A young lifetime of dance propelled New Jersey native Zoë Saldana into an acting career, moving from the New York stage to TV and films before winning J.J. Abrams' nod as the new Uhura in his new pre-TOS Star Trek film.

Born in 1978 and raised in Queens, Saldana returned with her parents 10 years later to their native Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and, realizing her budding dance ambitions, studied ballet and other forms for seven years there at the esteemed ECOS dance academy. When the family moved back to the U.S. in 1995, the teenager began performing with the "Faces" theatre troupe and its outreach-based performances with messages on drugs, sex, and other issues for young people.

That experience and her years of dance caught the eye of a talent agency, and helped win her first film role as a prolific but headstrong ballerina in 2000's "Center Stage." Since then her growing body of work has included film roles like 2002's "Drumline," which won her an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Kiss, scenes with Tom Hanks in "The Terminal" and Britney Spears in "Crossroads," and opposite Keira Knightly as Anna Maria in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."

Her breakout role likely came with "dad" Bernie Mac and "boyfriend" Ashton Kucher in 2005's "Guess Who," but after her turn in Starfleet duds Saldana is also due up in the lead for James Cameron's much-awaited CGI epic "Avatar," set for 2009. She can also be seen as news reporter Angie Nederlander in this year's thriller "Vantage Point."