A Model Doctor

Most people would probably agree that Katherine Heigl looks more like a model than a doctor, which is surely why the creators of "Grey's Anatomy" decided to make the character she plays, Dr. Isabel Stevens, a former model; indeed, that is how she earned the money to pay for medical school.

Something clearly clicked; the role won her an Emmy for supporting actress in a drama series in 2007. At her acceptance speech she said, "my own mother told me i didn't have a shot in hell of winning tonight...so I don't have anything prepared."

In 1999, the pre-"Grey's" Heigl was promoting the WB network's "Roswell," the series in which she starred as a teenage alien. By the time Heigl was cast in the series, she had been a professional actress for almost a decade, having appeared in 10 films, and a professonal model for even longer.

Clockwise from upper left, and in chronological order, Heigl appeared in "My Father The Hero" with Gerard Depardieu in 1994, as a rebellious teenager; with Steven Seagal in "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" in 1995; in "Bride of Chucky" in 1998; and that same year with Peter Fonda in a movie adaptation for television of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

"Grey's Anatomy" began in March 2005 as a midseason replacement and quickly caught on. The character Heigl plays is insecure professionally ...

... and personally.

Heigl supported one of her co-stars, T.R. Knight, seen here together backstage at the People's Choice Award in January 2007), after then-cast member Isaiah Washington was said to have called him an anti-gay epithet. Both Heigl and Knight have received Emmy nominations this year.

Heigl's nomination was in the same category as her co-stars, Chandra Wilson, left, and Sandra Oh, center. Here they are posing in January during the Screen Actors Guild Awards, having won with their "Grey's Anatomy" colleagues the guild's award for "Ensemble In A Drama Series."

Katherine Heigl continues to appear in films, the latest one is "Knocked Up." Here she is at the party for the premiere of the movie at the Mann's Village Theater in Los Angeles with her fianc

Heigl still models on occasion. She appears frequently on lists compiled by various men's magazines of sexiest women in the world.