Jaime King

Biography

Jaime Barbara King (born April 23, 1979) is an American actress and model best known for her roles in the TV series Hart of Dixie (2011–2015) and Black Summer (2019–2021), and in films such as Pearl Harbor (2001), Slackers (2002), White Chicks (2004), Sin City (2005), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), Ocean’s 8 (2018) and Lights Out (2024). King was discovered at age 14 in 1993 and became a successful model, appearing in Vogue, Mademoiselle and Harper's Bazaar, among other fashion magazines. From 1998, she moved into acting, taking small film roles. Her first major role was in Pearl Harbor (2001) and her first starring movie role was in Bulletproof Monk (2003). She has since appeared in films including cult classics like White Chicks (2004) and Sin City (2005), as well as My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009), Waiting for Forever (2010), The Pardon (2013), Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), Ocean’s 8 (2018), Out of Death (2021), Code Name Banshee (2022), and Lights Out (2024). King has starred in television series including the TV hit comedy-drama Hart of Dixie (2011–2015), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2009–2012) and the Netflix series Black Summer (2019–2021).

== Early life == Jaime Barbara King was born on April 23, 1979, in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Nancy King, a former beauty queen, and Robert King. She has an older sister Sandi, an older brother Barry and a younger brother Robert (Robbie). King was named after Lindsay Wagner's character, Jaime Sommers, on the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman. King's parents separated in 1994. King attended Westside High School in Omaha, dropping out in 1995 in order to pursue a modelling career in New York City. She attended modeling school; Nancy Bounds' Studios. She later enrolled in a home-study program run by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

== Modeling career == King was discovered in November 1993, at age 14, while attending the modeling school Nancy Bounds' Studios. After being spotted at her graduation fashion show by model agent Michael Flutie, King was invited to New York City to begin modeling professionally. She joined Company Management, which already represented Jaime Rishar, a more established model. To avoid confusion, King opted to use her childhood nickname, James, for the duration of her modeling career and later, at the beginning of her film career. Her breakthrough shoot was an advertisement for Abercrombie & Fitch in 1994. King had a successful early career as a fashion model, and by age 15 she had been featured in the fashion magazines Vogue, Mademoiselle, Allure, and Seventeen. At sixteen, King had appeared in Glamour and Harper's Bazaar. She was featured in the cover story of the New York Times Magazine published on February 4, 1996, and had walked the runway for Chanel, Alexander McQueen and Christian Dior. In 1998, she began co-hosting MTV's fashion series, House of Style, with fellow model turned actress Rebecca Romijn. Despite her success, King noted that she "remember[s] the times where I was so alone" and thought she was "never gonna be able to be a kid." In 2004, King, along with Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, and Eva Mendes was chosen as a spokesmodel for a high-profile ad campaign for Revlon. The advertisements were featured in print, television, theatrical, outdoor, and Internet venues, banking on their spokeswomen's "collective star power" to sell the cosmetics products. In 2006, King was chosen by Rocawear CEO Jay-Z to become the new face of the line; her advertisements were featured for the winter 2006 season.

== Acting career ==

=== Early work (1998–2004) === In 1999, King began her acting career and made her debut in the Daniel Waters' comedy Happy Campers, as Pixel. Happy Campers was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, and in 2003, King was nominated for Best Actress at the DVD Exclusive Awards. Filmed in 1999, she also appeared in Filter's music video for "Take a Picture". Following her debut acting roles, King appeared briefly in the film Blow, portraying the adult Kristina Jung, daughter of cocaine smuggler George Jung, played by Johnny Depp.

King made her first appearance in a large Hollywood production with her role as a nurse, Betty Bayer, in the World War II epic romance Pearl Harbor (2001). Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine commented that King "has a lively minute or two" in the film, but her part was small and the "young cast is mostly pinup packaging". King went on to be featured in the Incubus music video "Wish You Were Here". The roles King took part in during 2001 garnered her the "New Stylemaker" title at the Young Hollywood Awards. In 2002, she appeared in the teen comedy Slackers as Angela Patton, Four Faces of God as Sam, and the crime comedy Lone Star State of Mind as Baby. Slackers received negative responses from critics, including one who found that the characters "are not so strikingly original as to elevate the slack material", while Four Faces of God and Lone Star State of Mind did not have wide theatrical releases. In 2003 starred in King in the film Bulletproof Monk, alongside Chow Yun-fat and Seann William Scott, an adaptation of a comic book by Brett Lewis and Michael Avon Oeming. This was King's first leading action film role. Bulletproof Monk was nominated for Choice Movie in a Drama/Action Adventure award at the Teen Choice Awards. In late 2003, King appeared in the music video for the Robbie Williams song, "Sexed Up", and on the cover artwork for the single's release. In 2004, she appeared in the comedy White Chicks, playing Heather Vandergeld, with actress Brittany Daniel as her sister Megan Vandergeld, a parody on socialites Paris and Nicky Hilton. White Chicks was negatively reviewed by critics, receiving five nominations at the Razzie Awards in the categories for Worst Actress, Worst Director, Worst Picture, Worst Screen Couple and Worst Screenplay. However, White Chicks won Outstanding Directing for a Box Office Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Box Office Movie at the BET Comedy Awards.

=== Breakthrough (2005–09) === In 2005, King appeared in a variety of film and television roles. She first appeared in the independent black comedy and satire Pretty Persuasion, playing a small role as Kathy Joyce, the stepmother of Evan Rachel Wood's character. King landed dual roles (as twins) in the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City. She had met with director Robert Rodriguez, who was a fan of her work, and at the time King was unaware that Rodriguez wanted her involved in the film. Eventually, "we started reading [the Sin City graphic novel], and it was really fun". King portrayed Goldie and Wendy, the twin prostitutes in charge of the girls of Old Town, in the segment The Hard Goodbye opposite Mickey Rourke. Sin City featured a large ensemble cast of well-known actors which included Rosario Dawson and Jessica Alba, with whom King "kinda grew up together" in New York.

In Sin City, King was one of the few in the black and white film to have color, that being, red lips and blonde hair when acting as Goldie. The film was screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in-competition and won the Technical Grand Prize for the film's "visual shaping." The family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen 2 featured King as Anne Murtaugh in another large ensemble cast. She also acted in the Al Pacino drama Two for the Money as Alexandria. Both films had negative critical and box office reception. On television, she had a guest appearance on the teen drama The O.C. and a recurring role on the short-lived situation comedy Kitchen Confidential. King was featured in the Zach Braff-directed music video for Gavin DeGraw's "Chariot". In 2006, King appeared with a small role as Heather in the comedy The Alibi and a starring role in the thriller True True Lie. Her largest role that year was in the David Arquette horror film The Tripper as Samantha. King had a recurring role on the short lived comedy The Class, which ended its run on television after an announcement in May 2007. The Class had been nominated for an Emmy Award in 2007, and it won the People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy.