiction TV drama Roswell, a modest role that was expanded in the show's second and third seasons.

To publicize her role on Roswell, she appeared on the covers of magazines such as TV Guide, Maxim, and Teen as well as appearing in FHM. She later appeared in the FHM and Maxim calendars and FHM's annual 100 sexiest women in the world. While Roswell was in production, Heigl worked on several films, including, 100 Girls, an independent 2001 film in which she played competitive tomboy Arlene, and Valentine, a horror film starring David Boreanaz and Denise Richards in which she played medical student Shelley Fisher.

In the spring of 2001, Heigl accepted a role in Ground Zero, a television thriller scheduled to be telecast that fall, which was based on the bestselling novel, The Seventh Power, by James Mills. She co-starred as a brilliant and politically-concerned college student who helps to build a nuclear device to illustrate the need for a change in national priorities, but which ends up in the hands of a terrorist following betrayal by a fellow student. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, however, the film was shelved when its plot was considered too inappropriate, and it re-emerged in 2003 under the title Critical Assembly. After the terrorist attacks, Heigl recorded a passionate public service announcement for the American Red Cross in an effort to help raise money for victims.

In early 2003, Heigl returned to the horror genre with Evil Never Dies, a modern-day variation on the Frankenstein story co-starring Thomas Gibson. She played the role of Eve, the professor's assistant whose intentions are unclear. Love Comes Softly, a telefilm for Hallmark Entertainment in 2003, found Heigl starring in the role of Marty Claridge, a young, pregnant newlywed travelling west. In October 2003, Heigl was cast opposite Johnny Knoxville, as the leading lady in The Ringer, a Farrelly brothers comedy that was later released in December 2005. Heigl was then cast as Isabella Linton in MTV's modern revamp of Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heights.

Heigl was cast in the role of Romy in the 2005 movie Romy and Michele: In The Beginning, a prequel to the 1997 movie, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Heigl is currently starring in Grey's Anatomy, a medical drama on ABC.

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