Katherine Heigl

Katherine Marie Heigl (born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and producer. She is possibly best known for her role as Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens on ABC's medical drama Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2010, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2007. She has also starred in films such as Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Bride of Chucky, Zyzzyx Road, Knocked Up, 27 Dresses, The Ugly Truth, Killers, Life As We Know It, New Year's Eve, and One for the Money. Heigl started her career as a child model with Wilhelmina Models before she turned her attention to acting. She made her debut in the coming-of-age film That Night. Heigl co-starred as Isabel Evans in the television series Roswell and movies including My Father the Hero before landing her break-out role in Grey's Anatomy. Heigl has established herself as a cover model appearing on numerous publications including Maxim, Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan. Heigl is married to singer Josh Kelley, with whom she has two daughters. --- Heigl was born in Washington, D.C., at Columbia Hospital for Women. She is the youngest of four children of Nancy (née Engelhardt), a personnel manager, and Paul Heigl, a financial executive and accountant. Her father is of German and Irish descent and her mother is of German ancestry. Heigl was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her siblings are Meg, Jason (deceased), and Holt. Heigl lived in Virginia and then Denver before her family settled in Connecticut, when they moved into a large, old Victorian-style farmhouse in the wealthy town of New Canaan, where she spent most of her childhood. In 1986, her older brother Jason died of injuries suffered in a car accident, after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck while out for lunch with some of his high school classmates. Following his death, the family decided to donate his organs. Heigl was unnerved by this at the time, but later became a strong proponent of organ donation, working as a spokesperson for Donate Life America. When Heigl was nine, an aunt visiting the family decided to take a number of photographs of her. After returning to her home in New York, her aunt sent the photos to a number of modeling agencies, with the permission of Heigl's parents. Within a few weeks, Heigl was signed with Wilhelmina Models as a child model. Soon after signing with the agency, a client slated Heigl for use in a magazine advertisement where she made her debut. At the time, she was earning $75 an hour posing for Sears and Lord & Taylor catalogs. Heigl appeared in her first national television spot for Cheerios cereal. She made her acting debut in the 1992 movie That Night. Heigl appeared as Christina Sebastian in Steven Soderbergh's Depression-era drama King of the Hill before being cast in her first leading role 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. Heigl dropped out of New Canaan High School after her sophomore year to pursue her career in Hollywood. --- In June 2006, Heigl became engaged to singer Josh Kelley, whom she had met a year earlier on the set of his music video for "Only You". They chose not to live together before they were married, with Heigl later explaining, "I think I just wanted to save something for the actual marriage... I wanted there to be something to make the actual marriage different than the dating or the courtship." They were married on December 23, 2007 in Park City, Utah. On September 9, 2009, Heigl's representative said the couple had started the process of adopting a baby girl from South Korea. Later that month, the couple adopted a baby girl with special needs they named Nancy Leigh (after Heigl's mother and sister, respectively), nicknamed Naleigh. Heigl's sister is Korean-born and was adopted before Heigl was born. The baby had to have a congenital heart defect repaired with open heart surgery before she had left Korea. Kelley and Heigl adopted a second daughter in April 2012 from the U.S., named Adalaide Marie Hope.