Milla Jovovich was born on 17 December 1975 in Kiev, Ukraine, Jovovich was raised by Bogich, a pediatrician, and Russian actress Galina Longinova. The family left Kiev in 1981, landing first in London and eventually settling in Sacramento, CA.
Her parents struggled to make ends meet in their new home, with her mother resorting to cleaning houses - among her clients was director Brian DePalma - when her Russian acting credits failed to find her roles in the States. Following a divorce with her mother in 1991, Jovovich's father was incarcerated for five years due to his role in an insurance fraud scheme; he was released in 1999.
Her mother also had photographs taken of Jovovich and submitted them to a modeling agency. Almost immediately, she was signed and began landing top print modeling jobs. Famed photographer Richard Avedon featured the 11-year-old unknown in his "Most Unforgettable Women of the World" spots for Revlon.
After marrying Paul W.S. Anderson, whom she had started dating in 2003 - only to break up briefly before reconciling - Jovovich starred as an Alaskan psychotherapist whose videotaped sessions with a patient offers compelling evidence of an alien abduction in "The Fourth Kind" (2009). The following year, she again played the zombie-killing Alice in the fourth installment of the series, "Resident Evil: Afterlife" (2010), which earned its requisite scathing reviews and yet success at the box office.