Jessica Alba

At 42 years old, Jessica Alba has this physical status:

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman.

She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), but rose to prominence at 19, as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003).

She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016).

She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014).

Since 2019, Alba stars in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest. Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products.

Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.

Early life

Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, to Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled in Claremont, California when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as "very conservative… a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family", and herself as very liberal; she says she identified as a "feminist" as early as age five.

Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. She became isolated from other children at school because she was hospitalized so often, no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. She graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.

Personal life

Alba was raised a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:

Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining: "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at age 15 when she guest-starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds a belief in God.

While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, they announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying, "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."

Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. They were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.

In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots, where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".

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Acting career

Alba expressed an interest in starting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting lessons. She received the grand prize and began acting lessons for the first time. Nine months later, an agent was hired by an agency. In the 1994 film Camp Nowhere As Gail, she played a small part. She had been working for two weeks but when one of the leading actresses blasted out, her job transformed into a two-month one.

As an infant, Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney. She was also seen in several independent films. In three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack, she burst out onto television in 1994. She appeared in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Alba learned to swim before she could walk and was a PADI-certified scuba diver, bringing her skills that were put to use on the show, which was shot in Australia.

Melissa Hauer appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South as Leanne in two Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. After Alba graduated from high school, she worked with William H. Macy and his partner, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was produced by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film producer David Mamet. Alba rose to fame in Hollywood in 1999 after being co-emoon of a snobby high school clique, as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.

On the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel, James Cameron selected Alba from a field of over 1000 candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier Max Guevara. Alba received critical acclaim, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress during the two seasons, as well as a two-year Award for Best Actress. Her role has been portrayed as a feminist character and is regarded as a symbol of female liberation. Bronwen Auty, a Melbourne scholar, wrote about Max "the archetypal modern feminist hero, a young woman empowered to use her body to achieve goals," quoting Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons. Max was ranked #17 in the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" list in 2004. Her Dark Angel role led to significant roles in films. When she appeared in Honey as an aspiring dancer-choreographer, she had her big screen debut in 2003. "An attractive Jessica Alba and vivacious dance numbers give this corny and formulaic film some lift." The film, which was budgeted at US$18 million, grossed US$62.2 million.

In the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, Alba Callahan played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan as part of a long ensemble cast. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. Prior to her film debut, she had no idea about the book but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film, which earned $158.8 million, was a critical darling and grossed $1158.8 million. For her Sexiest Performance, she was given a MTV Movie Award.

In Fantastic Four (also 2005), Alba portrayed Invisible Woman by Marvel Comics alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. "Feminists and non-feminists alike must accept the film's most disturbing fact": "Alba's] superpower is to be invisible," the Guardian wrote about it. Despite poor reviews and grossing US$333.5 million worldwide, the film was a commercial success. Alba received awards for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. Her last film, in 2005, was Into the Blue, where she portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in danger with a drug lord after locating the illicit cargo of a sunken plane. With a US$44.4 million worldwide gross, the film saw modest box office returns. She appeared on MTV Movie Awards in 2006 and performed sketches spoofing King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.

Alba resurrected her role in Fantastic Four: The Silver Surfer, which was released in June 2007. Tim Story's path during an emotional scene nearly made her quit acting, according to Alba. "It seems too real," he told me. It seems that it is too painful.

Can you be prettier when you cry?

Jessica,'Cry Pretty,' a cynical comment.' He was like, "Don't do this thing with your face." Make it flat, please make it flat. "We can CGI the tears in." "This experience made me feel a little drained," Alba says: "And then it all got me wondering: Am I not strong enough?" Is my intuition and emotions not strong enough? Is there such a dislike for them that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my job? And so I said, 'Fuck it.' "I don't care about this company any more." The film earned US$290 million worldwide.

Alba portrayed the love of a womanizer dentist in Good Luck Chuck (also 2007). She posed for one of Good Luck Chuck's theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photograph by Annie Leibovitz, which featured John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. Although critics had the film outraged, the film's gross sales figures fell nearly US$60 million on its first release. Awake, her third starring role in 2007, depicting the mother of a billionaire man who is likely to have a heart transplant. Roger Ebert praised her work, but the film, which was budgeted at around US$8 million, was criticized, but she was lauded.

She was the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards in February 2008. In The Eye, a Hong Kong remake of the Hong Kong original in which she played a convincing classical violinist with an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world, Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre. Despite the fact that critics didn't like the film, her performance in the film was not well received, but her performance as a result received mixed feedback. She received a Teen Choice Award for Best Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (which was shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she appeared in Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and appeared in the comedy The Love Guru as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs' hockey team, as opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, a film director who was "progressively" on the film, found that she "finally seems relaxed on camera." The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.

Although Alba did not have any film out in 2009, five high-profile films that were released in 2010 featured her in key roles. In The Killer Inside Me, a book of the same name starring Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics, her first appearance in the year was in the role of a prostitute. Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner, and Julia Roberts appeared in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the bride of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner, and Julia Roberts among others. Despite poor feedback, the film was a commercial success, grossing $1216.5 million around the world. Alba reunited with producer Robert Rodriguez in the action film Machete, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforceing the law and doing what is normal in the eyes of her family. Globally, Machete earned more than US$44 million.

The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba produced in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. She portrayed a withdrawn young woman in it. Maggie Fockers, her last film in 2010 was the comedy in which she appeared as an extrovert heroin representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite poor reviews from critics, the film earned over US$310 million worldwide. She was nominated for her work as an actor in 2010.

Alba appeared in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 2011, portrayed a former spy who is called back to action in 2011. She brings her new stepchildren along to bond. In comparison to the previous films in the franchise, the film paled at the box office, but it was still a moderate success, grossing US$85 million around the world. In the comedy A.C.O.D., Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara. Embracing what the Washington Post referred to as a "fellow child of divorce" with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her mother, Michelle. "[Winstead] and [Alba] both play their roles, but both of their characters are mainly meant to be mirrors for Carter's struggle to consider his own life and choices," screenRant analyst Ben Kendrick wrote. A.C.O.D. In North America, the theatre production of a limited theatrical run. Alba made her voice acting debut in the moderately hit animated film Escape from Planet Earth in 2013.

Alba appeared in two film sequels for the second time. In Machete Kills (2013), she reprised her role as an Immigration Officer, angering critics and viewers, as well as her larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, who released her second film in August 2014, titled "A Dame to Kill For" which was released in August 2014 on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill Forever, a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, film critics gave mixed praises. It was a "late, limp effort to turn Alba's image from an exploited figure to an empowered one," Variety said. She reprised her role as a cabaret show actress in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), an emotionally impaired firearms trafficker in Barely Lethal (2015), and a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); both films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.

Alba played the girlfriend of a former hitman in the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016) with Jason Statham. Krav Maga helped her get into shape for the film and was drawn to the strength of her character, remarking: "I think for these kind of films you don't get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt." Well, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, so it's nice that I'm going to the table with a sternness and a true heart." The film earned US$125.7 million globally.

"Parenting Without Borders," Disney+'s current documentary series that will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture, will star her and executive produce "Parenting Without Borders" (working title).

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