Biography

Early life

Webb was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Marion (née Stewart), a public health nurse, and Leonard Douglas Webb, an electrician. Prior to her birth, both her parents spent 20 years in the Army. She grew up in a working class community. One of Webb's sisters became an oncologist and another is a mathematician.

As a youth, Webb identified with magazine models and women who were involved in the fashion industry, who exhibited control over their appearance. She also enjoyed comic books and dreamed of becoming an animator.

Webb graduated in 1983 from the Detroit Waldorf School and moved to New York to study design. After a makeup artist saw her in a housewares boutique, Webb dropped out of school to become a model. She also appeared in the music video for New Order's "Round and Round" off their 1989 album "Technique" and appears briefly in Scritti Politti's "Perfect Way" video from their 1985 album Cupid & Psyche 85.

Career

In New York, Webb pursued a modeling career and eventually became a spokesmodel for Revlon. She was the first black supermodel to win an exclusive contract for a major cosmetics company. In 1991 Webb made her feature film debut in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. Her film credits include Someone Like You..., The Big Tease, and Malcolm X. She also had a recurring role on the television show Damon and appeared on Just Shoot Me!, Becker and Clueless. In 2006, Webb appeared in the independent feature film Dirty Laundry.

As a runway model she has modeled fashions from the collections of Azzedine Alaia, Isaac Mizrahi, Karl Lagerfeld, and Todd Oldham. Webb was named to American Vogue's best dressed list three times.

Webb has written essays and columns for Interview magazine, Paper Magazine ("New York City's style guide to downtown cool"), Panorama (an Italian weekly news magazine), Details, Elle, The Sunday Times, The New York Times Syndicate, Conde Nast's Cookie magazine, and Esquire.

In 1998, Miramax Books published Veronica Webb Sight: Adventures In The Big City, a collection of autobiographical essays. Harvey Weinstein, chairman of Miramax, approached her while she was in line at the White House about publishing her essays as a memoir.

Webb was the co-host of the first season of Bravo's Tim Gunn's Guide To Style.

In 2010, Webb was named a member of the Eucerin Skin First Council to promote skin health.

Philanthropy

Veronica launched a business mentoring program, through which she took a young Detroit native under her wings. The program provided its recipient with the opportunity to be mentored by Veronica and join her as a consultant for Rodan and Fields. The first recipient of the competition was journalist Ashley Lyles.

Personal life

Webb learned French from Azzedine Alaia with whom she lived during her stay in Paris.

Webb dedicates her time to several charitable organizations: LIFEBeat, Product Red and the RPM Nautical Foundation. LIFEBeat is close to Webb's heart because she was deeply affected by the AIDs crisis in the 80's as a model living in New York. Webb got involved with RPM because of her ex-husband, George Robb, who works to bring up shipwrecks for museums and governments.

Webb married George Robb in 2002 and had daughters Leila Rose Robb (born October 2002) and Molly Blue Robb (born May 2004). The couple divorced in 2009. She is currently engaged to Chris Delgatto. Webb's hobby is decorating—colors and textiles, and traveling. She also collects shipwreck artifacts and textiles from around the world.

Webb ran the ING New York City Marathon for the first time in 2009 and ran for Harlem United Community AIDS Center.

Filmography

• Jungle Fever
• In Too Deep
• The Big Tease
• Dirty Laundry
• Malcolm X

[ Source: Wikipedia ]