Jessica Alba Biography

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Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in movies such as Idle Hands, and her starring role in the TV series Dark Angel. She got her first starring movie role in Honey, and went on to appear in prominent roles in Sin City and Fantastic Four.

Early life: Alba was born in Pomona, California to Mark Alba (of Mexican descent) and Cathy Jensen (whose father is of Danish descent and mother is of French Canadian, Irish and Italian descent). Alba was raised in a military family, living with her parents, her brother Joshua, and her grandparents until she was sixteen. She grew up a sports fanatic. Her father’s navy career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled back in California when she was nine.

Alba’s early life had been marked by a multitude of physical maladies, as she was born premature and developed jaundice and preterm learning disability, although she escaped cerebral palsy. She suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, and suffered a burst appendix, a cyst on her tonsils, had frequent proteinuria, back spasms, migraine, asthma, amoebiasis, anorexia, bulimia, mild liver and kidney infection.

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 also revealed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California (though she would later suffer anorexia and a kidney infection in 2001).

Acting career: Alba had expressed interest in becoming an actress since the age of five, took her first acting class at age twelve, and was signed by an agent nine months later.

Alba’s first appearance in film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere, as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role soon turned into a two month job when the actress in one of the more prominent roles in the film dropped out, and Alba was picked to replace her because her hair matched that of the original actress.

Alba appeared in two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney, and later was featured in several independent films. She branched out into TV in 1994 with a recurring role as insufferable young snob Jessica in three episodes of the popular Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack.

She then won the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the TV series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba had learned to swim before she could walk, and was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to good use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1995 she appeared in the film Venus Rising as Young Eve.

After graduating from high school at age sixteen, 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.

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..

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 may have been as the star of the popular Fox sci-fi TV series Dark Angel, which was co-created by writer/director James Cameron, who picked Alba from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of genetically-engineered super soldier Max Guevera.

The show ran for two seasons before being cancelled in 2002. Since then her most notable roles have been as an aspiring dancer/choreographer in Honey, the stripper Nancy Callahan in Sin City, and as the classic Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four.

Alba’s most serious award nomination to date is that of a Golden Globe for “Lead Actress in a Drama Series” during the first season of Dark Angel. She did not win.

She has stated that despite being an extremely ambitious actress who desires the level of fame enjoyed by stars like Tom Cruise, she once told James Cameron during filming on Dark Angel that she did not want to direct because it appeared to be too difficult an undertaking, but he responded with the prediction that she would end up directing sooner than she expected.

According to pagesix.com, she fears being typecast as a whore/sex kitten. “Somehow, I don’t think this is happening to Natalie Portman.” In the interview, Alba says she wants to be taken seriously as an actress, but believes she needs to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hopes to be more selective in her film projects.

Alba’s most notable film roles have included an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey, exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City, and as the Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman in 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.

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. In February, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science and Technical Awards. Alba has been represented by talent agents Patrick Whitesell and Brad Cafarelli.

In 2008, Alba made her acting transition to the horror-film genre in The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original. The film was released on February 1, 2008. Though the film was not well received by critics, Alba’s performance was both positively and negatively received. Alba won a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror/Thriller and a Razzie Award for Worst Actress-nomination. Also in 2008, Alba starred alongside Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake in “box office bomb” The Love Guru. Both the film and Alba’s performance were panned by critics. Alba was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actress.

In late 2008, Alba signed on to star as the lead role in An Invisible Sign of My Own. The movie finished filming in November, 2008. The film is in post-production and set to be released in 2010. Ugly Betty star America Ferrera was originally set to star as the lead but had to pull out due to filming commitments with her television show Ugly Betty.

Alba starred alongside Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck in the film adaption of the book of the same name, The Killer Inside Me. In the movie, Alba played Joyce Lakeland, a prostitute. The film is set to be released in 2010. Also in 2010, Alba starred in the romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, alongside Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Emma Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, and Jennifer Garner. The film was released on February 12, 2010.