Jessica Alba - Amerca's Dream Girl

Ask the average, red-blooded American male who his dream girl is and the answer is most likely to be Jessica Alba. This is a proven fact because she was ranked no. 1 on Askmen.com's list of the 99 most desirable women of 2006 and on Maxim's 100 Babe list in 2001.

Alba was born on April 28, 1981 in Pomona, Calif. She grew up in an Air Force family and the Albas lived in Mississippi and Texas before settling in California. Alba's exotic looks come from her Mexican, French and Danish roots.

Alba decided early in life to pursue a career in acting and signed with her first agent when she was 12. After graduating high school at 16, Alba studied at David Mamet's Atlantic Theater Company alongside William H. Macy and his wife Felicity Huffman.

She made her feature film debut in the kiddie flick "Camp Nowhere" in 1994. This lead to a string of appearances in TV shows and modestly successful movies. On TV she appeared in the "The Secret World of Alex Mack," a pilot for "Flipper," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Chicago Hope" and "The Love Boat: The Next Wave." She also had roles in films such as "Never Been Kissed," alongside Drew Barrymore, and the horror-comedy "Idle Hands."

Alba's breakthrough role was on the cult sci-fi show "Dark Angel," in which she played Max, a genetically engineered super soldier. Even though the James Cameron-produced show lasted only two seasons it propelled Alba from bit-part player to star. While shooting "Dark Angel," Alba struck up a relationship with on-screen love interest Michael Weatherly and although they were engaged for a while, they eventually went their separate ways.

Her fame from "Dark Angel," lead to several magazine spreads in men's publications such as Stuff and Maxim. She was also ranked no. 4 on the Top Ten Sci-Fi Babe's list. Still riding the wave of the "Dark Angel" fame, Alba appeared as the lead in "Honey," a film about a girl struggling to become a professional dancer in music videos.

2005 turned out to be a huge year for Alba. She was one of the leads in the superhero flick "Fantastic Four" where she played Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl. The film was a box office success (grossing more than $320 million worldwide) and Alba is slated to appear in it's sequel, currently in pre production. She also appeared in another comic book inspired-movie "Sin City," which was based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. In the movie Alba played a stripper and shared screen time with Bruce Willis. She also appeared with Paul Walker in the aquatic movie "Into the Blue." The film was famous for Alba's numerous scenes in a skimpy bikini. Although Alba is renowned for her looks, she describes herself as a modest girl and claims she would never appear nude or topless in a magazine.

In March 2006, Alba became embroiled in a legal battle with Playboy magazine. She appeared on the cover in a bikini and was upset that the magazine lead readers to believe that there were nude pictures of her inside. She also claimed Playboy used the cover shot without her permission. The incident was resolved when Playboy founder Hugh Hefner made an apology to Alba and the magazine agreed to make donations to two charities which she supports.