Jessica Marie Alba (born on April 28, 1981 in Pomona, California)^[1][2] is an American actress. When she was 13 years old, she got her first acting job. It was in the movie Camp Nowhere. She became famous when acting in the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002). Alba later acted in several movies, such as Honey (2003), Sin City (2005), and Good Luck Chuck (2007).^[3][4]

She has been listed in the "Hot 100" section of Maxim magazine every year from 2003 to 2007,^{[5][6][7][8][9]} and was voted "Sexiest Woman in the World" by FHM in 2007.^[10] In March 2007, a picture of her was used on the cover of Playboy. Playboy did not ask her if they could use the picture or tell her they were going to use it. This caused a lawsuit that was later dropped.^[11] Alba has won several awards for her acting. These awards include the "Choice Actress" award at the Teen Choice Award and a Saturn Award. Both of these awards were for her acting in the series Dark Angel.^[12]

Early life

Alba was born in Pomona, California on 28 April, 1981. Her mother, Catherine, is of Danish and French Canadian ancestry and her father, Mark, is Mexican American and Venezuelan ancestry.^[13][14] She has a younger brother named Joshua. Alba's father was in the Air Force and his career caused them to live in many different places. They lived in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas before going back to California when she was nine years old.^[15] She grew up in Pico Rivera.

When she was young, Alba was ill many times. She had a collapsed lung twice, had pneumonia four or five times each year and had problems with her appendix and tonsils. She was in hospitals for much of her childhood. This meant Alba did not spend much time with other children.^[16] Alba has also said that she had obsessive-compulsive disorder when she was a child.^[17][18] The disorder affected her much less when her family moved to California. She graduated from high school when she was 16 years old.^[19] After high school, she went to the Atlantic Theater Company.^[20]

Career

Alba wanted to act since she was five. She took her first acting class at age twelve. An acting agent signed her nine months later.^[15][21] Her first movie work was a small role in the 1994 movie Camp Nowhere. At first, she was only hired for two weeks but ended up working for two months because another actress dropped out.^[22]

Alba starred in two national television commercials when she was a child. One of these was for Nintendo and the other was for J.C. Penney. She played Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack.^[15] Alba was then Maya in the television series Flipper.^[15][22] Her mother was a lifeguard and had taught Jessica to swim before she could walk. She is a certified scuba diver.^[15][23]

In 1998, she acted in Brooklyn South, in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and in an episode of The Love Boat: The Next Wave.^[22] After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company.^[20][24]

She became more famous in Hollywood in 1999 after acting in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the main female character in the 1999 comedy-horror movie Idle Hands.^[3] She was chosen from a group of 1,200 actresses for the role of the genetically-engineered soldier, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons from 2000 until 2002. Alba was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work on that series.^[3][25] When she trained to be in Dark Angel, Alba had to exercise very much and she starved herself. She said "A lot of girls have eating disorders and I did too. I got obsessed with it." She also had obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks. She said she has been cooking for herself since the age of twelve so she would not become as fat as her family members.^[26]

Some of Alba's most famous movie roles are a dancer in Sin City and as Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four. She also acted in Into the Blue in 2005 and Good Luck Chuck a few years later.^[27] In 2008, Alba played her first horror-movie role in The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original.^[14] In February, she hosted an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's ceremony.^[28] Later in the year, she starred in The Love Guru.

Public image

In 2007, Maxim Magazine listed Alba as number 2 in their "Top 100", after Lindsay Lohan.^[9] Both GQ and InStyle had her picture on their June covers.^[29][30] In May, after eight million votes, FHM (UK and US editions) named Alba the winner as "2007’s Sexiest Woman in the World".^[10] She received the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress and Saturn Award for Best Actress (TV) for her role in Dark Angel. In 2006, she received an MTV Movie Award for "Sexiest Performance" for Sin City.^[9][31]

Some people have said Alba's acting was bad. She was nominated for a 2007 Razzie Award for Worst Actress for her work in Awake, Good Luck Chuck, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.^[32]

On the cover of the March 2006 issue, Playboy magazine named Alba among its 25 Sexiest Celebrities and the "Sex Star of the Year". She took Playboy to court for using a picture of her without her permission. However, she later dropped the lawsuit when she got a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner. He agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba supports.^[11]

Personal life

[[File:|right|150px|thumb|Alba at the premiere for The Eye in 2008.]]

Alba was raised as a Roman Catholic.^[33] When she was a teenager she became a born-again Christian.^[34] However, she left the church after four years because she believed that she was being judged by the way she looked. She has said that she still believes in God even though she is not a member of the church.^[35] Alba has not performed naked. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the movie's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. She said no to the offer saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety".^[36]

While filming Dark Angel, Alba began a romance with another member of the cast, Michael Weatherly. This caused controversy because he was 12 years older than her.^[37] He asked her to marry him on her twentieth birthday but she said no.^[14] They eventually broke up after a four-year relationship.^[38] When talking about children, she said, "I'm really girly when it comes to kids. I've been surrounded by kids my whole life because I'm the oldest of 15 cousins—I've been changing diapers since I was six. I want to have a couple, for sure".^[39]

Alba married Cash Warren on May 19, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.^[40][41] She met him while making Fantastic Four in 2004.^[42][43] On June 7, 2008, Alba gave birth to a baby girl called Honor Marie Warren.^[44] She also does some charity work,^[45] including clothes charity Clothes Off Our Back and women's charity Step Up Women's Network.^[46][47]

Movies

The following table shows all the movies Alba has been in, the role she played and when the movie was released.^[4]

Television

References