Eva Mendes

October 22, 2009 · Posted in America

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, We Own the Night and The Spirit. She was born in Miami, Florida to Cuban 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. .

One day Mendes caught the eye of an agent who convinced her to pursue acting more steadily. She 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.