Modeling and acting Klum has been featured on the cover of French, German, Portuguese and Spanish
Vogue magazines, as well as
Elle,
InStyle,
Marie Claire,
Glamour and Russian ''
Harper's Bazaar magazines. She became widely known after appearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' and for her work with
Victoria's Secret as an "Angel". Klum hosted the 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009
Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows. In addition to working with well-known photographers on her first husband's
Sports Illustrated shoots, she was the object and subject of Joanne Gair body painting works in several editions from 1997 to 2010. She wrote the
foreword to Gair's book of body paint work,
Body Painting, Masterpieces. Other magazine's covers include
GQ,
Cosmopolitan,
Photo, Glamour, Stuff, Joy, Esquire, Max,
Men's Journal,
Time and
Shape. Klum's modeling work includes advertising campaigns for brands like
Pringle of Scotland,
Liz Claiborne and – alongside fellow German supermodels
Nadja Auermann,
Veruschka von Lehndorff and
Tatjana Patitz – for the New York jersey label Kathleen Madden. Beauty campaigns include makeup brands
Bobbi Brown and
Astor, as well as
Givenchy's
Amarige fragrance. She also appeared in special ad campaigns by designers like
Marc Jacobs (
Protect The Skin You′e In to raise awareness for skin cancer) and
Jean-Paul Gaultier (summer tote in collaboration with and to benefit
amfAR). Her runway appearances include numerous
Victoria's Secret Annual Fashion Shows, walking for various designers and brands of New York Fashion Week like
Zac Posen (2004),
Escada,
Vera Wang, Structure,
Victor Alfaro,
Imitation Of Christ as well as working the catwalk for
Philip Treacy at
Brown Thomas International Fashion Show in Dublin. As a photo model she worked for retail clothing brands such as
H & M,
Ann Taylor and
Peek & Cloppenburg and since 2007, she has been a celebrity spokesmodel for
Jordache. International tech, food and internet brands up to the automotive industry asked for Klum as their celebrity spokesperson and produced ad campaigns and TV commercials for
Braun epilizer,
McDonald's salad,
Dannon,
Carl's Jr./
Hardee's (
Jim Beam Bourbon Burger), the
Wix website building program and, together with then-husband
Seal for the
Volkswagen SUV
Tiguan. In addition to modeling, she has appeared in several TV shows, including
Spin City,
Sex and the City,
Yes, Dear, and
How I Met Your Mother. She had a role as an ill-tempered hair model in the movie
Blow Dry, played a giantess in the movie
Ella Enchanted and was cast as
Ursula Andress in
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. She had cameo appearances in the films
The Devil Wears Prada and
Perfect Stranger. Her other projects include dance and video games. She is featured in the 2003 video game
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, where she plays the villain Dr. Katya Nadanova. She has appeared in several music videos, including
Jamiroquai's video "
Love Foolosophy" from their album
A Funk Odyssey,
Kelis's "
Young, Fresh n' New", off her second 2001 album
Wanderland and, most recently, the second video for her then husband
Seal's song "Secret" off his 2010 album
Seal 6: Commitment. The latter video depicts the married couple sharing intimate moments while naked in bed; the concept was Klum's idea. In July 2007, having earned in the previous 16 months, Klum was named by
Forbes as third on the list of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels. Fashion Show in February 2008 In 2008,
Forbes estimated her income at , putting Klum in first place. For 2007,
Forbes estimated her income at . Klum is signed to
IMG Models in New York City. In 2008, Klum was a featured guest on an American
Volkswagen commercial, where she was interviewed by a black
Beetle. When she commented that German engineering is so sexy, she caused the Beetle to blush and turn red. She has been a part of several commercials for Volkswagen and McDonald's on German television. In November 2008, Klum appeared in two versions of a
Guitar Hero World Tour commercial, wherein she did a take on
Tom Cruise's iconic underwear dancing scene in
Risky Business. In both versions, she lip-synced to
Bob Seger's "
Old Time Rock and Roll" while dancing around the living room with the wireless guitar controller. In October 2009, Klum was the often-nude one-woman subject of
Heidilicious, a photo book by photographer
Rankin. Klum ventured into web-based videos, starring in "SPIKED HEEL: Supermodels Battle the Forces of Evil". The web-series starred model
Coco Rocha and was directed by fashion documentarian Doug Keeve. In the story, Klum aka 'The Kluminator,' and her stylish sidekick Coco "The Sassy Superhero" Rocha battle the evil Dr. Faux Pas who is plotting to destroy
Fashion Week. The heroines employ everything from blow-dryer guns to fist fights, to thwart Dr. Faux Pas' dastardly plans. The Kluminator and Girl Wonder avoid a chain of fashion disasters to neutralize a death ray that threatens to vaporize the community of fashionistas gathered in
Bryant Park. In 2010, Klum became the new face and creative advisor for European cosmetics brand Astor, for which she sets artistic direction and designs new products and fashion forward color collections. In October 2010, Klum parted ways with Victoria's Secret after 13 years of working with the brand. She provided a simple explanation in her official statement, stating: "All good things have to come to an end. I will always love Victoria and never tell her secret. It's been an absolute amazing time!" It was reported in May 2011 that Klum ranked second with estimated earnings of on
Forbes list of the ''World's Top-Earning Models
(2010–2011). Forbes'' noted that since ending her 13-year run as a Victoria's Secret Angel, Klum has become more of a businesswoman than a model. She partnered with
New Balance and
Amazon.com to launch a clothing line and signed a 20-episode deal to host a new show on
Lifetime, called
Seriously Funny Kids. Some noted fashion designers have long commented on Klum's limited role as a fashion model.
Karl Lagerfeld, for example, in 2009 agreed with German designer
Wolfgang Joop, who said after Klum had posed naked on the cover of the German edition of
GQ magazine, that she was "no runway model. She is simply too heavy and has too big a bust". Lagerfeld observed that neither he nor
Claudia Schiffer knew Klum, as she has never worked in Paris and was insignificant in the world of fashion, being "more bling bling and glamorous than current fashion."
Producing '' season three finalist
Laura Bennett interviews Klum and Seal at the
59th Emmy Awards. In December 2004, Klum became the host, judge and executive producer of the reality show
Project Runway on the U.S. cable television channel Bravo (airing on
Lifetime television beginning in 2009), in which fashion designers compete for the opportunity to show their line at
New York Fashion Week and receive money to launch their own fashion line. She received an
Emmy Award nomination for the show for each of the first four seasons. In 2008, Klum and
Project Runway received a
Peabody Award, the first time a reality show won the award. Klum was nominated for an Emmy in 2008 for "outstanding host of a reality or reality-competition show" for
Project Runway, the first year that category was recognized by the Emmys. On 7 September 2018, it was confirmed that Klum, along with
Tim Gunn would not be returning to
Project Runway for a 17th season on Bravo as they both signed a deal to helm another fashion competition show on
Amazon Prime Video. The series,
Making the Cut, premiered in March 2020 on Amazon Prime Video. The series final season premiered in August 2022. On 3 January 2025, it was announced Klum would return to host
Project Runway for the series' twenty-first season.
Design and other business ventures Klum designed clothing lines (one for men), featured in the German mail-order catalog "
Otto". She designed shoes for
Birkenstock, jewelry for Mouawad, a clothing line for Jordache, and swimsuits – featured in the 2002
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was one of the designers of the Victoria's Secret lingerie line "The Body", named after the nickname she received following her first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show appearance. Her Mouawad jewelry collection debuted on the cable shopping network
QVC on 14 September 2006, and 14 of the 16 styles sold out after 36 minutes. Klum's clothing line for Jordache launched on 30 April 2008. Klum has two fragrances, called "Heidi Klum" and "Me". She designed makeup for Victoria's Secret as part of their "Very Sexy Makeup Collection", titled "The Heidi Klum Collection". The first run debuted in Fall 2007. A second run was released in Fall 2008. Klum was involved in the development of a namesake rose, the
Heidi Klum rose, which is available in Germany. For the 2008
US Open, Klum designed a screen print T-shirt which was sold at the US Open shop. It featured childlike butterfly pictures. Proceeds will go to a non-profit organization maintaining the park that is home to the US Open. Klum became
Barbie's official ambassador for the doll's 50th anniversary in 2009, even having made a Barbie doll out of herself. On 1 April that same year, she appeared on the
CBS television special,
I Get That a Lot, as a girl working at a pizza shop. That same year, she appeared in advertising for Dannon's Light & Fit brand. Klum and husband Seal announced in June 2010 that they would be making a reality series on
Lifetime titled ''Love's Divine'' (after Seal's song of the same name.) In January 2010, Klum launched two lines of maternity wear: Lavish by Heidi Klum for A Pea in the Pod, and Loved by Heidi Klum for Motherhood Maternity. Klum stated, "I experienced fashion challenges during my four pregnancies and combined my knowledge of what works in terms of style, comfort and practicality to create these lines". In October 2010, Klum with
New Balance, HKNB, launched a line of active woman's wear fashion clothing on Amazon.com. In January 2015, Klum launched her lingerie line "Heidi Klum Intimates" in Melbourne, Australia. She launched her Intimates collection in collaboration with
Bendon in March 2015. Klum is a "Real Celebrity" on the website
Stardoll, where she has a line of virtual jewelry, and a virtual clothing line called Jordache. Users can go to Klum's
suite and interact with her by doing interviews, sending pending requests or dressing Klum's doll. In 2015, she appeared in Australian singer
Sia's music video "
Fire Meet Gasoline", to promote her lingerie line. In 2017, Klum released the fashion line Heidi & the city for exclusive sale in Lidl Grocery Stores. It was first presented with a show at the New York Fashion Week.
''America's Got Talent'' In March 2013, it was announced that Klum would be joining ''
America's Got Talent, replacing Sharon Osbourne as a judge. She judged seasons 8 through 13 and the first season of America's Got Talent: The Champions'' before her departure was announced in February 2019. In February 2020, it was announced she would be back on the panel for the fifteenth season of the main series. In February 2025, it was announced Klum would again be departing the judging panel.
Other work Klum is an artist, and she had several of her paintings appear in various art magazines in the US. On 27 September 2002, she dedicated a sculpture she painted called "Dog with Butterflies" to commemorate the role of rescue dogs in the aftermath of
11 September. In 2004, Klum co-authored ''Heidi Klum's Body of Knowledge
with Elle'' magazine editor Alexandra Postman. The book gives Klum's biography as well as her advice on becoming successful. Prior to that, Klum had been an occasional guest columnist for the German television network
RTL's website. She wrote an essay for the German newspaper
Die Zeit. In November 2006, Klum released her debut single "
Wonderland", written for a series of television advertisements for the German retailer
Douglas. Proceeds were given to a children's charity in her hometown of
Bergisch Gladbach. She contributed to her husband Seal's 2007 album
System, singing the duet "Wedding Day", a song that Seal wrote for their wedding. Klum co-hosted the
2026 FIFA World Cup draw at
the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in December 2025. ==Personal life==