Camilla Belle (born Camilla Belle Routh on October 2, 1986) is an American actress. She is best known for her lead role in the 2006 remake of When a Stranger Calls and The Disney Channel Original Movie Rip Girls.
Belle was born in Los Angeles, California to Jack Routh (an American) and Cristina Gould, who is from São Paulo, Brazil and now works as her manager. Belle attended the Marlborough School, an independent all-girls school in Los Angeles.
Belle began appearing in print ads at the age of nine months. She progressed into commercials and began working in movies for network and cable television. Throughout the 1990s, she appeared in several made for television and direct to video movies, including Trapped Beneath the Earth, Annie: A Royal Adventure!, Poison Ivy II and Marshal Law. She had minor roles in several widely-released films, including A Little Princess, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Practical Magic, as well as the lead roll as Lizzie in Back to the Secret Garden.
In 2005, Belle starred in the film The Ballad of Jack and Rose, playing the daughter of Daniel Day-Lewis' character. The film only received a limited theatrical release, but Belle was labeled an "impressive newcomer" by film critic James Berardinelli. The film was her first in nearly four years. The same year, Belle also had a major role in The Chumscrubber, which received only a brief and limited theatrical release.
Belle was subsequently cast in the lead role in Screen Gems' horror film remake, When a Stranger Calls. The film was released on February 3, 2006 and was considered successful at the United States box office, grossing over $45 million after an opening of over $21 million.
Shortly after the release of When a Stranger Calls, Belle was cast opposite Steven Strait in the Warner Bros. film, 10,000 B.C., a prehistoric epic to be directed by Roland Emmerich. The film is scheduled for a 2007 release and began filming in the spring of 2006 in South Africa and Namibia.
She is now the face of Vera Wang's new fragrance, [Princess http://www.verawangprincessbeauty.com], by Coty Prestige.
Belle, an aspiring classical pianist, speaks several languages fluently, including Spanish and Portuguese (her mother's native language). She has been actively involved in various charities and is an international spokesperson for Kids With A Cause, created to provide a helping hand to children suffering from poverty, hunger, lack of education, neglect or abuse.
Belle is friends with actors Justin Chatwin and Jamie Bell, whom she met on the set of The Chumscrubber.
