Maria Bakalova

Maria Valcheva Bakalova (born 4 June 1996 in Burgas, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian actress whose rocket ride from Bulgarian art-house cinema to an Academy Award nomination is one of the great breakout stories of the 2020s. Best known internationally as Tutar Sagdiyev in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020), Bakalova earned nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for the role — and won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2021 she was named an honorary citizen of her hometown, Burgas.

Bakalova grew up in Burgas, a port city on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, and trained at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, graduating in 2019. While still a student she was already working in Bulgarian cinema, building a résumé of serious dramatic parts: she played Milena in XIIa (2017), Yana in Transgression (2017) — the film that first marked her as a talent to watch at home — and Young Valentina in The Father (2019), Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov's drama that won the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary and became Bulgaria's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. She followed it with Last Call (2020) and a raw, wrenching turn as Sonja in Women Do Cry (2021), which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Then came the audition that changed everything. In 2020, still unknown outside Bulgaria, Bakalova beat out hundreds of actresses to play Tutar, the daughter of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat, in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm — her first English-language film. The role demanded the impossible: staying in character through volatile, unscripted encounters with real people, including a sit-down with Rudy Giuliani that became one of the most talked-about scenes of the year. Bakalova's performance — by turns hilarious, heartbreaking, and sneakily humane — carried the film's emotional arc and made her the breakout of awards season. At 24 she became the first Bulgarian actress nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she took home the Critics' Choice Award over a field of veterans.

What followed was a deliberate zigzag across genres. In 2022 she stole scenes as Bee in A24's horror-comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies, which premiered at SXSW, and appeared in Judd Apatow's The Bubble; she also co-produced and starred in the romantic comedy The Honeymoon. That same year she entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the voice of Cosmo the Spacedog in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, returning for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) — giving the MCU's goodest dog a warm, soulful center. In 2024 she voiced Princess Ilana Rostovic in Creature Commandos, the animated series that launched James Gunn's new DC Universe.

Bakalova has matched the franchise work with serious dramatic swings. In The Apprentice (2024), Ali Abbasi's Cannes-premiering portrait of a young Donald Trump, she played Ivana Trump opposite Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, charting the character's arc from glamorous outsider to hardened survivor. She also led the Bulgarian dramedy Triumph (2024) — which she co-produced — and appeared in Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted (2024) as Rada Adzhubey, the action film Dirty Angels (2024) as The Bomb, and the thriller Electra (2024).

The pace hasn't slowed. In 2025 she voiced Pigtail Petrova in the animated hit The Bad Guys 2 — performing the role in the Bulgarian dub as well — and starred in O Horizon. In 2026 she headlines Mayday as Anna Ustinov, starring opposite Ryan Reynolds in the Cold War-era action adventure, and leads the comedy All Night Wrong as Ell. With Override in post-production and No Way Off filming, Bakalova's slate is one of the busiest among actresses of her generation.

What sets her apart is control. Bakalova moves between broad comedy, horror, voice work, and ice-cold drama with the same instrument — a performer who can hold the screen against Sacha Baron Cohen in full chaos mode and then break your heart in a quiet Bulgarian drama. Hollywood imports a lot of talent; rarely does it arrive this fully formed, this fast. And she did it without sanding down where she came from: she still works in Bulgarian cinema, still produces, and still treats that Burgas honor like it matters — because to her, it does.

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The hardest audition in Hollywood history might have been Maria Bakalova's. To play Tutar Sagdiyev in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020), the then-unknown Bulgarian actress had to stay in character through some of the most volatile improvised comedy ever filmed — opposite a president's lawyer, no less. She didn't just survive it. She earned Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations.

Bakalova came up through Bulgarian cinema (Transgression, 2017) and arrived in America with classical training and zero fear. Post-Borat, she zigzagged brilliantly: the voice of Cosmo the space dog in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), the chilling Ivana Trump in The Apprentice (2024), and a run of festival indies that proved the nominations weren't a fluke.

What's striking is the control. Bakalova can do broad comedy, horror, and ice-cold drama with the same instrument. Hollywood imports a lot of talent; rarely does it arrive this fully formed.