Zoe Saldaña's Real Name: Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario

Quick answer: Zoe Saldaña's full name is Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario. She was born on June 19, 1978, in Passaic, New Jersey, and works under Zoe Saldaña (often styled Zoë Saldaña)—shortening the full Hispanic birth name for billing.

Real name and early life

Biography.com and the Library of Congress identify Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario, born June 19, 1978, in Passaic, New Jersey (Biography.com; LOC). Saldaña is the paternal surname and Nazario the maternal surname. After her father’s death in a car accident when she was nine, her mother moved Zoe and her sisters to the Dominican Republic, where she trained in dance; she later returned to New York, joined youth theater companies, and was discovered by an agent.

Career highlights

Early films include Center Stage, Drumline, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The year 2009 made her a franchise cornerstone as Uhura in J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek and Neytiri in James Cameron’s Avatar. She later played Gamora in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films and the Avengers crossover movies. In 2025 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez, noting Dominican American heritage in her speech. Married to Marco Perego (often styled Perego-Saldaña), she continues to bill as Zoe/Zoë Saldaña; the documented birth name is Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario.

Name notes for searchers

Accent marks (Zoë, Saldaña) vary by outlet; Biography.com and LOC preserve them. Married styling Saldaña-Perego appears in some modern profiles but is not a replacement for the birth name Nazario form. Prefer Biography.com and LOC over ASCII-only stubs.

Additional major-press and reference coverage confirms the same civil or birth name used here.