In May, after the Chicago Bulls defeated the Brooklyn Nets to advance to the second round of the playoffs, Chicago’s lanky, topknot-wearing center, Joakim Noah, grabbed the hand of an exotic beauty in the crowd. The pair celebrated with what looked like a choreographed, elaborate handshake, and the Internet exploded with GIFs of the exchange while fans took to Twitter to ask, “Who’s that girl?”
Almost immediately, nearly every sports blog cranked out stories identifying the mystery woman with exquisite cheekbones as none other than Joakim’s little sister, model Yelena Noah.
The laid-back 27-year-old laughs about her Internet fame as she reclines on a white couch in her bohemian loft, which is inside a former pasta factory in an ungentrified section of Williamsburg.
She shrugs off the scene-stealing moment.
“It was pretty weird how that whole thing happened. I had no idea the camera was even on us. Or that something like a handshake would go viral — we don’t even have a secret handshake,” recalls Noah. “I don’t remember who the first person was that showed me, but I thought it was all kind of hilarious, actually. It’s just me and my brother being us.”
Instead, the intense Bulls fan says she was brushing off shade from surrounding Nets fans: “There was so much hostile energy because I was wearing a Bulls jersey,” she says of the May 4 game played at Barclays Center. “I was like, ‘Yo, I live here!’ ”
But fans should be forgiven for not recognizing the multi-ethnic stunner, who was raised in France and the Big Apple. Despite her famous parentage (her father is former tennis pro and current French rock star Yannick Noah, and her mother, Cecilia Rodhe, is a former Miss Sweden), the leggy brunette lives a relatively quiet existence with her hunky Brazilian boyfriend, bartender Carlos De Rosa.
She prefers low-key dinner parties with friends to Champagne-soaked Meatpacking District clubs, and would rather splurge on a nice bottle of wine than a pair of Louboutins. And while she isn’t trying to get a VH1 reality show, she admits it would be hilarious — with lots of subtitles and bleeping.
“I enjoy experiences much more than actual things,” she says.
In fact, she doesn’t even have a television in her loft, where live vines snake around the ceiling pipes and the sounds of Bob Marley echo through the bright, artsy space.
But whether or not this Brooklyn bohemian is ready for her close-up, it’s about to happen.
She will play a hot bodega girl alongside the Giants’ salsa-dancing wide receiver Victor Cruz in a Pepsi ad debuting this month. The commercial will air liberally during the NFL season. And if Cruz reads this, he might be surprised to learn his co-star wasn’t just a pretty girl who could salsa (the dance was part of the audition). She’s part of a sports dynasty, too.
“We didn’t talk much. It was a shoot, so it was all very professional,” she says of Cruz. “I don’t think he knew who I was. I am not the type of person to say, ‘Hey, I’m Joakim Noah’s sister.’ I would never do that, period. If it came up in conversation, that’s one thing.”
Of course, Noah is more than a famous person’s sibling. Last month, she officially launched her eponymous jewelry line of ethnic-inspired motifs done in metals and beadwork. And she just landed her first TV gig, a small role in a network show (she declines to mention the name due to a confidentiality agreement).
It’s been a long time coming for the little sister, who until now has enjoyed a supporting role in her family of boldfacers.
“I’m not competitive, but I am super proud. I could ask my brother, mother or father for help, but since I was 17, I wanted to do it all by myself. I don’t like to ask for help,” she says.
While she’s incredibly close with her family and lives across the hallway from her mother, she prides herself on her independent spirit.
“I’ve had people not look twice at me on a shoot, and all of a sudden they learn my brother is Joakim Noah, and they’re my best friend. I think it’s funny. I don’t judge them for it,” she says with a good-natured shrug.
Perhaps that refreshing attitude comes from her headstrong artist mother, who divorced her father in 1988 after three years of marriage. In the mid-’90s, she moved her two children from France to Hell’s Kitchen when the pair were adolescents.
“In France, we lived in a very bougie [posh] neighborhood, but she really wanted to take me and my brother away from the Noah celebrity thing. She wanted us to have a real upbringing and forge our own identities,” she says.
Her father was a professional tennis player who won the French Open in 1983. After retiring, he became one of the country’s most popular singers, regularly packing arenas with his pop music.
“I remember the adoration. It’s just not natural. It’s fascinating. It’s an intense love. But my dad? He’s just Daddy,” she says.
As her brother excelled on the basketball court at Brooklyn’s Poly Prep, Noah began modeling while attending the United Nations International School.
Still, she first rebelled against modeling as a youth.
“My mom loves this story — I had a Rasta phase when I was against modeling. She said, ‘Yelena, you could make money off of this.’ And I said, ‘No, Mom. I don’t want to prostitute myself to the system,’ ” recalls Noah, taking on a Jamaican lilt. “So I got over that and then I moved to Paris [after high school] and realized I had to make money somehow,” she says with a laugh.
The polyglot (she speaks Spanish, French, English and Swedish) was picked up by Next, followed by Ford, and has consistently worked in France for years, appearing in fashion magazines and ads for L’Oréal Paris and Cartier.
After attending university in Paris, the then-21-year-old returned to New York six years ago to complete her political science degree at the New School. An avid painter from age 12, she began dabbling in jewelry design about four years ago.
“[My work] has evolved over time from oil to canvas, and then I started painting on silk. And then I signed up for jewelry classes,” she says, adding that she quit after a few sessions. “But I had all of the tools, so I started playing around with it, and I really loved the process.”
For most of her adult life, Noah has split her time between New York and France, but now she is staying put in Brooklyn to devote herself to her burgeoning acting career and jewelry-design business.
And when she isn’t shuffling between auditions and castings, she’s dining with friends at restaurants in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Her favorite is Marlow & Sons.
“I like heading out in Manhattan, but I am always happy to cross that bridge, go over the water and see that skyline in the background,” she says.
And while she’d rather go see a reggae band, she does put in time at the clubs when her 28-year-old brother visits.
“When he comes to town, it’s his time off. He’s working eight months straight, so when he comes to New York, he’s usually on holiday. All of his friends are here, so they’ll go clubbing. That’s my club time, but I’ll always regret it in the morning.”