Jessica Alba

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American television and film
actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp
Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). Alba rose to prominence as
the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002).Alba later
appeared in various films including Honey (2003), Sin City (2005), Fantastic
Four (2005), Into the Blue (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver
Surferand Good Luck Chuck both in 2007.

Early life
Alba was born in Pomona, California to Catherine and Mark Alba. Her
mother is of Danish and French Canadian descent and her father is Mexican
American. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her father's Air Force career took
the family to Biloxi, Mississippi and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in California when she was nine years old. Alba
described her family as being a "very conservative family—a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as
very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.

Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from collapsed
lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, as well as a ruptured appendix and atonsillar cyst.Alba became isolated
from other children at school, because she was in the hospital so often due to her illnesses that no one knew her well
enough to befriend her.Alba has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba has said that her family's frequent moving
also contributed to her isolation from her peers. She has acknowledged that she has suffered from obsessive–compulsive
disorder during her childhood.Alba graduated from high school at age 16,and she subsequently attended the Atlantic
Theater Company.

Career
Alba expressed interest in acting since the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to
take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, California, whose grand prize was free acting classes. An agent signed
Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail.

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. She then performed the role of Maya in
the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. 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.

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 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. Co-created by
Cameron, the series starred Alba, and ran for two seasons until 2002, earning her critical acclaim as well as a Golden
Globe nomination. Alba later revealed that she had suffered from anorexia while in preparation for Dark Angel.