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.

Like some of our favorite actresses (Liv Tyler, Alicia Silverstone), Eva Mendes kicked off her acting career in an Aerosmith video.

Mendes kept at it in the comedy A Night at the Roxbury, and then, after smaller projects, resurfaced in 2000 with a role in Urban Legends: Final Cut. It was there that she began to get labeled as a tough, feisty and sexy vixen; this persona was maintained in the action hit Exit Wounds and especially in her most admired performance, as Denzel Washington's wife in 2001's Training Day.

She is writing a children¹s book, "Crazy Leggs Beshee." Inspired by her nieces and nephews, she wants to introduce vocabulary, art, history and values through a medium kids understand.

Mendes has three potentially huge hits set for release in 2003. She will be bombarding audiences with appearances in Desperado II: Once Upon a Time in Mexico (starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek), Out of Time (again with Denzel Washington) and the Farrelly brothers' Stuck On You (starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear).

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