Katherine Heigl was born November 24, 1978, in Washington D.C. Katherine is of German and Irish extraction, and is the youngest of four children. At an early age, the Heigl family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Katherine was to spend the majority of her childhood. Katherine or "Katie", as she is known, has an elder brother, John, and sister Meg. Katherine's career started as a child model at the young age of nine. While living in New Canaan, a visiting aunt, took a number of photographs of her niece Katherine, in series of poses to advertise a hair care product she had invented. With permission from Katherine's parents, she sent the photos to a number of modeling agencies, and in a few weeks Katherine had been signed to Wilhelmina Modeling agency.

Katherine made her debut in a magazine advertisement, and soon followed this with a television appearance in a national commercial for Cheerios cereal. Following a number of modeling assignments for Sears and Lord & Taylor, Katherine made her big screen debut in "That Night" which starred Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell. Katherine soon realized that acting, rather than modeling, was her passion. Katherine appeared in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed depression era drama "King Of The Hill" before landing her first leading role as a rebellious teenager alongside Gerard Depardieu in "My Father The Hero".