Olga Kurylenko

Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (born 14 November 1979) is a Ukrainian-born French actress and former model. She rose to prominence by playing the Bond girl Camille Montes in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008).

Kurylenko began her career modelling in Paris before making a transition to acting. She had her breakthrough role in the action thriller Hitman (2007) after making her film debut in the drama The Ring Finger (2005). Following Quantum of Solace, she went on to star in the romantic drama To the Wonder (2012), the crime comedy Seven Psychopaths (2012), the science fiction film Oblivion (2013), the political satire The Death of Stalin (2017), the comedy The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), the superhero films Black Widow (2021) and Thunderbolts* (2025), the Netflix spy thriller miniseries Treason (2022) and the action thriller Extraction 2 (2023).

Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko was born on 14 November 1979 in Berdyansk, a port city in Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. Her father, Konstantin Kurylenko, is Ukrainian. Her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, teaches art and is an exhibited artist. Marina's father was a Russian factory worker, and her mother, Raisa, was a Belarusian doctor. Kurylenko's parents divorced when she was three years old. Growing up poor, she lived in a small house with her maternal grandparents, Marina and their relatives. Kurylenko rarely had contact with Konstantin, meeting him for the first time after the split at the age of eight and later at the age of thirteen.

Kurylenko moved to Moscow at age 15. At age 16, she moved to Paris. In 1996, Kurylenko signed a contract with the Paris-based Madison modelling agency where she met her publicist Valérie Rosen. The following year, by the age of 18, she had appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle magazines. While working as a model in Paris, Kurylenko supported her mother in Ukraine.

She also appeared on the covers of Madame Figaro and Marie Claire magazines. She became the face of brands Bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein. She has also modelled for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo and appeared in the Victoria's Secret catalogue. In 1998, she features in the music video of French Raï style singer Faudel called "Tellement Je T'aime".

One of her first acting appearances was in Seal's music video "Love's Divine" in 2003, but her film career truly began in France in 2004 when she shot her first feature film, The Ring Finger, for which she received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance. She next starred in the Paris, je t'aime (2006) 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 advertisements.

Kurylenko quit modelling in 2006, after more than ten years of working in the industry, and moved on to acting. In 2007, she 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 (after beating out Gal Gadot in the auditions). In the film she plays the role of Bolivian Secret Service agent Camille Montes, who teams up with Bond to stop a terrorist organization and avenge the death of her parents. Russian politician Sergey Malinkovich wrote an open letter to Kurylenko. In it he said: "In the name of all communists we appeal to you ... deserter of Slavic world. The Soviet Union gave you free education, free medical care but nobody knew you would commit an act of intellectual and moral betrayal and become a movie girl of Bond, who in his movies kills hundreds of Soviet people and citizens of other socialist countries."

Kurylenko acquired French citizenship in 2001, which she called "a practical decision" because it was easier to travel with a French passport without a visa, as opposed to travelling with a Ukrainian passport. In 2000, Kurylenko married French fashion photographer Cédric van Mol, whom she divorced four years later. In 2006, Kurylenko married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle, whom she divorced the next year. She moved to London in 2009. Kurylenko has a son with her former partner, English actor and writer Max Benitz, whom she met in 2014.