Eva Mendes

Eva Mendes was born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents and was raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale by her mother after her parents’ divorce.She is also fluent in Spanish.Mendes attended Hoover High School in Glendale and later attended California State University, Northridge to study marketing, but dropped out after wanting to begin an acting career. She studied acting under the acting teacher, Ivana Chubbuck.

Eva Mendes caught the eye of an agent who convinced her to pursue acting more steadily.Eva Mendes’ first foray into showbiz came as a featured performer in music videos before she made her big-screen debut in 1998 in the schlocky horror film Children of the Corn V.She received her first big-screen break when she appeared in Training Day.The critically acclaimed film became a box office smash, and Eva cashed in on the added attention with roles in 2 Fast 2 Furious, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Stuck on You, Out of Time, and Hitch, for which she received an ALMA Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture.

Mendes costarred in Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage, who she was to work with again in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans in 2009, and also starred alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall in the film We Own the Night, and Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson in The Spirit.

Along with acting, Mendes is employed by Revlon Cosmetics as an international spokeswoman.Maxim ranked Mendes #7 in its 2007 Hot 100 issue.She also made her second Maxim cover in the November 2007 issue.Mendes was voted as No. 4 in the 2008 edition, and No. 1in the 2009 edition, of AskMen.com’s Top 99 Most Desirable Women.She also sang for the Funny or Die music video “Pimps Don’t Cry,” a song featured in The Other Guys, released on August 6, 2010.