Before she gained international recognition for her role as Izzie Stevens in the hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, Katherine Heigl has been involved in show business, with other acting credits up her sleeve. Born on November 24, 1978 in Washington, D.C., she started out as a child model, posing for shopping catalogs before appearing on television advertisements. She made her acting debut in the 1992 film That Night, which was also the launching vehicle of Eliza Dushku. Her first starring role was in the 1994 comedy My Father the Hero, after which she decided to abandon her studies and dedicate her time to acting.
While making appearances in films such as Under Siege 2: Dark Territory and Bride of Chucky, Heigl continued to model intensively, posing for fashion spreads in magazines like Seventeen. She turned her attention to television in 1999 when she played the alien hybrid Isabel Evans in the science fiction series Roswell. While the series was in production, she appeared in different films and television movies, and continued appearing in numerous photo shoots.
In 2005, Heigl was cast in her breakthrough role, as medical intern (and later doctor) Izzie Stevens on the hit drama Grey’s Anatomy. Her character—a former lingerie model who struggled her way to medical school, and upon becoming an intern herself, would usually get too emotionally involved with her patients—endeared her to audiences, and she promptly rose to popularity, appearing in films such as 27 Dresses and Knocked Up. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the drama. She later won an Emmy in the same capacity, news of which took Heigl by surprise—she had to be censored by the producers of the Emmy telecast after saying an expletive in surprise of her victory.