Gemma Louise Ward (born 3 November 1987) is an Australian model and actress.

She’s 21!

Ward was born in Perth, Western Australia, as the second child of Gary and Claire Ward.

Her older sister, Sophie Ward is also a model and she has younger twin brothers, Oscar and Henry Ward. She was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Perth and Shenton College.

As said herself in a Teen Vogue interview, she accompanied her friends to a modeling competition and ended up being scouted herself:

I had come straight from my auntie and uncle’s farm, and I was wearing this big gray barn jacket with mud all over it. When the scout came up to me, I said, ‘No, thank you.’ They forged my mum’s signature [for mandatory parental consent], and pushed me in front of the cameras.

Ward didn’t win the competition, but Vivien’s Model Agency picked her up after seeing a small picture of her in Kurv, a quarterly, internationally focused, Australian produced, fashion, arts, beauty, culture and style magazine.

At only sixteen, Ward was the youngest model to be listed by American Vogue as one of the nine “It Girls” in the modeling world. She has been in shows for designers such as Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, and many more. Ward has also graced magazine covers such as Vogue, W, and TIME Magazine’s Style and Design issue. In September 2004, at the age of 16, Ward became the youngest fashion model on the cover of the American edition of Vogue and was the first model to appear on the cover of Teen Vogue magazine. She is the first model since Kate Moss to be the face for Calvin Klein’s perfume “Obsession Night for Men” along with Philadelphia male model, Drew Keilt.

To date Ward’s clients have included Balenciaga, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Jil Sander, Karl Lagerfeld, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Rochas, Swarovski, Valentino and Yves Saint-Laurent, and, altogether, Ward has appeared on 30 covers of Vogue magazine worldwide.

British photographer Nick Knight stated, “Gemma is one of the very, very few models who look as though they come from another dimension.” Fashion designer Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler told Teen Vogue in February 2006 that, “She looked like no one else at the time. She was this alien, and fashion is always looking for newness.” Her look inspired a new generation of baby doll-like models such as Vlada Roslyakova, Heather Marks, Lily Cole, Lisa Cant, and Jessica Stam.

Personal Life:

Ward lives in New York and is close friends with fellow models Lily Donaldson, Caroline Winberg, Daria Werbowy, and Lily Cole.

In early 2008, Ward was reported to have been seeing actor Heath Ledger after media articles linked the two together at end of 2007 holiday celebrations, shortly before Ledger’s untimely death of an accidental prescription drug overdose on 22 January.