Cameron is the daughter of Bill, an import-export agent, and the late Emilio Diaz, who worked for UNOCAL, a California oil company. Her father is a second-generation Cuban-American and her mother is of English and German ancestry. She attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as rapper Snoop Dogg. At 16 she began her career as a Fashion Model with top modeling agency Elite Model Management. After high school, she modelled for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi`s. She has also graced the cover of Seventeen magazine. During this period she also made a brief (but now notorious) soft pornographic film ‘She`s no Angel’.
At 21, Diaz obtained the lead female role in ‘The Mask’. Over the next three years, she acted in low-budget, independent films. She regained mainstream success with her role in ‘My Best Friend`s Wedding’. Then she went on to give many hit movies like ‘Charlie’s Angels’ and ‘Gangs of New York’, for which she won a Golden Globe nomination.
During 2004 and early 2005, Diaz explored some environmentally unique locations while discovering ways to help preserve them for the MTV series ‘Trippin`’. Diaz returned to the screen for ‘Shrek the Third’ in 2007.