Her role brought her to the attention of a much wider audience, gained critical acclaim and achieved financial success. Her breakthrough role came in the 2001 high budget car-themed action film The Fast and the Furious, which was a worldwide success. Brewster was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Maria João (née Leal de Sousa), a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model from Brazil, and Alden Brewster, an American investment banker. Brewster left Panama when she was 2 months old, relocating to London, where she would spend 6 years, before moving to her mother’s native Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she learned to speak Portuguese fluently. Later, she was cast alongside Julia Stiles and Jerry O’Connell in a NBC television miniseries entitled The 60 ‘s, in which she appeared as Sarah Weinstock, a college student and radical activist. The film is about a young man who dreams of one day attending the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
