Stana Katic

Stana Katic is a Canadian actress born in Hamilton, Ontario. Her parents are Croatian. She graduated high school in Illinois. She speaks French, Italian, and Croatian. Among her roles are Hana Gitelman in Heroes, Corinne in Quantum of Solace, and Morgenstern in Frank Miller's The Spirit.

Character Bio

One of the youngest women to ever make homicide detective with the NYPD, Kate Beckett is a tough, smart, first-class investigator known for being a closer. She’s also gained a reputation as a detective who’s intrigued by the sort of cases that don’t fit neatly into a box. It’s a reflection of her ongoing quest for justice. Motivated to join the force after her mother’s murder was never solved, Beckett’s firsthand experience with tragedy fuels her unceasing drive to bring closure and justice to the victims and their families.

Initially forced to work with Castle, she chaffed against his less than serious approach to their partnership, but over time she has come to appreciate his storyteller’s mind. Solving case after case by combining his unique approach with her no-nonsense cop skills, Beckett and Castle have become unlikely partners with a very successful track record. And the tension of their early relationship has now evolved into a more challenging and complicated romantic tension.

In addition to being his partner in crime, Beckett also serves as Castle’s muse for his series of Nikki Heat novels, the character he based on her. Their relationship and many of their cases have been immortalized in three novels: Heat Wave, Naked Heat, and Heat Rises. Although she feigns annoyance, Beckett is a huge fan of Castle’s previous novels and gets a secret kick out of being his inspiration.

Actor Bio

An articulate polyglot film actress, Canadian-born Stana Katic perhaps best speaks to the inevitable lure of brains and beauty combined. Whether in film, on television or in new digital media, this busy yet down-to-earth actress, who happens to have a passion for archery, also has the skill to hit a bull's eye in every role she takes on.

Katic stars in the new Polish Brothers' film For Lovers Only, premiering this summer, a sexy love story set in Paris and shot in the spirit of French New Wave. In The Double she plays Amber, a scheming prostitute who leads Richard Gere deep into the Machiavellian world of Washington's underbelly. And in Big Sur, about writer Jack Kerouac's life after he wrote On the Road, she portrays real-life legend Lenore Kandel -- a San Francisco poet who unwittingly ended up playing a pivotal role in the cultural revolution of the late 1960s by writing an 825-word graphic poem about love from a woman's point of view.

Katic has played opposite several major motion picture stars, including Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear (Feast of Love), Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solice), and Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendez (The Spirit). Beyond brains and beauty, Katic also has brawn, being a natural athlete who plays multiple sports and often performs her own stunts. In addition, she sings; producers used her alto-mezzo soprano voice for the sultry theme song in the movie of the week, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, in which Katic also starred.

Last year, in an effort to create a greater sense of community in Los Angeles and "to make Los Angeles its better self," Katic started the campaign The Alternative Travel Project (www.alternativetravelproject.com), which encourages everyone, everywhere – but especially in car-centric Los Angeles – to go car-free for just one day. The campaign was so successful it started a movement with people from across the globe writing, tweeting and blogging about it. She hopes someday to see all studios in LA linked by public transportation and cycling routes, and connected to LAX and Burbank airports.

Katic's commitment to her craft has caught the attention of industry A-listers and earned her the respect of her peers. Her goal is to fashion memorable characters so compelling that audiences lose themselves in the story for a transcendent moment that will reverberate long after the movie's end.

Katic currently resides in Los Angeles, speaks five languages and holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada.