Gabrielle Union

Beautiful actress Gabrielle Union is a former soccer player and rape survivor!

36-year old Gabrielle Union was only 19 when she was accosted at the back of a shoe store. The cowardly deviant assaulted her at gunpoint, but Gabrielle saved her life by snatching the gun from him. Gabrielle later explained, "Luckily, Oprah had a show about what to do in case you're a victim of a violent crime. Immediately, I went on autopilot; it was like Oprah was in my ear, telling me what to do to stay alive. ... Thank God for Oprah because her words helped me live."

Speaking to Mercury News Gabrielle said, "It's hard to articulate what a rape survivor goes through, and when I was coming out of that, I was on a TV show where there was a character who was a serial rapist, and I was supposed to be next, and I begged the producers not to let me be raped. Then I did a cover on Savoy magazine, and I said I can talk about something that happened to me that has had a profound effect on women. And since then, I have not stopped talking about it. And whenever I talk about it, I get people who come and say, Me, too. And my goal is to never hear Me, too again."

Gabrielle Union with Jessica Biel

In her final year at UCLA, Gabrielle Union did an internship at a modeling agency to pay off her student loans, planning to join law school later on. But the gorgeous girl got into modeling herself and eventually landed a guest role in the TV show Saved By the Bell. Curiously Gabrielle was the first African-American to appear on Friends in one episode. Talking about that hit TV show Union says, "How can you even begin to have a show that takes place here [New York] and not show all the different races and creeds here?"

Gabrielle got a break in cinema with the cheerleading movie Bring It On. Her other screen credits include roles in The Honeymooners, the action movie Bad Boys II, Deliver Us From Eva and the comedy The Perfect Holiday. Union as also in the ABC's Night Stalker, a TV series about investigating crimes connected to the supernatural. Gabrielle also played the lesbian lover of Annette Bening in Running With Scissors. When asked what it was like to play a lesbian, Union shrugs it off. "It's just like if somebody asked me to cut my hair for a movie," she says. "I'm always up for the job."

Gabrielle's latest movie is Cadillac Records, about the legendary blues and R&B label Chess Records, in which she plays Geneva Wade, Muddy Waters' girlfriend and eventual wife.

Elizabeth Banks and Gabrielle Union arrive at the premiere of Eddie Murphy's 'Meet Dave' at the Mann Village Theater on July 8, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Gabrielle Union is 5'7.5" and has a curvy body. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska where her parents worked in the meat packing houses. So Gabrielle ate lots of beef and potatoes, mainly "the parts the white folks didn't want". She also admits her fondness for Krispy Kreme donuts. While in school Gabrielle Union was a track athlete and played basketball and soccer. She played on the University of Nebraska soccer team before joining UCLA.

Gabrielle Union married Chris Howard, a former NFL running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars, in 2001. They divorced in 2005 and have no kids. Gabrielle is currently dating the rapper Ludacris.