Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz
Diaz receiving a star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, June 2009
Born	Cameron Michelle Diaz
Occupation	Actress/Model
Years active	1988–1993 (model) 1993–present (actress)

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, and several other Hollywood films. Diaz has received Golden Globe nominations for her performances in There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and Gangs of New York.

Early life

Diaz was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Billie (née Early), an import-export agent, and Emilio Diaz (1949–2008), born in Los Angeles County, who worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for more than 20 years as a field gauger, and in the pipeline department, until he retired in 1998. Her father was a second-generation Cuban American (her grandparents settled in Tampa's Ybor City) and her mother is of English, German and Cherokee ancestry. She has one older sister, Chimene Diaz. 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 and had a five-year relationship from the time she was 17 until she was about 21. 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, 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. Her breakthrough began 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. During 1990–2000, 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, the Critics' Choice 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 starred in The Box, a horror thriller released November 6, 2009, co-starring James Marsden.

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.

She made an uncredited guest appearance on Saturday Night Live on February 14, 2009 with guest star Alec Baldwin 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.

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, but in 2004 the video began being distributed online through a Russian website.

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.

She 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.

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 has spoken as an advocate for military families.

Although she was quoted in a 1997 Time Magazine article saying she was germophobic, 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.

On April 15, 2008, her father, Emilio Diaz, died of pneumonia, aged 58.

Relationships

Diaz had a relationship with Carlos de la Torre from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, she dated actor Matt Dillon, with whom she appeared in There's Something About Mary. She dated singer/actor Jared Leto from 1999 to 2003, and the couple was rumored to be engaged. Diaz reportedly dated Sam Mendes. She began dating singer Justin Timberlake in 2003. 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. They broke up in 2006.

Awards and nominations

Diaz in June 2007

• 1995: Best Breakthrough Performance , Most Desirable Female, and Best Dance Sequence (shared with Jim Carrey) for The Mask (nominations)
• 1996: Received award at ShoWest Convention for "Female Star of Tomorrow"
• 1998: Best Dance Sequence (shared with Ewan McGregor) for A Life Less Ordinary (nomination)
• 1998: Blockbuster Entertainment Award as Favorite Supporting Actress for My Best Friend's Wedding (won)
• 1998: ALMA Award for My Best Friend's Wedding (won)
• 1999: Golden Globe for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for There's Something About Mary (nomination)
• 1999: American Comedy Award for There's Something About Mary (won)
• 1999: Teen Choice Award for Most Disgusting Scene for There's Something About Mary (won)
• 1999: Blockbuster Entertainment Award as Favorite Actress - Comedy for There's Something About Mary (won)
• 2000: ALMA Award for Any Given Sunday (won)
• 2000: Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress - Drama for Any Given Sunday (won)
• 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)
• 2001: Best Dance Sequence and Best On-Screen Team (shared with Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore for Charlie's Angels (won)
• 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)
• 2007: People's Choice Award for Favorite Leading Lady (won)
• 2009: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1994	The Mask	Tina Carlyle
1995	The Last Supper	Jude
1996	She's the One	Heather
	Feeling Minnesota	Freddie Clayton
	Head Above Water	Nathalie
1997	Keys to Tulsa	Trudy
	My Best Friend's Wedding	Kimberly Wallace
	A Life Less Ordinary	Celine Naville
1998	Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas	Blonde TV Reporter
	There's Something About Mary	Mary Jensen
	Very Bad Things	Laura Garrety
1999	Being John Malkovich	Lotte Schwartz
	Any Given Sunday	Christina Pagniacci
2000	Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her	Carol Faber
	Charlie's Angels	Natalie Cook
2001	The Invisible Circus	Faith
	Shrek	Princess Fiona	voice
	Vanilla Sky	Julianna 'Julie' Gianni
2002	The Sweetest Thing	Christina Walters
	My Father's House	The Girl
	Minority Report	Woman on Metro
	Gangs of New York	Jenny Everdeane
2003	Shrek 4-D	Princess Fiona	voice
	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	Natalie Cook
2004	Shrek 2	Princess Fiona	voice
2005	In Her Shoes	Maggie Feller
2006	The Holiday	Amanda Woods
2007	Shrek the Third	Princess Fiona	voice
2008	What Happens in Vegas	Joy McNally-Fuller
2009	My Sister's Keeper	Sara Fitzgerald
	The Box	Norma Lewis
2010	Shrek Forever After	Princess Fiona	(voice) post-production
	Knight & Day	June	filming
	The Green Hornet	Lenore Case	filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Shrek the Halls	Princess Fiona	Made for television
2008–2009	Saturday Night Live	Kiki Deamore	2 episodes

External links

• Template:Ymovies name
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• Cameron Diaz at People.com