Maria Bakalova: Who is the young actress at the centre of the Borat-Guiliani storm?

What you need to know about the scene-stealing 24-year-old Bulgarian star
Courtesy of Amazon Studios

One minute she’s a theatre student who has barely left Bulgaria. The next she’s at the centre of an elaborate on-camera sting operation and being tipped for an Oscar.

Maria Bakalova is having a much more glamorous 2020 than most 24-year-olds. The Bulgarian actress plays Sacha Baron Cohen’s 15-year-old daughter, Tutar, in the comic’s latest mockumentary, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and has quickly emerged as its breakout star.

Posing as a conservative reporter in a tight-fitting pencil dress, Bakalova is seen leading Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani into a hotel bedroom after an interview about Covid. The former mayor of New York is then seen lying down on the bed and appears to put his hands down his pants before Baron Cohen, as Borat, runs in shouting: “She’s 15! She’s too old for you!” Bakalova is poised throughout.

The honey-trap clip has already been watched more than two million times on YouTube and Giuliani has since told reporters he was merely tucking in his shirt and was “fully clothed at all times”. President Trump himself has weighed in, labelling Baron Cohen a “creep” for the stunt. But it was actually Bakalova who made it happen (she said she felt safe during filming, with the production team on hand).

“She is one of the most courageous actors in history,” Baron Cohen told Good Morning America when the pair were on this week. “If she doesn’t get nominated for an Oscar then that is a travesty”. Others have called her performance “fearless” and “impeccable”.

Cohen interviewed 600 women from all around the world for the role but Bakalova stood out as the most “hilarious”. She sent in a tape and then went to London to audition for the part.

The actress and classically trained flautist graduated from film school last year and has starred in several Bulgarian films and TV shows. Her Instagram features posts in support of Black Lives Matter and poolside selfies, with recent posts thanking Baron Cohen for being “like a father” during her new starring role.

On Friday she wrote: “There are almost no leading characters for actors from my background or actors who have a foreign accent so to be given this platform to perform and show what I can do really means the world to me!”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in