Heidi Klum ( ; born June 1, 1973) is German model, actress, television host, business woman, fashion designer, television producer, artist, and occasional singer. She is married to singer Seal.

Klum was the Emmy Award-nominated hostess of Project Runway and Germany's Next Topmodel, and is a Victoria's Secret Angel.

Early life and discovery

Klum was raised by her parents, Günther P. (a cosmetics company executive) and Erna (a hairdresser) in Bergisch Gladbach, West Germany, a small city outside Cologne. Klum was persuaded by a friend to enroll in a national modeling contest called "Model 92". Out of 25,000 contestants, Klum was voted the winner on April 29, 1992 and offered a modeling contract worth US$300,000 by Thomas Zeumer, CEO of Metropolitan Models New York. As the winner, she appeared on the Gottschalk Late Night Show, a top German television show with host Thomas Gottschalk, similar to late night shows with David Letterman or Jay Leno in the United States. She accepted the contract a few months later after graduating from school and decided not to try for an apprentice position at a fashion design school.

Acting and modeling

Klum has been on the cover of fashion magazines, including Vogue, ELLE and Marie Claire. She became widely known after appearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and for her work with Victoria's Secret as an "Angel." In addition to working with world class photographers on her Sports Illustrated shoots, she was the object/subject of Joanne Gair body painting works in several editions from 1999 to 2006. She wrote the foreword to Gair's most recent book of body paint work. She has been a spokesmodel for McDonald's, Braun, H & M, and Liz Claiborne, among others. She is currently a celebrity spokesmodel for Jordache and Volkswagen. In addition to modeling, she has appeared in several TV shows, including Spin City, Sex and the City, Yes, Dear, and How I Met Your Mother. She had a role as an ill-tempered hair model in the movie Blow Dry, played a giantess in the movie Ella Enchanted and was cast as Ursula Andress in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. She had cameo appearances in The Devil Wears Prada and Perfect Stranger.

In July 2007, having earned an estimated $8 million in the previous 12 months, Klum was named by Forbes as third on the list of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels. In 2008, Forbes estimated her income to be $14 million, which put Klum in second place on the list, surpassing Kate Moss ($7.5 million). Klum is signed to IMG Models in New York City.

Project Runway

Designing and perfume

Klum has designed her own clothing lines (including one for infants) that were featured in the German mail-order catalog "Otto." She also has designed shoes for Birkenstock, jewellery for Mouawad, a clothing line for Jordache, and swimsuits – featured in the 2002 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue – that, for a limited time, were available for sale through her personal website. She was one of the designers of the Victoria's Secret lingerie line "The Body", which was named after the nickname she received following her first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show appearance. Her Mouawad jewelry collection debuted on the cable shopping network QVC on September 14, 2006, and 14 of the 16 styles sold out after only 36 minutes. A second line of her jewelry collection debuted on QVC on April 14, 2007, with similar success. Klum's clothing line for Jordache launched on April 30, 2008.