Rebecca Romijn

Early life

Rebecca Romijn was born on November 6, 1972, in Berkeley, Alameda County, California. Her mother, Elizabeth (nee Kuizenga), is a Community College instructor of English as a Second Language (ESL) and textbook author. Rebecca's father, Jaap Romijn, is a custom furniture maker. Her father is a native of Barneveld, the Netherlands, while her mother is an American of Dutch and English descent. Her mother met Rebecca's father as a teenager while living in the Netherlands on a student exchange program. Romijn's maternal grandfather, Dr. Henry Bernard Kuizenga, was a Presbyterian minister and seminary professor.

On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, when questioned about always being glamorous and beautiful, Romijn revealed that in her early teens, she was in fact an insecure "drama geek" and that, as a result of her growth spurt, she suffered from scoliosis and was constantly in pain. Many sources say that she was once nicknamed the "Jolly Blonde Giant" because of her 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) height, but she has admitted to making that up "for a laugh". While studying Music (Voice) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, she became involved with fashion modeling and eventually moved to Paris, where she lived for more than two years.

Career

Among other jobs, Romijn started her modeling career in 1991. She modeled for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Victoria's Secret, bebe, Miller Lite beer, and for Anna Molinari, and Giorgio Armani on the runway, along with the likes of Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, and Christy Turlington. She also was the host of MTV's House of Style from 1998 to 2000. Romijn has been featured numerous times in annual lists of the world's most beautiful women by publications such as Maxim (2003–2007), AskMen.com (2001–2003, 2005–2006) and FHM (2000–2005). She also appeared as a guest in the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Chinatown".

In 2000's X-Men Romijn had her first major movie role as Mystique; she returned to the role in 2003's sequel X2: X-Men United, and again for X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In these movies her costume consisted of blue makeup and some strategically placed prosthetics on her otherwise nude body. In X2: X-Men United she shows up in a bar in one scene in her "normal" look, and in X-Men: The Last Stand, she appears as a dark-haired "de-powered" Mystique. The role has since been recast with Jennifer Lawrence in the role. She had her first leading role in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale (2002). She also has starred in movies such as Rollerball, The Punisher playing a woman named Joan (Joan and Mystique are both characters from Marvel Comics) and Godsend. She played the leading role in Pepper Dennis, a short-lived TV series on The WB Television Network.

In January 2007, Romijn made her first appearance on the ABC series Ugly Betty as a full-time regular cast member. She plays Alexis Meade, a male-to-female transsexual and the sibling of lead character Daniel Meade. In April 2008, however, it was reported that Romijn would only be appearing as a recurring character in Season 3 due to a change in direction by the writing staff (aligning, fortuitously enough, with Romijn's pregnancy, which would have been inconsistent with her character's storyline). In November 2007, Romijn made a guest appearance on the ABC series Carpoolers, where she played the ex-wife of the character Laird, played by her real-life husband Jerry O'Connell.

Romijn starred in the ABC series Eastwick, reuniting her with her former Pepper Dennis co-star, Lindsay Price, before ABC canceled the show on November 9, 2009. She appears in an uncredited cameo in the 2011 feature film X-Men: First Class, appearing as an older version of the character played by Jennifer Lawrence. Romijn appeared as lab worker Jessie on the Adult Swim live-action show NTSF:SD:SUV:: for two seasons. Between June and September 2013, she starred in TNT's series King & Maxwell as Michelle Maxwell, a former Secret Service agent who works as a private investigator.

In addition to her film ventures, Romijn has also recorded music, performing a cover of Prince's "Darling Nikki" for the 2005 album Electro Goth Tribute to Prince.

She is currently starring as Eve Baird, the guardian of the eponymous group in The Librarians, a direct spin-off of The Librarian film series.

Personal life

Romijn began dating actor John Stamos in 1994, after they met at a Victoria's Secret fashion show in which she was modeling. Romijn and Stamos became engaged on Christmas Eve 1997, and they married on September 19, 1998 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. During the marriage, she used the name Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in both her personal and professional life. The couple announced their separation in April 2004. Stamos filed for divorce in August 2004, and it became final on March 1, 2005. Romijn subsequently resumed using only her maiden name, but revealed in an August 2013 interview on Conan that she had never legally changed her name back from Romijn-Stamos after a Conan staff member noticed "Romijn-Stamos" on her driver's license.

In 2004, Romijn started dating actor Jerry O'Connell. They became engaged in September 2005, and married at their home in Calabasas, California on July 14, 2007. Romijn and O'Connell have twin daughters, Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip, born on December 28, 2008. Dolly is for singer Dolly Parton's first name and Charlie is for O'Connell's brother.

Romijn was asked by Elle magazine in April 2002 whether making Femme Fatale had given her any new ideas about her sexuality. She said, "You know, in my early twenties I wondered if I was interested in women and so I kind of, well ... did my homework. And it turns out I'm pretty straight."