Eva Longoria Parker

The youngest of four sisters, Eva Longoria Parker grew up on her family's ranch outside of Corpus Christi, Texas. After attending Texas A&M-Kingsville, where she received her Bachelor of Science in kinesiology, she entered a talent contest that brought her to Los Angeles.

Longoria Parker stars as Gabrielle Solis on the ABC-megahit "Desperate Housewives." The show is a multi-Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award-winner, with more than 30 Million viewers in the U.S. and shown in 208 countries around the world, which is now going into its 6th season. Longoria Parker has received numerous awards: People's Choice Award-winner for favorite female TV star, Teen choice Award-winner, TV Guide's "TV's Sexiest Star" in 2009, People's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2005, People's "100 Most Beautiful People" in 2006 and 2007, People En Espanol' s "50 Mas Bellos" in 2009, Rolling Stone's "People of the Year," ranked two years in a row in the prestigious FORBES Celebrity 100, and TWO years in a row the "#1 Hottest Woman in the World" on Maxim's annual 'Hot 100" list.

EVA'S CHARITIES:

PADRES Contra El Cancer

Longoria Parker pours her free time, energy and heart into philanthropic missions that make a difference in the Latino community. Longoria Parker serves as the national spokes person for PADRES Contra El Cancer (Parents Against Cancer), a nonprofit organization committed to improving the quality of life for Latino children with cancer and their families. PADRES currently remain the only Latino program in the United States that is focused on addressing the needs of the entire family. Longoria Parker first came to PADRES in 2003 where she began volunteering her time by visiting children with cancer while in the hospital and at PADRES family events. Since becoming spokesperson for the organization in 2005, Longoria Parker has personally contributed and helped raise over $4 Million for the organization through her participation as chair of the PADRES' annual fundraising gala "El Sueno de Esperanza," and other special fundraising campaigns. In addition, Longoria Parker was the honorary chair for "Rally for Cancer," an exclusive rally in Los Angeles which raises over 1Million in donations annually. All money raised benefited PADRES and Children's Hospital Los Angeles. As spokesperson for PADRES, Longoria Parker continues to raise significant dollars to expand the charity nationally; and she continues to volunteer with the organization locally, spending time with the children where her true passion lies.

Eva's Heroes

Longoria Parker works also with the Special Olympics and founded the non-profit organization "Eva's Heroes," which provides an after school program with an inclusive setting for individuals with developmental disabilities to interact, play, and grow with their typically developing peers, and also provides services to families such as counseling, parenting workshops, and sibling support groups. This September marked Eva's Heroes third annual "Casino Night" hosted by Longoria Parker and her husband Tony Parker and held in San Antonio, Texas was another huge success and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Make-A-Wish France

Together with her husband, Longoria Parker has taken an active role in Make-A-Wish France, an organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. Most recently the couple hosted and organized the "Par Coeur Gala" in Paris that proved to be an integral fundraiser for the charity by permitting the association to continuously keep on granting wishes of a lifetime. The Gala honored the country's First Lady, Carla Bruni, for her humanitarian.

In addition to her work with her own charities, Longoria Parker donated an entire house to one of the victims of Katrina through the Oprah Angel Network. Longoria Parker has raised and donated over $5 Million for charities over the years. Longoria Parker was also recently selected as one of 12 female celebrities, including Sienna Miller, Milla Jovovich, Emily Blunt, Susan Sarandon, Helen Hunt, and Mira Sorvino to take part in the "Montblanc Signature for Good" charity initiative to benefit UNICEF's battle against illiteracy. With all of her charitable efforts, Longoria Parker also recently made her second visit to Wendy's in Texas, where she served Frostys to help raise money for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

EVA'S PROJECTS:

This year marked the fourth consecutive year that Longoria Parker both hosted and executive produced the National Council of La Raza ALMA Awards on ABC, which honors Latino artistic achievement in the television, film, and music industry. The NCLR is the largest Latino rights and advocacy organization. With her help, the ALMA Awards has earned its highest ratings since their inception and she continues to strive to make each year better than the next. The ALMA Awards, broadcasted on ABC was co-hosted for the first time this year by George Lopez.

In addition, Longoria Parker is working as an executive producer in collaboration with Academy Award nominated Shine Global, a non-profit film production company dedicated to the elimination of child exploitation and abuse through the production of films that raise social awareness and effects political change, for the documentary film HARVEST. The film focuses on the plight of the estimated 500,000 child farm workers whose tireless efforts help feed America. HARVEST presents compelling stories of a select number of children and their families as they travel from their homes in California, Texas, and Florida to harvest crops in multiple states. The documentary presents the challenges these children face as they are unprotected by law; often working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in temperatures that can exceed 100 degrees, they suffer injury and exposure to pesticides.

Longoria Parker's dedication to a better Earth has lead to her becoming an investor in the eco-friendly development firm The GreenVille Project, which is committed to designing, building and maintaining community based, sustainably built, energy neutral retail marketplaces. The GreenVille Project was born out of a passionate desire to consciously commit to being a part of the solution. Their goal is to take something as basic and fundamental as where people shop and how they consume and turn it into an extraordinary opportunity for change.