EARLY LIFE
Marg Helgenberger was born on November 16, 1958, in Freemont, Nebraska. She’s the second daughter of Mary Kay,  a nurse, and Hugh Helgenberger who was a meat inspector but died in 1986 of complications from Multiple Sclerosis. She has an elder sister, Ann, whose career is as a jazz musician, and a younger brother, Curt, who works as a meat inspector like their father.

Marg Helgenberger

Marg’s initial interest was to become a nurse like her mom, but when she went to college at Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska), her interest turned to the media world. She also attended Northwestern University school of speech in Evanston, Illinois to get her B.S. degree in Speech and Drama. She then moved to New York.

THE BEGINNING OF HER ACTING CAREER
She started her acting in college productions at Northwestern University. Her first role was on a soap opera called “Ryan’s Hope” as a tough young policewoman from 1975 until 1979. When she moved to Southern California, she became a guest star television on various TV series such as “Matlock”, “Thirty Something”, “Tales From the Crypt”, and the short-lived series “Shell Game” in 1987.

BIG BREAKS
Her role as Karen Charlene “K.C.” Koloski, a tough prostitute, in drama “China Beach“ won her amazing awards. She won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (China Beach) for three years straight from 1989 to 1991, and an Emmy Award in 1990 as Outstanding Supporting Actress in Drama Series (China Beach).
She started her cast as Catherine Willows, a blood spatter analyst (2000 – present), in “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and in this series, she won a Screen Actor Guild Award as The Cast of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (CSI), two People’s Choice Award as a Favorite Female TV Star (CSI) and as The Cast of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (CSI) all in the year of 2005. The awards are of course the results of her hard work. She went so far as to learn the real things to do and even witnessed autopsies that were being performed at the time.

Due to her achievements, her hometown of North Bend, Nebraska, renamed the street of her childhood home to “Helgenberger Avenue” in mid 2006.

PRIVATE LIFE
She was married to Alan Rosenberg in 1989 and gave birth to Hugh Howard Rosenberg who was named after her late father.

Due to Marg’s mother’s struggle against breast cancer for the last 27 years and her survival, she and Alan decided to get involved in the fight against breast cancer and started an annual “Marg and Alan’s Celebrity Weekend” in Omaha, Nebraska in 1997. The event is held for 3 days per each year and usually includes a two-day celebrity golf tournament at Dodge Riverside Golf Club and a cancer-survivor celebration at Harrah’s Casino.

Her marriage to Alan did not last forever. They separated in 2008 and finally divorced in 2010.

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