Élodie Yung

Élodie Yung is a French actress known internationally for playing the assassin Elektra in Marvel’s “Daredevil” and “The Defenders,” and for the lead role of Thony De La Rosa in the crime drama “The Cleaning Lady.” Born on 22 February 1981 in Paris to a Cambodian father and a French mother, she trained in both law and drama before committing to acting.

She earned a law degree at the University of Paris and studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. A martial artist from a young age, she holds a black belt in karate — a discipline that later informed her physical, action-oriented screen roles.

Yung built her early career in French film and television in the 2000s before crossing into English-language productions. She appeared in David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2011), played Jinx in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” (2013) and the goddess Hathor in “Gods of Egypt” (2016).

Her breakthrough with international audiences came as Elektra Natchios in the second season of Netflix’s “Daredevil” (2016) and the crossover series “The Defenders” (2017), which made her a fixture of the Marvel television universe.

Since 2022 she has led “The Cleaning Lady” as Thony, a doctor turned crime-world fixer — the defining role of her career, anchoring the series across its multiple seasons. Working across French, British and American productions, Yung is regarded as one of the more versatile international actresses of her generation, equally at home in art-house drama, action franchises and network television.

Off screen, Yung has spoken about balancing her French roots with a career built largely in the United States, and about drawing on her martial-arts training for the demanding action sequences that recur throughout her filmography. Her path from a Paris law graduate to a Marvel regular and a network drama lead is often cited as an example of a European performer breaking through in American genre television, and she continues to take on roles across both continents.