Jenny Shimizu

Gaining worldwide notoriety for her still unverified affair with Angelina Jolie, Jenny Shimizu is virtually the only mainstream Asian-American model today. She was discovered in 1993 while riding her motorcycle around Los Angeles’ Club F**k. Her career took off quickly, and she was featured in magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, and Elle. Shimizu has also starred in Madonna’s Rain music video and Foxfire with Angelina Jolie, both stints causing rumors she was intimately involved with both women. She recently appeared on America’s Next Top Model as a guest celebrity.

Born June 16, 1967 in San Jose, California, Jenny Lynn Shimizu was a tomboy from the start. The brash bad-girl developed her tough exterior racing motocross and fixing all kinds of bikes. She dropped out of Cal State Northridge after two years and enrolled in auto mechanic school in 1992. After working as a mechanic for a couple months, she was discovered and began modeling around the globe.

Shimizu has destroyed the Asian woman stereotype and become a role model for a whole host of strong young women, regardless of race. Her tattoo on her right bicep, a woman straddling a wrench, has gained as much notoriety as the model herself. She usually sports short, cropped hair and a subtly embarrassed smile, though the 5 foot 6 inch maven is anything but embarrassed on the catwalks. Her androgynous look has mesmerized designers like Versace, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Calvin Klein, whom she is known for posing bare-chested for the CK One campaign.

Shimizu married UK TV personality Rebecca Loos as part of the Sky documentary ‘Power Lesbians,’ and the two continue to be friends. She still works on motorcycles and other bikes, and filmed a six-episode series about celebrities and motorcycles to be broadcast on Here TV.