Famke Janssen was born on November 5, 1954 in the Netherlands. Before going to the United States, Janssen studied economics for a year at the University of Amsterdam. She moved to the U.S. in 1984 and began her professional career as a fashion model. She signed with Elite Model Management and worked for Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel and Victoria's Secret. After retiring from modeling in the early 1990s, she enrolled at Columbia University to study creative writing and literature. She also took up acting. Several years later Janssen moved to Los Angeles to establish her acting career. Janssen obtained her first parts, appearing in guest roles on television series. One of her first appearances was in 1992, when she starred in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate" as empathic metamorph Kamala. One of her first film roles was with Jeff Goldblum in the 1992 film Fathers & Sons, then appeared in the film Lord of Illusions in 1995 with Scott Bakula. Also in 1995, she appeared in the first Pierce Brosnan James Bond film, GoldenEye, as femme fatale Xenia Onatopp. In an attempt to fight against typecasting after her role in the film, Janssen began seeking out more intriguing support roles, appearing in Woody Allen's Celebrity, Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man, John Irvin's City of Industry and Ted Demme's Monument Ave. One of her most popular roles was Dr. Jean Grey/Phoenix in X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand films. She won a Saturn Award for her role in X-Men: The Last Stand. She also starred in the movies, The Faculty, House on Haunted Hill, I Spy, Rounders, Deep Rising, Hide and Seek, Taken and Turn the River, for which she was awarded the Special Jury Best Actress Award at the 2007 Hamptons International Film Festival. In addition, Janssen had a prominent role in the second season of the popular TV show, Nip/Tuck, as the seductive and manipulative life coach, Ava Moore. In July 2010, filming began on Janssen's directorial debut Bringing Up Bobby. Janssen also wrote the screenplay to the film, which stars Milla Jovovich, Bill Pullman and Marcia Cross.