Gemma Ward was born in Perth, Western Australia, as the second child of Gary and Claire Ward. Her older sister, Sophie, is also a model and she has younger twin brothers, Oscar and Henry. Ward was discovered in 2002 when she was in the Australian television show Search for a Supermodel. Although she did not make it past the early rounds, she was later signed by Vivien's Model Management based in Australia, and IMG in New York. She is a former student of Presbyterian Ladies' College, Perth, and Shenton College.

Ward was the youngest model chosen to be in a Vogue shoot of nine "It Girls" in the modeling world, which also included Daria Werbowy, Gisele Bündchen and Karolína Kurková. She has been in campaigns from Prada to Yves Saint-Laurent, and has been in shows for designers such as Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, and many more. She has also been on magazine covers such as Vogue and W. She is the first model since Kate Moss to be the face for Calvin Klein's perfume "Obsession Night for Men" along with Philadelphia male model, Drew Keilt. Recently, she was selected as the first model to appear on the cover of Teen Vogue magazine.

Ward is now regarded as one of the world's most beautiful women by many fashion insiders, having been described at times to have an out-of-this-world look. British photographer Nick Knight said that, "Gemma is one of the very, very few models who look as though they come from another dimension." She currently lives in New York and is close friends with fellow models Lily Donaldson, Caroline Winberg and Lily Cole.

Ward's baby doll-like look inspired a new craze in fashion. Fashion designer Lazaro Hernandez tells Teen Vogue (Feb. 06), "She looked like no one else at the time. She was this alien, and fashion is always looking for newness." Her look became the popular new look among models. It has inspired a new generation of baby doll-like models such as Vlada Roslyakova, Heather Marks, and Jessica Stam.

--Wikipedia