Adriana Francesca Lima (born June 12 1981 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil) is a Brazilian supermodel. Lima is best known for her modeling work as a Victoria's Secret Angel Since 2000 and a spokes model for Maybelline cosmetics.

Adriana is the daughter of Nelson Torres and Maria da Graca Lima, a social worker. Her mother gave to birth to her at the age of 18. When she was six months old, her father walked out on her and her mother. Mainly her mother and grandmother raised Adriana. She has since had an estranged relationship with her father, although recently she has been making attempts to reconcile with him. She has 2 half brothers from her father’s second marriage. The exotic beauty is of African, Native South American and Swiss descent.

Adriana was discovered while shopping at a local mall at the age of 13. She never thought about being a model, although she had won many beauty pageants in elementary school. However, she had a friend at school who wanted to enter a modeling contest and didn't want to enter alone, so Lima entered with her. Both sent in pictures, and the contest sponsor soon asked Lima to come out for the competition. At the age of 15, she entered and finished in first place in Brazil's 1995 Ford Supermodel of the World Search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford Supermodel of the World contest and finished second place. Shortly after, Adriana moved to New York City, and eventually moved on from Ford, signing with Elite Model Management. After acquiring representation, Lima's modeling portfolio quickly began to expand, and she appeared in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. As a runway model, she has walked the catwalks for designers such as Vera Wang, Christian Lacroix, Emanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Valentino, among others. Lima's first big break came when she was featured in a Vassarette billboard in Times Square. Lima became a GUESS? girl in 2000, appearing in that year's fall ad campaign. She also appeared in the book A Second Decade of Guess? Images.

In 2001, Lima starred in BMW short film, The Follow alongside actors Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, and Forest Whitaker. Hong Kong film director and internationally renowned auteur Wong Kar-Wai directed the film. She has said that she plans on acting after all of her modeling contracts are up, several years from now. She has also appeared on Ugly Betty in 2008 as herself.

Lima continued to build upon her portfolio, doing more print work for Maybelline, with whom she signed as a spokes model in 2003 and continues to work with, later appearing in the company's first calendar, along with Kemp Muhl, Jessica White, Julia Stegner, and Anna Wang. The calendar is a limited edition release for the 2009 year. Lima has also worked for notable fashion brands bebe, Mossimo, Armani, Bulgari, De Beers, FCUK, Intimissimi, Keds, Swatch, Versace, and BCBG. She also appeared on the covers and in the editorials of other fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, GQ, Arena, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and many more. Her April 2006 GQ cover was the highest selling issue of that magazine for that year. She also appeared in the 2005 Pirelli Calendar and became the face of Italy's cell phone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile, a move that earned her the nickname, "The Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy." She gained a massive amount of fame with the mega contract and in total earned her 6 million dollars. She said she is not able to walk down the street in Italy.

Adriana and her fellow angels appeared only in shoes, diamonds and gloves for the November 2007 issue of Vanity Fair celebrating 20 years of supermodels. In February 2008, she was featured on the cover of Esquire, re-creating the classic 1966 Angie Dickinson cover on Esquire's 75th anniversary along with her fellow Victoria's Secret Angels. She has also been in People magazine's 100 most beautiful people in the world list. She also received a star on the Hollywood Walf of Fame with her fell Victoria’s Secret Angels prior to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2007. In February 2008, she was chosen to be the face of Mexico's Liverpool department store chain and launched the partnership with a press conference, runway show, and summer campaign. She graced the cover of GQ Magazine April 2008 issue and brought a record number of web hits for GQ online.

Adriana is probably best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. She first started working for the company in 1998 in the catalogs and her first fashion show for the company came in 1999. In 2000 she was contracted as a Victoria’s Secret Angel, and has appeared on subsequent shows ever since, opening the show in 2003, 2007, and 2008, in which she also closed the opening segment. Lima has appeared on several television ads for the brand, including the praised and criticized "Angel in Venice" commercial of 2003 with Bob Dylan and her solo Victoria's Secret's Super Bowl XLII ad, the single most-seen ad of the game, watched by 103.7 million viewers. 2008 continued for Lima with hosting the What Is Sexy? program for the E! Entertainment Network and a July tour for the BioFit Uplift Bra launch, with stoped in Long Island, Boston, and Miami Beach. She was also featured in November's Miracle Bra relaunch. Topping the year off, Lima wore the "Fantasy Bra" for the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In early 2008 Lima renewed her contract with Victoria's Secret, along with Maybelline for 5 more years. In 2009, Lima launched Victoria's Secret new makeup line, "Christian Siriano for VS Makeup."


In addition to her native Portuguese, Lima speaks English, French, and a bit of Italian. In her free time, she loves reading novels by her favorite author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Although she has appeared in a few commercials with cars, she has admitted that she has yet to learn how to drive and receive her driver's license.Lima was shy around boys when she was younger, not receiving her first kiss until she was 17 years old. They were watching a movie during the kiss. Afterwards, he went directly to her mother to ask if he could marry her. In an interview with GQ in the April 2006 issue, Lima told the magazine that she is a devout Catholic who attends church every Sunday and is a virgin. "Sex is for after marriage." she explained. "They [men] have to respect that this is my choice. If there's no respect, that means they don't want me." US GQ dubbed her as "The World's Most Voluptuous Virgin." When she was younger, she studied to become a nun and often takes a Bible backstage to read. She works out regularly. She jumps rope, does cardio, and has a custom-tailored boxing routine. Although she admits to eating healthfully and in the past being on low carb diets, her weakness is meat. Her inspirations are Bettie Page and Marilyn Monroe. Sophia Loren often inspires her as well. An adorer of classical music, as well as black and white films, she cites Beethoven as her favorite composer and the piano sonata as her favorite sound.

In 2009 she married Serbian basketball player Marko Jarić; they wed in a private civil ceremony in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Valentines Day. The couple plan on having a more public ceremony with friends and family in June of 2009. Lima plans on having four children some day.

Lima does charitable work helping with an orphanage, "Caminhos da Luz" (Ways of Light), located in her hometown. She helps with construction to expand the orphanage, and buys clothes for poor children in Salvador, Bahia. She also stands for animal rights. She appeared on Var mısın? Yok musun? which is the Turkish version of Deal or No Deal where her prize money went to a hospital in Istanbul for Children fighting leukemia.