Gal Gadot-Varsano[3][4][5] (Hebrew: גל גדות‎ [ˈɡal ɡaˈdot];[6] born 30 April 1985)[7] is an Israeli actress, producer, and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served two years in the Israel Defense Forces as a soldier, after which she began studying at the IDC Herzliya college, while building her modelling and acting careers.[8][2][9]

Gadot's first international film role came as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious (2009), a role she reprised in subsequent installments of the film franchise. She went on to gain worldwide recognition for portraying Diana Prince / Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), followed by the solo film Wonder Woman, the ensemble Justice League (both 2017), the sequel Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), and the alternate cut Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021).[10][11]

Gadot has been dubbed the "biggest Israeli superstar" by local media outlets.[12] Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018 and she has placed twice in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses.

Early life

Gal Gadot was born in Petah Tikva, Israel,[1] and raised in its neighboring city of Rosh HaAyin.[13] In Hebrew, her first name means "wave" and her surname means "riverbanks".[14] Her parents are Irit (née Weiss), a Phys Ed. teacher, and Michael Gadot, an engineer.[15] Her parents Hebraized their surname from "Greenstein" to "Gadot" prior to her birth.[16][17] Her father is a sixth-generation Sabra.[18] Her maternal grandparents were born in 20th century Europe; her grandfather, who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp, survived the Holocaust, and her grandmother managed to escape before the Nazi invasion.[18][19][20] She has stated that she was brought up in a "very Jewish, Israeli family environment".[15] Gadot is of Ashkenazi Jewish[21] (Polish-Jewish, Austrian-Jewish, German-Jewish, and Czech-Jewish) descent.[2] She has a younger sister, Dana Gadot.[22][23]

Growing up, Gadot learned and danced jazz and hip-hop for 12 years,[15] and her first jobs were babysitting and at Burger King.[20] She graduated from Begin High School in Rosh HaAyin, majoring in biology.[20] Jewish high schools in Israel tend to take their sophomores to a Holocaust memorial trip to Poland to experience and reminisce the Auschwitz and the Majdanek concentration camps from first hand, which Gadot shared: "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."[20]

Career

Modelling and pageant career

At age 18, Gadot won the 2004 Miss Israel beauty pageant,[28][29] and subsequently competed for Israel in the Miss Universe 2004 pageant that took place that year in Ecuador.

She has led international campaigns as a model for Miss Sixty, Huawei smartphones, Captain Morgan rum, Gucci fragrances and Vine Vera skincare ranges, and Jaguar Cars. In 2015, she became the face of Gucci's Bamboo perfume brand.[30] She has been featured as the covergirl on Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Bride Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, UMM, Cleo, Fashion, Lucire, FHM. Gadot has been the main model for fashion brand Castro in 2008–16.[31] In 2013, her combined annual modelling and acting salary was estimated at NIS 2.4 million.[32]

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.[26] 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.[34][35] Gadot performed her own stuntwork in those films.[36]

In 2010, she had small roles in the action comedy Date Night and the action-adventure comedy Knight and Day.[37] 2011 brought her back to the Fast & Furious franchise, reprising her role as Gisele in Fast Five, and in 2013's Fast & Furious 6.[38]

Gadot portrayed Wonder Woman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Gadot received swordsmanship, Kung Fu, kickboxing, capoeira and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training in preparation for the role.[39] Gadot's performance as the superhero, which was the character's first appearance in film, was singled out as one of the best parts of the film.[40]

Gadot, fellow Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and U.N. Under-Secretary General Cristina Gallach appeared at the United Nations on 21 October 2016, the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Wonder Woman, to mark the character's designation by the United Nations as its "Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls".[41][42] The gesture was intended to raise awareness of UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 5, which seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.[41][42][43] The decision was met with protests from UN staff members who stated in their petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the character is "not culturally encompassing or sensitive" and served to objectify women. As a result, the character was stripped of the designation, and the project ended 16 December.[43]

In 2017, Gadot starred in a solo film for her character, Wonder Woman. She reprised the role in the ensemble film Justice League, which was released in November 2017, and was her third DC Extended Universe installment.[48][49][50] That same year, Gadot was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[51]

In 2020, Forbes ranked Gadot as the third highest-paid actress in the world, with annual earnings of $31.5 million.[59] On 11 October 2020, Gadot was confirmed to be reuniting with Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins on Cleopatra, an epic film centered on Cleopatra produced by Paramount Pictures.[60] In December, Gadot was cast in the spy thriller Heart of Stone.[61]

2015–2018: Dhoni biopic, Raabta and Kedarnath