Ayelet Zurer

Ayelet Zurer
Zurer in 2003
Born	(1969-06-28) 28 June 1969 Tel Aviv, Israel
Residence	Los Angeles, California, USA
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1992–present
Spouse(s)	Gilad Londovski (2003–present)
Children	1

Ayelet Zurer (Hebrew: איילת זורר‎; born 28 June 1969) is an Israeli actress.^[1] She was nominated for awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Israeli Academy Awards and the Israeli Television Academy Awards. She won Best Actress awards for her roles in the Israeli film Nina's Tragedies and Betipul.

Background

Ayelet Zurer was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a Jewish family. Her mother was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to Israel at 16 years old. Her mother was saved during World War II by hiding in a convent in Slovakia.^[2][3] During her military service in the Israel Defense Forces, Zurer was a member of a military band under the IDF's Northern Command.

After finishing her service, Zurer studied acting for three years in Yoram Levinsteun Academy. She moved to the United States and studied with George Morison at the Actors Workshop in New York City. She was invited to play the lead in Florentine, one of Israel's iconic television shows. She returned to Israel, developed a career on stage, in films, and in television and became one of Israel's most acclaimed actresses. In 2004 when Ayelet was cast in Steven Spielberg's Munich, she moved with her family to California where she resides today.^[4]

Television career

Zurer with Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline in 2012

Zurer moved back to Israel in 1991. In 1992, she starred in the television series Inyan Shel Zman, and in 1993, she played Debbie in the Israeli film Nikmato Shel Itzik Finkelstein (Revenge of Itzik Finkelstein). During this time she also participated in the cable television show Yetziat Hirum. In 1997, Zurer played the role of Shira Steinberg in the television show Florentin on the Israeli Channel 2. In 2000, Zurer participated in the Israeli television series Zinzana, and in 2002, she participated in the Israeli television series Shalva and Ha'Block.

In 2005, Zurer starred in the Israeli television series Betipul, a drama about a psychologist and his patients' therapy process. She plays Na'ama Lerner, a patient who starts a romance with the doctor (portrayed by Assi Dayan). The series won her a Best Actress award from the Israeli Television Academy and was remade as the HBO series In Treatment. The following year Zurer participated in an Israeli sketch comedy television show called Gomrot Holchot that deals with the world of young women; relationships, marriage, sex, and career. The show is based on the British sketch comedy show Smack the Pony.

In 2015, Zurer starred in Daredevil as Vanessa Marianna, an art gallery owner who enters into a courtship with Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio). The series is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in common with other films in this universe-based series.^[5][6] Zurer would later reprise her role as Vanessa for the show's third season, which was released in 2018.

Film career

Zurer and Tom Hanks outside the Pantheon (Angels & Demons, 2008)

In 1998 she played the lead in the film Ahava Asura (a.k.a. The Dybbuk of the Holy Apple Field) starring Moshe Ivgy. In 2001, she starred in the movies Laila Lelo Lola and Kikar Ha'Halomot. In 2003, Zurer starred in Nina's Tragedies, portraying the title character, Nina, a young woman who has to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. She won an Israeli Academy Award for Best Actress for this role.

Zurer appeared in Steven Spielberg's Munich, where she played Avner Kaufman's wife. She played a terrorist in the American thriller Vantage Point, appearing alongside Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver.^[7] In 2007, Zurer starred in Fugitive Pieces, in which a troubled young Holocaust survivor falls in love with her character. She played a nurse who falls in love with the title character in Adam Resurrected (2008).

In April 2008, Zurer was cast as the female lead, Vittoria Vetra, in The Da Vinci Code sequel, Angels & Demons,^[8] Zurer's character is the research partner of a CERN physicist/Catholic priest who is murdered during the theft of a canister of unstable antimatter from their lab in Geneva. She is paired by the Vatican Police with Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks).

Zurer plays the lead role in Chris Eyre's 2011 film Hide Away (a.k.a. "A Year in Mooring"). The cast includes Josh Lucas.^[9]

Zurer played Superman's mother, Lara Lor-Van, in the reboot of the Superman franchise, Man of Steel (2013).^[10]

Theatre and modeling career

Zurer had appeared in Israeli comedies such as Ha'Yoreshet, woman guide to cause" by Synthia Hamel, King's new cloths, let's not talk about it, everybody loves Opall, and Monologim Me'Ha'Vaginah. In the United States, she has appeared in plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Richard III

Zurer has a representor for fashion companies such as Golbary, Mashbir, Golf.

Zurer has also illustrated the pictures for the best seller fantasy book Badulina by Gabi Nitzan, an Israeli author. And edited and illustrated "shorties" "kzarzarim" by Paulo Cahalu.

Filmography

Awards

See also

• Television in Israel
• Israeli cinema

References

External links

• Ayelet Zurer on IMDb
• Ayelet Zurer at Theiapolis
• Ayelet Zurer at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ayelet Zurer at E-Online (in Hebrew)
• Ayelet Zurer on Charlie Rose
• Media related to Ayelet Zurer at Wikimedia Commons