Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. She won a part in the acclaimed feature film The Ice Storm (1997) in her very first audition, but she didn't stop there. A videotape was sent to "Dawson's Creek" (1998), a new production by the acclaimed writer Kevin Williamson. During her first year with "Dawson's Creek" (1998), Katie was able to do two movies, Disturbing Behavior (1998) and Go (1999), and, for the former, she won Best Breakthrough Female Performance in the 1999 MTV Movie Awards. The following year, she starred next to Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys (2000), playing Hannah Green. Her first leading role came in 2002, with Abandon (2002). Katie demonstrated this in October, when she had two new movies, Pieces of April (2003) and The Singing Detective (2003). Her 2004 movie schedule included the upcoming romantic movie First Daughter (2004), in which she plays the President's daughter, Samantha, who wants to go to college without any Secret Service tagging along. Currently filming for release in 2005 is Batman Begins (2005), a new Batman movie where Katie plays Rachel Dodson, a childhood sweetheart and love interest to Batman/Bruce Wayne.