Born on March 5, 1974 in Miami, Florida, Eva Mendes is a Hollywood actress best known for a string of major films such as 2 Fast 2 Furious, Hitch, Training Day, Ghost Rider, and We Own the Night. Born to Cuban-American parents, he was raised in Los Angeles after her parents divorced. She recalls so much suffering from her mother after what happened. She was raised Roman Catholic and, as the youngest of four, she initially wanted to be a nun and had absolutely no plans of pursuing an acting career. She attended Hoover High School in Glendale and went on to study marketing at California State University in Northridge. She dropped out, however, when her boyfriend Zedrick Threatt helped her pursue acting.
Eva Mendes started doing commercials and music videos when she caught the attention of an agent, who was responsible in urging her to pursue acting more steadily. She first appeared in Will Smith’s Miami video, Pet Shop Boys’ Se a vida e and Aerosmith’s Hole in my Soul. She then started guest-starring in soap operas and landing small film roles. Her official debut film was the direct to video Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror.
It was in Training Day, however, where Mendes got her first big break. An award-winning and critically acclaimed film, her performance in the 2001crime film with Ethan Hawke lead to more roles in Stuck on You, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and the female lead in Hitch, opposite Will Smith. She also starred in Ghost Rider and We Own the Night with Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall. She had since appeared in commercials for Gushers, Revlon, and Levi’s. She is Revlon Cosmetics’ international spokeswoman, following the ranks of Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, and Cindy Crawford. She was ranked 7th by Maxim in its 2007 Hot 100 issue.