This story appears in the November 2025 issue of Utah Business. Subscribe.
Tucked into the low rolling hills of Summit County is a sacred piece of property with gardens, orchards, lanes of trees and a barn for riding horses. It’s where Katherine Heigl found her heaven on Earth after decades of Hollywood hustle.
It’s also the place her husband, three children, mother, seven dogs, two cats, two guinea pigs, two goats, one pig, a pasture of rescue horses and a coop of chickens call home. Heigl says her mother, Nancy, thinks it’s the Disneyland of ranch life.
Unless you’re a Bruce Springsteen fan, it isn’t immediately clear why Heigl would name such a utopian place “Badlands Ranch” when it has been nothing but a good thing for her and her family.
Springsteen’s 1978 hit song, “Badlands,” tells a story about making dreams real by persevering through fear and seizing the moment. Because if you “keep pushin’ … these badlands start treating us good.”
“It’s the idea that, [after] all the work we put in, all the sacrifice, all the compromise, all the struggle and the fear, is the dream going to happen? Are we going to be OK? Am I going to have to wait tables? What’s going to happen next?” Heigl says. “The philosophy behind the ranch is the dream we held onto all those years.”
Though Heigl has called Utah and Badlands Ranch home for roughly 13 years, she hadn’t considered it her permanent, year-round home until four years ago. Now, it’s a place she never wants to leave.
Knowing how much the ranch means to her, it’s only fitting that her first big business venture would share the same name.
Cue the scene: Entrepreneurship
About 10 years ago, Heigl began dreaming of owning a company that was hers — a place where she could put her heart into products she was passionate about. But with so many interests and dreams, she wasn’t sure what that would look like.
“Joanna Gaines is a significant inspiration for me,” Heigl says, divulging that she and her husband are even applying the Gaines’s “Fixer Upper” knowledge to an old blue Victorian. “She took what was authentically her passion … and turned it into her own multi-armed business. And I thought, there are so many things I’m passionate about and interested in … I just wasn’t sure which one to pursue.”
Heigl wondered, what product is at the intersection of interests as wide-ranging as animal rights, natural remedies, organic products and art? Then, a company that specializes in building authentically aligned brands in the health, beauty and pet care industries reached out to Heigl with an idea: premium, nutritious pet food and supplements.
Heigl was skeptical at first. Pet food aisles were already dizzying with options. In 2024, Royal Canin, a global brand of pet food for dogs and cats, released a study that stated 62 percent of puppy owners feel overwhelmed by pet food choices and confused about what ingredients to prioritize. Would adding more products to the market further the confusion?
Because Heigl was intimately familiar with how frustrating it was to find the right products for her pets’ specific needs, she thought maybe there was a real chance to make a difference. Most of Heigl’s dogs are rescues who have suffered from stress, anxiety or fear, so the opportunity to strengthen them — physically, mentally and emotionally — through top-tier nutrition was exciting.
After vetting the opportunity thoroughly, Heigl and the other stakeholders agreed the idea was worth pursuing.
“We were talking about names, and they asked, ‘Can we name it after your ranch?’ And I said, ‘Well, that was my dream when I first wanted a brand that was my own,’” Heigl says. “So it’s kind of fun that it was actualized.”
Fetching success
Heigl worked in tandem with her partners to create the product formulations, branding, marketing and a corporate giving program, launching Badlands Ranch in August 2022. Since then, they’ve added new food flavors, dog treats, dog supplements and, most recently, cat food.
“[My partners] put up the initial money to develop, market and manufacture,” Heigl says. “I get a percentage of that because it’s my name, my design, and includes a lot of my input. So, it’s sort of like having an investor. The better the brand does, the better we all do. It’s been very win-win, which I love.”
Thanks to Heigl’s obvious passion for animals and commitment to delivering high-quality products, the brand has sold more than 9 million products in the last few years. Badlands Ranch is currently Heigl’s primary source of income and is also a major contributor to her and her mother’s nonprofit organization, The Jason Heigl Foundation, which is dedicated to ending animal cruelty worldwide.
Looking at the brand’s instant success, it may seem like Badlands Ranch avoided most of the pitfalls new businesses experience. However, the Badlands team was under a lot of pressure in the beginning to keep up with demand and fill subscriptions. The stress eased when the team’s new factory opened. Additionally, the product texture needed a few adjustments to improve its mouthfeel.
“You never know what’s really going to work,” says Somina Park, brand director for Badlands Ranch. “Tons of celebrities have brands. I think the success is … [Katherine’s] authenticity. That was always priority No. 1. She’s also an artist and was very involved in every aspect. It wasn’t like a celebrity slapping their name on something.”
Looking at Badlands Ranch lifestyle and product photography, that authenticity shines through. Heigl insists that all creative work was to be done on site, so she could be in her own kitchen versus on a set, for example. It took some work, though, to get to a place where she felt confident in the way she showed up in her brand.
“It took me a minute to hone in,” she says. “You have to look at the depths of you. What does your gut say? What are your instincts? What is your style and your personality? … It’s not the girl on the red carpet, I’ll tell you that. It’s the girl in the flannel and jeans on the ranch.”
Kitchen alchemy
Amid the whirlwind of sales and success, Heigl never lost sight of what started it all — her obsession with what goes in the bowl.
Self-proclaimed to be a little “witchy,” it’s not uncommon to find Heigl concocting tinctures and other nutritious potions in her kitchen. The hobby has helped her family stay healthy, but also ignited a curiosity about what beneficial ingredients like flax seeds, chia seeds, chamomile, broccoli, sweet potato, lemon balm and lion’s mane mushroom, to name a few, could do for dogs.
In chats with animal nutrition experts, Heigl discovered these ingredients could help dogs with brain function, skin health, digestive issues and more. Including whole and natural ingredients in product formulas was an epiphany, Heigl says — one that has set Badlands Ranch apart from other brands and made its recipes truly premium.
“I thought a lot about what, holistically and supplementally, we could put in … and what I wanted to focus on,” Heigl says. “Most important for me was skin and coat, digestion and joint health.” She felt passionately about the formula’s protein components comprising mostly organ meat, because that’s what pets would be eating if they were out in the wild.
Badlands Ranch products are also unique because they are air-dried, include zero fillers and prioritize humanely-sourced and organically grown ingredients. Plus, about 90 percent of the ingredients are sourced in the U.S., Heigl says, and the products themselves are manufactured onshore.
A legacy of love
For Heigl, protecting animals through nourishment is only one side of the story. The other is saving them from abuse or even death.
In a world that can feel divided and complicated, Heigl finds clarity in her animals’ love — a love that asks for nothing and gives everything. It’s that devotion that inspires her to give her energy to all companion animals through both Badlands Ranch and The Jason Heigl Foundation.
Every year, Heigl puts $1 million of her revenue from Badlands Ranch into the foundation, which is named after Heigl’s late brother who passed away in 1986 from injuries sustained in a car accident. Jason loved animals and his legacy lives on as the foundation fights to stop the euthenization of adoptable cats and dogs.
While $1 million can help hundreds of animals, it’s a drop in the bucket, Heigl says. Eliminating the senseless killing of cats and dogs is a problem even multi-billionaires likely wouldn’t be able to solve, which is heartbreaking to Heigl and her mother.
“In a world that is so emotionally wrought … these animals give [love] without hesitation, without limitation — unconditionally,” Heigl says. “It’s why I believe they should be protected. Because to neglect, abandon or abuse a creature with that level of innocence is … in my worldview, evil.”
With this perspective, Heigl charges ahead, focusing on growing three major programs: the Namaste Spay & Neuter Initiative, which focuses on pop-up clinics in areas that have a more difficult time affording either procedure; the Save a Life program, which rescues, rehabilitates, trains and medically treats dogs before finding them loving families; and grants and advocacy, supporting other nonprofits across the U.S. whose goals align with the foundation’s and speak up about animal policies.
At the end of the day, it’s about protecting the voiceless, Heigl says.
“I have one dog who you can’t help but laugh at when you look at her,” Heigl says. “She’s a fierce little thing and really gets into it with her sister. In the midst of all that’s going on in our world right now, I’ll look at the dog and just start laughing. It’s a blessing to have that moment of lightheartedness.”
The roles she was born to play
In rural Utah, with its seasonal beauty and slower pace, Heigl has found the ideal backdrop to cultivate her creativity, curiosity and commitment to helping animals and people live healthier, more joyful lives. At 46, Heigl has traded late-night Los Angeles dinner parties for mornings that begin with a slow cup of coffee, her dogs at her feet and quiet moments to paint, create and savor her family.
“[Utah] is a sacred place to me,” she says. “The peace I have found here, and the privacy and kindness of the community around me, it’s just been such a blessing. I hope this is where we spend the rest of our days.”
The skills that made her a household name on-screen now inform her work off-screen. “Being on a set taught me how to bring a vision to life with a team,” Heigl says. “Everyone has their role, their strengths, their weaknesses. If you respect that and work together, the outcome is always stronger. I use that approach in business and in family life. It’s invaluable.”
Heigl’s Hollywood experience also honed her ability to see the big picture, plan strategically and execute with precision. “I love putting the puzzle pieces together, understanding what’s needed to make a project succeed and assembling the right team to do it,” she says. “That’s partly why I wanted to start my own businesses — to create something meaningful, to grow it thoughtfully and to bring the right people along for the journey.”
