Zoe Saldana

Zoë Yadira Saldaña-Perego, known professionally as Zoe Saldaña, is an American actress. Recognized as the highest-grossing lead actor in history, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Critics' Choice Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Cannes Film Festival Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2023 and 2026.

Saldaña was born on June 19, 1978, in Passaic, New Jersey, and raised primarily in Queens, New York. Her father was Dominican and her mother is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent. Following her father's death when she was nine years old, Saldaña moved to the Dominican Republic with her sisters, where she developed a passion for dance and studied at the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy. She later returned to New York City to complete her education at Newtown High School and performed with the Faces theater group and the New York Youth Theater.

Saldaña began her professional screen career in 1999 with a guest role in Law & Order, followed by her feature film debut as a ballet student in Center Stage (2000). She gained early recognition with roles in films such as Crossroads (2002), Drumline (2002), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and The Terminal (2004). Throughout the mid-2000s, she appeared in projects including Constellation (2005), Guess Who (2005), Premium (2006), After Sex (2007), the television film Blackout (2007), and the action thriller Vantage Point (2008).

Her global breakthrough arrived in 2009 when she portrayed Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek reboot film series, a role she reprised in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). That same year, she starred as Neytiri in James Cameron's science fiction film Avatar (2009), returning to the role in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Saldaña achieved further international acclaim portraying Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).

In addition to her major franchise work, Saldaña's filmography includes the action thriller Colombiana (2011), the crime drama Out of the Furnace (2013), the biographical drama Nina (2016), the animated feature Missing Link (2019), and the science fiction film The Adam Project (2022). On television, she co-produced and starred in the miniseries Rosemary's Baby (2014), starred in the romantic drama miniseries From Scratch (2022), and began starring in the spy series Lioness in 2023. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018.

In 2024, Saldaña starred as defense lawyer Rita Mora Castro in the musical crime drama Emilia Pérez. Her performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first Dominican American actress to win an Oscar, alongside a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress.