Katherine Marie Heigl (pronounced /ˈhaɪɡəl/; born November 24, 1978) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy and her starring role in the movies Knocked Up, 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth.Heigl 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. Heigl appeared 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, Heigl has established herself as a sex symbol and cover model appearing on numerous publications including Maxim, Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan.
Heigl married Josh Kelley in Park City, Utah on December 23, 2007.
Early life and family:
Heigl was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Nancy, a personnel manager, and Paul Heigl, a financial executive/accountant. Heigl has German and Irish ancestry, and was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is the youngest of four children (in addition to siblings Meg, Jason, and Holt). Heigl 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 (prior to that her mother was Lutheran and her father Catholic). Heigl 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."
Salary:Heigl won greater financial success Knocked Up (2007), grossing $ 148,761,765 in U.S. box office, earning a salary of $ 300,000 USD. Heigl got higher wages in the film 27 Dresses (2008), for which she received $ 6 million USD.
Feminism:
Despite Heigl's constant reassurances that she is "quite boring... really", Movie Entertainment called Heigl a complex individual with many contrasts, referring to her as an "ex-model with a strong feminist streak" and an "actress known for her dramatic roles who really wants to do comedy".
In the wake of widespread media attention to accusations of sexism (including articles in New York, The New Yorker, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Guardian, Vanity Fair and People) against director and producer Judd Apatow and his film Knocked Up, Heigl has been tagged as a potentially important and assertive modern proponent of women's rights.
In a highly-publicized Vanity Fair interview, as one of the lead actors in the hit film Knocked Up, Heigl admitted that though she enjoyed working with Apatow and Rogen, she had a hard time enjoying the film itself. She called the movie "a little sexist", claiming that the film "paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys". Following Heigl's controversial comments, an online survey of 927 individuals was performed by lifestyle publication Buzzsugar (a media product of Sugar Publishing) in which the majority (59%) of movie-goers agreed that Knocked Up was sexist or could be viewed as sexist (although 38% were not personally offended) while 37% of viewers saw the film as devoid of sexist aspects. In his review for The Guardian, humorist Joe Queenan called Knocked Up "the latest in a new genre of romantic comedies in which an unappealing hero gets together with a gorgeous, successful woman".
Heigl's comments spurred widespread reaction in the media, primarily consisting of personal attacks in which she was called "an ungrateful traitor", "hypocrite", and "assertive, impatient go-getter who quickly tired of waiting for her boyfriend to propose", in some cases debasing her religious beliefs and criticizing her private relationships. Heigl clarified her remarks to People magazine, stating that, "My motive was to encourage other women like myself to not take that element of the movie too seriously and to remember that it's a broad comedy", adding that, "Although I stand behind my opinion, I'm disheartened that it has become the focus of my experience with the movie".The Guardian noted that Heigl's comments "provoked quite a backlash, and Heigl was described as ungrateful and a traitor. Some people even suggested she would never work again", remarks which in retrospect were not only proved demonstrably wrong but the publicity and promotion in the wake of her comments may well have propelled Heigl's career.
Following the release of 27 Dresses, the New York Post expressed some disappointment with the mismatch of Heigl's talent with the "chick-flick" triviality of the film, suggesting that Heigl might be more compatible "with female directors such as Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) or Tamara Jenkins (The Savages)...". On the other hand, her newest project, The Ugly Truth, has been touted as "a battle of the sexes" chick flick.
Animal welfare projects:
Heigl 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.
Heigl 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, Heigl has six dogs of her own.
Personal life:Heigl dated Joey Lawrence in 1994 and Roswell costar Jason Behr during the run of the series. In June 2006, she became engaged to singer Josh Kelley, whom she met on the set of his music video for "Only You". They were married on December 23, 2007 in Park City, Utah. During a taping of Live With Regis and Kelly, Heigl stating that she and Kelley chose not to live together before they were married, saying, "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." For their honeymoon, they went to the Esperanza resort in Cabo San Lucas. In December 2007, Heigl and Kelley moved into a new home in Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.
At the end of 2007, Barbara Walters named Heigl one of "The 11 Most Fascinating People of 2007" on an ABC program of that title. Heigl questioned her inclusion on the list, saying that in fact she is actually "quite boring...not, just kidding, but really".
On September 9, 2009, Heigl's representative confirmed that the couple had started the process of adopting a baby girl from Korea. Later that month, the couple adopted a special needs baby girl they named Nancy Leigh (named after Heigl's mother and sister), nicknamed Naleigh.
