Zoe Saldana - Early Life

Early Life

Saldana was born Zoe Yadira Saldaña Nazario in Passaic, New Jersey. Her father, Aridio Saldaña (d. 1987), was Dominican, and her mother, Asalia Nazario, is Puerto Rican. Her first languages are Spanish and English. She spent the majority of her early childhood growing up in Queens, New York. After her father died in a car accident when she was nine years old, Saldaña moved to the Dominican Republic with her mother. There, Saldana discovered her love of dance and soon enrolled in the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy; she studied ballet, jazz, and modern Latin dance. The family returned to Queens after her sophomore year in high school.

In 1995 she began performing with the FACES theater group in Brooklyn, which put on plays geared towards providing positive messages for teens, via themes dealing with issues such as substance abuse and sex. Concurrently, she performed with the New York Youth Theater; her appearance in their production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat led a talent agency to recruit her. Her previous dance training, and her acting experience, helped her land her first big screen role as Eva, the talented and headstrong ballet dancer in the 2000 film Center Stage.

Read more about this topic:  Zoe Saldana

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    In an early spring
    We see th’appearing buds, which to prove fruit
    Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair
    That frosts will bite them.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Franceska: I was happy in the life I built up for myself. I put a fine high wall of music around me and nothing could touch me. I was safe and secure. And then you had to come along and knock it all down and I hate you for that.
    Maxwell: On the contrary, you love me.
    Muriel Box (b. 1905)