Katherine Moennig is a star on the rise. As the daughter of a Broadway dancer and the renowned violin maker William Moennig, she was raised around the arts. Her first stage appearance was in a Children's Theatre Workshop production of "Winnie the Pooh" at age 10, and sparked Katherine to write and direct an improvised version of "Pooh" with a friend, which the duo performed at Philadelphia's Free Library. A bit of a tomboy, like many other girls her age, Katherine's free time was spent climbing trees and skateboarding with friends in the streets of Philly's Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. After high school, Katherine moved to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Just two months after her graduation from AADA, she landed an apprenticeship at the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival. During two seasons with Williamstown, she acquired a wealth of experience working on shows such as Comedy of Art, The Theory of Total Blame, Morning in the City, and in 2000, appeared in a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It that featured fellow-actress, cousin Gwyneth Paltrow Katherine's first commercial success came with the central role in the music video "Is Anybody Home?" which was filmed in Toronto for the Canadian band Our Lady Peace in 1999, just months before she made her television series debut as "Jake Pratt" on the WB's Young Americans, which would prove to be a defining role for her. Tthe show gave Katherine the exposure to pursue new work in film and television. Young Americans ran for 8 episodes on the WB network in the summer of 2000. Katherine's newfound recognition led to smaller roles in The Shipping News and Peter's Sehr's film Love the Hard Way. In October 2001, she returned to television with a guest lead as Cathy Moriarty's daughter "Melissa" on NBC's hit show Law and Order and recently made a guest lead appearance on Law and Order: SVU in the episode "Fallacy" in April 2003. She has also appeared in a national commercial for Fleet Bank and has completed filming on Loren Marsh's upcoming black comedy, Invitation to a Suicide. Her ongoing project, the Showtime series The L Word, a drama about a group of lesbian friends in Los Angeles, features Katherine as the heartbreaking stud, Shane.