Celebrity Birthday - Katee Sackhoff - 43

 

Let’s all wish Katee Sackhoff a very happy 43rd birthday!

She was born on April 8, 1980 to Dennis and Mary Sackhoff in Portland, Oregon. Katee has one brother, Erick Sackhoff. She married Robin Gadsby in 2021 and the couple have one child together. In spite of her dedication to family, Katee has still remained true to her career, becoming a powerful force in the #SciFi and #horror genres.

18 & Life: Katee Sackhoff Launches Her Acting Career

Katee started acting at 18, appearing in several dramatic films. Her first role was in the 1998 TV movie, Fifteen and Pregnant. She followed that role up with more TV appearances, including guest roles on Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Diane (1999), Chicken Soup for the Soul (1999), and Undressed (2000).

In 2000, Sackhoff was cast in a starring role along with an ensemble cast in The Fearing Mind. Although the show only lasted for a single 13-episode season, it did give Katee a taste for the horror genre. In 2001, the actress was cast in another short-lived TV series, The Education of Max Bickford. This family drama was set on the campus of a women’s college. Katee played Nell Bickford, daughter and student to Professor Max Bickford (Richard Dreyfuss).

Katee Sackhoff Hits the Big Screen With Halloween: Resurrection

In 2002, Halloween: Resurrection hit theaters with a plot that didn’t hit well with fans of the Halloween franchise. It did have one redeeming feature in that it gave #KateeSackhoff her first chance to really shine as Jenna Danzig. Slices of her own persona can be seen in the way she delivered some of her lines.

This line comes to mind:

“You are, like, this close to getting voted off the island.”

Her charm and passion are equally on full display in this horror flop as well. Who can forget her scream?

Unfortunately, Jenna Danzig wasn’t the final girl. Yet, even though Katee loses her head as Jenna, the film did open her up to more genre-specific roles.

Katee Sackhoff Makes Her Mark as Kara Starbuck Thrace

Just one year after Halloween: Resurrection hit theaters, Katee was cast in the role that would define the future path of her acting career. In the Battlestar Galactica TV miniseries, Sackhoff was cast as a gender-swapped Starbuck. She returned to star as Kara Starbuck Thrace in the 4-season Battlestar Galactica series. Additionally, she reprised the role of Starbuck in the 2007 TV movie, Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

Even though Katee would become one of the show’s most beloved characters, producers weren’t in love with the idea of casting her. They associated her with the “chubby girl from the Richard Dreyfuss show [The Education of Max Bickford] who had pink hair,” and that wasn’t what they wanted for the BSG Starbuck character. They wanted someone who was 10 years older and in much better physical condition.

Yet, Sackhoff was determined to win the role. She worked out relentlessly to obtain the right physique and went back for audition after audition. By the time she finished her seventh audition, her persistence paid off and she was cast as Starbuck.

Horror Calls to Katee

After the somewhat odd series finale of Battlestar Galactica, Katee expanded her range, taking on a number of TV and film roles. Her credits throughout this stage in her career included a 5-episode stint on 2007’s Bionic Woman, voicing a U.S. Marine in the video game Halo 3, and appearing in four episodes of Nip/Tuck.

She answered a calling to do more #horror films through these years, starting with her role as a nurse named Sherry Clarke in White Noise 2: The Light (2007). She also played the carefree (& often freeloading) sister Joyce in The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013).

In 2013’s Oculus, Sackhoff plays Marie Russell, a character seen in flashbacks as Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) and her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites) combat an evil mirror that destroyed their family. In 2016, Sackhoff starred in the horror film, Don’t Knock Twice.

In 2018, Katee returned to the big screen for the sci-fi film 2036: Unknown Origin. In the film, Sackhoff plays Mackenzie “Mack” Wilson, a mission controller who investigates the fatal crash landing of the first manned Mars mission. She’s assisted by an AI program that helps her uncover a secret that could have devastating effects for all of mankind.

Katee Sackhoff Joins the Star Wars Universe

Throughout her career, Katee pursued several voice-acting roles in video games, animated films, and television cartoons. Among those roles, she was cast to voice the character of Bo-Katan in the 2012-2020 series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She reprised that role in 2017 for two episodes of Star Wars: Rebels.

In 2020, #KateeSackhoff was cast to play the live action version of Bo-Katan in the Star Wars spinoff series, The Mandalorian. At this time, she has appeared in 10 episodes of that series.

In her voice acting career, Sackhoff played another noteworthy character. This time, she took on the world of DC Comics by voicing the character of Poison Ivy in two animated films: Batman: The Long Halloween, Parts 1 & 2. The actress has appeared in six episodes of CW’s The Flash, playing the characters of Amunet Black, Blacksmith, and Leslie.

What’s Next for Katee Sackhoff?

In The Last Transport, Katee Sackhoff will reunite with her Battlestar Galactica co-star, Michael Trucco. In BSG, Trucco playted Samuel “Sam” Anders. While there still isn’t a release date for The Last Transport, a brief synopsis reads:

“In 2021, the last transport off a doomed Earth has two seats on it - four people show up.”

The film is written and directed by Chris Angel.