Heather Tom

Heather Tom was born on November 4, 1975, in Hinsdale, Illinois, and is an American actress and director. She is the oldest of three children; her younger siblings are twins David Tom and Nicholle Tom, both of whom also pursued acting careers. Her brother David played Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless and later appeared alongside Tom on One Life to Live as her character's half-brother, Paul Cramer. In 2000, Heather and David became the first brother and sister nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards in the same year. Tom guest-starred with her sister Nicholle on The Wedding Bells in 2007 and Hollywood Darlings in 2017.

When Tom was eleven, her family relocated from Chicago to Seattle after her father's job transferred him there. A year later, her mother brought the three children to Los Angeles for pilot season, and the family settled there permanently, with her parents subsequently divorcing. Her mother worked as a speech therapist for the Pasadena school system while the children pursued acting. During her time in Seattle, Tom performed at the Seattle Children's Theatre and the Pacific Northwest Ballet and studied piano at the Academy of Music and Dance. After the move to California, she trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and the Young Actors Space. As a teenager she held a part-time job baking cookies at a Los Angeles shop called Hungry Bear Cookies and became legally emancipated from her parents while still in her teens.

Tom's professional career began at age two with television commercials and modeling. She performed in a West Coast tour of Pinocchio II for Center Stage USA and, after settling in Los Angeles, landed guest roles on Who's the Boss?, Kids Incorporated, Divorce Court, and Trial by Jury. She played Caroline in the ABC television film She'll Take Romance and starred as Kathy Acton in the CBS film Deadly Whispers alongside Tony Danza and Ving Rhames. Tom made her debut as Victoria Newman on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless in December 1990, a role she held until 2003. She won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for that role in 1993 and again in 1999, and received nominations in the same category in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2000. She also received Young Artist Award nominations in 1993 and 1994, and won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Younger Lead Actress in 1997. In 1995 she guest starred as herself on Diagnosis: Murder.

Alongside her television work, Tom built a substantial stage career in Los Angeles during the late 1990s. She co-founded the Creative Outlet Theater with actor Chad Allen, where she produced and starred in Out of Gas on Lover's Leap and Vanities, and produced Scooter Thomas Makes it to the Top of the World. In 1996, the theater mounted a production of Biloxi Blues, in which Tom starred as Daisy, alternating the role with her sister Nicholle; the production earned five Drama-Logue Awards. On July 31, 1998, Tom began a one-month run as Laura in The Glass Menagerie at the Stella Adler Theatre in Los Angeles, with Barbara Babcock co-starring as Amanda. From September through November 1998, she starred in Gila at the Odyssey Theater alongside Phyllis Frelich, earning a Robbie Theatre LA Award nomination for Best Actress. In August 2001, she starred as Betsy in Lemonade at the Tamarind Theater in Los Angeles, co-starring with Maxwell Caulfield.

Tom departed The Young and the Restless on December 17, 2003, citing creative differences, and joined the cast of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live as Kelly Cramer, first airing on December 11, 2003. She was also involved in a crossover storyline that brought her character to All My Children. In May 2004, Tom made her Broadway debut in Prymate, which opened at the Longacre Theatre. The production had previously been staged under the title Gila. During the same period in New York, she starred in Proof at Montclair State University's TheatreFest, appeared in Moonchild at the Access Theater as part of the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2004, played Chrysothemis in a staged reading of Electra at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and in October 2004 starred in Hecuba at 45 Bleecker Theatre. She also starred as Jenn in Happy Hour at 12 Miles West in Bloomfield, New Jersey, which opened in May 2005. On television during this period, she made a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Tom received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her work on One Life to Live in 2005 and again in 2007. She appeared in the film Undone, produced by her One Life to Live co-star Kassie DePaiva and directed by James DePaiva, alongside Timothy D. Stickney, Forbes March, and Ricky Paull Goldin. In November and December 2006, she starred as Marilyn Monroe in The Secret Letters of Jackie and Marilyn at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. Tom's final airdate on One Life to Live was December 14, 2006.

Tom joined The Bold and the Beautiful as Katie Logan, with her first airdate on August 30, 2007. She also guest starred on Monk and The Wedding Bells in 2007, and had a recurring role on Ugly Betty in 2008. She guest starred on The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, and Rizzoli & Isles, and appeared in the films Suicide Dolls, Stiffs, and The Putt Putt Syndrome. She played Jennifer Adams in the 2006 thriller The Rival alongside Tracy Nelson. In April and May 2012, Tom starred as Catherine in The Heiress at the Pasadena Playhouse, co-starring with Richard Chamberlain. For her role on The Bold and the Beautiful, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2011, having been nominated in the same category in 2008, and won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in both 2012 and 2013. Her four Daytime Emmy wins on that series contributed to a career total of six, tying her for the most wins by a soap actress.

In addition to performing, Tom has directed episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless, Dynasty, and Good Trouble. She and her husband James Achor founded a design business called Tight Rope Designs, focusing on home redecorating in the Los Angeles area, with their work featured in InStyle and Elle Decor magazines. In the summer of 2013, the two starred in the HGTV reality miniseries Renovation Unscripted.