Fanatic: Biography of Katie Holmes

Monday, January 08, 2007

Biography of Katie Holmes

In a letter to International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA), Katie Holmes writes: "For years I have spent some time sitting in front of the television from 7:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. listening intently to John Tesh and Mary Hart inform me about which star was filming what new movie, who was dating who, and who was the rising new actor or actress. Hollywood and its numerous success stories seemed extremely far away and definitely from a world that I would never come into contact with."; A combination of natural beauty, innate talent, and charisma has helped Katie Holmes become one of the success stories she heard about on her TV. Already, at the age of 19, she is one of the most buzzed about young actresses in Hollywood today. She is best known for her role as the sarcastic, lovelorn tomboy Joey Potter, best friend of Dawson Leery on the WB's hit teen drama "Dawson's Creek." Katie can also be seen as Rachel in this summer's teen thriller "Disturbing Behavior," which is directed by David Nutter. She has roles in two upcoming movies, "Killing Mrs. Tingle" (written/directed by Kevin Williamson, tentative release date: February 1999), in which she is the lead, and "Go"(directed by Douglas Liman, tentative release date: December 1998).

Katie got her start as an actress in theater productions at her high school, Notre Dame Academy, an all-girls Catholic school in her hometown of Toledo, OH. She comes from a "super-athletic" family, the youngest of three sisters and one brother, and she admits that despite her best efforts she was "horrible" at sports. Katie found her niche in theater, although, she never dreamed she could make it professionally as an actress because of her Midwest roots. However, in July 1995 she attended IMTA's annual "Hooray for Hollywood" Convention in New York City, where she caught the eye of talent manager Al Onorato, who encouraged her to come to Los Angeles for television's pilot season. Six months later, in LA, she immediately won a small role in Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm," a critically acclaimed art house film based on the novel by the same name by Rick Moody. Shortly after this, Katie was offered the part of Buffy Summers in the WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." However she declined in order to complete her high school education.

In fact, she followed up her big screen debut in "The Ice Storm" with a part as Lola in her school's production of "Damn Yankees." As the oft-repeated tale goes, this nearly cost her the role of Joey Potter, as she refused to ditch her classmates' on opening night for the scheduled "Dawson's Creek" audition. However, DC creator and writer Kevin Williamson was so impressed by her audition tape, made in her basement with her mother playing Dawson, that he was willing to reschedule. In the September 1998 YM, Kevin Williamson, described his first encounter with Katie this way, "I'll never forget the day when, after weeks of searching for the right actress to play the virtuoso role of Joey, we got [Katie's audition] tape. After viewing it everyone in the room was speechless."

Katie graduated from Notre Dame Academy in June of 1997 and began filming "Dawson's Creek" later that summer. She has deferred admission to Columbia University. She currently lives in Wilmington, NC, where she has just bought a house. Katie has certainly come a long way from dreaming about Hollywood in front of her TV set, and it is a safe bet that she has an exciting, successful, and interesting career ahead of her. As Katie herself remarked in A Fanatic's Guide to Dawson's Creek, "It's overwhelming – yesterday I was just your average kid from Toledo. Now I have my own web site."

posted by Fanatic @ 8:41 PM

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