Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California April 28, 1981. Knowing she wanted to become an actress by the age of five, Jessica waited on acting as her family moved on a regular basis. Her father was in the Air Force, and the family moved around for a while to Biloxi, Mississippi, back to California, down to Del Rio, Texas, before her father settled down back in California.

Finally situated in California again, 12 year old Jessica began taking acting classes, and was signed by an agent after only 9 months in school. Oddly enough, it was her hair that earned Jessica her first film role. While in production on Camp Nowhere, one of the actresses left the production. Originally cast in a much smaller role, her dark hair was similar enough to the first actresses, and so she was offered a more prominent role.

For a while, Jessica landed mostly smaller roles and commercials most notably for J.C. Penny and Nintendo. Her recognition from her ad spots ended up getting her a recurring role in Nickelodeon's The Secret World of Alex Mack.

A physical, active person, Jessica enjoyed swimming and had become a PADI-certified scuba diver. This helped her clinch a role in the cast of the mid 90's tv show Flipper, as Maya. The show filmed in Australia, was a grueling one for Jessica, but she enjoyed many aspects of it, especially being able to work with dolphins. During production of Flipper, Jessica was actually kidnapped shortly after having received several menacing telephone threats. After an extensive search by authorities, she was found unharmed in the trunk of a car.

Jessica continued her work on Flipper, while returning to film in Venus Rising. As Flipper winded down, Jessica continued in television, appearing in the 1996 TV movie Too Soon For Jeff while also taking on guest roles on Chicago Hope. She began to gain higher recognition appearing in two episodes of Beverly Hills: 90210, Brooklyn South and an episode of the ill-concieved and thankfully short-lived Love Boat: The Next Wave.

Taking a break from television, Jessica returned to film with 1998's, P.U.N.K.S. and the newly re-popular Drew Barrymore's Never Been Kissed. She could also be seen in the misunderstood opus Idle Hands.

Not finding what she wanted in film, and with her budding beauty fueling her popularity with internet geeks everywhere, she was able to land her most successful role so far, that of the lead in James Cameron's first television series, Dark Angel. While Dark angel has made her a household name, Jessica does look back to film every so often, and can be seen soon in The Sleeping Dictionary. While Dark Angel continues to run successfully on Fox, she is constantly looking for the next big role to quench her thirst for acting.