Cameron Diaz
Diaz receiving a star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2009
Born	Cameron Michelle Diaz August 30, 1972 (1972-08-30) (age 36) San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation	Fashion model (1988–1993) Actress (1993–present)

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She broke out in the 1990s with her roles in The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding and There's Something About Mary, and subsequently appeared in Charlie's Angels, Shrek, Vanilla Sky, Gangs of New York, What Happens in Vegas and several other Hollywood films.

Early life

Diaz was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Billie (née Early), an import-export agent, and Emilio Diaz (1949–2008), who worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for twenty plus years, as a Field Gauger, and in the pipeline department, until he retired in 1998.¹² Her father was a second-generation Cuban American whose family came from Spain via Cuba. Then her grandparents settled in Tampa's Ybor City.³ Her mother is of English, German and Cherokee ancestry.⁴⁵⁶ She has one older sister, Chimene Diaz, (born June 5, 1970, San Diego). She attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as rapper Snoop Dogg.

Career

Modeling

Cameron Diaz on the red carpet of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio for the film Gangs of New York

At 16, she began her career as a fashion model. Diaz signed with top modeling agency Elite Model Management. After graduating from high school, she went to work in Japan and met video director Carlos de la Torre. On her return to the U.S., she moved in with him.^{citation needed} For the next few years, her modeling took her around the world, working for contracts with major companies. She modeled for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi's. She was featured on the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine.

Acting

At 21, Diaz auditioned for The Mask, even though she had no previous acting experience,⁷ based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite who met the film's producers while they were searching for the female lead. After obtaining the lead female role, she immediately started acting lessons. Over the next three years, she won roles in low-budget, independent films, such as The Last Supper, Feeling Minnesota, and She's the One, preferring to feel her way effectively into the business. She then regained mainstream success with her roles in My Best Friend's Wedding and There's Something About Mary, a film for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Actress - Musical or Comedy. She won critical acclaim for her performance in Being John Malkovich, which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards, and the SAG Awards.

At Cannes in 2002

During the 1990–2000 period, Diaz starred in many films, such as Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, A Life Less Ordinary, Any Given Sunday, and the hit adaptation of Charlie's Angels. In 2001, she won nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, and the AFI Awards for Vanilla Sky, and also voiced Princess Fiona in Shrek, for which she earned $10 million. In 2003, Diaz received another Golden Globe nomination for Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York, and became the third actress (after Wedding costar Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon) to earn $20 million for a role, receiving the sum for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Her next film performances were in Shrek 2, In Her Shoes, and The Holiday . During 2004 and early 2005, Diaz explored some of the planet's environmentally unique locations while discovering ways to help preserve them for the 10-episode MTV series Trippin' which featured numerous celebrities and friends of Diaz, such as Jessica Alba, Drew Barrymore, Mark Hoppus, Eva Mendes, and Justin Timberlake.

Diaz returned to the screen for Shrek the Third in 2007, in which she co-starred with her then boyfriend Justin Timberlake. She was set to team up again with The Mask co-star Jim Carrey in the film Fun with Dick and Jane, but dropped out to star in In Her Shoes. She also appeared in the romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas, opposite Ashton Kutcher. Diaz will again voice Princess Fiona in Shrek 4 and is set to star in The Box, a horror thriller, as well, scheduled to be released October 30, 2009, co-starring James Marsden.⁸

On July 7, 2007, Diaz participated at Live Earth in New York by introducing Bon Jovi and The Police. In 2007, People ranked her as the Best Dressed Female Celebrity. In August 2008, Forbes Magazine listed Diaz as the highest paid actress in Hollywood. She reportedly earned $50 million in the period of a year ending June 2008, for her roles in What Happens in Vegas and the Shrek films.⁹¹⁰¹¹

She made a cameo on Saturday Night Live on February 15, 2009 with guest star Alec Baldwin as a cougar named Kiki Damore on a skit called "The Cougars' Den".

Personal life

Diaz in 2005

Diaz received "substantial" defamation damages from suing American Media Incoporated, after The National Enquirer had claimed she was cheating on then-boyfriend Timberlake.¹²

In 1992 Diaz appeared in a soft-core S&M video entitled "She's No Angel" shot by photographer John Rutter. In 2003 she won an injunction against Rutter preventing him from distributing the video or accompanying photographs, however in 2004 the video began being distributed online through a Russian website.¹³¹⁴

When Diaz was asked if she can speak Spanish she said:

I go, "God, you know, it all sounds so familiar. I know what you're saying, I really do. I just cannot respond to you back in Spanish. I can barely speak English properly." I didn't grow up in a Cuban community. I grew up in Southern California on the beach, basically. And I'm third generation. I'm of Cuban descent.¹⁵

The actress was vocal in her support for Al Gore in 2000. Diaz went so far as sporting a t-shirt that read "I won't vote for a son of a Bush!" while making the publicity rounds for Charlie's Angels.¹⁶

Diaz has also been involved with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the first and largest nonprofit for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and outspoken about the need to support military families.”

Although she was quoted in a 1997 Time Magazine article saying she was germophobic,¹⁷ Diaz specifically denied this on the June 26, 2009 edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, saying that a small comment she made 12 years earlier regarding public bathroom doorknobs was blown out of proportion.¹⁸

On April 15, 2008, her father, Emilio Diaz, died of pneumonia, aged 58.¹⁹

Relationships

Diaz dated former *NSYNC member Justin Timberlake, whom she met at the 2003 Kids' Choice Awards. In October 2004, Diaz and Timberlake were in an altercation with a tabloid photographer outside a hotel. When the photographer and another man tried to photograph them, the couple snatched the camera. Pictures of the incident appeared in Us Weekly. Representatives for the pair claimed that they were "ambushed" and acting out of self-defense.²⁰ The pair issued a joint statement on January 11, 2007, announcing they had broken up, following weeks of breakup rumors.²¹

Awards and nominations

Diaz in June 2007

• 1999: Golden Globe for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for There's Something About Mary (nomination)
• 2000: Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for Being John Malkovich (nomination)
• 2000: SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich (nomination)
• 2000: BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich (nomination)
• 2002: Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for Vanilla Sky (nomination)
• 2002: SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress for Vanilla Sky (nomination)
• 2003: Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for Gangs of New York (nomination)
• 2006: Imagen Foundation Award for Best Actress for In Her Shoes (nomination)
• 2008: Kids' Choice Awards- Nominated for Best Voice From An Animated Movie for Shrek the Third
• 2008: Kids' Choice Awards- Wannabe Award
• 2009: On June 22, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cameron Diaz

• Cameron Diaz at the Internet Movie Database
• Cameron Diaz at Yahoo! Movies
• Cameron Diaz at TV.com
• Cameron Diaz at People.com