Emily O'Hara Ratajkowski was born in London, England, to American
parents, Kathleen (Balgley), a professor, and John David Ratajkowski, a
painter. She is of British Isles, German, Polish, and Jewish ancestry. Emily was raised in Encinitas, California, near San Diego. She traveled a lot, and also spent some of her childhood in Ireland
and Mallorca. She started modeling at fourteen-years-old and was signed by
"Ford Models". She continued to attend school but, after one year at
UCLA, majoring in Fine Art, she decided to concentrate on becoming a
model. After shootings with
Tony Duran, she became recognized
as a fashion model. Later, she was on the cover of "GQ Turkey" and
appeared in
Robin Thicke's music video,
"Blurred Lines". As an actress, she played "Tasha" on the "Nickelodeon" series,
iCarly (2007), and the mistress of
Ben Affleck's character in the thriller
Gone Girl (2014). She also appeared in the film version of
Entourage (2015), and co-starred with
Zac Efron in the musical drama
We Are Your Friends (2015).