FACT FILE:
* Daughter of Musician Bill Hudson & famous Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn.
* Raised by step-father & famous actor Kurt Russell.
* Kate has never been particularly close to her birth father, Bill Hudson & considers her true "Dad" to be Hawn's longtime partner, Kurt Russell, who has lived with the family since she was three.
* Kate has three brothers: Boston, Oliver, and Wyatt.
* Kate once said that as children, her brother Oliver used to torment her by nicknaming her "Hammerhead" as in hammerhead shark.
* Kate Hudson was a born performer, as a child she danced and sang at every opportunity.
* In 1997 she graduated from Crossroads, a Santa Monica performing arts school.
* Her family hoped that she would attend New York University after graduating from high school, but Kate decided to go straight into acting.
* In 1998 Kate made her big-screen debut as an ambitious young starlet stranded in a tiny California town in the film "Desert Blue".
* Kate's next two films were "200 Cigarettes" (1999) & "Gossip" (2000). Both films were only moderately successful but they were the stepping stones to further success.
* Hudson's biggest break was when she won the role of rock band groupie Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" (2000). This film was a huge success & she was nominated for an Academy Award.
* Kate married "Black Crowes" frontman Chris Robinson in December 2000.
* In 2000 Kate was named one of the '50 Most Beautiful People in the World' by People Magazine.
* It was rumored that Kate turned down the part of Peter Parker's girlfriend Mary Jane Watson in the new "Spider-Man" Movie. Instead she took on the role of Ethne Eustace in the big budget romantic adventure drama "The Four Feathers" opposite Australia's Heath Ledger.
* Kate's career is now well established & continues to move forward. It seems almost certain that she will have a successful film career like her mother.