Kate Bosworth

A pretty blonde actress with an all-American look and a beatific presence, Kate Bosworth began her acting career on a whim at age 14, going on make her mark as an actual teen in a teen drama, starring on The WB's "Young Americans" (2000- ). A champion equestrian who previously only acted in a community production of "Annie" and performed as a singer in California county fairs, Bosworth presented the casting directors for "The Horse Whisperer" with a Christmas card photo in lieu of a professional headshot and landed her first acting role in the 1998 romantic drama (credited as Catherine Bosworth), playing Judith, the ill-fated best friend of the scarred young girl (Scarlet Johansson) who brings together her mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and the titular hero (Robert Redford). Following "The Horse Whisperer", she returned to her non-acting life, attending high school and pursuing various athletic endeavors for eighteen months in an effort to assure that work would not be the main focus of the remaining years of her childhood. In 2000 she was featured as the bratty sister of the protagonist in the independent children's film "The Newcomers" and made her TV debut with a regular role as a well-adjusted small town girl of unknown parentage working at a gas station near an elite prep school on "Young Americans". The only real high schooler on the high school-set series, Bosworth brought a fresh-faced innocence to her role and was likable if somewhat pitiable as a young girl who finds love with Scout (Mark Famiglietti), a Rawley Academy student and senator's son who just may be her half-brother. She went on to more feature film roles, including a turn in the period drama "Remember the Titans" (2000), starring Denzel Washington as a football coach leading his newly racially integrated team to victory in 1971 Virginia.
In 2002, Bosworth starred in "Blue Crush", the first surfing movie of the new century, directed by John Stockwell. Although it initially appeared to be a brainless summer popcorn flick, the film impressed some critics and many audiences with its awesome MTV-style visuals of the Hawaiian surf circuit and, particularly, Bosworth's effective performance as Anne Marie Chadwick, a sweet-faced surf savant looking to overcome various obstacles holding her back. That same year, she also appeared in the ensemble cast of writer-director Roger Avary's edgy film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' potboiler "The Rules of Attraction," which center on the sexcapades of 1980s-era collegians. After both roles, Bosworth was poised to lay claim to the title of the latest Hollywood "It" girl and her face graced dozens of magazine covers seemingly overnight.