KaDee’s birthname is Katherine Dee; her parents combined the K in Katherine with her father’s name to make KaDee. When she was a child, Strickland watched the Woody Allen film Annie Hall (1975) and was, as she put it, “wanting to be in that place, and being completely taken with the energy of those people. During her childhood, she was well known locally as a member of the Strickland family and for her extracurricular activities and achievements (she was the Homecoming Queen in elementary, middle and high school, the student council president and a cheerleader). Strickland took a part-time waitressing job at a local restaurant and interned at a casting agency, where one of her tasks was to read lines at auditions for small roles in local film and television projects; the job landed Strickland her first film role. The same year, she served as an extra in the independent film The Sterling Chase, and appeared in a small role opposite Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie in James Mangold’s drama Girl, Interrupted. The film was greeted with lukewarm reviews and dismal ticket sales, though Strickland later referred to it as her “big break”. Though its box office revenue tripled its production budget, Anacondas did not perform as well as its predecessor, and most reviews panned the project.

Well known in her hometown of Patterson, Georgia, when she was a child, she began acting during high school. She has spoken of an affinity for her strong female characters and a desire to avoid sexualizing or sensationalizing her self-presentation as a woman. She was raised in Patterson, Georgia, which she said is a “one-stoplight town”, and she had a job picking tobacco on a local farm for eight years.

I felt like I fit my skin, I knew what I was here to do”, Strickland said. Strickland took a part-time waitressing job at a local restaurant and interned at a casting agency, where one of her tasks was to read lines at auditions for small roles in local film and television projects; the job landed Strickland her first film role. Strickland’s career began in 1999 with a brief appearance as a mourner at a funeral after-party in The Sixth Sense, a two-line part that she received after impressing writer-director M. Night Shyamalan when reading lines for those auditioning for the film. According to Strickland, her role in the film helped her learn to temper her fake crying.