You know her as fixer Quinn Perkins in “Scandal” and Rachel DeLoache Williams in “Inventing Anna.” And now, Jewish actress Katie Lowes is taking on the role of Jill on Netflix’s hottest new drama-thriller “The Hunting Wives.”
Here are 18 things to know about her.
1. Katie was born on Sept. 22, 1982 to a Jewish mother and an Irish Catholic father.
2. She’s a Virgo!
3. “We were not religious at all, but we had a lot of everything in my household and I really responded,” Katie reflected on her upbringing. “We had a Christmas tree and a menorah and I loved it.”
4. Katie grew up in Port Washington, New York, graduating from Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in 2000.
5. She got her start in performing arts and acting early on.
“From the age of 2 or 3 I was in little dance recitals, and then 5 and 6 I was in little ‘Wizard of Oz’ plays in town,” Katie told Variety. “I can remember being about 10 and begging my father for an agent and him saying, ‘Over my dead freaking body.‘”
6. She graduated from NYU Tisch with a BFA in acting.
7. Early in her career, Katie acted alongside Sandra Oh in an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
8. She’s married to actor Adam Shapiro, who you might know as Adam Shapiro in “The Bear.”
“We included traditions from all faiths — Irish stuff, Catholic stuff, Jewish stuff,” Katie reflected on their wedding. “We like to make everything inclusive”
9. Though both Katie and Adam are Jewish, they are also an interfaith couple due to Katie’s Irish Catholic heritage.
“We talked a lot about traditions he loved when he was growing up that he would want his children to practice, and I talked about traditions that I was raised with,” she has said of their relationship. “I love Christmas and Easter and he loves Passover and Hanukkah. We do everything, anything that’s fun.”
10. Ever wonder what it’s like to be cast on a Shonda Rhimes TV show? The moment Katie was cast on “Scandal” was captured on film and you can enjoy it here:
11. “Scandal” fans tend to have weird requests when they meet Katie in real life.
“When I got my teeth ripped out… I get stopped by people in the street asking to check my teeth,” she explained to Variety. “It’s like become a thing in my life where I have to open my mouth as a joke and show people that my molars are still there.”
12. Katie and her husband Adam have two kids. Their son Albee was born in 2017, and their daughter Vera was born in 2020.
13. In 2018, Katie made her Broadway debut, taking over the role of Dawn in “Waitress.” She starred alongside her husband Adam, who took on the role of Ogie. You can listen to them talk about the show and working together below:
14. Katie never met Rachel DeLoache Williams, the real-life person she portrayed in “Inventing Anna.”
“I just felt from the beginning that I wanted the real-life her to be a jumping-off point, but, like, I’m not playing Jackie O; I don’t have to embody a person that we all know as a cultural icon,” she explained. Still she added, “I felt an immediate empathic connection to her and felt like I could do a good job understanding where she comes from and what she went through.”
15. Katie starred in the 2022 Christmas movie “Merry Kiss Cam,” which perhaps foretold the 2025 Coldplay kiss-cam incident.
16. Katie hosted a podcast from 2017 to 2023 called “Katie’s Crib” for Shondaland Audio. The show covered parenthood, fertility and postpartum life via interviews with celebrities and notable figures. Katie told Shondaland that she felt like the podcast was her “little corner of this planet where [she] could, hopefully, be contributing to making the world a more inclusive, equitable place.”
17. “The Hunting Wives” is the second time Katie has fake-given birth on screen! (The first time was, of course, on “Scandal.”)
18. She is a staunch defender of her character in “The Hunting Wives.”
“Jill is the type of juicy character that every actor dreams of playing. This was a once-in-a-career opportunity,” Katie told Forbes. When they asked if her character got what she deserved in the end, Katie responded, “Absolutely not! She did nothing wrong!”
