Cameron Diaz

Born: 30th August 1972
Where: San Diego, California, USA

The former model landed her breakout role when she was cast opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask without any previous acting experience.

She has since held her own opposite Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding and will be fondly remembered for the "hair gel" moment in There's Something About Mary.

The daughter of a Cuban-American father and an Anglo-German mother, Diaz left home at 16 and for the next 5 years lived in Japan, Australia, Mexico, Morocco, and Paris.

Returning to California at the age of 21, she was employed by Elite Modelling agency, and appeared in campaigns for high profile clients such as Calvin Klein and Levi's.

During this time, she auditioned for a part in The Mask - to her amazement and despite having no previous acting experience, she was cast as the female lead in the film opposite Jim Carrey.

Riding the buzz on her performance in The Mask, she found herself in great demand but opted for experience-rich low budget outings.

Independent movies included The Last Supper. She's The One and Keys To Tulsa before she was cast opposite Roberts in the 1997 romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding.

The following year. she starred with Ben Stiller in one of the year's highest grossing movies, There's Something About Mary.

Subsequent appearances ranged from the black comedy Very Bad Things to Spike Jonze's surreal Being John Malkovich.

In 2000, she teamed with Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu to form the blockbuster Charlie's Angels, a role which she also reprised in the sequel.

Diaz also lent her vocal talents to the hit animated adventure Shrek in 2000, and returned with the other cast members for the obligatory record-breaking sequels.

She starred alongside Tom Cruise in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky and made an ill-advised foray into gross-out with The Sweetest Thing.

Director Martin Scorsese cast her alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York and she also made an uncredited appearance in Minority Report.

Offscreen, photographer John Rutter was jailed for four years after he was accused of trying to blackmail Diaz for $3m over topless snaps with a bondage theme taken before she was famous.

Notoriously less than impressed with paparazzi, Diaz and her former boyfriend Justin Timberlake frequently resorted to legal action to protect their privacy.

In 2005, she starred in Curtis Hanson's superior rom-com In Her Shoes opposite Toni Collette and went on to appear alongside Kate Winslet in 2006's The Holiday.

Recent work includes the role of a commodities broker who ends up hitched to Ashton Kutcher's slacker in What Happens in Vegas.