Background and career
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model and actress. Beginning her career at the age of eight, Campbell was one of six models of her generation who were declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. She was the first black woman to appear as a model on the covers of Time and Vogue France.
In addition to her modelling career, Campbell has embarked on other ventures, including an R&B studio album and several acting appearances in film and television. She hosted the modelling-competition reality television show The Face and its international offshoots. Campbell is also involved in charity work for various causes, although she was banned from being a trustee of any charity in the United Kingdom for five years in September 2024 following a financial misconduct investigation.
Naomi Elaine Campbell was born on 22 May 1970 in Lambeth, South London, to Jamaican-born dancer Valerie Morris. Per her mother's wishes, Campbell never met her father, who had abandoned her mother when she was four months pregnant and went unnamed on her birth certificate. She took the surname "Campbell" from her mother's second marriage. Her half-brother, Pierre, was born in 1985. Campbell is of Afro-Jamaican and Chinese-Jamaican descent. Her Chinese heritage comes through her paternal grandmother, whose surname was Ming.
Campbell spent her early years in Rome, Italy, where her mother worked as a modern dancer. On their return to London, she lived with relatives while her mother travelled across Europe with the dance troupe Fantastica. From the age of three, Campbell attended the Barbara Speake Stage School and at age 10, she was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, where she studied ballet. She also attended Dunraven School.
In 1978 at age 8, Campbell made her first public appearance in the music video for Bob Marley's "Is This Love" at the Keskidee, a Black-led arts and theatre centre in London. She tap-danced in 1983 in the music video for Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" and "Mistake No. 3", in 1984. She had studied dance from age 3 to 16, and originally intended to be a dancer. In 1986, while still a student of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Campbell was scouted by Beth Boldt, head of the Synchro Model Agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden. In April, just before her 16th birthday she appeared on the cover of British Elle.
How Naomi Campbell makes money
By 2011, Fashion For Relief had reportedly raised £4.5 million.
