Age: 31
Occupation: Actress
Previous TIME 100 Appearances: 0
The star of the highest-grossing movie ever released, and considered by many to be deserving of the first Oscar nomination for an all-CG character, Saldana used her voice and physicality to turn a 10-foot tall blue alien into a character audiences could care about. As Avatar's Neytiri, the 31-year-old worked in James Cameron's motion-capture process, providing the emotions, movement and expressiveness that took her charactr through the uncanny valley straight into viewers' hearts. (And in Star Trek, she gave audiences a fiery Uhura that even a Vulcan could love.)