The Diva Next Door
by Kim Lockhart

If there was ever a perfect actress to play girl-down-the-creek/best-pal Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek, it's Katie Holmes. Sure, Jen (Michelle Williams) gets the actual girl-next-door location, but it's Katie who's got the good girl/best bud vibes down. Listening to this 20-year-old superstar-in-the-making talk is like dishing with your oldest and dearest friend. She's smart, funny and just a tad insecure-all qualities she shares with her small-screen character.

And just like Miss Josphine Potter, Katie Noelle Holmes always dreamed of something bigger and better than life in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Katie wanted to be an actress-bad! But she thought that living in the Midwest made her "geographically undesirable". No biggie. When you've got talent (which Katie does, in massive doses), stardom will find you.

Need proof? OK-check out Katie at the 1996 International Modeling and Talent Association Convention in New York City when she was 18. Katie attended the annual conference with her fellow students from Margret O'Brien's Modeling School in Toledo. After she performed a monologue from To Kill A Mockingbird, 30 (yes, 30!) agents called in hopes of meeting with her, and a Los Angeles-based talent scout even invited her back to Hollywood to attend audtions. The only problem? Her dad was against the move. "We had everybody in Toledo trying to convince him to let me go," Katie says. Lucky for Katie-and all her fans-he finally did. And after her very first audition, which was for The Ice Storm, Katie landed her first professional acting gig.

Katie on....

the real world
"I know I grew up very naive and sheltered, but I like that. I feel sad when I see kids who have experienced too much too young. I'm glad I could wait this long before I had to deal with reality."

ex-sweetie/co-star Joshua Jackson
"I feel so fortunate because he's not one of my best friends. It's weird, it's almost like a Dawson-and-Joey thing now. He's been in the business so long, and he's really helped me. I respect him as a friend and a professional."

why she doesn't plant to grow a big ego
"My family would knock me on the side of the head and say, "Who do you think you are?"'

hollywood, here she comes
Katie spent the summer between her junior and senior years playing Tobey Maguire's uptown girlfriend in that critically acclaimed film. Her second audition was for a part as the tomboy best friend in a new TV drama created by Scream writer Kevin Williamson. (Maybe you're heard of that little show-Dawson's Creek?) She landed that one too (duh!) after rescheduling her screen test so she wouldn't miss the opening night of her high school's production of Damn Yankees. Yep, Katie risked her part on TV because she didn't want to let down any of her friends in the play. (We told you she was cool).

Joining the Dawson's cast meant leaving those friends behind and moving to Wilmington, N.C. As every Creek fan knows, the humid East Coast town doubles as Capeside, home of Dawson (James Van Der Beek), Joey, Jen and Pacey (Joshua Jackson). The move was one of the smartest Katie ever made. The show was declared a hit before its first episode even aired. Katie and her co-stars suddenly found their faces plastered on billboards and magazine covers across the country-something that has turned into an exciting yet odd phenomenon.

"We're kind of in this position where young girls are looking up to our characters, which is kind of scary," Katie recently said. "Writers are creating these characters who don't necessarily do what we [would] do. It's entertainment."

big-screen babe
That huge fan response made Hollywood types even more excited about Katie. Before the show's first-season cliffhanger (that "Will they or won't they? thing Between Dawson and Joey), Katie was cast as the heroine in last summer's thriller Disturbing Behavior. Her third movie, Go, co-starring Scott Wolf, came out in April. And we're all eagerly awaiting this summer's Killing Mrs. Tingle.

In this dark comedy directed by Kevin Williamson, Katie stars as Leigh Ann Prescott, a supersmart student who needs to be named class valedictorian so she can get scholarship money for college. But through a series of stolen final exams and misunderstandings, Leigh Ann and her friends (including 7th Heaven's yummy Barry Watson) end up planning to bump off the most hated teacher at their school.

future freshman
All that movie work, plus the months she spends on the Dawson's set, has made it hard for Katie to turn her movie and TV roles as a student into a real-life one. In fact, she's deferred her enrollment at New York's prestigious Columbia University twice because her work schedule is so packed.

But she isn't giving up on her degree-school's very important to this straight-A student. Plus, all four of her sibilings graduated from college and Katie's determined to follow in their footsteps. Until then, "I try to read a lot," she says. "I don't want to get there and be like, 'Homer who'?"

When exactly will her schedule lighten up? Good question. Katie says she's always open to interesting parts that will help her grow as an actor. (And besides, no one else could play Joey!) Yep, Columbia will just have to wait a little longer for Katie. For now she's having too much fun keeping her fans on the edges of their seats!