Naomi Campbell

Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model and media personality.

Beginning her career at the age of 8, Campbell was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press.

She was the first black woman to appear as a model on the covers of Time and Vogue France.

In addition to her modelling career, Campbell has embarked on other ventures, including an R&B studio album and several acting appearances in film and television.

She hosted the modelling-competition reality show The Face and its international offshoots.

Campbell is also involved in charity work for various causes.

Naomi Elaine Campbell was born in Lambeth, South London to Jamaican-born dancer Valerie Morris on 22 May 1970.

In accordance with her mother's wishes, Campbell has never met her father, who abandoned her mother when she was four months pregnant and went unnamed on her birth certificate.

She took the surname "Campbell" from her mother's second marriage.

In 1978 at age 8, Campbell made her first public appearance in the music video for Bob Marley's "Is This Love".

By the late 1980s, Campbell, with Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista, had formed a trio known as the "Trinity", who became the most recognisable and in-demand models of their generation.

When faced with racial discrimination, Campbell received support from her white friends; she later quoted Turlington and Evangelista as telling Dolce & Gabbana, "If you don't use Naomi, you don't get us."

She tap-danced in 1983 in the music video for Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" and "Mistake number 3", in 1984.

She had studied dance from age 3 to 16, and originally intended to be a dancer.

Her half-brother Pierre was born in 1985.

Campbell is of Black-Jamaican and Chinese-Jamaican descent.

Her Chinese heritage comes through her maternal grandmother, whose surname was Ming.

Campbell spent her early years in Rome, Italy, where her mother worked as a modern dancer.

On their return to London, she lived with relatives while her mother travelled across Europe with the dance troupe Fantastica.

From age three, Campbell attended the Barbara Speake Stage School and at age 10 she was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, where she studied ballet.

She also attended Dunraven School.

In 1986, while still a student of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Campbell was scouted by Beth Boldt, head of the Synchro Model Agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden.

In December 1987, she appeared on the cover of British Vogue, as that publication's first black cover girl since 1966.

Despite her success, Elite Model Management, which had represented Campbell since 1987, dropped her contract.

In August 1988, she became the first black model to appear on the cover of French Vogue, after designer Yves St. Laurent threatened to withdraw his advertising from the magazine if it didn't place Naomi on its cover.

The following year, she appeared on the cover of American Vogue, which marked the first time a black model graced the front of the September magazine, traditionally the year's biggest and most important issue.

In January 1990, Campbell, who was declared "the reigning megamodel of them all" by Interview, appeared with Turlington, Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz on a cover of British Vogue, shot by Peter Lindbergh.

The group was subsequently cast to star in the music video for George Michael's "Freedom! '90".

By then, Campbell, Turlington, Evangelista, Crawford and Claudia Schiffer were called "supermodels" by the fashion industry.

With the addition of newcomer Kate Moss, they were collectively known as the "Big Six".

In March 1991, Campbell walked the catwalk for Versace with Turlington, Evangelista and Crawford, arm-in-arm and lip-synching the words to "Freedom! '90".

Later that year, she starred as Michael Jackson's love interest in the music video for "In the Closet".

In April 1992, she posed with several other models for the hundredth-anniversary cover of American Vogue, shot by Patrick Demarchelier.

That same year, she appeared in Madonna's controversial book Sex, in a set of nude photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane.

In 1993, Campbell twice appeared on the cover of American Vogue; in April, alongside Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Stephanie Seymour and Helena Christensen, and again, solo, in June.

She also fell on The Vivienne Westwood 1993 Fall catwalk in foot-high platform shoes, which were later displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

In 1995, Campbell walked in the second-ever Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and graced the show's runway seven times.

Her last catwalk for the brand was in 2005.

In April, just before her 16th birthday she appeared on the cover of British Elle.

Over the next few years, Campbell walked the catwalk for such designers as Gianni Versace, Azzedine Alaïa, and Isaac Mizrahi and posed for such photographers as Peter Lindbergh, Herb Ritts, and Bruce Weber.