At a young age, Waters read an article about the main event of WrestleMania VI and believed the Ultimate Warrior's mysterious origins to be true. When she came to England at 18, she was under the impression that wrestling companies only existed in America until she saw a local show advertised in London. However, the show's style was catered more towards British wrestling than Sports entertainment and Waters once again retired thoughts of becoming involved in wrestling until she saw Alex Shane and Dominator on The Jerry Springer Show with their more outrageous gimmicks and became interested again, seeking out National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) UK Hammerlock and being trained by Jon Ryan. Originally, Waters used the name Kat but after Stacy Carter began using this name in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), she changed her name to Nikita after the television program La Femme Nikita. After being trained Waters made her debut in February 2000 on ITV Meridian's TransAtlantic Wrestling Challenge, a tournament between British and American Wrestlers of the NWA where she won the Women's Championship.
As well as film, Waters has made some small television appearances. She appeared full nude on stage on NAKED COMEDY at the CAP THEATER. She also appeared on the pilot showcase programme Comedy Lab in 2002. Her role saw her performing wrestling moves during Karma Chameleon, as sung by the then relatively unknown Russell Brand. In 2003, she appeared on an episode of Fort Boyard under her ringname Nikita. As she was appearing in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance at the time, her teammates included Doug Williams, Paul Burchill and World Association of Wrestling's Sweet Saraya. Waters favorite's are Wrestlers Jonny Storm, Darren Burridge, Alex Shane, television shows La Femme Nikita and Smallville, Waters also cited that "I am totally obsessed with Lex Luthor". Waters has studied Film and Drama for three years.
With her rivalry against The Family over, Nikita began a new storyline where an anonymous bounty had been put on her head. As she took on all comers trying to claim the bounty, Nikita went undefeated in the rest of 2003 and 2004 including her favourite match against Darren Burridge in March 2004. By June 2004 she had faced and defeated most of the company's major Wrestlers which led to the return of the World Association of Wrestling's veteran Sweet Saraya who revealed the bounty had been placed on Nikita by the jealous ring announcer, Jane Childs. Saraya claimed the bounty with a non-sanctioned assault on Nikita, delivering a tombstone piledriver at the Carpe Diem event putting Nikita out of action for months and off the FWA roster for over a year. She returned in October 2005 in a losing effort against Simply Luscious. She was victorious on the next show in a six-man tag team match, with her and Luscious on opposing teams. Though Nikita would not wrestle after this point, she realigned herself with former tag team partner Hade Vansen and at New Frontiers 2006 helped him win the FWA British Heavyweight Championship in a five-way event featuring Joe Legend, Alex Shane, Jody Fleisch, and Jonny Storm. She remained at Vansen's side until June's FWA Vs All Star Wrestling event year when she announced her retirement from the company as she had been scouted for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) for training.
In 2005, she flew to France to take part in the Fighting Spirit Federation's subordinate promotion Queens of Chaos. In an exhibition match she aligned herself with German Wrestler Sick (Dejan Stegar) in a losing tag team effort to Kid Kash and Trinity. However, in the Queen of the Rumble match with the World Queen of Chaos Championship on the line she entered second and became the winner, besting competition from England, Ireland, America, and Japan. She defended the title all over France and in Switzerland until almost exactly a year later when, after defending the belt against Skye in a two out of three falls match, she announced she had exclusively signed with WWE and had to relinquish the title undefeated. During her time on the Continent she made a guest appearance in German Stampede Wrestling (GSW), losing to Wesna with Nora Greenwald as Referee International Impact III. She returned to GSW for Night In Motion VII: A Few Good Men in July 2006 to take on the promotion's other premiere female Wrestler and namesake, Blue Nikita. The Greek Nikita won the match and since then Waters has used the name Katie Lea instead.
After this match, on 6 December, Phoenix made her way to the ring and announced herself as still being champion with her own belt. Troubleshooter, or authority figure, Danny Basham announced that as ODB had created the belt for herself neither belt was official but promised to settle the matter. At 13 December OVW television tapings he announced that the dispute would be settled in OVW's first ladies ladder match and the winner would be officially recognised as Women's Champion. In the last television episode of 2006, Lea climbed to the top of the ladder to retrieve both belts and become the undisputed OVW Women's Champion as the year closed. Their feud closed on the first episode of 2007 when Basham went to present the OVW Women's Championship, giving it official recognition in the company, only for Phoenix to snatch it from him. However this proved to be a show of sportsmanship as Phoenix presented the belt to Lea herself in recognition of their competitive ladder match.
Milena Roucka then won the belt from ODB in a six-way dark match, in which Lea participated. After defeating Roucka twice in non-title matches In late October, Roucka attacked Lea in a game of duck, duck, goose and subsequently defeated Lea in a Kiss My Foot match in December to retain the title. In 2008, Lea began receiving presents from a secret admirer including a telegram, flowers, and an outfit. By late February, Paul Burchill revealed himself to be her admirer and helped her win the Women's Championship for the second time. She lost the title a week later to Josie in a dark match because WWE had severed ties with OVW and called her up to their programming.
From August towards the end of 2009, Paul became embroiled in a rivalry with backstage interviewer Gregory Helms, over whether he was also in-ring performer The Hurricane. They agreed to settle the matter in a match on 17 November's ECW, which saw Hurricane's mask put up against Burchill's career on the ECW brand. Despite many attempts, Paul could not secure the pin and subsequently lost the match, resulting in both he and Katie Lea leaving ECW. The following week on ECW, Katie Lea and Paul, now sporting masks and calling themselves The Beautiful Nightmare and The Ripper, respectively, appeared in a backstage segment with General Manager Tiffany and asked for a contract, which Tiffany said they would receive if The Ripper could defeat The Hurricane the next week on ECW. However, The Ripper was unmasked by Hurricane and subsequently defeated in their match, resulting in Katie and Burchill remaining off ECW.
After her release from WWE Waters briefly returned to the independent circuit, wrestling under the ring name Kat La Noir. On 23 August 2010 Waters wrestled in a tryout dark match for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling at the tapings of their Impact television show, losing to Madison Rayne; it was reported on 15 October that TNA had signed her to a contract. Waters debuted on 21 October episode of Impact!, using the name Winter, admiring Angelina Love during a backstage segment in a somewhat supernatural appearance. After weeks of appearing only in front of Love, Winter was seen for the first time by other Knockouts on 25 November episode of Impact! when she saved Love during a large backstage brawl. On 9 December at the tapings of 23 December episode of Impact! Winter replaced an injured Velvet Sky and teamed with Love in a tournament final, where they defeated Madison Rayne and Tara to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship. On the edition of 13 January of Impact!, Angelina and Winter successfully defend their championship against Madison Rayne and Tara after Winter knocked out Tara with a dragon sleeper. On the edition of 27 January of Impact!, Winter brawled with Velvet Sky, who claimed she was trying to break up The Beautiful People. On the edition of 3 March of Impact!, Cookie and Robbie E aligned themselves with former Jersey Shore cast member Angelina Pivarnick, with whom they bonded through their mutual dislike of Jenni "JWoww" Farley, whom Pivarnick proceeded to challenge to a match (whom was replaced by Winter). The following week, Winter, Angelina Love and Velvet Sky defeated Cookie, Angelina Pivarnick and Sarita in a six knockout tag team match. Winter and Love lost the Knockouts Tag Team Championship to Mexican America (Sarita and Rosita) on 13 March at Victory Road, after an interference by Velvet Sky backfired. On the following episode of Impact!, Winter and Angelina Love teamed up with Matt Morgan where they defeated Mexican America (Rosita, Sarita, Hernandez) in a six-person street fight, After the match, the "fan", who had interfered in Morgan's match at Victory Road, once again entered the ring and attacked Morgan.
On 14 May 2011 at the FWE Meltdown pay-per-view, Waters made her debut for Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE), defeating Rosita. At the FWE Empire City Showdown pay-per-view, on 20 September 2011, Winter defeated Rosita with Christy Hemme as the special guest Referee. At the FWE Fallout pay-per-view, on 15 November 2011, Winter defeated Rosita with Christy Hemme as the special guest Referee. At the FWE Haastility pay-per-view, on 15 December 2011, Winter defeated Jackie Haas. Then, at FWE No Limits, Winter defeated Brooke Tessmacher in the first round, before losing to Maria Kanellis, after the interference from TnT (Tara and Brooke Tessmacher), in a tournament to determinate the first ever FWE Women's Champion. Month later, on 24 March, Waters defeated Maria and fellow TNA Knockout Rosita in a three–way match to win the FWE Women's Championship for the first time. On 28 April, Waters defeated Melina with Lita as the special guest Referee to retain the FWE Women's Championship. Later Maria challenged Winter to a rematch and Winter accepted On 28 July 2012 episode of FWE Wrestling, Winter dropped the FWE Women's Championship back to Maria Kanellis, making Maria a two-time champion. On 4 October 2012 at the Back 2 Brooklyn pay-per-view, Waters, under the name Katarina Leigh, teamed up with Maria in losing effort to The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) in a tag team match. After the match ended, Waters was attacked by the evil Ivelisse Velez, who was making her FWE debut.
Waters was born and raised in West Germany (which later became Germany after reunification) before relocating to England to attend university. Waters graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with honours in film and drama. She is fluent in both languages. As well as wrestling, Waters had a small career in film, directing the British independent film Welcome To Hell and acting in Utopian Pictures' Tough Justice as Tara Hunt and as "Stripper #1" in TVyouno.com film 24 Hours in Las Vegas, Zoe in Go Green, Valerie in Bad Pixel and as the Serpent Queen in the 2012 film Amanda and the Guardian, which was never released. Waters also appears, along with Shelly Martinez, in the music video for "Miss Outta Control" by Electrolightz. Her biggest influence in the wrestling world is Kevin Nash.
In October 2016, Leigh wrestled for What Culture Pro Wrestling in the UK, unsuccessfully challenging for the WCPW Women's Championship.
