Milla Jovovich

Biography
Milica Natasa Jovovic was born on December 17, 1975, in Kiev, Ukraine. Though she spent the first five years of her life in the Soviet Union, Milla Jovovich and her family relocated to the United States and eventually settled down in Los Angeles. Her parents split up a short time later, and Milla’s mother -- a performer in her native Kiev -- briefly attempted to make a living as an actress before eventually taking on house-cleaning jobs. Though Milla Jovovich picked up English within three months of moving to America, she found that many of her peers picked on her because of her accent and her communist background.

milla jovovich models for revlon
Milla Jovovich’s striking looks were in place virtually since birth, and by the time she was 9 years old, she had become a fixture within the modeling world’s auditioning circuit. After being signed by the Prima Modeling Agency, Milla Jovovich began popping up in a variety of print ads and other campaigns -- though it wasn’t until famed photographer Richard Avedon discovered Milla that big things started to happen for her. She was immediately placed alongside two other models in a campaign for Revlon makeup, and Milla Jovovich quickly found herself being asked to pose for such prestigious names as Donna Karan and Versace.

milla jovovich in return to the blue lagoon
Through her increasingly high-profile modeling career, Milla Jovovich showed an interest in acting and even attended California’s Professional Actors school to hone her craft. In 1988, Milla made her professional debut with a small role in the erotic drama Two Moon Junction, which she quickly followed up with one-episode appearances in sitcoms like Married with Children and Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. Milla Jovovich’s big break came in 1991 when she was cast in a leading role in Return to the Blue Lagoon, which, although not exactly a box-office bonanza, certainly propelled the struggling actress to the forefront of most avid moviegoers’ minds.

milla jovovich in the fifth element
Although Milla Jovovich acted sporadically over the next few years -- notably popping up in movies like the 1992 Charlie Chaplin biopic Chaplin and Richard Linklater’s 1993 cult comedy Dazed and Confused -- she devoted most of her energies to the recording of her debut album. Released in April 1994, The Divine Comedy garnered a number of unexpectedly positive reviews, yet the disc eventually proved to be something of a commercial failure. Milla Jovovich subsequently threw herself into her acting full-time, and in 1997, she was launched into worldwide superstardom following her role as Leeloo in the science-fiction blockbuster The Fifth Element.



In 2001, Milla Jovovich exercised her comedic acting chops with a role in Zoolander. And the following year, she starred as Alice in the film that established her career, Resident Evil. She reprised her role as Alice in 2004's Resident Evil: Apocalypse and 2007's Resident Evil: Extinction.

milla jovovich is named no. 90 in 2008 top 99
Milla Jovovich’s stint as Alice in the hugely popular Resident Evil series only confirmed her A-list status, and helped her achieve the No. 90 ranking on AskMen.com's list of Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008.

Although Milla Jovovich took some time off in 2008 after giving birth to her daughter, she signed on to star in the 2009 film Azazel.



Modeling career
At the age of nine, Jovovich began going to modeling auditions, and was signed by Prima modeling agency. At eleven, Jovovich was noticed by the photographer Richard Avedon. Avedon was head of marketing at Revlon at the time, and chose Jovovich to appear with models Alexa Singer and Sandra Zatezalo in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements. In 1987, photographers Gene Lemuel and Peter Duke took polaroids of the twelve year old Jovovich, and Lemuel later showed the photographs to Herb Ritts. Impressed, Ritts re-shot the polaroids for the October 1987 cover of the Italian fashion magazine Lei; this was the first of her many cover shoots. In 1988, she made her first professional model contract. Jovovich was among other models who gained controversy for becoming involved in the industry at a young age.

Later Jovovich made it to the cover of The Face, which led to new contracts and covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan. Since then, she has graced over one hundred magazine covers, including Seventeen, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar and In Style. Her modeling career has included various campaigns for Banana Republic, Christian Dior, Damiani, Donna Karan, Gap, Versace, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Coach, Giorgio Armani, H&M, and Revlon. Since 1998, Jovovich has been an "international spokesmodel" for L'Oreal cosmetics. She also appeared in the Pirelli calendar in 1998 and had a minor cameo in Bret Easton Ellis's novel Glamorama, a satire of society's obsession with celebrities and beauty.



In an article published in 2002, Jovovich was said to be Miuccia Prada's muse and in an article published in 2003, Harpers & Queen magazine claimed Jovovich was Gianni Versace's "favourite supermodel". In 2004, Jovovich topped Forbes magazine's "Richest Supermodels of the World" list, earning a reported $10.5 million. In 2006, Jovovich was picked up by Spanish clothing line Mango as their new spokesmodel and is currently featured in their ad campaigns; she can also be seen in ads for Etro. She has noted that "Modeling was never a priority" and it instead enables her "to be selective about the creative decisions she make".

milla jovovich in the fifth element
Although Milla Jovovich acted sporadically over the next few years -- notably popping up in movies like the 1992 Charlie Chaplin biopic Chaplin and Richard Linklater’s 1993 cult comedy Dazed and Confused -- she devoted most of her energies to the recording of her debut album. Released in April 1994, The Divine Comedy garnered a number of unexpectedly positive reviews, yet the disc eventually proved to be something of a commercial failure. Milla Jovovich subsequently threw herself into her acting full-time, and in 1997, she was launched into worldwide superstardom following her role as Leeloo in the science-fiction blockbuster The Fifth Element.

In 2001, Milla Jovovich exercised her comedic acting chops with a role in Zoolander. And the following year, she starred as Alice in the film that established her career, Resident Evil. She reprised her role as Alice in 2004's Resident Evil: Apocalypse and 2007's Resident Evil: Extinction.

milla jovovich is named no. 90 in 2008 top 99
Milla Jovovich’s stint as Alice in the hugely popular Resident Evil series only confirmed her A-list status, and helped her achieve the No. 90 ranking on AskMen.com's list of Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008.
Although Milla Jovovich took some time off in 2008 after giving birth to her daughter, she signed on to star in the 2009 film Azazel.