Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including nominations for four Golden Globe Awards and a British Academy Film Award. As of 2018, her films have grossed over $3 billion in the U.S., making her the fifth-highest-grossing actress at the domestic box office. Diaz's roles in comedies and romances cemented her as a sex symbol and a bankable star, and she was named the highest-paid Hollywood actress over 40 in 2013.
Born in San Diego, California, Diaz was raised in Long Beach. While still in high school, she signed a modeling contract with Elite Model Management. She made her film debut at age 21 opposite Jim Carrey in the comedy The Mask (1994). Following a supporting role in the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), she starred as the titular character in the Farrelly brothers' comedy There's Something About Mary (1998), which brought her increased fame and her first Golden Globe nomination. Her following two projects—the sports drama Any Given Sunday and Spike Jonze's fantasy film Being John Malkovich (both 1999)—lent Diaz a reputation as a dramatic actress.
Diaz had praised supporting roles in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001) and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002) and had greater commercial success in the action comedy Charlie's Angels (2000) and its 2003 sequel, as well as for voicing Princess Fiona in the Shrek franchise (2001–2010). Her subsequent films include the comedies In Her Shoes (2005), The Holiday (2006), What Happens in Vegas (2008), Knight and Day (2010), The Green Hornet (2011), and Bad Teacher (2011). After starring in three critically panned but financially successful films in 2014, The Other Woman, Sex Tape and Annie, Diaz retired from acting to focus on her family and businesses, but made a return to the profession in 2022.
Diaz has also written two health books: The Body Book (2013), a New York Times bestseller, and The Longevity Book (2016). Her personal life drew strong media attention throughout the course of her career, mostly regarding her relationships and fashion sense. In 2015, she married Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden; they have a daughter via surrogate in 2019.
Early life and work :
Cameron Michelle Diaz was born August 30, 1972, in San Diego, California to Billie (née Early), an import/export agent, and Emilio Diaz, a foreman of the California oil company Unocal. Diaz has an elder sister, Chimene. Her father's family is Cuban, and Diaz's ancestors had originally moved from Spain to Cuba. Later they settled in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, before moving to the Los Angeles area, where her father was born. Her mother has predominantly English and German ancestry.
Diaz was raised in Long Beach and attended Los Cerritos Elementary School, and then Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where she was a schoolmate of Snoop Dogg. She recalled her upbringing as frugal, stating: "I had amazing parents, they were awesome. We weren't privileged—very much the opposite. My family would collect [soda] cans to turn in for extra money, because $20 meant something to us. But we were very happy."
While still attending high school, Diaz signed a modeling contract with Elite Model Management at age 16 and appeared in advertisements for Calvin Klein and Levi's. The following year, at age 17, she was featured on the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine. Diaz also modeled for 2 to 3 months in Australia and shot a commercial for Coca-Cola in Sydney in 1991.
In 1992, at age 19, she was photographed and videotaped topless for an S&M leather fashion lingerie editorial by John Rutter, a professional photographer. The photographs and video were never released. Rutter approached Diaz in 2003, ahead of the release of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, offering to sell the pictures and video to her for $3.5 million before attempting to sell them to prospective buyers. He stated that he was offering her first right of refusal to them; she saw it as attempted blackmail and sued him. In July 2004, the 30-minute video of the photo shoot, entitled She's No Angel, was released on a Russian website. Rutter denied releasing it. On September 16, 2005, Rutter was sentenced to more than three years in prison for attempted grand theft, forgery, and perjury.
