Born on January 2, 1983 in Los Angeles, California, Kate Bosworth grew up in California, Connecticut and the south shore of Massachusetts. She is an avid horseback rider, and has been since she was a child.

An award-winning equestrian, her big break came about in 1998 during a casting call for Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer. Kate figured that attending an audition would be a great experience, and the fact that the film focused on horses gave her that extra push to go ahead and attend the casting call. With little more than a role in a community theater production of Annie to her credit, Kate was a natural and charmed her way into the supporting role of Judith, the female lead's best friend, but not before leaving the producers with her impromptu headshot -- a picture of Kate from a Christmas family portrait.

Kate Bosworth began her acting career on a whim at age 14, going on make her mark as an actual teen in a teen drama, starring on The WB's "Young Americans" (2000- ).

She studied acting at the Lee Strassberg Institute, and had her first role as a German dominatrix in her school play ROOM SERVICE. She got her first Hollywood starring role in the movie HACKERS. She portrayed the only female in the group capable of reaching elite status in the hacker business. She followed up that initial success with the film FOXFIRE, which is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

In 2002, Kate Bosworth starred in "Blue Crush", the first surfing movie of the new century, directed by John Stockwell. Although it initially appeared to be a brainless summer popcorn flick, the film impressed some critics and many audiences with its awesome MTV-style visuals of the Hawaiian surf circuit and, particularly, Bosworth's effective performance as Anne Marie Chadwick, a sweet-faced surf savant looking to overcome various obstacles holding her back.