Biography of Naomi CampbellNaomi Campbell (born May 22, 1970) is an English supermodel, actress, singer, and author.
Campbell was born in London, England. Her mother, Valerie, was a ballet dancer of Jamaican heritage, who told Arena in 1996 that her daughter's unnamed father is a multi-racial man of part-Chinese descent. Her grandmother was a native Chinese woman whose family immigrated to Jamaica.
She attended Dunraven School, a comprehensive school run by Inner London Education Authority in Streatham and attended the London Academy for Performing Arts.
A graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage school, Campbell's first appearance to a wider public was in February 1978 when she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video with Bob Marley for his song "Is This Love?". In 1982, she appeared in another music video, this time as a tap dancer for Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya".
On graduating from Italia Conti, her looks ("My features are completely ethnic, and I'm proud of them" she said in the September 2003 issue of Essence) led her to become a fulltime model, creating a high-profile career and creating two spin-off companies, NC Connect and the Design House of Naomi Campbell.
Her charity work mainly focuses on the children and people of Africa, including working with Nelson Mandela, since 1997. She feels that one of her greatest joys in life is knowing Mandela, and believes that his kindness, passion and intelligence make him a modern world leader. In 2005, she helped to create and participate in 'Fashion Relief' for Hurricane Katrina victims, raising over a million dollars.
On 7 July 2007 she presented at the South African leg of Live Earth in Johannesburg.
Aged 15 and while still a student of the Italia Conti Stage School, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, former head of Synchro models agency, window-shopping in Covent Garden. In April 1986, she appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a black model who canceled out of the appearance. By August 1988, she had appeared on the cover of the French Vogue as that publication's first black cover girl, and she had completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and François Nars.
Her modelling career started as a catwalk model, but she was quickly picked up for various high-profile advertising campaigns for Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which brought her to the American market. The highpoint of her career was in the early 1990s, when she was part of the two major supermodelling powerhouses, the Big Six and the Trinity, (with Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington).
She has walked the catwalk for many fashion designers, including Gianni Versace and Valentino. Naomi did tumble over on the catwalk at Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania fashion show in 1994, the fall being attributed to the 9 inch heeled shoes made for the show by leading designer Patrick Cox. Naomi was the first black model to appear on the cover of Time magazine, French and British Vogue magazines and Vogue Nippon. She has also appeared on the covers of Harper's Bazaar and ELLE magazine. In total, Naomi Campbell has been on over 500 magazine covers.
She has also posed nude for Playboy magazine and appeared in Madonna's 1992 book, Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane.
It had been widely known that Campbell and fellow supermodel Tyra Banks were in a bitter feud, and there were many accounts of backstage tantrums at fashion shows and catty remarks throughout the years. However, in 2005 Campbell appeared on Banks's talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, and the two reconciled. The interview was filmed with no studio audience present at the request of Banks, reportedly due to the host's traumatization and nervousness over the confrontation.
Campbell starred at age seven in the music video for Bob Marley and the Wailers song "Is This Love". Campbell later appeared in music videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Culture Club, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince, and Usher, as well as Madonna's 1992 music video for "Erotica", which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. She famously appeared in George Michael's music video, "Freedom '90", where she lip-synched to his song along with other models, including Turlington and Evangelista. She was also seen in Frankie J's music video, "That Girl".
Campbell has also tried her hand at singing. In 1995, Campbell released a single "Love and Tears" from debut and only solo Baby Woman which sold over 1 million copies worldwide (but mostly in Japan). The album was panned by critics as a flop , and failed to chart higher than 75 in the UK Her collaboration with Toshinobu Kubota, "La La La Love Song" the theme song to Long Vacation, became a No. 1 hit in Japan, with the single selling approx. 1,856,000 copies. That same year she sang on Quincy Jones' album Q's Juke Joint. She was featured on Vanilla Ice's single "Cool as Ice".
On her album B'day, Beyoncé Knowles mentions Campbell's signature walk as part of a sequence of called-out dance moves in the 2007 single "Get Me Bodied," She sings "Do the Naomi Campbell walk," referring to Campbell's runway walking style. In the video, three dancers are seen imitating Campbell's walk.
In 1999 Campbell developed the Design House of Naomi Campbell that created beauty products. So far Campbell has created seven fragrances for women mostly based in Europe. In 2000 Campbell introduced her first perfume "Naomi Campbell" and "Naomagic" a combination of Campbell's name and the word magic. In 2001 Campbell introduced her third perfume "Cat Deluxe" and in 2003 came "Mystery." A year later a fourth fragrance was made "Sunset" and in 2005 another tropical themed titled fragrance was made "Paradise Passion." Campbell's latest fragrance is a new version of her Cat Deluxe perfume called "Cat Deluxe At Night".
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