Jessica Alba

Jessica Marie Alba ( AL-bə; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She rose to prominence at age 19 for portraying Max Guevara, the lead character in the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Her cinematic breakthrough came shortly after with the lead role in Honey (2003).

Alba began her acting career at age 13 in Camp Nowhere, followed by The Secret World of Alex Mack (both 1994). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator with director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.

In 2011, Alba co-founded the Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal, and household products. Based in Los Angeles, the company was valued at roughly $550 million as of February 2022, and currently (as of May 2026) has a valuation of around $380 million. Several magazines, including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM, have included Alba on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.

Alba was born in Pomona, California, on April 28, 1981, to Catherine Louisa Alba (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, English, French, German, and Welsh ancestry; while her father is of Mexican and Sephardic Jewish ancestry. She has a younger brother. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as "very conservative… a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family", and herself as very liberal; she says she identified 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 pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice, as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. She became isolated from other children at school because she was hospitalized so often; no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. She graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.

Alba expressed an interest in acting from age five. In 1992, the eleven-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. She won the grand prize and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed her nine months later. Her first film appearance was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks, but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.

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 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and had PADI certified scuba diving skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.

In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.

Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from over 1000 candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier Max Guevara on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons, until 2002, and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max "the archetypal modern feminist hero—a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons. In 2004, Max was ranked #17 in TV Guide's list of "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her Dark Angel role led to significant parts in films. She had her big screen breakthrough in 2003 when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film made US$62.2 million.

Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel before her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.

In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched the Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion as of 2014.

In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.

As of April 2022, Alba owned 6.5 percent of the company. She was employed as the company's chief creative officer, receiving an annual base salary of $700,000 and restricted stock valued at $1,500,000. Alba stepped down as chief creative officer in April 2024.

Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to shocking things."

Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.

Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. She was included in Maxim magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."

In 2002, she was voted the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and appeared in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. She has also been named on FHM's Sexiest Women lists.

Alba was named among Playboy magazine's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006, and appeared on its cover that year. She was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contended gave the impression that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". She later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities Alba had supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba #1 on its "99 Most Desirable Women" list. In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and InStyle had Alba on their June 2008 covers. She appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar, which featured photos of her posing; Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of the year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".

In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.

Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.

Alba was raised a Catholic throughout her teenage years. After a four-year stint as a born-again Christian, she backed away from religion because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining, "Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex, that it was my fault, and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman."

Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining: "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at age 15 when she guest-starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the Church. However, she has stated that she still holds a belief in God.