Olga Kurylenko Biography

Olha Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (born 14 November 1979), better known as Olga Kurylenko, is a Ukrainian actress and model. She is perhaps best known as the Bond girl, Camille Montes, in the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. She also portrayed Nika Boronina in the movie adaptation of the video game Hitman. She became a French citizen in 2001.

Olga Kurylenko

Olga Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). Her father, Konstantin, is Ukrainian, and her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, is an art teacher of Russian and Belarusian descent, who was born in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.

When Olga Kurylenko was three years old, her parents divorced, leaving her to be raised by her mother. Kurylenko rarely had contact with her father, meeting him for the first time when she was eight years old, and later again when she was 13.

Career
Olga Kurylenko was discovered by a female model scout while on vacation in Moscow at the age of 13. When she was 17, she signed a contract with the Paris-based Madison modeling agency. By the age of 18, she had appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle. While working as a model in Paris, Olga Kurylenko supported her mother in Ukraine.

She became the face of Triumph lingerie, Lejaby lingerie, Bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein, Furthermore, Olga Kurylenko modelled for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo, and appeared in the Victoria's Secret catalog.

Olga Kurylenko's first acting appearance was in Seal's music video, 'Love's Divine' in 2003, but her film career began in France during 2005. She received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance in L'Annulaire, and also starred in the Paris, je t'aime 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 ads. In 2007, Kurylenko 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. In the film she plays the role of a Bolivian Secret Service agent named Camille, who teams up with James Bond to avenge the death of her parents.

Olga Kurylenko

Kurylenko was featured on the cover of the December 2008 issue of the US edition of Maxim and on the cover of the February 2009 issue of the Ukrainian edition of Maxim magazine.
The fact that she is the first Bond girl from a post-Soviet state received mixed reactions in Russia. The Saint Petersburg based Communist group KPLO has accused her of "moral and intellectual betrayal" in starring in a film about the "enemy of the Soviet people" (meaning James Bond) (Kurylenko considered that a PR move). In Ukraine the then-mayor of Berdyansk suggested naming a street after her in early 2008, and Olga Kurylenko and her mother met Ukraine's First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko in President Yushchenko's family country house.

Olga Kurylenko will appear in Terrence Malick's sixth feature, shot in fall 2010 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Also starring Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem and Rachel McAdams, the film is currently in post-production.

Personal life
In 2000, Olga Kurylenko married French fashion photographer Cedric van Mol, but the couple divorced four years later. In 2006, she married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle. They divorced in late 2007. She moved to London in 2009.

Olga Kurylenko is a philanthropist noted for her work for the underprivileged, focusing on children in her native Ukraine.

Filmography

Olga Kurylenko

2001 Largo Winch
2005 L'Annulaire
2006 Paris, je t'aime
2006 Le Porte-bonheur
2006 The Serpent
2007 Secrets
2007 Hitman
2008 À l'est de moi
2008 Quantum of Solace
2008 Max Payne
2009 Kirot – The Assassin Next Door
2010 Tyranny
2010 Centurion
2011 There Be Dragons
2011 Land of Oblivion[28]
2011 Empires of the Deep
2011 Coronet
2012 The Expatriate
2012 Untitled Terrence Malick Project
2012 Magic City