Jessica Alba

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981)^[1] is an American television and film actress.

Alba began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). Alba rose to prominence with the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), then expanding her résumé to film, predominantly within the confines of action and comedy.^[2][3] Alba later appeared in various films including Honey (2003), Sin City (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), Into the Blue (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) and Good Luck Chuck of the same year.^[4][5]

Alba appears frequently on the "Hot 100" section of Maxim and was voted AskMen.com's number one on their list of "99 Most Desirable Women" in 2006, as well as "Sexiest Woman in the World" by FHM in 2007.^[6][7][8] She also appeared on the cover of Playboy, which was followed by a lawsuit that was later dropped.^[9] Alba has won various awards for her acting, including the Choice Actress Teen Choice Award and Saturn Award for Best Actress (TV) for her acting in the series Dark Angel.^[10]

Alba was born in Pomona, California^[1] to Catherine Alba (née Jensen) and Mark Alba. Her mother is of Danish and French Canadian descent, and her father is Mexican American (though both his parents were born in California).^[11][12] She has a younger brother Joshua. Alba was raised in an Air Force family, and her father's air force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas before settling back in California when she was nine years old.^[3][12]

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 isolated her from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her.^[13] She has also acknowledged suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder during childhood.^[14][15] Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California. She graduated from high school at age 16,^[16] and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.^[17]

Alba had expressed interest in acting since the age of five. She took her first acting class at age twelve. An acting agent signed her nine months later.^[18][3]

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 in a leading role when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.^[2]

Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack.^[3] She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper.^[2][3] 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.^[19][3]

Alba's most notable film roles have included an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey, exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City and as the classic Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four, of which movie critic Mick LaSalle said that her performance while talking for long periods of time was on "shaky ground". She then appeared in its sequel, in Into the Blue later that year, and Good Luck Chuck a few years later.^[23][4][24] Alba went on to host the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission Impossible 3, and The Da Vinci Code.^[25]

In 2008, Alba appeared in her first horror-film role in The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original.^[12] In February, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's Science and Technical Awards.^[26] Later in the year, she starred in The Love Guru.^[4]

Alba has been represented by talent agent, Patrick Whitesell.^[27]

Alba married Cash Warren (son of actor Michael Warren) on Monday, May 19, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.^[42][43] Alba met Warren while making Fantastic Four in 2004.^[44][45] On June 7, 2008, Alba gave birth to a baby girl, Honor Marie Warren,^[46] at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.^[47].The first pictures of Honor Marie will appear in OK! magazine, which paid a reported $1.5 million for them.^[48]

Alba's charity work includes participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children Villages, Soles4Souls, and Step up.^[49] Alba supports Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. elections.^[50]