Zoe Saldaña

Zoe Saldaña (born June 19, 1978) is an American actress whose career has been quietly reshaping Hollywood’s box-office record books for more than fifteen years. Trained as a dancer, fluent in Spanish, and grounded in the immigrant, Afro-Latina identity she talks about openly, she has become the rare performer who can headline three of the biggest science-fiction franchises in modern cinema and still deliver the kind of tightly controlled character work that wins an Academy Award.

She first broke through in the early 2000s with Center Stage and Crossroads, then took a supporting turn in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. The real pivot came in 2009, when she anchored two cultural events in the same year: Nyota Uhura in J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek reboot and Neytiri in James Cameron’s Avatar. Five years later she added a third franchise pillar as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy, a role she would carry through the MCU and back again. After Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025), industry trade reporting named her the highest-grossing actor of all time.

The franchise work has never been the whole story. In 2024 she played Rita Mora Castro, a disillusioned Mexican lawyer, in Jacques Audiard’s musical crime drama Emilia Pérez, a performance that swept the 2025 awards season, including Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, making her the first American of Dominican origin to win an Oscar.

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Quick Facts

Trailer Video

Video courtesy of Paramount+’s official YouTube channel.

Early Life & Education

Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario was born in Passaic, New Jersey, to Aridio Saldaña, who was Dominican, and Asalia Nazario, who is Dominican and Puerto Rican. She grew up mostly in Jackson Heights, Queens, raised bilingually, with Spanish as the household’s first language. When she was nine, her father was killed in a car accident, a loss she has described as shaping the family’s trajectory. Her mother sent Saldaña and her two sisters to live with relatives in the Dominican Republic while she stayed in New York to support them; the family later reunited in the DR for most of Saldaña’s adolescence.

It was in Santo Domingo that she found dance. She enrolled at the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy, training in ballet and other forms, and has said that the discipline of classical training shaped the way she still approaches work. She eventually stepped away from ballet, telling Vanity Fair that she did not have the feet for it and was too ambitious to stay in the corps.

After the family returned to New York to escape political unrest in the DR, Saldaña finished at Newtown High School in Queens and performed with the Faces theater group in Brooklyn and with the New York Youth Theater. A talent agency recruited her out of a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which led to a guest role on Law & Order in 1999 and, a year later, her film debut in Center Stage.

Career Highlights and Milestones

Saldaña’s early 2000s years are a useful reminder that breakout roles rarely come from one event. She played a ballerina in Center Stage (2000), a Brooklyn dancer sparring with Britney Spears in Crossroads (2002), and the pirate Anamaria opposite Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Those were visibility jobs. They kept her working through drama (Drumline, Haven), studio thrillers (The Terminal), and ensembles that taught her how to hold her own alongside much bigger names.

2009 changed the scale completely. She played Nyota Uhura in J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek reboot and Neytiri, the Na’vi warrior, in James Cameron’s Avatar, which went on to become the highest-grossing film in history. She reprised Uhura in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016), and Neytiri in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025). In parallel, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), carrying the role through Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Vol. 3 (2023), where she said goodbye to the character.

She has continued to move between franchise tentpoles and smaller, more character-driven material: the crime drama Out of the Furnace (2013), the action thriller Colombiana (2011), David O. Russell’s Amsterdam (2022), the Netflix romance From Scratch (2022), and Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ spy series Lioness (2023 to present), where she also executive produces. The 2024 turn in Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez reframed how the industry reads her: a committed, musically expressive performance in Spanish that earned her the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, SAG Award, and Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with a Best Actress ensemble prize at Cannes shared with her co-stars.

Selected film and TV highlights

• Center Stage (2000)
• Crossroads (2002)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
• The Terminal (2004)
• Star Trek (2009)
• Avatar (2009)
• Colombiana (2011)
• Out of the Furnace (2013)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019)
• Missing Link (2019)
• The Adam Project (2022)
• Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
• From Scratch (2022, limited series)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
• Lioness (2023 to present)
• Emilia Pérez (2024)
• Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)

Major recognition

• Academy Award, Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez (won)
• BAFTA, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Emilia Pérez (won)
• Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actress (Motion Picture) for Emilia Pérez (won)
• SAG Award, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Emilia Pérez (won)
• Critics Choice Award, Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez (won)
• Cannes Film Festival, Best Actress (ensemble with co-stars) for Emilia Pérez (won)
• Saturn Award, Best Actress for Avatar (won)
• Hollywood Walk of Fame star, Motion Pictures section (2018)

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Awards and Accolades

Filmography / Notable Works

Net Worth, Income, & Lifestyle

Social Media & Online Presence

Fan communities on social media (unofficial)

NOTE: In addition to any official listings above, many fan-run pages and clip accounts exist across Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube. These are not confirmed to be affiliated with Zoe Saldaña. Links and usernames can change at any time.

Trivia & Lesser-Known Facts

• She is the highest-grossing actor in film history, with the Avatar and Avengers franchises together pushing her career gross above $15 billion worldwide.
• She is the first American of Dominican origin to win an Academy Award.
• Her husband, Italian artist Marco Perego, took her surname when they married in 2013, becoming Marco Perego-Saldaña.
• Their three sons, twins Cy and Bowie (born 2014) and Zen (born 2016), are named in part after artist Cy Twombly and musician David Bowie.
• She trained classical ballet at the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy in Santo Domingo and has said dance, not acting, was her first discipline.
• She runs the production company Cinestar Pictures with her sisters Cisely and Mariel.
• In 2020, she publicly apologized for playing Nina Simone in the 2016 biopic Nina, saying the role should have gone to someone else.
• She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, unveiled in 2018 at 6920 Hollywood Boulevard.

Quotes

“I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hard-working hands, and I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last.”

– Zoe Saldaña, Oscar acceptance speech, 97th Academy Awards (March 2, 2025)

“This is for my grandmother, Argentina Cesse.”

– Zoe Saldaña, Oscar acceptance speech, 97th Academy Awards (March 2, 2025)

“I wish we were able to do it sooner rather than later. I feel like a lot of us have a full head of gray hair, so we need to do this quickly, if this is the same cast that’s going to reprise it again.”

– Zoe Saldaña on Star Trek 4, Deadline (December 2024)

“Yo soy una mujer negra.” (“I am a Black woman.”)

– Zoe Saldaña on her identity, as recounted in interviews about her Dominican heritage

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What is Zoe Saldaña’s age?
A: She was born on June 19, 1978 (47 years old as of 2026).

Q: What is Zoe Saldaña best known for?
A: She is known for playing Neytiri in the Avatar films, Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek reboot trilogy, and Rita Mora Castro in Emilia Pérez.

Q: Has Zoe Saldaña won an Oscar?
A: Yes. She won Best Supporting Actress at the 2025 Academy Awards for Emilia Pérez, becoming the first American of Dominican origin to win an Oscar.

Q: Where is Zoe Saldaña from?
A: She was born in Passaic, New Jersey, raised in Queens and the Dominican Republic, and is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent.

Q: Is Zoe Saldaña married?
A: Yes. She has been married to Italian artist Marco Perego-Saldaña since 2013, and they have three sons.

Q: Does Zoe Saldaña have official social media?
A: Yes. She is active on Instagram, X, and TikTok under @zoesaldana.

Upcoming Projects

• Lioness Season 3 (Paramount+, expected late 2026) – Returns as CIA station chief Joe McNamara. Production began in North Texas in October 2025; a specific release date has not been announced.
• Avatar 4 (December 2029) – Reprises Neytiri. Currently in post-production per trade reporting.
• Avatar 5 (December 2031) – Reprises Neytiri. Currently filming per trade reporting. Timing can shift.
• Star Trek 4 (in development) – Reported return as Nyota Uhura alongside Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, and John Cho. Has been in extended development; treat as subject to change.
• Positano and Don’t Forget Me Tomorrow (pre-production) – Treat early listings as subject to change until officially announced.

Interviews & Features

• The Hollywood Reporter, “Zoe Saldaña Says James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Documentary Will Likely Arrive Before ‘Fire and Ash'” (October 2025), a wide-ranging conversation covering Avatar: Fire and Ash, the Lioness Season 3 renewal, and her thoughts on AI in Hollywood.
• Deadline, “Zoe Saldaña On ‘Lioness’ Season 3, What To Expect From ‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ & Her Hopes For ‘Star Trek 4′” (December 2024), a career-spanning interview tied to Emilia Pérez‘s awards push.
• Variety, “Zoe Saldaña Wins Supporting Actress Oscar for ‘Emilia Perez,’ First Dominican-American” (March 2, 2025), night-of coverage of her historic Oscar win and acceptance speech.
• ABC News / Good Morning America, “Zoe Saldaña recalls mom’s early advice when she didn’t get acting jobs” (March 3, 2025), a backstage-to-next-morning interview about family, heritage, and the meaning of the Oscar moment.
• Deadline, “Lioness Renewed For Season 3 By Paramount+” (October 2025), the formal Season 3 renewal announcement with context on the delayed pickup.

Public Appearances & Festivals

• Cannes Film Festival (May 2024): Won Best Actress as part of the Emilia Pérez ensemble in Cannes.
• Golden Globe Awards (January 5, 2025): Won Best Supporting Actress (Motion Picture) for Emilia Pérez in Beverly Hills.
• BAFTA Film Awards (February 16, 2025): Won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Emilia Pérez in London.
• Academy Awards (March 2, 2025): Won Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
• Avatar: Fire and Ash world premiere (December 2025): Appeared at the global premiere in Hollywood, followed by stops on the international press tour in Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, Sanya, and Miami.