Alexandra Zeller

Alexandra Zeller (2017)

Sebastien Bennett (m.2007)

**Alexandra Carole Zeller** (born November 26, 1974) - is a Swiss-French-Canadian supermodel, make-up artist and businesswoman.

## Biography

### Early Life

Alexandra Carole Zeller was born on November 26, 1974 in Bercy neighborhood Paris, the youngest of three children and only daughter born to Corinne (née Marchand), a lyricist and screenwriter, and Vincent Zeller, a Swiss businessman. Her paternal grandfather Edgar Zeller founded an exclusive watch company named after his surname, while her maternal family is known for their bakeries in France. She has two younger brothers, Julien born in June 1971, a travel agent, and Gilbert born in March 1973, a surgeon. Her parents divorced in 1982, and with sons returned to Switzerland, while Zeller and her mother moved to Gatineau, Canada. In 1985, her mother married Canadian writer Jacques Boivin, and after marriage they moved to Montreal. She and her mother gained Canadian citizenship in 1988. Zeller holds French, Canadian and Swiss citizenship. She attended Rosemount High School, which she graduated in 1991. She graduated from CMU College of Makeup Art & Design.

### Career

Zeller was recruited as a model in 1988 at age 14 by Tara McNeil, founder of Rain Management. At first she mostly had black-and-white sessions. In 1990 at the age of 16, she featured in the Mercer's campaign, with great success. In 1991, she made her debut on cover of magazine Visage. As many photographers and fashion designers who worked with her have stated, that her beauty was very unique, she had long blonde hair, very pale skin, round hazel eyes and skinny body. In December 2000 she featured in a Swedish fashion retailer Mimmi's campaign of winter fashion collection. In 2001 she appeared in New York Fashion Week. At this time she was already worldwide famous. After the runway during the interviews, she cried with emotion after seeing that people in the audience were wearing T-shirts with the words ''We love you Alex!''. In June 2006 she featured in summer fashion campaign for Spanish fashion house Verano. At the beginning of 2007 she founded her shoes brand Alexa. Zeller also worked with brands like Bocca, Bijoux, Hjärta and Austin. As she said in one of the interviews in 2010, she always put on makeup herself. In 2014, she opened her chain of beauty salons Zeller Cosmetics, which has salons in many countries including Canada, France, Italy, Spain, United States and United Kingdom. In 2017, she announced that she is quitting modeling to focus more on her businesses. As of 2020 her net worth is $340 000 000.

### Personal Life

In 1993, she began dating French-born Canadian volleyball player Fabrice Martineau. They wed in July 1995 in Basel, Switzerland and they lived in Ontario. Zeller and Martineau divorced in 1998. In summer 2001 she started dating director Sebastien Bennett. They got engaged in winter 2006 and wed on May 16, 2007 in Paris. Their son Olimpio Zeller Bennett was born on January 28, 2011. Before giving birth to her son, Zeller was pregnant twice but had two miscarriages. In August 2017, Zeller and Bennett adopted one month old girl from The Gambia and named her Hester Zeller Bennett. Zeller lives in Montreal, but also has residences in Geneva and Paris. Zeller is fluent in English, French and German.