Birth Name:
Kathryn Ann Sackhoff

Date of Birth:
April 8, 1980

Birthplace:
Portland, Oregon, USA

Height:
5′ 6½” (1.69 m)

Family

Dennis Sackhoff – Father
Mary Sackhoff – Mother

Education

Attended Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA

Trivia

• Was a competitive swimmer in high school until sidelined by a dislocated knee at age 15.

• Auditioned to be an extra on the movie Fifteen and Pregnant, but the director asked her if she could act and gave her a speaking part instead.

• Worked on the TV series The Education of Max Bickford with Richard Dreyfuss, who introduced her to classic black and white movies such as On the Waterfront and Casablanca.

• When she got the role of Kara “Starbuck” Thrace on the new Battlestar Galactica, she based her fighter-pilot character on the bravado of male athletes she knew from her high-school days.

Practices yoga regularly and goes on 10-mile runs every Sunday.

• Had never watched the original Galactica as a young girl, and was floored to discover that the Starbuck character was originally a man and was played by Dirk Benedict from The A-Team, whom she’d had a crush on in the 1980s.

• Has an older brother.

• Father Dennis is a land developer.

• Mother Mary is a coordinator for an English as a Second Language program.

• Has a tattoo of a Japanese symbol for “choice.” Also has a crucifix on her left shoulder blade and and a Latin phrase on her right arm that means “public property”.

• Has 2 dogs, one named “Meatball” and a newly adopted puppy she named “Nelly B” after her character on “The Education of Max Bickford” (2001).

• Her “Battlestar Galactica” (2004) co-star Tricia Helfer is one of her best friends.

• Decided to quit smoking when she received fan mail from little girls saying they wanted to be like ‘Starbuck’ when they grew up.

• Her dog Meatball posed with her in a photo-shoot by photographer Frank Veronsky.

• Was a waitress at the Saddle Ranch Chop House before she got her big break.

• Briefly attended Santa Monica College before she quit to focus on acting.

• Was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the final episodes of the third season of “Battlestar Galactica” in order to preserve the secrecy regarding the fate of her character.

• She loved “Xena: Warrior Princess” (1995) because Xena was the first strong female character on a weekly basis on TV.