Gabrielle Union Biography

This talented actress is most known for her roles in the films 10 Things I Hate About You, Bring it On; for a recurring guest role on 7th Heaven and a regular role on the short-lived City of Angels series; as well as for making guest appearances on a number of popular sitcoms and TV dramas. She's also known for portraying characters younger than her true age, for working as a fashion model, and, unfortunately, for bring a victim of assault and rape when she was not yet twenty years old.Gabrielle Monique Union was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 29, 1972, and moved with her family to California when she was eight. During high school, Union took an avid interest in sports and proved herself a strong athlete, and also dated Jason Kidd, an NBA basketball star who currently plays for New Jersey Nets. While working at a shoe store in 1992, Union was assaulted and raped at gunpoint. Her attacker is currently serving a thirty-three year sentence.During her post-secondary education, she transferred from the University of Nebraska to Cuesta College to UCLA, where she earned a sociology degree. Union ditched her dream of becoming a lawyer in favor of pursuing a career in fashion modeling after being offered an internship for extra credit.During this time, she also decided to wet her feet in show business by taking a few guest roles in a number of TV series and also taking regular roles in a few short-lived series, such as Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Goode Behavior, Sister, Sister, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and The Steve Harvey Show, which starred Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and Terry J. Vaughn.However, Union first made a big splash on television when she took a guest-starring role as Keesha Hamilton from 1996 to 1999 on 7th Heaven, the hit family drama now in its eleventh season, currently starring Stephen Collins, Catherine Hicks, Beverley Mitchell, Mackenzie Rosman, David Gallagher, and George Stults. Union later snagged one of the several main roles as a medical doctor on the short-lived CBS series City of Angels in 2000, as Dr. Courtney Ellis.On the big screen, Union made her debut with the hit 1999 teen romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, which co-starred then-teen sensations Health Ledger and Julia Stiles, as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, and Andrew Keegan. Union, who played the youngest Stratford daughter's sixteen-year-old best friend, was significantly older than her co-stars, at almost twenty-seven. The following year, Union starred in Bring it On as the high-school cheerleader Isis, another case where Union worked alongside much younger actors Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, and Jesse Bradford. The release of the film also brought Union newfound popularity and recognition.Union went on to star and appear in a number of films including Bad Boys II, alongside Will Smith and Martin Lawrence; and Deliver us from Eva, opposite LL Cool J, both in 2003. She was also in Breakin All the Rules in 2004, in which she starred opposite Jamie Foxx; 2005's The Honeymooners, with Cedric the Entertainer, Regina Hall, and Mike Epps; and Running with Scissors in 2006, featuring Annette Bening, Joseph Fiennes, Alec Baldwin, and Gwyneth Paltrow.Back on the small screen, Union most recently starred alongside Stuart Townsend, Eric Jungmann, and Cotter Smith on the short-lived ABC series Night Stalker. Union will be starring as a successful lawyer in the upcoming Daddy's Little Girls with Idis Elba and Louis Gossett Jr.

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