Pom Klementieff — actress with roots in the Russian Empire
Pom Alexandra Klementieff was born on 3 May 1986 in Quebec City, Canada, where her father, Alexis Klementieff, was serving as a French consul. Her mother, Yu Ri Park, is Korean; her father was of Russian-French descent. Because she was born to a diplomat, she holds French but not Canadian citizenship. Her parents chose the name Pom because it sounds like the Korean words for both spring and tiger. Her connection to the Russian Empire runs through her father's family.
Her paternal grandfather was the painter Eugène Klementieff (1901-1985). Born in Russia in 1901, he settled in France in the early 1920s, exhibited regularly in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne from 1926, and painted a monumental cycle of the Stations of the Cross, some ninety-five square metres, in the church of Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc in Nice. Published sources do not record the town in Russia where he was born.
Pom spent her early childhood in Japan and Côte d'Ivoire, following her father's postings, and then in France. Her father died when she was five, and she and her elder brother were raised by their paternal uncle and aunt. At nineteen she began studying at the Cours Florent drama school in Paris. Her first professional role was in the independent film Après lui (2007), and her first lead in Loup (2009), a film about a tribe of reindeer herders, for which she lived for weeks in a camp far from the nearest village.
She made her Hollywood debut as the bodyguard Haeng-bok in Spike Lee's Oldboy (2013), a remake of the South Korean film, and then moved to Los Angeles. In 2017 she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the empath Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and played the role again in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). In 2023 she played the assassin Paris opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, returning in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025). Her other films include Ingrid Goes West (2017) and Thunder Force (2021).
"Her grandfather Eugène Klementieff, born in Russia in 1901, settled in France in the early 1920s; she was born in Quebec City, where her father was a French consul, and grew up in Japan, Côte d'Ivoire and France."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Russia (paternal grandfather Eugène Klementieff, born 1901; town not documented)
Her paternal grandfather, the painter Eugène Klementieff, was born in Russia in 1901 and settled in France in the early 1920s; her father, a French diplomat, was of Russian-French descent. Her mother is Korean. The town her grandfather came from is not recorded.
Paternal grandfather: the painter Eugène Klementieff (1901-1985), born in Russia, active in France from the early 1920s. Father Alexis Klementieff, a French consul, of Russian-French descent; mother Yu Ri Park, Korean.
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Russia (paternal grandfather Eugène Klementieff, born 1901; town not documented). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.