Zoe Saldana

American actress Zoe Saldana was born June 19, 1978, in New Jersey.She spent the majority of her early childhood growing up in Queens, New York. At 10, she moved with her family to the Dominican Republic, where they lived for the next seven years. Saldana enlisted in a ballet class at one of the most prestigious dancing schools in the Dominican Republic.

After her sophomore year of high school, Saldana returned to the U.S. to finish her studies. In New York she joined the educational improv theater group FACES Theater Company, whose skits about drug abuse, domestic violence and sexuality were aimed at teenagers.These performances not only gave her valuable experience but were a source of great pride, as she knew that she was making a difference in the lives of young people like herself. While performing with the Faces troupe and also the New York Youth Theater Zoe was recruited for a talent agency. Her dance training years before, coupled with her acting experience, greatly helped her land her first big screen role as Eva, the talented and headstrong ballet dancer in the 2000 film Center Stage.The following year she had a supporting role in the forgettable teen comedy, Get Over It, starring Kirsten Dunst and Mila Kunis.

She tried her luck at the indie circuit, starring alongside rapper Nelly in the hip-hop action drama Snipes (2001), which was featured at the Toronto Film Festival.She appeared in the Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads (2002) and the comedy-drama Drumline (2002). She played the pirate Anamaria in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and has appeared in a number of television shows and movies, including The Terminal (2004) and Guess Who (2005).Zoe also reunites with Orlando Bloom (her Pirates of the Caribbean costar) in 2004′s Haven. She can also be seen in 2004′s Constellation, as well as 2005′s Dirty Deeds.

In 2009, Zoe Saldana returned to the big screen in Burning Palms with Paz Vega, as well J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek with Simon Pegg, Chris Pine and Winona Ryder, as well as James Cameron’s sci-fi thriller Avatar, opposite Sam Worthington and Michelle Rodriguez.She is the only actress to have three movies in the box office top twenty for three consecutive weeks. These movies are Avatar, Losers, and Death at a Funeral.