Rebecca Alie Romijn (/roʊˈmeɪn/ roh-MAYN; Dutch: [roːˈmɛin]; born November 6, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She is known for her role as Mystique in the first trilogy of the X-Men film series, and as Joan from The Punisher (2004), both of which are based on Marvel Comics. She also had a recurring role as Alexis Meade on the television series Ugly Betty. She most recently starred as Eve Baird in The Librarians.\n', '
Romijn was born on November 6, 1972, in Berkeley, California. Her mother, Elizabeth Romijn (née Kuizenga), is a community college instructor of English as a Second Language (ESL) and textbook author. Rebecca\'s father, Jaap Romijn, is a custom furniture maker. Her father is a native of Barneveld, the Netherlands, while her mother is an American of Dutch and English ancestry. Her mother met Rebecca\'s father as a teenager while living in the Netherlands on a student exchange program. Romijn\'s maternal grandfather, Henry Bernard Kuizenga, was a Presbyterian minister and seminary professor.\n', '
On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, when questioned about always being glamorous and beautiful, Romijn revealed that in her early teens, she was in fact an insecure "drama geek" and that, as a result of her growth spurt, she suffered from scoliosis and was constantly in pain. Many sources say that she was once nicknamed the "Jolly Blonde Giant" because of her 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) height, but she has admitted to making that up "for a laugh". While studying Music (Voice) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, she became involved with fashion modeling and eventually moved to Paris, where she lived for more than three years.\n', '