Heidi was born in the small city of Bergische Gladbach, just outside Cologne on 1 June 1973. She was persuaded by a friend to enter the national 'Model 92' contest in Germany, eventually beating 25,000 other contestants to a $300,000 contract with Metropolitan Models in New York. She was soon appearing on catwalks and all the world's biggest fashion magazine covers.
Victoria's Secret and her first swimsuit cover issue for Sports Illustrated in 1998 catapulted Heidi Klum to top celebrity totty lists the world over. Big name advertising contracts and TV work offers were soon filling her in-tray. She has made appearances in a host of US TV shows, including Malcolm In The Middle, Cursed, Spin City, CSI: Miami, Sex And The City and How I Met Your Mother. She's also gone on to act in movies, donning a pubic hair wig in Blow Dry, playing sex goddess Ursula Andress in The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers, and making cameos in The Devil Wears Prada and Perfect Stranger. On television, she's best-known for presenting the US Cable show Project Runway, for which she's regularly been nominated for Emmy Awards as the 'most outstanding host of a reality or reality-competition show'.
In her native Germany, Heidi is also found a ratings hit, teaming up with fellow supermodel Tyra Banks as co-producer of Germany's Next Top Model, which she also hosts and helps judge. She's designed clothes and jewellery, exhibited art, written newspaper columns and even tried her hand at signing, opposite her popstar second husband Seal. It's all gone to amass Heidi a personal wealth estimated at well over $15 million. The modern multimedia world is the focus of Klum's latest triumphs. She plays the villain Dr. Katya Nadanova in the James Bond video game Everything Or Nothing and she recently joined forces with model Coco Rocha to star in a series of web-based videos directed by fashion documentarian Doug Keeve. In 'Spiked Heel: Supermodels Battle the Forces of Evil', Heidi plays 'The Kluminator' battling the evil Dr. Faux Pas who is plotting to destroy Fashion Week.
