No one wanted to be the girl next door. No one wanted to get with the girl next door. That is…until Katie Holmes moved to the neighbourhood!! Born in Toledo, Ohio, on December 18, 1978, Katherine Noelle Holmes, innocently sexy star of the hit series Dawson's Creek, used to sit in front of her TV and imagine what it would be like to be a famous celebrity.

Well, she's living that dream now and starring in the fantasies of millions of males around the globe. So what's so great about Katie that she transformed from studious schoolgirl to sultry screen siren practically overnight? Hmmm...How about the fact that she's the perfect combination of irresistible naivete, incredible talent, and killer beauty? Oh, and she's got a great attitude to boot. Uh-huh. That would do it.

Holmes got her first taste of acting by starring in theatre productions at Notre Dame Academy, an all-girls Catholic school in Toledo. If she's any indication of the kind of girls that walk the corridors of Catholic schools, we bet our booties guys everywhere are converting and enrolling in these schools, praying for the chance to gawk at gorgeous girls in the corridors. What can we say? Notre Dame Academy produced one heavenly babe.

But Katie's big break came when she attended "New York, New York", an IMTA (International Model and Talent Association) convention, in New York City, in July of 1995. There, she met and caught the eye of talent manager Al Onorato, who sold Katie on the idea of flying to Los Angeles for the pilot season. And what a great sale it was. Half a year later, she won a part in The Ice Storm, a film based on the novel by Rick Moody. And Hollywood liked what it saw. Before Katie could say Step aside, Jennifer Love Hewitt, she was offered the part of Buffy Summers in the show that kicks vampire ass, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So why is it that we see Sarah Michelle Gellar slaying the bloodsuckers and not Katie? 'Cuz she turned the part for a better one: high school grad. If dedication turns you on, then Katie must be lighting you up like a Christmas tree!

Opportunity knocked again. A little opportunity called Dawson's Creek. You might've heard of it. But Katie skipped her audition because she didn't want to abandon the opening night of her high school's production of Damn Yankees. Damn. But lucky for us, the head honcho of Dawson's Creek, Kevin Williamson, wanted Katie so much (who doesn't??), he rescheduled an audition for her. And she nailed the part of cute-as-hell tomboy, Joey Potter. So after graduating from high school, she said ta-ta to Toledo and went to North Carolina to start taping Dawson's Creek. And the whole world saw that simple and innocent is damn sexy.