Kate Walsh

Walsh was born in San Jose, California and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. According to a commercial interview that Kate Walsh did for Cadillac, Walsh explains that her maternal grandfather was Italian American. Her mother Angela lives in Nevada and Kate has four older siblings. She has two sisters and two brothers, Sean and Joe. J. P. Walsh is a film-maker. Walsh studied at University of Arizona for a while where she got involved in regional theatre. She now lives in Los Angeles.

Walsh was a model in Japan during the 1980s. When Walsh moved to Chicago, she began working with the Piven Theatre Workshop. She performed on National Public Radio in the production of the radio play Born Guilty. Walsh subsequently moved to New York City and joined the comedy troupe Burn Manhattan on June 27, 1987, performing in a number of Off-Broadway plays. After playing Cathy Buxton in the "Stakeout" episode of Homicide: Life on the Street in 1996, her first major television appearance was in 1997, when she appeared on The Drew Carey Show as Carey's character's girlfriend Nicki. n 2005, she was cast in the ABC hit, Grey's Anatomy, as Dr. Addison Montgomery, the estranged spouse of Derek Shepherd.

It was announced in February 2007 that Walsh's Grey's Anatomy character Addison would be in a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy that began airing in September 2007. Taye Diggs, Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Chris Lowell and Audra McDonald have been cast in the spin-off, which has been given the name Private Practice. Kate Walsh returned to Seattle Grace as a guest star for episode thirteen in Season 4 of Grey's Anatomy, she is currently shooting the second season of Private Practice, for which ABC has ordered a full season of episodes. Beginning in September 2007, Walsh has appeared in television commercials for the 2008 Cadillac CTS. She is also the current spokeswoman for Caress's Exotic Oil Infusions body wash.

The crime drama Normal Life marked her film debut; she played the sister of a bank robber played by Luke Perry.

Walsh is married to Alex Young, a production co-president at 20th Century Fox. On September 1, 2007, Walsh and Young were married in the Ojai Presbyterian Church in Ojai, north of Los Angeles. She has 2 dogs, Rosie Perez and Lucy (named after the actor Lou Diamond Philips) and 2 cats, Billy and Pablo.

Since the summer of 2007, Walsh has been the spokesperson for Narcolepsy Network, working to promote national awareness of narcolepsy through infomercials and DVDs.

In January 2008, Walsh participated in a video for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called, "Yes We Can", produced by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas. She also campaigned for Obama in Arizona, Texas, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

In July 2008, Walsh was nominated as a candidate on the 'Unite for Strength' slate for a place on the national governing board of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in elections scheduled for 18 September 2008.

On September 18, 2008, Walsh was elected to serve on the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) National Board for a three year term. Walsh ran as a candidate with the Unite for Strength party who won 6 of the 11 Hollywood Division seats which were up for contention in the recent Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) National Board elections.