Katherine Heigl

Biography

Katherine Heigl ( HY-gəl; born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and model. She portrayed Dr. Izzie Stevens on the ABC television medical drama Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2010, a role that brought her recognition and accolades, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2007. Heigl started her career as a child model with Wilhelmina Models before turning her attention to acting, making her film debut in That Night (1992) and later appearing in My Father the Hero (1994), Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), Wish Upon a Star (1996) and Bride of Chucky (1998). She then landed the role of Isabel Evans on The WB television series Roswell (1999–2002), for which she received nominations for the Saturn Awards and Teen Choice Awards. She then starred in commercially successful romantic comedy films such as Knocked Up (2007), 27 Dresses (2008), The Ugly Truth (2009), Killers (2010), Life As We Know It (2010) and New Year's Eve (2011). She also appeared in Zyzzyx Road (2006), One for the Money (2012), The Big Wedding (2013), and Unforgettable (2017). Heigl has also starred in several films that have seen limited releases, including Jackie & Ryan (2014), Home Sweet Hell (2015), and Jenny's Wedding (2015). She is also executive producer on her leading television roles, which include the short-lived NBC television series State of Affairs from 2014 to 2015, the Netflix series Firefly Lane (2021–2023) and the upcoming limited series Woodhull. She has voiced characters in the animated film The Nut Job (2014) and its 2017 sequel. Heigl also had a main role in the final two seasons of the USA Network legal drama series Suits (2018–2019). Additionally, Heigl has established herself as a cover model, appearing in numerous publications including Maxim, Vanity Fair, and Cosmopolitan.

== Early life == Heigl was born on November 24, 1978, at the Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, D.C. She is the youngest of four children of Nancy (née Engelhardt), a personal manager, and Paul Heigl, a financial executive and accountant. Her father is of Irish and German ancestry (including Swiss-German), and her mother is of German descent. Heigl lived in Northern Virginia and then Denver, before her family moved to the town of New Canaan, Connecticut, when Katherine was five, and where she lived the rest 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. Her brother's death led Heigl's Lutheran mother and Catholic father to convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Heigl, then eight, was raised in that faith.

== Career ==

=== 1992–1998: Early work === When Heigl was nine, her aunt, along with her parents, sent photos of her to a modeling agency. Within a few weeks, she was signed with Wilhelmina Models as a child model. Soon after she was signed with the agency, a client picked her for use in a magazine ad, where she made her modeling debut. At the time, Heigl was earning $75 an hour posing for Sears and Lord & Taylor catalogs. The first time Heigl appeared in a national television ad was for Cheerios cereal. Heigl began studying acting and made her film debut in That Night (1992). She played 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 1995, she starred in the Steven Seagal-directed action thriller Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. Heigl portrayed a 16-year-old named Sarah traveling by train through the mountains with her uncle Casey Ryback (Seagal), an ex-SEAL counter-terrorist expert, in order to visit the grave of her deceased father. The train is hijacked by mercenaries in Colorado, who keep Heigl's character as a hostage. Much of her work in the film was opposite Morris Chestnut, Sandra Taylor and Everett McGill. Despite an increased focus on acting, Heigl still modeled extensively, appearing regularly in magazines such as Seventeen. She landed the lead role in Disney's made-for-television film Wish Upon a Star in 1996, portraying two body-swapping characters along with Danielle Harris. That year Heigl's parents divorced, and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. After her high school graduation in 1997, Heigl moved into a four-bedroom house in Malibu Canyon, California with her mother, who also became her manager. In 1998, she co-starred with Peter Fonda in the television movie The Tempest, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The setting of the film was changed to Civil War Mississippi. She also starred in the horror film Bride of Chucky.

=== 1999–2004: Roswell and television movies === 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. Heigl had auditioned for all three of the show's female leads (the other two roles eventually went to Shiri Appleby and Majandra Delfino) before she was finally cast as Isabel, an alien-human hybrid. Heigl was frequently featured in photo essays in 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, and Valentine, a horror film starring David Boreanaz and Denise Richards. 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, in the spring of 2001. 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. However, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the film was shelved as its plot was considered inappropriate. It was released in 2003 under the title Critical Assembly. After the 9/11 attacks, Heigl recorded a public service announcement for the American Red Cross to help raise money for victims. In 2003, Heigl appeared in three television movies, including the horror genre Evil Never Dies, a modern-day variation on the Frankenstein story co-starring Thomas Gibson; and Love Comes Softly for Hallmark Entertainment as Marty Claridge, a young, newlywed traveling west, and reprised her role in the sequel Love's Enduring Promise the next year. Dale Midkiff was her co-star in both Hallmark films. Heigl played Isabella Linton in MTV's modern revamp of Emily Brontë's 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 film Romy and Michele: In the Beginning, a prequel to the 1997 film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

=== 2005–2010: Grey's Anatomy and breakthrough === In 2005, Heigl was cast as medical intern Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy. The show, initially a mid-season replacement, became a huge ratings success and one of the highest-rated series on broadcast TV. The same year, Heigl landed the starring role in the independent film Side Effects (2005), a romantic comedy about marketing and the pharmaceutical industry, for which she was also executive producer. A year later, Heigl was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film for her work on Grey's Anatomy. Heigl also starred in Zyzzyx Road; filmed in 2004 and not released until 2006; it has been cited as the lowest-grossing feature film of all time. In 2007, Heigl had her high-profile film breakthrough with Knocked Up (2007), a comedy from writer/director Judd Apatow, opposite Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann. Upon its June 2007 theatrical release, the film received generally positive reviews from critics and proved to be a box office success and a summer romcom hit. The fees Heigl commanded increased after the film's success. The movie grossed $148,761,765 in the U.S., for which she earned a salary of US$300,000. Heigl's role in the film transformed her into Hollywood's new "It girl" according to Vanity Fair.

On September 16, 2007, Heigl won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy. When her name was called for the award, her exclamation of "Shit!" was censored. Heigl starred with James Marsden in the film 27 Dresses, for which she received US$6 million. The New York Post expressed some disappointment with the mismatch of Heigl's talent and the film's "chick-flick" triviality, suggesting Heigl might be more compatible "with female directors such as Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) or Tamara Jenkins (The Savages)...". Heigl was announced the Most Desirable Woman of 2008, according to AskMen. Anne Fletcher, the director of 27 Dresses described her as having the "‘It’ factor". She explained further, "You can't buy it; you can't learn it; you can't create it; it just is. We haven't had one of her in many years. Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan— those have been our go-to girls for romantic comedy for a very long time, but we haven't had a new one. Katie has beauty, vulnerability, identifiability. She's funny, charming, lovely to watch. Her slightest eye movement is captivating; you know instantly what's going on." In a highly publicized Vanity Fair interview, Heigl said that though she enjoyed working with Apatow and Rogen when she starred in Knocked Up, she had a hard time enjoying the film itself. She called the film "a little sexist", claiming that the film "paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys." Apatow and Rogen were reportedly not pleased with Heigl's interview. Rogen said that he enjoyed working with Heigl and was stung by her comments. Heigl's comments generated a widespread reaction in the media. In an interview with People magazine, Heigl said:

My motive was to encourage other women like myself to not take that element of the movie too seriously, and to remember that it's a broad comedy"; and added, "Although I stand behind my opinion, I'm disheartened that it has become the focus of my experience with the movie." There was some speculation that Heigl might be leaving Grey's Anatomy after the end of its fifth season. This speculation revolved around her refusal to submit her name for Emmy consideration for the previous season. Heigl had disagreements with the character's direction in the fourth season, deeming the storyline involving Izzie's affair with George a "ratings ploy" that served to be "shocking" and others speculated she would leave due to the time devotion in producing a film version of Carolyn Jessop's book Escape. Heigl said publicly that she'd opted out of the Emmy race that year because she felt the material she'd received didn't warrant Emmy consideration. The comment reportedly angered the show's producers and writers, who interpreted it as a slight on their work. Grey's showrunner Shonda Rhimes said she was not insulted by Heigl's Emmy withdrawal, and noted that Heigl's character was downplayed during the season because Heigl had asked for a lighter work schedule. Despite Heigl's reported displeasure with the previous season, and persistent rumors that her character had died, ABC confirmed that Heigl would return for the sixth season of Grey's. Heigl starred with Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth (2009). The film was made on a budget of $38 million and earned $205 million at the worldwide box office. Speculation as to whether Heigl would leave Grey's Anatomy persisted through most of season six. On March 11, 2010, Heigl reportedly did not show up for work on the show, and Heigl and series creator Shonda Rhimes subsequently reached an agreement to immediately release Heigl from her contract. As a result, Heigl's appearance on the January 21 episode of Grey's Anatomy was her final appearance of that season and, thus far, in the series. Heigl said that she left the show to focus not on her film career, but on her family. The backlash over Heigl's comments on Knocked Up and Grey's Anatomy has given Heigl a reputation of being difficult to work with which was seen to have damaged her career.