Heidi Klum is a major star in the fashion and entertainment world. Having established herself as a top model, making great impact for such clients as Victoria’s Secret and appearing on the covers of pop-culture mainstays including the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, Klum’s career has taken many new directions.

Klum is the host and executive producer of the six-time Emmy-nominated series Project Runway. After finishing its sixth season, Project Runway was the highest-rated program on cable. Klum also hosts Germany’s Next Top Model, which is a runaway hit in that country. She has written a lifestyle book, Body of Knowledge: 8 Rules of Model Behavior and released a book, Rankin’s Heidilicious featuring some of her favorite photos taken by talented photographer Rankin. Her numerous other ventures include two self-designed collections for maternity lines, A Pea In the Pod and Motherhood Maternity, a sportswear and sneaker collection for New Balance sold exclusively on Amazon.com, an age-preventive line of creams and serums called In An Instant, which is sold in partnership with Guthy Renker and campaigns for DietCoke, Ann Taylor and Dannon.

She is also launching Heidi Klum on AOL, a channel for women to find information on every topic. It will revolve around Heidi and the lifestyle experts in her world creating a loose framework of ideas and advice on fashion, beauty, parenting, arts and crafts, relationships and lifestyle.

Klum’s modeling career began in her hometown of Bergisch Gladbach, when she won a national model search. After this win, Klum signed with an agency, and her modeling career officially took off. She has since worked with many of the world’s top fashion photographers including Sante D’Orazio, Patrick Demarchelier, Gilles Bensimon, Rankin, Matthew Ralston, Arthur Elgort, Walter Chin, Robert Erdmann, Marco Glaviano, Michael Thompson, Raymond Meier, Richard Burbridge, Mark Seliger, Wayne Mazur, Peter Lindbergh and Steven Meisel.

She has been featured in all of the top fashion/beauty and lifestyle magazines including Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, Good Housekeeping, ID, W, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Allure, Lucky, Self, Town & Country, Redbook, Esquire, Forbes, Arena, GQ, British GQ (for which she was named “Woman of the Year” twice in a row) French, British and German Vogue, German Elle, Self, Fitness, Dutch, New Woman and Grazia magazines. Klum has shot campaigns for clients including McDonald’s, Diet Coke (for which she was the spokeswoman for the Red Dress/Heart Health initiative for four years), Volkswagen, H&M, Nike, American Express, Target, Express, Liz Claiborne, Lenscrafters, Siemens, Givenchy, Nine West, INC, Finesse, Braun (for which her legs were insured for over $2 million!) and the prestigious Pirelli calendar.

Klum is also well known for her work with Victoria’s Secret. One of her first big breaks as a model was to walk in Victoria’s Secret widely-viewed runway show. Since then, she has completed many campaigns for Victoria’s Secret, being featured prominently in the company’s world-famous catalogs, swim books and fashion shows and has even worn the multi-million dollar jeweled holiday bras. She has also served as host of the CBS broadcast special of the annual fashion show.

Klum’s acting appearances include Miramax’s Blow Dry and Ella Enchanted, ABC’s Spin City, and guest roles on HBO’s The Life and Death of Peter Sellers as “Ursula Andress,” How I Met Your Mother and Sex and the City, and a voiceover for The Weinstein Company’s Hoodwinked Too as “Heidi, the Yodeler.” She hosted the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards and has hosted various specials for MTV, TNT and CBS and swam with sharks for an episode for Discovery Channel’s popular “Shark Week.” In addition, she appeared as villainess scientist “Katya Nadanova” in the best-selling James Bond 007 videogame, Everything or Nothing.

Her charity involvements include work on behalf of such organizations as the American Red Cross (as part of its Celebrity Cabinet), Worldwide Orphans Foundation, The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Klum also appears in a PSA for the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Stand Up to Cancer program.

On downtime at shoots, Klum also cultivates her creative talents -– sketching ideas for her jewelry, clothing and shoe lines, as well as crafting new ideas for her ever-developing businesses and interests.