Pom Klementieff was born on May 3, 1986, in Quebec City, Canada, to a Korean mother and French-Russian father. Her parents chose her name because it is similar in pronunciation to the Korean words for both "spring" and "tiger".
She lived in Canada for a year before her family moved extensively due to her father's job. They lived in Japan, the Ivory Coast, and eventually settled in France. When Pom was five, her father died of cancer, and her mother struggled with schizophrenia, making it difficult for her to care for children. As a result, Pom was raised by her paternal uncle and aunt.
Pom's uncle, who she considered her "second father", passed away on her 18th birthday. Her older brother took his own life on her 25th birthday. After her uncle's death, Pom briefly attended law school but didn't find the career appealing. She worked as a waitress and saleswoman in France before starting her acting career at the age of 19.
Pom won a theater competition at the Cours Florent drama school in Paris, which awarded her free classes for two years with the school's top teachers. Her first professional acting job was in the French independent film Après lui (2007),where she played the stepdaughter of the protagonist played by Catherine Deneuve.
Pom's first leading role was in Loup (2009),a French film about a tribe of reindeer herders in the Siberian mountains. She made her Hollywood debut in Spike Lee's Oldboy (2013),a remake of the South Korean film of the same name. She portrayed Haeng-Bok, the bodyguard of the antagonist played by Sharlto Copley.
Pom moved to Los Angeles after Oldboy was filmed and began pursuing more Hollywood auditions. She continued her taekwondo training and has a purple belt as of the summer of 2014. Her next acting role was in the film Hacker's Game (2015),where she played a hacker and used her boxing skills again.
Pom joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the role of Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and appeared in the same role in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
