Kate Walsh

Bearing a sort of Catherine Deneuve-by-way-of-Kelly Clarkson look, Kate Walsh may have an impressive list of film and TV roles on her resumé, but her primary acting venue was the stage. Starting out in regional theater in Tucson, AZ, where she went to college, Walsh later got involved with the Piven Theatre Workshop and Shakespeare Repertory in Chicago, as well as the comedy troupe Burn Manhattan in New York.

By the mid-'90s, Walsh began slowly but surely making the transition to the screen with appearances on TV shows like Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order. Walsh's list of film and TV appearances soon grew, and among her scads of roles were a number of prominent parts on very popular shows. She became a regular on The Drew Carey Show in 1997, donning a fat suit to play Drew's weight-struggling girlfriend, and in 2001, she took a recurring role on the HBO series The Mind of the Married Man.

In 2005, Walsh joined the cast of the smash-hit series Grey's Anatomy, playing Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd, estranged (and eventually ex-) wife of "Doctor McDreamy," Patrick Dempsey. Walsh suddenly went from a working actress to a well-known face, and it looked like the perfect time for the actress to segue into the big screen in a starring capacity, after a string of minor appearances in major films. - Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide