1978-present
Who Is Katie Holmes?
Actor Katie Holmes is best known for her roles in the hit TV show Dawson’s Creek and Batman Begins. On Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003, Holmes starred as fan favorite girl-next-door Joey Potter. Next, the Ohio native turned to movies, appearing in Batman Begins—the first of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy—among others. Off-screen, Holmes made headlines for her marriage and subsequent divorce from fellow actor Tom Cruise. Most recently, she has added executive producer and director to her resume with projects like her 2022 movie, Alone Together.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Kate Noelle Holmes
BORN: December 18, 1978
BIRTHPLACE: Toledo, Ohio
SPOUSE: Tom Cruise (2006-2012)
CHILD: Suri
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
Early Life
Kate Noelle Holmes was born December 18, 1978, in Toledo, Ohio. She is the youngest of five siblings born to Kathleen Stothers-Holmes, a homemaker and philanthropist, and Martin Joseph Holmes Sr., an attorney. Katie has three sisters and a brother.
Holmes attended Toledo’s Notre Dame Academy, a private, all-girls Catholic school, where she was a straight-A student. She was accepted at Columbia University in New York but opted to kick-start her acting career, instead. She began acting in 1997, when she was 19, and has since appeared in several movies, TV shows, and plays.
Dawson’s Creek and Other TV Roles
Although Holmes had earlier film roles, her breakout role was as Joey Potter on Dawson’s Creek. Across six seasons, the teenager grows up in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and dates different love interests. Fans were ultimately torn between which one Joey should have ended up with: Dawson, played by James Van Der Beek, or Pacey, played by Joshua Jackson. Holmes’ performance as Joey earned her several Teen Choice Award nominations across the span of the show, which ran from 1998 to 2003.
Dawson’s Creek was mostly filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Holmes previously noted that she found it difficult to leave the town and her role once the show wrapped saying, “so much of me is in Joey, and it really felt like I grew up on television.” Holmes has also credited her age at the time of filming Dawson’s Creek for helping her easily connect with her on-screen persona. “I was still a teenager, and it was nice to read a script that felt like it expressed things that I was still trying to understand for myself,” Holmes later shared with Entertainment Weekly.
But Holmes’ breakout role almost didn’t happen. Originally, showrunner Kevin Williamson wanted Selma Blair to play Joey Potter. Luckily for Holmes, her audition tape performance was so good that it convinced Williamson she was the perfect fit for the lead role. Dawson’s Creek was one of The WB’s most popular shows, premiering to 6.8 million viewers, which Vox reports was the highest rating for the network. In fact, the show was so popular that Holmes even had a cameo in the 1999 comedy Muppets From Space as her Dawson’s Creek character.
More recently, Holmes had brief appearances on several shows including Eli Stone, How I Met Your Mother, Robot Chicken, and Ray Donovan, on which she played sports agent Paige Finney. In 2011, Holmes landed another lead role in the History miniseries The Kennedys, portraying Jacqueline Kennedy across all eight episodes. She returned as the former first lady in The Kennedys After Camelot in 2017, alongside Matthew Perry’s Ted Kennedy. Holmes served as an executive producer on the miniseries and also directed an episode.
Movies: Batman Begins and More
Not one to be pigeon-holed into any specific role, Holmes’ movie credits includes dramas, comedies, thrillers, and horror movies. And although Holmes loves acting and has been working at it for most of her life, she still finds new projects “terrifying.” Holmes told Variety this is due to embarking on “a whole new beginning of the creative process.”
Some of her most well known roles are in the movies Batman Begins (2005), Jack and Jill (2011), and The Giver (2014). Her most recent roles include starring in movies she has also directed. When it comes to directing, Holmes doesn’t have any regrets about not starting earlier in her career. “I feel like I came to it when it was right for me, and I’m excited to continue on the path,” she told IndieWire in April 2023.
Holmes’ movies include:
Theater Performances
In addition to her TV and movie roles, Holmes has also shown off her acting chops on and off Broadway. In 2008, she appeared in the stage adaptation of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, followed by another Broadway play called Dead Accounts in 2012. From January through April 2023, Holmes appeared in an off-Broadway play called The Wanderers.
Relationships: Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx
On November 18, 2006, Holmes married actor Tom Cruise in a Scientologist ceremony in Bracciano, Italy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the whirlwind romance between the two actors began shortly after Holmes met Cruise in April 2005 under the guise of discussing a role in Mission: Impossible 3. By the end of the month, the two had made their public debut as a couple, and in mid-May 2005, Cruise unforgettably jumped up and down on a couch during an interview with Oprah as he discussed his relationship with Holmes. The next month, Holmes and Cruise were engaged.
After nearly six years of marriage, Holmes filed for divorce in June 2012. The highly publicized split made national headlines, with some outlets reporting that Holmes had blindsided Cruise. There was also a lot of speculation surrounding the reason for the divorce, with many believing that Cruise’s extreme devotion to Scientology—and his desire for their daughter to grow up in the Scientology church—drove a wedge between the couple. Still, both parties have remained tight-lipped about the reason for their separation.
For several years after her divorce, Holmes dated actor Jamie Foxx. Speculation about their romantic involvement arose in August 2013 when the two were spotted dancing at a party in the Hamptons. They ended their very private relationship in May 2019.
Daughter
In April 2006, Holmes gave birth to her and Cruise’s first and only child, a daughter named Suri. While together, the couple was notoriously private about her. When the couple separated in 2012, Holmes was granted sole custody of Suri with Cruise being allowed visitation rights. As of a July 2023 report, Cruise remains estranged from 17-year-old Suri, who continues to live with Holmes full-time.
Suri has also dabbled in the film industry, specifically in her mom’s movies, as a singer. She sang a cover of “Blue Moon” during the intro credits of Holmes’ film, Alone Together.
Net Worth
Holmes’ acting, writing, and producing roles have earned her an estimated $25 million. Holmes reportedly earned $1 million for her 2005 role in Batman Begins and previously earned more than $13 million for her starring role in Dawson’s Creek for the duration of the show.
Quotes
- I was happy to become a mom in my 20s. It’s been nice that our ages fit. How do I put this? Every age that my child has been and my age at that time has been a good match. We kind of grew up together.
- I was just 18 when we started [Dawson’s Creek], and I really appreciated the writing because I felt like, as a teenager, I had so many different feelings, trying to go from being a girl to a woman.
