Kate Hudson

After years operating at the edges of rock music, Kate Hudson steps forward as a full-fledged rock performer through her 2024 album Glorious. While her early-2000s breakthrough character Penny Lane in Almost Famous evoked a 1970s archetype, the new record updates vintage rock textures by layering in contemporary polish and distinctive touches.

Born in Los Angeles to an entertainment family, Hudson followed the path of her mother, Academy Award-winning actress Goldie Hawn. Her biological father, Bill Hudson, performed with the Top 40-charting 1970s group the Hudson Brothers, yet after her parents split during her toddler years she grew up under the care of Hawn and actor Kurt Russell. As a preteen she began performing in local theater productions, later earning her diploma from Santa Monica’s Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in 1997. Though accepted to New York University, she skipped higher education to commit to acting professionally and had already logged guest appearances on the series Party of Five and EZ Streets.

She continued building her film résumé with roles in 200 Cigarettes (1999) and Dr. T & the Women (2000). In 2001 she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for playing Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000), which included a memorable group singalong scene. Subsequent leading parts arrived in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Raising Helen (2004), and You, Me and Dupree (2006), followed by a supporting turn in the 2009 screen version of the Broadway musical Nine, itself drawn from Fellini’s 8 1/2. She contributed the track “Cinema Italiano” to that film’s soundtrack. Throughout the following decade she maintained a steady screen presence that encompassed a recurring part on Glee and a role in the music-industry satire Rock the Kasbah.

In 2021 Hudson appeared opposite Leslie Odom, Jr. and Maddie Ziegler in Music, the musical feature directed and co-written by pop star Sia; the title ballad, performed by Hudson, was issued as a single. After further work in the series Truth Be Told and the Oscar-nominated film Glass Onion, she launched her solo recording career. The up-tempo “Talk About Love,” marked by 1980s-style production, emerged on her own Hail Mary label in January 2024. Her debut full-length, Glorious, largely co-written with partner Danny Fujikawa and Linda Perry, followed in May 2024.