Antoinette Kalaj

Antoinette Kalaj is an actress who grew up in the Bronx, New York, and moved to Detroit, Michigan, at 11, where she took up performing. Classically trained in opera, she modeled as a teenager, landing her first campaign for The Limited at 17, then left college to pursue acting. After a lead in a Michigan science fiction thriller was derailed by cuts to the state's film incentives, she continued training in martial arts and headed to Los Angeles. A mermaid part in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides caught the eye of Innovative Artists, which she signed with before moving to Los Angeles in February 2012. She booked a co-star role on Gossip Girl and appeared in commercials, then acted in Riddick (2013) and Don Jon, took the lead in Mining for Ruby, and did most of her own stunts in Ninja Apocalypse (2014). Later credits included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 and Chronically Metropolitan (2016).