Cameron Diaz

Biography

Early life

Diaz was born in San Diego, California. Her second-generation Cuban-American father, Emilio Diaz, worked as a foreman for an oil company, and her mother, Billie Early (who has English, German and Cherokee Native American ancestry), worked as an exporting agent. Diaz attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School. During her school days, she was called Skeletor by her classmates coz she was so thin.

Career

At age 16, she began her career as a fashion model. Diaz signed with top modeling agency, Elite Model Management. After graduating high school, she went to work in Japan and met video director Carlo de la Torre. On her return to America, she moved in with him. For the next few years, her modeling took her around the world, working for contracts with major companies. She even graced the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine.

At the age of 22, Diaz auditioned for Jim Carrey's The Mask. To her own surprise, and with no previous acting experience, she was cast as the female lead. Immediately after getting the part, she signed up for 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.

She then regained mainstream success with My Best Friend's Wedding and There's Something About Mary, and won critical acclaim for Being John Malkovich, which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards and the SAG Awards.

Cameron Diaz with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, photo by Rita Molni¡r

Diaz has also starred in the hit adaptation of Charlie's Angels and its sequel, and she voiced a lead character in Shrek and its sequel, for which she earned $10 million. In 2001, she won nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards and the AFI Awards for Vanilla Sky. For Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, she became the second actress (after Julia Roberts) to earn $20 million for a role; the film underperformed at the box office.

Diaz was the host of the 2005 MTV television series Trippin'. Maxim Magazine ranked her #22 in their annual hot 100 in 2004, then she ranked #11 in 2005. In 2006 she made the top 10 by ranking in at #7.

Future work for Diaz include a role in Shrek The Third in 2007 where she co-stars with boyfriend Justin Timberlake. She was set to team up again with The Mask co-star Jim Carrey in two films Fun with Dick and Jane where she dropped out to star in In Her Shoes. She was recently set to star opposite Carrey again in A Little Game Without Consequence that was planned to start filming in October for a summer release date. The film was shelved and filming is still yet to commence.

Personal life

Diaz had a four-year relationship with actor/singer Jared Leto from 1998 to 2002. She also dated actor Matt Dillon. Diaz dated singer and former *NSYNC's Justin Timberlake after they met in 2003 at the Kids' Choice Awards. However, they are rumored to have split in January 2007. It has been reported that the couple is no longer together, and in fact haven't been since the beginning of December 2006. Timberlake confirmed while attending the premiere to his movie Alpha Dog, on January 3rd 2007, that they have in fact broken up.

In October 2004, they were in an altercation with a tabloid photographer outside a hotel. When the photographer and another man tried to photograph Diaz and Timberlake, the celebrities snatched the camera. Pictures of the incident appeared in US Weekly. Representatives for the couple claimed that they were "ambushed" and acting out of self-defense.

Diaz and Timberlake were involved in another paparazzi incident while walking out of a friend's house. The paparazzi jumped out of bushes and photographed them. He then entered his car and allegedly drove it towards Diaz, who had to jump out of the way. Diaz pressed charges against the paparazzi, whose agency supported his actions as legal and safe.

Diaz suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and has publicly admitted she is deeply germophobic and habitually rubs doorknobs so hard before opening doors to clean them that the original paint on the doorknobs fades afterwards. Along with her floors, she says, she washes her hands "many times" each day and uses her elbows to push open doors. "I'm not scared of germs. I'm just aware of them," Diaz says. "I'm not into other people's fluids unless I know them really well."

Diaz is appearing in an ad campaign on Japanese television for SoftBank: October/November 2006. Diaz also supports a small west London football club Brentford FC after visiting a Hollywood cafe owned by a Brentford supporter.

In 2004, a commercial S&M video of Diaz and another girl torturing a man leaked to the Internet. She made the video when she was 19. Diaz filed a suit against the Russian Internet site that distributed the video, but the video file is now distributed by many porn sites and Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

Diaz has been vocal in her opposition to U.S. President George W. Bush. Before 2000's election (on October 26 to be exact), Diaz wore a shirt that said "I WON'T VOTE FOR A SON OF A BUSH!" while promoting Charlie's Angels on MTV's Total Request Live. During an Oprah appearance before 2004's election, Diaz said "Women have so much to lose . . . [W]e could lose the right to our bodies. If you think that rape should be legal, then don't vote. But if you think that you have a right to your body, then you should vote ..." It should be noted that the legalization of rape was not actually an issue in the 2004 election.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2008	A Little Game Without Consequence
2007	Shrek the Third	Princess Fiona	voice
	2006	In Search of Ted Demme		Documentary
	The Holiday	Amanda
2005	In Her Shoes	Maggie Feller
2004	Shrek 2	Princess Fiona	Voice
	2003	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	Natalie Cook
	Shrek 4-D	Princess Fiona	Voice; short subject
	2002	Gangs of New York	Jenny Everdeane
	Minority Report		Uncredited as woman on train / metro
	The Sweetest Thing	Christina Walters
	Slackers (film)		cameo
	2001	Vanilla Sky	Julianna 'Julie' Gianni
	Shrek	Princess Fiona	Voice
	The Invisible Circus	Faith
	2000	Welcome to Hollywood		Documentary
	Charlie's Angels	Natalie Cook
	Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her	Carol Faber
	1999	Any Given Sunday	Christina Pagniacci
	Being John Malkovich	Lotte Schwartz
	Man Woman Film	Random Celebrity
	1998	Very Bad Things	Laura Garrety
	There's Something About Mary	Mary Jensen
	Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas	Blonde TV Reporter
	1997	A Life Less Ordinary	Celine Naville
	My Best Friend's Wedding	Kimberly Wallace
	Keys to Tulsa	Trudy
	1996	Head Above Water	Nathalie
	Feeling Minnesota	Freddie Clayton
	She's the One	Heather
1995	The Last Supper	Jude
1994	The Mask	Tina Carlyle

Awards nominations

1999: Golden Globe for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for There's Something About Mary

2000: Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for Being John Malkovich

2000: SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich

2000: BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich

2002: Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for Vanilla Sky

2002: SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress for Vanilla Sky

2003: Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for Gangs of New York

2005: The Hitch

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