Gal Gadot was born 30 April 1985 and is an Israeli actress, model, and producer. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served two years in the Israel Defense Forces as a fitness/combat readiness instructor, after which she began studying law and international relations at IDC Herzliya college while building her modeling and acting careers.
She was born in Petah Tikva, Israel, and raised in its neighboring city of Rosh HaAyin. In Hebrew, her first name means “wave” and her surname means “riverbanks”. Her parents are Irit (née Weiss), a teacher, and Michael Gadot, an engineer. Both her parents were born in Israel, and they Hebraized their surname from “Greenstein” to “Gadot” prior to her birth. Her father is a sixth-generation Sabra. Her maternal grandparents were born in Europe; her grandfather, who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp, survived the Holocaust, and her grandmother left before the Nazi invasion. She has stated that she was brought up in a very Jewish, Israeli family environment. Gadot’s family is of Ashkenazi Jewish (Polish-Jewish, Austrian-Jewish, German-Jewish, and Czech-Jewish) descent. She has a younger sister, Dana.
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 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.
After Gadot had completed her first year of college, a casting director contacted her agent to have Gadot audition for the part of Bond girl Camille Montes in the spy film Quantum of Solace. Although the part eluded her, 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. Gadot performed her own stuntwork in those films.
In 2010, she had small roles in the action comedy Date Night and the action-adventure comedy Knight and Day. 2011 brought her back to the Fast & Furious franchise, reprising her role as Gisele in Fast Five, and in 2013’s Fast & Furious 6.
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. 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.
Also in 2016, she had a small role in John Hillcoat’s crime-thriller Triple 9, where she starred along with Kate Winslet and Aaron Paul. Later that year, she co-starred in the action crime thriller film Criminal, as the wife of Ryan Reynolds’ character, alongside Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, and Tommy Lee Jones. Her final film of 2016 was the action comedy Keeping Up with the Joneses, in which she played a secret agent, alongside Zach Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, and Isla Fisher.
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. That same year, Gadot was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In 2018, Gadot voiced Shank in the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Gadot will star in the Netflix thriller film Red Notice.
In October 2019, Gadot formed a production company, Pilot Wave, with her husband. She is set to star in and co-produce an Apple TV+ limited series about actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, as well as the Warner Bros. historical thriller film Irena Sendler, about humanitarian Irena Sendler.
