Jordana Brewster

Jordana Brewster (born April 26, 1980) is an American actress. She began her acting career in her late teens, with a 1995 one-episode role in the soap opera All My Children. She followed that appearance with the recurring role as Nikki Munson in As the World Turns, for which Brewster was nominated for Outstanding Teen Performer at the 1997 Soap Opera Digest Award. She was later cast as Delilah Profitt, one of the main characters in her first feature film, Robert Rodriguez's 1998 horror science fiction The Faculty. Her role brought her to the attention of a much wider audience, gained critical acclaim and achieved financial success. She also landed a starring role in a 1999 NBC television miniseries entitled The 60s. Her breakthrough role came in the 2001 high budget car-themed action film The Fast and the Furious, which was a worldwide success. Brewster began being widely recognized. Other film credites include the 2004 action comedy film D.E.B.S., the 2005 independent drama Nearing Grace and the 2006 horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, for which she received two Teen Choice Award nominations.

She had a recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck and starred in the 2009 film Fast & Furious, the fourth installment of the The Fast and the Furious film series. After guest roles in several television shows such as Dark Blue and Gigantic, she appeared in the fifth film in the franchise, 2011's Fast Five, which gained critical praise, becoming the highest rated entry for Brewster. She will star in the television series Dallas. Brewster was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Maria João (née Leal de Sousa), a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model from Brazil, and Alden Brewster, an American investment banker. Her paternal grandfather, Kingman Brewster, Jr., was an educator, diplomat, and president of Yale University. Brewster left Panama when she was 2 months old, relocating to London, where she would spend 6 years, before moving to her mother's native Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she learned to speak Portuguese fluently. She left Brazil at the age of 10, settling in Manhattan, New York, where she would live for the next 20 years. Brewster studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York and graduated from the Professional Children's School in New York. She then attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating in 2003 with a B.A. in English.

Brewster made her debut in daytime soap operas, with a one-time appearance on All My Children as Anita Santos, followed by a recurring role on As the World Turns as Nikki Munson from 1995 to 2001. For her performance in the show, she was nominated for "Outstanding Teen Performer" at the 1997 Soap Opera Digest Awards. Her first film role was in Robert Rodriguez's 1998 horror science fiction film, The Faculty. In the film, Brewster played the character of Delilah Profitt, a popular and vindictive girl who is the editor in chief of the student paper. The film received several favorable reviews and was a major success at the box office, grossing over $40 million domestically. Later, she was cast alongside Julia Stiles and Jerry O'Connell in a NBC television miniseries entitled The 60's, in which she appeared as Sarah Weinstock, a college student and radical activist. The miniseries premiered on February 7, 1999, in the United States and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2001, she starred with Cameron Diaz and Christopher Eccleston in The Invisible Circus, a drama feature based on Jennifer Egan's best-selling novel. The film was not well received by critics, however, Brewster's performance was praised.

Reviewer James Berardinelli stated that "The film's saving grace is the performance of Jordana Brewster (whose only previous significant screen credit was as one of the students in Robert Rodriquez's The Faculty), whose reading of Phoebe pulls as much depth from the character as Brooks' direction will allow. Phoebe's mixture of self-confidence, bewilderment, and vulnerability is entirely credible." Brewster had her breakthrough role when she starred opposite Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in the car-themed action film The Fast and the Furious, which was a box office hit (with an over $207 million worldwide gross) and received critical acclaim. Todd McCarthy of Variety.com stated that Brewster "is looking good and doing a better job here than she did as a searching teen in the recent The Invisible Circus." In 2004, she played one of the main characters in the action comedy D.E.B.S., as Lucy Diamond, a lesbian criminal mastermind who is the love interest of Sara Foster's character. She was cast in the 2005 independent teen drama film set in late 1970s, Nearing Grace. The film is based on the novel by Scott Sommer. In 2006, Brewster released the drama film Annapolis. The film is about a young man who dreams of one day attending the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

That same year, she appeared in the high-profile horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, which was released theatrically in October. In the film, she had the starring role of Chrissie. The Beginning was not well received by critics, however, grossed over $51 million worldwide, becoming a modest hit. For her performance, Brewster was nominated for both "Choice Movie Actress: Horror" and "Choice Movie: Scream" at the 2007 Teen Choice Awards. Brewster appeared in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, but her scenes were deleted. Brewster portrayed the role of Mrs. Smith, the role depicted in the film by Angelina Jolie, in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a spin-off pilot to the 2005 film of the same name which was made for the ABC network. However, ABC decided not to commission the series. She also joined the cast of the NBC television series Chuck, as a recurring character, Jill Roberts, Chuck's ex-girlfriend from Stanford. She has appeared in four episodes of the show between 2008 and 2009. Brewster reprised the role of Mia Toretto in the fourth film of the The Fast and the Furious franchise, Fast & Furious, which opened on April 3, 2009. The film had a big financial success, with a over $353 million worldwide gross. In an interview with AskMen.com, Brewster explained her character: "In the first one I’m more of a wallflower and it's much more of a girlfriend-type role, but in [the new movie] I’m more of a woman. She’s far more tough.

In 2002, Stuff magazine named her the 96th hottest woman in their "102 Sexiest Women in the World". In 2005 Maxim magazine named her the 54th sexiest woman in the world in their annual Hot 100. In 2006, Maxim ranked her at No.59 on their Hot 100. In 2009, she ranked No.9 on Maxim's Hot 100 and, to coincide with Fast and Furious, a photographic spread of Brewster in a range of black lingerie in the May 2009 edition of Maxim ("Life in the Fast Lane") aroused much interest. The latter shoot followed a striking scene in Chuck (2008) in which, as Dr Roberts, she had stripped down to her black brassiere to seduce the title character (Zachary Levi). Brewster was placed 8th on afterellen.com's "100 Hottest Women" list in 2007, and placed 22nd in 2008. In 2011, Maxim Magazine placed Brewster at spot 11 in Maxims Hot 100. She has a cat named Delilah, after her character in The Faculty, as well as two Labradors, a yellow one named Ella and a white one named Hendry. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, film producer Andrew Form, whom she met on the set of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, in which Form worked as a producer. They announced their engagement on November 4, 2006. They married in a private ceremony in the Bahamas on May 6, 2007. In an interview, she ranked Gossip Girl, The Office, and House as her favorite television shows.