Eva Mendes

Eva Mendes The youngest of four children, Eva Mendes was born in Houston, Texas on March 5, 1978. Her parents are both Cuban and contributed to an interesting childhood that saw Eva move to Miami and then Los Angeles, when she was still a young girl. Despite the glitz and glamour of the Californian coast, Mendes (or Mendez, as she is sometimes credited) gravitated toward interior design and marketing, not Hollywood.

In fact, Mendes was majoring in marketing at California State Northridge and was comfortable with the direction her life was taking before fame struck. Her first taste of acting came when she appeared in a feature film to earn some money between university semesters, but opportunity struck when an agent noticed a picture of hers at the house of her photographer neighbor. Obviously, she had a certain je ne sais quoi because the agent convinced Mendes to stop studying and pursue acting full time.

from music videos to "b" pictures

Her very first experience came in music videos; you can see her in the videos for "Hole In My Soul" by Aerosmith and "Miami" by Will Smith. She followed these up with a few TV appearances, highlighted by roles in Mortal Kombat: Conquest and ER, both in 1998. She also hit the big screen (albeit, not for too long) with a role in 1998's Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror.

eva's training day

Mendes kept at it in the comedy A Night at the Roxbury, and then, after smaller projects, resurfaced in 2000 with a role in Urban Legends: Final Cut. It was there that she began to get labeled as a tough, feisty and sexy vixen; this persona was maintained in the action hit Exit Wounds and especially in her most admired performance, as Denzel Washington's wife in 2001's Training Day.

Meeting rising expectations head-on, Mendes took on more responsibility as Mike Epps' girlfriend in 2002's All About the Benjamins and was officially recognized as a beautiful (and talented) Latina actress. By this point, she had cultivated a strong following of (mostly male) fans, who waited with bated breath for her to truly make a name for herself.

the latest blockbuster queen

This opportunity arrived in 2003. First, she signed on to appear in one of the most anticipated releases of summer 2003: 2 Fast 2 Furious. In the sequel to the supercharged, souped-up car flick of 2001, she has received the most exposure of her short career. Mendes' star power is bound to increase exponentially thanks to the film's impressive box-office success.

If this wasn't enough, Mendes had three huge hits in 2003. She bombarded audiences with appearances in Desperado II: Once Upon a Time in Mexico (starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek), Out of Time (again with Denzel Washington) and the Farrelly brothers' Stuck On You (starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear). She is surely movin' on up, and frankly, we couldn't be happier.