While her teen colleagues were stressed with routine things like school and dating, Southern California native Cameron Diaz was working with the Elite Modeling agency appearing on magazine covers and in advertising campaigns for clients like Calvin Klein and Levi's. And just like thousands of others in the modeling business, she had aspirations of an acting career. 

The actress, born of Cuban and Native American heritage, shot onto the movie screen as the singing moll in 1994's Jim Carrey blockbuster "The Mask". Ironically, she had set her sights lower, auditioning for the supporting role of a reporter (played in the film by Amy Yasbeck), but after almost 12 callbacks, she was hired. The now blonde actor managed to hold her own against the often over-the-top antics of co-star Jim Carrey. 

Riding the wave on her performance in "The Mask", she was hounded by every movie producer rushing to cast the next big star. In a series of clever moves, she decided to take roles in low budget movie projects which stretched her acting abilities. She joined a cast of other rising players as University students who invite progressives to "The Last Supper" (1995) before taking the role of a puzzled bride who finds herself attracted to her brother-in-law in "Feeling Minnesota" (1996) starring alongside Keanu Reeves. Willing to portray less than likable women, she cleverly played a former prostitute now a Wall Street hot-shot in Edward Burns' comedy "She's the One" (1996) with Jennifer Aniston. While she struggled as a spoiled rich girl who plots with her kidnapper in Danny Boyle's jagged "A Life Less Ordinary" (1997), that same year she played the role of Dermot Mulroney's fiancée who runs up against a rival in Julia Roberts in the light but pleasing "My Best Friend's Wedding". While most of the attention focused on Roberts' return to comedy roles, the attention quickly shifted to her scene-stealing role as the outwardly quirky fiancé.

Having shown her comedic talents as a supporting player, she moved on to star in one of 1998's highest grossing feature film, the Farrelly brothers' "There's Something About Mary". As Ben Stiller's dream girl, she is forever positive and a shining example of beauty. Yet she is also a fine comedic performer, especially in peculiar or shocking situations like the now famous "hair gel" scene.  In a welcomed move, the New York Film Critics awarded her their Best Actress award.

While almost pointless in a cameo as a television reporter in Terry Gilliam's try to portray the eccentric world of Hunter S. Thompson in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" working with a star studded cast consisting of  Johnny Depp and Tobey Maguire, she then dove into the dark side, downplaying her usually up-beat screen personality to play yet another fiancé in Peter Berg's dark comedy "Very Bad Things" with Christian Slater (1998) were, she played a calculating, crafty almost psychopathic woman unwavering at all costs to get married. 

In the 1999 project "Being John Malkovich", she took an old-fashioned look with frizzy brown hair as Lotte Schwartz, the pet store employee and wife of a puppet master (John Cusack). When her husband finds a secret portal that allows anyone to spend fifteen minutes inside the mind and body of the famous actor, she has an revelation, experiencing a relationship with her husband's fragile co-worker (Catherine Keener) that transcends sex and breaks into a intricate and amazing adventure. 

Taking on a more serious project, she ended the decade as the go-getting new owner of a struggling football franchise in Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday", proving with this role that her talents had more faces yet to be played. She continued to reach, successfully taking challenging roles in the female cast of "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her" (2001) and in the drama "Invisible Circus" (2000). 

 
Teaming with Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu as "Charlie's Angels" (2000) in the smash hit offered her the chance to showcase her funnier side with a funny character, as well as a realistic kick-butt action hero. And she won a huge following of young male admirers with her voice role as Princess Fiona in the charming animated tale "Shrek" (2001) and its sequel "Shrek 2" (2004) teaming with fellow super stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas.

A supporting role in "Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz (2001) as the woman whose lust for more than a casual sexual relationship with Cruise's playboy drives her to desperation gained her even more critical attention. Later that year, she portrayed a woman who falls in love with a man she can't have in the romantic comedy "The Sweetest Thing" working along side her friend Christina Applegate. Although the fluffy movie was not wholly rewarding, individual scenes nearly bubbled over with her natural funny wit and charm, sexy smile and relaxed approach. It also further cemented her movie celebrity status as the girl-next-door who doesn't mind the occasional crude joke.

She then worked on Scorsese's crime drama "Gangs of New York" (2002), in which she played the down-and-out street pickpocket Jenny Everdeane, the love interest of Amsterdam Vallon played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie was certainly ambitious, and targeted for many awards, but also regularly missed the mark; her performance was one of the film's more fulfilling moments. The following year, she returned as the sexy ass-kicking girl when she returned for the blockbuster comedy smash hit sequel "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" (2003). The sequel reunited her with Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, now linked as best friends as sort of a modern sexy girl Rat Pack, as the tough crime-fighting heroines.

In between movie projects and roles, the actress (who made news for her romance with the younger pop star Justin Timberlake) starred in "Trippin'" with friends Jessica Alba, Drew Barrymore, Eva Mendes, and Timberlake (2005), an 11-episode travel television series for MTV in which the actress and fellow celebrities visited exotic locations and enjoyed bizarre activities, riding elephants in Nepal, sand boarding in Chile and swimming the hot springs in Yellowstone. 

She returned to the movie screen in director Curtis Hanson's comedy-drama "In Her Shoes" (2005), which cast her and co-star Toni Collette as close but polar opposite siblings, she played the wild, sexy party girl, Collette the responsible attorney with low self-esteem, who have a disastrous falling out and must slowly come to grips that they share more than they thought. In “The Holiday” (2006), she was a dissatisfied woman living in Los Angeles who realizes that the man she has been living with is having an affair. She meets an English woman in love with a man in love with another woman online and the two spontaneously decide to switch houses for the Christmas holiday, only to find the one thing neither of them want: romance. The all star cast included Jude Law and Jack Black. 

Meanwhile, she voiced Princess Fiona for a third version in “Shrek the Third” (2007).

To round out 2008, she starred with Ashton Kutcher in "What Happens In Vegas" - set in Sin City, the story revolves around two people who discover they've gotten married following a night of debauchery. Next was the sci-fi horror "The Box" (2008) about a small wooden box that arrives on the doorstep of a married couple, who open it and become instantly wealthy. Little do they realize that opening the box also kills someone they do not know. She followed with the dramatic "My Sister's Keeper" (2009) about a former attorney who returns to the courtroom after a young teen learns the truth behind her conception, and looks to be emancipated from her parents. 

The actress wrapped up the year with another visit to the animated "Shrek Goes Fourth" (2004), the further adventures of the giant green ogre, Shrek, living in the land of Far, Far Away.

On April 15, 2008, Diaz's father died suddenly from complications of the flu, which turned into pneumonia. Emilio was 58 years old.

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