More than most celebrities, Emily Ratajkowski has strategically re-invented herself before our very eyes. Her career began as a sexually charged and highly aesthetic modeling job over 10 years ago, and has blossomed into acting, writing, business and commentary. Born on June 7, 1991 in London but raised by an American couple in Encinitas, California, Ratajkowski signed with Ford models when she was just 14.
Emily O’Hara Ratajkowski was born in Westminster, London, UK. She is the only child of American school teachers Kathleen Anne Balgley and John David “J.D.” Ratajkowski. Her father was raised Roman Catholic and her mother is Jewish. Ratajkowski has described her own ethnic identity as “Polish-Israeli”, with her ancestry tracing back to Eastern European roots, as well as Irish heritage. She briefly went to UCLA before dropping out to pursue modeling full-time, a decision that would soon become transformative.
Ratajkowski was first given a modeling contract on the cover of treats! March 2012 issue; a gig that led to music videos. It was that music video gig which broke her, however: Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” the No. 1 song of 2013 in a number of countries. The music video turned her into an international, overnight celebrity and established the framework of her public life-a career spent flipping conversations around visibility, autonomy, and image.
The model and actress began to amass a screen résumé as her name was firmly inserted into the national discourse, and her foray into films kicked off with the highly visible debut that was, , Gone Girl, playing the mistress of Affleck’s character. In the 2015 flick, Entourage, she played herself, a fictional iteration of herself and had a small role in the miniseries The Spoils Before Dying before grabbing her first leading role as part of a cast led by Zac Efron in the summer music drama film We Are Your Friends that premiered in August 2015, and as part of the film. I Feel Pretty, somehow juggling modeling and acting roles.
Ratajkowski has carved out her own lane as a fashion fixture, ever since the mid-2010s. In addition to her role in the 2014 and 2015 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, she made her fashion week debut modeling for Marc Jacobs in the 2015 season, eventually heading to Milan and Paris as well. After that came a whirlwind of endorsement deals, including a 2017 campaign for DKNY intimates, covers for Harper’s Bazaar Australia, Allure, and British Glamour, and campaign work with DL1961 and Frye. This past year, the 2017 partnership that saw her collaborating on a 38-piece made-in-Italy collection of bags dubbed the Emily By The Kooples signals Ratajkowski’s aspirations beyond modeling into business and design.
Ratajkowski remains a Fashion Month fixture nearly a decade later. In early 2026, she walked Gucci’s Fall 2026 runway before reuniting with Dior at its Fall 2026 show, a return to the brand’s front row after a nine-year absence that fashion press described as proof of her range across dramatically different aesthetics within the same season.
As Ratajkowski rose to fame, so did the public’s obsession with her image, often in ways that agitated Ratajkowski herself. She’s spoken about why women shouldn’t feel guilty about being sexy, and later wrote candidly about what it means for a model to own her own image, essays that pushed back against the idea that her visibility made her any less complex or autonomous. Her body of work culminated in the essay collection My Body, published by Metropolitan Books in November 2021, which made the New York Times Bestseller list. She is also a vocal advocate for women’s health as a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood and has openly identified as a feminist, a position that has garnered her both admiration and criticism over the years for her views on sexual expression and bodily autonomy.
Ultimately, Ratajkowski’s desire for unfiltered commentary drove her to podcasting. The same self-reflection that inspired My Body birthed her podcast, High Low with EmRata, and gave her a way to rise above the confines of being known only for her looks, and to share her true opinions. The show includes in-depth interviews with solo commentary and covers topics such as empowerment, ageism and women’s health, with guests like Amber Rose and Alex Cooper. The format has changed over the years, with episodes ranging from celebrity culture to larger social trends, and Ratajkowski has kept the show going as a regular outlet for her take on the world.
And in parallel to her work, Ratajkowski’s personal life has been performed publicly as well, a space to which she is always invited, but not the one always ready for it – she is never ashamed to mention her personal life through her writing. Her recent works not only shed light on the complexities of modern relationships, including motherhood and the media frenzy around her love life but, perhaps more strikingly, it turns those experience into the fuel of her creative process and content rather than avoiding the issues that many other celebrity individuals choose to hide. And that capacity for honesty is not any less part of her public face than the modeling itself.
And it is all the more striking because the career development of the American model and activist seems to reflect her efforts to constantly reinvent herself without ever departing from the foundations that have established her a decade and a half ago, in order to reveal the person beneath the superficial fame – all the facets of Ratajkowski’s evolving career have come to enrich and layer a persona who seems keen to challenge every narrative that might try to label and confinement it to a single identity or moment.
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