Eva Mendes was born in Miami, Florida the youngest of four children. Eva and her family would later move to Los Angeles, California.

Eva was started her acting career taking a role in her first feature film as a summer job while she was attending college at Cal State Northridge.

She was discovered because her neighbor, a photographer, had her photo in his portfolio and it caught the eye of an agent. Before her first acting role Eva was uncertain about her future. However, with her first feature under her belt she decided to drop out of college and pursued acting full-time.

Soon after Eva received small roles in commercials, music videos (Aerosmith's Hole in My Sole video & Will Smith's Miami video), and television (ER). Eva has also been cast in several feature films over the years such as Urban Legends: Final Cut , Training Day , All About the Benjamins, Once Upon a Time in Mexico Carl Franklin's Out of Time, 2 Fast 2 Furious.