Salma Hayek Pinault; born Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez is a Mexican and American actress and film producer. She began her career in Mexico with starring roles in the telenovela Teresa (1989–1991) as well as the romantic drama Midaq Alley (1995). She soon established herself in Hollywood with appearances in films such as Desperado (1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Wild Wild West (1999), and Dogma (1999).

Early life

Salma Hayek was born in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. Her father, Sami Hayek Domínguez, is of Lebanese descent. His ancestors hail from the city of Baabdat, Lebanon, a city Salma and her father visited in 2015 to promote her movie Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. He owns an industrial-equipment firm and is an oil company executive in Mexico; he once ran for mayor of Coatzacoalcos. Her mother, Diana Jiménez Medina, is an opera singer and talent scout; she is of Spanish descent. While visiting Madrid in an interview in 2015 with Un Nuevo Día, Hayek described herself as fifty-percent Lebanese and fifty-percent Spanish saying that her grandmother/maternal great-grandparents were from Spain. Her younger brother, Sami, is a furniture designer.

Hayek was raised in a wealthy, devout Catholic family, and at age 12 opted to study at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. In school, she was diagnosed with dyslexia. She attended university at the Universidad Iberoamericana studying international relations. In a 2011 interview with V magazine, Hayek mentioned that she was once an illegal immigrant in the United States, although it was not for a long period of time.

Career

Early roles in Mexico (1988–1994)

Hayek's first screen appearance was in the television series in Un Nuevo Amanecer (1988), which earned her the TVyNovelas Award for Best Debut Actress. Televisa subsequently selected Hayek, who was 23 at the time, to play the title role in Teresa (1989–1991), a successful Mexican telenovela that made her a star in Mexico. The series ran for two years and 125 episodes, and earned her the 1990 TVyNovelas Award for Best Female Revelation.

Hollywood breakthrough

Hayek starred as a photographer and the on-and-off girlfriend of a New York City architect, opposite Matthew Perry, in the romantic comedy Fools Rush In (1997). Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of a possible 4 and described it as "a sweet, entertaining retread of an ancient formula", elevated by good performances (particularly Hayek) and an insightful "level of observation and human comedy". Fool's Rush In was a moderate commercial success and earned Hayek an ALMA Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film. In another romantic comedy, Breaking Up (also 1997), she and Russell Crowe portrayed a couple whose relationship leads to an out-of-the-blue marriage. Ken Eisner of Variety magazine wrote: "Russell Crowe and Salma Hayek make attractive leads, but they have neither the marquee power nor the requisite chemistry to keep Breaking Up from getting left at the altar of general distribution." Indeed, the film was distributed for selected markets in the United States only.

Worldwide recognition

In 2003, Hayek produced and directed The Maldonado Miracle, a Showtime film based on the book of the same name, for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Children Special, reunited with Robert Rodriguez for Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and made an appearance in the documentary V-Day: Until the Violence Stops. Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which made $98.2 million worldwide, was the final film of the Mariachi Trilogy and featured Hayek reprising her role from Desperado. Hayek served as an executive producer for the American television series Ugly Betty (2006–2010), after adapting the story for American television with Ben Silverman, who acquired the rights and scripts from the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea in 2001. Originally intended as a half-hour sitcom for NBC in 2004, the project would later be picked up by ABC for the 2006–2007 season with Silvio Horta also producing. She guest-starred on the series as Sofia Reyes, a magazine editor. 

Continued commercial success

In 2010, Hayek played a fashion designer and the wife of a Hollywood talent agent (Adam Sandler) in the comedy Grown Ups which, despite a negative critical reception, made $271.4 million globally. She is the voice of Kitty Softpaws, a street-savvy Tuxedo cat, alongside Antonio Banderas in Puss in Boots (2011). A spin-off of the Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots received positive reviews from critics, grossed $554.9 million at the box office, and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 84th Academy Awards. In 2011, she also obtained Hispanic roles in two international productions —a dancer in the French drama Americano and the wife of a former advertising executive in the Spanish As Luck Would Have It— which earned her nominations for the San Sebastián International Film Festival Award for Best Actress and the Goya Award for Best Actress, respectively.

Recent roles

Hayek was cast as Eva Torres, a high-frequency trading executive, alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgård, in Kim Nguyen's tech drama The Hummingbird Project (2018), and as Nancy Teagarten, one half of a couple experiencing a series of financial crises, with Alec Baldwin, in Fred Wolf's comedy Drunk Parents (2019). In 2020, Hayek appeared as a cosmetics mogul in Miguel Arteta's comedy Like a Boss, with Rose Byrne and Tiffany Haddish, and the alternative wife of a man in Sally Potter’s drama The Roads Not Taken, with Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning.

In June 2022, Hayek was cast in Angelina Jolie’s upcoming film, Without Blood, based on the bestselling Italian novel by Alessandro Baricco. It was filmed in Rome, Apulia, and Basilicata. Hayek will star in the film alongside Demián Bichir. In 2023, she appeared in the episode "Joan Is Awful" of the Netflix anthology Black Mirror.

Other ventures

Advocacy

Hayek's charitable work includes increasing awareness on violence against women and discrimination against immigrants. On July 19, 2005, Hayek testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary supporting reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. In February 2006, she donated $25,000 to a Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, shelter for battered women and another $50,000 to Monterrey based anti-domestic violence groups. She is a board member of V-Day, the charity founded by playwright Eve Ensler. While Hayek previously stated that she is not a feminist, she later revised her stance, stating: "I am a feminist because a lot of amazing women have made me who I am today. [...] But – it should not be just because I am a woman".

Endorsements

Hayek has worked with the Procter & Gamble Company and UNICEF to promote the funding (through disposable diaper sales) of vaccines against maternal and neonatal tetanus. She is a global spokesperson for the Pampers/UNICEF partnership to help raise awareness of the program. The partnership involves Procter & Gamble donating the cost of one tetanus vaccination (approximately 24 cents) for every pack of Pampers sold.

In 2008, Hayek co-founded Juice Generation's juice delivery program Cooler Cleanse. After writing the foreword to Juice Generation founder Eric Helms' 2014 book The Juice Generation: 100 Recipes for Fresh Juices and Superfood Smoothies.

In 2011, Hayek launched her own line of cosmetics, skincare, and haircare products called Nuance by Salma Hayek, to be sold at CVS stores in North America.

Public image

Early in her career, Hayek came to be regarded as a sex symbol, and her most of her early films, it has been noted, such as the action-oriented Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Fled, "predominantly featured her in racy sex symbol type of roles" and ultimately made Hayek a familiar face with mainstream audiences. Various media publications have cited her as one of Hollywood's most beautiful actresses. People named her one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1996, 2003 and 2008, Maxim ranked her 34th and 90th on their Hot 100 list in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and FHM included her on their 100 Sexiest Women in the World list in 2005 and 2006. A July 2007 poll by E-Poll Market Research found Hayek to be the "sexiest celebrity" among a group of 3,000 public figures, with 65 percent of respondents using the term "sexy" to describe her. The Armani dress Hayek wore to the 1997 Academy Awards was voted by E! Entertainment as one of the five most memorable in Oscar history.

Personal life

Hayek is a naturalized United States citizen. She has studied at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment and practices yoga. Hayek, who was raised Catholic, stated in a 2007 interview that she was no longer devout and did not believe in the Church, in part because she disagreed with practices such as its campaign against condoms in Africa, where she said AIDS and overpopulation were rampant, though she clarified that she still believed in Jesus Christ and God.

On March 9, 2007, Hayek confirmed her engagement to French billionaire and Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault as well as her pregnancy. She gave birth to their daughter on September 21, 2007, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. They were married on Valentine's Day 2009 in Paris. On April 25, 2009, they renewed their vows in Venice, Italy.

Filmography and accolades

Hayek's films that have earned the most at the box office, as of 2021, include:

• Wild Wild West (1999)
• Frida (2002)
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
• Grown Ups (2010)
• Puss in Boots (2011)
• The Pirates! (2012)
• Savages (2012)
• Grown Ups 2 (2013)
• Sausage Party (2016)
• How to Be a Latin Lover (2017)
• The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)
• Eternals (2021)
• House of Gucci (2021)
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Hayek's performance as Frida Kahlo in Frida (2002) garnered her nominations for Best Actress at the 75th Academy Awards, the 61st Golden Globe Awards, the 53rd British Academy Television Awards and the 9th Screen Actors Guild Awards. She won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Children Special for The Maldonado Miracle (2004) and received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, one for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and the other for Outstanding Comedy Series as an executive producer, for her work on Ugly Betty (2006–10). In 2011, Hayek was appointed Knight (Chevalier) of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, and in 2021, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.