Cameron Diaz

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress. Prolific in both comedy and drama, her films have grossed over $3 billion in the U.S. box-office. Her output of romantic comedies in the late 1990s and early 2000s established her as a prominent sex symbol and one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, and in 2013, Diaz was named the highest-paid actress over 40. She has received various accolades, including nominations for a British Academy Film Award and four Golden Globe Awards.

Born in San Diego, California, Diaz was raised in Long Beach. While still in high school, she signed a modeling contract with Elite Model Management. Diaz made her film debut at age 21 in the comedy The Mask (1994). Following a supporting role in the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), she starred as the titular character in the Farrelly brothers' comedy There's Something About Mary (1998), which brought her increased fame and her first Golden Globe nomination. Diaz's following two projects—the sports drama Any Given Sunday and Spike Jonze's fantasy film Being John Malkovich (both 1999)—earned her recognition as a dramatic actress.

Diaz received praise for her supporting roles in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001) and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002) and had greater commercial success in the action comedy Charlie's Angels (2000) and its 2003 sequel, as well as for voicing Princess Fiona in the Shrek franchise since 2001. Her subsequent films include the comedies In Her Shoes (2005), The Holiday (2006), What Happens in Vegas (2008), Knight and Day (2010), The Green Hornet (2011), and Bad Teacher (2011). After starring in three successful comedies in 2014—The Other Woman, Sex Tape and Annie—Diaz retired from acting to focus on her family, but made a return to the profession with the action comedy Back in Action (2025).

Diaz has also written two health books: The Body Book (2013), a New York Times bestseller, and The Longevity Book (2016). Her personal life has drawn media attention throughout the course of her career, mostly regarding her relationships and fashion choices. In 2015, Diaz married Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden; they have two children via surrogate.

Early life

Cameron Michelle Diaz was born August 30, 1972, in San Diego, California, to Billie (née Early), an import/export agent, and Emilio Diaz, a foreman of the California oil company Unocal. Diaz has an elder sister, Chimene. Her father's family is Cuban, and Diaz's forebears had emigrated from Spain to Cuba. Diaz stated that her direct Spanish ancestors were originally from Cádiz. Later, they settled in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, before moving to the Los Angeles area, where her father was born. Her mother has predominantly English and German ancestry.

Diaz was raised in Long Beach and attended Los Cerritos Elementary School, and then Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where she was a schoolmate of Snoop Dogg. She recalled her upbringing as frugal, stating: "I had amazing parents, they were awesome. We weren't privileged—very much the opposite. My family would collect [soda] cans to turn in for extra money, because $20 meant something to us. But we were very happy."

While still attending high school, Diaz signed a modeling contract with Elite Model Management at age 16 and appeared in advertisements for Calvin Klein and Levi's. The following year, at age 17, she was featured on the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine. Diaz also modeled for 2 to 3 months in Australia and shot a commercial for Coca-Cola in Sydney in 1991.

Career

1994–1998: Early films and rise to fame

At the age of 21, Diaz auditioned for The Mask, playing a jazz singer named Tina Carlyle, based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite, who met the film's producers while they were searching for the lead actress. Having no previous acting experience, she started acting lessons after being cast. The Mask became one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1994 and launched Diaz as a sex symbol. During this period, Diaz dated video producer Carlos de la Torre.

Diaz subsequently starred in the independent black comedy The Last Supper (1995), playing one of several liberal graduate students who invite a group of extremist conservatives to a dinner in an attempt to murder them. Roger Ebert deemed the film "a brave effort in a timid time, a Swiftian attempt to slap us all in the face and get us to admit that our own freedoms depend precisely on those of our neighbors, our opponents and, yes, our enemies." She then had a lead role as an ex-stripper in the dramatic comedy Feeling Minnesota (1996), in which she co-starred opposite Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Courtney Love. Emanuel Levy of Variety noted: "Sadly, with the notable exception of the attractive Diaz, who's well cast as the sexual aggressor and romantic manipulator, there are no exciting performances in the film." The same year, she was cast opposite Jennifer Aniston in the Edward Burns-directed comedy She's the One (1996), followed by a starring role in Head Above Water (1996), a crime-comedy in which she played an unfaithful wife implicated in her ex-lover's murder.

She was scheduled to perform in the film Mortal Kombat, but had to resign after breaking her hand while training for the role. Besides a starring part in the little-seen A Life Less Ordinary, Diaz returned to mainstream in 1997 with the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding. In it, she starred opposite Julia Roberts, playing the wealthy fiancée of a sportswriter who is the long-time friend of Roberts' character. The film was a global box-office hit and is considered one of the best romantic comedy films of all time.

In 1998, Diaz starred in There's Something About Mary, as the titular role of a woman living in Miami having several men vying for her affections. It was remarked in The Austin Chronicle: "As the Mary at the center of it all, Diaz certainly exudes that irresistible 'something' expressed in the title. In films such as My Best Friend's Wedding and A Life Less Ordinary, Diaz has shown herself to be a good comic sport who is game for just about anything. Here, it's no stretch to understand why, at the end of the movie, some half-dozen suitors have converged in her living room to throw themselves at her feet." The sleeper hit was the highest-grossing comedy of 1998 in North America as well as the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year; it made US$176 million in the United States and US$369 million worldwide. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. Diaz also starred in the critically panned comedy Very Bad Things (1998).

1999–2004: Dramatic roles and critical success

She starred in Spike Jonze's directorial debut Being John Malkovich (1999), portraying the pet-obsessed wife of an unemployed puppeteer who, through a portal, finds himself in the mind of actor John Malkovich. The film received widespread acclaim and was an arthouse success. Janet Maslin of The New York Times concluded that Diaz "does a hilarious turn" in her "frumpy wife" role, and Roger Ebert felt that the actress, "one of the best-looking women in movies, [...] here looks so dowdy we hardly recognize her [...] Diaz has fun with her talent by taking it incognito to strange places and making it work for a living". For her role, Diaz earned Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG Awards, however, she was snubbed for the Oscar, which was met with backlash. Her next film release in 1999 was Oliver Stone's sports drama Any Given Sunday (1999), in which veteran coach Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino) has fallen out of favor with her character Christina Pagniacci, the young woman who owns the team. While critical response was mixed, the film made US$100 million globally.

In the film adaptation Charlie's Angels (2000), Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu played the trio of investigators in Los Angeles. The film was one of the highest-grossing films of the year, grossing US$264.1 million. In 2001, Diaz starred in the Sundance-premiered independent drama The Invisible Circus, as a young woman who commits suicide in Europe in the 1970s, and next in the year, she appeared in Vanilla Sky, as the former lover of a self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate (Tom Cruise). A wide critical response and commercial success greeted Vanilla Sky upon its release; Los Angeles Times called her "compelling as the embodiment of crazed sensuality" and The New York Times said she gives a "ferociously emotional" performance. San Francisco Chronicle similarly stated of the film, "most impressive is Cameron Diaz, whose fatal-attraction stalker is both heartbreaking and terrifying." She earned nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globe Awards, the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the American Film Institute Awards for her performance in the film.