Katherine Heigl
Katherine Marie Heigl (pronounced /ˈhaɪɡəl/) is an American actress. She was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Nancy, a personnel manager, and Paul Heigl, a financial executive and accountant. Katherine has German and Irish ancestry, and was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). She is the youngest of four children. Katherine lived in Virginia and then Denver before her family settled in Connecticut, where 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. Afterward, their parents converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Katherine is now a strong proponent of organ donation. Although she is no longer a "strong practicing Mormon," she stated that she hopes to "...find my way back as I get older and a little less selfish."
Katherine 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. She 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. Over the years, Katherine has established herself as a cover model appearing on numerous publications including Maxim, Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan.
In 2003, Katherine 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 traveling west. (She reprised the role of Marty in the sequel Love's Enduring Promise the next year.)
In 2005, Katherine was cast in what would become her most high-profile role to date, as medical intern Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens on Grey's Anatomy, an ABC medical drama. The show, originally introduced as a mid-season replacement, became a huge ratings success and is still one of the highest-rated television series on broadcast television. The same year, she landed the starring role in the independent film, Side Effects, about marketing and the pharmaceutical industry. In late 2006, Katherine was nominated for a Golden Globe award in the category Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-series, or Motion Picture Made for Television for her work on Grey's Anatomy.
Katherine has worked with Best Friends Animal Society on several projects including their Pup My Ride program. The program transports small dogs from high-kill animal shelters to other parts of the US where there is a greater demand for such dogs. Her involvement in this led her to give Best Friends a grant which would fund a year of the program.
She and her mother, Nancy, then started Heigl's Hounds of Hope which operates as part of the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation. The Foundation was created in honor of Katherine's brother, who was killed in a car accident in 1986 at the age of fifteen. Heigl's Hounds of Hope rescues larger dogs with behavior problems from shelters with a high kill rate and rehabilitates them through training and other adjustments to make them suitable for re-homing.
As of 2009, Katherine has six dogs of her own.
On December 23, 2007 she married singer Josh Kelley, whom she met on the set of his music video for "Only You". During a taping of Live With Regis and Kelly, Katherine said that she and Josh chose not to live together before they were married. "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."
On September 9, 2009, Katherine's representative confirmed that 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 her Nancy Leigh.
Let's pray this week that God will do a miraculous work in Katherine's life -- bring some people across her path and challenge her with her need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
--Heidi