Rise to Fame
She almost missed Dawson's Creek because she refused to skip opening night of her high school musical. She sent an audition tape instead, and the producers rescheduled her callback. Selma Blair was already in the running for Joey Potter when that tape arrived. Holmes appeared in all 128 episodes of the show, the only cast member who did. Buffy the Vampire Slayer came calling around the same time; she turned it down. That one still gets mentioned.
In the Spotlight
For years, the Tom Cruise marriage was the headline next to her name. She filed for divorce in 2012 in New York, a move that won her sole custody, reportedly around $400,000 a year in child support, and a provision barring Suri from Scientology exposure. The settlement took under two weeks. Since then, she's run Lafayette Pictures, writing and directing her own indie films, most recently Rare Objects (2023). She starred in the Our Town Broadway revival in 2024. The Cruise chapter reads less like a detour and more like something she survived.
Side Notes
She grew up Catholic in Sylvania, Ohio, turned down Columbia University for acting, and converted to Scientology after meeting Tom Cruise in 2005. Her parents boycotted the wedding in Italy the following year over objections to both Cruise and the church. Suri was born via a silent birth, per Scientology practice. Holmes returned to Catholicism after the divorce. Suri has reportedly dropped the Cruise surname and now goes by Suri Noelle. The distance from that name runs in the family.