Katie Holmes

Katherine Noelle Holmes was born December 18, 1978, in Toledo, Ohio. The youngest of five children - she has three older sisters and an older brother - Katie had no intention of becoming an actress while growing up in Toledo.

Her mother, Kathy Holmes, enrolled her long-legged daughter into Margaret O'Brien's Modeling School in Toledo, which ultimately led Katie to her present career path. During her summer vacation from Notre Dame Academy (an all-girls Catholic High School); 17-year old Katie attended a modeling convention in New York City. At the convention, a talent scout from Los Angeles approached Katie and encouraged her to spend the rest of the summer in California auditioning. Katie was off to Hollywood with her mother to try her luck at acting, despite her father's original skepticism.

Luck was definitely on her side, since Katie's feature film debut took no more than one audition. Unexperienced and tinged with a drop of naiveté, she was cast in "The Ice Storm", as Tobey Maguire's girlfriend. After filming "The Ice Storm", Katie returned to Toledo in order to complete High School. She was apparently offered the role of Buffy in the TV series "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", but luckily for Sarah Michelle Gellar, Katie declined in order to graduate High School. With a film credit and a newfound passion, she dedicated her summer to starring in a local theatre production of Damn Yankees. That's when Katie heard a rumor that Kevin Williamson of "Scream" fame was casting actors for his television teenage drama. With nothing to lose, Katie sent in her home video audition and hoped for the best. And that's what the "Dawson's Creek" Screenwriter/Producer saw when he watched her tape: the best. Fully impressed by what he saw, Williamson immediately invited Katie to come to the West Coast for a callback, but due to her commitment to Damn Yankees, she asked Williamson whether the appontment could be postponed to a later date. Obviously worth the wait, he rescheduled so that Katie could attend. Williamson didn't need acting experience credits to convince him that Katie was right for the part of Joey Potter for "Dawson's Creek". She was immediately cast as the girl from the wrong side of the creek in the series that was garnering rave reviews even before its premiere. Viewers have been tuning in to Katie Holmes and the High School drama since 1998, watching the cast of angst-ridden teens deal with teenage life.

Based on the success of "Dawson's Creek" and its popularity among teens, Katie was cast in the thriller "Disturbing Behavior" in 1998. The following summer, Katie could be seen in theatres in two feature films; "Go!" and as the heroine in "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" (also directed by Kevin Williamson). While still roaming the halls of High School in "Dawson's Creek", Katie appeared in "Wonderboys", starring Michael Douglas and her "The Ice Storm"-Co-star, Tobey Maguire. Winner of the 1999 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance, Katie was also voted one of Teen People Magazine's "21 Hottest Stars Under 21" and Sweden's Expressen Fredag's "Babe of the Year" in 1998.

Inbetween, she was accepted at Columbia University, where Co-actresses Julia Stiles and Natalie Portman also attend, but she deferred enrollment to work on her career. She did take photography classes during the summer of 2001. After starring in "The Gift", she didn't star in movies for a while. But, in 2001 she filmed both "Abandon" and "Phonebooth". "Abandon" flopped, but "Phonebooth", after the release date was postphoned for two years, did quite well. In 2002, she filmed "Pieces of April", a independant Thanksgiving-themed cult-movie and she will star as a nurse in the remake of the BBC mini-series "The Singing Detective", alongside Robert Downey Jr., whom she also worked with in "Wonderboys".She also worked on more films including Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and Phone Booth, which also starred actor Colin Farrell. In 2004, Katie starred on the lead role in First Daughter, followed by Batman Begins in 2005.

Katie did not reprise her role as Rachel Dawes in the Batman Begins sequel "The Dark Knight" stating that she did not want to spend too much time away from her family. Her role went to Maggie Gyllenhaal.

In the early morning of June 17, 2005, atop Paris's Eiffel Tower; Tom Cruise proposed to Katie, she accepted. During their engagement Katie found out she was pregnant. On April 18, 2006, Holmes gave birth to a baby girl named Suri. On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in a Scientology ceremony attended by many Hollywood stars.

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