Jessica Biel was born on March 3, 1982 in Ely, Minnesota to Kim and John
Biel. She has a younger brother named Justin. Her family moved to
Boulder, Colorado when she was still young.
As a youngster, she always enjoyed performing in front of an audience;
however, she wanted to pursue a career as a singer. Talented, even at a
young age, she was already starring in small theater adaptations of
Annie, The Sound of Music, The Invisible People and Beauty
and the Beast. And as a child, she even dreamed of being a doctor
or a surgeon.
She was also a very beautiful girl and began modeling before she was
even a teenager. She even competed in the International Modeling and
Talent Association’s Annual Conference at the age of twelve. [This is
where she may have been “discovered.”] She won a scholarship to the
Young Actors Space (an acting society) in L.A., where they helped to
refine her talent, and allowed for networking within the “business.”
She appeared on several magazine covers, including Sassy Magazine in
1996 and Teen and Moxie Girl in 1998.
Jessica’s television debut came in 1996 on the highly rated television
show 7th Heaven. Even though this was her first acting
job, she would be a regular on the show until 1999 (with less
appearances over the following few years). She was a young and talented
actress and was nominated for many awards for her role as Mary Camden
including the 1998 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Drama
Series - Leading Young Actress, 1998 YoungStar Award for Best
Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama TV Series, 1999 Young Artist
Award for Best Performance in a TV Series - Young Ensemble (shared with:
Beverley Mitchell; Barry Watson; David Gallagher; and Mackenzie Rosman)
and the 2000 YoungStar Award for Best Young Ensemble Cast - Television
(shared with David Gallagher Beverley Mitchell; and Mackenzie Rosman)
In 1997 she made her big screen debut in Ulee’s Gold playing Peter
Fonda’s granddaughter. She received the Young Artist Award for Best
Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress for her role in
this movie. During the late 1990’s she appeared in the Disney movie,
I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1998).
In 1999 she decided to break out of the good girl image and posed
semi-nude, for Gear magazine (she was still three months shy of
her 18th birthday when the pictures were taken). Biel felt
as though the producer, Aaron Spelling had too much control over her
career – especially allowing her to choose the movies she wanted to do.
She wanted to cause a stir and she did in a big way. Although she did
not go fully nude, it caused a big stir on the set of 7th
Heaven, and she was written off as a regular because of the “family”
nature of the show. However, she did make a few appearances over the
next few years. [She later admitted to feel regrets about the whole
incident, during a time in which she was still immature.] Even amongst
all of the controversy, she was named one of the World’s 50 Most
Beautiful People by People Magazine in 1999.
Her magazine layout in Gear allowed her to explore the diversity
of her talent and she began to take on roles much different than the
“family friendly” Mary Camden. These films included coming of age,
horror, drama and action films, such as Summer Catch (2001),
The Rules of Attraction (2002), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(2003), Blade: Trinity (2004) and Cellular (2004). Only
Blade: Trinity was a box office hit, however, she was nominated
for the Saturn Award for Best Actress and the MTV Movie Award for
Breakthrough Female Performance for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
In 2005 she was awarded the ShoWest Award for Female Star of Tomorrow.
She’s beautiful, she’s talented, and she is also smart. She has already
completed three semesters at Tufts University (in Boston) between 2000
and 2002.
In 2004 Jessica was to be in Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown which
has an all-star cast (Orlando
Bloom,
Kirsten Dunst and
Susan Sarandon), then filmed
Blade: Trinity, and going almost-nonstop, filmed Stealth an action
movie where she stars alongside Josh Lucas and
Jamie Foxx in a movie with a military
pilot.
In 2005, Esquire magazine named her the “Sexiest Woman Alive”
Biel began dating singer Justin
Timberlake in early 2007. This same year she was ranked number 1 in
Stuff magazine’s “100 Sexiest Women”
She was praised by critics in her 2008 role in Easy Virtue, which
premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
After an on-again off-again relationship with
Justin Timberlake, they
were engaged in December of 2011.
When not acting, she can be seen getting involved with her charity work
with organizations like Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and PETA. In
2010, she even climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise
awareness of the global water crisis.
Hobbies & Interests: Collecting vintage glasses, rollerblading, soccer, ballet, yoga,
photography, running, hiking, pets (she has a dog named East)
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
This biography may be copied in part
or in whole for non commercial purposes online or in hard copy and must
contain: (1) the name of the author, (2) the text "copied with
permission from PopStarsPlus.com" and (3) a link to the page that
contains the original biography.
