Rebecca Romijn Biography

Rebecca Alie Romijn ( ; ; born November 6, 1972) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is best known for her role as Mystique in the X-Men films and for her recurring role as Alexis Meade on the television series Ugly Betty. During her marriage to actor John Stamos, she was often credited as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.

Early life

Romijn was born in Berkeley, California, United States. Her mother, Elizabeth (née Kuizenga), is a Community College teacher of English as a Second Language and textbook author. Her 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; she met Romijn's father while staying in the Netherlands on a teenage exchange program. Romijn's maternal grandfather, Dr. Henry Bernard Kuizenga, was a Presbyterian minister and seminary professor. When questioned about always being glamourous and beautiful on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Romijn revealed that as a child in her early teens she was in fact an insecure 'drama geek', and 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 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 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, Victoria's Secret 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 in an episode titled "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 also in X-Men: The Last Stand, she appears as a dark-haired "de-powered" Mystique. 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 and Godsend. She played the leading role in Pepper Dennis, a short-lived TV series on The WB.

In January 2007 Romijn made her first appearance on the ABC series Ugly Betty as a full-time regular. 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 2009 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 film, X-Men: First Class, and appeared as lab worker Jessie on the Adult Swim live-action show NTSF:SD:SUV:: for two seasons. Since June 2013, Romijn stars in TNT's series King & Maxwell as Michelle Maxwell, a former Secret Service agent who works as a private investigator.

Personal life

Romijn attended the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1990"91, where she lived in dorm 1 at Stevenson College. She studied music and participated in the dorm talent show, singing a musical comedy routine with a high school friend who joined her at UCSC. During the summer following her freshman year, Rebecca began her career modeling and did not return for her sophomore year.

She married actor John Stamos on September 19, 1998. During her marriage, she used the name Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in both her personal and professional life. The couple announced their separation on April 12, 2004, and divorced on March 1, 2005. She has since returned to using her maiden name. It was revealed in an August 1, 2013 interview on Conan that Rebecca had never legally changed her name back from Romijn-Stamos, even though she has been divorced for nine years and re-married for six. The show's host Conan O'Brien stated that a staffer had noticed "Romijn-Stamos" on her drivers license and she said that she keeps meaning to get it changed, but does not want to go to the DMV.

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."

On September 19, 2005, Romijn announced her engagement to actor Jerry O'Connell. They were married on their ranch in Southern California on July 14, 2007. On July 28, 2008, it was announced that Romijn was pregnant. Romijn and O'Connell welcomed twin daughters Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip on December 28, 2008. Dolly is for singer Dolly Parton's first name and Charlie is for O'Connell's brother.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1998	Dirty Work	Bearded Lady
1999	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	Herself	Uncredited
2000	X-Men	Raven Darkholme/Mystique	Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress " Science Fiction Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2002	Femme Fatale	Laure Ash / Lily
	S1m0ne	Faith	Uncredited
	Rollerball	Aurora	Nominated"?Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress
2003	X2	Raven Darkholme/Mystique	Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liar Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress " Drama/Action Adventure Nominated"?MTV Movie Award for Sexiest She-Villain
2004	The Punisher	Joan
	Godsend	Jessie Duncan
2006	X-Men: The Last Stand	Raven Darkholme/Mystique
	Man About Town	Nina Giamoro
	The Alibi	Lola Davis
2008	Lake City	Jennifer
2010	The Con Artist	Belinda
2011	Possessing Piper Rose	Joanna
2011	X-Men First Class	Raven Darkholme/Mystique (cameo)
2012	Good Deeds	Heidi

Television

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1997	Friends	Cheryl	Episode: The One with the Dirty Girl
1998"2000	House of Style	Herself/Host
1999	Hefner: Unauthorized	Kimberly Hefner	TV movie
1999"2000	Just Shoot Me!	Adrienne Barker	8 episodes
2000	Jack & Jill	Paris Everett	Episode: Starstruck
2002	MADtv	Herself/Host	Episode: 7.14
2006	Pepper Dennis	Pepper Dennis	13 episodes
2006"2008	Ugly Betty	Alexis Meade	33 episodes; Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2008)
2007	Drawn Together	Charlotte	Episode: Charlotte's Web of Lies
2007	Carpoolers	Joannifer
2009"2010	Eastwick	Roxanne Torcoletti	13 episodes
2011"present	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Jessie Nichols
2011	Special Agent Oso	Miss Garcia	Episode: "Lost and Get Found"
2011	Chuck	CIA Agent Robin Cunnings	Episode: Chuck Versus the Curse
2013	King & Maxwell	Private Investigator Michelle Maxwell	Main cast