Kate Hudson

Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress, businesswoman and singer-songwriter.

She has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a nomination for an Academy Award.

In 1997, she graduated from Crossroads, a college preparatory school in Santa Monica.

She was accepted to New York University, but chose to pursue an acting career instead of an undergraduate degree.

At age 11, Hudson performed on stage at the Santa Monica Playhouse.

Born to singer Bill Hudson and actress Goldie Hawn, Hudson made her film debut in the 1998 drama Desert Blue, which was followed by supporting roles in several films.

She made her film debut in the dramedy Desert Blue (1998), and subsequently appeared in the romantic comedy 200 Cigarettes (1999).

She rose to prominence with her portrayal of Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's musical drama Almost Famous (2000), for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and received an Oscar nomination in the same category.

Throughout the 2000s, Hudson starred in a succession of romantic comedies, most notably in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), You, Me and Dupree (2006), Fool's Gold (2008), and Bride Wars (2009).

She took on the roles of a college student in the psychological thriller Gossip, the lesbian daughter of the titular character in the dramedy Dr. T & the Women and one of the leading roles in the romantic comedy About Adam, all of which were released throughout 2000.

Her breakthrough came with the role of a veteran groupie in Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical dramedy Almost Famous (2000).

She "hung in and had turned down leads in other movies just to play the part" and soon obtained it "because of her loyalty", according to Crowe.

For her performance, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "This power ballad of a movie also happens to be Crowe's greatest (and most personal) film thanks to the golden gods of Stillwater and their biggest fan, Kate Hudson's incomparable Penny Lane."

She worked hard in avoiding association with her well-known parents, as she did not want to be perceived as someone who "rode on somebody's coattails".

In 2002, Hudson appeared in the remake of the historical romance The Four Feathers, as the fiancée of a young British officer (played by Heath Ledger).

The film was panned by critics and had a lukewarm box office response.

In her next film, the romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Hudson starred with Matthew McConaughey, as a writer for a women's magazine who, for an article, starts dating a guy and trying to drive him away using only the "classic mistakes women make" in relationships.

The film was a box office success, grossing over US$100 million upon its release.

She also starred opposite Naomi Watts in the Merchant-Ivory film Le Divorce (2003), portraying a woman who, with her sister, dispute the ownership of a painting by Georges de La Tour with the family of her former brother-in-law.

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C" rating and wrote: "I'm disappointed to report that Hudson and Watts have no chemistry as sisters".

Her next romantic comedies, Alex & Emma (2003), in which she played a stubborn stenographer, and Raising Helen (2004), taking on the role of a young woman who becomes the guardian of her deceased sister's children, were released to varying degrees of success.

Her other film credits include The Skeleton Key (2005), Nine (2009), Rock the Kasbah (2015), Deepwater Horizon (2016), Mother's Day (2016), Music (2021), and Glass Onion (2022).

Hudson signed a record deal with Virgin Music Group and released her debut single, "Talk About Love", in January 2024.

Hudson is a co-founder of the fitness brand and membership program Fabletics, operated by TechStyle Fashion Group.

In 2005, Hudson starred in the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key, as a young hospice nurse who acquires a job at a New Orleans plantation home, and becomes entangled in a supernatural mystery involving the house.

In its review, The Washington Post, describing her, wrote: "Hudson, who dials back her native, Goldie-given charm here to give Caroline a no-nonsense brusqueness, manages to convincingly convey a fearless bullheadedness rather than less sympathetic naivete".

The film was a box office hit, grossing over US$91.9 million worldwide ($47.9 million in North America).

Her next film, the comedy You, Me and Dupree, in which she appeared with Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon as one half of a couple who allows an unemployed friend to move in, grossed US$21.5 million on its opening weekend of July 14, 2006.

It eventually made US$130.4 million worldwide.

In 2007, Hudson directed the short film Cutlass, one of Glamour magazine's "Reel Moments" based on readers' personal essays, which starred Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Virginia Madsen, Chevy Chase and Kristen Stewart.

On television, she had a recurring role in the musical series Glee (2012–2013) and a starring role in the second season of Truth Be Told (2022).

She is also the author of the non-fiction books Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body (2016) and Pretty Fun: Creating and Celebrating a Lifetime of Tradition (2017).

Hudson was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actress Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, an actor, comedian, and musician.

Her parents divorced when she was 18 months old and she and her older brother, actor Oliver Hudson, were raised in Snowmass, Colorado, and Pacific Palisades, California, by her mother and her mother's longtime boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell.

Hudson's ancestry is Italian (from her paternal grandmother), Hungarian Jewish (from her maternal grandmother), and the remainder a mix of English and some German.

She was raised Jewish; like her mother, she also practices Buddhism.

Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and she considers Russell her father.

Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to".

She has four half-siblings: Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's later marriage to actress Cindy Williams; Lalania Hudson, from his relationship with another woman; and Wyatt Russell, from her mother's relationship with Kurt Russell.