A kindly aunt with tenuous connections to New York fashion model agencies thought her blond niece was so cute that she took a series of pictures of her in various poses during and afternoon visit in New Canaan, Conn. 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 Wilhelmina, the prestigious international agency. She was 9 years old, but looked mature enough to pass for 10.

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 try 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.

Thought not a household name, she was highly visible when cast as a regular in the pseudo-sci-fi series "Roswell" (Wed., 9-10 p.m. WB). Heigl, now really cute 21 and looking like sweet 16, portrays Isabel Evans, an illegal alien from a galaxy so far away that it has no Green Card classification. 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, N.M.

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. As if teen-age angst isn’t enough, to elude capture by the nasty local sheriff and various nefarious federal agencies.

"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, including Liz (Shiri Appleby) and Maria (Majandra Delfino). The fun part is watching my character emerge. I learn something new about her on every page of the script."

Heading to the West Coast was definitely a good move, according to Heigl, who also has an independent film called "100 Girls" in the can to be released later this year.