Jessica Biel's Real Name: Jessica Claire Biel

Quick answer: Jessica Biel's full name is Jessica Claire Biel. She was born on March 3, 1982, in Ely, Minnesota. Jessica Biel is her real name, and Claire is her middle name. She became known as Mary Camden on 7th Heaven. Her films include The Illusionist and Total Recall, and she earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for The Sinner (Library of Congress; Biography.com).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Biel, Jessica, 1982-." Its citation reads "birth name, Jessica Claire Biel, b. Mar. 3, 1982 in Ely, Minn.; actress." Biography.com gives the same full name, date, and birthplace.

According to Biography.com, her family moved often before settling in Boulder, Colorado. She took dance and voice lessons as a child. At 8 she was an understudy in a Connecticut production of Annie. She began modeling around 11, and at a 1994 modeling convention she won an acting scholarship to a program in Los Angeles.

Career highlights

Biel's breakthrough was the WB family drama 7th Heaven, which launched in 1996. She played Mary Camden, the eldest daughter of a minister played by Stephen Collins. She showed dramatic range as Peter Fonda's troubled granddaughter in Ulee's Gold (1997) and co-starred with Jonathan Taylor Thomas in I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998). In 1999 People named her one of its "50 Most Beautiful People." She cut back her 7th Heaven episodes while attending Tufts University and left the series in its sixth season.

Her film work includes Summer Catch (2001), The Rules of Attraction (2002), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Blade: Trinity (2004), and Stealth (2005). Biography.com says The Illusionist (2006), opposite Edward Norton, helped establish her as a dramatic actress. She followed it with I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), Easy Virtue (2009), which led Variety to call her a "spirited, sharp-witted comedienne," Valentine's Day and The A-Team (both 2010), Total Recall (2012), and Hitchcock (2012).

She starred as Cora Tannetti, a young mother who commits a shocking act of violence, in the USA Network series The Sinner. The Television Academy lists her 2018 Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie for the role. She later starred as a journalist in the drama series Limetown. In 2010 she joined Summit on the Summit, a Mount Kilimanjaro climb to raise awareness of the global water crisis.

Biography.com notes that she married singer Justin Timberlake in Puglia, Italy, in October 2012, and that the couple have two sons.

Name notes for searchers

Jessica is her given first name, Claire her middle name, and Biel her family surname. She has always acted under her own name and did not take Timberlake's surname professionally.