Age: 19. Hometown: Born in Pomona, California. Alba was raised by her mother, Cathy Alba, and father, Mark Alba, an Air Force staff sergeant, on military bases in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before the family settled in Claremont, California. Current residence: Vancouver, British Columbia, where she moved to star as the genetically engineered Max in the new Fox TV series Dark Angel, cocreated and coproduced by Titanic director James Cameron. Girl, interrupted: Alba says she was a tomboy as a kid but adds, "I got a woman's figure when I was 12, and it was intense. All of a sudden, you're viewed as a sex object." At first, she tried to hide her body by losing almost 20 pounds and wearing baggy clothes. "I just stopped eating. And then I realized, What am I doing? Don't be stupid. God made you this way. It's cool." Credits card: Alba has appeared in the TV series Flipper, as well as Never Been Kissed (1999), with Drew Barrymore, and Idle Hands (1999) with Seth Green. Mi familia: "I've got cousins galore. Mexicans just spread all their seeds," says Alba, whose father is Mexican-American. "And the women just pop them all out." Alba won't discuss whom she's dating but says she plans to start a family soon: "Oh yeah, I want to breed sometime, let me tell you." To the max: To prepare for Dark Angel, Alba trained for almost a year in gymnastics, motorcycle-riding and martial arts. "I got a high out of pushing myself to the limit. Someone's like, 'You can't ride a motorcycle, you're a girl.' I say 'Really? I'm going to go get my ass on a Kawasaki Ninja 600. Now what?'"