Kate Walsh Marries

Kate Walsh Marries

HOLLYWOOD - Grey's Anatomy star Kate Walsh has married her movie-boss fiancé Alex Young in a ceremony in California.

The couple exchanged nuptials on Saturday at the Ojai Presbyterian Church in Ojai, near Los Angeles.

The star-studded guest list included Kate Beckinsale, her director husband Len Wiseman and Walsh's costars Katherine Heigl, Chandra Wilson, Sara Ramirez and Justin Chambers.

Walsh, 39, wore a custom-made Monique Lhuillier dress.

The actress only met 36-year-old Young--a production co-president at 20th Century Fox--in February, and they were engaged three months later.

She told People.com after Young proposed, "I'm literally living the dream. But you know when you know. I was not expecting it, so it's kind of amazing."

Kate Walsh

Known best as vibrant redhead Dr. Addison Shepherd – the woman who came between intern Meredith Grey and Dr. “McDreamy” Shepherd – on "Grey's Anatomy" (2005- ), Kate Walsh's accomplished career has run the gamut, from Shakespearean drama to situational comedy. This attractive natural blonde had already enjoyed an extensive career encompassing television, film and theater before landing the high profile role on ABC’s hit medical drama.
Born Oct....


Full Biography

Known best as vibrant redhead Dr. Addison Shepherd – the woman who came between intern Meredith Grey and Dr. “McDreamy” Shepherd – on "Grey's Anatomy" (2005- ), Kate Walsh's accomplished career has run the gamut, from Shakespearean drama to situational comedy. This attractive natural blonde had already enjoyed an extensive career encompassing television, film and theater before landing the high profile role on ABC’s hit medical drama.
Born Oct. 13, 1967 in San Jose, CA, Walsh was raised in both California and Tucson, AZ. As a student, Walsh pursued acting and regional theater at the University of Arizona. Soon, she relocated to Chicago where she continued her studies with the renowned Piven Theatre Workshop and, later, the Chicago Shakespeare Repertory. Walsh's theater work in Chicago included starring roles in productions of "Flesh and Blood," "Moon under Miami,” "Troilus and Cressida," and "Born Guilty," which she also performed as a radio play on NPR. To further her acting career, Walsh relocated to New York City, where she joined the comedy troupe, Burn Manhattan, honing her comedic skills in a number of Off-Broadway plays, including "Flight Courier" and "The Four Twins."

Making a transition to the screen, Walsh was first cast in a number of small television roles on episodes of "ER" (NBC, 1994- ), "Homicide: Life on the Street" (NBC, 1993-1999), the short-lived "Swift Justice" (UPN, 1996), and "Law and Order" (NBC, 1990- ). While still performing theater in Chicago, Walsh branched out to film as well with roles in two independent films, "Normal Life" (1996), and "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" (1998). She also starred as a kleptomaniac in the short film "Peppermills" (1997), which won Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival in 1998. Walsh's improvisational comedy training soon helped her land more prominent series regular roles on "The Mike O'Malley Show" (NBC, 1999), "The Norm Show" (ABC, 1999-2001), and HBO's "The Mind of the Married Man" (2001-2002). Walsh was then cast in a recurring role on "The Drew Carey Show" (ABC) in 2001. Donning a fat-suit, she portrayed Drew Carey's girlfriend, Nicki Fifer, a woman struggling with her weight and appearance.

Walsh went on to appear in the films "The Family Man" (2000), opposite Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni; "Under the Tuscan Sun" (2003), as the lesbian lover of her later "Grey's Anatomy" co-star Sandra Oh; and "Kicking and Screaming" (2005), a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall. Walsh also had small roles in the films "After the Sunset" (2004), "One Way to Valhalla" (2005), and the family adventure film "Veritas, Prince of Truth" (2005).

Walsh scored her biggest career break to date in 2005 when she was cast in the role of Dr. Addison Shepherd on the ABC hit series "Grey's Anatomy" (2005- ). Originally a guest star slated for five episodes, Walsh's character was brought back in a recurring role as Patrick Dempsey's adulterous wife – and the bane of Meredith Grey’s existence – after her surprise appearance at the end of season one’s cliffhanger. Walsh’s layered portrayal helped viewers begrudgingly respect the talented Dr. Shepherd, despite her having broken up one of TV’s favorite couples. She had such appeal with fans, that when Shonda Rhimes decided to do a "Grey's" spinoff in 2007 – "Private Practice" – she chose Walsh's Dr. Addison as the character who could conceivably carry over.


Kate Beckinsale

Petite and pretty, with dark hair, pale skin and flashing eyes, Kate Beckinsale made a strong film debut as the virginal Hero in Kenneth Branagh's sun-dappled adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993). Although she was a screen novice, the actress projected the requisite intelligence and star quality that deemed her one to watch. As the daughter of comic Richard Beckinsale (who died when she was five years old) and actress Judy Loe, it was perhaps inevitable that she would eventually find her way to the limelight....

Full Biography

Petite and pretty, with dark hair, pale skin and flashing eyes, Kate Beckinsale made a strong film debut as the virginal Hero in Kenneth Branagh's sun-dappled adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993). Although she was a screen novice, the actress projected the requisite intelligence and star quality that deemed her one to watch. As the daughter of comic Richard Beckinsale (who died when she was five years old) and actress Judy Loe, it was perhaps inevitable that she would eventually find her way to the limelight. Beckinsale, however, spent a good portion of her teen years struggling with an eating disorder (of which she has spoken frankly in interviews) before she decided to try her hand at acting. After a bit part in the BBC mystery "Devices and Desires" (1991), she landed the pivotal role of the rebellious daughter of a British woman (Judy Davis) involved with the French Resistance during WWII in "One Against the Wind" (CBS, 1991). Once she had become established as an ingénue with "Much Ado About Nothing,” Beckinsale carefully crafted a career path that would not find her typecast.
Born on July 26, 1973 in London, England, Beckinsale pursued her education at Godolphin & Latymer School, then Oxford University, where she took up acting. In "Royal Deceit/The Prince of Jutland" (1994), which was based on the Danish prince whose life inspired Shakespeare's "Hamlet,” she starred opposite Christian Bale. A lighter, more charming side to the actress was displayed in "Marie-Louise, or The Leave" (1995), in which she played a young woman searching for her lover in a crowded train station. Beckinsale delivered a strong turn as the meddlesome orphan taken in by eccentric relatives in the brittle comedy "Cold Comfort Farm" (also 1995). As Flora Poste, she anchored the film and managed to make a busybody character seem charming, and in some ways it was a warm-up for her tackling "Jane Austen's Emma" (BBC/AE, 1996). Although Douglas McGrath's feature version starring Gwyneth Paltrow had opened on American screens first, this version found its partisans who felt it was more faithful to the spirit of Austen.

Capitalizing on the sass and intelligence she had projected in both "Cold Comfort Farm" and "Jane Austen's Emma", Beckinsale shone as an aristocratic med student who falls in with two charming con men (Dan Futterman and Stuart Townsend) in the underrated caper flick "Shooting Fish" (1997). Adopting a flawless American accent, the actress next registered as the bitchy junior publishing executive seeking fun and perhaps Mr. Right in Whit Stillman's "The Last Days of Disco" (1998). The following year, Beckinsale retained the Americanisms to portray a mousy tourist in Thailand who falls for a slick Australian, dragging herself and her traveling companion (Claire Danes) into accusations of drug smuggling in "Brokedown Palace.” After time out for motherhood, she returned to the big screen as Nick Nolte's daughter in the Merchant Ivory adaptation of Henry James' "The Golden Bowl" (2000).

The attractive actress finally had a shot at more mainstream success with two high profile leading roles in 2001. In the big-budget epic "Pearl Harbor,” she was cast as a US Navy nurse who falls in love with a dashing pilot (Ben Affleck) but when news of his death arrives turns to his best friend (Josh Hartnett) for comfort. And Beckinsale was cast opposite John Cusack in the mildly engaging romantic comedy "Serendipity,” playing a woman who believes more in fate than love at first sight and faces a long but seemingly inevitable road to romance. The actress surfaced again in 2003 in the arty indie "Laurel Canyon" as the icy fiancée of an L.A. native (Christian Bale) who returns to his eclectic mother's home in Laurel Canyon, where Beckinsale's character slowly becomes seduced by the sultry Los Angeles lifestyle.

Her highest profile role to date came in "Underworld" (2003), a glossy supernatural thriller with Romeo-and-Juliet overtones, in which Beckinsale played Selene, a vampire embroiled in her kind's long feud with a werewolf clan who falls in love with one of her blood enemies (Scott Speedman). Beckinsale followed up with another action-packed supernatural thriller, teaming with Hugh Jackman for "Van Helsing" (2004), in which she played Anna Valerious, a vampire slayer from a long line committed to ending the reign of Count Dracula who teams with the count's longtime human foe. The actress was better served by her next project, director Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes glamorous and visually arresting biopic "The Aviator" (2004), in which the actress provided a sultry spark as the fiery film icon Ava Gardner, Hughes' (Leonardo DiCaprio) most challenging, yet sympathetic, paramour.

Beckinsale next revived the vampire Selene for the sequel, “Underworld: Evolution” (2006), as vampires and werewolves battle each other for ultimate control of the undead. As the violence between the two warring factions increases, Selene and her werewolf beau, Michael (Scott Speedman), try to uncover the secrets of the conflict while delving into their own pasts. Despite poor reviews, “Underworld: Evolution” managed to rake in a descent payday. Meanwhile, she starred opposite Adam Sandler in “Click” (2006), a middlebrow comedy about an overworked architect (Sandler) whose life seemingly changes for the better when a strange Bed, Bath and Beyond clerk gives him a universal remote that can pause, rewind or fast-forward anything—barking dog included. But as the remote gets stuck on fast-forward, causing him to miss all the important events in his life, he realizes that it’s probably better to take the bad with the good rather than let his whole life pass before his eyes.

Returning to the horror genre—an apparent favorite for the actress—Beckinsale starred in “Vacancy” (2007), another in a long line of suspense thrillers released in the early part of the century. In this all-too-obvious take on “Psycho,” Beckinsale played the soon-to-be ex-wife of a man (Luke Wilson) forced to spend the night at a seedy motel run by an odd, but seemingly harmless proprietor (Frank Whaley). But the couple soon discovers that the cache of homemade slasher flicks they have found were shot in the very room in which they are staying—both must put aside their differences and work together in order to avoid becoming the next victims of the sadistic filmmakers. While most horror thriller are brushed off by critics as being redundant and tedious, “Vacancy” received its fair share of positive reviews.


Len Wiseman

A lifelong comic book fan, Len Wiseman built a career that can only be described as every geek’s dream come true – coming seemingly out of nowhere to co-create and direct a highly successful film franchise that pitted – joy of joys! – vampires against werewolves. Better yet, during the course of filming said dark tale, the lucky newcomer fell in love and married his sexy leather-clad lead actress, living happily ever after.
Born on March 4, 1973 in Fremont, CA, Wiseman grew up reading comics and dreaming of becoming a filmmaker; his later cinematic vision benefiting greatly from those early days of flipping through DC and Marvel....


Full Biography

A lifelong comic book fan, Len Wiseman built a career that can only be described as every geek’s dream come true – coming seemingly out of nowhere to co-create and direct a highly successful film franchise that pitted – joy of joys! – vampires against werewolves. Better yet, during the course of filming said dark tale, the lucky newcomer fell in love and married his sexy leather-clad lead actress, living happily ever after.
Born on March 4, 1973 in Fremont, CA, Wiseman grew up reading comics and dreaming of becoming a filmmaker; his later cinematic vision benefiting greatly from those early days of flipping through DC and Marvel. He had a particular interest in genre films, which would clearly inform his career choices later on. After graduating from Fremont's American High School, Wiseman studied film at De Anza College in San Jose, CA, making two short films there – the second of which helped him land his first professional gig.

He began his film career by starting in the art department on a string of director Roland Emmerich's films. While serving as props assistant on such films as “Stargate” (1994), “Independence Day” (1996), and “Godzilla” (1998), Wiseman absorbed the inner workings of big budget Hollywood productions, later crediting an awareness of some of the more wasteful elements of such films as helpful in planning his future film debut.

Building on his art department background, Wiseman next transitioned into directing short form projects. After helming design-heavy commercials for such clients as PlayStation, Time Warner, and Activision, he moved into directing music videos for a diverse array of musical artists, including such acts as metal-heavy Megadeth and R&B divas, En Vogue. Wiseman also directed videos for somewhat lesser known bands, including Static-X and Brooke Allison. His highly visual style eventually caught on with viewers and critics, garnering him video award nominations – including Best Art Direction for Quarashi’s “Stick ‘Em Up” at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards and Best Director for Rufus Wainwright’s “Across the Universe” at the Music Video Production Association (MVPA) Awards.

More importantly, his director’s reel attracted the attention of Dimension Films, who, being a company very impressed with his stylistic screen visions, approached Wiseman to make a modern werewolf movie. While Dimension eventually went with another more tested director for their werewolf film, the offer got Wiseman and his friends/co-creators, Kevin Grevioux and Danny McBride, to thinking – the only way to make their werewolf movie truly unique would be to pit the werewolves against an equally strong opponent – vampires. After developing the script, they brought the newly titled “Underworld” to Lakeshore Entertainment to see if this film company would bite.

Wiseman’s elaborate drawings of contemporized monsters and cool urban settings helped the film gain the attachments it needed, including glamorous star Kate Beckinsale. At the time, the part of a “Death Dealer” – a vampire assassin bent on exterminating enemy werewolves – was largely against type for the proper British actress, but she warmed to both her character’s butt-kicking strengths, as well as the director’s unique vision.

Wiseman’s greatest challenge in making “Underworld” was entirely monetary. A script this chock full of special effects and gothic sets would have typically budgeted at $60 million, rather than the approximately $22 million “Underworld” was allotted. At the same time, the director aimed to make a slick “living graphic novel” and didn’t want to sacrifice the look he had envisioned. Utilizing his earlier experiences on wasteful past projects, Wiseman focused on such budget-cutting techniques as using sound effects as a replacement for visual gore and an almost exclusive use of practical special effects.

Prior to the film’s release, good buzz was such that the “Underworld” trailer became Sony.com’s most downloaded (at the time), barely surpassing that of “Spider-Man” (2002). “Underworld” went on to gross nearly $100 million worldwide at the box office and made even more upon its DVD release.

For Wiseman, there was an even greater outcome than his feature film hitting big. While on set, he and Beckinsale fell in love. The attractive couple tied the knot in Los Angeles in May, 2004, making their home in the grungy artist-centric city of Venice Beach rather than the tonier neighborhoods of other inland celebrities.

The success of “Underworld” led to the inevitable sequel. Though budgeted at approximately twice that of the original film, “Underworld: Evolution” (2006) brought in as much box office take as its less expensive predecessor. Still profitable, it was not the runaway success that Wiseman’s debut was. The difference being, this film included more digital effects and more gore. Still, in comparison to other similar genre films, Wiseman had kept these elements to a minimum, focusing on what worked in the original “Underworld” – namely, expanding the love story between his now wife and co-star Scott Speedman. No sooner had the second film premiered, when Wiseman was said to be in talks for episode three of the dark, blood-thirsty franchise.


Katherine Heigl

With a beauty harkening back to old Hollywood, Katherine Heigl – a onetime Sears catalog child model who later paid her dues as a decidingly less-than-glamorous slasher film victim – finally earned widespread acclaim for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on the award-winning medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, 2005- ). A frequent sight on “Most Beautiful People” lists, the statuesque actress proved to be versatile and talented in much the same manner as her “Grey’s” character – also a former model who had a long road to acceptance as a medical professional....

Full Biography

With a beauty harkening back to old Hollywood, Katherine Heigl – a onetime Sears catalog child model who later paid her dues as a decidingly less-than-glamorous slasher film victim – finally earned widespread acclaim for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on the award-winning medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, 2005- ). A frequent sight on “Most Beautiful People” lists, the statuesque actress proved to be versatile and talented in much the same manner as her “Grey’s” character – also a former model who had a long road to acceptance as a medical professional. In 2007, Heigl – who had previously dabbled in such little-seen comedies as “Romy and Michele: In the Beginning” (ABC Family, 2003) and the Farrelly Brothers feature, “The Ringer” (2005) – was poised to take the film world by surprise with her starring role in Judd Apatow’s critically-hailed and much-anticipated follow-up to “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (2005) – “Knocked Up” (2007).
Heigl was born on Nov. 24, 1978, the youngest of five children to Paul and Nancy Heigl. The Mormon family moved several times while Katherine was young, so she lived in Washington D.C., Colorado, and Virginia before the family settled in New Canaan, CT for the remainder of Heigl’s childhood. When she was nine years old, an aunt visiting from New York City took a series of portraits of the all-American blonde with the big smile, submitting them to modeling agencies. Heigl was promptly signed by the prestigious Wilhelmina agency and began catalog modeling and eventually TV commercial acting. In 1991, she was cast in the coming-of-age feature film, “That Night,” alongside Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell, but the picture was not released until 1993. She followed up her acting debut with a pair of higher profile big screen roles in Steven Soderberg’s Depression-era drama “King of the Hill” (1993) and the romantic comedy, “My Father the Hero,” playing the rebellious teenage daughter of Gerard Depardieu (1994).

By now, Heigl’s modeling career had ramped up to include regular appearances in Seventeen and other teen and beauty magazines, while she tried to maintain a regular life at New Canaan High School and build her acting resume in the meantime. She next expanded into action films with small roles in Steven Seagal’s “Under Siege 2” (1995) and the made-for-TV gravy train with Disney’s “Wish Upon a Star” (1996). Following the break-up of her parents and her graduation from high school, Heigl and her mother relocated to Malibu in 1997, at which time Nancy Heigl became her manager. The mother-daughter duo made an auspicious start on the West Coast, with the teenager landing a role in a European production of “Prince Valiant” (1997), a made-for- TV adaptation of “The Tempest,” opposite Peter Fonda (1998), and a pair of bill-paying horror films – “Bride of Chucky” (1998) and “Bug Buster” (1998).

The following year, Heigl was thrust into the bright spotlight when she landed a starring role on “Roswell” (WB, 1999-2002), playing one of a group of high school students in Roswell, NM, who live secretive double lives as alien offspring. The slick, moody, sci-fi drama with the teen angst edge fared well at a time when programming grids were crowded with high school dramas. Over three seasons, Heigl’s character Isabel gained a more and more prominent part of the show’s ever-complicated storyline. During the run of the show, the over-18 actress also became a mainstay in magazines like FHM and Maxim, often appearing on “Sexiest” and “Most Beautiful” lists. When “Roswell” was cancelled in the spring of 2002, Heigl stayed busy with unremarkable TV movies, horror films, and an MTV remake of “Wuthering Heights” (2003). In the 2005 romp “Romy & Michele: The Beginning” – a prequel to the film “Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion” (1997) – Heigl reprised the role played by Mira Sorvino in the film.

In 2005, Heigl had established the chops and the personal background to perfectly fill the role of underwear model-turned-medical intern Isobel Stevens for a mid-season replacement medical drama called “Grey’s Anatomy.” It was her third role as an Isabel, and it did prove to be a charm, with the ensemble show developing into a critic’s pick and audience favorite. Heigl even received her first Golden Globe nomination, following her heartbreaking storyline of falling in love with her patient, Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who dies of heart failure after asking Izzie to marry him. The public’s respect for Heigl grew when, after a highly publicized cast argument, where costar Isaiah Washington used derogatory language against gay cast member T.R. Knight, Heigl appeared on camera in interviews to publicly express disgust with Washington and support Knight, who she said was her best friend.

The year “Grey’s” premiered, Heigl had appeared in her first big screen comedy, the low-brow Farrelly Brothers flick, “The Ringer.” The film was not a huge success, but Heigl’s handling of the material obviously made an impression on writer-director Judd Apatow, who cast Heigl in the lead in his one-night-stand-whoops story “Knocked Up” (2007). The film was slated for a June 2007 release, with early reviews touting it as one of the year’s best comedies. The film was also sure to instigate a whole new flurry of “Sexiest” and “Most Beautiful lists,” however, sadly for her male fans, Katherine had become engaged to singer-songwriter Josh Kelley in June of 2006. Also in her off-screen life, Heigl was an outspoken supporter of organ donation, involved with the charities Donate Life America and the James Redford Institute of Transplant awareness. She was also, not surprisingly, a supporter of GLAAD (Gays and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Meanwhile, Heigl learned on July 19, 2007 that she earned her first-ever Emmy award nomination, getting the nod for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Izzie Stevens.


Chandra Wilson

Diminutive in stature, but possessing a powerful onscreen presence, actress Chandra Wilson worked in New York and played sporadic movie roles before being cast in her breakthrough as the tough-talking Dr. Miranda Bailey on the popular ABC medical soap opera "Grey's Anatomy" (2005 - ). Though a regular presence on stage and on several television series, Wilson supported herself for eight years as a temporary employee at Deutsche Bank while waiting for her first big break....

Full Biography

Diminutive in stature, but possessing a powerful onscreen presence, actress Chandra Wilson worked in New York and played sporadic movie roles before being cast in her breakthrough as the tough-talking Dr. Miranda Bailey on the popular ABC medical soap opera "Grey's Anatomy" (2005 - ). Though a regular presence on stage and on several television series, Wilson supported herself for eight years as a temporary employee at Deutsche Bank while waiting for her first big break. That break came when midseason replacement “Grey’s Anatomy” emerged in 2005 and landed in the Nielson’s top ten right out of the gate, allowing the once-unknown Wilson to become not only a star, but an Emmy-nominated actress as well.
The Houston, Texas, native was in her first play at age five, attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and earned a BFA from New York University’s prestigious Tisch School for the Arts. Wilson then spent four years at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Wilson racked up numerous New York stage credits: She won a Theater World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance for her role in “The Good Times are Killing Me.” She also did “Paper Moon: The Musical” at the Papermill Playhouse, “Believing” for the Young Playwright’s Festival and the Broadway production of “Our Town.” The strong-jawed actress also did TV commercials for Blockbuster, Burger King, Scope and United Negro College Fund.

Her early TV work was sporadic, but Wilson started straight at the top with an appearance on “The Cosby Show” in 1989 and then TV movie sudser “Sexual Considerations” (CBS, 1991). She didn’t resurface on the small screen again until three years later on “Law and Order” in 1992. In 1993, Wilson scored bit roles in two high-profile films: “Mad Dog and Glory” with Bill Murray, Uma Thurman and Robert De Niro and the historic “Philadelphia” with Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Antonio Banderas. Wilson had a similarly small role in writer-director John Sayles' “Lone Star” (1996) with Matthew McConaughey and Kris Kristofferson.

Eight years after her last TV appearance, Wilson was back on the small screen, this time on another Bill Cosby program “Cosby” in 2000. Wilson appeared on “Third Watch and “100 Centre Street” and had a regular role on one of Jason Alexander’s disastrous post-Seinfeld projects, “Bob Patterson” (ABC, 2001). Wilson had a memorably amusing guest spot on the HBO mega-hot “Sex and the City” in 2002, playing the street cop who allows Samantha to continue posting defamatory flyers about her hotel magnate boyfriend, whom she found with another woman. She also made an appearance on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC, 2002). In 2003, Wilson had an uncredited turn in “Head of State” with Chris Rock and Bernie Mac. A year later, she was spotted on another HBO mega-hit, “The Sopranos” (2004), and in 2005 she was back for a different one-shot role on “Law and Order: SVU.”

The same year, Wilson became a viewer favorite in her role as Dr. Bailey on “Grey’s Anatomy,” the combative surgical intern supervisor who seems to have it in for heroine Dr. Meredith Grey until the truth is revealed: Grey’s boyfriend, Dempsey’s character is secretly married and Bailey was actually trying to protect her young intern, defending her charge through the fall-out. The actress also made “Strangers with Candy” with Amy Sedaris and Allison Janney, the big screen adaptation of the Comedy Central series about an ex-con returning to high school. Meanwhile, Wilson was earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2006, an accomplishment she repeated the following year.


Sara Ramirez

A Tony-Award winning actress and singer originally from Mexico, talented beauty Sara Martinez was on stage playing the Lady of the Lake in the monster Broadway hit, “Spamalot,” when she landed the plum role of her career, as orthopedic surgeon Dr. Callie Torres on the hit medical drama, “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, 2004- ).
Born on Aug. 31, 1975 in Mazatlan, Mexico, Ramirez moved to the United States when her parents divorced in 1983. The daughter of an oceanographer father and an actress/singer mother, Ramirez grew up in San Diego, CA, where she enrolled in a school for the performing arts....

Full Biography

A Tony-Award winning actress and singer originally from Mexico, talented beauty Sara Martinez was on stage playing the Lady of the Lake in the monster Broadway hit, “Spamalot,” when she landed the plum role of her career, as orthopedic surgeon Dr. Callie Torres on the hit medical drama, “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, 2004- ).
Born on Aug. 31, 1975 in Mazatlan, Mexico, Ramirez moved to the United States when her parents divorced in 1983. The daughter of an oceanographer father and an actress/singer mother, Ramirez grew up in San Diego, CA, where she enrolled in a school for the performing arts. After high school, Ramirez moved east to attend the prestigious Julliard School in New York. There, the young performer shined; first as an ingénue, then later, as an alto singer.

Ramirez made her debut on Broadway in Paul Simon’s 1998 op-operatic spectacle, “The Capeman.” A critical and financial dud, “The Capeman” took a severe beating in the press, but Ramirez was singled out for her work as Wahzinek, the sensitive girlfriend of Ruben Blades. In 1999, Ramirez followed up with another electrifying performance in the musical "The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm,” a role which garnered her an Outer Circle Critics Award nomination. In the early millennium years, Ramirez continued earning raves for her work in such post-modern classics as “A Class Act” and 2001’s “The Vagina Monologues.”

Ramirez’s crowning moment on stage, however, came in 2004 when she was cast as Lady of the Lake in the Tony Award-winning musical comedy, “Spamalot.” Based on the comedic opus film, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975), “Spamalot” broke Broadway box office history with nearly $20 million in advance ticket sales. For her part, Ramirez’s show-stopping turn as Lady in the Lake won her the 2005 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical.

A relative newcomer to film and television, Ramirez had a gone-in-a-blink cameo as a New York City police officer in 2002’s smash film, “Spider-Man.” In 2005, however, Ramirez continued to align herself with hits by landing a larger, recurring role on ABC’s golden egg, “Grey’s Anatomy” as the outgoing Dr. Calliope “Callie” Torres. After her initial six episodes, Ramirez’s character proved so popular that her role was expanded significantly. By the start of the series’ third season, Ramirez was promoted to series regular in 2006. In this third season, the character of Callie Torres rode a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs as her story was fleshed out. In addition to being forced to secretly live in the basement of the hospital where she worked, Torres embarked on an impulsive romance with her subordinate co-worker, bumbling intern George O’Malley (T.R. Knight). Equal parts vulnerable and pugnacious, Torres was often singled out from her female cast-members, not only for her on screen talents, but also as a “full figured” breath of fresh air, in a hospital filled with extremely svelte female interns.


Justin Chambers

As the surly but kind young doctor on “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, 2005 - ), Justin Chambers seem so in his element that it’s hard to believe that he struggled for ten years before becoming a star. An extremely attractive male model perhaps best known for his Calvin Klein ads, Chambers made the transition to film acting gradually building a resume of work in small TV roles before breaking in to features.
The tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed Chambers grew up in Springfield, Ohio, one of five children (he would eventually become father of five as well)....


Full Biography

As the surly but kind young doctor on “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, 2005 - ), Justin Chambers seem so in his element that it’s hard to believe that he struggled for ten years before becoming a star. An extremely attractive male model perhaps best known for his Calvin Klein ads, Chambers made the transition to film acting gradually building a resume of work in small TV roles before breaking in to features.
The tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed Chambers grew up in Springfield, Ohio, one of five children (he would eventually become father of five as well). The striking stud was spotted by an agent in a Paris Metro station. Soon he was modeling in Europe, Japan and the U.S. with contracts at Calvin Klein and Armani, among others. Chambers began appearing in stage productions in the mid-1990s and in 1995 caught what should have been his first break, a role on the NBC daytime drama "Another World". Unfortunately for him, the show changed producers and the new executive decided to take the character in a different direction and fired Chambers. The budding performer rebounded a bit with primetime guest roles in series like Fox's "New York Undercover" and UPN's "Swift Justice" and the CBS "Hallmark Hall of Fame" productions "Harvest of Shame" (CBS, 1996) opposite Lolita Davidovich as an FBI agent who visits an Amish farm after three barns have mysteriously burned to the ground and the sudser "Rose Hill" (CBS, 1997) opposite Jennifer Garner. Another potential career boost came when he was tapped to co-star with Ann-Margret and Sonia Braga in the CBS drama series "Four Corners" in 1998, but few people saw his turn as the troubled son of title estate's caretaker; the network pulled the plug on the show after only two airings. He then made the sudser “Seasons of Love” (CBS, 1998) with Hume Cronyn, Rip Torn and Nick Stahl

Chambers segued to the big screen in the featured role of a WASP who befriends a Jew in "Liberty Heights" (1999), Barry Levinson's semi-autobiographical drama of growing up in Baltimore. The actor was briefly seen as a dope-smoking buddy of Cameron Diaz in "The Invisible Circus" before his breaking through as the Italian immigrant expecting to marry Jennifer Lopez in the box-office hit "The Wedding Planner" (both 2001). The latter allowed Chambers to demonstrate his capacity for broad humor as well as light romance and he made a charming rival to co-star Matthew McConaughey. Continuing his ascent to stardom, Chambers landed his first starring role as D'Artagnan in yet another take on the Dumas classic in "The Musketeer" (2001), as the dashing swordsman D’Artagnan trying to avenge the death of his parents despite distraction from Mena Suvari’s lovely Francesca. The critics weren’t kind; fortunately he also continued his day job, featured in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein.

Luckily, his next role opposite Uma Thurman in HBO’s melodrama “Hysterical Blindness” (2002) in which two women, Thurman and Juliette Lewis, are single and pushing 30 in 1980s New Jersey. Cambers played rakish contractor Rick whose casual fling with Thurman’s character Debby turns into a possible marriage in Debby’s mind though Rick remained indifferent. His next project, “Leo” (2002) with Sam Shepard, Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes, was another critical disaster. He played a small role in “For Which it Stands” (2003) as a German soldier in a movie about a World War II vet’s path to redemption. Chambers finally got meaningful exposure on the hit procedural drama “Cold Case” (CBS, 2003) with Kathryn Morris. Cambers played her partner, a level-headed cold case detective. The show took off with viewers in its second season--after Chambers’ departure. Happily, Chambers’ own big break came in his next role as Dr. Alex Karev on “Grey’s Anatomy” with Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey. He played the seemingly superficial sleazeball who turned out to be a nice guy and a talented doctor with an amazing bedside manner, as well as the budding love interest of Katherine Heigl’s character Isobel. Chambers was also afforded time to pursue roles in movies, though his choices exhibited questionable taste. He made “Southern Belles” (2005) as co-star Laura Breckenridge’s love interest, a cop named Rhett Butler. In the virtually unseen “Zodiac” (2005) with Rory Culkin. Chambers, a police detective, and his son Culkin become obsessed with finding a serial killer and endanger their family in the process.