While Hollywood mainstays Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, and Michael Fassbender lead an extraordinary cast in the epic Sci-fi thriller Prometheus, we wanted to spend a little time examining the blossoming career of up-and-comer Noomi Rapace who broke out with her role as the biker-chick cyber-sleuth Lisbeth Salander in Sweden's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and who most recently stars as archeologist Elizabeth Shaw in Ridley Scott's Prometheus.

The Swedish actress left home at 15 to join the Stockholm Theatre School and never looked back. She went on to win a recurring role in the Swedish soap opera Tre Kronor (Three Crowns) and also became a respected stage performer. In 2009, Rapace finally came to the attention of international audiences for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo where her performance was widely praised, garnering her the Best Actress prize at Sweden's Oscar equivalent, the Guldbagge Awards. Riding the success of Dragon Tattoo, she went on to reprise the role of Lisbeth in the sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Rapace made her English language film debut last year alongside Robert Downey, Jr., and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and has become an even more familiar face to American movie-goers since landing the starring role in Prometheus.

Here's a look at Rapace’s greatest hits that ultimately landed her a boarding pass for spaceship Prometheus.

Noomi Rapace - tre Kronor1996 – “Tre Kronor”

This popular Swedish soap aired on Sweden’s TV4  from 1994 to 1999. The series took place in a middle class suburb of Stockholm. Rapace joined the cast for a year in 1996 as Lucinda Gonzales, a young, hardened troublemaker.


Daisy Diamond2007 – Daisy Diamond

Rapace starred in this tragic story as Anna, who dreams of one thing only: making it as an actress. Sadly, fate has something else in store for her and her daughter.


The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo2009 – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This remains Rapace’s most popular role to date. A journalist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing -- or dead -- for forty years by a young female hacker, played memorably by Rapace.


Beyond2010 – Beyond

A drama set in 1970s Sweden and centered on Rapace as Leena, a young woman growing up in a home riddled with abuse and alcoholism. Rapace also worked with her then-husband, Ola, on the project.


Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows2011 – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

As Madam SImza Heron, the gypsy fortune teller with a vendetta, Rapace had American audiences gripped by her performance asking “who’s that girl?” She was excited to join the cast, even though Sophie Marceau, Audrey Tatou, Penelope Cruz, Eva Green and Marion Coitllard had all been considered before her.


Prometheus2012 – Prometheus

In Scotland, 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway interpret the latest cave drawings as an invitation from humanity's forerunners, the "Engineers.” Sponsored by Weyland Corporation, with crew in tow, they set out to unlock the mysteries of the universe only to battle an evil they never could have prepared for.