Adriana Lima born June 12, 1981 is a Brazilian model and actress who is best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000, and as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics from 2003 to 2009. At the age of 15, Lima finished first in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" competition, and took second place the following year in the Ford "Supermodel of the World" competition before signing with Elite Model Management in New York City. Since 2005, Lima has ranked in the top five of Forbes' lists of the 20 highest-earning models in the world, and in 2006 ranked No.99 on the Forbes Celebrity 100. She is married to Serbian basketball player Marko Jarić.
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- Modeling
Lima never thought about being a model, although she had won many beauty pageants in elementary school. However, she had a friend at school who wanted to enter a modeling contest and did not want to enter alone, so Lima entered with her. Both sent in pictures, and the contest sponsor soon asked Lima to come out for the competition. Soon after, at the age of 15, she entered and finished in first place in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" model search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford "Supermodel of the World" contest and finished in second place. Three years later, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. After acquiring representation, Lima's modeling portfolio quickly began to expand, and she appeared in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. As a runway model, she has walked the catwalks for designers such as Vera Wang, Giorgio Armani and Valentino, among others. Lima became a GUESS? girl in 2000, appearing in that year's fall ad campaign. She also appeared in the book A Second Decade of Guess? Images.
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Lima continued to build upon her portfolio, doing more print work for Maybelline, for whom she worked as a spokesmodel from 2003 until 2009, the same year she appeared in the company's first calendar. Lima has also worked for notable fashion brands bebe, Armani, Versace, BCBG and Louis Vuitton. She also appeared on the covers and in the editorials of other fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, GQ, Arena, Vogue, V, Esquire and French Revue des Modes. Her April 2006 GQ cover was the highest-selling issue that magazine for the year. She also appeared in the 2005 Pirelli Calendar and became the face of Italy's cell phone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile, a move that earned her the nickname, "the Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy.
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In February 2008, Lima was featured on the cover of Esquire, re-creating the classic 1966 Angie Dickinson cover on Esquire's 75th anniversary. She appeared only in shoes, diamonds and gloves for the November 2007 issue of Vanity Fair celebrating 20 years of supermodels with her fellow Angels. In February 2008, she was chosen to be the face of Mexico's Liverpool department store chain and launched the partnership with a press conference, runway show, and summer campaign.[citation needed] Lima returned to the high fashion runway in 2009, walking for Givenchy. That same year, after visiting Turkey, Lima signed a contract with Doritos to appear in print campaigns and commercials which began airing in Turkey that April.[citation needed] She was also one of the faces of Givenchy for the Fall/Winter 2009 season. Lima is one of the two faces of Blumarine's Fall/Winter 2011 season.
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In 2011, Lima signed a deal as a spokeswoman for Megacity by Votsu, a Brazilian social gaming company, to appear in their commercials. She also became the face of Brazilian luxury brand, Forum for their F/W and S/S seasons. Lima has worked with the most established photographers in fashion such as Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matidin, Vincent Peters, Mario Sorrenti, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and David Sims.[citation needed] She became the face of Donna Karan's spring 2012 ad campaign.
- Acting
Lima's first acting role was the wife, alongside Mickey Rourke and Forest Whitaker, in The Follow (2001), a short film in BMW's series The Hire, starring Clive Owen and directed by Wong Kar-wai.[citation needed] She also appeared with her fellow Angels in a guest spot playing herself in the series How I Met Your Mother in November 2007.
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In 2008, Lima appeared on the American television series Ugly Betty, where she played herself and made friends with the series' title character, Betty.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriana_Lima
