Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American film actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after bringing in several awards and nominations for her role in Almost Famous, and has since established herself as a Hollywood lead actress, starring in several films, including How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Skeleton Key, You, Me and Dupree, Fool's Gold, Raising Helen, My Best Friend's Girl, and Bride Wars.

Kate Hudson was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actress Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, an actor, comedian, and musician. Kate Hudson's parents divorced eighteen months after her birth; she and her brother, actor Oliver Hudson, were raised in Colorado by her mother and her mother's long-time boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell. Kate Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and that she considers Kurt Russell to be her father. Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to". She has three half-siblings, Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's subsequent marriage to actress Cindy Williams, and Wyatt, from her mother's relationship with Kurt Russell. Kate Hudson is of English, Italian, and Hungarian Jewish descent, and was raised in her maternal grandmother's Jewish religion; her family also practiced Buddhism. Hudson graduated from Crossroads, a performing school in Santa Monica, in 1997. She was accepted to New York University, but chose to pursue an acting career instead of an undergraduate degree.

Kate Hudson's breakthrough was as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had previously appeared in the lesser-known films Gossip, a teenage drama, and 200 Cigarettes, a New Year's-set comedy with a large cast of actors. Regarding her early career and success, Hudson has noted that she is a "hard worker", and did not want to be associated with her well-known parents, wishing to avoid the perception that she "rode on somebody's coattails".