Eva Mendes

Mendes was born in Miami, to Cuban-American parents and was raised in Los Angeles by her mother after her parents' divorce; Mendes has said that her mother "suffered so much to make my life OK" during her early years. Her father was a car salesman and her mother, also named Eva, is now an elementary school principal. She is the youngest of four children (she has two sisters and a brother). She was raised Roman Catholic and aspired to be a nun. As a child, Mendes was teased about her "buck teeth".

Eva Mendes (born March 5, 1974) is an American actress. She began acting in the late 1990s, and became known after a series of roles in several major Hollywood films, including 2 Fast 2 Furious, Hitch, Training Day, Ghost Rider and We Own the Night.

As a child she lived in Miami, Florida, and Los Angeles, California. She never saw herself as an actress while she was young and decided to pursue other interests. She attended Hoover High School in Glendale and later attended California State University, Northridge to study marketing, but dropped out after meeting boyfriend Zedrick Threatt, who helped her to begin an acting career. She studied with Ivanka Chubbuc.

One day she caught the eye of an agent who convinced her to pursue acting more steadily. Mendes worked her way up through commercials to music videos (including an appearance in Will Smith's video "Miami" and the Pet Shop Boys music video for "Se a vida é (That’s the way life is)" in 1996 and Aerosmith's video "Hole in My Soul" in 1997) to guest roles in soap operas and supporting film roles. Her first film appearance was in the direct-to-video Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror.

She received her first big-screen break when she appeared in the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Training Day. That performance led to roles in Stuck on You, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and as the female lead in the comedy Hitch opposite Will Smith. Her role in Once Upon a Time in Mexico also gave her a nomination at the Teen Choice Awards. Mendes has also been in commercials for Gushers, Revlon, and Levi's. Mendes costarred in Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage, and most recently starred alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall in the film We Own the Night.

Along with acting, Mendes is employed by Revlon Cosmetics as an international spokeswoman. She joins such elite actresses and models as Julianne Moore, Halle Berry and Cindy Crawford, who appear in Revlon's television and print ads. She is also a passionate supporter and active participant in Revlon's fight against breast cancer.

It was reported on January 31, 2008 Mendes had been in a rehab facility in Utah for several weeks. Her representative told TMZ that she has been "working hard for the past year and made a positive decision to take some much-needed time off to proactively attend to some personal issues that, while not critical, she felt deserved some outside professional support. Out of respect for Eva's privacy, we do not wish to discuss further details."