Olga Kurylenko facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Olga Kurylenko
Kurylenko in 2019
Born	Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (1979-11-14) 14 November 1979 (age 45) Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Ukraine France (from 2001)
Occupation	Actress model
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Cedric van Mol ​ ​ (m. 2000; div. 2004)​ Damian Gabrielle ​ ​ (m. 2006; div. 2007)​
Children	1

Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (Ukrainian: Ольга Костянтинівна Куриленко; born 14 November 1979) is a Ukrainian and French actress and former model. Born and raised in Berdyansk, she moved to Paris at age 16 to pursue a modelling career. After starting her acting career in 2004, Kurylenko had her breakthrough film role in the action-thriller Hitman (2007). She gained recognition as Bond girl Camille Montes in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008) and as Taskmaster in the superhero film Black Widow (2021).

Kurylenko has also starred in Terrence Malick's To the Wonder (2012), Martin McDonagh's dark comedy Seven Psychopaths (2012), the science fiction film Oblivion (2013), Armando Iannucci's political satire The Death of Stalin (2017), Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), the Netflix miniseries Treason (2022), and the action film Extraction 2 (2023).

Early life

Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. Her father, Konstantin, is Ukrainian, and her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, who teaches art and is an exhibited artist, was born in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, and is of Russian and Belarusian ancestry.

Her parents divorced when she was three and she was raised by her single mother. Kurylenko rarely had contact with her father, meeting him for the first time after the split when she was eight, and later when she was thirteen.

Career

Kurylenko at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of Seven Psychopaths

Kurylenko moved from native Berdyansk to Moscow at 15. At the age of 16, she moved to Paris. In 1996, she signed a contract with the Paris-based Madison modelling agency where she met her publicist Valérie Rosen. The following year, by the age of 18, she had appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle magazines. While working as a model in Paris, Kurylenko supported her mother in Ukraine.

She also appeared on the covers of Madame Figaro and Marie Claire magazines. She became the face of brands Bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein. She has also modelled for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo and appeared in the Victoria's Secret catalogue.

In 1998, she features in the music video of French Raï style singer Faudel called "Tellement Je T'aime".

One of her first acting appearances was in Seal's music video, "Love's Divine" in 2003, but her film career truly began in France in 2004 when she shot her first feature film, The Ring Finger, for which she received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance. She next starred in the Paris, je t'aime (2006) segment Quartier de la Madeleine opposite Elijah Wood. That same year, she was selected to be the face of Kenzo's new fragrance, Kenzo Amour. She has appeared in all subsequent Kenzo Amour advertisements.

Kurylenko quit modelling in 2006, after over ten years of working in the industry and moved on to acting.

In 2007, she starred in Hitman alongside Timothy Olyphant. She had a minor role in Max Payne as Natasha. She played Bond girl Camille Montes in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace (after beating out Gal Gadot in the auditions). In the film she plays the role of Bolivian Secret Service agent Camille Montes, who teams up with Bond to stop a terrorist organization and avenge the death of her parents.

In Ukraine the mayor of Berdyansk suggested naming a street after her in early 2008, and she and her mother met Ukraine's First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko in President Victor Yushchenko's family country house.

Kurylenko at the Sitges Film Festival in 2019

Kurylenko appeared in Terrence Malick's romantic drama film To the Wonder starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams. The film was shot in the fall of 2010 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She also appeared in Oblivion, a science fiction film starring Tom Cruise and directed by Joseph Kosinski. Kurylenko played Alice Fournier in the spy thriller November Man. In 2014, Kurylenko starred in the historical drama film The Water Diviner alongside Russell Crowe (who made his directorial debut), Jacqueline McKenzie and Jai Courtney. She also played the headmistress in Vampire Academy. She later acted in films such as Momentum, Mara and The Bay of Silence.

In 2017, she appeared in Armando Iannucci's political satire film The Death of Stalin as the Soviet pianist Maria Yudina. The film was a critical success and starred Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jason Issacs, Michael Palin, and Jeffrey Tambor. The following year she starred in Terry Gilliam's epic adventure film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) starring Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce where it premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. She also appeared as Baroness Roxane de Giverny in The Emperor of Paris, and as the Russian spy in the Rowan Atkinson led comedy film Johnny English Strikes Again (2018).

In 2021, she starred in the action thriller film Sentinelle. In the same year, she played Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Black Widow. In October, she was cast in comedy heist film High Heat alongside Don Johnson.

Personal life

Kurylenko acquired French citizenship in 2001, which she called "a practical decision" because it was easier to travel with a French passport without a visa, as opposed to travelling with a Ukrainian passport. She married French fashion photographer Cedric van Mol in 2000. The couple divorced four years later. She married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle in 2006; the marriage ended in divorce in late 2007. Kurylenko moved to London in 2009.

Kurylenko and her former partner, English actor and writer Max Benitz, have one son who was born in October 2015.

Filmography

Film

List of film performances by Olga Kurylenko

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
2005	The Ring Finger	Iris	Diane Bertrand
2006	Paris, je t'aime	The Vampire	Vincenzo Natali	Segment: Quartier de la Madeleine
	The Serpent	Sofia	Éric Barbier
2007	Hitman	Nika Boronina	Xavier Gens
2008	À l'est de moi	The Russian ...	Bojena Horackova
	Max Payne	Natasha Sax	John Moore
	Quantum of Solace	Camille Montes	Marc Forster
2009	The Assassin Next Door	Galia	Danny Lerner
2010	Centurion	Etain	Neil Marshall
2011	There Be Dragons	Ildiko	Roland Joffé
	Land of Oblivion	Anya	Michale Boganim	Also executive producer
2012	Erased	Anna Brandt	Philipp Stölzl
	To the Wonder	Marina	Terrence Malick
	Seven Psychopaths	Angela	Martin McDonagh
2013	Oblivion	Julia Rusakova Harper	Joseph Kosinski
2014	Vampire Academy	Ellen Kirova	Mark Waters
	The November Man	Alice Fournier/Mira Filipova	Roger Donaldson
	The Water Diviner	Ayshe	Russell Crowe
2015	A Perfect Day	Katya	Fernando León de Aranoa
	Momentum	Alex Farraday	Stephen S. Campanelli
2016	The Correspondence	Amy	Giuseppe Tornatore
2017	The Death of Stalin	Maria Yudina	Armando Iannucci
	Gun Shy	Sheila	Simon West
2018	Just a Breath Away (Dans la brume)	Anna	Daniel Roby
	The Man Who Killed Don Quixote	Jacqui	Terry Gilliam
	Mara	Kate Fuller	Clive Tonge
	Johnny English Strikes Again	Ophelia	David Kerr
	The Emperor of Paris	Baroness Roxane of Giverny	Jean-François Richet
2019	L'Intervention	Jane Anderson	Fred Grivois
2019	The Room	Kate	Christian Volckman
	The Courier	The Courier	Zackary Adler
	The Translators	Katerina Anisinova	Rėgis Roinsard
2020	The Bay of Silence	Rosalind	Paula van der Oest
2021	Sentinelle	Klara	Julien Leclercq
	Black Widow	Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster	Cate Shortland
2022	Vanishing	Alice	Denis Dercourt	Korean-French Film
	White Elephant	Vanessa Flynn	Jesse V. Johnson
	The Princess	Kai	Le-Van Kiet
	High Heat	Ana	Zach Golden
2023	Extraction 2	Mia	Sam Hargrave
	Boudica: The Queen of War	Boudica	Jesse V. Johnson
TBA	Empires of the Deep	The Mermaid Queen	Jonathan Lawrence Michael French Scott Miller	Unreleased

Television

List of television performances by Olga Kurylenko

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
2001	Largo Winch	Carole		TV series (1 Episode : "Contessa Vanessa")
2006	Le porte-bonheur	Sophia	Laurent Dussaux	TV movie
2007	Suspectes	Eva Pirès		TV miniseries (7 episodes)
2010	Tyranny	Mina Harud	John Beck Hofmann	TV series (5 episodes); also writer
2012–13	Magic City	Vera Evans	Mainly Ed Bianchi Simon Cellan Jones	TV series (16 episodes)
2014	Mission Control	NASA broadcasting news	Will Ferrell	Episode 13: Go Home
2020	Wonderland, the girl from the shore	Alice	Hervé Hadmar	6 episodes
2022	Treason	Kara Yusova		TV miniseries (5 episodes)
2023	Of Money and Blood		Xavier Giannoli and Frederic Planchon	TV miniseries

Video game

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Olga Kurylenko para niños