Jessica Alba was born April 28, 1981. She is the daughter of
an Air Force officer, and as a child she lived throughout the United States. The family finally settled down when she was 12 in southern California. It was at this time that Alba, who since she was five years old says she
wanted to act, signed up for acting classes. Only nine months later an agent
noticed her talent, and shortly after Alba earned her first acting role in the
movie Camp Nowhere. Her part in the movie was small, but it led to
other work, mainly television commercials and as the character, Jessica, in the
Nickelodeon series “The Secret World of Alex Mack.”
Then, in 1995, she landed a reoccurring role on the
television program “Flipper.” At 16 Alba graduated high school and went on to
study with William H. Macy and his wife Felicity Huffman at the Atlantic
Theater Company. Alba’s career was lining up for the perfect take off. She
next made several appearances on “Beverly Hills 90210.” Her time on the
Southern Californian soap opera endeared her to the program’s cult-like
following and led to an opportunity to co-star with Drew Barrymore in the 1999
film, Never Been Kissed.
By this time Alba had begun to garner fans of her own, and
when over 1,000 hopefuls auditioned for the role of James Cameron’s super
soldier beauty, Max Guevera, on the Fox sci-fi drama “Dark Angel,” it was Alba
who was the last woman standing. Although the show was canceled after only two
seasons, Alba still managed to earn a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal
of the sexy butt-kicking avenger. Perhaps her crowning cinematic moment to
date though was her role in Robert Rodriguez’s 2005 Sin City, a technologically groundbreaking neo-film noir tale of deception, depravity, and
love.