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Johanna Selhorst “Josie” Maran (born May 8, 1978) is an American model and actress.

Biography

Early life

Maran was born in Menlo Park, California. She attended Castilleja School, an all-girls’ school in Palo Alto, California. She is of Russian-Jewish descent on her paternal side. Her first cover was Glamour in 1998. In 1990, an appendectomy left Maran with a noticeable scar that is typically edited out of photos.

Career

Maran’s modeling career began at the age of 12; when an agent spotted her at a local barbecue restaurant, she began modeling part time. Maran graduated from the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, then began to pursue modeling more seriously. As those in the fashion industry consider her height of 5′6″ to be too short for runway modeling, Maran works mainly in editorial modeling and advertising/image modeling.

Signed at age 17 with the Elite modeling agency of Los Angeles, Maran appeared on her first cover with Glamour magazine in 1998, and she was the featured Guess? Girl in their summer 1998 and fall 1998 campaigns. After building a résumé of over 25 commercials and advertisements, including playing Howie D’s companion in the music video of Backstreet Boys hit Everybody (Backstreet’s Back), in which she was bitten on the neck by Count Dracula (played by Howie D), Maran moved cross-country to join with Elite in New York City. In 1999, she landed a multi-year deal with Maybelline. Maran appeared in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue for three consecutive years; from 2000 to 2002. Maran is also signed with London agency Storm Model Management, and 1/One Management in New York City.

Maran’s interest in the arts extends beyond film. When not in acting class, she is training herself in “dance classes… violin classes, speech classes, everything. I’m just trying to train myself in the arts, you know? Nobody else is gonna do it so I’m going to. I’m gonna take on the world”. Her interest in music led her to play casually in two bands: Darling, with socialite Nicole Richie, and Hollywood 2000, where she sang and played violin.

In 2001, Maran appeared in an independent film, as title character Mallory in The Mallory Effect. Maran followed this by appearing as Susan in Swatters in 2002. In 2004, she appeared in three films – as a French model in Little Black Book, as one of Dracula’s brides, Marishka, in Van Helsing, and briefly as a cigarette girl in The Aviator. Maran appeared in a short film “The Confession” alongside Wentworth Miller in 2005, and as Kira Hayden in The Gravedancers in 2006. Maran will not play Polly Hudson in The Final Season, scheduled for release in 2007. This role is now played by Rachael Leigh Cook.

She was recruited in 2005 by EA Games to appear as a main character in the street-racing computer and video game, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which was released on November 17, 2005. She plays the game’s second lead Mia Townsend, who guides the lead character through the game.

In June 2007, Maran launched her own natural cosmetics product line, named Josie Maran Cosmetics. Beyond her business activities she commits herself to the protection and improvement of nature and the environment.

Maran competed in the 2007 season of Dancing with the Stars, but she and dance partner Alec Mazo were the first couple eliminated. Maran subsequently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and in reference to getting voted off first, said, “I should have cut my legs off”.

Personal life

Maran was quoted as saying on Jimmy Kimmel Live, August 12, 2004: “I don’t believe in marriage. I just don’t think it’s necessary in this day and age. I just think if you need to get married, then you’re already distrusting the person. Why do you have to sign something to show your love? You just love, everyday.” Maran talked about quitting modeling and acting to live in Hawaii and teach children, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, October 24, 2005. She reported to have also started yoga at Kripalu, eating organic foods, and trying to quit smoking.

Maran was at one time in a relationship with magician David Blaine. She is currently with photographer Ali Alborzi and the couple have one daughter, Rumi Joon, born on June 20, 2006, in the back yard of their Los Angeles home, as planned.

Filmography

• Swatters (2002): Susan
• The Mallory Effect (2002): Mallory
• The Aviator (2004): Thelma
• Little Black Book (2004): Lulu Fritz
• Van Helsing (2004): Marishka
• The Confession (2005): Wife
• The Gravedancers (2005): Kira Hastings
• Need For Speed: Most Wanted (VG) (2005): Mia Townsend

Television and radio appearances

• The Howard Stern Show (2000)
• The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (2004) (2002)
• Van Helsing: Behind the Screams (2004)
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien (2004)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2007) (2005) (2004) (2003)
• Dancing with the Stars (2007) (Voted off after 1 episode)
• Karma Air (2008)
• Music video for “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by Backstreet Boys (1997)
• Music video for “Morning Light” by Truman (2004)

External links

• JosieMaran.com – Josie Maran Cosmetics
• Josie Maran at MySpace
• Josie Maran’s blog
• Josie Maran at the Internet Movie Database
• Josie Maran at Fashion Model Directory
• Josie Maran’s Fitness blog

Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (born November 14, 1979) is a Ukrainian model and actress. She is perhaps best known as the Bond girl, Camille Montes, in the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace and for portraying Nika Boronina in the movie adaptation of the video game Hitman. She became a French citizen in 2001.

Early life and background

Olga Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk, Ukraine. Her father, Kostyantyn Kurylenko, is Ukrainian and her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, is an art teacher of Russian and Belarusian descent who was born in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.

She grew up poor; she shared an apartment with her aunt and uncle, grandparents, and cousin. She never had any fancy clothes, often wearing hand-me-downs and re-sewing torn sweaters instead of buying new ones. “I couldn’t have anything, basically,” she has said of her childhood. “I couldn’t have any clothes I wanted, shoes, beds, clothes for school — because my mum couldn’t buy them.”

When Kurylenko was three years old, her parents divorced, leaving her to be raised by her mother. Kurylenko rarely had contact with her father, meeting him for the first time when she was eight years old, and later again when she was 13.

Career

Kurylenko was discovered by a female model scout while on vacation in Moscow at the age of 13. When she was 17, she signed a contract with the Paris-based Madison modeling agency. By the age of 18, she had already appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle. While working as a model in Paris, Kurylenko supported her mother back home in Ukraine.

She also appeared on the covers of Madame Figaro and Marie Claire.

Also, she became the face of Lejaby lingerie, bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein. Furthermore, she modelled for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo, and briefly appeared in the Victoria’s Secret catalog.

In 2005, Kurylenko began her film career in France. She received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance in L’Annulaire, and also starred in the Paris, je t’aime 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 ads. In 2007, Kurylenko starred in Hitman alongside Timothy Olyphant, in which she did a full nude scene. She played Bond girl Camille Montes in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. The film was released in the United States on her 29th birthday.

Kurylenko was featured on the cover of the December 2008 issue of the US edition of Maxim and on the cover of the February 2009 issue of the Ukrainian edition of Maxim magazine.

The fact that she is the first Bond girl from a post-Soviet state received mixed reactions in post-Soviet countries. The Saint Petersburg based Communist group KPLO has accused her of “moral and intellectual betrayal” in starring in a film about the “enemy of the Soviet people” (meaning James Bond), but the mayor of Berdyansk has suggested naming a street after her and Kurylenko and her mother met Ukraine’s First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko in President Yushchenko’s family country house.

Personal life

In 2000, Kurylenko married French fashion photographer Cedric van Mol, but the couple divorced four years later. In 2006, she married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle. They divorced in late 2007. Kurylenko has lived in Paris since leaving Ukraine in 1996 to pursue her modeling career. In 2001, she was granted French citizenship.

Filmography

• L’Annulaire (2005)
• Paris, je t’aime (2006)
• Le Porte-bonheur (2006) (TV)
• The Serpent (2006)
• Suspectes (2007) (TV mini-series)
• Hitman (2007)
• Max Payne (2008)
• Tyranny (2008)
• Quantum of Solace (2008)
• Kirot (2009)
• Centurion (2009)
• The Cross (2010)
• There Be Dragons (2010)

External links

• Olga Kurylenko at the Internet Movie Database
• Olga Kurylenko at Fashion Model Directory
• Trailers – Bio and Pictures of Olga Kurylenko
• Photos of Olga Kurylenko
• News of Olga Kurylenko
• Biography of Olga Kurylenko(Spanish)
• Olga Kurylenko as the face of Kenzo Amour

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