Eva Mendes

Eva de la Caridad Méndez, known professionally as Eva Mendes, is an American former actress and Broadway performer born on March 5, 1974, in Miami, Florida, to Cuban parents Eva Pérez Suárez and Carlos Méndez. Following her parents' divorce, she was raised by her mother in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her mother held jobs at Mann's Chinese Theatre and later at an aerospace company, while her father operated a meat distribution business. Mendes has an older brother, Juan Carlos Méndez (1963–2016), who died from throat cancer, and a younger half brother, Carlo, born in 1978. She attended Hoover High School in Glendale and enrolled in a marketing program at California State University, Northridge, before leaving to study acting under coach Ivana Chubbuck.

Her path into acting began after a talent manager spotted her photograph in a friend's portfolio. Her first screen appearance came in the direct-to-video horror film Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998), a performance she found disappointing enough to prompt her to hire an acting coach. She followed that with a bridesmaid role in the comedy A Night at the Roxbury (1998), a housekeeper part in My Brother the Pig (1999), and the role of a film student in the slasher film Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000). She also appeared in the Steven Seagal action thriller Exit Wounds (2001), which earned over $73 million worldwide, though her voice was reportedly dubbed in post-production at a producer's direction.

The turning point in Mendes's film career came with Antoine Fuqua's crime thriller Training Day (2001), in which she played the mistress of a corrupt police officer alongside Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. The film grossed $104.5 million at the box office and opened the door to more prominent roles. She reunited with Washington in Out of Time (2003), playing the soon-to-be ex-wife of a police chief, and appeared alongside Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson in 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), portraying an undercover U.S. Customs Service agent. That film earned over $236 million globally. The same year she appeared in the Western action film Once Upon a Time in Mexico, starring as the daughter of a Mexican drug lord alongside Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, and played an aspiring actress in the comedy Stuck on You with Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear.

Mendes starred opposite Will Smith as the love interest of a professional dating consultant in Hitch (2005), a romantic comedy that grossed $368.1 million worldwide. She also appeared in The Wendell Baker Story and Guilty Hearts that year. In 2006 she joined an ensemble cast including David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, and Maggie Gyllenhaal in the romantic comedy Trust the Man. Her 2007 output included Ghost Rider, based on the Marvel Comics character, in which she played the love interest of Nicolas Cage's titular role — a film that opened atop the North American box office and ultimately earned over $228 million worldwide — as well as the thriller We Own the Night opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg, and smaller releases Live! and Cleaner. She made an uncredited cameo in Knocked Up the same year.

In 2008, Mendes appeared in the all-female comedy The Women alongside Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, and Jada Pinkett Smith, earning a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress for her performance. She also played the femme fatale Sand Saref in The Spirit (2008), adapted from Will Eisner's newspaper comic strip. Her sole 2009 film release was the crime drama Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which reunited her with Nicolas Cage and appeared on numerous critics' year-end top ten lists. It was also in 2009 that Mendes made her Broadway appearance. Her stage credits additionally include The 24 Hour Plays in 2004.

Mendes continued working in film through the early 2010s. She portrayed the wife of a forensic NYPD accountant played by Will Ferrell in the action comedy The Other Guys (2010), which grossed $170.4 million globally, and played a love interest in Massy Tadjedin's romantic drama Last Night (2010) alongside Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington. She made an uncredited cameo in Fast Five (2011), reprising her 2 Fast 2 Furious role, and appeared in Girl in Progress (2012) as well as the drama The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). Beyond acting, Mendes has appeared in music videos for artists including Will Smith and has served as a brand ambassador for Calvin Klein, Cartier, Reebok, Pantene, and Peek & Cloppenburg, among others. She designed clothing for New York & Company and served as creative director of CIRCA Beauty, a makeup line sold at Walgreens.