Kathryn Ann "Katee" Sackhoff was born on April 8, 1980, in Portland, Oregon. She grew up in St. Helens, Oregon, with her mother, Mary, an English-as-second-language program coordinator, and her father, Dennis, a land developer. Her brother, Erick, is the co-owner of a vehicle modification shop near Portland.
Sackhoff graduated from Sunset High School in Beaverton in 1998. She began swimming at an early age and was planning to pursue a career in the sport until her right knee was injured. This led her to start practicing yoga, which she still does today, and to explore her interest in acting.
Her first acting role was in the Lifetime movie Fifteen and Pregnant, where she played a teenager with a baby. The movie starred Kirsten Dunst and inspired her to move to Hollywood and pursue a career in acting after graduating high school.
Sackhoff's early roles included Annie in MTV's Undressed and a supporting role as Nell Bickford in The Education of Max Bickford. She made her motion picture debut in My First Mister and next appeared in film as Jenna "Jen" Danzig in Halloween: Resurrection.
In 2004, Sackhoff played Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica, earning four Saturn Award nominations and winning the award for Best Supporting Actress on Television in 2005.
She also starred in the short-lived TV series The Fearing Mind and The Education of Max Bickford, had recurring roles in Bionic Woman, Nip/Tuck, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and had a lead role in the eighth season of 24 as Dana Walsh.
Between 2012 and 2017, Sackhoff starred in the A&E and Netflix series Longmire as Deputy Sheriff Victoria "Vic" Moretti and had a recurring role in The Flash as Amunet.
Sackhoff has also had lead roles in the films Halloween: Resurrection, White Noise: The Light, Batman: Year One, The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, Sexy Evil Genius, Riddick, Oculus, and Don't Knock Twice.
In addition to her acting career, Sackhoff is a co-host of the Schmoes Know Movies podcast on the Toad Hop Network and has written and executive-produced a new TV-series project, Rain, through her production company Fly Free Productions. She has also had a role in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops III and portrayed Pink Ranger Kimberly in Power/Rangers, a short depicting a dystopian future in the Power Rangers universe.
In 2017, Sackhoff joined The CW series The Flash in the recurring role of villainess Amunet, billed as a special guest star.