Maria Valcheva Bakalova[lower-alpha 1] (/bəˈkɑːləvə/ bə-KAH-lə-və;[1] born 4 June 1996) is a Bulgarian actress. She is best known for her role as Tutar Sagdiyev in the 2020 mockumentary Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. For her performance in the film, she won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress, and received nominations at the Academy Awards, the BAFTA Film Awards, the Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Maria Bakalova
Мария Бакалова
Bakalova at Paris Fashion Week, 2021
Born	Maria Valcheva Bakalova (1996-06-04) 4 June 1996 (age 26) Burgas, Bulgaria
Alma mater	National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (BA)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2017–present
Awards	Full list

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 appeared in films such as Transgression (2017), The Father (2019), Last Call (2020) and Women Do Cry (2021). Since her international breakthrough in 2020, she has been a part of several American productions including Judd Apatow's The Bubble (2022) and the A24 slasher film Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), and is set to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).

Early life and education

Bakalova was born on 4 June 1996 in Burgas, Bulgaria.[2] She is the only child of Rumyana Bakalova and Valcho Bakalov.[3] Bakalova began singing lessons and playing the flute around age six.[4] She expanded into acting 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: "I was a super-disciplined child. I was reading too many books. I was obsessed with Dostoyevsky, at like 15, 16."[5]

Bakalova later moved to Sofia where she majored in drama at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts.[6] She has credited filmmakers Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, who taught the only film acting class at the Academy, for what she has learned about movies. Bakalova volunteered to help the directing duo with scheduling and other tasks, and traveled with them to the set of a film they were working on so that she could watch and learn. In her third year at the Academy, one of the directors invited her to audition for a small part in their movie The Father. She landed the part and filmed a brief flashback scene as the young version of one of the characters. The Father was selected as the Bulgarian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.[5] As a student, Bakalova also appeared in various stage productions such as Les liaisons dangereuses, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Kennedy's Children and The Trial, among others.[7][8] She graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[9]

A few months before graduating, Bakalova convinced her parents to take her on a trip to Denmark: "I was looking at what was happening in Scandinavian cinema [...] and I was obsessed with Danish cinema: Thomas Vinterberg, Lars von Trier, all of the Dogme 95 films." Bakalova visited the headquarters of von Trier’s production company, where she asked to be a P.A. or a runner on his next film; she recalled: "They said, 'You would have to learn Danish,' and I was like, 'Okay, I'll do it.'"[10]

Career

2017–2020: Early roles

Bakalova made her movie debut as Milena in the 2017 comedy-drama sequel XIIa.[11] In the same year, she starred in Transgression, where she played Yana, a young girl who has an unusual relationship with an aging rocker.[12] The film was premiered in Europe in 2018, and had its official worldwide release on HBO in 2021.[13] In 2018, Bakalova won the award for best actress at Toronto’s AltFF Alternative Film Festival for her role in the movie.[14] In this period, she also starred in multiple short films such as Angels, Due to Unforeseen Circumstances and Dream_Girl, and played a minor role in The Father.[15] She next starred in the 2020 comedy-drama Last Call as Alexandra, a girl who is on the verge of ending her life. Bakalova’s performance in the film was received positively by critics; Yanko Terziev of Capital wrote that "[she] brings warmth and lyricism" to the movie.[16]

2020–present: International breakthrough

Bakalova was cast as Tutar Sagdiyev in the mockumentary Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the daughter of fictional Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev. Although initially credited as Irina Nowak, reports later revealed her involvement.[17][18][19] Fellow Bulgarian Julian Kostov connected her with casting director Nancy Bishop for the role.[20][21][5] Critics praised Bakalova's performance, with some stating it was among the year's best. Matt Fowler of IGN stated how "[t]he film's fantastic find, Maria Bakalova, every bit Sacha Baron Cohen’s on-screen equal, is who, and what, most people will be talking about in the wake of [the film]."[22] Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang described Bakalova's performance as "terrific", praising her portrayal of her character's journey "with madcap energy and touching conviction".[23] For her performance, Bakalova received several awards, winning the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress.[24] She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Golden Globes.[25][26][27][28] She is the first Bulgarian actress to be nominated for these awards.[29] In November 2020, it was reported that Bakalova had signed with Creative Artists Agency.[30]

In 2021, Bakalova starred in Women Do Cry, which revolves around a family of women united by a shared trauma who confront the family patriarch’s troubling past, against the backdrop of anti-Istanbul Convention protests in Bulgaria.[31] The film premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival where it competed in the Un Certain Regard section.[32] The same year, she joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a member of the Actors Branch.[33] In April 2021, she was cast in A24's slasher film Bodies Bodies Bodies, also starring Amandla Stenberg and Pete Davidson.[34] The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest in March 2022, and will be released theatrically later in the year.[35][36] Her next role was in Judd Apatow's The Bubble (2022), about a group of actors trying to finish a film during the COVID-19 pandemic, starring in an ensemble cast alongside Karen Gillan, Fred Armisen and Pedro Pascal.[37]

Upcoming projects

In March 2021, Bakalova announced that she and her producing partner Julian Kostov were in the early stages of developing a period drama miniseries with the working title Freedom or Death, based on the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War.[38] In August 2021, it was announced that she had been cast as the lead in Dean Craig's upcoming rom-com The Honeymoon, which she is also set to co-produce.[39][40] She will also feature in the true crime film Branded alongside Alex Pettyfer, based on an article by David Grann for The New Yorker.[41] In June 2022, it was announced that Bakalova had joined the cast of the 2023 superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[42]

Filmography

Film

Key

	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	XIIa	Milena
2018	Transgression	Yana
2019	The Father	Young Valentina
2020	Last Call	Alexandra
	Borat Subsequent Moviefilm	Tutar Sagdiyev
2021	Women Do Cry	Sonja
2022	Bodies Bodies Bodies	Bee
	The Bubble	Anika
2023	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3	TBA	Post-production
TBA	The Honeymoon	Sarah	Post-production
TBA	Branded	Lilly	Post-production

Awards and nominations

Bakalova is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020).[24] She has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes Awards, also for her performance in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020).[25][26][27][28] Her other accolades include numerous critics associations awards.

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maria Bakalova.

• Maria Bakalova at IMDb
• Maria Bakalova at Rotten Tomatoes
• Maria Bakalova on Instagram

На других языках

[ru] Бакалова, Мария