Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is perhaps best known for her roles in popular blockbuster movies such as The Mask, There’s Something About Mary, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Charlie’s Angels, Shrek, and Gangs of New York. She was the second of three actresses to join the coveted “$20 Million Club” after receiving this salary for Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

At 16 she began her career as a fashion model. Diaz signed with top modeling agency Elite Model Management. After graduating from high school, she went to work in Japan and met video director Carlo de la Torre. On her return to America, she moved in with him. For the next few years, her modeling took her around the world, working for contracts with major companies. She modeled for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi’s. She also graced the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine. During this period she also made a brief but now notorious soft pornographic film. At 21, Diaz auditioned for The Mask. Even though she had no previous acting experience, she obtained the role of the female lead. She signed up for acting lessons right after getting the part. Over the next three years, she won roles in low-budget, independent films, such as The Last Supper, Feeling Minnesota, and She’s the One. She then regained mainstream success with her roles in My Best Friend’s Wedding and There’s Something About Mary. She won critical acclaim for her performance in Being John Malkovich, which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards and the SAG Awards.

Diaz dated actor Matt Dillon from 1995 to 1998. She is also the ex-fiancée of actor/musician Jared Leto. They had a low-profile relationship from 1998 to 2002. There had been reports that Leto had broken up with Diaz because he was jealous of her increasing acting popularity. Most recently, Diaz dated former *NSYNC member Justin Timberlake, whom she met at the Kids’ Choice Awards in 2003. The pair issued a joint statement on January 11, 2007, announcing they had broken up, following weeks of breakup rumors.

Diaz has publicly admitted that she has OCD, is deeply germophobic and habitually rubs doorknobs so hard before opening doors to clean them that the original paint fades afterwards and along with her floors, she says, she washes her hands “many times” each day and uses her elbows to push open doors.

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