1978-present
Latest News: Zoe Saldaña Collects Oscar in a Personal and Historic First
Zoe Saldaña has completed her sweep of the 2025 awards season. For her portrayal of Mexican attorney Rita Mora Castro in the Netflix film Emilia Pérez, Saldaña won a Golden Globe, SAG Award, BAFTA, and now, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
“I’m floored by this honor,” the 46-year-old said during her acceptance speech at the Oscars on March 2. “Thank you to the Academy for honoring the quite heroism and the power in women like Rita and talking about powerful women.”
Her latest award marks Saldaña’s first Oscar and a historic first that the actor made a point of sharing in her speech. “My grandmother came to this country in 1961. I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and and dignity and hard working hands,” she said. “I’m the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award.” Saldaña’s late father was from the Dominican Republic, and she lived there for part of her childhood.
Who Is Zoe Saldaña?
Dancer-turned-actor Zoe Saldaña started her acting career in films like Crossroads, Drumline, The Terminal and Pirates of the Caribbean. After years of diverse work, in 2009 she landed leading roles in the blockbusters Star Trek, Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy. She's also been a model for Avon, the Gap and Calvin Klein.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Zoe Yadira Saldaña-Perego
BORN: June 19, 1978
BIRTHPLACE: Passaic, New Jersey
SPOUSE: Marco Perego-Saldaña
CHILDREN: Cy and Zen
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini
Early Life
Born in Passaic, New Jersey on June 19, 1978, Zoe Yadira Saldaña Nazario grew up in Queens. She is of mixed ethnic heritage, with her mother being of Puerto Rican descent and her father hailing from the Dominican Republic. At the age of nine, her father died in a car accident, and her mother subsequently moved Saldaña and her two sisters Cisely and Mariel to the Dominican Republic, where they lived with their grandparents.
The three siblings grew up very close while Saldaña studied a variety of dance forms at ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy, developing a particular fondness for ballet. She moved back to New York at 17 and continued dancing while also joining Faces, a teen-oriented theater group, and the New York Youth Theater, through which she was discovered by a talent agent.
Movies
Center Stage, Drumline, and Pirates of the Caribbean
Following a guest spot on Law & Order, Saldaña made her movie acting debut appropriately enough with the dance drama Center Stage, which portrayed a group of ballet students training at an academy. She then snagged supporting roles over the following years in a diverse array of films. After being featured in the teen comedy Get Over It!, the Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads and the hip-hop thriller Snipes, Saldaña portrayed the captain of a dance team in the 2002 film Drumline. She then appeared in 2003 in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl as Anamaria, a former lover of Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) who gives him a wallop for his roguish behavior. In 2004 she appeared in the drama The Terminal with Tom Hanks, as well as Haven.
Guess Who
During the mid-2000s, Saldaña continued to act in a number of ensemble films, both commercial and indie, and appeared on TV with roles in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Six Degrees. In 2005 she starred in Guess Who, a comedic update of the Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; the newer version switched the racial roles of the original, with Bernie Mac as Saldaña's wary African American father and Ashton Kutcher as her beleaguered white fiancé. She was also later featured in the 2008 thriller Vantage Point.
Star Trek and Avatar
The year 2009 was a blockbuster year for Saldaña's career. After the thriller The Skeptic, Saldaña starred in the remake of Star Trek by director J.J. Abrams, in which she played Communications Officer Uhura. In December 2009, she starred as Neytiri, an alien warrior, in the 3D sci-fi epic Avatar, which would go on to become the world's highest-grossing film. Director James Cameron used performance capture technology to create Saldaña's computer-generated character, driven by her bodily movements and facial expressions in a studio setting. Saldaña spent months training for the athletic role, taking up horseback riding, archery and wushu martial arts.
The following year, Saldaña starred in the ensemble comedic remake Death at a Funeral with Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence, as well as two action capers — The Losers and Takers — and the comedic Burning Palms. In 2011, she landed the sole lead role in Colombiana, which featured Saldaña as an assassin out to avenge the murder of her parents.
Guardians of the Galaxy
In 2012, she starred in The Words, a return to serious drama for the actress about a struggling writer, portrayed by Cooper, who plagiarizes another person's work. She also co-directed episodes for The Rope, a web series developed by Vin Diesel about bouncers and the world of nightlife.
Saldaña returned to the Star Trek franchise with the 2013 sequel Into Darkness. And the following year she added comic-book hero to her list of roles, portraying the green-skinned assassin Gamora in Marvel's well-received Guardians of the Galaxy, which broke August's domestic box office records for debut earnings. The project also co-starred Diesel and Cooper, among others. In 2017, Saldaña returned to her Guardians role in the sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Nina
In 2016, Saldaña starred as jazz musician Nina Simone in the biopic Nina to much controversy. Not only did Simone's family object to Saldaña's casting, but critics were also outraged over Saldaña's "blackface performance" (she wore darker foundation) and conventional good looks, which they argue did not reflect the musician's experience as a Black woman.
Star Trek Beyond and Avengers
After starring in the Star Trek sequel, Star Trek Beyond (2016) and Live By Night (2016), Saldaña reprised her Guardians role as part of a star-studded ensemble superhero cast in Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
Modeling Career
Outside of acting, Saldaña has a strong interest in fashion. She has appeared in Calvin Klein lingerie commercials, in which she's performed monologues offering tidbits on vulnerability, mystery and strength. She's also appeared as a spokesperson for Avon, and modeled with her sisters in a Gap print ad and W magazine editorial. Saldaña has appeared in many other magazines as well, including Elle, Vanity Fair, Latina, GQ Italia, Essence, Nylon and InStyle.
Husband and Kids
Saldaña was reportedly romantically linked with Bradley Cooper after her relationship ended with longtime boyfriend, actor Keith Britton, with whom she partnered to found the website My Fashion Database. In 2013, Saldaña married Marco Perego. In 2014, the couple welcomed twins boys Bowie and Cy and three years later, another son named Zen.
Quotes
- I got so much out of being a dancer. The stillness of it. The discipline. The dedication.
- I loved stories that helped me escape, and those happened to be the stories that fall into the category of geekiness. So, therefore, I am a proud geek!
- I think in American society, we're messing up our kids by taking away the education on awareness of sexuality and replacing it with violence, guns and video games.
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Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
