Date of Birth

3 December 1982, Ely, Minnesota, USA

Birth Name

Jessica Claire Biel

Nickname

Jesse

Height

5' 7" (1.7 m)

Mini Biography

Jessica Biel, with her good looks and talent, has become one of Hollywood's most sought-out actresses. She was born in Ely, Minnesota, to Kimberly (Conroe) and Jonathan Edward Biel, who is a business consultant and GM worker. Biel was raised in Boulder, Colorado. She is of Hungarian Jewish, Danish, English, and German descent.

As a child, Jessica initially pursued a career as a vocalist, performing in musical theater. Beginning at age nine, she starred in such productions as "Annie," "The Sound of Music," and "Beauty and the Beast." A natural beauty, Jessica soon turned to modeling and commercial work by competing in The International Modeling and Talent Association's Annual Conference in 1994.

Her Film debut was in the Kid's Rock Opera It's a Digital World (1994) where she demonstrated her acting and singing abilities. Her television series acting debut, playing Mary Camden on the WB's #1-rated show, 7th Heaven (1996), helped her emerge as a breakout star. She then excited and terrified moviegoers with her portrayal of Erin, "Leatherface's" greatest nemesis to date, in New Line Cinema's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), a remake of the famous original. Having finished filming, Blade: Trinity (2004) in Vancouver with Wesley Snipes, Ryan Reynolds, and Kris Kristofferson, she transported her toned and trained body of a vampire hunter/killer to Australia to fill the uniform and project the integrity of one of filmdom's first female jet-fighter pilots in Columbia/Sony Pictures new film, Stealth (2005), starring Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx, and Sam Shepherd, for director Rob Cohen. Jessica's film career began at age 14 when she played alongside Peter Fonda in his Golden Globe-winning performance in Ulee's Gold (1997). Her other film credits include I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998), Summer Catch (2001), Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction (2002), and Cellular (2004), which stars Chris Evans, Kim Basinger, and William H. Macy.

In her spare time, Biel is involved with charities such as Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and PETA. Her hobbies include ballet, soccer, running, yoga and hiking with her dog "East." She resides in Los Angeles.

In 2012, Jessica married actor and singer Justin Timberlake. The two have a son.

Trivia

• Has a brother named Justin Biel.
• Discovered at the 1994 IMTA Los Angeles convention.
• She collects vintage glasses with no lenses.
• Jessica's paternal great-grandfather, Edward Biel, was the son of Moritz Biel and Otillie Morskovitz, who were Jewish emigrants from Zilina (then in the Kingdom of Hungary, now in Slovakia). She discovered this lineage on the show Who Do You Think You Are? (2010). Edward's wife, Jessica's great-grandmother Carrie Rasmussen, was the daughter of Danish parents. Jessica's other ancestry includes English, German, Swiss-German, Scottish, and distant Welsh, Swedish, and French, roots.
• Attended Tufts University for three semesters.
• Won an acting scholarship to the Young Actor's Space at 11 years old.
• Her father ran an Outward Bound school and worked as an international business consultant.
• Once wanted to become a musical star after winning a karaoke contest when she was aged eight.
• Daughter of Kimberly (Kim) Biel (née Conroe) and Jonathan Edward Biel, an entrepreneur.
• Her first acting job was in a Pringles commercial when she was 11 years old.
• Auditioned for the role of Agent Fields in 'Quantum of Solace', the role went to Gemma Arterton.
• Named a Global Brand Ambassador for Revlon [May 4, 2009].
• Lost out to 2 roles in 2012 to Anne Hathaway, she auditioned for 'The Dark Knight Rises' and 'Les Misérables', both roles went to Hathaway.
• Was considered to play Natasha Romanov/Black Widow in 'Iron Man 2' after Emily Blunt dropped out, but Scarlett Johansson was cast instead.
• Auditioned for the role of Angela Hayes in American Beauty (1999).

Trademarks:

• high cheekbones
  

Quotes

• I've never gotten to do romantic comedy like most of the girls. Maybe because I'm fit, people assume that I'm not funny?
• There is so much pressure to look a certain way in this town. But it's nice to have a little meat on you, and I hope I inspire women to appreciate their muscular calves.
• I think my parents were originally going to name me 'Snowmo Biel', so I guess in that respect 'Jessica' was a real win for me!
• The first movie I remember seeing is The Goonies (1985). I never identified with girls, and the cast was all boys. Girls were nervous about going into caves; they were scaredy-cats--and I wasn't into that at all. I loved the idea of being with a crew and having an adventure. I was really interested in pits full of snakes.
• My brother is one of those people that I just have total, 100 percent faith in.
• [on whether or not she felt she was talked into doing some of the "blockbusters" that she's starred in] It's really tough. It's so easy to be a Monday morning quarterback and say, "Oh, that was a bad idea." The thing is-you give up so much control. You do your job while you're shooting, and then that's it. I'm not in the editing room, I'm not sitting there with the director, and I'm not sitting with the producers. I don't have any of that capacity, but I'm hoping to produce my own things so I will have that capacity. It's such a gamble that everybody takes when you agree to do something. And sometimes you make a decision because you need to pay your rent, sometimes you make decisions because people are talking to you about "international value," and to do a movie that would do well internationally, even though it's not the right creative choice for you because if you can do that, then maybe you can do that small character piece that you really want to do. And usually, the ones that look right on paper are the ones where you go, "What was I thinking?!" and the ones that look crazy, you end up going, "Wow, what a great outcome that was."