Katee Sackhoff

Katee Sackhoff
Sackhoff at the Wizard World Convention in Philadelphia, PA, June 2008
Born	Kathryn Ann Sackhoff April 8, 1980 (1980-04-08) (age 29) Portland, Oregon United States

Kathryn Ann "Katee" Sackhoff (born April 8, 1980) is an American actress known mainly for playing Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica. In 2004 she was nominated for a Saturn Award in the "Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series" category for her work in the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. In May 2006, she won the Saturn Award for the same role. She will star in the eighth season of 24 as a series regular.

Personal life

Sackhoff was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in St. Helens, Oregon. Her mother Mary was an ESL program coordinator and her father Dennis is a land developer.^[1] Her brother Erick is co-owner of a vehicle modification shop near Portland. She graduated from Sunset High School in Beaverton in 1998. She began swimming at an early age and by high school was planning to go pro until her right knee was injured. This led her to begin practicing yoga, which she continues today, and pursue an interest in acting.^[2] She performed in high school productions of Oliver, Fiddler on the Roof, and Bye, Bye Birdie. Katee's interest in acting propelled her to move to Hollywood, California upon graduating high school.

Sackhoff has three tattoos: One, on the back of her neck, is a Chinese symbol for choice. On her left shoulder is a cross, but because there is no Christianity in the Battlestar Galactica universe, whenever her left shoulder blade was exposed on screen in the first two seasons it would be covered with a bandage; in later seasons temporary additions were added to the cross to make it look like a ziggurat.

The third is on her right forearm and reads bona fiscalia, meaning public property in legal Latin. This tattoo is visible in numerous episodes of Battlestar Galactica.^[3] Other elements from Sackhoff's life were incorporated into the show: a ring she wears on her thumb is described as Starbuck's engagement ring from Zak Adama, and the actress's decision to quit smoking between seasons two and three was mirrored by her character.

Toward the end of the filming of Battlestar Galactica Sackhoff began feeling physically weak. Soon after filming wrapped she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer treatment has a 99 percent success rate if diagnosed early. After surgery to remove her thyroid she required no radiation treatments and is currently in remission.^[4]

Career

Her first role was in the Lifetime movie, Fifteen and Pregnant in which she played a teenager with a baby. The movie starred Kirsten Dunst and motivated her to move to Hollywood and pursue a career in acting after graduating high school. Sackhoff's first recurring role was Annie in MTV's Undressed, next gaining a supporting role as Nell Bickford in The Education of Max Bickford. Katee made her motion picture debut in My First Mister, and next appeared in film as Jenna "Jen" Danzig in Halloween: Resurrection.

Sackhoff's most notable role is as Kara "Starbuck" Thrace in the mini-series and followup TV series of Battlestar Galactica, which won a Saturn Award in 2005 for Best Actress on Television. The actress's persona led the writers to develop the character of Starbuck as a more volatile and complex character. Galatica executive producer Ron Moore described her as having magnetism while producer David Eick expanded stating, "We saw this whole other side that was all because of Katee: vulnerability, insecurity, desperation. We started freeing ourselves up to explore the weakness of the character, because we knew Katee could express those things without compromising the character's strength."^[5]

Sackhoff was next cast as the evil cyborg Sarah Corvus in the short-lived NBC series Bionic Woman of 2007. David Eick, executive producer for the show, stated, "She's a very special find. Those actors who can combine the qualities of strength and vulnerability—they usually call those people movie stars."^[5]

Sackhoff plays the female lead in the action/scifi movie The Last Sentinel and the supernatural thriller White Noise 2: The Light.

The actress appears as the main character in the Lifetime Original Movie How I Married My High School Crush,^[6][7] as well as guest appearances in Cold Case, ER, Law & Order, and Robot Chicken.

Sackhoff provided the voice of a female marine in the video game Halo 3 and is also featured in the viral marketing campaign for Resistance 2.

She appears in four episodes of the fifth season of the series Nip/Tuck playing a new doctor, Dr. Theodora Rowe.^[8][9] Sackhoff was later replaced by Rose McGowan for the role due to scheduling conflicts.^[10][11]

Sackhoff headlined NBC's Dick Wolf-produced cop drama Lost and Found which centered on Tessa (Sackhoff), "an offbeat female LAPD detective who, after butting heads with the higher-ups, is sent as a punishment to the basement to work on John Doe and Jane Doe cases." The pilot was filmed in January 2009. NBC decided not to pick up the series.^{[12][dead link]}

Sackhoff will appear as a series regular in the eighth season of the TV series 24, playing Dana Walsh, a CTU data analyst with a secret.^[13]

She appeared as herself on the Nov. 23 episode of CBS' The Big Bang Theory as Wolowitz's dream girl.^[14]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Katee Sackhoff

• Katee Sackhoff Official Website
• Katee Sackhoff at the Internet Movie Database
• Katee Sackhoff at TV Guide
• Tuned in Interview with Ronald D. Moore
• Katee Sackhoff interview at The Scifi World
• Katee Sackhoff interview with AOL Canada