Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (born November 14, 1979) is a Ukrainian and French actress and model. She was born and reared in Berdyansk before moving to Paris at the age of 16 to pursue a modelling career. She began her acting career in 2005 and rose to prominence as Nika Boronina in the cinematic adaptation of the computer game Hitman (2007). She is most recognised for her roles as Bond girl Camille Montes in Quantum of Solace (2008) and Taskmaster in Black Widow (2021).
She has appeared in a number of films, including Terrence Malick's To the Wonder (2012), Martin McDonagh's dark comedy Seven Psychopaths (2012), Tom Cruise's 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), and the Netflix series Treason (2022).
Kurylenko grew up in Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. Her father, Konstantin, is Ukrainian, while her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, an exhibiting artist and art teacher, was born in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, and is of Russian and Belarusian descent.
Her parents split when she was three years old, leaving her to be raised by her single mother. Kurylenko had little contact with her father, meeting him for the first time after their divorce when she was eight years old, and again when she was thirteen.
At the age of 15, Kurylenko relocated from her hometown of Berdyansk to Moscow. She relocated to Paris when she was 16 years old. She signed with the Paris-based Madison modelling agency in 1996, where she met her publicist Valérie Rosen. By the following year, she had appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle magazines at the age of 18. Kurylenko supported her mother in Ukraine while working as a model in Paris.
She has also graced the covers of Madame Figaro and Marie Claire. She became the face of several brands, including Bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein. She has also modelled for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo, as well as for Victoria's Secret.
In 1998, she appears in the music video "Tellement Je T'aime" by French-Algerian Ra style singer Faudel.
Her first acting role was in Seal's music video "Love's Divine" in 2003, but her first cinematic career began in France in 2005. She got a certificate of excellence award for her performance in L'Annulaire at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival, and she also appeared in the Paris, je t'aime section "Quartier de la Madeleine" alongside Elijah Wood. The following year, she was chosen to be the face of Kenzo's new fragrance, Kenzo Amour. She has been in every Kenzo Amour advertising since.
She co-starred in Hitman with Timothy Olyphant in 2007. Natasha was a minor character in Max Payne. After beating out Gal Gadot in the tryouts, she played Bond girl Camille Montes in the 2008 James Bond thriller Quantum of Solace. In the film, she plays Bolivian Secret Service agent Camille Montes, who joins forces with Bond to halt a terrorist organisation and avenge her parents' deaths.
She was on the cover of the December 2008 issue of Maxim magazine in the United States, as well as the February 2009 issue of Maxim in Ukraine. In early 2008, the mayor of Berdyansk proposed naming a boulevard after her, and she and her mother met Ukraine's First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko at President Victor Yushchenko's family country estate.
Kurylenko starred alongside Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams in Terrence Malick's romantic drama film To the Wonder. The film was shot in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in the fall of 2010. She also starred in Oblivion, a science fiction film directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Tom Cruise. In the spy thriller November Man, Kurylenko portrayed Alice Fournier. Kurylenko co-starred in the 2014 historical drama film The Water Diviner with Russell Crowe (in his directing debut), Jacqueline McKenzie, and Jai Courtney. In Vampire Academy, she again played the headmistress. Later in her career, she appeared in films such as Momentum, Mara, and The Bay of Silence.
In 2017, she played Soviet pianist Maria Yudina in Armando Iannucci's political satire film The Death of Stalin. The picture, which starred Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin, and Jeffrey Tambor, was a critical hit. The next year, she co-starred with Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce in Terry Gilliam's epic adventure picture The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), which premiered at the 2018 Cannes picture Festival. She also starred in The Emperor of Paris as Baroness Roxane de Giverny and as the Russian spy in Rowan Atkinson's comedy Johnny English Strikes Again (2018).
She appeared in the action thriller Sentinelle in 2021. She portrays Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Black Widow the same year. She was cast in the comic heist flick High Heat starring Don Johnson in October.
Personal life
Kurylenko obtained French citizenship in 2001, which she described as "a practical decision" because it was easier to travel without a visa with a French passport than with a Ukrainian one. In the year 2000, she married French fashion photographer Cedric van Mol. Four years later, the couple split. In 2006, she married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle; the marriage terminated in late 2007. In 2009, Kurylenko relocated to London.
Kurylenko and her ex-husband, English actor and writer Max Benitz, have one kid, born in October 2015.
She showed support for Ukraine on February 24, 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine as part of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | L'Annulaire | 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 prostitute | Bojena Horackova | |
Max Payne | Natasha Sax | John Moore | ||
Quantum of Solace | Camille Montes | Marc Forster | ||
2009 | Kirot (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 | Upcoming |
2024 | Thunderbolts ![]() | Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster | Jake Schreier | In Production |
TBA | Empires of the Deep ![]() | Michael French Scott Miller | Post-production |
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) |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | 007: Quantum of Solace | Camille Montes (voice) |
Year | Awards | Category | Recipient | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | Brooklyn international film festival | Best actress | L'Annulaire | Won |
2008 | Saturn Award | Best Supporting Actress | Quantum of Solace | Nominated |
2009 | Empire Awards | Best Actress | Quantum of Solace | Nominated |
2012 | Boston Society of Film Critics Award | Best Cast | Seven Psychopaths | Won |
2012 | San Diego Film Critics Society Award | Best Performance by an Ensemble | Seven Psychopaths | Nominated |
Body Measurements | 34-23-35 inches |
Bodytype | Hourglass |
Height | 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) |
Weight | 53 kg (117 lbs) |
Waist | 23 inches |
Hair Color | Dark Brown |
Eye Color | Green |
Shoe Size | 8 (US) |
Dress Size | 4 (US) |
Nickname | Olga Kurylenko |
Gender | Female |
Age | 43 years old (in 2023) |
Date of Birth | November 14, 1979 |
Full Name | Olga Konstiantinivna Kurylenko |
Profession | Actress, Model |
Nationality | Ukrainian |
Birthplace | Berdyans’k, Ukraine |
Religion | Agnostic |
Zodiac Sign | Scorpio |
Profession: Actress, Model
Known For: Camille Montes
Debut:
Film: L’Annulaire (2005)
TV Show: Largo Winch (2001)
Net Worth: USD $18 million approx
Father: Konstantin Kurylenko
Mother: Marina Alyabusheva
Brother: None
Sister: None
Marital Status: Married
Husband: Damian Gabrielle (m. 2006–2007), Cedric Van Mol (m. 2000–2004)
No. of Children: None