Pom Klementieff

Klementieff was born in Quebec City, Canada, on May 3 1986 to Korean mother Yu Ri Park and Russian-French father Alexis Klementieff, who was working there as a consul with the government of France. She is a French citizen and does not have Canadian citizenship due to jus soli not applying to children of diplomats. Her grandfather was Russian painter Eugene Klementieff. Her parents chose the name "Pom" because it is similar in pronunciation to the Korean words for both "spring" (봄) and "tiger" (범). They lived in Japan and Ivory Coast before settling in France. Klementieff's father died of cancer when she was five, and her mother had schizophrenia and was unable to care for her children, so Klementieff was raised by her paternal uncle and aunt. Her uncle, whom she described as "like [her] second father", died on her 18th birthday, and her older brother Namou died by suicide seven years later, on her 25th birthday. Klementieff briefly studied law in an undergraduate capacity after her uncle's death to appease her aunt, but did not find it appealing. She also worked as a waitress and saleswoman in France. She started acting at age 19 at the Cours Florent drama school in Paris. A few months into her education, she won a theater competition and two years of free classes with the school's top teachers.