Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot Varsano[5][6][7] (née Gadot; Hebrew: גל גדות, pronounced [ˈɡal ɡaˈdot];[8] born 30 April 1985[9]) is an Israeli actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, after which she began studying at IDC Herzliya while building her modeling and acting careers.[10][11][12]
Gal Gadot
Actress, model
4
2004–present
- Miss Israel 2004
(Winner) - Miss Universe 2004
(Unplaced)
Her first international film performance was as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious (2009), a part she reprised in several sequels. Gadot achieved global stardom for her portrayal of Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe films (2016–2023), including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Wonder Woman, Justice League (both 2017), and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).[13][14][15] She has since starred in the Netflix action-comedy film Red Notice (2021) and the mystery film Death on the Nile (2022).
Gadot was included on the list of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2018, and has placed twice in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses.
Early life
Gadot was born on 30 April 1985 in Petah Tikva,[note 1] where she first lived;[21] she was later raised in the city of Rosh HaAyin.[20] In Hebrew, her given name means "wave" and her surname means "riverbanks".[19]
Prior to her birth, her parents had Hebraized their surname from "Greenstein" to "Gadot".[22] Her father is Michael Gadot, an engineer, and her mother is Irit (née Weiss), a physical education teacher.[23] Gadot has a younger sister named Dana.[24][25] Gadot's father is a sixth-generation Sabra.[26] Her maternal grandparents were born in 20th-century Europe; her grandfather survived the Holocaust following his imprisonment at the Auschwitz concentration camp during Nazi Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia, while her grandmother managed to escape the continent before the outbreak of World War II.[26][27][28]
Gadot has stated that she was brought up in a "very Jewish, Israeli family environment".[23] Growing up in Israel, she learned and danced jazz and hip-hop for 12 years,[23] and her first jobs were working at a local Burger King as well as babysitting.[28] She graduated from Begin High School in Rosh HaAyin, majoring in biology.[28] As Jewish high schools in Israel often take their sophomores on trips to Holocaust memorial sites, Gadot went to Poland to gain a first-hand understanding of two Nazi concentration camps: Auschwitz and Majdanek. About the experience, she reminisced: "I stood there on top of a mountain of ashes. I, an entitled child, felt the suffering the Muselmann experienced back then. When it was time to give my speech at the memorial ceremony, my eyes filled up with tears, and I could not control the shivering. I returned home more mature and cried with my grandfather about that, coming a full circle from his childhood to mine."[28]
At 20, Gadot was conscripted to the Israel Defense Forces as a combat fitness instructor as part of her mandatory two years of military service.[3][4] She has said that her military background helped her to win the role of Gisele Yashar in the 2009 film Fast & Furious, stating: "I think the main reason was that the director Justin Lin really liked that I was in the military, and he wanted to use my knowledge of weapons."[29] After her military service, Gadot studied law at IDC Herzliya college in Israel (now Reichman University).[11][12][30]
Career
Modeling and beauty pageant career
Gadot entered the Miss Israel national beauty pageant at 18, under the impression that it would be a "fun" experience, and stated in a Glamour interview: "I never thought I would win."[31][32][33] She subsequently won and went on to compete for Israel in the Miss Universe 2004 pageant that took place that year in Ecuador.[34]
She has led international campaigns as a model for Miss Sixty, Huawei smartphones, Captain Morgan rum, Gucci fragrances, Vine Vera skincare[35][36] and Jaguar Cars. In 2015, she became the face of Gucci's Bamboo perfume brand.[37] She has been featured as the covergirl on Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Bride Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, UMM, Cleo, Fashion, Lucire, FHM. Gadot was the main model for fashion brand Castro from 2008 to 2016.[38] In 2013, her combined annual modeling and acting salary was estimated at NIS 2.4 million.[39]
In 2007, a then 21-year-old Gadot was in the Maxim photo shoot "Women of the Israel Defense Forces"[40][41] and was then featured on the cover of the New York Post.[42]
In 2017, Gadot was placed at number one on FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" list.[43]
In 2018, Gadot became a brand ambassador for Revlon and Reebok. She appeared in advertisements for Revlon's "Live Boldly" campaign and Reebok's "Be More Human" campaign.[44][45]
Acting
After Gadot had completed her first year of college, a casting director contacted her agent to have Gadot audition for the part of Camille Montes in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.[30] Although she lost the part to Olga Kurylenko, a few months later, Gadot starred in the 2008 Israeli drama Bubot. Three months later, the casting director from her Quantum of Solace audition chose Gadot over six other actresses for the role of Gisele Yashar in the action film Fast & Furious, the fourth film in the Fast & Furious franchise.[46][47] Gadot performed some of her own stunt work in those films.[48]
In 2010, she had small roles in the action comedy Date Night and the action-adventure comedy Knight and Day.[49] 2011 brought her back to the Fast & Furious franchise, reprising her role as Gisele in Fast Five; she reprised the character in 2013's Fast & Furious 6.[50]
Personal life
Gadot married Israeli real estate developer Jaron "Yaron" Varsano [note 2] in 2008.[96] They have four daughters, born in 2011,[97] 2017, 2021,[98][50][99][100] and 2024.[101] The two formed their own film and television production company, Pilot Wave, in 2019.[89] Gadot and Varsano owned a boutique hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel, which she helped run,[102] that eventually was sold to Roman Abramovich in 2015 for $26 million.[103]
Gadot is an avid martial arts enthusiast. She possesses a black belt in both karate and Krav Maga. She has served as a trainer and combat instructor for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Her extensive background knowledge in martial arts played a key part in helping her land the role of Wonder Woman.[104][105][106]
