Danneel Harris as
Rachel Gattina Born Elta Danneel Graul on March 18, 1979 in Lafayette, Los Angeles, Danneel Harris was raised in Eunice, Los Angeles. She began her career by modeling, and moved to California to train in acting with John Homa, Calmeson and Calmeson, and Craig Wargo.
Moving on to acting, Harris landed her first major television role as Shannon McBain in the soap opera,
One Life to Live . However, her character was written off the drama, thus forcing her to move on to other television series such as
What I Like About You , where she played Kate.
In 2004, Soap Opera Digest talked to Harris about her transition to acting, and she said, "I started dating this guy who I'm still dating now. We've been dating 2 1/2 years and he's an actor. His name is Riley Smith. His mom is a modeling agent in Chicago. So I flew home with him for Thanksgiving. She called this agency for me and that's how I met the modeling agency. My boyfriend's in the New York Minute movie with the Olsen twins, he was one of their boyfriends. He's on the WB show Summerland. He's a WB kid. So he helped me with auditions and stuff. I supported myself by modeling for a couple years, and then I auditioned for a commercial and I booked it. So I was like, ‘Yeah, okay, maybe I'll do this.' I guest-starred on MadTV a couple times. Then I got What I Like About You with
Amanda Bynes . I did about six episodes of that. And then this audition came up."
In 2004, she played Katie in
Joey , subsequently playing Cameron Cresswell in JAG. 2005 brought Harris more success when she landed the role of Rachel Gatina in the teen drama, One Tree Hill. She also played Shasta McClaud in an episode of
CSI .