Salma Hayek

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Salma Hayek

Hayek in 2015

Born Salma Hayek Jimnez

September 2, 1966 (age 51)

Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico

Nationality Mexican, American

Alma mater Universidad Iberoamericana

Occupation Actress, producer, model

Years active 1988present

Height 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)[1]

Spouse(s) Franois-Henri Pinault (m. 2009)

 Children 1

Salma Hayek Pinault (ne Hayek Jimnez)[2] (born September 2, 1966),[3][4] known
professionally as Salma Hayek, is a Mexican and American film actress, producer, and
former model. She began her career in Mexico starring in the telenovela Teresa and
starred in the film El Callejn de los Milagros (Miracle Alley) for which she was
nominated for an Ariel Award. In 1991 Hayek moved to Hollywood and came to
prominence with roles in movies such as Desperado (1995),[5] From Dusk Till
Dawn (1996), Dogma (1999), and Wild Wild West (1999).
Her breakthrough role was in the 2002 film Frida as Mexican painter Frida Kahlo for
which she was nominated in the category of Best Actress for an Academy
Award, BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Golden Globe Award. This movie
received widespread attention and was a critical and commercial success. She won
a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Children/Youth/Family Special
in 2004 for The Maldonado Miracle and received an Emmy Award nomination
for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2007 after guest-starring in
the ABC television comedy-drama Ugly Betty. She also guest-starred on
the NBC comedy series 30 Rock from 2009 to 2013.
Hayek's recent films include Grown Ups (2010), Puss in Boots (2011), Grown Ups
2 (2013), and Tale of Tales (2015).

Contents
[hide]

1Early life
2Career
o 2.1Mexico
o 2.2Early Hollywood acting work
o 2.3Director, producer and actress
o 2.4Promotional work
o 2.5In art
3Personal life
o 3.1Activism
4Honors and awards
5Filmography
6Event appearances
7See also
8References
9External links

Early life[edit]
Hayek was born Salma Hayek Jimnez in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. Her younger
brother, Sami (born 1972), is a furniture designer.[6] Her mother, Diana Jimnez
Medina, is an opera singer and talent scout. Her father, Sami Hayek Domnguez, is an
oil company executive and owner of an industrial-equipment firm,[7] who once ran for
mayor of Coatzacoalcos.[8][9] Her father is a Mexican of Lebanese descent,[10] with his
family being from the city Baabdat, Lebanon, a city Salma and her father visited in
2015 to promote her movie Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.[11][12][13][14] Her mother is a
Mexican of Spanish descent. In an interview in 2015 with Un Nuevo Da while visiting
Madrid, Hayek described herself as fifty-percent Lebanese and fifty-percent Spanish,
stating that her grandmother/maternal great-grandparents were from
Spain.[10][15][16][17] Raised in a wealthy, devout Roman Catholic[18] family, she was sent to
the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, USA, at the age of
twelve.[10] In school, she was diagnosed with dyslexia.[19] She attended university in
Mexico City, where she studied International Relations at the Universidad
Iberoamericana.[10]

Career[edit]
Mexico[edit]
At the age of 23, Hayek landed the title role in Teresa (1989), a successful
Mexican telenovela that made her a star in Mexico.[20] In 1994, Hayek starred in the
film El Callejn de los Milagros (Miracle Alley), which has won more awards than any
other movie in the history of Mexican cinema. For her performance, Hayek was
nominated for an Ariel Award.[21]

Early Hollywood acting work[edit]

Hayek moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1991 to study acting under Stella
Adler.[22] She had limited fluency in English, and dyslexia.[23] Robert Rodriguez, and his
producer and then-wife, Elizabeth Avellan, soon gave Hayek a starring role
opposite Antonio Banderas in 1995's Desperado.[10] She followed her role
in Desperado with a brief role as a vampire queen in From Dusk till Dawn, in which she
performed a table-top snake dance.[24]
Hayek had a starring role opposite Matthew Perry in the 1997 romantic comedy Fools
Rush In. In 1999 she co-starred in Will Smith's big-budget Wild Wild West, and played
a supporting role in Kevin Smith's Dogma.[10] In 2000 Hayek had an uncredited acting
part opposite Benicio del Toro in Traffic.[25] In 2003, she reprised her role
from Desperado by appearing in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, the final film of
the Mariachi Trilogy.[26]

Director, producer and actress[edit]

Hayek at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival

Around 2000, Hayek founded film production company Ventanarosa, through which
she produces film and television projects. Her first feature as a producer was 1999's El
Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba, Mexico's official selection for submission for Best
Foreign Film at the Oscars.[27]
Frida, co-produced by Hayek, was released in 2002. Starring Hayek as Frida Kahlo,
and Alfred Molina as her unfaithful husband, Diego Rivera, the film was directed
by Julie Taymor and featured an entourage of stars in supporting and minor roles
(Valeria Golino, Ashley Judd, Edward Norton, Geoffrey Rush) and cameos (Antonio
Banderas). She earned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her
performance.[10]
In the Time of the Butterflies is a 2001 feature film based on the Julia lvarez book of
the same name, covering the lives of the Mirabal sisters. In the movie, Salma Hayek
plays one of the sisters, Minerva, and Edward James Olmos plays the Dominican
dictator Rafael Lenidas Trujillo whom the sisters opposed.[28]
In 2003, Hayek produced and directed The Maldonado Miracle, a Showtime movie
based on the book of the same name, winning her a Daytime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Directing in a Children/Youth/Family Special.[29] In December 2005, she
directed a music video for Prince, titled "Te Amo Corazon" ("I love you, sweetheart")
that featured Ma Maestro.[30]
Hayek and Banderas at the Puss in Boots premiere in Australia, November 2011

Hayek was an executive producer of Ugly Betty, a television series that aired around
the world from 2006 to 2010. Hayek adapted the series for American television
with Ben Silverman, who acquired the rights and scripts from the
Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea in 2001. Originally intended as a half-hour
sitcom for NBC in 2004, the project would later be picked up by ABC for the 2006
2007 season with Silvio Horta also producing. Hayek guest-starred on Ugly
Betty as Sofia Reyes, a magazine editor. She also had a cameo playing an actress in the
telenovela within the show. The show won a Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy
Series in 2007. Hayek's performance as Sofia resulted in a nomination for Outstanding
Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.[31]
In April 2007, Hayek finalized negotiations with MGM to become the CEO of her own
Latin-themed film production company, Ventanarosa.[32] The following month, she
signed a two-year deal with ABC for Ventanarosa to develop projects for the
network.[33]
Hayek played the wife of Adam Sandler's character in the buddy comedy Grown Ups,
which also co-starred Chris Rock and Kevin James.[34] At his insistence, Hayek co-
starred with Antonio Banderas in the Shrek spin-off film Puss in Boots as the voice of
the character Kitty Softpaws, who serves as Puss's female counterpart and love
interest.[35] In 2012, Hayek directed Jada Pinkett Smith in the music video "Nada se
compara."[36] She reprised her role in Grown Ups 2, which was released in July 2013.

Promotional work[edit]
Hayek in 2004

Hayek has been a spokeswoman for Avon cosmetics since February 2004.[37] She was a
spokeswoman for Revlon in 1998. In 2001, she modeled for Chopard and was featured
in 2006 Campari ads, photographed by Mario Testino.[38] On April 3, 2009, she helped
introduce La Doa, a watch by Cartier inspired by fellow Mexican actress Mara
Flix.[39]
Hayek has worked with the Procter & Gamble Company and UNICEF to promote the
funding (through disposable diaper sales) of vaccines against maternal and neonatal
tetanus. She is a global spokesperson for the Pampers/UNICEF "partnership" 1 Pack = 1
Vaccine to help raise awareness of the program.[40] This "partnership" involves Procter
& Gamble donating the cost of one tetanus vaccination (approximately 24 cents)[41] for
every pack of Pampers sold.[42]
In 2011, Hayek launched her own line of cosmetics, skincare, and haircare products
called Nuance by Salma Hayek, to be sold at CVS stores in North America.[43] Hayek was
also featured in a series of Spanish language commercials for Lincoln cars.[44]

In art[edit]
In spring 2006, the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center in San Antonio, Texas displayed
sixteen portrait paintings by muralist George Yepes and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez of
Hayek as Aztec goddess Itzpapalotl.[45]

Personal life[edit]
Hayek and Franois-Henri Pinault in 2012 at the Deauville American Film Festival

Hayek is a naturalized United States citizen.[46] She studied at Ramtha's School of

Enlightenment[47] and is a practitioner of yoga.[48] Hayek, who was raised Catholic, has
said she is not very devout anymore and does not believe in the institution (Church),
but still believes in Jesus Christ and God.[49]
On March 9, 2007, Hayek confirmed her engagement to French billionaire
and Kering CEO Franois-Henri Pinault as well as her pregnancy. She gave birth to
daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault in September 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles, California.[50][51] They were married on Valentine's Day 2009
in Paris.[52] On April 25, 2009, they had a second ceremony in Venice.[53]
In July 2011, Hayek's husband was named in a paternity case. According to reports,
Pinault is the father of supermodel Linda Evangelista's son, Augustin James, who was
born in October 2006. He denied all allegations,[54][55] although he later reached a
settlement with Evangelista.[56]

Activism[edit]
Hayek's charitable work includes increasing awareness on violence against women and
discrimination against immigrants.[57] On July 19, 2005, Hayek testified before the U.S.
Senate Committee on the Judiciary supporting reauthorizing the Violence Against
Women Act.[58] In February 2006, she donated $25,000 to a Coatzacoalcos, Mexico,
shelter for battered women and another $50,000 to Monterrey based anti-domestic
violence groups.[59] Hayek is a board member of V-Day, the charity founded by
playwright Eve Ensler. Nonetheless, Hayek has stated that she is not a feminist. [60] She
later revised her stance on this, stating: "I am a feminist because a lot of amazing
women have made me who I am today. (...) But it should not be just because I am a
woman.".[61]
Hayek also advocates breastfeeding. During a UNICEF fact-finding trip to Sierra
Leone, she breastfed a hungry week-old baby whose mother could not produce
milk.[62] She said she did it to reduce the stigma associated with breastfeeding and to
encourage infant nutrition.[63]
In 2010 Hayek's humanitarian work earned her a nomination for the VH1 Do Something
Awards.[64] In 2013 Hayek launched with Beyonc and Frida Giannini a Gucci campaign,
"Chime for Change", that aims to spread female empowerment.[65]
For International Women's Day 2014 Hayek is one of the artist signatories of Amnesty
International's letter to UK Prime Minister David Cameron campaigning for women's
rights in Afghanistan.[66] Following her visit to Lebanon in 2015, she criticised the
discrimination against women there.[14]

Honors and awards[edit]

Hayek in 2007

Recipient of Glamour magazine Woman of the Year Award in October 2001.[67]

Recipient of Producers Guild of America Celebration of Diversity Award in 2003.
Recipient of Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year Award in February 2006.[68]
Recipient of Time magazine 25 Most Influential Hispanics in 2005.[69]
Knight (Chevalier) of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (France,
December 30, 2011)[70]
In July 2007, The Hollywood Reporter ranked Hayek fourth in their inaugural Latino
Power 50, a list of the most powerful members of the Hollywood Latino
community.[71] That same month, a poll found Hayek to be the "sexiest celebrity" out of
a field of 3,000 celebrities (male and female); according to the poll, "65 percent of the
U.S. population would use the term 'sexy' to describe her".[72] In 2008, she was
awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and
innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through
the medium of television[73] In December of that year, Entertainment Weekly ranked
Hayek number 17 in their list of the "25 Smartest People in TV."[74]

Filmography[edit]