Katie Holmes Biography

Katie Noelle Holmes was born December 18, 1978, in Toledo, Ohio. The child of Martin and Kathy Holmes, she attended the all-girls Catholic high school Notre Dame Academy. While in high school, Holmes became heavily involved in modeling. Despite success in this arena, she did not find the work challenging and quickly shifted her sights to acting. By 1997, Holmes landed an audition for the new Ang Lee film The Ice Storm. Winning the role, seventeen-year-old Holmes worked alongside seasoned actors such as Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, and Sigourney Weaver. The movie also starred relative newcomers Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and Elijah Wood.

Despite a small role, Holmes truly fell in love with acting. Her enthusiasm prompted her to send multiple audition tapes to new television pilots. One such tape was sent to Kevin Williamson, the creator of a new teen-oriented drama called Dawson’s Creek. The show expressed interest and requested a live audition. Unfortunately, the audition fell on opening night for her high school production of Damn Yankees, in which she played Lola. Always devoted to her roots, Holmes informed Williamson she was unavoidably detained. Luckily for Holmes, their interest was piqued enough to reschedule the audition. Obviously it was a success, and Holmes spent the next six seasons as Joey Potter. Dawson’s Creek helped launch the careers of all involved, including Joshua Jackson, James Van Der Beek, and Michelle Williams.

While gaining recognition and popularity at a breakneck pace, Holmes focused on her film career. Working around her hectic and demanding television schedule, she managed to take a role in the teen thriller Disturbing Behavior in 1998 with James Marsden and Nick Stahl, as well as a role in the renowned independent film Go in 1999.

Despite her work on Creek, Holmes continued taking film roles that reflected her growing interest in serious film. To that end, Holmes found success with Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys in 2000, and opposite Cate Blanchett in The Gift also in 2000. By 2003, Holmes landed the lead in Pieces of April. Playing a misfit desperately trying to put together a successful Thanksgiving dinner for her family, the film also starred Oliver Platt and Patricia Clarkson, who earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role. For Holmes, the work was truly a labor of love. She worked for absolutely no money upfront and only a percentage of the box office profits.

After Dawson’s Creek came to a close in 2003, Holmes bided her time until a choice role came along. Eventually that role came in the form of the Christopher Nolan directed Batman Begins in 2005, with Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, and Gary Oldman. The film found tremendous box office success, and Holmes wrapped up 2005 with the caustic comedy Thank You for Smoking.

Even more than her acting ability, Holmes has found herself in the news due to her highly public love life. From December 2003 to March 2005, Holmes and Chris Klein were engaged. Their breakup marked the end of a five year relationship. But of course, it is her whirlwind relationship with Tom Cruise that has all the paparazzi aflutter.

After only two months of dating and following his divorce from Nicole Kidman, his wife of eleven years, Cruise proposed to Holmes in Paris. Their daughter, Suri, was born April 18, 2006 and Katie and Tom, referred to as TomKat, were married in a ceremony in Italy in November of 2006.

YUDDY