Pom Klementieff

Pom Klementieff (born 3 May 1986) is a French actress. She studied at the Cours Florent drama school, Paris. She has been in films like Loup 2009, Sleepless Night 2011 and Hacker's Game 2015. She portrays the role of Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Pom Klementieff was born in Quebec City, Canada, to the parents of a Korean mother and French-Russian father who was employed as a consul in the French government. Eugene Klementieff, a painter was her great-grandfather. Her parents chose the name "Pom" because it's identical in pronunciation to Korean words for both "spring" as well as "tiger". Klementieff stayed in Canada for a time of one year, before her family travelled extensively because of her father's work. They lived in Japan and the Ivory Coast, before settling in France. The father of Klementieff died from cancer at the age of 5, and her mother had schizophrenia and was incapable of caring for children, so Klementieff was cared for by her paternal uncle and aunt. Her uncle, who she described as "like her second father" was killed when she turned 18 and her brother, who was older, was killed just seven years after, but this being on her birthday. Klementieff was a student at law school for a short time following the loss of her uncle's in order to please her aunt, however she didn't find the profession option appealing. She also worked as salesperson and waitress in France. She began acting when she was 19years old at the Cours Florent theatre school in Paris. She was just a few months in her studies when she was awarded a theater contest that granted her two years of class with the best teachers at the school. Klementieff was the first actress to perform professionally in the independent French film Apres lui (2007). She played the stepdaughter for the lead character, Catherine Deneuve. Three days were spent on filming her scenes. In one scene, she was to be pushed down the stairs however, she fell down the stairs herself, as did director Gael Morel recorded that scene in the film. Her first leading role was in Loup (2009) the French film about a group of reindeer herders living in the Siberian mountains. The film was shot in an isolated camp, which was a few hours from the nearest village. The camp was where temperatures dropped to zero.