Christy Turlington biography

Synopsis

Model Christy Turlington was born January 2, 1969, in Walnut Creek, CA. Her modeling career began when a photographer asked to take her photo while she was horseback riding and it found it's way to a modeling agency. Today, she is one of the country's most successful models. Best known for her work for Maybelline, Calvin Klein and Georgio Armani, she has appeared on more than 300 magazine covers.

Family & Education

Model. Born January 2, 1969, in Walnut Creek, California. Turlington's father is European-American and her mother is from El Salvador. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, attended UCLA, and graduated from New York University with a degree in philosophy and literature.

Modeling Career

Turlington's modeling career began serendipitously when a photographer asked to take her photo while she was horseback riding. The photo landed in the hands of a modeling agency, and today, she is one of the country's most successful models. Best known for her work for Maybelline, Calvin Klein, and Georgio Armani, she has appeared on more than 300 magazine covers.

Declared by the Metropolitian Museum of Art as the "Face of the 20th Century," thanks to her publicly lauded symmetrical features, Turlington belongs to the original supermodels clique of the 90s, which includes Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, and Linda Evangelista.

Entrepreneur & Activist

Off the runway, Turlington is the co-founder of Fashion Café, creator of Sundari, an ayurvedic skinclare line, and co-producer of an active women's clothing line for Puma. She appeared in the fashion films Catwalk, Unzipped, and Pret-a-Porter.

An advocate of health and humanitarian issues, Turlington is an anti-smoking activist (her father died of lung cancer), a yoga enthusiast, and most recently, a maternal health advocate. In 2005 she directed No Woman, No Cry, a documentary exploring maternal health around the world and shortly thereafter, co-founded Every Mother Counts, a non-profit that aims to educate people on maternal mortality.

Personal Life

Turlington has been married to actor-filmmaker Edward Burns since 2003. They have two children together—a daughter, Grace, born in 2003, and a son, Finn, born in 2006.

Her sister is married to Burns' brother Brian Burns.