ZOE SALDANA

Birth date: June 19, 1978

Although her first love is dance, Zoe Saldana quickly developed a passion for the silver screen. Zoe was born in New Jersey and raised in Queens, New York. At the ripe age of 10 years old, she and her family moved to the Dominican Republic. While living in the Dominican Republic, Zoe discovered an interest in performance dance which proved to be a great jumping leaping point for her acting career.

Zoe and her family moved back to the United States where her love for dance followed and an interest in theater performance became stronger. Zoe performed with the theater group, Faces troupe and also the New York Youth Theater. Soon, she was recruited for a talent agency. Zoe's dance training coupled with her acting experience helped land her first big screen role as Eva in the ballet film, Center Stage. Zoe's acting career has been moving at an extremely fast pace despite the fact that she has only been in the business for a short time. Zoe claimed her role as Uhura in the 2009 sci-fi thriller, Star Trek. In late 2009, Zoe played Neytiri, the Na'vi prince in James Cameron's 2009 Avatar. The film was a record-breaking box office hit, and has proven to be her most prominent role yet. Expect to see more great things to come from this dancing queen in the near future.

FUN FACTS:

Zoe was ranked #42 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list.

In order to prepare for her role in Star Trek, she met with Nichelle Nichols who played the same character in the original series.

Her father is of Dominican descent; her mother is Puerto Rican.