what high school did gabrielle union go to

Gabrielle Union Biography

October 29, 1973 • Omaha, Nebraska

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Wedlock, Gabrielle.

Steve Granitz/WireImage.com.

While many who have seen her perform mention her beauty, natural ability, and star quality, Gabrielle Union did not set out to be an actress. After an internship in the office of a modeling agency during her higher years, Matrimony was invited to go far front of the photographic camera. She gave it a try, and the modeling presently led to small roles in television shows. Those in plow led to small roles in characteristic films, and by 2000, just a few years after her first goggle box appearances, Matrimony had won a major part in the popular movie Bring Information technology On, starring Kirsten Dunst (1982–). Since and so she has been offered significant parts in a steady stream of films, including 2 Can Play That Game (2001), Deliver United states from Eva (2003), and Breakin'All the Rules (2004). She costarred aslope Martin Lawrence (1965–) and Will Smith (1968–) in the 2003 blockbuster Bad Boys II. Non a bad resume for someone who had never studied acting and who once told Jeffrey Epstein of E! Online that she used to retrieve interim was a "cheesy profession." Her listing of accomplishments is even more impressive considering the general lack of decent roles for African American actors. In spite of poor odds, Union has forged a successful career, scoring one skilful office after some other while at the same fourth dimension maintaining a level caput and a abrupt sense of humor.

"Hey, I'm just riding this train every bit long as I can. Equally long every bit I'm having fun, I'll do it. When it stops beingness fun, I'll effort something else. Maybe I'll open a chain of Popeye'south Chicken."

A Midwestern gal

Gabrielle Monique Marriage was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1973, the heart kid in a family of three daughters. Her parents, Sylvester and Teresa, both worked every bit managers for the telecommunications visitor AT&T; her father also served in the military machine, reaching the rank of sergeant. Marriage'south early on childhood years were spent as part of a rich black community and as part of a big family that had been in the Omaha expanse for many generations. Her sense of belonging and connection to the community changed when Union was nigh eight years old. In 1981 her father was transferred, and the family moved to Pleasanton, a predominantly white suburban neighborhood in northern California. Union's mother fabricated certain her daughters received an education in blackness civilisation and history, but Spousal relationship still longed to have the companionship of other black girls. She told Savoy magazine, in an commodity that appeared on the Gabrielle Marriage Fan Lodge Web site, "I wanted the esprit. I can tell you anything y'all want to know about any [black] writer or about whatsoever event, but I didn't take the friendships." Her parents felt strongly that their daughters should hold onto family ties, and they frequently returned to Nebraska during her babyhood summers. In spite of the fact that she has spent about of her life in California, Union still considers herself a Midwesterner.

During her high school years Union was a talented, difficult-working athlete, excelling at soccer, rail, and basketball game. She too performed well in the classroom, making the dean's list at Foothill High in Pleasanton. Much of her motivation for success came from her father, who continually pushed her to improve. She recalled to Clarissa Cruz of Amusement Weekly the blazon of lecture she often heard from her begetter: "You are the but blackness person in your whole class. Yous're gonna have to prove to them every day that you're simply as smart, if non smarter. Just equally good, if non improve. Only every bit fast, if non faster." This placed twice the force per unit area on Union to succeed, as she told Amusement Weekly , "Then not only am I trying to beat all my classmates, I'thou trying to show to my dad that I'thou living upwards to his expectations." After graduating, Union returned to her childhood hometown, attending the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (UNL). She went dorsum to California later on one semester, however, finding information technology hard to fit in socially at UNL. She attended one semester at Cuesta College in Southern California, but then dropped out, unsure what management her life would take. In 1992, while trying to figure out what to exercise next, she took a summertime job at a Payless shoe store, which would become the site of a horrifying incident.

One evening, as Union and some other employee were closing the store, an armed man entered the store, emptied the cash annals, and sexually assaulted Wedlock at gunpoint. At one point she was able to go the gun, and attempted to shoot her attacker. The gun jammed, nevertheless, and the man beat her and so left the store. He afterwards turned himself in, and Wedlock eventually learned that he was an employee of another Payless store who had robbed several stores and previously raped another Payless employee. He was convicted of his crime against Wedlock, and she went on to successfully sue Payless for their negligence and failure to warn employees of the homo'due south prior crimes and his potential danger to other female workers. Traumatized by the attack, Union sought comfort from her oldest friends. She began coming together with a group of other sexual assail survivors, and for many years she gave talks in back up of other victims.

Graduating to the silver screen

Union and so moved on to consummate her higher education, graduating from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1996. During her senior yr at UCLA, Union sought to add additional credits to her regular class schedule by finding an internship. She became a temporary office worker at a modeling bureau, where clients repeatedly mistook her for 1 of the models. After she graduated, the agency invited her to sign on with them as a model and Wedlock agreed, eager to begin paying off her pupil loans earlier entering law schoolhouse. She soon found herself gracing the pages of publications such as Teen magazine. After modeling for a curt time, Union decided to effort her hand at acting. Her first audition, in 1996, resulted in a guest part on the television show Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Over the adjacent few years, Spousal relationship won a succession of invitee roles on such programs as Moesha, Sister, Sister, and ER. She had a recurring office on Seventh Heaven, and in 2001 made a landmark appearance on the long-running sitcom Friends. Union, playing a woman who dates both Joey and Ross, had the stardom of beingness the first minority love interest on the testify.

In the midst of her steady television set appearances, Union also began winning modest roles in feature films. She appeared in a string of teen-oriented movies, including She's All That, 10 Things I Hate most You (both released in 1999), and Love and Basketball game (2000). With her role every bit cheerleading captain Isis reverse Kirsten Dunst in Bring Information technology On (2000), Wedlock crossed over into movie-star territory. She trained hard for the role—gaining new respect for cheerleaders—and brought to the character a sense of uncompromising inner strength. The moving picture was a large hit, and Spousal relationship establish herself with millions of new fans. Around the same time she scored a lead role on the short-lived television series Urban center of Angels. Marriage enjoyed her graphic symbol, a surgical resident in a Los Angeles infirmary, but when the series was canceled, her schedule could more easily adapt film roles. And the roles kept coming, with Marriage appearing in two major films in 2001. Both films, The Brothers and Ii Can Play That Game, featured blackness casts and dealt with bug of romance, commitment, and faithfulness. In the midst of her busy schedule, Wedlock managed to fit in her wedding to Chris Howard, a old running back for the Jacksonville (Florida) Jaguars. Howard had moved to Los Angeles after his football career ended, in order to be closer to Matrimony. He became a sports therapist and worked for the Fox Sports network.

Union encountered another decorated year in 2002, appearing in two films. In Welcome to Collinwood, which stars Luis Guzmán, William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, and Patricia Clarkson, Union portrays a young blind girl named Michelle. To research the role, she spent time with a blind woman at the Braille Institute. In Carelessness, a campus thriller starring Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt, Union portrays a friend of Holmes's character. While both movies offered Union a chance to explore new types of roles, she longed for a more significant movie function.

The following year she got that role, playing the title character in Evangelize United states from Eva. The film, loosely based on the play The Taming of the Shrew by English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616), tells the story of eldest daughter Eva, who takes over as guardian of her iii younger sisters afterward the decease of their parents. She continues to exert command over their lives even as they achieve adulthood, much to the dismay of their husbands and boyfriends. The men hatch a plot to cease Eva from meddling in their diplomacy. They pay a local ladies' man, portrayed by rapper/thespian LL Cool J, to appointment Eva, make her autumn in love with him, and then take her out of their lives. Naturally the plan is complicated when the playboy falls in love with Eva, and she with him. While reviewers offered merely lukewarm praise for the film, it met with success at the box office, earning close to $xx million. The moving picture'south director, Gary Hardwick, offered warm praise for Union in an article in Jet: "She's a wonderful actress, very gifted and with marvelous comic timing. She'south sexy, and she can make you laugh or she can make you cry. Yous desire to lookout man her to see only exactly what she's going to practise next. She has all the tools of a leading lady."

Too in 2003, Union appeared in Cradle 2 the Grave, an action picture starring martial arts star Jet Li, rapper DMX, and comedian Anthony Anderson. She also scored a meaning part in Bad Boys II, one of the biggest hits of the summer of 2003, in which Union played the part of Syd, the half-sister of Martin Lawrence's grapheme and the love interest for Volition Smith's graphic symbol. Union returned to the romantic comedy genre in 2004 with a starring role in Breakin'All the Rules. Also featuring Jamie Foxx and Morris Anecdote, Rules is a mistaken-identity romp that examines the absurd beliefs of those desperate to maintain or become out of a relationship. Joe Leydon listed Spousal relationship's charms in a Daily Variety review of Rules, writing that "Union once again evidences (as in Deliver United states from Eva ) impressive range and star presence as she comes off smart and sexy, feisty and vulnerable."

Gabrielle Marriage (center) poses with Will Smith (left) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer at the Germany premiere of Bad Boys II .

AP/Broad Earth Photo. Reproduced by permission.

Despite her increasingly high profile, Wedlock has retained her down-to-earth personality. She appreciates the salaries she earns for her film roles and the recognition given for her work, but has tried to keep things in perspective. She shared advice for other immature actors with Lori Talley of Dorsum Phase Westward: "Don't merely concentrate on the business concern.... Have a life outside of this and have other interests, because those are the things that keep you working."

Cruz praised Spousal relationship's "Midwestern-girl-next-door sensibility that sets her apart from the fleet of glamourous starlets that regularly dock on Tinseltown shores." Union and her husband share a small-scale Los Angeles domicile with a mortgage that will withal be manageable if the motion picture roles suddenly dry up. She told Tom Gliatto of People: "If I had to go piece of work as a social worker, I could withal afford it. We squirrel away a lot. I don't live for today. I live for twenty years downwards the road." While Union prepares for plan "B"—saving money for her mail-acting days—many fans and industry insiders look ahead with certainty to the day in the near time to come when Wedlock volition rise to the position of an A-list flick star.

For More Information

Periodicals

Cruz, Clarissa. "And They Call Information technology Buppie Love." Entertainment Weekly (April 25, 2003): p. 70.

Gliatto, Tom. "Spousal relationship's Dues." People (August 11, 2003): p. 75.

Leydon, Joe. " Breakin'All the Rules. " Daily Variety (May xiv, 2004): p. 2.

"LL Cool J & Gabrielle Matrimony Star in Romantic One-act Deliver Us from Eva. " Jet (February 17, 2003): p. 58.

Talley, Lori. "Proud Model." Back Stage West (March 29, 2001): p. 7.

Web Sites

Epstein, Jeffrey. "Gabrielle Wedlock: Bring It On." E! Online. http://www.eonline.com/Celebs/Who/gu.html (accessed on August 12, 2004).

"Gabrielle Matrimony." Savoy (February 2000). Appears at Gabrielle Union Fan Guild. http://www.gabrielleunionfanclub.com/articles/savoy.htm (accessed on Baronial 12, 2004).

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