Naomi Campbell (born May 22 1970) is an English supermodel.

Campbell was born in Streatham, London, England. Her mother, Valerie, is a former ballet dancer of Jamaican heritage, who told Arena in 1996 that her daughter's unnamed father is a biracial man of Afro-Caribbean and Chinese descent.

Campbell attended Dunraven School, a comprehensive school run by Inner London Education Authority in Streatham, and attended the London Academy of Performing Arts. Campbell is a graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage school.

Aged 7, Campbell's first public appearance came 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.

Aged 15 and while still a student at the Italia Conti Academy, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, former head of Synchro models agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden. Campbell soon opted to become a fulltime model, signing with Elite Model Management. Of her looks, she has said: "My features are completely ethnic, and I'm proud of them."

Although Campbell started her career as a catwalk model, she was quickly hired for various high-profile advertising campaigns, including Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which introduced her to the American market. Campbell also completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and François Nars. In April 1986, she appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a model who had canceled out of the appearance.

In August 1988, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris as that publication's first Black cover girl. In addition to Vogue Paris, Campbell also became the first Black model to appear on the cover of Time magazine, Vogue UK and Vogue Nippon. She has also posed nude for Playboy and appeared in Madonna's 1992 book Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane. In total, Campbell has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers.

She famously starred in George Michael's music video Freedom! '90, where she lip-synched to his song along with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. In 1992, Campbell appeared in Madonna's music video for Erotica, which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. In addition to the previously mentioned music videos, Campbell has appeared in videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince and Usher.

The highpoint of Campbell's career was in the early 1990s, when she was part of the two major supermodel powerhouses: the Big Six, alongside Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss, and the Trinity, alongside Turlington and Evangelista.

In 1994, Campbell famously tumbled over on the catwalk at Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania fashion show. The fall was attributed to the 9-inch-heeled shoes made for the show by leading designer Patrick Cox.

For many years, Campbell was involved in a widely-known feud with fellow supermodel Tyra Banks, attested to by the many accounts of backstage tantrums at fashion shows and catty remarks. 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.

In 1995, Campbell released a music single, Love and Tears, from her debut album Baby Woman. Although panned by critics and a flop in the UK, where it failed to chart higher than 75 , Baby Woman was a succes in Japan and sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Campbell's 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 approximately 1,856,000 copies. That same year she sang on Quincy Jones' album Q's Juke Joint. She was also featured on Vanilla Ice's single Cool as Ice.

In 1999, Campbell developed a spin-off company, the Design House of Naomi Campbell. So far Campbell has created seven fragrances for women, most of which were released in Europe. In 2000, Campbell introduced her first perfumes, 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 released Mystery. A year later a fifth fragrance was made, Sunset, and in 2005 another fragrance was released, Paradise Passion. Campbell's latest fragrance is a new version of her Cat Deluxe perfume called Cat Deluxe At Night.

Since 1997, Campbell has been involved in charity work mainly focused on the children and people of Africa. She has worked with Nelson Mandela, and has said that one of her greatest joys in life is knowing Mandela, stating that his kindness, passion and intelligence make him a modern world leader. In 2005, she helped create and participated in Fashion Relief, raising over a million dollars for Hurricane Katrina victims. On July 7, 2007 she hosted the South African leg of Live Earth in Johannesburg.

*Cool as Ice (1991) *The Night We Never Met (1993) *Ready to Wear (1994) (Cameo) *Unzipped (1995) (documentary) *Miami Rhapsody (1995) *To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) *Catwalk (1996) (documentary) *Girl 6 (1996) *Invasion of Privacy (1996) *Beautopia (1998) (documentary) *An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998) *Trippin' (1999) *Prisoner of Love (1999) *Ali G Indahouse (2002) *Fat Slags (2004) *The Call (2006) (short subject) *Karma, Confessions and Holi (2006)

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* Naomi Campbell's official website * * * Campbell's Felony Criminal Charges (N.Y. v. Campbell) FindLaw * Naomi Campbell starts cleaning sentence * Video of Campbell on the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars