Katherine Litwack was born on June 13, 1986 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia) to parents Gerald and Ellen Litwack. Her mother, Ellen, is a poet and speech therapist. Her father, Gerald, is a molecular pharmacologist and the chair of the Basic Sciences department of The Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Kat is the youngest of five children and her family is of Polish-Jewish heritage.

Kat was home schooled for her entire schooling; her only enrollment at a traditional school was for a half-day at Friends’ Central School, a private school in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Of her experience at “regular” school, Kat recalls – “I was yelled at. People made fun of my outfit. I filled out some questionnaire and realized I spelled “friend” wrong. That was a word I mastered, eventually. I remember feeling so stupid, and I thought, fuck this. I’m going back to the woods”. She graduated from high school early, at the age of 14 and soon after she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California so that she could act full time. She adopted the name Dennings as her professional name when she was younger. Kat gave this as a reason for adopting a stage name: “I didn’t want to use my family name because I thought, A: it was a little hideous, and B: I wanted to know when someone really knew me or they didn’t. I was a precocious youngster”. Kat has been quoted in Interview magazine from 2007, saying her parents initially considered her idea of pursuing an acting career to be “the worst idea ever”.

Kat began her career in commercials as a child; her first acting job was an ad for potato chips. She broke into television with an appearance on HBO’s Sex and the City in 2000, where she played a 13-year-old who hires Samantha to handle publicity for her bat mitzvah in the episode “Hot Child in the City”. She then starred on the short-lived series “Raising Dad” from 2001–2002 as Sarah Stewart, a 15-year-old raised by her widowed father (played by actor Bob Saget), with a pre-teen sister (Brie Larson). In 2002, Kat got her first starring role in the film “The Scream Team”, a Disney Channel TV movie where she portrayed teenager that stumbles into a group of ghosts. Later that year, Kat was cast for a 5 episode run on The WB network series “Everwood”. Her role on “Everwood” was recast for unknown reasons, later going to actress Nora Zehetner.

She continued working in television, guest-starring on “Without a Trace”, as a teen whose boyfriend goes missing. And on the comedy “Less Than Perfect”, as an office intern, in 2003. In 2004, she was cast in a pilot for CBS, “Sudbury”, about a family of modern-day witches, based on the 1998 film “Practical Magic”. The series was never picked up by the network. Kat later landed a recurring role on the hit medical drama, “ER”, from 2005 – 2006 for 5 episodes, where she played 14 year old “bad girl” Zoe Butler. Another guest appearance in 2005 was on “CSI: NY” in the episode “Manhattan Manhunt”, where she played Sarah Endecott, the daughter of a wealthy family whose sister was murdered.

In 2004, Kat made her feature film debut in the Hilary Duff movie “Raise Your Voice” as Sloane, a somber piano student. In 2005, she landed supporting roles in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” as Catherine Keener’s daughter Marla, and in “Down in the Valley” as April. She played rebellious teenager Molly, in “Big Momma’s House 2″ in 2006.

In 2008 she starred in “Charlie Bartlett”, the story of a wealthy teenager (played by Anton Yelchin), who acts as a psychiatrist for his new public high school. Kat played Susan Gardner, Charlie’s love interest and the daughter of the school’s principal (played by Robert Downey, Jr.). In August of 2008, Kat co-starred in the Anna Faris produced film, “The House Bunny” as Mona, a pierced feminist sorority girl. She also starred in the teen romance, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”, with Michael Cera – which is probably Kat’s most noted role to date. She played Norah Silverberg, the daughter of a famous record producer. The role garnered her a nomination for the International Press Academy’s Satellite Award for “Best Actress”. In September 2008, she hoped to make Don DeLillo’s novel, “End Zone” into a film. Actors Sam Rockwell and Josh Hartnett were involved, but the project was not greenlit by the studio because of its controversial subject matter of nuclear war.

In 2009, she appeared in “The Answer Man”, a story about a celebrity author whose manifestos become a sort of new Bible. She also co-starred in the Robert Rodriguez-directed dark children’s film, “Shorts”, where she played the protagonist Toe’s teenage older sister, Stacey Thompson. Kat was cast in the romantic comedy “Liars (A to E)” in 2009, but the Richard Linklater-directed project was canceled due to cut backs at Miramax Films by the studio’s parent company, Disney.

2010 saw Kat appearing in the superhero film “Defendor”, starring Woody Harrelson and Sandra Oh, playing a crack-addicted prostitute. She started shooting “Daydream Nation” in Vancouver in early 2010, written and directed by Michael Golbach. She stars in the independent feature as a girl caught in a love triangle with her high school teacher (Josh Lucas) and a teenage drug dealer (Reece Thompson) after moving to a strange rural town. The film is scheduled for a wide release in 2011 after seeing success in the independent film festival circuit.

She joined the cast of the Marvel Studios film “Thor”, directed by Kenneth Branagh and went into production in January 2010. She plays Darcy, who works with Natalie Portman’s character, Jane Foster. Kat appeared in a music video for “40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)”; a single by Austin, Texas-based musician Bob Schneider in May 2010. Robert Rodriguez directed the video, filmed in various locations around Austin. In late 2010, it was announced that she will star in the drama “Lives of the Saints”, alongside Meg Ryan, 50 Cent, John Lithgow and Joe Anderson. Written and directed by Chris Rossi, the film was shot in Los Angeles in November 2010 and is expected to be released sometime in 2011.

Like many people now-a-days, Kat has an avid internet presence and has been blogging since January 2001 at KatDennings.com. She later transitioned into video blogging on YouTube at youtube.com/katdennings and she has now moved on to tweeting at twitter.com/officialkat. Kat has never had an account on MySpace or Facebook and even did a video about how people use fake accounts to talk to her fans. Through all her internet blogging, us fans learned of Kat’s love for David Bowie, Christopher Walken, hamsters, worrying about “spider attacks” and how she haves a “nightmare about Criss Angel”.

In her free time, Kat is a very quiet person and a self-confessed “homebody”. In December 2008, she told BlackBook magazine, “I don’t drink and I don’t smoke and I don’t like being around people who do.” Kat is currently in a relationship, which she admitted to in an interview with “Daydream Nation” co-star Josh Lucas and interviewer David Poland. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her pet cat and has a pink bedroom which you can see in her various video blogs.

Last updated: January 21, 2011
Written exclusively by the webmaster of www.katdenningsfan.net