Jessica Alba Biography Filmography Awards

Jessica Marie Alba was born April 28, 1981 in Pomona, California to Mark Alba (of Mexican descent) and Cathy Jensen (whose father is of Danish descent and mother is of French Canadian descent). Jessica Alba was raised in a military family, living with her parents, her brother Joshua, and her grandparents until she was sixteen. She grew up a sports fanatic. Her father's navy career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled back in California when she was nine. Alba's early life had been marked by a multitude of physical maladies, as she was born premature and developed jaundice although she escaped cerebral palsy. She suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia and pneumonia 4-5 times a year, and suffered a burst appendix, a cyst on her tonsils, had frequent proteinuria, back spasms, migrane, asthma, amoebiosis, anorexia, bulimia, and kidney infection. This served to isolate her from other children at school because, as she claims, she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She also revealed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California.

Jessica's first film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere, as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role soon turned into a two month job when the actress in one of the more prominent roles in the film dropped out, and Alba was picked to replace her because her hair matched that of the original actress.
She also appeared in two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney, and later was featured in several independent films. In 1994, she branched out into TV with recurring role as an insufferable young snob in Nickelodeon's series The Secret World of Alex Mack. Later then she then won the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the TV series Flipper.

Jessica 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 may have been as the star of the popular Fox sci-fi TV series Dark Angel, which was co-created by writer/director James Cameron, who picked Alba from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of genetically-engineered super soldier Max Guevera. The show ran for two seasons before being cancelled in 2002. Since then her most notable roles have been as an aspiring dancer/choreographer in Honey, the stripper Nancy Callahan in Sin City, and as the classic Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four.

Jessica Alba was engaged to her Dark Angel co-star Michael Weatherly for a year but was called off when they had a falling out. In January 2005 she began dating Cash Warren, a director's assistant on Fantastic Four, whom she met when filming that movie.

Filmography

Camp Nowhere (1994)
Venus Rising (1995)
Flipper (cast member from 1995-1996) (TV series)
Too Soon for Jeff (1996) (TV series)
P.U.N.K.S. (1999)
Never Been Kissed (1999)
Idle Hands (1999)
Paranoid (2000)
Dark Angel (2000-2002) (TV series)
The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
Honey (2003)
Sin City (2005)
Fantastic Four (2005)
Into the Blue (2005)
Awake (2006) (filming)
Sin City 2 (2006) (pre-production)
Sonic (2006) (pre-production) (also executive producer)
Fantastic Four 2 (2007) (announced)

Awards and Nominations

ALMA Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
2001, Special Achievement Award, Dark Angel (2000-02), Win
2001, Breakthrough Actress of the Year, Dark Angel (2000-02), Win
2001, Outstanding Actress, Dark Angel (2000-02), Nominated
2002, Outstanding Actress, Dark Angel (2000-02), Nominated

Golden Globe Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
2001, Best Actress, Dark Angel (2000-02), Nominated

People's Choice Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
2001, Favorite Female Performer, Dark Angel, Nominated

Saturn Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
2001, Best Actress, Dark Angel, Win
2002, Best Actress, Dark Angel, Nominated

Teen Choice Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
2001, Choice TV Actress, Dark Angel, Win

TV Guide Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
2001, Actress of the Year, Dark Angel, Nominated

Young Artist Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
2001, Best Leading Young Actress, Dark Angel, Nominated\

Young Star Awards
Year, Category, Movie, Win/Nominated
1998, Best Young Actress, Flipper, Nominated