Zoë Yadira Saldaña-Perego is an American actress who is known primarily for her work in science fiction film franchises.
Gatekeepers News reports that she appeared in all three of the highest-grossing films of all time (Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water and Avengers: Endgame).
Early Life
Saldaña was born on June 19, 1978, in Passaic, New Jersey. Her parents were Aridio Saldaña, who was Dominican, and Asalia Nazario, of Puerto Rican descent. Nazario was living as a child with her mother in the Dominican Republic, but they migrated to New York to escape political unrest.
In an interview with Wired, Saldaña has said that she is Dominican and Puerto Rican.
She and her two sisters, Cisely and Mariel, were raised bilingual in English and Spanish; the latter was their first language at home. The majority of her early childhood was spent in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City.
Their father died in a vehicle crash when Saldaña was nine. Her mother sent the three sisters to the Dominican Republic to be raised by their late father’s family. She stayed in New York to work in order to afford private school for the girls.[6] The widowed mother Asalia married Dagoberto Galán, who became the stepfather of the girls. They consider him fully their father.
With regard to her racial identity, Saldaña has said, “There’s no one way to be Black. I’m Black the way I know how to be.”
Saldaña discovered her love of dance while living in the Dominican Republic. She was enrolled in the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy studying forms of dance, but describes ballet as her passion. She told Vanity Fair that she quit ballet because she did not “have the feet”, and had too much pride and ambition to just be in the corps de ballet.
The family returned to New York City after her sophomore year; she completed her early education at Newtown High School in Queens.
In 1995, Saldaña performed with the Faces theater group in Brooklyn. She appeared in plays that encouraged teens by exploring such issues as substance abuse and adolescent sex. During these years, she performed with the New York Youth Theater; her appearance in their production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat led a talent agency to recruit her. Her dance training and her acting experience helped her land her first film role, playing ballet student Eva Rodriguez in Center Stage (2000).
Career
Zoë Saldana’s first big role in front of a camera was in Law & Order in 1999. Due to her expertise as a ballet dancer, she then booked a lead role in the 2000 dance film Center Stage. Her next film role came in 2002 when she starred alongside Britney Spears in Crossroads. That year, she also appeared in Drumline alongside Nick Cannon.
During the next few years, Zoë Saldana’s career started to steadily become more promising. 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl saw Saldana take a prominent role in one of the most popular film franchises of all time. In 2004, she appeared in The Terminal as an immigration officer and Star Trek fan. During filming, Steven Spielberg helped her understand the Star Trek universe and taught her the Vulcan salute. During the next few years, Saldana appeared in films such as Haven, Temptation, Constellation, Guess Who, Premium, Dirty Deeds, After Sex, Blackout, and Vantage Point.
In 2009, her earlier work in The Terminal was put to good use when she booked the role of Nyota Uhura in the reboot film Star Trek. She did considerable research into her character in order to convincingly play the role. Star Trek proved to be a staggering box office success with earnings of over $385 million. However, Saldana’s next film of 2009 would prove to be even more commercially successful. She played the xenos hunter Neytiri in Avatar, a film that grossed $2.7 billion worldwide. It was the highest-grossing movie of all time when it was released.
Saldana took less prominent roles during the next few years. In 2010, she appeared in films such as The Losers, Takers, Death at a Funeral, and Burning Palms. In 2011, Saldana joined the cast of movies like The Heart Specialist and Colombiana. After another less prominent role in The Words, Saldana returned to center stage once again with 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness. The sequel performed even better than the original reboot, and it raked in over $467 million at the box office. By this point in time, Saldana had earned a reputation as an actress who specializes in science fiction films.
She continued on that theme in 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy. The film was an unexpected hit, largely because it was based on a relatively obscure Marvel comic in contrast to the more well-known heroes from the previous nine Marvel films. Nevertheless, Guardians of the Galaxy went to become one of Marvel’s most successful films ever with box office earnings of over $772 million. Saldana played Gamora, an intergalactic assassin. She finished 2014 with an appearance in the TV miniseries Rosemary’s Baby.
In 2016, Saldana starred in Nina, a biographical film about famous jazz musician Nina Simone. During that year, she also returned to the Star Trek universe once again with Star Trek Beyond. The film received strong ratings and performed well at the box office. She finished the year with an appearance in Ben Affleck’s ill-fated film Live By Night.
During the next few years, Saldana focused on her established role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First came 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which earned even more at the box office than the original. Next came 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, which grossed just over $2 billion at the box office. Finally, she reprised the role of Gamora for the third time in a three-year period with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. The film grossed almost $2.8 billion, breaking the record held by Saldana’s earlier film, Avatar. In 2019, it was announced that she would reprise her earlier role in Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.
Earnings and Real Estate
In 2019, Zoë Saldana was named the second-highest-grossing film actress of all time, behind Scarlett Johansson. This was largely due to her appearances in some of the most commercially successful films ever, such as Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. In 2019, it was announced that her films had grossed more than $11 billion worldwide.
In June 2016 Zoe paid $8.7 million for a gorgeous home in Beverly Hills, California. The home is located within the exclusive gated community Hidden Valley Estates. Nearby neighbors include Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lawrence
Personal Life
In June 2010, Saldaña was engaged to her longtime boyfriend Keith Britton, an actor and the CEO of My Fashion Database. In November 2011, she and Britton announced they had ended their relationship after eleven years.
Saldaña was in a relationship with actor Bradley Cooper from December 2011 to January 2013.
In March 2013, Saldaña began dating Italian artist Marco Perego. They married in June 2013 in London. In July 2015, Saldaña revealed Perego adopted her surname upon marriage. Thereafter, Zoë became Zoë Saldaña-Perego and Marco became Marco Perego-Saldaña. Their children would be Perego-Saldaña. Saldaña and Perego have three sons, twins born in November 2014 and the third born in February 2017. Saldaña has stated her children will be multi-lingual because she and her husband speak Spanish, Italian and English around them.
In July 2016, during an interview with Net-a-Porter’s The Edit, Saldaña revealed she has Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease, along with her mother and sisters. To combat the effects of this disease, Saldaña said she and her husband adhere to a gluten- and dairy-free diet.
Net Worth
Saldana has a net worth of $40 million.
