Zoe Yadira Zaldaña Nazario was born June 19, 1978, in New Jersey. She was raised in Queens until the age of 10, when her family moved to the Dominican Republic. The nimble and bouncy Zoe was a natural at dancing, and won a scholarship to the Ritmos Espacio de Danza Academy, where she studied ballet, jazz, and modern and Latin dance.
After her sophomore year of high school, Saldana returned to the U.S. to finish her studies. In New York she joined the educational improv theater group FACES Theater Company, whose skits about drug abuse, domestic violence and sexuality were aimed at teenagers.
Her other theater troupe, the New York Youth Theater, put on a hit rendition of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. An agent saw promise in Zoe and signed her on. She premiered to wide audiences in a 1999 episode of Law & Order.Source: Super Pics
