Phoebe Belle Katz was born on July 16th, 1963 in New York City, into a family with Filipino and Russian Jewish roots. She attended Professional Children's School in New York City as well as the School of American Ballet, until a knee injury in 1977 forced her to quit. In the late '70s, Cates had moderate success as a teen model, doing commercials and appearing in magazines like Seventeen. She scored her first movie role in a Blue Lagoon knockoff called Paradise (1982). She played Sarah, a young aristocrat stranded with a young man in a desert oasis, who predictably falls in love with the man. But Paradise didn't torpedo Phoebe's career.

Also in 1982, she appeared in the hit teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which she followed up with Private School the next year. In 1984, she played the love interest in the Steven Spielberg production Gremlins, directed by Joe Dante. She wrapped up the '80s with Date with an Angel (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), Shag (1989), Heart of Dixie (1989), and the popular Gremlins sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).

In 1984, she made her New York debut in Joseph Papp's off-Broadway production of The Nest of the Wood Grouse. Phoebe followed that up with David Hwang's Rich Relations at the Second Stage and a one-act festival at the Manhattan Punchline. Later highlights included the role of Nina in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Chekhov's The Sea Gull, Juliet in Chicago's Goodman Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, and an appearance in Much Ado About Nothing at New York's Public Theatre.

In 1989, Phoebe married Oscar-winning actor Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), and had a cameo appearance in his 1990 film, I Love You to Death. She was soon pregnant with a son, Owen, who was born October 14th, 1991. A daughter, Greta, was born on March 21st, 1994. Not surprisingly, Phoebe's acting output slowed: After starring in Princess Caraboo (1994) with Kline, she went into semi-retirement from films to raise their children. However, she returned in 2001 with a role in The Anniversary Party.