Salma Hayek

Background

Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez, better known by her married name, Salma Hayek Pinault, is a Mexican-American actress born to Spanish and Lebanese parents. She belongs to an affluent Mexican Roman Catholic household. Hayek was born on September 2, 1966, in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico, to opera singer Diana Jiménez Medina and businessman Sami Hayek Dominguez. She moved to the U.S. at 12 to study at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Louisiana. She was inspired to become an actress as a child after watching “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” After attending Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericana, she felt ready to enter the world of film.

Hayek rose to fame in Mexico after landing the titular character in the Mexican telenovela “Teresa” in 1989. She then went to Los Angeles, California, to pursue acting at Stella Adler. She played only brief parts like that of a hot maid on “Dream On,” “Street Justice,” and “Nurses” in the late 1990s. In 1993, she featured in “The Sinbad Show” and had only a one-line speaking role in “Mi Vida Loca.” In the 1995 film “Desperado,” she starred alongside Antonio Banderas and performed the song “Quedate Aqui.” In the years after, she appeared in Matthew Perry’s “Fools Rush In” (1997), Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West” (1999), and Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” (1999). Seasons back, she earned an ALMA award for best actress in a small creative film and starred in the summer blockbuster “Wild Wild West.” Her production firm Ventanarosa produced the Mexican feature film “No One Writes to the Colonel” (1999), which was selected as Mexico’s official Oscar entry for the best foreign film at the Cannes Film Festival.

The new century began eventfully enough as she prepared to produce and star in her dream role of “Frida” in 2002, the iconic Mexican painter whose narrative she had hoped to be in since arriving in Hollywood. In 2003, she starred in “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” reprising her part in “Desperado.” In March 2007, she announced her pregnancy and confirmed her engagement to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault. Valentina Paloma Pinault, her daughter, was born in September. From 2006 until 2010, Hayek served as executive producer of the television show “Ugly Betty.” She also made a special appearance as Sofia Reyes, for which she was nominated at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. “Grown Ups” (2010), in which she co-starred with Adam Sandler, showcased her humorous acting abilities. In 2011, she appeared in the animated film “Puss in Boots.” Hayek starred in the action thriller “Everly” in 2014 and the romantic comedy “Some Kind of Beautiful” in the same year. She played the Queen of Longtrellis in the European dark fantasy film “Tale of Tales” in 2015. Hayek worked in three films in 2017, one of them being “Beatriz at Dinner,” for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Then, she was cast in “How to Be a Latin Lover” and “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” followed by “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” in 2021. Most recently, she starred as “Ajak” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Eternals” (2021), which became her highest-grossing live-action feature.