Katie Holmes

Kate Noelle "Katie" Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Since Dawson's Creek, Holmes' career has consisted of movie roles such as in Batman Begins, art house films such as The Ice Storm, horror films such as Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and thrillers including Abandon. She has also played on Broadway in a production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons and had various guest roles on television programs such as How I Met Your Mother. Early life Holmes was born in Toledo, Ohio. She is the youngest of five children born to Kathleen (née Stothers), a homemaker and philanthropist, and Martin Joseph Holmes, Sr., an attorney. She has three sisters and one brother: Tamera, Holly Ann, Martin Joseph, Jr., and Nancy Kay. Holmes was baptized a Roman Catholic and attended Christ the King Church in Toledo. She graduated from the all-female Notre Dame Academy (also her mother's alma mater), where she was a 4.0 student. At St. John's Jesuit, a nearby all-male high school, Holmes appeared in school musicals, playing a waitress in Hello, Dolly! and Lola in Damn Yankees. She scored 1310 out of 1600 on her SAT and was accepted to Columbia University (and attended for a summer session); her father wanted her to become a doctor. At age 14, she began classes at a modeling school in Toledo run by Margaret O'Brien, who took her to the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Competition held in New York City in 1996. Eventually, Holmes was signed to an agent after performing a monologue from To Kill a Mockingbird. An audition tape was sent to the casting director for the 1997 film The Ice Storm, directed by Ang Lee. She was cast in the role of Libbets Casey, in the film which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Career In January 1997, Holmes went to Los Angeles for pilot season, when producers cast and shoot new programs in the hopes of securing a spot on a network schedule. The Toledo Blade reported she was offered the lead in Buffy the Vampire Slayer but she turned it down. Columbia Tri-Star Television, producer of a new show named Dawson's Creek that was created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson, asked her to come to Los Angeles to audition, but there was a conflict with her schedule. "I was doing my school play, Damn Yankees. And I was playing Lola. I even got to wear the feather boa. I thought, 'There is no way I'm not playing Lola to go audition for some network. I couldn't let my school down. We had already sold a lot of tickets. So I told Kevin and The WB, 'I'm sorry. I just can't meet with you this week. I've got other commitments.'" The producers permitted her to audition on videotape. Holmes read for the part of Joey Potter, the tomboy best friend of the title character Dawson, on a videotape shot in her basement, her mother reading Dawson's lines. The Hollywood Reporter claimed the story of Holmes's audition "has become the stuff of legend" and "no one even thought that it was weird that one of the female leads would audition via Federal Express." Holmes won the part. Paul Stupin, executive producer of the show, said his first reaction on seeing her audition tape was "That's Joey Potter!" Creator and executive producer Kevin Williamson said Holmes has a "unique combination of talent, beauty and skill that makes Hollywood come calling. But that's just the beginning. To meet her is to instantly fall under her spell." Williamson thought she had exactly the right look for Joey Potter. "She had those eyes, those eyes just stained with loneliness." While Dawson's Creek was met with mixed reviews, Holmes attained national attention. Holmes was soon on the covers of magazines such as Seventeen, TV Guide, and Rolling Stone. Jancee Dunn, an editor at Rolling Stone said she was chosen for the cover because "every time you mention Dawson's Creek you tend to get a lot of dolphin-like shrieks from teenage girls. The fact that she is drop-dead gorgeous didn't hurt either." Personal life Holmes dated her Dawson's Creek co-star Joshua Jackson early in the show's run. Holmes met actor Chris Klein in 2000. Klein and Holmes were engaged in late 2003, but in early 2005 she and Klein ended their relationship, with the breakup being "as amicable as it could be". Klein and Holmes have remained friends of varying degree since the breakup, and some unfounded rumors also had their romance being rekindled in the wake of Holmes' divorce from her husband Tom Cruise. These rumors were strenuously denied by both Holmes and Klein. Weeks after her relationship with Klein ended, Holmes began dating actor Tom Cruise. Holmes, who was raised a Roman Catholic, began studying the Church of Scientology shortly after the couple began dating. Cruise proposed to Holmes in the early morning of June 17, 2005, on top of Paris's Eiffel Tower. On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married in a Scientology ceremony at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy. In April 2006, Holmes gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Suri. On June 29, 2012, it was announced that Holmes had filed for divorce from Cruise in New York after five years of marriage.  On July 9, 2012, it was announced the couple signed a divorce settlement worked out by their lawyers. This was the first divorce for Holmes and the third for Cruise. Holmes has custody of their daughter Suri. Because New York law requires that all divorce documents remain sealed, the exact terms of the settlement are not publicly available. In July 2012, following the divorce of Holmes and Cruise, it was announced that their six-year-old daughter, Suri Cruise, would begin schooling in New York City in September 2012. Suri was previously home-schooled. Suri and Holmes are subjects of a humorous impersonation blog and book, both called Suri's Burn Book, which imagines Suri's thoughts and comments about other celebrity children and about Cruise and Holmes. After her divorce with Cruise, Holmes returned to the Catholic Church and now attends St. Francis Xavier Church.