Background

Ethnicity: Lima is of Portuguese, Native Brazilian, African, Japanese, Swiss, and West Indian ancestry, which classifies her as a Pardo Brazilian. She personally identifies as an Afro-Brazilian.

Adriana Lima was born on June 12, 1981, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She is the daughter of Nelson Torres, a carpenter, and Maria das Graças Lima, a social worker. From the age of 6 months, Lima was reared by her mother only, because her father had deserted the family.

Education

Lima grew up in the Castelo Branco neighbourhood of Salvador. In her early years, she dreamt of becoming a paediatrician.

While at elementary school, Adriana won many beauty pageants, but did not consider pursuing a career in modeling. However, at 13, she entered Ford's Supermodel of Brazil modeling contest along with a friend, who didn't want to enter the contest alone, and she finished at the first place. In 1996, Lima entered Ford's Supermodel of World contest, where she finished second.

Career

In 1999, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. The same year, she walked her first Victoria's Secret runway. From 2000 till 2018, Lima was known as a Victoria's Secret Angel. During this period, she took part in 18 catwalks for the brand and opened the show for a number of times.

Thereafter, she appeared in many international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire and did catwalk for many famous designers, such as Vera Wang, Giorgio Armani and Valentino.

In 2000, Adriana Lima became an official Guess girl and did many ad campaigns for it. Three years later, she joined Maybelline as a spokesmodel, the position she held till 2009. In the same year, she appeared in the company's first calendar and also did an ad campaign for Swatch. Meanwhile, she worked for some notable fashion brands, including Bebe, Armani, Versace, BCBG and Louis Vuitton. She has also appeared on the covers of fashion magazines, such as Harper's Bazaar, Elle, GQ, Arena, Vogue, V, Esquire, and French Revue des Modes.

In 2001, Lima got her first acting role in The Follow, a short-film in BMW series The Hire. She played a damsel in distress, appearing alongside Clive Owen, Mickey Rorke and Forest Whitaker. Later, the model would also appear in the Episode: "The Yips" of How I Met Your Mother, Ugly Betty's Episode: "Ugly Berry", as well as Ocean's 8.

In 2005, the model appeared in the Pirelli calendar and also became the face of Italy's cell phone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile. It earned her the nickname, Catherine Zeta Jones of Italy. In 2008, she got featured on the covers of‘Esquire. In the same year, she was chosen to be the face of the Mexico's Liverpool department store chain.

The following year, in 2009, Lima walked the runway for Givenchy and later signed a contract with Doritos to appear in print campaigns. She was also one of the faces of Givenchy for Fall/Winter 2009 season. In 2011, the model signed a deal as a spokeswoman for Megacity by Votsu to appear in their commercials and also became the face of Brazilian luxury brand. During this time, she also worked with many eminent photographers, such as Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matidin, Vincent Peters, Mario Sorrenti, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, David Sims and Mario Testino.

In 2012, Adriana signed a contract with a Turkish clothing company, Mavi Jeans, and did many advertisement campaigns, which earned her much recognition. Due to her rising fame, the European and Russian branch of Mavi made her the global face of the brand.

In 2013, Lima was featured in the Pirelli calendar for the second time. It's also worth saying, that she has set a record for being the first pregnant woman to be ever featured in the calendar.

In 2014, the model once again became a spokesmodel for Maybelline New York. She was a brand ambassador of the Maybelline between 2003 and 2009.

Over the next few years, Lima modeled for some of the biggest brands, for example for Vogue Eyewear and Marc Jacobs' fragance Decadence, in 2015; Italian lingerie brand Calzedonia's Swimwear collection, in 2016; and Italian ready-to-wear clothing brand, Sportsmax, in 2017.

Achievements

• 

  Adriana Lima is a renowned model and actress. She gained prominence for being a Victoria's Secret Angel from 2000 till 2018.
  
  During her career, the model has worked for such famous brands, as Armani, Versace, De Beers, Elie Saab, Colcci, Schiaparelli, Prada, Intimissimi, GUESS?, LOEWE, H&M, Bulgari, among many others. In addition, she served as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics. She also worked as a brand ambassador for the clothing brand Desigual based in Barcelona, Spain, for the Beachwear collection of Italian brand Calzedonia, and for the ready-to-wear collection of Italian brand Sportmax.
  
  Adriana Lima has also appeared on the covers of such well-known magazines, as Vogue and Marie Claire.
  
  In 2007, the model received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before Victoria's Secret fashion show. In the same year, she ranked 7th on FHM's 100 sexiest women 2007 list.
  
  It's also worth mentioning, that, since 2014, Lima has held the title of the world's second highest-paid model.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Ocean's 8

    (Debbie Ocean gathers an all-female crew to attempt an imp...)

    2018

• TV series

  • The Crazy Ones (Season 1)

    (Out-of-the-box Simon Roberts runs an ad agency with his T...)

    2013

Religion

Lima is a devout Roman Catholic. She attends the Mass every Sunday. The model also denounces abortion as a crime and states that she agrees with all of the Church's teachings.

The model once said: "The church is in me - I always connect. If you're connected with the divine and always have pure intentions with everything you're doing, you're protected by the angels. I'm very spiritual. I believe in nature, I believe in energy, I believe in spirits."

Views

Lima is a philanthropist, who helps and supports an orphanage, "Caminhos da Luz" (Paths of Light), located in Salvador. She has coltrubited to the constuction of the orphanage in order to expand it and also bought clothes for poor children in Salvador.

Adriana provided an Istanbul hospital for children, fighting leukemia, with the financial support.

Quotations: "Be sure what you want and be sure about yourself. Fashion is not just beauty, it's about good attitude. You have to believe in yourself and be strong."

"Don't try to be what you're not. If you're nervous, be nervous. If you're shy, be shy. It's cute."

"I won't cry for you. My mascara's too expensive."

"Fashion is about good energy. It's about feelings. That's what I have to give the people, good energy and good feelings."

"I believe love just happens once. You can be mistaken, you can think you are in love, but after a while you discover that you're really not. Real love is different."

"When I get older, I don't think I'll like to have wrinkles, or a big jelly belly. I cannot have it."

"Lingerie is one of the most important pieces of your wardrobe. You can have a wardrobe malfunction if you don't choose the right thing to wear underneath!"

Personality

Lima loves sushi.

The model speaks four languages - her native Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian.

Physical Characteristics: Lima is 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) tall. She has dark brown hair and blue eyes. There's a mole on her chin.

Interests

• Reading

• Writers

  Memoirs of a Geisha

• Artists

  Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren

• Sport & Clubs

  Boxing, basketball; the Brooklyn Nets and the New England Patriots

• Music & Bands

  Lenny Kravitz

Connections

During the period from 2001 to 2003, Lima was in a romantic relationship with Lenny Kravitz.

In 2009, the model married Marko Jarić. Their marriage produced two daughters. In 2014, Lima and Jarić separated. Two years later, the couple divorced.

Father:

Nelson Torres

Mother:

Maria das Graças Lima

ex-partner:

Lenny Kravitz

(born May 26, 1964)

Lenny Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor.

Ex-husband:

Marko Jarić

(born October 12, 1978)

Marko Jarić is a Serbian former professional basketball player.

Daughter:

Valentina Lima-Jarić

(born November 15, 2009)

Daughter:

Sienna Lima-Jarić

(born September 12, 2012)

colleague:

Tyra Banks

(born December 4, 1973)

Tyra Banks is an American television personality, model, businesswoman, producer, actress, and writer.

colleague:

Heidi Klum

(born June 1, 1973)

Heidi Klum is a German-American model, actress, television host, producer, fashion designer, and businesswoman. She hosted Germany's Next Topmodel and Project Runway. However, Klum is best known as the first German model to become a Victoria's Secret Angel.

colleague:

Gisele Bündchen

(born July 20, 1980)

Gisele Bündchen is a renowned Brazilian model, activist, actress and businesswoman of German descent. She gained prominence as the face of the American lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer Victoria's Secret.

References

• Adriana Lima's Instagram
• Adriana Lima's Twitter
• Adriana Lima's Facebook
• Adriana Lima's Official Website