Olga Kurylenko

Olga Kurylenko Biography

Olga Kurylenko is a Ukrainian-French actress and model, born on November 14, 1979, in Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.

At the age of 15, she moved from her hometown to Moscow, and a year later, she relocated to Paris where she signed a contract with the Madison modelling agency.

Kurylenko met her publicist, Valérie Rosen, through her modelling career, and by the age of 18, she had already appeared on the covers of prestigious magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Madame Figaro, and Marie Claire. She also modelled for famous brands such as Bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein, among others.

While pursuing her modelling career in Paris, Olga Kurylenko featured in the 1998 music video of French-Algerian Raï style singer Faudel called Tellement Je T’aime. She also starred in 2003 in the music video for Seal’s Love’s Divine in 2003.

Shortly after this in 2005, her film career began, and she received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance in L’Annulaire. The same year, she also starred in the Paris, je t’aime segment (Quartier de la Madeleine) opposite Elijah Wood.

In 2007, she starred in Hitman alongside Timothy Olyphant and had a minor role in Max Payne. Kurylenko gained worldwide recognition in 2008 for her role as a Bond girl in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.

In this film, she plays Camille Montes, a Bolivian Secret Service agent who collaborates with Bond to bring down a menacing terrorist organization. Driven by a personal vendetta, Montes also seeks retribution against the nefarious General Mederano, who brutally murdered her family when she was a child.

For her role as Camille Montes, Kurylenko said she had never seen Bond movies before as ‘James Bond didn’t get to Ukraine.’ But she said she had a Box Set of DVDs to tune her up and soon became an expert on all things Bond and Bond girls.

She also dedicated three weeks to mastering combat techniques, handling firearms, and body flying—an indoor skydiving skill, things she certainly utilized in her impressive performance.

Other roles include a part in Armando Iannucci’s political satire film The Death of Stalin as the Soviet pianist Maria Yudina. The same year, she starred in Terry Gilliam’s epic adventure film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Olga Kurylenko Personal Life

Olga Kurylenko acquired French citizenship in 2001 and has been married twice. She married French fashion photographer Cedric van Mol in 2000, and the couple divorced four years later. In 2006, she married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle, but their marriage ended in late 2007.

Olga Kurylenko moved to London in 2009, where she started a family with her former partner, English actor and writer Max Benitz. They have one son together.

Olga Kurylenko Photos