Trivia: The youngest of four children born to Evelyn "Brandy" Foster, Jodie Foster entered the world on November 19, 1962, under the name Alicia, but earned her "proper" name when her siblings insisted upon Jodie. A stage-mother supreme, Brandy Foster dragged her kids from one audition to another, securing work for son Buddy in the role of Ken Berry's son on the popular sitcom Mayberry RFD. It was on Mayberry that Foster, already a professional thanks to her stint as the Coppertone girl (the little kid whose swimsuit was being pulled down by a dog on the ads for the suntan lotion), made her TV debut in a succession of minor roles. Buddy would become disenchanted with acting, but Jodie stayed at it, taking a mature, businesslike approach to the disciplines of line memorization and following directions that belied her years. Janet Waldo, a voice actress who worked on the 1970s cartoon series The Addams Family, would recall in later years that Foster, cast due to her raspy voice in the male role of Puggsley Addams, took her job more seriously and with more dedication than many adult actors.After her film debut in Disney's Napoleon and Samantha (1972), Foster was much in demand, though she was usually cast in "oddball" child roles by virtue of her un-starlike facial features. She was cast in the Tatum O'Neal part in the 1974 TV series based on the film Paper Moon -- perhaps the last time she would ever be required to pattern her performance after someone else's. In 1975, Foster was cast in what remains one of her most memorable roles, as preteen prostitute Iris in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Both the director and the on-set supervisors made certain that she would not be psychologically damaged by the sleaziness of her character's surroundings and lifestyle; alas, the film apparently did irreparable damage to the psyche of at least one of its viewers. In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan, and when captured, insisted he'd done it to impress Foster -- a re-creation of a similar incident in Taxi Driver. The resultant negative publicity made Foster (who'd been previously stalked by Hinckley) extremely sensitive to the excesses of the media; through absolutely no fault of her own, she'd become the quarry of every tabloid and "investigative journalist" in the world. Thereafter, she would stop an interview cold whenever the subject of Hinckley was mentioned, and even ceased answering fan mail or giving out autographs. This (justifiable) shunning of "the public" had little if any effect on Foster's professional life; after graduating magna cum laude from Yale University (later she would also receive an honorary Doctorate), the actress appeared in a handful of "small" films of little commercial value just to recharge her acting batteries, and then came back stronger than ever with her Oscar-winning performance in The Accused (1988), in which she played a rape victim seeking justice. Foster followed up this triumph with another Oscar for her work as FBI investigator Clarice Starling (a role turned down by several prominent actresses) in the 1991 chiller The Silence of the Lambs.Not completely satisfied professionally, Foster went into directing with a worthwhile drama about the tribulations of a child genius, Little Man Tate (1991) -- a logical extension, according to some movie insiders, of Foster's tendency to wield a great deal of authority on the set. Foster would also balance the artistic integrity of her award-winning work with the more commercial considerations of such films as Maverick (1994). She made her debut as producer in 1994 with the acclaimed Nell, in which she also gave an Oscar-nominated performance as a backwoods wild child brought into the modern world. Foster would continue to to produce and direct, with 1995's Home for the Holidays and 2011's The Beaver.Foster would continue to chose a challenging variety of roles, playing scientist Ellie Arroway in Robert Zemeckis' 1997 adaptation of the Carl Sagan in Contact, and a widowed schoolteacher in Anna and the King (1999), and a mother defending her daughter during a home invasion in David Fincher's Panic Room. The 2000's would see Foster appear in several more films, like Inside Man, The Brave One, and the Roman Polanski directed domestic comedy Carnage. In 2013, Foster was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, and later appeared in sci-fi thriller Elysium.

Trivia: After pursuing academic success at Stanford University and later the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, actor Sterling K. Brown began pursuing professional success, appearing on episodes of TV series like NYPD Blue, Boston Legal, and Alias. The appearances bolstered his popularity, and Brown went on to land a number of recurring roles on the shows Starved, Supernatural, and Army Wives. In 2008 he landed a part in the Pacino/De Niro cop thriller Righteous Kill, and three years later stretched his comedic muscles in Our Idiot Brother.

Trivia: Family immigrated to France during Algeria's civil war in 1992. Practiced rhythmic gymnastics, and joined the French national team for the Olympics when she was 18. Worked as one of Madonna's backup dancers, notably during her Confessions Tour. Was a model, dancer and spokesperson for Nike. Took up hip-hop and street dance and won the Battle of the Year award in 2006 with dancing team the Vagabond Crew.

Trivia: Tall, gangly, and oddly handsome, stage, screen, and television actor Jeff Goldblum is an unlikely sex symbol. But for many women, especially those fond of eccentric intellectual types, he fits the role perfectly. Known for the range of quirky, often otherworldly characters he has portrayed, Goldblum is adept at playing lead and supporting roles in dramas and comedies alike. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, where he was born October 22, 1952, Goldblum moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career. He got his start at Sanford Meisner's distinguished Neighborhood Playhouse, and in the '70s began performing in a wide variety of on and off-Broadway productions. When he was 22, Goldblum made his film debut with a small role as a rapist in Michael Winner's brutal revenge drama Death Wish (1974). He was performing on-stage in the El Grande de Coca Cola review when Robert Altman gave him a small part in California Split (1974) and a slightly larger role in Nashville (1975). Afterwards, Goldblum was steadily employed as a bit player in both major and minor features, turning in one of his most notable performances as a nervous houseguest struggling to remember his mantra in the Los Angeles-set segment of Annie Hall (1977). In 1980, Goldblum branched out into television, starring opposite Ben Vereen in the short-lived television detective comedy Tenspeed and Brown Shoe. As Brown Shoe, Goldblum played an uptight stockbroker trying to make it as a hardboiled private detective. Although the role may have given him greater recognition, the actor gained his first really favorable reviews playing a tabloid magazine reporter in The Big Chill (1983). This led to leading roles in such films as Into the Night (1985), where Goldblum played an aerospace engineer opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, and Silverado (also 1985), which cast him as a villainous gambler. In 1986, he had his first hit movie with David Cronenberg's terrifying sci-fi-horror film The Fly (1986), playing a driven scientist whose research turns him into a gruesome mutant. His co-star was his then-wife, Geena Davis, whom he met while they were on the set of the comedy-thriller Transylvania 6-5000 (1985). The couple divorced in the early '90s and Goldblum then embarked on a highly publicized relationship with actress Laura Dern that broke up in the mid-'90s.In 1989, Goldblum made a favorable transatlantic impression in the British romantic comedy The Tall Guy, playing a perpetually unemployed actor who is cast as the lead of a musical about the Elephant Man. He continued to work steadily throughout the subsequent decade, appearing in films of markedly varying quality. He found great success in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, playing a mathematician in one of the decade's biggest blockbusters. In 1996, Goldblum again explored blockbuster territory with a leading role as a computer genius in Independence Day. He reprised his role from Jurassic Park in that film's sequel 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He starred opposite Eddie Murphy in the notorious bomb Holy Man.At the beginning of the next decade Goldblum worked primarily in independent films such as Burr Steers' debut Igby Goes Down, and playing the romantic and professional rival to Bill Murray in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In 2006 he scored a role in his most mainstream film in quite sometime as part of the impressive ensemble in Barry Levinson's satire Man of the Year. In 2009, Goldblum joined the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in the show's eighth season to play the role of Detective Zach Nichols. 2010 found the actor co-starring with Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton for the showbiz comedy Morning Glory. In 2014, he re-teamed with Anderson in The Grand Budapest Hotel. The following year, he appeared opposite Johnny Depp in Mortdecai and began filming his role in the long-awaited Indepdendence Day sequel, due in 2016.

Trivia: Played the baritone and mellophone horn in his high school marching band. Got into acting during sophomore year of college after auditioning for the play Joe Turner's Come and Gone on a whim and landing the lead role. Planned to move to Washington D.C. and work in home security after graduation, before being persuaded to audition for the Yale School of Drama. Became friends with Sterling K. Brown when the pair were playing drag queens in Tarell Alvin McCraney's Wig Out at the Sundance Theatre Lab in 2007. Was part of the original Broadway cast of The Book Of Mormon.

Trivia: Comedian Jenny Slate graduated from Columbia University before making waves in New York as one half of the comedy team Gabe & Jenny. After making a memorable appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Slate went on to join the 2009 cast of Saturday Night Live, where she made a serious impression by accidentally using an expletive on live television. Slate was let go at the end of the season (seemingy because of her on-air slip), but she bounced back quickly with the short film Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, which she created with her then-husband. The film gained a following online and gave Slate some favorable press after her SNL incident. Since then, she has carved out an impressive TV career with both guest and recurring arcs on shows like Parks and Recreation and House of Lies and doing voice-over work on shows like Bob's Burgers. In 2014, Slate starred in Obvious Child, her first starring role, and recieved a Critics' Choice Award for her work.

Trivia: Handsome American actor Zachary Quinto clocked in as an almost constant small-screen presence from the early 2000s onward. A number of his roles constituted extremely memorable ones: he was chilling as Sylar, the mutant psychopath with a flair for mutilating his victims' gray matter, in the superhero-themed NBC fantasy-drama Heroes, and (on a wholly different note) lent an undercurrent of necessary gravitas to his portrayal of God (among other actors playing the role) on the cult favorite Joan of Arcadia. Quinto also helped federal agent Jack Bauer prevent the spread of a deadly plague in season three of the blockbuster Fox drama 24, but left the series thereafter. In 2007, Quinto signed for his first major cinematic role, and a plum one at that: a portrayal of a young Mr. Spock in the 11th installment of the popular franchise, released to U.S. theaters in May 2009 and directed by Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams. The film was a smash hit, bringing Quinto much public attention. In 2011 he had a major role in the Oscar-nominated drama Margin Call, and he joined the cast of American Horror Story that same year.

Trivia: New York-born actor Charlie Day appeared in an impressive array of Williamstown Theatre productions before transitioning into television with a brief appearance in the Mary Tyler Moore/Valerie Harper reunion special Mary and Rhoda. Subsequent roles on Madigan Men, Law & Order, and Third Watch helped Day build an impressive list of small-screen credits, and in 2005 he joined the cast of the deliciously warped FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Cast as an inherently good-natured guy often done in by his own shady intentions and poor luck with ladies, Day held his own opposite Danny DeVito, helping to establish himself as a respectable rising talent. Although he tried to stretch out in projects like A Quiet Little Marriage and Going the Distance, it was the 2011 hit Horrible Bosses that earned him his greatest praise apart from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In 2006 he married his Philadelphia co-star Mary Elizabeth Ellis.

Trivia: Worked as a bouncer after high school. Began his career as a professional wrestler in the Ohio Valley Wrestling league in 2000, under the name Leviathan. Joined the WWE in 2002, as Batista. Released his autobiography, Batista Unleashed, in 2007. Appeared as a judge on an episode of Iron Chef America in 2008. Made his MMA debut in 2010, against Vince Lucero; Bautista won the fight with a TKO.

Trivia: Appeared in commercials for Priceline, Blockbuster, Mercedes-Benz and Bombay Sapphire Gin. Provides voices for the video games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Captain America: Super Soldier. Did a lot of research on World War II for his role in 2011's Captain America:The First Avenger, and participated in stunt and weapons training. In 2011, participated in the inaugural CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) Celebrity Poker Tournament. First full-time series role was the 2013 reboot of Ironside. Is such a big fan of Chicago's Aurelio's Pizza that he has them air-shipped to his home twice a year.