2014 Upton attended a
casting call in
Miami for
Elite Model Management in 2008 and was signed the same day. She eventually moved to New York City, where she then signed with
IMG Models. Upton first modeled clothing for
Garage and
Dooney & Bourke. In 2011, Upton appeared in the
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was featured in the
body paint section and named Rookie of the Year for the issue. and has appeared in
Complex, as well as
Esquire as "
The Woman of the Summer". Upton wore one of the Beach Bunny suits in the 2014
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In April 2011, an Internet video of her doing the
dougie hip-hop dance at a
Los Angeles Clippers game went viral and served to increase her popularity. Guy Trebay of
The New York Times observed that this served to illustrate the power of social media to bestow stardom upon a model, which had previously been the domain of top designer runway shows. In April 2012, Upton appeared in a video of herself performing the Cat Daddy dance to the
song of the same name by
The Rej3ctz, which also went viral. Upton made an appearance in a June 2011 episode of
Tosh.0 and participated in the 2011
Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game at
Chase Field in
Phoenix, Arizona, in July 2011. Upton's acting debut was in the film,
Tower Heist, as Mr. Hightower's mistress. It was released in November 2011. She also appeared in
The Three Stooges as Sister Bernice. In April 2012, she faced criticism for her raunchy portrayal the kind-hearted Sister Bernice, one of the sisters in the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage, in
The Three Stooges, where according to
Vanity Fair, towards the end of the film she emerges from a pool "in a
nun habit, a
rosary, and little else".
The Catholic League criticised Upton's performance as "crudity", claiming that it was symptomatic of a willingness to "[trash] Christianity, especially Catholicism". Upton has also recounted the negative aftereffects of the 2012
Sports Illustrated cover, as she was subjected to criticism and felt she had been objectified. Upton has appeared in editorials for American, Italian, British, Spanish, German, and Brazilian
Vogue, ''
Harper's Bazaar, V, Mademoiselle, LOVE, Italian, German, and American GQ, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Esquire''. She has appeared on the covers of Italian, American, and British
Vogue, French and American
Elle, American, Italian, and German
GQ,
Esquire, and
Vanity Fair. She has appeared in advertising campaigns for
David Yurman,
Sam Edelman,
Betsey Johnson, Guess,
Victoria's Secret,
Express, and
Bare Necessities. She was named the "new face" of
Bobbi Brown cosmetics in 2014. In 2012, Upton was ranked the fifth-sexiest model by Models.com. She ranked number three on the American publication of ''
AskMen's
Top 99 Women
for 2013. In 2012, she was listed on Maxims Hot 100 list, citing her photo shoots with Sports Illustrated
. Upton was the cover model for the 2013 Sports Illustrated
Swimsuit Issue for the second consecutive year. Parts of her 2013 Sports Illustrated pictorial were filmed in Antarctica and Upton suffered from failing hearing and eyesight due to the extreme cold. After getting the November 2012 Vogue Italia cover photographed by Steven Meisel and the January 2013 Vogue UK cover, Upton landed the June 2013 Vogue
cover by Mario Testino. She was then photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the October 2013 100th anniversary cover of Vanity Fair''. In September 2013, Upton was named Model of the Year at the 10th annual Style Awards at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City. Upton appeared on the flip-side cover of the 2014 50th-anniversary
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, the first time that type of cover was used by that magazine. Part of her shoot took place at
Cape Canaveral, capturing her in
zero gravity. In April 2014, she appeared with
Cameron Diaz,
Leslie Mann, and
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in the comedy
The Other Woman as Amber, one of Coster-Waldau's character's mistresses. In 2014, Upton starred with
Tony Hale in
Lady Antebellum's music video "
Bartender".
People named Upton its Sexiest Woman for 2014, the first time the title has been awarded. Also in 2014, Upton was the centerpiece of a $40 million advertising campaign for Machine Zone's mobile app
Game of War: Fire Age. In 2017, Upton starred with
Alexandra Daddario in
The Layover, a
road trip sex comedy directed by
William H. Macy. The film follows two best friends (Daddario and Upton) on vacation as they fight over the same man during a layover in
St. Louis. Also that year, Upton appeared in
James Franco's film adaptation
The Disaster Artist, about the production of the film
The Room. Upton hosts fashion reality television show
Dress My Tour, which premiered on
Hulu in 2024. ==Personal life==