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CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 25: Actress and model Milla Jovovich during the Palme d'Or Closing Ceremony at the Palais des Festivals during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2008 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Milla Jovovich (born Milica Jovović, Serbian Cyrillic: Милица Јововић, Russian: Милица Йовович; December 17, 1975) is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the “reigning queen of kick-butt”. Milla Jovovich began modeling when Gene Lemuel convinced Herb Ritts to shoot her for the cover of Lei magazine. Richard Avedon featured her in Revlon‘s “Most Unforgettable Women in the World” advertisements, and she continued her career with other campaigns for L’Oréal cosmetics, Banana Republic, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, and Versace. In 1988, she had her first professional acting role in the television film The Night Train to Kathmandu, and later that year, she appeared in her first feature film, Two Moon Junction. Following more small television appearances such as the “Fair Exchange” (1989) and a 1989 role as a French girl (she was 14 at the time) on a Married… with Children episode and film roles, she gained notoriety with the romance film Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). She appeared in 1993’s Dazed and Confused, before a short hiatus. Jovovich then acted alongside Bruce Willis in the science fiction film The Fifth Element (1997), and later played the title role in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). In 2002, she starred in the video game adaptation Resident Evil, which spawned four sequels: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) and Resident Evil: Retribution (2012).