Introducing Ayelet Zurer

Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer has worked steadily since 1992 but it's her role in Ron Howard's blockbuster Angels & Demons that looks set to be her breakthrough performance.

After completing her services in the army Zurer set her sights on an acting career by moving to new York to study at the New Actors Workshop School.

In 1991 she moved back to her native Israel and just a year later she kicked off her acting career with television series Inyan Shel Zman (A Matter of Time). And by 1993 she had caught the eye of the Israeli film industry as she landed a role in Nikmato Shel Itzik Finkelstein (The Revenge of Itzik Finkelstein).

A string of roles in her native country, in both television and film, followed which has led to a string of Israeli Film Academy Award nomination and wins.

2005 marked her move into English speaking movies as she landed a role in Steven Spielberg's Munich.

Starring alongside Daniel Craig and Eric Bana Munich followed the secret retaliation by the Israeli government after the 1972 killing of Israeli Olympic athletes by Black September militant group.

The film was met by mixed reactions from the critics as well as being highly controversial but it did go on to gross over $130 million at the global box office.

She filmed Fugitive Pieces in 2007 before returning home to appear in Rak Klavim Ratzim Hofshi (Wild Dogs).

But 2008 saw more mainstream roles come her way as she starred in political action thriller Vantage Point with Forest Whitaker and Denis Quaid.

The film follows the attempted assassination of the President of the United States seen from eight different view points. It was a box office success opening at number one in America.

She also starred in Adam Resurrected with Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum that same year.

But it's her role as Vittoria Vetra in the new Dan Brown adaptation Angels & Demons, which sees Tom Hanks reprise his role as Robert Langdon and Ron Howard back on directorial duties, that will introduce her to a more worldwide audience.

When Robert Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati, the most powerful underground organization in history, he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization's most despised enemy: the Catholic Church.

When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist.

Embarking on a nonstop hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican's only hope for survival.

Keep an eye out for this exciting actress!

Angels & Demons is released 14th May

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw