Career

1992-1999: Career beginnings

Alba expressed an interest in acting 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 classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later.[7][17] 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 one of the prominent actresses dropped out.[6]

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.[7] She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper.[6][7] 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.[7][18]

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 Love Boat: The Next Wave.[19] In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S..[6] After Alba graduated from high school, she 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.[17][20] 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.[9]

2000-2008: Breakout

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 television series Dark Angel.[21] Co-created by Cameron, the series starred Alba, and ran for two seasons until 2002. Alba earned critical acclaim for her role in the show, receiving a Golden Globe nomination as well as the Teen Choice Award for "Choice Actress" and Saturn Award for Best Actress.[22][9][23]

Alba's film roles have included playing an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey,[24] and an exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City, for which she received an MTV Movie Award for "Sexiest Performance."[25][26] Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, in Fantastic Four[27] and its sequel. She also starred in Into the Blue (2005), Good Luck Chuck (2007) and Awake (2007).[28]

Alba hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.[29] In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards.[30] Alba has been represented by Brad Cafarelli.[31]

Also in 2008, Alba made her acting transition to the horror-film genre in The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original.[13] The film was released on February 1, 2008. Though the film was not well received by critics,[32] Alba's performance itself received mixed reviews. She won a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror/Thriller[33] and a Razzie Award for Worst Actress-nomination.[34] Later in 2008, Alba starred alongside Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake in The Love Guru.[35]

2010-present

In 2010, Alba starred in five films. She signed on to star as the lead role in An Invisible Sign of My Own in late 2008'.[36] The movie was filmed in 2008, premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and was later released to theaters in May 2011.[37][38] She also played Joyce Lakeland, a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, a film adaption of the book of the same name which co-starred Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.[39][40][41] Her second film of the year was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, directed by Garry Marshall.[42][43] She portrayed Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend, Morley Clarkson, in the ensemble film that included Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Garner, among others.[44] Later that year, she appeared in the action film Machete, and in Little Fockers, reuniting with Robert De Niro who was also in Machete.

In 2011, Alba appeared in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World.[45]

In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products.[10] The company was valued at $1 billion as of 2014.[46] In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.[47] In March 2012, Alba announced that she would be releasing a book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book was published in early 2013 by Rodale and later became a New York Times Best Seller.[48][49]

Alba's 2013 film projects included comedy A.C.O.D.[50] and animated film Escape from Planet Earth.[51] Alba reprised her roles, Santana in Machete's sequel Machete Kills,[52] and Nancy Callahan in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, the sequel to 2005's Sin City.[53] Filming for the Sin City sequel started in October 2012 and the film was released in August 2014.[53]

In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.[54][55]

Charity and politics

Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads photographed by Mark Liddell,[56][57] which feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, drew national media attention.[57] Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically," and "People respond to things that are shocking."[57] Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season.[58]

In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town.[59] Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism.[60] On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it.[61][62] Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions.[61] She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over $500)[63] to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.[64][65][66][67]

In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.[68][69] Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act.[70] She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".[71]

Alba's charity work has included 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's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby.[72][73] Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa.[74] She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.[75] In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.[76]

Personal life

Alba was raised as a Catholic[77] throughout her teenage years,[78] but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:

Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault, and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.[79]

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."[80] Her "religious devotion to wane" at the age of 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.[81] However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.[82]

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 twentieth birthday, which she accepted.[13] In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship.[7] In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know . 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."[83]

Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004.[84][85] The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008.[86][87] They have three children: daughters Honor Marie Warren (born 2008),[88] Haven Garner Warren (born 2011),[89] and son Hayes Alba Warren (born New Year's Eve 2017).[90] The first pictures of eldest daughter Honor appearing in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine were reportedly paid $1.5 million.[91]

Alba appeared on George Lopez's series Lopez Tonight. After she and her father had submitted DNA samples (cheek swabs) to the DNA Diagnostic Center in Cincinnati, Jessica was informed that of the four categories tested, she was determined to be 0% East Asian, 0% Sub Saharan African, 13% Indigenous American and 87% European.[92] 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.[93] The show's research indicated that the surname Alba did not come from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-L54, Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) showed Sephardi Jewish roots, and DNA testing revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Jessica'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".[94]

Public image

Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001-2014.[25][95][96][97] On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."[98] In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll.[99] In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People,[100] and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007.[101] Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.[102]

Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year.[103] Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported.[31] Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on 99 Most Desirable Women".[104] In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars".[105] Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers.[106][107] Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar.[108][109] In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health,[110] and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".[111]

In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.[112]

— Alba on not using her sex appeal in order to get her goals in her acting career, 2008[113]

Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.[114][115]

Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role.[116] She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined 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".[80] She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."[117]

Filmography

Film

Television

Music video

Video games

Awards