Laetitia Casta

In French model and actress Laetitia Casta's case, she was definitely born with "it" -- "it" being the precise combination of beauty, talent and drive that sends her career everywhere from Victoria's Secret runway shows to high fashion ad campaigns and the most prestigious film awards ceremony in France. Her chance discovery in 1993 by a French modeling agency when she was just a teenager soon turned into a high-powered modeling career that landed her on the covers of magazines of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the legendary Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Her appointment in 1998 as brand ambassador for cosmetics giant L'Oreal Paris dovetailed with her coronation as a Victoria's Secret Angel and the new face of Marianne, the French Republic's symbol of liberty and equality. Casta traded photo shoots for film sets when she first appeared in the live-action adaptation of the popular French comic "Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar" (1999), which led to later roles as French blonde bombshell Brigitte Bardot in the Cesar-nominated "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life" (2010) and a mysterious mistress in the financial thriller "Arbitrage" (2012). A vocal opponent of the prevalence of photo re-touching as well as a brown belt in judo, Casta juggles family, film and fashion with grace and aplomb, becoming a globally recognized star along the way.