Pom Klementieff

Pom Klementieff (born 3 May 1986) is a French actress. She studied at the Cours Florent drama academy in Paris. Her roles include Loup (2009) as well as Sleepless Night (2011). She plays the Mantis character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). Avengers: Infinity War (2018). Avengers: Endgame (2019). Pom Klementieff was raised in Quebec City to a Korean father and French-Russian mother. He was employed as a consul with the French government. Eugene Klementieff was her grandfather. Pom was her name because it is a symphony of the Korean words "spring" and "tiger" in Korean. Klementieff was a citizen of Canada for one year. Her family had traveled extensively because of her father's job. Prior to moving to France the family lived in Japan and on the Ivory Coast. Klementieff lost her father to cancer around age five. Her mother was also diagnosed with schizophrenia. Klementieff was raised in France by her paternal uncle and aunt. Her uncle, who she described as "like [her] father" died when she was 18 years old. Klementieff's older brother, who committed suicide seven years later, was her aunt. Klementieff briefly went to law school following the death of her uncle in order to please her aunt, however she didn't find the profession option appealing. In France she was employed as a salesperson and waitress. She began acting at age 19 at the Cours Florent drama school in Paris. After completing her education, she was awarded a competition in theater that granted her two years of tuition with some of the top instructors at the school. Klementieff's first professional acting job was in the French independent film Apres lui (2007), portraying the stepdaughter of the main character which was played by Catherine Deneuve. The production of the film took three days. In one scene, she was supposed to push someone down a set of stairs however, she fell down the stairs herself and director Gael Morel used that scene for the final film. Her first lead role was in Loup (2009) which is a French film about a tribe of reindeer herders in the Siberian mountains. She was filming in an isolated camp, which was a few hours from the nearest village. It was there that temperatures dropped to zero.