Cameron Diaz Biography

Diaz grew up in Long Beach, California, and being taller and thinner than the other girls in her class she earned the nickname of ‘Skeletor’.

However, her striking looks soon led to offers of modelling work and, aged 18, she found herself working in Japan.

Whilst in Japan she met director Carlo de la Torre and the couple began a five-year relationship. During this time, Diaz enjoyed all the trappings of her modelling career, travelling all over the world working on campaigns for the likes of Calvin Klein and Levis.

Her movie break came alongside Jim Carrey in ‘The Mask’ and subsequent projects ‘The Last Supper’, ‘She’s The One’ and ‘Head Above Water’ helped raise her profile. Her role in ‘My Best Friend's Wedding’ with Julia Roberts was a wise move and the film was a huge worldwide box office hit.

Roles in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ and ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ followed, but it was with comedic roles that she scored her biggest hits. The quirky flick ‘There's Something About Mary’, with its infamous ‘hair gel’ scene earned Diaz her first Golden Globe nomination in 1998.

Now gracing the arm of Matt Dillon, Diaz continued to make eclectic film choices and picked up her second Golden Globe nomination for ‘Being John Malkovich’ in 1999. However, big time Hollywood success was now upon the young actress and roles in ‘Shrek’, ‘Vanilla Sky’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ helped turn the former model into one of America’s highest paid actresses.

Indeed, the second Charlie’s Angels film – ‘Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle’, catapulted Cameron into the $20 million movie league.

Before appearing in the action comedy alongside Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Bernie Mac, which earned her an Imagen Foundation Award for Best Actress and Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Actress, Diaz had wowed critics in ‘Gangs of New York’ in the previous year. Her portrayal of Jenny Everdeane in the Martin Scorsese film had landed her four award nominations including a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

This was in addition to a host of accolades and nominations picked up earlier for ‘Vanilla Sky’, ‘Charlie's Angels’ and ‘Any Given Sunday’, and she moved on to her next projects with the zeal to continue the good form. Indeed, 2005's ‘In Her Shoes’, ‘The Holiday’ (2006), ‘What Happens in Vegas’ (2008) and 2009's ‘My Sister's Keeper’ all led to more critical nods and award nominations.

In 2010, Diaz joined co stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas for the fourth and final instalment in the ‘Shrek’ film series in ‘Shrek Forever After’, which was released in 3D and achieved commercial success. A second partnership with Tom Cruise after their initial collaboration in ‘Vanilla Sky’ followed in the action comedy ‘Knight and Day’, which only increased her star power.

Diaz is appearing in 2011 superhero flick ‘The Green Hornet’ alongside Seth Rogen and will follow this up with ‘Bad Teacher’, a collaboration with old flame Justin Timberlake.

Her private life and high profile relationships with Matt Dillon, Jared Leto and Justin Timberlake have ensured Diaz has always attracted the attentions of the world's media.

In 2005, she successfully won a ‘blackmail’ case against a photographer who threatened to release topless photographs of the star unless she bought them for millions of dollars. Diaz successfully proved the signature on the release form for the photographs was fake. She also accepted damages from a UK newspaper, which suggested she had a romantic involvement with a married man whilst in a relationship with Justin Timberlake.

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