Zoe Saldaña

• 1. Introduction

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  Zoe Saldaña is the highest grossing actor in history, a title that sits oddly beside a childhood spent speaking Spanish at home in Queens. In 2023, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her road to that list ran through two countries, a dance studio, and several films that critics did not admire. How does a girl raised between two homes become a fixture of the biggest franchises ever made? What did her early training give her that a conventional route might not have? And which of her choices has she later said she regrets?

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• 2. Between Two Countries

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  Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario was born on the 19th of June 1978 in Passaic, New Jersey. She grew up in Queens, a borough of New York City. Her father, Aridio Saldaña, was Dominican. Her mother, Asalia Nazario, is half Dominican and half Puerto Rican. In an interview with Wired, Saldaña described herself as three-quarters Dominican and one-quarter Puerto Rican. She and her two sisters, Cisely and Mariel, were raised bilingual, and Spanish was the first language of their home.

  When Saldaña was nine, her father was killed in a car accident. She and her sisters were sent to live with his family in the Dominican Republic. Their mother stayed behind in New York, earning enough money to pay for her daughters' Dominican private school.

  Asalia later married Dagoberto Galán, whom the sisters consider their father. The whole family spent a period together in the Dominican Republic. After Saldaña's sophomore year of high school, they returned to New York City to escape political unrest. She finished her early schooling at Newtown High School in Queens, and she spent most of her late childhood in Jackson Heights.

  Dancing, which she first fell in love with during those years on the island, would soon give her a way forward.

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• 3. From Ballet to Screen

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  At the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy in the Dominican Republic, Saldaña studied several forms of dance. Ballet, she says, was her real passion. She told Vanity Fair that she gave it up because she did not "have the feet". She also had too much pride and ambition to settle for a place in the corps de ballet.

  In 1995, she performed with the Faces theater group in Brooklyn, and in those years she also worked with the New York Youth Theater. Its production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat led a talent agency to recruit her.

  Her first on-screen job came in 1999, a guest role as Belinca in an episode of Law & Order. Her first film arrived in 2000. Center Stage, directed by Nicholas Hytner, followed dancers at a fictitious American Ballet Academy in New York City. Saldaña played the ballet student Eva Rodriguez, and her dance training and stage experience helped her win the part.

  Crossroads, the 2002 Britney Spears vehicle, drew negative reviews from critics yet did well at the box office. That year she also starred beside Nick Cannon in the comedy-drama Drumline, which earned mixed reviews. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl followed in 2003. Saldaña played Anamaria, a pirate who joins Will Turner and Mr. Gibbs. Her aim was to confront Jack Sparrow, who had stolen her ship.

  Haven and Temptation, both released in 2004, earned little or no box-office success. In 2005 she appeared in Constellation, in Guess Who opposite Ashton Kutcher, and in Dirty Deeds. She starred in the romantic comedy-dramas Premium in 2006 and After Sex in 2007.

  Blackout, a television film set in New York City during the Northeast Blackout of 2003, premiered at the 2007 Zurich Film Festival. It reached BET in 2008. Her last film of this stretch was the 2008 action thriller Vantage Point, where she played Angie Jones. Within a year, her profile would rise considerably.

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• 4. Becoming Uhura

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  J. J. Abrams, who directed the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, asked Saldaña to play Nyota Uhura because he enjoyed her earlier work. She met with Nichelle Nichols to understand how the character's background and name had been created. Her mother, a devoted Star Trek fan, left her voice-mails during filming with advice on the role.

  Steven Spielberg had already given her a head start. Five years earlier, he directed her in The Terminal, where she played Dolores Torres, an immigration officer who is also a Star Trek fan. During that production, he taught her the Vulcan salute.

  Star Trek earned $385.7 million at the box office. In 2013, Saldaña returned as Uhura in Star Trek Into Darkness. Its North American run ended with $228,778,661, the eleventh-highest total of that year. Its worldwide take of $467,365,246 ranked fourteenth for 2013 and made it the highest-grossing film of the franchise. She also voiced Uhura in the Star Trek video game released that year, which used her likeness too.

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• 5. Neytiri and Avatar

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  James Cameron's Avatar gave Saldaña the role of Neytiri, an indigenous hunter. Critics responded warmly, and the film holds an 81% approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It grossed $2.7 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing film of all time. It also held that rank in the United States and Canada. It was the first film to pass $2 billion worldwide.

  At the 36th Saturn Awards, the film was nominated in ten categories and won every one. Saldaña took the Saturn Award for Best Actress, a rare result because Neytiri is an entirely computer-generated character.

  In 2022, Avatar: The Way of Water brought Neytiri back. For that film, Saldaña sang the original song "The Songcord", written by Simon Franglen. Her voice has since been part of the series soundtracks as well as its story. Avatar: Fire and Ash followed in 2025, again with Saldaña as Neytiri.

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• 6. Gamora in the Galaxy

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  Guardians of the Galaxy, released in 2014, introduced Saldaña as Gamora. She played the character with make-up rather than computer-generated imagery or performance capture.

  The film became the third-highest-grossing entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, behind The Avengers and Iron Man 3. Among 2014 releases it ranked third, behind Transformers: Age of Extinction and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. It was the top superhero film of the year.

  Reviews were positive, and Saldaña collected a string of nominations. They included a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie, a People's Choice Award for Favorite Action Movie Actress, and an MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Transformation.

  Her credits also list two Guardians theme park attractions. Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission Breakout! opened at Disney California Adventure in 2017, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened at Epcot in 2022.

  On the 3rd of May 2018, she received a star at 6920 Hollywood Boulevard, in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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• 7. Beyond the Franchises

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  In The Losers in 2010, Saldaña played Aisha al-Fadhil, a native Bolivian woman. She loved the physicality of the ruthless assassin, and said her youth and athletic background let her jump in, get thrown around and do her own kicks. She joked that she had to bulk up to carry the weapons while filming more than eight hours a day.

  That year she also appeared in Takers, Death at a Funeral and Burning Palms, and a television ad for Calvin Klein's "Envy" line debuted. In 2011 she played the assassin Cataleya Restrepo in Colombiana. The film drew negative reviews, but her performance was praised. The Words, in 2012, earned negative reviews and little success at the box office.

  In May 2014, she appeared in Rosemary's Baby, a television miniseries based on Ira Levin's horror novel. She also co-produced the four-hour, two-part show. That year, Elle magazine recognized her at The Women in Hollywood Awards.

  In 2016, Saldaña starred in Nina, an unauthorized biography of the jazz musician Nina Simone. The film follows the singer's rise to fame and her relationship with her manager, Clifton Henderson. Simone's family criticized the casting. In August 2020, Saldaña apologized: "I'm so sorry. I know better today and I'm never going to do that again. She's one of our giants and someone else should step up. Somebody else should tell her story."

  Shooting for I Kill Giants began in Ireland in September 2016. Anders Walter directed the adaptation of Joe Kelly's graphic novel, and Saldaña played Mrs. Mollé. In 2017 she also voiced the pirate parrot Captain Celaeno in My Little Pony: The Movie. Later voice work included Missing Link in 2019, the Netflix musical Vivo in 2021, and the Pixar adventure Elio in 2025.

  In 2021, she also starred as the title character in the Netflix production Maya and the Three. She then joined the cast of David O. Russell's Amsterdam. In 2022 came the science fiction film The Adam Project and the Netflix romantic drama miniseries From Scratch. In 2023, she began starring in the Paramount+ spy series Lioness, created by Taylor Sheridan.

  In Emilia Pérez in 2024, Saldaña played Rita Mora Castro, a high-powered junior criminal defense attorney, in a controversial French musical crime film. Critics praised her. She shared the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress with her co-stars Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. She also won the BAFTA for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a motion picture, and the Actor Award for supporting female performance. Her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress made her the first Dominican American actress to win an Oscar.

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• 8. Life Beyond Film

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  In June 2010, Saldaña became engaged to her longtime boyfriend Keith Britton, an actor and the CEO of My Fashion Database. In November 2011, they announced the end of their eleven-year relationship. She then dated Bradley Cooper from December 2011 to January 2013.

  In March 2013, she began dating the Italian artist Marco Perego. They married three months later in London. In July 2015, Saldaña revealed that Perego had taken her surname when they wed. She became Zoë Saldaña-Perego, and he became Marco Perego-Saldaña. They have three sons, and the family speaks Spanish, Italian and English at home.

  In July 2016, in an interview with Net-a-Porter's The Edit, Saldaña revealed that she has Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease. Her mother and sisters have it too. She and her husband follow a gluten- and dairy-free diet to manage its effects.

  Saldaña supports FINCA International, a microfinance organization. In 2017, she founded BESE, a digital media platform meant to "combat the lack of diversity in the mainstream media" and focused on positive stories within the Latino community. In September 2020, she used her social media presence to join the VoteRiders #IDCheck Challenge, spreading word about voter ID requirements for that year's presidential election. In October 2023, she signed the "No Hostage Left Behind" open letter calling for freedom for the hostages.

  Her 2026 credits include The Bluff, a project on which she is listed as executive producer only.

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