Bio
Rebecca Romijn is an American actress and former fashion model best known for her role as Mystique in the X-Men movie trilogy, and as Alexis Meade in the television dramedy Ugly Betty, from 2007-2008.
Romijn (pronounced "Ro-maine") was born in Berkeley, California, to Jaap Romijn, a custom furniture maker, and Elizabeth Kuizenga, a public school English teacher and textbook author.
Her father, a native of Barneveld, The Netherlands, is Dutch, and her mother is a second-generation Dutch American who met Romijn's father while studying in Europe.
Romijn's maternal grandfather, Dr. Henry B. Kuizenga, was a Presbyterian minister and seminary professor.
While studying music (voice) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, she became involved with fashion modeling and eventually moved to Paris for more than two years.
Romijn is fluent in French and Dutch, in addition to her native language, English.
Among other jobs, Romijn modeled for the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated and for Victoria's Secret. She also was the host of MTV's House of Style from 1998 to 2000.
Rebecca is a fixture on annual lists of the world's most beautiful women by publications such as Maxim (2003-2007), AskMen.com (2001-2003, 2005-2006) and FHM (2000-2005).
In 2000's X-Men, Romijn had her first major movie role as "Mystique"; she returned to the role in 2003's sequel X2: X-Men United, and again for X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
In these movies her costume consisted of blue makeup and some strategically placed prosthetics on her otherwise nude body.
In X2: X-Men United she shows up in a bar in one scene in her "normal" look, and also in X-Men: The Last Stand, she appears as a dark-haired "de-powered" Mystique.
She had her first leading role in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale (2002). She has also starred in movies such as Rollerball, The Punisher and Godsend.
She played the leading role in Pepper Dennis, a short-lived TV series, in 2006. This series showcased Romijn's talents for comedy, singing, modeling, drama, and adventure.
In January 2007, Romijn made her first appearance on the ABC series Ugly Betty as a full time regular. She plays Alexis Meade, a male-to-female transsexual and the sibling of lead character Daniel Meade.