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Stana Katic (born April 26, 1978) is a film and television actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Detective Kate Beckett on ABC's Castle.

Early life
Katic was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to a Serbian father and Croatian mother, who both immigrated from Yugoslavia. Her father is from Vrlika, and her mother is from the surrounding area of Sinj. Katic later moved with her family to Aurora, Illinois. She spent the following years moving back and forth between Canada and the United States. After graduating from West Aurora High School in 1996, she studied acting at Chicago's Goodman School of Drama. She has four brothers and one sister.

In addition to English, she speaks Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, French and Italian.

Career
Katic played the character of Hana Gitelman in Heroes, Collette Stenger in 24 's season 5, and Jenny in the Morgan Freeman-starring film Feast of Love. She also played Morgenstern in Frank Miller's film The Spirit, Corrine Veneau in the Bond movie Quantum of Solace (though she was originally up for the role of Strawberry Fields in the film ), and Simone Renoir in the third installment of The Librarian franchise, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice.

In August 2008, ABC announced acquisition of the television series Castle, starring Katic as Kate Beckett and Nathan Fillion as Rick Castle.

In 2008, Katic established her own production company, Sine Timore Productions, which is Latin for "without fear."

In the summer of 2010 Katic filmed For Lovers Only with the Polish brothers in France and The Double with Richard Gere.

At the third annual Shorty Awards held on March 28, 2011, she won the actress category. In May 2011, she won the Most Glamourous Actress online ballot for the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. She received 17.3% of the 3,641 votes against a field of 15 finalists.

She served as a jury member at the May 29–June 5, 2011, Film Festival Zlín, where For Lovers Only made its world premiere. She is currently working on another film, Big Sur, in which she plays Lenore Kandel. In conjunction with the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International, there was an official announcement in Entertainment Weekly that she would become the voice for Talia al Ghul in Batman: Arkham City.

BuddyTV named Stana Katic as #1 on its list of "TV's 100 Sexiest Women Of 2011"; named Castle as #6 on its list of "The 11 Best Returning TV Shows of 2011"; and named her character's relationship with the title character as #13 (and the Best Delayed Relationship) on its list of "The Best Relationships of 2011". On January 28, 2012, she was a presenter at the 64th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards ceremony.