Early life

King was born in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Nancy King, a former beauty queen, and Robert King. She has an older sister Sandi, a younger sister 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 had attended Nancy Bounds' Studios, a modeling school, and in 1995 dropped out of Westside High School in order to pursue a modeling career in New York. She later enrolled in a home-study program run by the University of Nebraska.

Modeling career

She was discovered in November 1993, at age fourteen, while attending 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. In March 1994 she traveled to New York for test pictures and received enthusiastic responses, however, she did not return to New York until July 1994, after gaining a successful advertisement for Abercrombie & Fitch. Much of fall and spring 1994 were spent commuting between Omaha and New York.

King had a successful early career as a fashion model, and by age fifteen she had been featured in the fashion magazines Vogue, Mademoiselle, Allure, and Seventeen. At sixteen, King had graced the pages of 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 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 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 (portrayed by Johnny Depp).

King made her first appearance in a large Hollywood production with her role as the seventeen-year-old nurse, Betty, 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. 2003 saw King in the film Bulletproof Monk, alongside Chow Yun-fat and Seann William Scott, an adaptation of a comic book by Michael Avon Oeming. After five auditions, a screen test, and a physical test, she landed the role of Jade, a character skilled in martial arts. This was King's first leading action film role. Bulletproof Monk received mostly negative reviews from critics, who cited that the fight scenes were not as well choreographed or directed as those other genre films, and that the alternating comedic and action scenes were jarring. Regardless, 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 received Outstanding Directing for a Box Office Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Box Office Movie at the BET Comedy Awards.

Breakthrough (2005-08)

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, 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.

Sin City had opened to wide critical and commercial success, gathering particular recognition for the film's unique coloring process, which rendered most of the film in black and white but retained coloring for select objects; 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.

In 2007, King filmed They Wait, a horror-thriller film inspired by true events, with Terry Chen as her husband and Regan Oey as their son. She stars as a mother attempting to find the truth and save her son when threatened by spirits during the Chinese tradition of Ghost Month. It was featured in the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, but has not yet had a wide theatrical release. However, it was broadcast on Lifetime Movie Network February 2015. In 2008, King appeared as Lorelei Rox in The Spirit, a live-action film adaptation based on the 1940s newspaper strip The Spirit created by Will Eisner. The role reunited King with Sin City writer Frank Miller, who wrote and directed the film.

Film and television roles (2009-present)

King was cast as Sarah Palmer in the horror remake of My Bloody Valentine 3D, which opened in January 2009. She appeared in the Star Wars-themed comedy Fanboys, which had a release date pushed first to January 2008 when director Kyle Newman received additional funding to shoot new scenes, but the busy schedule of the actors postponed filming. Still delayed, the filmmakers and its distributor, the Weinstein Company, are involved in a dispute over which version to release. In May 2008, King featured in another Newman-directed film, Act I of The Cube, the beginning of an online movie-making contest.

The Pardon, a film based on the true life story of Toni Jo Henry, the only woman to be electrocuted by Louisiana, stars King in the lead role with John Hawkes playing her partner-in-crime. This drama was released in 2013. The Pardon's co-producer and writer Sandi Russell says: "Jaime carries this film. She is literally in every scene of the movie and given the subject matter, that is no small task."

The Jim Kouf comedy, A Fork in the Road, has King portraying April Rogers, alongside Daniel Roebuck. She plays Beth in Darren Lynn Bousman's remake of Mother's Day and narrated the movie on Scream Award 2009. King hosts the reality show Scream Queens 2, directed by Biagio Messina and Joke Fincioen on VH1. She appeared in the music video for the song "Bury Me Alive" by the band We Are The Fallen with her husband Kyle Newman.

King worked in the TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She played the role of Aurra Sing in the series Season 1 finale episode "Hostage Crisis" and later the final three episodes of Season 2: "Death Trap", "R2 Come Home", and "Lethal Trackdown" as well as an appearance in Season 3. She played three other characters in addition to Aurra Sing in series. In the episode "Lightsaber Lost", she voices Cassie Cryar and Muk Muk Monkey. She voices a ticket droid in the episode "Lethal Trackdown".

King appeared in the ABC documentary-style dramedy television series My Generation, which premiered on September 23, 2010. After initial low ratings, ABC pulled the program from broadcast after two episodes.

King also appeared in the music video of The Fray hit single Never Say Never.

King played Lemon Breeland in the CW show Hart of Dixie, which premiered on September 26, 2011. She had expressed interest in working in the Dark Knight trilogy, specifically in the role of Catwoman, which was eventually played by Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.

King appeared in Lana Del Rey's music video, Summertime Sadness, which was directed by her husband, Kyle Newman. The video was released July 2012 and can be seen on YouTube.com. In the video, King plays Del Rey's suicidal lover. King reprised her role as twins Goldie and Wendy in the part sequel and part prequel of the Miller written and co-directed film Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Personal life

During her first job modeling, King began using heroin and had an addiction to the drug from age 14 to 19, at which time King went to rehabilitation for her addiction. Her boyfriend, 20-year-old fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti, died from "a kidney ailment thought to have been brought on by excessive heroin use." She briefly dated Kid Rock at the age of 21.

In January 2005, while working on the set of Fanboys, she met future husband Kyle Newman, the film's director. Within three months of dating, the two moved in together. Newman proposed in spring 2007, and the two married on November 23, 2007 in an "intimate and relaxed" ceremony in Los Angeles at Greystone Park and Manor, where Newman had proposed. King told InStyle magazine, "I want at least three children." On May 3, 2013 it was announced that King and her husband were expecting their first child. Their son, James Knight Newman was born October 6, 2013, weighing 7 lbs. 2oz.

In 2014, she revealed her struggles with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, which led to infertility. King suffered five miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy prior to her first successful pregnancy.

In February 2015, King announced she was pregnant with the couple's second son. Taylor Swift is the child's godmother. Their second son, Leo Thames, was born July 16, 2015.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Happy Campers	Pixel	Credited as James King
2001	Blow	Older Kristina	Credited as James King
2001	Pearl Harbor	Nurse Betty Bayer	Credited as James King
2002	Four Faces of God	Sam
2002	Slackers	Angela Patton	Credited as James King
2002	Lone Star State of Mind	Baby
2003	Bulletproof Monk	Jade
2004	White Chicks	Heather Vandergeld
2005	Pretty Persuasion	Kathy Joyce
2005	Sin City	Goldie and Wendy
2005	Two for the Money	Alexandria
2005	Cheaper by the Dozen 2	Anne Murtaugh
2006	True True Lie	Nathalie
2006	The Alibi	Heather
2006	The Tripper	Samantha
2007	They Wait	Sarah
2008	The Spirit	Lorelei Rox
2009	My Bloody Valentine 3D	Sarah Palmer
2009	Fanboys	Amber	Credited as Jaime King-Newman
2010	Waiting for Forever	Susan Donner
2010	A Fork in the Road	April Rogers
2010	Mother's Day	Beth Sohapi
2012	Red Tails	Axis Mary	Voice
2012	Silent Night	Aubrey Bradimore
2013	The Pardon	Toni Jo Henry
2014	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Goldie and Wendy
2015	Barely Lethal	Analyst Knight
2015	The Ever After		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Harry Green and Eugene	Anna Marie	Unaired pilot
2005	The O.C.	Mary-Sue	1 episode ("The Return of the Nana")
2005-2006	Kitchen Confidential	Tanya	13 episodes
2006	The Worst Week of My Life	Paige	1 episode ("Pilot")
2006-2007	The Class	Palmer	6 episodes
2008-2009	Gary Unmarried	Vanessa Flood	13 episodes
2009	Tit for Tat	Jaime	1 episode Also writer and producer
2009-2012	Star Wars: The Clone Wars	Luce/Nightsister/Aurra Sing/Customs Droid/Cassie Cryar/Muk Muk Monkey	Voice 7 episodes
2010	My Generation	Jackie Vachs	5 episodes
2011-2015	Hart of Dixie	Lemon Breeland	Main role
2011	Love Bites	Amanda	1 episode ("Modern Plagues")
2014	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Sheila Linter	1 episode ("Dane Cook Wears a Black Blazer & Tailored Pants")

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist
1999	"Take a Picture"	Filter
2003	"Sexed Up"	Robbie Williams
2005	"Chariot"	Gavin DeGraw
2009	"Never Say Never"	The Fray
2010	"Bury Me Alive"	We Are The Fallen
2012	"Summertime Sadness"	Lana Del Rey

As director

Year	Title	Notes
2011	The Break In	Short
2011	Latch Key	Short Also writer

Awards and nominations

Year	Ceremony	Category	Work	Result
2001	Young Hollywood Awards	New Stylemaker - Female	N/A	Won
2003	DVD Exclusive Awards	Best Actress	Happy Campers	Nominated

Charities

Jaime King supports the following charitable causes: Breast Cancer, Cancer.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]