Kathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing (1993) while still a student at Oxford University. She then appeared in British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland (1994), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Emma (1996) and The Golden Bowl (2000), in addition to various stage and radio productions. She began to seek film work in the United States in the late 1990s and, after appearing in small-scale dramas The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Brokedown Palace (1999), she had a breakout year in 2001 with starring roles in the war epic Pearl Harbor and the romantic comedy Serendipity. She built on this success with appearances in The Aviator (2004) and Click (2006).

Beckinsale garnered a reputation as an action star following an appearance as a vampire in 2003's Underworld and has since starred in Van Helsing (2004), Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Whiteout (2009). She has also continued to work on smaller dramatic projects such as Snow Angels (2007), Winged Creatures (2008), Nothing but the Truth and Everybody's Fine (2009). She has three films set for release in 2012: the crime thriller Contraband, the fourth installment of the vampire franchise Underworld: Awakening and the sci-fi remake Total Recall.