Gabrielle Union

Gabrielle Monique UnionWade born October 29 1972 is an American actress She is known for her roles in The Brothers 2001 Deliver Us from Eva 2003 Bad Boys II 2003 Daddys Little Girls 2007 Think Like a Man 2012 Think Like a Man Too 2014 and the remake of Cheaper by the Dozen 2022 She also starred as the lead in the BET drama series Being Mary Jane 20132019 for which she has received an NAACP Image Award and in the crime series LAs Finest 20192020 a spinoff series for her character Syd in Bad Boys II She also had starring roles in the CBS medical drama series City of Angels 2000 and in the films Cradle 2 the Grave 2003 Neo Ned 2005 Cadillac Records 2008 Top Five 2014 Breaking In 2018 and The Perfect Find 2023 She has also costarred in the films The Birth of a Nation 2016 Almost Christmas 2016 and Sleepless 2017 In high school Union was an allstar point guard in basketball and a yearround athlete also playing in soccer and running track She went on to the University of Nebraska before moving on to Cuesta College She eventually transferred to UCLA and earned a degree in sociology While studying there she interned at the Judith Fontaine Modeling Talent Agency to earn extra academic credits Invited by the agencys owner Judith Fontaine she started working as a model to pay off college loans Her career began in the 1990s when she made dozens of appearances on TV sitcoms prior to landing supporting roles in 1999 teen films Shes All That and 10 Things I Hate About You She rose to greater prominence the following year after she landed her breakthrough role in the teen film Bring It On Bring It On helped push her into the mainstream and she began gaining more exposure She was cast in her first leading role in the 2003 film Deliver Us from Eva with rapper LL Cool J In 2003 she landed the role of Will Smiths girlfriendMartin Lawrences sister Sydney Burnett in the film Bad Boys II and she starred with Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx in the film Breakin All the Rules in 2004 She then starred in the shortlived 2005 ABC series Night Stalker She has also starred in the independent drama films Neo Ned and Constellation the latter of which was released to theaters She won an award for Best Actress in Neo Ned at the Palm Beach International Film Festival and the film received awards at several festivals Outside of acting she has written four books two memoirs titled Were Going to Need More Wine 2017 and You Got Anything Stronger 2021 and two childrens books titled Welcome to the Party 2020 and Shady Baby 2021