Cassidy had her breakthrough in 2012, after being cast as Laurel Lance / Black Canary, one of the main characters on The CW television series Arrow, which spawned an entire franchise known as the Arrowverse. Cassidy reprised her role in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow as well as voicing the character in the animated web series Vixen. In 2017, Cassidy began playing Black Siren, an antagonistic version of the character from a parallel universe, originating on The Flash and continuing on to Arrow.\n', '
Cassidy was born on November 25, 1986, in Los Angeles. She is the only daughter from the short-lived relationship of actor and singer David Cassidy and fashion model Sherry Williams. Cassidy\'s paternal grandparents were actors Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward and she is the niece of teen idol and television producer Shaun Cassidy and actor Patrick Cassidy. Cassidy has a younger half-brother named Beau, born in 1991, from her father\'s third marriage to Sue Shifrin.\n', '
After Cassidy\'s parents ended their relationship, she was raised by her mother and stepfather Richard Benedon. David Cassidy spoke of his absence from Katie\'s life, saying in February 2017: "I\'ve never had a relationship with her. I wasn\'t her father. I was her biological father but I didn\'t raise her. She has a completely different life. I\'m proud of her. She\'s very talented. It\'s hard for me to even accept how old she is now." In her youth, Cassidy was on the competitive cheerleader team the California Flyers. A resident of Bell Canyon, California, she attended Calabasas High School.\n', '