Olga Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk, Ukraine. Her father, Kostyantyn Kurylenko, is Ukrainian. Her mother,
Marina Alyabusheva, an art teacher of Russian and Belarusian descent, was born in
Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.Her childhood was a poor one; she shared an apartment with her aunt and uncle, grandparents and cousin. She never had any fancy clothes, often wearing hand-me-downs and re-sewing torn sweaters instead of buying new ones. Her discovery led to a drastic change in lifestyle, "I couldn't have anything, basically. I couldn't have any clothes I wanted, shoes, beds, clothes for school - because my mum couldn't buy them [Olga, on her childhood]"
When
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 8 years old, and later again when she was 13.
Kurylenko was discovered by a
female model scout while on vacation in Moscow at the age of thirteen.
When she was 17 she signed a contract with the
Paris-based Madison modeling agency. By the age of 18 she had already appeared on the covers of
Vogue and Elle. While working as a model in
Paris, Kurylenko supported her mother back home in Ukraine.
She also dazzled the covers of
Madame Figaro and Marie Claire.
Also, she became the face of Lejaby lingerie, Bebe clothing, Clarins and Helena Rubinstein. Furthermore, she modelled for Roberto Cavalli and KENZO, and briefly appeared in the Victoria's Secret catalog.
In 2005, Kurylenko began her film career in France. 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. This 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 in which she did a full nude scene. She played Bond girl Camille Montes in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. The film was released in the United States on her twenty-ninth birthday.
Kurylenko was featured on the cover of the December 2008 issue of the US edition of Maxim magazine[17] 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 post-Soviet countries. 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), but the mayor of Berdyansk has suggested naming a street after her and Kurylenko and her mother[22] met Ukraine's First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko in President Yushchenko's family country house.
Milla Jovovich (pronounced "mee-luh" "yo-vo-vitch") was born December 17, 1975 in Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine to father Bogdanovitch Jovovich (Serbian doctor) and mother Galina Loginova Jovovich (Russian actress). In 1981, Milla and her family left the Soviet Union and moved to London, England and then to Sacramento, California, ultimately settling in Los Angeles.
