Maria Bakalova

Maria Valcheva Bakalova ( ; born 4 June 1996) is a Bulgarian actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Critics' Choice Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Born and raised in Burgas, Bakalova began her career in Bulgarian cinema by starring in film productions while attending the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia. She mostly portrayed dramatic roles in films such as Transgression (2017), The Father (2019), Last Call (2020) and Women Do Cry (2021). Bakalova rose to prominence after starring as Tutar Sagdiyev in the 2020 mockumentary Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Her performance in the film earned her a nomination for an Academy Award, a first for a Bulgarian actress. She subsequently had starring roles in the comedy The Bubble (2022), the slasher film Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) and the coming-of-age drama Fairyland (2023), and voiced Cosmo the Spacedog in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Life and career 1996–2020: Early life and career beginnings Maria Valcheva Bakalova was born on 4 June 1996 in Burgas to Rumyana Bakalova and Valcho Bakalov. She began taking singing lessons and playing the flute around age six. Bakalova enrolled in acting classes at the age of 12, majoring in drama theater and minoring in flute at the National School of Music and Stage Arts in Burgas, where she was a straight A student; she recalled, "I was a super-disciplined child. I was reading too many books. I was obsessed with Dostoyevsky, at like 15, 16." As a teenager, Bakalova developed an interest in literature, especially the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges and Mikhail Bulgakov, as a method of escapism. She was inspired to pursue film acting after watching The Hunt, and has cited filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg as her biggest influence alongside Susanne Bier, Pedro Almodóvar, Paolo Sorrentino and Andrea Arnold as other major influences.