Eva Mendes Biography

Name : Eva Mendes

Birth Date : March 5, 1978 

Birth Place : Houston, Texas, USA 

Height : 5' 7 

Education : California State University in Northridge (majored in Marketing; dropped out to persue a career as an actress) 

Nationality : American 

Profession : Actress 

Best Known as : Sexy Cuban-American co-star of Training Day

Eva Mendes, also given credit as Eva Mendez was born in Houston, Texas on March 5, 1978. He parents are both Cubans, and contributed to an interesting childhood that saw Eva move to Miami and then Los Angeles, when she was still a young girl. A fiercely independent actress who refuses to be pressed into a conventional mode or typecast, Eva Mendez was studying marketing in the late '90s when an agent stumbled across her photo while perusing Mendez's neighbor's portfolio. Eva Mendes kicked off her acting career in an Aerosmith video. The 25-year-old resident of Los Angeles hadn't considered acting as a career until two and a half years ago, and has never taken an acting class. As the classic Hollywood story goes, she was discovered because her neighbour, a photographer, had her photo in his portfolio and it caught the eye of an agent. Dropping out of school soon after being randomly discovered by an agent, Mendez appeared in a few made-for-television productions and hammed it up with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in A Night at the Roxbury before being cast in a prominent role in Urban Legends: Final Cut. She was thrilled about the opportunity to play a lesbian Latina, but she is still seeking the role that will challenge her as well as her viewers. After spending the last part of the 1990s in TV roles, music videos and small parts in movies such as A Night at Roxbury and Exit Wounds (both 1998), Eva Mendes had a career breakthrough co-starring with Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001, with Ethan Hawke). Since then she's been one busy, sexy actor in half a dozen movies, including 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003, starring Paul Walker), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003, with Antonio Banderas and Johnny Depp) and Out of Time (2003, also with Denzel Washington) and Stuck on You (2003, with Matt Damon). Recently Eva played an FBI agent in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). She is writing a children's book, "Crazy Leggs Beshee." Inspired by her nieces and nephews, she wants to introduce vocabulary, art, history and values through a medium kids understand.