Kat Dennings is an American actress, known for her spot on comic timings. Born on born June 13, 1986 as Katherine Litwackin a Jewish family, she changed her name when she ventured to start her career as a model at the tender age of 10 years. She debuted as an actor in Sex and the City, an HBO original series in the year 2000. Known for her quick wit, Dennings has starred in a string of critically acclaimed commercially successful movies and TV shows, portraying characters with a quirky edge among which 2 Broke Girls cemented her position as a sought after comical lead. She has also acted in commercially blockbuster movies like Thor and Thor 2, and has been nominated multiple times in her acting career.
Early life
She was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and graduated early from high school when she was 14 years of age. Her mother is a poet and speech therapist, while her father, Gerald J. Litwack, is a college professor and chairman and a molecular pharmacologist. Dennings is the youngest of the five siblings. She has one older brother. As a kid, she moved to Los Angeles, along with her parents to pursue a career in acting. Dennings was homeschooled.
Personal life
According to Dennings, she changed her name because she wasn’t fond of her real name, Katherine Litwack. She adopted the stage name Kat Dennings to be more forthright and marketable. Dennings was also an avid blogger where she also did video blogging for her audience from January 2001 until February 20, 2010. The actress is active on twitter and has a huge fan following where most of her tweets get phenomenal response.
Television Career
Dennings started her career as a child model doing a commercial for a chips brand. Her first stint into acting was with the episode, “Hot Child in the City", in the original HBO series, Sex and the City, where she played a hateful 13 year old kid who hires Samantha, the series lead character, to handle the publicity for her bar mitzvah. She went on to star as a teenager in a WB sitcom called Raising Dad from 2001 to 2002 as a 15 year old Sarah with Bob Saget playing her dad. The sitcom was shortlived but helped her bag a Disney movie, called ‘The Scream Team’ where she played a teenager and her interaction with ghosts.
Dennings went on to play several roles as a teenager in television. In the year 2003, she played a guest role on ‘Without a trace’. She essayed the character of a girl whose boyfriend goes missing.
In 2011, Dennings began working as Max Black in 2 Broke Girls, a CBS sitcom written and produced by Michael Patrick King and comedian Whitney Cummings. The hit television series made sure that Max Black the character Dennings plays reaches out to a wider audience. The audience loved her character where she plays a tough as nail outspoken girl from Brooklyn. The CBS renewed the series for a sixth season on March 25, 2016.
Movie Career
Her feature film debut was in 2004, wherein she played a somber piano student alongside
Hilary Duff in
Raise Your Voice. In 2005, she starred in, The 40-Year-Old Virgin where she played supporting role as
Catherine Keener's character's daughter. In the following year, she played a rebellious teen with
Martin Lawrence in the movie
Big Momma's House 2. In the year 2008, she played Susan Gardner in the movie
Charlie Bartlett. She played the love interest of Bartlett's and the daughter of the school's principal (
Robert Downey, Jr.). It’s the story of a wealthy teenager (
Anton Yelchin ) who begins acting as a psychiatrist in his new public high school. In the same year, 2008, Dennings played Mona a feminist sorority girl in ‘
The House Bunny’ and starred in a teen romantic flick
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, with
Michael Cera. In the movie, Dennings played the title character and the daughter of a famous record producer. The movie earned her a nomination for the International Press Academy's Satellite Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Dennings has carved out a unique career path with a distinct fresh personality, which has made her stand out from her contemporaries. In the year 2009, she appeared in
Defendor, starring
Woody Harrelson and
Sandra Oh where she played a crack, addicted prostitute. In the next year, 2010, she played a city girl who moves to rural town and is caught in a love triangle between her high school teacher and a teenage drug dealer in the movie
Daydream Nation, directed by Michael Golbach. In the same year, she also appeared in a music video for a Texas based musician Bob Schneider, the video was directed by
Robert Rodriguez. In 2011, she was cast by the Marvel Studios for the film
Thor, wherein she played the role of a tech-savvy, shy sidekick Darcy Lewis and an assistant to
Natalie Portman’s character Jane Foster. In 2013 she reprised her role as Darcy Lewis in
Thor: The Dark World.