Sofia Boutella (born 3 April 1982; age 42) is an Algerian actress and dancer who played Jaylah in Star Trek Beyond.
Her breakthrough acting role was as Valentine's henchwoman Gazelle in the 2014 action adventure Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Personal[]
Boutella was born in the Bab El Oued district of Algiers, Algeria. She is the daughter of jazz musician Safy Boutella and an architect mother. At the age of 5, she started training in classical dance. In 1992, her family moved to France and Boutella started training rhythmic gymnastics and even joined the French national team. Boutella later attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Career[]
Dancing[]
As a member of the dance group Vagabond Crew, Boutella won the Dance Battle of the Year in 2006. She also performed in the show group Chienne de Vie and Aphrodites during her time in France.
As a dancer, Boutella appeared in several music videos including Cesária Évora's "Nutridinha" in 2001, Jamiroquai's "Little L" in 2001, Bodyrockers' "I Like The Way (You Move)" in 2005, and Axwell's "Feel The Vibe ('Til The Morning Comes)" in 2005.
In 2005 she was cast as principal dancer for singer Madonna, and appeared in her music videos "Hung Up" (2005), "Sorry" (2006), and "Celebration" (2009). She also toured with Madonna on her world tours "Confessions Tour" in 2006 and "Sticky & Sweet Tour" between 2008 and 2009. Other appearances with Madonna include the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2005, the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in 2006, the 2007 Live Earth concert in London, and the 2012 Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show.
Boutella and Lin on set
Other music videos she appeared in include Rihanna's "SOS (Nike Version)" (2006), Chris Brown's "Wall to Wall" (2007), Matt Pokora's "Dangerous" (2008), Usher's "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)" (2009), Ne-Yo's "Beautiful Monster" (2010) and "Champagne Life" (2010), Michael Jackson's "Hollywood Tonight" (2011), and Take That's "Get Ready For It" (2015).
Boutella was cast in 2005 as a spokeswoman for Nike, and appeared between 2005 and 2014 as the lead model in the Nike Women campaigns. She has served as a judge for several dance competitions, and was also interviewed and photographed for magazines such as Elle, Cosmopolitan, InStyle UK, Vogue Italy, and Marie Claire.
Acting[]
Early in her career, Boutella was featured in the French music film Dance Challenge (2002), an episode of Cordier and Son: Judge and Cop (2004), the television movie Permis d'aimer (2005), and lent her voice to the animated feature Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest (2006).
In 2012, she played the lead character Eva in StreetDance 2, followed by a supporting role in Monsters: Dark Continent (2014). Following her breakthrough role in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Boutella appeared in Jet Trash and on Tiger Raid (both 2016). In 2017, she starred in The Mummy, written, producer and directed by Alex Kurtzman, and also featuring Annabelle Wallis and Javier Botet. In the same year, she appeared in Atomic Blonde.
In 2018, she co-starred in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (with Saad Siddiqui, Grace Lynn Kung, and Alex Spencer), Hotel Artemis, and Climax. In 2019, she appeared in two episodes of the Amazon series Modern Love. In 2021, Boutella co-starred in Prisoners of the Ghostland and Settlers.
In 2022, Boutella co-starred in the BBC war series SAS Rogue Heroes and guest-starred in an episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, alongside Peter Weller and Saad Siddiqui. In 2023 and 2024, she starred in the Netflix space opera films Rebel Moon and Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, the first of which featured Dominic Burgess and Douglas Tait in the cast. Also in 2024, she had a supporting role in the spy comedy film Argylle.