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Naomi Campbell

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Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell at FashionWeekLive in San Francisco, March 15, 2007. Photo by Jesse Gross.
Modeling information
Height1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Hair colorBlack
Eye colorBrown
Websitehttp://www.naomicampbell.com

Naomi Campbell (born May 22, 1970) is an English supermodel, singer, author, actress and fashion designer.

Childhood

Campbell was born in Streatham, London, England. Her mother, Valerie Campbell (née Morris), is a former ballet dancer of Jamaican descent. In accordance with her mother's wishes, Campbell has never met her unnamed father, who left then-18-year-old Valerie two months after the birth of their daughter. Campbell is Black Jamaican and also of Chinese descent through her paternal grandmother of Chinese Jamaican ancestry (family name Ming). Of her appearance, Campbell has said: "My features are completely ethnic, and I'm proud of them."

As a young child, Campbell was left in the care of a nanny while her mother travelled across Europe with the dance troupe Fantastica. At age 10, she was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy stage school, where she studied ballet. She attended Dunraven School, a comprehensive school run by Inner London Education Authority in Streatham.

Career

Modeling

Campbell's first public appearance came aged 7 in February 1978 when she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video for Bob Marley's song Is This Love?. In 1982, she appeared in another music video, this time as a tap dancer for Culture Club's I'll Tumble 4 Ya.

At age 15 and while still a student at the Italia Conti Academy, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, a former Ford model and head of the Synchro model agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden. Campbell soon opted to become a fulltime model, signing with Elite Model Management. Although Campbell started her career as a catwalk model, she was quickly hired for various high-profile advertising campaigns, including Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which introduced her to the American market. Campbell also completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and François Nars. At age 15 in April 1986, Campbell appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a model who had canceled out of the appearance.

In August 1988, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris as that publication's first black cover girl. In addition to Vogue Paris, Campbell also became the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue UK, Vogue Nippon and Time magazine. She has also posed nude for Playboy and appeared in Madonna's 1992 book Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane. In total, Campbell has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers.

She famously starred in George Michael's music video Freedom! '90, where she lip-synched to his song along with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. In 1992, Campbell appeared in Madonna's music video for Erotica, which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. In addition to the previously mentioned music videos, Campbell has appeared in videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince and Usher.

The highpoint of Campbell's career was in the early 1990s, when she was part of the two major supermodel powerhouses: the Big Six, alongside Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss, and The Trinity, alongside Turlington and Evangelista.

Campbell is signed to IMG Models (New York City), Storm Model Management (London), Marilyn Agency (Paris), and d'management group (Milan).

Other projects

Music

In 1991, Campbell was featured on Vanilla Ice's single Cool as Ice. Three years later, she sang on the Heaven's Girl track on Quincy Jones's album Q's Jook Joint. In 1995, Campbell released her debut album, Baby Woman, which produced the unsuccessful single Love and Tears. Although panned by critics and a commercial flop in the UK, where it failed to chart higher than 75, Baby Woman was a success in Japan and sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Campbell's collaboration with Toshinobu Kubota, La La La Love Song, the second single from Baby Woman and the theme song to Long Vacation, became a No. 1 hit in Japan, with the single selling approximately 1,856,000 copies.

Literature

Campbell's 1994 novel Swan told the tale of a supermodel being blackmailed over dark secrets in her past. The novel was actually written by author Caroline Upcher, with Campbell later explaining: "I just did not have time to sit down and write a book." Campbell later released a photo collection titled Naomi, featuring pictures of Campbell taken by Richard Avedon and other leading fashion photographers.

Fashion

In 1999, Campbell developed a spin-off company, the Design House of Naomi Campbell. So far Campbell has created seven fragrances for women, most of which were released in Europe. In 2000, Campbell introduced her first perfumes, Naomi Campbell and Naomagic, a portmanteau of Campbell's name and the word "magic". In 2001, Campbell introduced her third perfume, Cat Deluxe, and in 2003 released Mystery. A year later a fifth fragrance was made, Sunset, and in 2005 another fragrance was released, Paradise Passion. Campbell's latest fragrance is a new version of her Cat Deluxe perfume called Cat Deluxe at Night.

Charity

Since 1997, Campbell has been involved in charity work mainly focused on the children and people of Sub-Saharan Africa. She has worked with Nelson Mandela, and has said that one of her greatest joys in life is knowing Mandela, stating that his kindness, passion and intelligence make him a modern world leader. In 2005, she helped create and participated in Fashion Relief, raising over a million dollars for Hurricane Katrina victims. On July 7, 2007 she hosted the South African leg of Live Earth in Johannesburg.

Personal life

Campbell has several adopted father figures, including Quincy Jones and Chris Blackwell, and an adopted grandfather, Nelson Mandela.



Filmography

References

  1. Naomi Campbell Profile in the FMD-database. Accessed 2008-06-14.
  2. Naomi Will Never Know Her Dad
  3. Naomi's Mum: Rapist Is Not Her Father
  4. Naomi Campbell: A model of privacy?
  5. Naomi Campbell: A model of privacy?
  6. "MODELS.com's Icons - 5-1".
  7. "The worst album in the world... ever!".
  8. "A true ghost story". The Spectator. October 21, 2000. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  9. "Funny Girl". Independent on Sunday. May 20, 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  10. Official website
  11. Interview with CNN's Larry King
  12. "Supermodel seeks Mr. Right". The Observer. 8 January, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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