Gibson was born in the Watts Quarter in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Priscilla, raised him and his siblings as a single parent after Gibson's father left in 1983.

His career began when he won a talent show at the age of 14. An appearance in a Coca-Cola advert led to wider fame, and at the age of seventeen he modelled for Tommy Hilfiger. Gibson's debut music album went platinum; his second album, 2000 Watts, shares the name of the organization he founded to help inner city children.

Gibson was given the role originally intended for the late Tupac Shakur in the 2001 film Baby Boy; the movie was a critical success and performed fairly at the box office. In the following years, Gibson appeared in the 2003 box office success 2 Fast 2 Furious (opposite Paul Walker, with whom he formed a close friendship with during filming), as well as Flight of the Phoenix (2004), Four Brothers (2005) and Annapolis (2006).

He was picked as one of People Magazine's Sexiest Men of the Year in 2000. He subsequently posed for the July 2003 issue of Playgirl magazine.

--Wikipedia