Kourtney Kardashian

Kourtney Kardashian may have lacked the va-va-voom curves of infamous sister Kim and the outspoken manner of sister Khloe, but she possessed a devil-may-care attitude and laid back persona that often set her apart from the rest of her family. After her younger sister Kim achieved some level of notoriety for her famous backside and appearing in an unfortunate sex tape, the socialite was thrust into the spotlight after appearing on the reality series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" (E! 2007- ), based on the glamorous life of her famous extended brood. The eldest daughter of the rambunctious celebrity clan, the delicately featured Kardashian maintained her composure whenever her siblings and their mother Kris argued over family, relationship, or business matters. She showed off a much wilder streak as a single gal living with her sister in Florida for the hit spin-off series, "Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami" (E! 2009-2013).

Yet none of Kardashian's actions surprised people more than when she announced she was pregnant with on-and-off boyfriend Scott Disick's child in 2009. The world watched as the reformed wild child became a mother, thus beginning the return to a calmer, more confident phase in her celebrity life.

Kourtney Mary Kardashian was born on April 18, 1979 in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas, CA to attorney Robert Kardashian and his homemaker wife, Kris Houghton. Her father would go on to infamy as part of O.J. Simpson's "Dream Team" of lawyers during the football player's 1995 double murder trial, as well as the reader of O.J.'s supposed "suicide letter" prior to the Bronco chase across Los Angeles. She had two younger sisters Kim and Khloe, and a younger brother, Robert, Jr. Her parents divorced in 1989 and her mother remarried Olympic gold medal decathlete Bruce Jenner two years later. Jenner soon found himself head of a growing household, including Kourtney and her three siblings, half-sisters Kendall and Kylie, and Jenner's children from a previous marriage, step-siblings Burt, Casey, Brandon and Brody.

The eldest Kardashian daughter attended Marymount High School, a private, all-girls Catholic school in Los Angeles. Upon graduation, Kardashian enrolled at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX before transferring to the University of Arizona in Tucson. The future reality TV star graduated with a Theater Arts degree and a minor in Spanish in May 2002. Kardashian partnered with her mother and sisters to open a luxury clothing boutique near their Calabasas home called Dash, which later expanded to a children's boutique named Smooch as well as a second Dash store in Miami.

Even though most people thought her younger sister Kim - who had gained notoriety for starring in a graphic sex tape with her then-boyfriend, R&B singer Ray J and for paling around with party girl Paris Hilton - as the breakout star of the family, it was actually Kardashian who first appeared on national television. She starred in the reality series "Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive" (E! 2005), where a group of celebrity offspring and young socialites were plucked out of their cushy mansions and sent to work at a Colorado cattle ranch. Kardashian was one of 10 participants, which included George Foreman III (son of boxer George Foreman) and Haley Giraldo (daughter of singer Pat Benatar). "Filthy Rich" introduced Kardashian to a mainstream audience fascinated by the lives of young Hollywood. The success of Hilton and fellow celebutante Nicole Richie's "The Simple Life" (Fox, 2003-05; E! 2007) further inspired the E! network to create a new series focusing on one of Tinseltown's wildest and most glamorous families.

Produced by TV host and radio personality Ryan Seacrest, "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" made its debut in October 2007. Although it was billed as a reality series, certain situations presented on the show seemed a bit scripted - from wacky (the sisters giving a homeless man a makeover) to deeply personal (Kardashian's pregnancy scare). Nonetheless, Kardashian and her family kept audiences glued to their screens week after week, while ratings soared with each season. A majority of Kardashian's storylines on "Keeping Up" involved her turbulent relationship with her longtime boyfriend Scott Disick, whom she often suspected and accused of infidelity. When the show's third season ended, the couple had broken up as Kardashian prepared to spend the summer in Miami with her protective younger sister, Khloe.

The demand for more Kardashians on screen resulted in "Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami," an offshoot of their family's hit series. The spin-off focused on the two sisters, who were both single at the time, as they opened a second Dash boutique. Kardashian spent her time in Miami running her business during the day and partying all night. The show also followed her dating life in a new city, from spending the night with a family friend to having a flirtatious affair with another young woman. Kardashian's social life quickly turned around after Disick crept back into her life. The couple quickly rekindled their relationship and in August 2009, announced they were expecting. Kardashian confessed to People magazine that she was shocked about the pregnancy at first but she was also very excited to become a mother. In September 2009, she served as maid of honor, along with Kim, at their sister Khloe's wedding to professional basketball player Lamar Odom. Of course the nuptials were paid for by E! and taped for future installments of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." Assuming there was anything about their lives not yet covered ad nauseam on their reality shows, Kardashian and her siblings released a group autobiography, Kardashian Konfidential in 2010.

The entrepreneurial sisters also branched out their collective businesses by launching lines of clothing and jewelry, as well as a self-tanning gel called "Kardashian Glamour Tan." More spin-offs came in the form of the shows "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" (E!, 2011-12), followed by "Khloe & Lamar" (E!, 2011-12). The elder Kardashian sister then made her acting debut on the long-running daytime soap opera "One Life to Live" (ABC, 1968-2012), which employed the requisite alliteration by naming her character Kassandra Kavanaugh. Overshadowing everything, however, was Kim's marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries in an extravagant wedding ceremony fetishistically observed in a televised special on E! Networks in October 2011. The supportive Kourtney was later seen on the reality show comforting Kim after the marriage ended in divorce a mere 72 days later. In November, Kardashian hoped to divert a portion of the negative attention being directed at her much maligned sister by generously announcing that she and Disick were expecting their second child, who was born Penelope Scotland on July 8, 2012.

Prior to her birth, Kardashian and the rest of her family signed a lucrative $40 million deal with E! for three more seasons of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," the largest reality TV deal in history. Kourtney and Scott's third child, Reign Aston Disick, was born December 14, 2014, just as a new series, "Kourtney and Khloé Take The Hamptons" (E! 2014-15) began airing. Kourtney and Scott split again in July 2015.