Katherine Moennig, who is of Scottish, Irish and German descent, was born on December 19, 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Growing up in a family of entertainers – her mom was the Broadway dancer Mary Zahn, her father a violin maker, her aunt award-winning actress Blythe Danner and her first cousin Gwyneth Paltrow, Katherine Moennig discovered her passion for acting at an early age. In school, she participated in plays such as “Winnie the Pooh.”

After high school, the 18-year-old Katherine Moennig moved to New York, where she studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. During this time, Katherine worked as a model and performed on productions such as “As You Like It.” Her first gig on screen was in the “Is Anybody Home” music video for the band ‘Our Lady of Peace.’

While Katherine Moennig appeared on the 2000 movie “The Ice People,” her first major role only came soon after when she won a recurring role in the TV series “Young Americans.” She then landed on several films such as “Slo-Mo,” “Love the Hard Way,” “The Shipping News” and “Invitation to a Suicide” as well as guest appearances on TV shows like “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”

However, it was her role as Shane McCutcheon in the lesbian-themed Showtime series “The L Word” that made Katherine Moennig a household name. From 2004 to 2009, her character became one of the favorites of viewers. Other credits of Moennig include the movies “Art School Confidential,” where she also played a lesbian and a guest appearance on “CSI: Miami.” Katherine also made her Off-Broadway debut in the production of “Guardians” in 2006. In 2009, Katherine Moennig landed another regular role in the CBS medical drama “Three Rivers.”

Katherine Moennig has several tattoos, including a violin outline with an M inside (in honor of her father who died), “Mary” in her right inner forearm (in honor of her mom), a swallow on her right triceps, a cross on her left wrist, a small red square on her left hand, the number 2 on her right ring finger and the words “audere est facere” (‘to dare is to do’ in Latin) on her left triceps.