Jessica Marie Alba (as she is sometimes credited) was born April 28, 1981, in Pomona, California. The aspiring actress relocated with her family (her Spanish/Mexican-American father was in the Air Force) several times before finally settling down in Southern California. The Alba family moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, then back to California, followed by Del Rio, Texas, and finally back to the West Coast.
Despite constantly moving across the map of the United States, Jessica knew that she wanted to be an actress since the age of five. Her career was ready to take off when an agent signed her, a mere 9 months after a 12-year-old Jessica took an acting class. Jessica’s first film role, in the 1993 film Camp Nowhere, came her way by chance. She was cast with a bit part in the film, when one of the lead characters dropped out of the production. A dark-haired Jessica was cast as the replacement, thanks to the fact that her hair matched that of the original actress.
She then ventured into smaller projects on the small screen, with commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penny, and a recurring role in Nickelodeon’s The Secret World of Alex Mack in 1994. Following her Nickelodeon stint, Jessica, also a PADI-certified scuba diver, was cast as Maya in the 1995 series Flipper. During production of Flipper, Jessica was actually kidnapped after having received telephone threats. Thankfully, she was found unharmed in the trunk of a car.
While working with dolphins on the television series that has become her claim to fame, Jessica was cast in the disastrous film Venus Rising, as well as the 1996 made-for-TV movie Too Soon For Jeff and a guest appearance on Chicago Hope. 1998 was filled with many television show appearances, including a recurring role on the Aaron Spelling prime-time soap Beverly Hills, 90210 (practically considered a prerequisite for budding young actresses), Brooklyn South and The Love Boat: The Next Wave. As for film, audiences could catch Jessica in P.U.N.K.S. (a.k.a. Rebels), Never Been Kissed, co-starring Drew Barrymore, and Idle Hands, co-starring Vivica A. Fox.
With Jessica’s growing popularity on the Internet after her role in Flipper and even her more obscure film roles, not to mention her exotic looks (Jessica’s ethnic background consists of Danish, French and Mexican), it’s no wonder that James Cameron cast her as the lead role in his television series, Dark Angel. These traits of course, are bonuses next to the fact that she can act…
Jessica can also be seen in the film Paranoid, and The Sleeping Dictionary, which is still in production. Nicknamed Sky Angel, Jessica has recently been featured in Teen Magazine and Vanity Fair, and can be seen every week as the genetically enhanced Max on Dark Angel. The raven-haired actress was nominated for a 2001 Golden Globe award, for Best Actress In a Dramatic Television Series.
But mere men can only daydream about 20-year-old Jessica while watching her; she has been engaged to her Dark Angel co-star, 32-year-old Michael Weatherly (Logan on the show), since May 2001. She also recently signed a contract with L’Oreal, joining Jennifer Lopez and Milla Jovovich as a Feria hair color spokesperson.