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

 Biography

 Early life

Heigl was born in Washington, D.C. to Paul Heigl (a German-Irish American financial executive) and Nancy (a German American); she was raised a Mormon. She is the younger sister to Meg, Jason and John Heigl. She lived in Virginia and then Denver before settling in Connecticut. The Heigl family moved to a large, old Victorian-style farmhouse in the wealthy town of New Canaan. It was there that Katherine was to spend the majority of her childhood.

In 1986, her 15-year-old older brother Jason died of injuries suffered in a car accident, after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck. When doctors determined Jason was brain-dead following an 8-hour operation, the family made the difficult decision to donate his organs to help save others. The Heigl family was never in any doubt that Jason would have wanted his organs and tissues donated for transplant. This motivated Katherine to become a strong proponent of organ donation.

One year later at age 9, 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, with the permission of Katherine's parents. Within a few weeks, Heigl was signed as a child model.

 Career

Almost immediately, a client slated Heigl for use in a magazine advertisement. She made her debut in a magazine advertisement and was soon earning $75 an hour posing for Sears and Lord & Taylor catalogs. Television jobs soon followed, the first in a national spot for Cheerios cereal. It was not long until she landed her big-screen debut in the 1992 movie That Night. After meeting quick success and enjoying her new-found career, she realized that acting was her passion.

Heigl appeared as Christina Sebastian in Steven Soderbergh's Depression-era drama King of the Hill before being cast in 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 appeared opposite Steven Seagal as 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 made-for-television film Wish Upon a Star in 1996. However, 1996 proved to be a difficult year for Katherine and her family. Katherine's parents divorced and her mother was diagnosed with cancer . After her high school graduation in 1997, she and her mother moved into a 4-bedroom house in Malibu Canyon, Los Angeles, and her mother 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 that year, she starred in the horror film 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 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 Life, TV Guide, and Teen as well as FHM. She appeared in the FHM and Maxim calendars, FHM's annual 100 sexiest women in the world, and was featured in the Girls of Maxim Gallery. In May 2006, Maxim awarded her #12 on their annual Hot 100 List as well as voted the 19th "Sexiest Woman in the World" by readers of FHM magazine. 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, who was killed during the film's opening scene.

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 James Mills novel The Seventh Power. 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; the device 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; 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 2003, Heigl appeared in three television movies. She returned to the horror genre with Evil Never Dies, a modern-day variation on the Frankenstein story co-starring Thomas Gibson. Love Comes Softly, for Hallmark Entertainment, found Heigl starring as Marty Claridge, a young, pregnant newlywed travelling west. And finally, Heigl played Isabella Linton in MTV's modern revamp of Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heights.

In October 2003, Heigl was cast opposite Johnny Knoxville in The Ringer, a Farrelly brothers comedy that was released in December 2005. Heigl starred as Romy in the 2005 television movie Romy and Michele: In the Beginning, a prequel to the 1997 theatrical film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. In 2005, Heigl had her breakthrough role as Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens on Grey's Anatomy, an ABC medical drama that was originally brought in as a mid-season replacement show and has become a huge hit. Heigl stars alongside Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington as a surgical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital. In 2005, Heigl also landed the starring role of Karly Hert in the indie film Side Effects.

 Personal life

Heigl was previously in a relationship with actor Jason Behr. In June 2006 she became engaged to singer Josh Kelley.

Katherine has two older brothers, Holt and John; and an older sister, Meg. She had another brother Jason but he passed away from head injuries he suffered in a car accident.

 Selected filmography