Kate Hudson

Though many considered her the child of Hollywood royalty, Kate Hudson proved her merit as an actor many times over. Hudson was born in Los Angeles, California in 1979. Her parents, actor Goldie Hawn and musician Bill Hudson, divorced when she was 18 months old, and she was henceforth raised entirely by her mother and by her de-facto step-father, actor Kurt Russell, her mother's companion since 1983.

Though she was eager to follow in her parents' profession, Hudson's mother only allowed her to begin auditioning for on-camera roles when she was 17. She landed an appearance on a 1996 episode of "Party of Five" (Fox, 1994-2000), but Hudson's first feature film role would come two years later in the quirky drama "Desert Blue" (1998). Roles in low key movies like the cult hit "200 Cigarettes" (1999) would follow, but Hudson's breakout role would unquestionably come in 2000 when she was cast as Penny Lane in the 1970s period movie "Almost Famous" (2000) the same year she married musician Chris Robinson.

Hudson's effervescent performance earned tremendous acclaim, raising her profile considerably. Her bubbly screen presence soon landed her in the light romantic comedy "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (2003) opposite Matthew McConaughey and the genre proved a great fit-one that Hudson would return to throughout her career. She next appeared in "The Divorce" (2003) with Naomi Watts and in the Southern-set horror film "The Skeleton Key" (2005) before joining Matt Dillon and Owen Wilson in the comedy "You, Me, and Dupree" (2006). Hudson divorced Robinson in 2007, but her professional life remained on track.

She re-teamed with McConaughey for the romantic comedy "Fool's Gold" (2008) the following year, before joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and others for the ambitious if commercially disappointing ensemble musical "Nine" (2009). Hudson would make her mark in television as well, taking on the recurring role of Cassandra July on the hit series "Glee" (Fox, 2009-2015) from 2012 to 2013.

She later co-starred with Zach Braff in the wistful "Wish I Was Here" (2014) and appeared in the feel-good, all-star ensemble film "Mother's Day" (2016), before taking on some decidedly more serious material with the disaster docudrama "Deepwater Horizon" (2016) and the Thurgood Marshall biopic "Marshall" (2017). In 2019, Hudson co-starred in musician Sia's feature film directorial debut "Music" (2019).