Biography

As an actress, Katie Holmes is best known for her role as Joey Potter, the female component of the love triangle on the WB hit teen drama “Dawson’s Creek”, which ran from 1998 to 2003. But now, she is probably more recognized as the other half of the celebrity supercouple/ media entity “TomKat”, being the wife of superstar Tom Cruise.

The future Mrs. Cruise was born two months premature on December 18, 1978 to Martin and Kathleen Holmes in Toledo, Ohio. Her father was a divorce lawyer while her mother was a homemaker/ philanthropist. The youngest in a brood of five, Katie was a strong-willed child, though otherwise led a normal childhood. She and her siblings lived in the Corey Woods section of Sylvania Township, Lucas County in Ohio.

Holmes was baptized as a Roman Catholic and attended Christ The King Church and parochial schools in Toledo. When she was a teenager, she started attending classes at a modelling school in Toledo, and in 1996, she was invited by her teacher to join the International Modelling and Talent Association competition in New York with other girls from her class.

By the end of the competition, Katie had won many awards, but decided not to focus on modelling because she did not find it challenging enough. She had always appeared in school productions, and at the modelling competition she did some singing, dancing and recited a monologue, so this was really what she wanted to do. Ang Lee was in pre-production at that time for “The Ice Storm”, and Katie Holmes’ audition tape made it to the casting director of that film. Katie was cast in the role of Libbets Casey, the daughter of Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver in the film, and that was the start of her Hollywood career.

The year after the competition, Katie went to Los Angeles to try out for some roles during pilot season, which is when producers cast and shoot new shows in the hopes of landing a network deal. She reportedly turned down the lead role on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. Columbia Tri-Star Television took an interest in her though, and even let her audition for the role in an upcoming Kevin Williamson drama through videotape. She got the role as Joey Potter, opposite James Van Der Beek’s Dawson, and the rest is TV history.

“Dawson’s Creek” was a smash hit when picked up by the WB, and launched the careers of the four main characters; her, Joshua Jackson (who was already a child star, though), Van Der Beek, and Michelle Williams. The media was very enamoured with Katie Holmes at this time, with some calling her “The Audrey Hepburn of her generation.” “Impossibly lovely”, “next up for idolhood” and “”the most coquettishly sexy woman on television. Anywhere.” were also some of the soundbytes from the mainstream media flying around during that time, and Katie Holmes was suddenly one of the most popular teens of her era.

Holmes landed on the covers of Seventeen, TV Guide, and Rolling Stone during that year, and in the year after the launch of that series, has been regularly listed in the Top 100 of various men’s magazine sexiest women lists, as well as on People’s “50 Most Beautiful People”.

“Dawson’s Creek” ended its run in 2003, and by that time, Katie already had a few movies tucked under her belt already. Kevin Williamson’s “Disturbing Behavior” was her first big-screen role after “The Ice Strom”, and that was done during the height of Joey Potter’s popularity, in 1998.

Her movie career though, hasn’t been as stellar or well-received as her introduction in “The Ice Storm” or on “Dawson’s Creek”. Whether in supporting roles or as co-lead, the films and her performances have either been savaged by critics or given the cold shoulder by the box office. Holmes did her first nude scene for Sam Raimi’s “the Gift” in 2000, and many decried the gratuitous circumstances of her breast exposure, as well as the death of her wholesome Joey Potter image.

Her most successful film so far has been “Batman Begins”, and her participation in this movie earned her a Golden Raspberry, or “Razzie” nomination for worst supporting actress. And it was during this time that she started dating Tom Cruise, prompting many people to speculate that their relationship was a big publicity stunt for her Batman movie and Tom’s own upcoming “War Of The Worlds”.

Before Tom Cruise, Katie had dated her Dawson’s creek co-star Joshua Jackson for around two seasons of the show, and then she hooked up with “American Pie” star Chris Klein for 5 years, from 2000-2005. During their time together, they even got engaged, in 2003, but nothing became of it, and then she went from that directly to the media phenomenon that was TomKat.

TomKat is a celebrity couple portmanteau that referred to the relationship between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and deserves an entire biography to itself. Tom and Katie were married on November 18, 2006 at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, around six months after the birth of their child, Suri. It was a Scientology ceremony, Tom Cruise being an outspoken Scientologist, and Katie had left her Catholic faith for this cult shortly after their relationship turned serious.