Kate Beckinsale at the Click Los Angeles Premiere

Kate Beckinsale was born 26 July 1973 in England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe, who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms, and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her father was Richard Beckinsale, born in Nottingham, England, UK. He starred in a number of popular British television comedies during the 1970s, most notably the television series "Rising Damp" (1974), "Porridge" (1973) and The Lovers (1973). He passed away tragically early in 1979 at the age of 32.

Kate attended the public (private school to U.S. readers) Godolphin and Latymer School in London for her grade and primary school education. In her teens, she twice won the British bookseller W. H. Smith Young Writers' competition--once for three short stories and once for three poems. After a tumultuous adolescence, (a bout of anorexia {cured} and a smoking habit which continues to this day) she gradually took up the profession of acting.

Her major acting debut came in a World War II television movie called One Against the Wind (1991) (TV), filmed in Luxembourg during the summer of 1991. It first aired on American television that December. Kate began attending Oxford University's New College in the fall of 1991, majoring in French and Russian literature. She had already decided that she wanted to act, but to broaden her horizons she chose university over drama school.