She attended Dunraven School, a comprehensive school run by Inner London Education Authority in Streatham and attended the London Academy for Performing Arts.

A graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage school, Campbell's first appearance to a wider public was in February 1978 when she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video with Bob Marley for his song "Is This Love?". In 1982, she appeared in another music video, this time as a tap dancer for Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya".

On graduating from Italia Conti, her looks ("My features are completely ethnic, and I'm proud of them" she said in the September 2003 issue of Essence) led her to become a fulltime model, creating a high-profile career and creating two spin-off companies, NC Connect and the Design House of Naomi Campbell.

Her charity work mainly focuses on the children and people of Africa, including working with Nelson Mandela, since 1997. She feels her greatest joys in life is knowing Mandela and that his kindness, passion and intelligence make him a modern world leader. In 2005, she helped to create and participate in 'Fashion Relief' for Hurricane Katrina victims, raising over a million dollars.

On 7 July 2007 she presented at the South African leg of Live Earth in Johannesburg.

Modeling

Aged 15 and while still a student of the Italia Conti Stage School, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, former head of Synchro models agency, window-shopping in Covent Garden. In April 1986, she appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a black model who canceled out of the appearance. By August 1988, she had appeared on the cover of the French Vogue as that publication's first black cover girl, and she had completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and François Nars.

Her modelling career started as a catwalk model, but she was quickly picked up for various high-profile advertising campaigns for Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which brought her to the American market. The highpoint of her career was in the early 1990s, when she was part of the two major supermodelling powerhouses, the Big Six and the Trinity, (with Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington).

She has walked the catwalk for many fashion designers, including Gianni Versace and Valentino. Naomi did tumble over on the catwalk at Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania fashion show in 1994. Naomi was the first black model to appear on the cover of Time magazine, French and British Vogue magazines and Vogue Nippon. She has also appeared on the covers of Harper's Bazaar and ELLE magazine. In total, Naomi Campbell has been on over 500 magazine covers.

She has also posed nude for Playboy magazine and appeared in Madonna's 1992 book, Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane.

It had been widely known that Campbell and fellow supermodel Tyra Banks were in a bitter feud, and there were many accounts of backstage tantrums at fashion shows and catty remarks throughout the years. However, in 2005 Campbell appeared on Banks's talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, and the two reconciled. The interview was filmed with no studio audience present at the request of Banks, reportedly due to the hosts traumatization and nervousness over the confrontation.

Music

Campbell starred at age seven in the music video for Bob Marley and the Wailers song "Is This Love". Campbell later appeared in music videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Culture Club, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince, and Usher, as well as Madonna's 1992 music video for "Erotica", which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. She famously appeared in George Michael's music video, "Freedom '90", where she lip-synched to his song along with other models, including Turlington and Evangelista. She was also seen in Frankie J's music video, "That Girl".

Campbell has also tried her hand at singing. In 1995, Campbell released a single "Love and Tears" from debut and only solo Baby Woman which sold over 1 million copies worldwide (but mostly in Japan). The album was panned by critics as a flop, and failed to chart higher than 75 in the UK. Her collaboration with Toshinobu Kubota, "La La La Love Song" the theme song to Long Vacation, became a No. 1 hit in Japan, with the single selling approx. 1,856,000 copies. That same year she sang on Quincy Jones' album Q's Juke Joint. She was featured on Vanilla Ice's single "Cool as Ice".

On her album B'day, Beyoncé Knowles mentions Campbell's signature walk as part of a sequence of called-out dance moves in the 2007 single "Get Me Bodied," She sings "Do the Naomi Campbell walk," referring to Campbell's runway walking style. In the video, three dancers are seen imitating Campbell's walk.

Other Projects

In 1999 Campbell developed the Design House of Naomi Campbell that created beauty products. So far Campbell has created seven fragrances for women mostly based in Europe. In 2000 Campbell introduced her first perfume "Naomi Campbell" and "Naomagic" a combination of Campbell's name and the word magic. In 2001 Campbell introduced her third perfume "Cat Deluxe" and in 2003 came "Mystery." A year later a fourth fragrance was made "Sunset" and in 2005 another tropical themed titled fragrance was made "Paradise Passion." Campbell's latest fragrance is a new version of her Cat Deluxe perfume called "Cat Deluxe At Night".

Personal life

In February of 2000 Campbell was still in demand as a model. However, she decided to reduce the number of runway shows she appeared in. "I find it really stressful," she told the South China Morning Post. Besides, there was only so much time in a day for the model/actress/entrepreneur, and she had several goals yet to accomplish. "Oh God, there's a lot more," Campbell said in her book Naomi, as quoted in the African News Service. "I've got motherhood to achieve, marriage and family life. That for me would be a lot more than I've achieved in my career. That's something I would really love to do in my life."

Campbell has had relationships with many famous people. She was rumoured to have a brief relationship with boxer Mike Tyson in the late 1980s, and was engaged to U2's bassist Adam Clayton. In the 1990s Campbell went out with actor Robert de Niro, dancer Joaquin Cortes and with Renault F1 team boss Flavio Briatore. In late 2004 she had a high profile relationship with Usher, although by 2005 their relationship appeared to be over. In addition, she has been romantically linked to musician Eric Clapton, actor Sylvester Stallone, Gerard Butler, Prince Albert, Robert Goode, Norman Sukkar, and Matteo Marzotto. She has also been linked to Terrance Howard, although Howard was quoted as saying that they are just friends. In 2007, Us Weekly reported she was dating financial guru Rolando Pintos.

Drug addiction

In February 2001 pictures were published in the Daily Mirror newspaper showing Campbell leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in London. In March 2002 Campbell sued the paper citing a breach of confidentiality, since she was receiving treatment for drug addiction at the time. The Mirror claimed that the pictures were in the public interest as Campbell had denied having a drug problem publicly and had, up to that point, not been known or demonstrated to be a drug addict. The High Court ruled in Campbell's favour and the Mirror was ordered to pay £3,500 in damages (although legal costs were thought to be around £500,000.) In October 2002, the Mirror won an Appeal Court ruling that the photographs were indeed in the public interest. Campbell was ordered to pay the costs of the Mirror's legal fees, a cost of around £350,000. However, in May 2004 the Law Lords overturned the Appeal Court ruling by a 3 to 2 majority, which reinstated the High Court's original decision, and Campbell was rewarded £3,500 and the £350,000 legal costs. The Mirror's legal cost is thought to be over £1,000,000. The case is also thought to be a landmark in the rights of celebrities to privacy.

Legal troubles

Campbell has been accused and arrested because of committing acts of sexual violence and verbal abuse against some of her employees and associates. She is often referred to in UK tabloids such as The Sun as "Nutta" because of her shocking public behaviour.^[7] Documented accusations include:

• In 2000, she pleaded guilty in a Toronto court to a 1998 assault on Georgina Galanis, her then assistant; Campbell had assaulted Galanis with a telephone in a hotel room and threatened to throw her out of a moving car. Under an agreement with the prosecution her record was cleared in exchange for her expressing remorse; Campbell also paid Galanis an undisclosed amount of money and agreed to attend anger management lessons.
• March 2005, the model was said to have slapped assistant Amanda Brack and beaten her around the head with a BlackBerry hand-held personal organiser. The star's spokesman Rob Shuter denied the incident ever took place. In July 2006, Brack began legal proceedings against Campbell, claiming the supermodel abused her verbally and physically on three continents. Brack accused Campbell of assault, battery, false imprisonment, lesbian rape and infliction of emotional distress in incidents that started a month after she began working for her in February 2005 in result she was sued for an unknown amount
• Italian actress Yvonne Scio has claimed the model left her "covered in blood" after a spat at a Rome hotel. Yvonne claimed: "She punched me in the face. She was like Mike Tyson."
• On March 30, 2006 in New York City, Campbell was arrested for allegedly assaulting her housekeeper with a jewel-encrusted mobile phone, resulting in a bloody head that required several stitches. She was charged with second degree assault, a felony that carries a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum of seven years in prison.
• On September 28, 2006, she did not attend a required court appearance in New York City, and the judge ruled that he would order her arrest if she failed to turn up on court the following week, on charges of a second-degree assault on her housekeeper, and could be jailed for up to seven years if convicted.
• On October 25, 2006, she was arrested in London on suspicion of assault. She has been released on police bail.
• On November 14, 2006, another former Campbell housekeeper, Gaby Gibson, began a new court case against the supermodel seeking unspecified damages, and accused her ex-employer of being a "violent super-bigot".
• On November 15, 2006, Campbell appeared in criminal court in New York City regarding her March 2006 assault charges. Her defence lawyer and the prosecutor told the judge that they were "still in the process of working out a possible" plea deal in the case.
• The Boston-based law firm Sullivan & Worcester, which had assigned a top litigator to defend Campbell throughout her many escapades, severed their relationship with Campbell in 2006.
• On January 16, 2007, Campbell pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless assault against her maid Ana Scolavino. She was sentenced to five days community service and ordered to attend two days of an anger management course. In addition, she was ordered to pay medical bills of $363 (£185) to Mrs Scolavino who needed four stitches after the incident. According to a report on CNN, Campbell blames "her temper on lingering resentment toward her father for abandoning her as a child". On 19 March 2007, Campbell began mopping floors at New York's Sanitation Department for her service.
• On August 20, 2007, New York Supreme Court Judge Michael Stallman issued a decision and order denying Campbell's legal attempt to exclude Gaby Gibson's references to the supermodel's history of well-publicized allegedly "chronic abusive and repeatedly violent conduct toward her employees." Judge Stallman reasoned that "if proven, the reports of Campbell's conduct" might result in proving that it was so "wanton or outrageous" to justify the punitive damages sought by Campbell's ex-housekeeper.
• Lately, she has raised a controversy over her desire to build a casino for millionaires in Malindi, Kenya, where there exists a turtle conservation site, without consulting any of the inhabitants of the region who have expressed antipathy to the project. The casino will likely cater to a minority of wealthy clients in an extremely impoverished country and is said to threaten the lives of rare turtle species that conservationists have worked to preserve for years. Campbell explained the beginnings of this project by commenting on the "extraordinary beaches" and "adorable" people of the region.

Filmography

• Cool as Ice (1991)
• The Night We Never Met (1993)
• Ready to Wear (1994) (Cameo)
• Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
• Miami Rhapsody (1995)
• To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
• Catwalk (1996) (documentary)
• Girl 6 (1996)
• Invasion of Privacy (1996)
• Beautopia (1998) (documentary)
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998)
• Trippin' (1999)
• Prisoner of Love (1999)
• Ali G Indahouse (2002)
• Fat Slags (2004)
• The Call (2006) (short subject)
• Karma, Confessions and Holi (2006)