Katherine Heigl Biography

Birth Name : Katherine Marie Heigl

Date of Birth : 24 November 1978, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Height : 5' 9" (1.75 m)

Occupation : Actress, producer

Katherine Marie Heigl was born in Washington, DC, on November 24, 1978, to Nancy Heigl and Paul Heigl. A short time afterward, the family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Katherine was to spend the majority of her childhood; the youngest member of her family, Katherine--or "Katie" as she is nicknamed--has two elder siblings, John and Meg. Tragically, her older brother Jason died in 1986 of brain injuries suffered in a car accident, after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck. When doctors determined he was brain-dead, the family made the difficult decision to donate his organs.

With a beauty harkening back to old Hollywood, Katherine Heigl - a onetime Sears catalog child model who later paid her dues as a decidedly less-than-glamorous slasher film victim - finally earned widespread acclaim for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on the award-winning medical drama, "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC, 2005- ). She took Hollywood by surprise with her starring role in Judd Apatow's critically-hailed and hugely successful "Knocked Up" (2007), and proved her big screen star power was no fluke with the huge box office of "27 Dresses" (2008) and "The Ugly Truth" (2009). In addition to her onscreen work, Heigl also became infamous for a willingness to speak her mind at the expense of playing the game, earning her both respect and censure. This trait burned her "Grey's" bridges as she jumped full-time into film acting - and motherhood to an adopted special-needs baby - but Heigl proved that she was more interested in following her own instincts rather than pleasing critics.