Living in her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska until the age of eight, Gabrielle Union, born October 29, 1973, moved to Pleasanton, California and became an all-around athlete in high school. After receiving her sociology degree with honors at UCLA, she took on an internship at a modeling agency and was often mistaken for a model herself.

Seeing a future in the business (as did the modeling agency she worked for), she let her dreams of becoming a lawyer go and signed on as a model. A few days later, Union was working on her first big shoot, a spread for Teen magazine.

Soon after, auditions for small appearances in television shows followed, and Union landed a guest role on Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Spots on Moesha, 7th Heaven and Clueless, as well as a more significant role on the short-lived CBS drama City of Angels, which helped her gain recognition, but it took the comedy/teen movies She's All That, 10 Things I Hate About You in 1999 and especially 2000's Bring it On (where she played the captain of the Clovers cheerleading squad) to really boost her career. She even broke ground on Friends in 2001, as the first African-American love interest of any of the characters.

Everything is in place for Gabrielle Union's successful future. Abandon was released in fall 2002 and although she played second fiddle to Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt, her portrayal of Holmes' concerned friend did not go unnoticed.

The George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh produced Welcome to Collinwood has been receiving rave reviews, while Deliver Us from Eva (starring Union as Eva and co-starring L.L. Cool J), the action thriller Cradle 2 the Grave, with Jet Li and Kelly Hu, and the highly anticipated Bad Boys 2, are all set for release in 2003.

With NFLer and husband Chris Howard by her side and her career going nowhere but up, the sky is the limit as to how far Gabrielle can reach.