All About Cameron Diaz’s Parents, Mom Billie and Late Dad Emilio (Including a Fun Cameo One of Them Made in There’s Something About Mary!)

Cameron Diaz’s parents — Emilio and Billie Diaz — raised her in Long Beach, Calif., not too far from Hollywood, which she would eventually take by storm.

The There’s Something About Mary star’s father was Spanish-Cuban, and her mother is German-English. “I’m a true American because I’m a mutt,” Cameron said about her ancestry during an October 2020 interview on No Filter with Naomi.

Emilio and Billie were working-class parents, and they raised Cameron and her sister, Chimene Diaz, in a loving home. “I was really fortunate,” Cameron shared in the 2015 documentary, Human, calling the education she got from her dad and mom “really amazing.” She added, “They just gave us everything. There wasn’t a moment when my parents weren’t teaching us.”

Emilio tragically died from a severe case of pneumonia at 58 on April 15, 2008. In Human, the Back in Action star reflected on the sudden loss of her father and the lessons she continued to learn from him afterward. “He’s left me so many beautiful treasures,” she said.

While Cameron’s mother mostly stays out of the spotlight, the two appear to have a close relationship. Billie is now the grandmother of Cameron’s two children, Raddix and Cardinal.

Here’s everything to know about Cameron Diaz’s parents, Emilio and Billie Diaz.

Emilio and Billie raised Cameron in California

Emilio and Billie welcomed Cameron and her sister Chimene in the early ’70s in Long Beach.

During an April 2014 interview with The Telegraph, Cameron recounted learning everyday skills at an early age. “Ever since I was four, I’ve been doing my laundry. I learned to push a stool up to the washer and push the button that I couldn’t read,” she explained.

The actress added, “My dad thought that having children was really about the mentality of the farm.”

Cameron was surrounded by different aspects of Cuban life, thanks to her father’s roots. “I grew up with the Cuban heritage, the Cuban culture, the food,” she said in a 2011 interview.

While speaking to W magazine in December 2006, she recalled that it was a two-hour bus ride from her childhood home to the beach. “It wasn’t the ‘California Dreamin’ thing,” Cameron joked.

They supported Cameron’s ambitions while trying to guide her

As a child, Cameron got along well with her parents because they “rarely said no” to her. “If they did, I knew they had a good reason, and I wouldn’t go against them,” she told Parade.

Although they weren’t strict, Cameron’s parents instilled important values in her.

While she originally wanted to be a zoologist, Cameron was introduced to modeling after being discovered by photographer Jeff Dunas at a party.

The then-16-year-old landed a contract with Elite Model Management and began doing catalog shoots, but continued working on her high school education with Emilio and Billie’s encouragement.

Emilio worked for an oil company and Billie was an import-export businesswoman

Cameron’s parents were both “working-class,” according to a December 2006 W magazine profile on the actress.

Emilio was a field gauger in the pipeline department at the oil company UNOCAL (formerly the Union Oil Company). Cameron’s father worked there for over two decades and retired in 1998.

Meanwhile, Billie has experience as an import-export businesswoman, which is a role that involves facilitating the purchase or sale of products between domestic and international companies.

Emilio shared his love of sports with Cameron

When Cameron wasn’t at the beach hanging out with her friends or enjoying a Cuban meal, she was watching a sports game on TV by her father’s side.

“Dad didn’t have a son, so my sister and I sort of absorbed his love of sports,” Cameron told Parade in 2009. “We’d watch a game, and he’d be screaming at the top of his lungs.”

She continued, “Dad was so funny and such a boy. It was great to have that influence in my life.”

They enjoyed doing family activities in nature

Because of their “frugal” background, Cameron’s parents sometimes had to get creative when they wanted to get away. The family would drive five hours to Sequoia National Park, where they relaxed out in the wild.

“We used to go camping because we couldn’t really afford to go on vacations,” Cameron told The Telegraph. “We would set up a tent, go fishing and barbecue over the fire.”

Emilio appeared alongside Cameron in There’s Something About Mary

Cameron got her start in acting when she was 20 years old after landing a lead role in 1994’s The Mask alongside Jim Carrey. Four years later, Cameron’s father made a cameo in her popular 1998 rom-com, There’s Something About Mary. He played Jail Bird, appearing as one of the inmates who cheers as Ted (Ben Stiller) is released from prison.

At an October 2008 Los Angeles screening of the film, Cameron spoke about her father’s appearance, per The Irish Examiner.

“My daddy’s in this movie for two seconds,” she told the crowd at Arclight Cinema, identifying Emilio as “the dude when Ben Stiller is leaving the jail, and all the guys run afterwards.”

The actress requested that the audience “all just say hi to him because it’s one of the few moments that we have of him immortalized on film.”

Emilio died in 2008

Emilo died from post-influenza MRSA pneumonia, an aggressive staph infection, on April 15, 2008, at age 58.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Cameron’s family opened up about Emilio’s life and character.

“His love for laughter was undeniable and he embraced life head-on in such a dynamic way that he was impossible to forget,” it read. “As a family, it is almost impossible to put into words how amazing Emilio was.”

They noted that he was “so honest” and “always spoke his mind,” and family was “the most important thing” to him.

“He often said that his greatest accomplishment was raising two people that were better human beings than he was,” the statement continued. “He was devoted to each family member equally and was proud of the accomplishments they all made.”

Cameron always had a close relationship with her parents

In the November 2015 documentary, Human, Cameron reflected on her relationship with her parents and everything they taught her.

According to the Bad Teacher star, Emilio and Billie taught her “work ethic, how to be a good person, how to treat people, how to be a good human being.” She added, “I think that they loved with every part of their being. They loved us so deeply.”

Cameron shared that her dad and mom showed her what it means to love. “To know what it feels like to be loved, to know how to love and how to be loved is such an important thing,” she continued. “They really showed my sister and I how to do that.”