Sofia Boutella - actress and dancer of Algerian origin

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Sofia Boutella was born on a spring day in 1982 in the capital of the African state of Algiers. Her parents are creative people. Father became famous as a jazz composer and choreographer. Mother is an architect.

From childhood, the future celebrity was instilled with a love of music. Already at the age of five, she began to study at the ballet school. Subsequently, it was dancing that became her main profession for many years.

Dance career

When Sofia Boutella was 10 years old, her family changed their place of residence. France became the new home for the girl. Here she chose for herself another hobby - rhythmic gymnastics. She devoted 7 years to sports. During this period, Sofia managed to win second place in the French championship and get into the youth Olympic team, but did not achieve great success.

Sofia continued to dance all these years, but classical ballet was replaced by street dancing and hip-hop. At the age of 17, she began collaborating with the Vagabund Crew. Together with her friends, the girl performed in shopping centers and city venues.

In the same period, Sofia Boutella began to professionally engage in choreography under the guidance of a Spanish dancerFrench-born Bianca Lee. After six months of hard training, the girl's career went uphill.

Sofia became a member of the dance group of the famous singer Madonna in two world tours, and also starred in her videos Sorry and Hung Up. Later, she performed at concerts with Britney Spears, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake.

Sofia Boutella is currently dedicated to conquering the Hollywood hills, but she does not forget about her favorite hobby.

Contract with Nike

The Algerian began to be recognized after she starred in an advertisement for the women's clothing line of the Nike brand in 2005. The girl came to the casting out of curiosity and did not count on success.

To Sofia's surprise, she was immediately noticed by professional choreographer Jamie King, famous for his ability to turn young artists into stars. Their collaboration resulted in an inspiring commercial where the young dancer showed off her incredible fitness and amazing flexibility.

A year later, the girl officially became the face of Nike.

First roles

Films with Sofia Boutella began to appear on the screen in 2002. Basically, the aspiring actress got episodic roles. Her first projects were the paintings “Super DJ” and “Permission to love”. In 2006, she voiced the elf fairy in Azur and Azmar.

After a six-year hiatus, the Algerian decided to return to her acting career. In 2012, she could be seen in the sequel to the film Street Dancing. Sofiaplayed the role of Eve - a talented dancer in love with salsa.

Filmography of Sofia Boutella

Real success came to Sofia after the role of Gazelle, assistant to the villain Richmond Valentine, in the film "Kingsman: The Secret Service". The highlight of her image was the unusual prostheses that replaced the heroine with part of the legs below the knees.

Preparing for filming took the girl a lot of strength. To perform all the tricks on her own, she was engaged in Thai boxing and taekwondo. She also studied various types of kicks to show on screen how prosthetics can be used as deadly weapons as realistically as possible.

After the picture “Kingsman: The Secret Service”, Sofia began to actively invite to cooperate.

In 2016, the actress played one of the key roles in the continuation of the legendary Star Trek: Infinity franchise. Smart and warlike Jayla, the leader of an alien race, in her performance was able to win the love of the audience.

Sofia spent about two months preparing for the role. The girl was trained in parkour and the technique of fighting with a staff in order to look organic in difficult scenes.

This June Sofia Boutella could be seen in theaters as a mummy. The film garnered mostly negative reviews due to its incoherent plot, but the performance of the Algerian was appreciated by the audience.

In the near future, the actress will appear in the television film “451 degrees Fahrenheit” by Ramin Bahradi, based on the popular novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury.