Biography

Irina Shayk was born in the USSR on January 6, 1986, as Irina Valeryevna Shaykhlislamova. She is a model and actress known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue between 2007 and 2014. She was the cover model for the 2011 issue. Shayk made her acting debut as Megara alongside Dwayne Johnson in Hercules (2014).
- IMDb mini biography by: scaryofmonsters (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)

Irina Valeryevna Shaykhlislamova (born 6 January 1986), known popularly as Irina Shayk and sometimes credited as Irina Sheik is a Russian supermodel. Shayk received international recognition in 2007 when she became the exclusive contracted face of Intimissimi lingerie. She appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and was also the first Russian model to grace its cover in 2011. Models.com ranks her at No. 8 in the world for her social media following.

Her full surname Shaykhlislamova consist of Shaykhlislam which literally means "Islamic scholar" (Shaykh al-Islam) due to Muslim Tatar background from her father and Russian female surname suffix ova.

Shayk was born in Yemanzhelinsk, USSR, to Volga Tatar Valery Shaykhlislamov, a coal miner, and his Russian wife Olga, a kindergarten music teacher. She has said that she inherited her looks from her father and that people often think she is South American: "My father was dark skinned, because he was Tatar, sometimes Tatars can look Brazilian... I get my light eyes from my mother." She has one sibling, a sister named Tatiana.

Shayk started playing piano at age six. At age nine she enrolled in a music school and studied there for seven years, both playing the piano and singing in the choir, since her mother wanted her to study music. Her father died of complications of pneumonia when she was 14, leaving her family with little money and forcing her mother to work two jobs to provide for the family.

After high school, Shayk studied marketing but failed it and entered a beauty school with her older sister. While there, she was noticed by a person from a local modeling agency who was struck by her beauty. She was urged to participate in the "Miss Chelyabinsk 2004" beauty contest and she won.

In 2007, she replaced Ana Beatriz Barros as the face of Intimissimi, and in the same year debuted in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Since that time, she has appeared in every annual edition, attending photoshoots in such places as St. Petersburg, Naples, Grenada and Chile.

After being the image of Intimissimi for three years, Shayk was made the official ambassador for the brand in 2010. Her other modeling contracts include Beach Bunny Swimwear (2009), and Guess spring/summer 2009. Other work includes the Victoria's Secret catalog, Lacoste, Cesare Paciotti and Morellato. Her magazine covers include Annabelle, Bolero, Woman, Twelv, Jalouse, and Paris Capital. She signed with modeling agency IMG in May 2009.

Shayk modeled the Armani Exchange spring/summer 2010 campaign. She also starred in Kanye West's "Power", directed by artist Marco Brambilla. She was on the cover of Ocean Drive and GQ South Africa for the August issue. She ranked first in the "50 Hottest Russian Women" list by Complex magazine.

She made a change from swimwear to high fashion with a spread in Spain's Harper's Bazaar and landed the cover of Elle Spain for their November 2010 issue. Glamour Spain awarded her "Best International Model of 2010". At the end of the year she was pictured nude in the GQ Spain December issue; however, she claimed that she had not stripped for the photoshoot, and that the magazine had digitally altered the images to remove her lingerie.

On 14 February 2011 episode of the Late Show with David Letterman, it was revealed via Billboard that Shayk was the covermodel for the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. This was the fifth time she has been featured in the magazine, but the first time she has been on the cover. She is the first Russian to appear on the cover. Shayk became the face of swim label Luli Fama's 2011 advertising campaign and look book. She also appears in the John John Denim ad campaign. In 2011 she covered magazines such as Tatler Russia, Twelv, Cosmopolitan Spain, GQ Mexico, Glamour Spain, Amica Italy and appeared on the covered of Elle Spain, the special edition for Christmas. She also worked for many brands like Rampage, replacing Bar Refaeli, Replay and XTI. She ranks 14th in the "Top 20 Sexiest Models" list on Models.com. The same year she was voted "Sexiest Woman In The World" in the Hungarian magazine Periodika.

Shayk made her acting debut as Megara alongside Dwayne Johnson in the 2014 film Hercules. Shayk is helping a maternity hospital in her hometown of Yemanzhelinsk. She and her sister helped rebuild the children's ward of the local hospital, and now Shayk raises money on behalf of a Russian charity, Pomogi, which provides care to sick children. Shayk is the official ambassador for Pomogi charity in Russia. Shayk has a pet Labrador dog named Caesare, after Julius Caesar, which she claims was fathered by one of the dogs who played the title role in the film Marley & Me. Shayk was previously in a five-year relationship with Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, which ended in January 2015. From May 2015 until June 2019, Shayk was in a relationship with actor Bradley Cooper. In November 2015, Cooper moved into her apartment in New York's West Village. On 21 March 2017, Shayk and Cooper welcomed their first child, a daughter named Lea de Seine Shayk Cooper, who was born in Los Angeles.
- IMDb mini biography by: ahmetkozan