Aunt's hunch helps launch 'Roswell' star's career

A kindly aunt with tenuous connections to New York fashion model agencies thought her blond niece was so cute that she took pictures of her in various poses during a visit in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Just for fun, she asked permission from Katherine Heigl's mother to distribute some of the shots among a handful of agents. There were no objections. A few weeks later, Katherine signed up with Wilhemina, the prestigious international agency.

It took about a nanosecond for Heigl to make her professional debut in a magazine print ad, followed by a national TV commercial for Cheerios breakfast cereal. With another half-dozen commercials under her belt, she made her legitimate acting debut at the age of 11 in the feature film "That Night" (1992) opposite Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell.

On a roll, she spent vacations, holidays and weekends cranking out such fare as "King of the Hill" (1993), "My Father, the Hero" (1994), "Under Siege 2" (1995) and "Wish Upon A Star" (1996) before graduating from New Canaan High School.

Heigl was suddenly left with the horrendous dilemma of going on to an Eastern college or trying her luck in Hollywood. Ultimately, there was no reason to take a tremendous pay cut in favor of a university degree that had no bearing on getting another acting job. Heigl and her divorced mother moved on to sunny Southern California in time to shoot a dog titled "Prince Valiant" (1997). "Stand-Ins" (1997) and "Bug Buster" (1998) didn't do much for her career, either, but comedic horror flick "Bride of Chucky" (1998) garnered a fair amount of attention.

She was highly visible when cast as a regular in the pseudo-sci-fi series "Roswell" (Mondays, 8 p.m., WB). Heigl, now a really cute 21 and looking sweet 16, portrays Isabel Evans, an illegal alien from a galaxy far away. A cross between "The X-Files" and "Dawson's Creek", "Roswell" follows the adventures of Isabel, her brother Max (Jason Behr) and their friend Michael (Brendan Fehr) during their tumultuous high school years in Roswell, New Mexico.

The three youngsters were adopted under mysterious circumstances by humans shortly after emerging from their incubation pods at the age of 7. They appear to be the descendants of the strange critters on a crashed alien spaceship who were incinerated on impact in 1947. These weird youngsters with special powers have to elude capture by the nasty local sheriff and various nefarious federal agents.

"I love playing Isabel because she’s very strong and positive --- and she’s sort of fashion-conscious," says Heigl, laughing. "She also takes everything very seriously, knowing that her life could be at stake anytime. Isabel doesn’t like feeling vulnerable and having to depend on a handful of high school friends… . The fun part is watching my character emerge. I learn something new about her on every page of the script."