Nathalie Cook
Nathalie Cook is a British model. She was the original Lara Croft model. At the time, her role was to embody a virtual heroine - powerful, fearless, and sexy - the iconic protagonist of the Tomb Raider video game. She began her modelling career after finishing secondary school. Originally from Berkshire, she and three other models were recruited by publisher Eidos to embody the features of a completely virtual heroine in the very first Tomb Raider, presented at the ECTS show in London in 1996.
Nathalie Cook was the first official model who helped establish the legend of the game Tomb Raider at ECTS in 1996, together with Katie Price and another model. The models were tasked with engaging the crowds by embodying Lara’s adventurer persona: Cook recalls being instructed “to just run around, pretend to sort of shoot people to entertain attendees]. She and her colleagues brandished Lara’s trademark dual pistols and performed action poses.. Beyond live appearances, Cook also portrayed Lara Croft in at least one of the game’s early advertisements.
She starred in a live-action Tomb Raider promotional commercial filmed in 1996, which involved an overnight shoot at a derelict warehouse set. After her period of public visibility as Lara Croft, Cook withdrew from promotional work and maintained a private life. In a later interview, she stated that she undertook “a couple of high-profile” projects following Tomb Raider before leaving modelling to raise her four children, describing herself as a full-time mother.