Catherine Lisa Bell was born on August 14, 1968 in London, England. At the age of 3 years her family relocate to Los Angeles. She had appeared in few television commercials as a child. But originally she wanted to be an artist. She had completed her study in medicine, with the intention of surgeon or bio-medical engineer. But she had began modeling part-time while in college. She put her studies on hold and headed to Japan for modeling to model for several months. But she felt that her shyness holding her on the back foot and therefore she hired an acting coach to help her to get over her shyness.