Katherine Heigl: Snapshot
- Name
- Katherine Heigl
- Date of Birth
- November 24, 1978
- Birth Place
- Washington, D.C.
Heigl kicked off her career as a child model in the late '80s and segued her Sears catalog shoots into a string of teen dramas and horror flicks. But it was the hot alien sci-fi hit Roswell that made her a WB teen idol and a staple of men's magazines. In 2005, she landed a spot on Grey's, earning herself an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in 2007.
Married to musician Josh Kelley, the TV star, who adopted a baby girl, Naleigh, in 2009, became a bankable movie star as a fertile one-night stand in Judd Apatow's blockbuster, Knocked Up. She followed her big screen bang with the hit romantic comedies 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth.
People Hot List - Which Stars Have the Most Buzz?
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Katherine Heigl: Five Fun Facts
- Katherine Heigl starred in the lowest-earning movie in recorded history: the 2006 thriller Zyzzyx Road with Tom Sizemore. It grossed $30 at the box office.
- While engaged to Josh Kelley, Katherine Heigl told Vanity Fair of marriage, "I think it's a crapshoot. The odds are really bad, especially in this town."
- Fans of Katherine Heigl's first TV show Roswell mailed thousands of Tabasco sauce bottles – the favorite condiment of the lead characters – to TV executives in order to keep the show on the air.
- After being rejected for roles on Felicity and Alias, Katherine Heigl told Entertainment Weekly in 2007, "That's when I wanted to quit." But Heigl was fortunate because if she would've landed Alias, she wouldn't have been available to audition for Grey's Anatomy.
- Katherine Heigl's husband, musician Josh Kelley, wrote ''Katie's Song'' for her. "It was one of the most thrilling and romantic things that I've ever experienced," Heigl told PEOPLE, "and it makes me really like him bad."
Katherine Heigl: Biography 
- 1986
Family Tragedy
Heigl is the youngest of Paul and Nancy Heigl's five children. At 7, Heigl's 15-year-old brother Jason is thrown from the back of a pickup truck and declared brain-dead. The family decides to donate Jason's organs. "It's one of those things that pretty much devastates an entire family for years and years," Heigl tells New York's Daily News in 2006. "And then it changes the entire dynamic for the rest of your life."
- 1987
Child Model
Heigl poses in photos for her aunt's hair care products, and her mother Nancy sends the pictures to talent agencies. The following year, Wilhelmina modeling agency bites, adding Heigl to its roster of talent. She appears in catalogs for Macy's and Sears. "It was fun when I was little but after a while it started to get not as interesting," Heigl tells USA Today in 1994. "There's long hours and all you do is stand around a lot." She goes on to try her hand at acting, appearing in a national TV commercial for Cheerios.
- 1993
Breaking In Film
Heigl makes her film debut in the coming-of-age story That Night and appears in Steven Soderbergh's King of the Hill. In 1994, she lands her first leading role in My Father the Hero, playing a precocious teen trying to impress the boy of her dreams. USA Today says, "The scene in which innocent knockout Heigl stands poolside, and sashays off to the beach has everyone – from high school chums to trailer audiences – atwitter."
Photo Credits
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Jade Albert; Everett Collection
