Alessandra Ambrosio Biography

Birth Name : Alessandra Corine Ambrósio

Date of Birth : April 11, 1981

Birth Place : Erechim, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Nickname : Alé

Height : 5' 10" (1.78 m)

Best known as: Navel-pierced Guess clothing model

Alessandra Ambrosio (born April 11, 1981), is a Brazilian supermodel. She was described as "The future of the modeling world", by retired supermodel Tyra Banks. Her last name is spelled Ambrósio, but the diacritic mark is omitted in her modeling work.

When Ambrosio was 12 years old, she enrolled in modeling classes then, began modeling for Dilson Stein at age 15. Winning Brazil's Elite Model Look started her modeling career. Her first big modeling job was the cover of the Brazilian Elle magazine. Elite passed along some of her Polaroids to Guess which led her to do the Millennium Guess? campaign along with her friend and fellow Brazilian supermodel Ana Beatriz Barros. She has since been in huge demand, working with big-name brands and appearing in well famous international magazine covers.

Alessandra Ambrosio is one of several Brazilian models that became known in the late 1990s along with Gisele Bundchen, Adriana Lima and Ana Beatriz Barros. Born in Erexim, a small town in southern Brazil, Ambrosio enrolled in a modeling class as a teen. She subsequently entered the Elite modeling agency's 1996 "Look of the Year" modeling competition. Though she did not win, one year later she was offered an Elite modeling contract.

Her first big modeling job was the cover of the Brazilian Elle magazine, and then Ambrosio followed with other "editorial" work. It was not long after that the Guess? company signed her for their fall 2000 campaign. Ambrosio's print career began as a Guess? model and continued with Revlon and Victoria's Secret. She modeled on the Victoria's Secret runway for the first time in 2000, and she continued to be a participant in the subsequent shows. In 2004 Ambrosio was selected as the first spokesmodel for Victoria's Secret Pink line.

Ambrosio has made several television appearances, notably a cameo as herself on HBO's Entourage along with Izabel Goulart; The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn; Late Night with Conan O’Brien; as guest judge on Project Runway season 2: Team Lingerie and The Tyra Banks Show where she was a guest twice. She appeared alongside TV personality, Regis Philbin in a worldwide commercial for Hummer H2. In 2006, she had a cameo on the box-office hit movie, Casino Royale appearing briefly as tennis girl #1.

Since 2000, Alessandra has been best known for her work with Victoria’s Secret as the first spokes-model for the PINK line and as one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels. This recognition has earned her such distinction as People’s “100 Most Beautiful People in the World” in 2007 and number 2 of the “Top 99 Most Desirable Women for 2008” by AskMen.com.