Modeling agencies:‘Madison’, New York, ‘Next’, Paris, ‘Francina International’, Barcelona, ‘Time Model Agency’, Zurich
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Olga Kurylenko, born November 14, 1979, is a Ukrainian supermodel model and an actress on the rise. She grew up in a cramped Soviet “communal flat”, in the Ukrainian seaside town of Berdyansk, with four small rooms shared by six adults from her extended family and several children. Berdyansk is a resort on the Azov Sea famed for its mineral water springs and mud baths. But when Olga was growing up it was rundown with Soviet-era plants closing due to bankruptcy.
Her family struggled. While mother Marina Alyabusheva went out to try to earn money, her mother Raisa helped to bring up Olga. “I divorced her father Konstanin soon after her birth. I didn’t think he was the the right man to be a good father and husband,” said Marina, a teacher turned professor of art. “And after the divorce, he forgot about her. He didn’t see her from the age of two until she was 13. But maybe I was wrong to divorce him because Olga told me much later how much she had so missed him.”
As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, salaries were hit by rampant inflation and times were hard. “Olga hated wearing old clothes and begged me for new sweaters, but we couldn’t afford it. We had to darn the holes. It was tough.”
But all that changed with a chance encounter on Moscow’s underground metro system. Aged just 13, Olga was on holiday in Moscow with her mother when she was spotted by a model scout getting off a metro train. Mrs Alyabusheva said: “I was very surprised and kept asking this woman whether she had some hidden agenda. I was amazed a complete stranger could scout for models like this. She told us that Olga was too young but she would contact us again in a year or so.” Olga later returned to Moscow for training but by the age of 17 she was ready to leave for Paris to start her career and was signed by the Madison agency.
After flying off to Paris, Ms. Kurylenko learned French in just six months. She was soon on the cover of magazines such as Elle and Vogue, and became the face of Lejaby lingerie. At 20, Olga married French photographer Cedric van Mol, who was nine years older. “They had been friends before but it was a marriage without love,” said her mother. They were divorced after two years, but Olga qualified for a French passport, allowing her to travel freely in the West without visas.
Olga began her film career in France in 2005 with L’Annulaire. She received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance in the film, and also starred in the Paris, je t’aime segment Quartier de la Madeleine opposite Elijah Wood. Kurylenko predominantly tackled thriller roles for her next several assignments, with supporting turns in such features as Le Serpent (2006) and Hitman (2007), and made international headlines when she landed the role of Camille in the 22nd installment of the James Bond series, Quantum of Solace, to be released in November 2008.
Olga Kurylenko is currently married to Damian Gabrielle, a mobile phone accessory entrepreneur. She has also dated actor Justin Long in the past.
