Heigl was born on Nov. 24, 1978, the youngest of five children to Paul and Nancy Heigl. The Mormon family moved several times while Katherine was young, so she lived in Washington D.C., Colorado, and Virginia before the family settled in New Canaan, CT for the remainder of Heigl’s childhood. When she was nine years old, an aunt visiting from New York City took a series of portraits of the all-American blonde with the big smile, submitting them to modeling agencies. Heigl was promptly signed by the prestigious Wilhelmina agency and began catalog modeling and eventually TV commercial acting. In 1991, she was cast in the coming-of-age feature film, “That Night,” alongside Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell, but the picture was not released until 1993. She followed up her acting debut with a pair of higher profile big screen roles in Steven Soderberg’s Depression-era drama “King of the Hill” (1993) and the romantic comedy, “My Father the Hero,” playing the rebellious teenage daughter of Gerard Depardieu (1994).
By now, Heigl’s modeling career had ramped up to include regular appearances in Seventeen and other teen and beauty magazines, while she tried to maintain a regular life at New Canaan High School and build her acting resume in the meantime. She next expanded into action films with small roles in Steven Seagal’s “Under Siege 2” (1995) and the made-for-TV gravy train with Disney’s “Wish Upon a Star” (1996). Following the break-up of her parents and her graduation from high school, Heigl and her mother relocated to Malibu in 1997, at which time Nancy Heigl became her manager. The mother-daughter duo made an auspicious start on the West Coast, with the teenager landing a role in a European production of “Prince Valiant” (1997), a made-for- TV adaptation of “The Tempest,” opposite Peter Fonda (1998), and a pair of bill-paying horror films – “Bride of Chucky” (1998) and “Bug Buster” (1998).
The following year, Heigl was thrust into the bright spotlight when she landed a starring role on “Roswell” (WB, 1999-2002), playing one of a group of high school students in Roswell, NM, who live secretive double lives as alien offspring. The slick, moody, sci-fi drama with the teen angst edge fared well at a time when programming grids were crowded with high school dramas. Over three seasons, Heigl’s character Isabel gained a more and more prominent part of the show’s ever-complicated storyline. During the run of the show, the over-18 actress also became a mainstay in magazines like FHM and Maxim, often appearing on “Sexiest” and “Most Beautiful” lists. When “Roswell” was cancelled in the spring of 2002, Heigl stayed busy with unremarkable TV movies, horror films, and an MTV remake of “Wuthering Heights” (2003). In the 2005 romp “Romy & Michele: The Beginning” – a prequel to the film “Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion” (1997) – Heigl reprised the role played by Mira Sorvino in the film.
In 2005, Heigl had established the chops and the personal background to perfectly fill the role of underwear model-turned-medical intern Isobel Stevens for a mid-season replacement medical drama called “Grey’s Anatomy.” It was her third role as an Isabel, and it did prove to be a charm, with the ensemble show developing into a critic’s pick and audience favorite. Heigl even received her first Golden Globe nomination, following her heartbreaking storyline of falling in love with her patient, Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who dies of heart failure after asking Izzie to marry him. The public’s respect for Heigl grew when, after a highly publicized cast argument, where costar Isaiah Washington used derogatory language against gay cast member T.R. Knight, Heigl appeared on camera in interviews to publicly express disgust with Washington and support Knight, who she said was her best friend.
The year “Grey’s” premiered, Heigl had appeared in her first big screen comedy, the low-brow Farrelly Brothers flick, “The Ringer.” The film was not a huge success, but Heigl’s handling of the material obviously made an impression on writer-director Judd Apatow, who cast Heigl in the lead in his one-night-stand-whoops story “Knocked Up” (2007). The film was slated for a June 2007 release, with early reviews touting it as one of the year’s best comedies. The film was also sure to instigate a whole new flurry of “Sexiest” and “Most Beautiful lists,” however, sadly for her male fans, Katherine had become engaged to singer-songwriter Josh Kelley in June of 2006. Also in her off-screen life, Heigl was an outspoken supporter of organ donation, involved with the charities Donate Life America and the James Redford Institute of Transplant awareness. She was also, not surprisingly, a supporter of GLAAD (Gays and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Meanwhile, Heigl won her first-ever Emmy award after getting the nod for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Izzie Stevens.