Actress Antje Traue was plucked from relative obscurity to play one of the main villains in Zack Snyder's Superman update "Man of Steel" (2013), which vaulted her to worldwide attention. Raised in East Germany by an artistically inclined mother, Traue was initially interested in athletics, but injury forced to seek another outlet. She found it in music, which led to performing with a Munich theater group throughout the world. But Traue's attempts to parlay her new passion into a screen acting career were met with rejection for several years until she landed a role in the American science-fiction thriller "Pandorum" (2009). Its failure to find an audience once again left her outside the industry, but persistence paid off three years later when she was cast as the pitiless super-soldier Faora-Ul in "Man of Steel." The film's success thrust Traue into the global spotlight, where she soon found herself in demand for roles. Traue's formidable nature, both on and off screen, preserved her status as a star on the rise on the international film scene.