Beyonce Knowles

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (pronounced /biːɒnˈseɪ/) (born September 4, 1981) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, music video director, actress, dancer, and fashion designer. Knowles rose to fame as the creative force and lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child.

After a series of commercially successful releases with the group, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, in June 2003. The album became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year, topping the albums charts in the U.S. and the UK. It also spawned the number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy" and earned Knowles five Grammy Awards in a single night in 2004. Knowles' second album B'Day was released worldwide on September 4, 2006, coinciding with her twenty-fifth birthday. The album spawned the UK number-one singles "Déjà Vu" and "Beautiful Liar", as well as the worldwide hit "Irreplaceable", which reached number one in several countries. It also earned Knowles her seventh solo Grammy Award (she has won ten in total).

Knowles also achieved success in the film industry, starring in such Hollywood films as the 2006 comedy The Pink Panther and the 2006 musical film Dreamgirls, which earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations—one for acting and other for the song "Listen".


Knowles is the elder of two daughters born to Mathew and Tina Knowles in Houston, Texas. Her parents decided on her first name as a tribute to her mother's maiden name. Her maternal grandparents, Lumis Beyincé and Agnéz Deréon (a seamstress), were French-speaking Louisiana Creoles. She is the older sister of Solange Knowles, cousin to Angela Beyincé (her personal assistant and song co-writer), and aunt to Solange's son Daniel Julez Smith, Jr. By age seven, she was attending dance school and was a soloist in her church's choir. Her dance instructor took an interest in Knowles and took her star student to various competitions. Knowles went on to win over thirty local singing and dancing competitions.

As a teenager, Knowles attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, where she showed her musical talents. She later went to Alief Elsik High School, in the Alief neighborhood of Houston.

Christina Aguilera

Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American pop singer, songwriter and record producer. She was signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection" for the film Mulan. She came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera (1999), which was a critical and commercial success. A Latin pop album Mi Reflejo, and a Christmas album, My Kind of Christmas, followed during this period and also sold very well.

Aguilera took creative control over her second studio album Stripped (2002), which received mixed reviews and produced substantial sales. The overtly sexual image Aguilera displayed during the promotion of the album became the subject of intense criticism and ridicule.

Aguilera's third studio album Back to Basics (2006) included elements of soul, jazz, and blues music. Mainly produced by DJ Premier, it was released to strong sales and positive critical reception. Aguilera's work has earned her numerous awards including five Grammy Awards amongst sixteen nominations. She has sold 30 million albums worldwide.

Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York, to Fausto Wagner Xavier Aguilera, a Sergeant in the U.S. Army at the time and Shelly Loraine Fidler, a Spanish teacher. Aguilera's father was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, while her mother is of Irish descent (her maternal grandmother emigrated from County Clare). Her father, Fausto, was stationed at Earnest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada and Japan. Aguilera lived with her father and mother until she was seven years old. When Aguilera's parents divorced, her mother took her, and her younger sister Rachel, to her grandmother's home in Wexford, Pennsylvania, a blue-collar suburb outside of Pittsburgh. According to both Aguilera and Fidler, her father was very controlling, as well as physically and emotionally abusive. She later wrote about her difficult childhood in the songs "I'm OK" in Stripped, and "Oh Mother" in Back to Basics. Although her father has written to Aguilera, she has ruled out any chance to reunite with him. Since then, Fidler has married a paramedic named Jim Kearns, and has changed her name to Shelly Kearns.

As a child, Aguilera aspired to be a singer. Her musical influences included Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, and Madonna. She also cites the musical The Sound of Music as an early inspiration for singing and performing. As a child, she was known locally as "the little girl with the big voice", singing in local talent shows and competitions.

According to VH1's Driven, whenever competitors learned they would be up against her in any given week, they would immediately withdraw, prompting insiders to claim it was "like sending a lamb to the slaughter." Her peers soon became jealous of her and would frequently subject her to ridicule, ostracism, and, in one gym class, attempted assault. Acts of vandalism around her house included the slashing of the tires on the family car. Eventually, the family relocated to another suburb in the Pittsburgh area and took to secrecy about Aguilera's talent lest another backlash occur.

On March 15, 1990, she appeared on Star Search singing Etta James' "A Sunday Kind of Love", but lost the competition. Soon after losing on Star Search, she returned home and appeared on Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV's Wake Up with Larry Richert to perform the same song. People remarked that the then ten-year-old "sounded 20".

Throughout her youth in Pittsburgh, Aguilera sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Steelers football and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games. Her first major role in entertainment came in 1993 when she joined the Disney Channel's variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club. Her co-stars included Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Rhona Bennett (who later became a member of En Vogue), Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Keri Russell. According to the documentary Driven, Aguilera's Mickey Mouse Club co-stars called her "the Diva". One of her most notable performances was of Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing". When the show was canceled 1994, Aguilera began recording demos in an attempt to get signed to a record label.

At the age of fourteen, Aguilera recorded her first song, "All I Wanna Do", a hit duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi. In 1997, she represented the United States at the "Golden Stag" International Festival with a two-song set which included Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross.

In 2000, Aguilera was rumored to have dated MTV VJ Carson Daly. The relationship was the subject of much discussion after the release of Eminem's song "The Real Slim Shady", in which Eminem satirically suggests that Aguilera had performed fellatio on both Daly and Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit, and had given the rapper himself a venereal disease. Aguilera called the song's innuendo "disgusting" and "untrue." Aguilera and Eminem reportedly resolved the issue three years later backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards.

She dated Puerto Rican-born dancer Jorge Santos for two years until the relationship ended in September 2001.

In early 2002, Aguilera began dating music marketing executive Jordan Bratman. Their engagement was announced in February 2005, and they married on November 19, 2005, in the Napa Valley. The couple celebrated their one year anniversary in Dublin, Ireland where she was on tour at the time. E! News reported that they are expecting their first child together.

In March 2007, producer Dallas Austin alleged in a video interview with SOHO Magazine that Aguilera had sex with him and several of his friends. He also alleged details about Bratman, who Dallas referred to as his old best friend. Several days following the incident, Dallas issued an apology stating, "My statement about Christina Aguilera was a reaction to an incident I care not to discuss in any forum - I do owe an apology to Christina." Aguilera's rep responded with, "She's not commenting on such ridiculous statements, and we are consulting a lawyer to explore her options."

On September 9, 2007, Paris Hilton confirmed that the singer is currently pregnant, saying, "Congratulations to the most beautiful pregnant woman in the world." Aguilera, however, had not yet publicly confirmed her pregnancy at the time, though she was spotted picking out items for her baby registry at a West Hollywood baby boutique on October 6, 2007, where she told the staff that she was pregnant, as well as the sex of the baby, but asked them to keep it private.

In November 2007, Aguilera officially confirmed her pregnancy in an interview with Glamour magazine by saying "That'll be about the time I enter into mommyhood, so... I'm hoping to have started a beautiful family with my husband!." She said about her husband's feeling on the pregnancy, "Oh, he's thrilled! He's just great." Although not officially confirming the baby's gender, her baby shower included blue-themed gifts and decorations which were spotted at her Beverly Hills home.

Adriana Karembeu

Adriana Sklenaříková (married name: Adriana Karembeu) (born September 17, 1971 (1971-09-17) (age 36)) is a Slovak fashion model.


She was born to a Slovak mother and Czech father in Brezno, a small town of central Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia). Having originally studied medicine in Prague, Adriana gave up her studies to become a model. On December 22, 1998, she married French football player Christian Karembeu and took his name. She was also one of the models for Wonderbra and was very popular in Europe for her Wonderbra billboards. She lives permanently in Paris, but she has also lived in various cities in Europe such as Athens and Madrid. Adriana is a vegetarian.

Haylie Duff

Haylie Katherine Duff (born February 19, 1985) is an American actress and singer best known for her supporting role on 7th Heaven as well as starring in the films Material Girls and Napoleon Dynamite.

Duff was born in Houston, Texas. Her mother, Susan Duff, is a producer[disambiguation needed]. Robert Erhard Duff, Haylie's father, resides at the family home in Houston to maintain the family's convenience store business. Haylie is two and a half years older than her sister, Hilary Duff, who is relatively more well known than Haylie for her own music career and as an actress.

She appeared in several episodes of Lizzie McGuire; on another Disney Channel show, That's So Raven; and on other TV programs, including Joan of Arcadia, American Dreams, Boston Public, and Chicago Hope. She played Summer, a stereotypical popular teenager, in the 2004 independent film Napoleon Dynamite. In 2005, Duff joined the cast of the TV show 7th Heaven, playing Sandy Jameson, best friend to Simon's girlfriend.

Duff was also in a straight to DVD release, Cindy and The Halo Boy, co-starring Frankie Muniz of Malcolm in the Middle fame. In the film, Duff played the leader of a clique of girls in high school who was pregnant with a baby fathered by Muniz's character, nicknamed "Geekling", the leader of a clique of nerdy boys who had wispy mustaches and played the video game Halo. In summer 2006, Duff joined the Broadway cast of Hairspray, portraying mean girl Amber Von Tussle, and playing the part through the beginning of October 2006. Duff has also starred in Material Girls.

Duff is also scheduled to shoot a horror film with Crispin Glover, The I Scream Man.

Duff wrote or co-wrote several songs on three of Hilary Duff's albums, Metamorphosis (2003), Hilary Duff (2004), and the song "Gypsy Woman", on Hilary's fourth album, Dignity (2007). She has also recorded numerous singles for various soundtracks with her sister, with most of them appearing on the Disneymania discs.

Amanda Bynes

Amanda Laura Bynes (born April 3, 1986) is an American actress and former show host on Nickelodeon. After appearing in several successful television series on Nickelodeon in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bynes moved into a film career,starring in several films aimed at teenage audiences, including She's the Man and Hairspray. Amanda Bynes has been described by The Boston Globe as having an "Everygirl" appeal, embodying "both everything her teen fans dream of being and everything they know they really are, and they love her for it." In 2006, she was named one of Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25", and in 2007, was on the Forbes list as the 5th highest paid celebrity under 21 earning $2.5 million.

Bynes was born in Thousand Oaks, California to Rick Bynes, a dentist who also practiced stand-up comedy, and Lynn (née Organ), a dental assistant and office manager. Bynes has two older siblings, Tommy (born 1974), a chiropractor, and Jillian (born 1983), who has a Bachelor of Arts in History from UCLA and has also acted. Her maternal grandparents are from Toronto, Ontario. Bynes's father is Catholic and her mother is Jewish, and Bynes has referred to herself as Jewish though "not that religious".

Bynes was trained as an actress by Arsenio Hall and Richard Pryor at a comedy camp, and began professionally acting at the age of seven, appearing in a television advertisement for Buncha Crunch candies. During her childhood, she also appeared on stage in versions of Annie, The Secret Garden, The Music Man and The Sound of Music. After taking acting classes, Bynes became a regular cast member of Nickelodeon's Figure It Out and All That (both in 1996). Bynes remained a regular cast member on All That until its presumed cancellation in 2000, though she appeared in the sketches since shooting and preparing as the star of her own hit sketch show The Amanda Show, also on Nickelodeon. The Amanda Show features a combination of comical skits and sketches, including Amanda Bynes playing Judge Trudy, a judge that always rules in kids' favor, and Penelope Taynt, an Amanda-obsessed fan.

Bynes made her film debut in 2002's modest box office success, Big Fat Liar, where she played opposite Frankie Muniz. Her first solo leading role was in 2003's What a Girl Wants, with co-star Oliver James. Subsequently, Bynes starred in The WB Television Network's sitcom What I Like About You and had voice parts in 2003's Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure and 2005's CGI animated comedy, Robots. She also co-starred in an episode of The Nightmare Room as Danielle Warner, and in Arliss as Crystal Dupree.

Bynes appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair's July 2003 edition with nine of Hollywood's most popular female young stars, including Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, Alexis Bledel, Raven-Symoné, Evan Rachel Wood, the Olsen Twins, and Mandy Moore. Although she is often compared with them, Bynes has said that "It's like being the hot girl at the high school party. I was never that girl. I grew up with terrible acne and feeling insecure. I was tall and skinny. I didn't feel pretty at all, and guys didn't even like me. That's why I got into comedy." Bynes has also said that her relatability to teenage audiences may stem from the fact that she is "more similar to them than some... socialite or whatever".

In 2006, Bynes starred in She's the Man, a comedy based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; in the film, Bynes disguises herself as her brother in order to join the boys' soccer team due to the fall of the girls' team. Producers had originally wanted to cast singer Jesse McCartney as Bynes' brother, noting a physical resemblance between McCartney and Bynes disguised as a boy, but McCartney was unavailable. Around the time of the film's release, Bynes commented that she would like to start appearing in more mature roles, and believes that she is still developing her acting skills and maturing as an actress, saying that she is "getting better" with each role.

Bynes appeared in another romantic comedy, Lovewrecked, which was shot before She's the Man but released after it, showing in cinemas outside of the United States in 2005 and 2006 and debuting in the U.S. on the ABC Family network on January 21, 2007. She also portrays Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, a film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name. The movie, which was her first musical role, began filming in Toronto in September 2006 and was released on July 20th, 2007. Bynes has stated that she enjoyed appearing in a "fun, quirky part in a big ensemble movie". Bynes next starred in another comedy, Sydney White, released on September 21, 2007. The film is based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Bynes playing a freshman in the college Greek system, co-starring alongside Sara Paxton and Matt Long. In May 2007, she was named one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People, as well as Number 79 on FHM's 100 Sexiest Woman for 2007.

Bynes, who has a dog named Midge and drives a white Lexus SC430, graduated from Fillmore High School's independent study program and has expressed a desire to attend New York University in the near future. She briefly moved into an apartment in Hollywood, California, but has since returned to her family home. Bynes is interested in drawing (she once painted a portrait of David Letterman as a gift to him) and fashion design, having commented that she is "the girl whose biggest nightmare would be to lose my makeup bag while traveling."

Bynes turned 21 on April 3, 2007 and has stated "I think I’ll go out as much as I’ve ever gone out... which is not a lot. I like to dance and stuff, but drinking isn’t good for you in every way. It’s not good for your skin; it makes you feel horrible. So, drinking-wise, no". She reinforced these ideas throughout the summer of 2007, on the talk show circuit, and in many press interviews. She told Access Hollywood, "I like being with my family and friends, and I don't need to be out at the clubs."

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Dee Lohan (born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and pop music singer. Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine advertisement and television commercials. At age 10, she began her acting career in a soap opera; at 11, she made her motion picture debut by playing identical twins in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.

Lohan rose to stardom with her leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded. Her subsequent roles include appearances in A Prairie Home Companion and Bobby. In 2004, Lohan launched a second career in pop music yielding the albums Speak (2004) and A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005).

In recent years, Lohan has been the subject of media scrutiny focusing on her personal life.

Lindsay Lohan was born in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. She is the eldest child of Michael Douglas Lohan, Sr., a onetime actor, and former Rockette Donata "Dina" Sullivan. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom are actor-models: brother Michael Jr., whom she affectionately calls "Punk," appeared with her in The Parent Trap as the "Lost Boy at Camp"; sister Aliana had a small role in Freaky Friday, as did brother Dakota, the youngest Lohan child, whom she once saved from drowning.

Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic. In 2005, Lohan explained to a TEENick audience that she had decided to use Morgan as her middle name because it sounded more professional.

Lohan attended public schools on Long Island, including Sanford H. Calhoun High School. She finished her studies at home through Laurel Springs School of Ojai, California.

Her family was financially comfortable. Her mother was a Wall Street analyst before becoming Lohan's manager.[citation needed] Dina also claimed that she worked as a Rockette, though Radio City Music Hall records have not verified this claim.

Michael Lohan inherited his family's pasta business, which he later sold to trade in futures (briefly becoming President of New York Futures Traders). Sentenced to four years in prison in the late 1980s, he spent much of his daughter's preteen years in prison for securities fraud. More recently, he worked as an investment banker, securing funding for independent films. In 2005, he was sent back to prison for nearly two years, released in March 2007, for "aggravated unlicensed driving" and attempted assault. Michael currently works with Teen Challenge.

In December 2005, Michael and Dina Lohan signed a separation agreement. In August 2007, Lohan's parents announced that their divorce proceedings had been finalized.

Lohan has been a frequent attendee at various nightclubs and social events - at times being photographed with nightlife notables such as Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Responding to the media's portrayal of Lohan as a "party girl", she commented, "People say, 'Oh, she goes out and she parties'. No, we are just going out and having fun."

Lohan's three car accidents in 2005 were widely reported. The first was a minor rear-ender, though the victims later threatened to sue her. In the second, she suffered minor injuries when a paparazzo who was following her for a photograph hit her car. Police called the crash intentional, but prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to file criminal charges. In the third, Lohan struck a van in West Hollywood. Police ruled that the van's driver made an illegal U-turn. When VH1 named Lohan "Big 'It' Girl" for its 'Big' in '05 Awards in December, it was, Lohan quipped, "because being Big in '05 means getting in three car crashes in one year, people!".

Lohan was hospitalized twice in January 2006. In the first incident, she cut herself on a broken teacup while in London; in the second incident, she suffered an asthma attack while in Miami, Florida.

In an interview published in the March 2006 issue of Allure, Lohan said she hoped to be taken seriously as an actress, adding, "I hate it when people call me a teen queen." She addressed the numerous romantic rumors ("I know now that I don't need a boyfriend.") and her weight loss ("I will say that I went through a phase. I lost weight when I was in the hospital, and then I wanted to keep it off."). Lohan said 2005 "felt like five lifetimes because I've grown up a lot".[56]At around the same time, she is reported as having looked into the teachings of Kabbalah Centre, saying, "All of us need something. You have to grab on to whatever gets you through.

On July 25, 2006, the filming of Georgia Rule was delayed while Lohan was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital for treatment of overheating and dehydration, her third hospital visit in 2006. In a letter to Lohan and others associated with the production that was later made public, James G. Robinson, CEO of the film's production company, Morgan Creek Productions, wrote:

"You and your representatives have told us that your various late arrivals and absences from the set have been the result of illness; today we were told it was 'heat exhaustion'. We are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion'."

Lohan's fourth 2006 hospital visit occurred in September when she was treated at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City after breaking her wrist.

On January 18, 2007, Lohan checked herself in to the Wonderland Center rehabilitation facility in West Hollywood's Laurel Canyon area. Through her representative, she issued a statement saying, "I have made a proactive decision to take care of my personal health." In a later interview, Lohan said, "It's so weird that I went to rehab. I always said I would die before I went to rehab." But she added that, even after regularly attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, "I don't know that I'm necessarily an addict."

Lohan was ranked #3 on the Forbes list of Young Hollywood Top-Earners with $6 million.

Hilary Duff

Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, pop singer/songwriter and entrepreneur. She has an elder sister, Haylie Duff, who is also an actress/singer.

After gaining fame for playing the title role in the television show Lizzie McGuire, Duff went on to have a film career; her most commercially successful movies include Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), and A Cinderella Story (2004). She reportedly earned $15 million in 2005. Duff has expanded her repertoire into pop music, with three RIAA certified-platinum albums and over thirteen million albums sold worldwide. She has also launched a clothing line, Stuff by Hilary Duff, and an exclusive perfume with Elizabeth Arden. Duff and her mother were listed as producers for the movie Material Girls, and she will soon produce her sister's debut album.

Her upcoming films include the 2007 action thriller War, Inc., animated comedy Foodfight! and independent films Greta and Safety Glass. Duff's latest studio album, Dignity, was released in April 2007 and has sold 870,000 since then.

Duff was born in Houston, Texas on September 28, 1987. She was the second child of Bob Erhard Duff, owner of a chain of convenience stores, and Susan Colleen (nee Cobb), a homemaker. After Duff's mother encouraged her to take an acting class alongside her elder sister, Haylie Duff, both girls won parts in various local theater productions. At the ages of eight and six, respectively, the Duff sisters participated in the ballet, The Nutcracker Suite with Columbus Ballet Met in San Antonio. The siblings became more enthusiastic about the idea of acting professionally, and eventually relocated to California with their mother. Bob Erhard Duff stayed at the family home in Houston to take care of their business. After several years of auditions and meetings, the Duff sisters were cast in various television commercials.

Duff began dating singer Aaron Carter in 2002. They met on the sets of Lizzie McGuire, when Carter had a cameo role in a Christmas episode. The relationship lasted a year and a half. It was reported that Carter left Duff for Lindsay Lohan, but soon broke up with Lohan and resumed dating Duff. Carter later stated that he also cheated on Duff with her best friend, and that Duff "got her heart broken" and he was "sorry" for his actions. Claymation facsimiles of Duff and Lohan appeared on the celebrity wrestling series Celebrity Death Match on March 23, 2007. Duff and Lindsay Lohan were later reported to have been involved in a "feud" with each other over their relationship with Carter. As of 2007, Duff and Lohan had reconciled. Lohan attended the release party for Duff's album Dignity and Duff told People magazine that she thought Lohan was "fun" and "a nice girl".

Duff began dating Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden in 2004. After a long period of tabloid speculation, Duff's mother Susan announced their relationship in a June 2005 interview for Seventeen magazine. In a June 2006 interview with ELLE magazine, Duff stated "...(virginity) is definitely something I like about myself. It doesn't mean I haven't thought about sex, because everyone I know has had it and you want to fit in". Duff later told MuchMusic that she didn't say the quotes attributed to her in the article and that the subject was "definitely not something that I would talk about..." Duff and Madden broke up in November 2006.

In 2007, Duff was photographed many times with NHL player Mike Comrie. Although Duff never really confirmed the relationship, the couple was seen hugging and kissing and Duff even attended some of Comrie's games. For Duff's 20th birthday, Comrie bought her a brand new car.

Duff is also involved with various charities, is an animal rights enthusiast and a member of Kids with a Cause. She also donated US$250,000 to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.[50] In 2005, she donated over 2.5 million meals to Hurricane Katrina victims in the south. In August 2006, Duff traveled to a New Orleans elementary school and worked with USA Harvest to distribute meals.

Jessica Alba

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981 in Pomona, California) is an American actress of Mexican American descent, perhaps best known for her roles in Dark Angel, Honey, Sin City, Fantastic Four, Into the Blue, Idle Hands and 2007's Good Luck Chuck. Alba rose to prominence following the television series Dark Angel, then expanding her resume to film, predominantly within the confines of action and comedy. Alba appears frequently on Maxim's Hot 100 and was voted AskMen.com's No. 1 on their list of 99 Most Desirable Women in 2006, voted FHM's Sexiest Woman in the World in 2007.

Alba was born in Pomona, California, to Mark Alba, who is Mexican American (though both of his parents were born in California), and Catherine (née Jensen), who has French and Danish ancestry; the two married while in their teenage years. Her maternal grandfather was a Marine NCO for 30 years, serving in the Pacific during WWII, and later as Asst. Drum Major for the United States Marine Band. Alba was raised in an Air Force family, along with her brother, Joshua (an actor who appeared with her in the season one finale of Dark Angel), and her grandparents, until she was seventeen years old. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled back in California.

Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies; she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, a ruptured appendix, and a cyst on her tonsils. This served to isolate her from other children at school because, as she claims, she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her.

She has also acknowledged suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder during childhood. Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California.

Alba graduated high school at age 16. Theatrically, Alba attended the Atlantic Theater Company.

Alba had expressed interest in acting since the age of five. She took her first acting class at age twelve, and an acting agent signed her nine months later.

Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when the actress in one of the prominent roles dropped out.

Alba appeared in two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a child; she was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into TV in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the TV series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.

In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 and as Layla in an episode of The Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After graduating from high school, Alba studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet.

Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa.

Her big break came when writer/director James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of the genetically-engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi TV series Dark Angel. Co-created by Cameron, the series starred Alba, and ran for two seasons until 2002.