Former 'Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria has turned 48 on March 15. To celebrate her big day, here is a fact file on the beautiful actress...

The youngest of three sisters, Eva lived with her parents Ella and Enrique Jr in the town in the Lone Star State. Her family’s links to the neighbouring country of Mexico stretch 12 generations, she describes herself as a proud “Texican”.

‘The Heartbreak Kid’ star holds both a bachelor's degree in kinesiology from the Texas A+M University, Kingsville and MA in Chicano Studies from California State University. When Eva received her postgraduate diploma in May 2013, she tweeted: “Big day today. Very excited to graduate for my Master’s degree in Chicano Studies. You’re never too old or too busy to continue your education."

The Screen Actors’ Guild Award winner got her first credit in a 2000 episode of the Fox teen drama that made households names out of Tori Spelling, Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty as ‘Flight Attendant Number Three’.

The Golden Globe nominee has a long history of campaigning for several issues close to her heart, like immigration, and has been a vocal member of the Democratic Party. In 2018, she backed the left-wing candidate Beto O’Rourke over Ted Cruz, the eventual Republican winner in the race for the Senate. In 2020, she joined President Joe Biden on the road to get President Donald Trump, who appealed to voters with a hardline approach to migration, voted out of the White House. Addressing a rally in the vital swing state of Florida, she said: “I don’t know about you, but after all the attacks and the insults, I don’t just want Donald Trump out of office, but I want the Latino community to be the decisive group that votes him out of office. I want to show our pride and our strength and our power as a community.”

The brunette beauty first walked down the aisle to wed actor Tyler Christopher, who made his name on the soap ‘General Hospital’ but split from him in 2004. In November of that year, she met NBA star Tony Parker, who she got engaged to two years later in 2006. Their 2007 nuptials took place at Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois in Paris. After three years of marriage, Eva filed for divorce, claiming “irreconcilable differences”.

Eva welcomed her little boy, Santiago, with Pepe in 2018 after reports circulated the following year she was expecting. On his fourth birthday in November last year, she declared him to be her “favourite person” in a sweet Instagram post.

Among the ‘Harsh Times’ star’s many philanthropic efforts, which include education, Latino rights and so on, her first major one was the establishment of the charity, Eva’s Heroes, an organisation that seeks to help young adults with developmental disabilities. Her inspiration came from her own family as she grew up watching her sister require special care for her own developmental needs. She said: “I am blessed with a sister who has special needs. Now, I want to impact the lives of similar young adults nationwide.” Through this work, Eva has been involved with the Special Olympics.

The ‘Tell It Like A Woman’ star was inspired to collate all her favourite recipes into ‘Eva’s Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends’ in 2011 as it mirrors her family’s wedding tradition. She said at the time: “You know, in my family every time someone gets married, we all submit one recipe and we do a cookbook for the bride so that she is armed and ready to do her domestic duty and cook. We always did these cookbooks in our family.”

After making her name as one of the 00s biggest television stars, the ‘Arthur Christmas’ star made the move to create her own production company, Unbelievable Entertainment, in 2005. Upcoming credits include ‘Flamin’ Hot’, which is the biopic of the creator of the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto flavour, Richard Montanez, who began working at Frito Lay as the janitor. Of that side of things, Eva said in 2021: "As a producer, you assemble everybody, you hire the best people, and you create the jobs. That always intrigued me.”

The former ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ guest star admitted she loves to “play Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” on repeat” in 2017.