Gal Gadot was born on April 30, 1985, in Petah Tikva, Israel, and grew up in the nearby town of Rosh HaAyin from the age of eight. Her father, Michael, worked as an engineer, and her mother, Irit, was a physical education teacher; the family is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. She attended Begin High School, where she majored in biology, according to Wikipedia.

At age 18, Gadot entered the Miss Israel pageant on a whim and won the 2004 title, going on to represent Israel at Miss Universe that year in Ecuador, according to E! Online. She then completed two years of mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces, working as a combat fitness instructor, before enrolling at IDC Herzliya to study law while building a modeling career. A 2007 Maxim photo spread on female IDF soldiers raised her international profile ahead of her acting debut in the Israeli drama “Bubot” in 2008, per Wikipedia.

Gadot’s breakout came when director Justin Lin cast her as Gisele Yashar in “Fast & Furious” (2009) after learning of her military background, a role she reprised across several sequels in the franchise. In December 2013, she was cast as Wonder Woman by director Zack Snyder for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” introducing the character to the DC Extended Universe ahead of her own solo film in 2017, according to Wikipedia.

Gadot’s reported pay for the original “Wonder Woman” was 300,000 dollars, a figure that drew public scrutiny given the film’s box office success and became a talking point in broader conversations about the gender pay gap in Hollywood, according to CNBC. By the sequel, “Wonder Woman 1984” (2020), her reported salary had risen to roughly 10 million dollars, more than 30 times her original paycheck, according to IndieWire.

In October 2016, the United Nations named the Wonder Woman character its Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls, with Gadot appearing at UN headquarters for the ceremony, according to ISRAEL21c. Her commercial standing climbed further when she earned a reported 20 million dollars starring opposite Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in Netflix’s “Red Notice” (2021), a payday that helped place her among Forbes’ highest-paid actresses that year, according to IBTimes.

Gadot became a global brand ambassador for Revlon in 2017, fronting the cosmetics company’s “Live Boldly” campaign across its media platforms, according to Marketing Dive. In 2018, she signed on as Reebok’s global ambassador for its “Be More Human” campaign, in a deal reported at the time to be worth roughly 10 million dollars, though Reebok disputed the figure without disclosing terms, according to The Times of Israel. She has also appeared in campaigns for Huawei smartphones and other international brands.

Gadot and her husband, Israeli real estate developer Jaron Varsano, co-founded the production company Pilot Wave in 2019 to develop female-driven film and television projects, with credits including Netflix’s “Heart of Stone” (2023) and projects in development such as “Cleopatra,” according to Everything-PR. The couple also co-founded Goodles, a better-for-you boxed mac and cheese brand, in 2021; the company raised a 13 million dollar Series A round to expand retail distribution, according to Yahoo Finance.

In December 2020, Gadot purchased an oceanfront penthouse in Malibu, California, between the pier and a Nobu restaurant, for approximately 5 million dollars. She and Varsano later renovated the unit and listed it for sale at 8.8 million dollars, according to Robb Report. The couple also maintains a residence in the Hollywood Hills as well as property in Israel.