Eva Mendes biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Eva Mendes was born on March 5, 1974, in Miami, Florida, and is of Cuban descent. At age 10, Mendes and her older brothers and sisters moved to Los Angeles with their mother after her parents divorced.

"I was poor. I came from a lower-middle-class family, so I would imagine all kinds of things. I thought I was going to be an astronaut and an opera singer when I was really little. Then I thought about being a movie star when I saw Annie. I was seven then," Mendes told the Sydney Morning Herald.

As a child, Mendes aspired to be a nun. As she grew older, her path changed when a Hollywood casting agent saw her photos in a friend's portfolio. Mendes, then a marketing major at California State University in Northridge, dropped out in 1997 to pursue an acting career.

Career Success

Mendes's sexy looks landed her in music videos such as Will Smith's Miami and Aerosmith's Hole in My Soul. Her first major acting role came in 1998, in the direct-to-video film Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. During this period she also starred in several other movies, such as A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Mortal Kombat: Konquest (1998), My Brother the Pig (1999) and Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000).

Mendes caught the public's eye for a nude scene she did while playing Denzel Washington's wife in the film Training Day (2001). The newly minted sex symbol told the Daily News, "After Training Day came out, people were not only recognizing me, they were responding to my character."

With her profile rising, Revlon took notice and signed her on as its spokesmodel in 2002. Mendes then appeared in All About the Benjamins before again co-starring with Washington, this time in the 2003 film Out of Time. That same year she appeared in a string of movies that met with commercial success, such as 2 Fast 2 Furious with Paul Walker, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico with Johnny Depp and Stuck on You with Matt Damon.

Mendes teamed up with Will Smith in the 2005 comedy film Hitch. The film opened at No. 1, and the duo became the first minority actors to play leads in a hit romantic comedy. Mendes went on to act in many more films, including The Wendell Baker Story (2005), Trust the Man (2006), Ghost Rider (2007) and We Own the Night (2007), among others.

In 2007, Cosmopolitan named Mendes its Fun Fearless Female of the Year. The next year, Calvin Klein tapped her as its new face and body in its sexy and provocative ads.

The actress continued take on film roles over the next few years, such as The Spirit (2008), The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009), The Other Guys (2010), Fast Five (2011) and Girl in Progress (2012).