Cameron Diaz was born on August 30, 1972, in San Diego, California. The daughter of Emilio Diaz, a second-generation Cuban-American oil company foreman, and his wife Billie, who is of Native American, Italian, and German descent, Diaz began modeling when she was 16 years old. Her successful modeling career took her to Japan, Australia, Morocco, and Paris.

In the year of 1994, Diaz got her first film role in the blockbuster action comedy "The Mask", starring rubber-faced comic Jim Carrey. With no previous acting experience, she had originally auditioned for a behind character in the film. After the success of The Mask, Diaz was touted as the next big thing in Hollywood and wooed by a number of famous filmmakers to appear in their projects.

While training to star in the live-action film version of the popular martial-arts video game Mortal Kombat, Diaz sustained a wrist injury, which caused her to back out of the film. Instead she made a string of smaller, independent films, including The Last Supper (1995); Feeling Minnesota (1996), costarring Keanu Reeves; She?s the One (1996), costarring Ed Burns and Jennifer Aniston; and Head Above Water (1996), costarring Harvey Keitel.

After starring opposite Ewan McGregor in the uneven romantic comedy A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Diaz made the leap to A-list Hollywood stardom with her savvy comic turn in the unapologetically crude surprise summer blockbuster There?s Something About Mary, costarring Ben Stiller and Matt Dillon, and written and directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly.

In early 2001,Cameron Diaz appeared as a free spirited older sister in The Invisible Circus. She also provided the voice for the spirited Princess Fiona in that summer's animated hit Shrek, also featuring the voices of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy. Her upcoming projects include Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, costarring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, costarring Tom Cruise (both 2001).

The following year, she joined Liu and Barrymore for the sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. In 2003, Diaz signed on for a remake of the 1977 comedy caper Fun with Dick and Jane with Mask co-star Jim Carrey.