Trivia: After a series of supporting roles in productions including The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), Just My Luck (2006), and Smokin' Aces (2007), actor Chris Pine shot up to lead billing when he signed for the coveted lead part of Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams' much-anticipated reboot of the Star Trek franchise, released in 2009. He followed up that smash hit playing opposite Denzel Washington and a runaway train in Unstoppable. In 2011 he participated in the Star Trek documentary The Captains, and the next year he was in the romantic comedy This Means War, and the drama People Like Us.

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: The son of a Boston barber, Leonard Nimoy was a star at the age of 8, when he played Hansel in a children's theatre production of Hansel and Gretel. Nimoy remained with his local kiddie theater troupe until 16 (one of his directors during this period was Boris Sagal). After studying drama at Boston College and Antioch College, he took acting lessons from Jeff Corey at the Pasadena Playhouse. In films from 1950, Nimoy played the title character in the low-budget Kid Monk Baroni and essayed bits and minor roles in such productions as Zombies of the Stratosphere (1951), Rhubarb (1951) and Them! (1954). In between acting assignments, he held down a dizzying variety of jobs: soda jerk, newspaper carrier, vacuum-cleaner salesman, vending machine mechanic, pet-shop clerk, cabbie and acting coach. During his 18 months in Special Services at Fort McPherson, Georgia, he acted with Atlanta Theater Guild when he could spare the time. Back in Hollywood in 1956, he became virtually a regular at the Ziv TV studios, playing villains in programs like Highway Patrol and Sea Hunt. For a short while, he specialized in the plays of Jean Genet, appearing in both the stage and film productions of The Balcony and Deathwatch. Impressed by Nimoy's guest turn on a 1963 episode of The Lieutenant, producer Gene Roddenberry vowed to cast the saturnine, mellow-voiced actor as an extraterrestrial if ever given the chance. That chance came two years later, when Roddenberry signed Nimoy to play Vulcanian science officer Spock on Star Trek. At first pleased at the assignment, Nimoy came to resent the apparent fact that the public perceived him as Spock and nothing else: indeed, one of his many written works was the slim autobiography I Am Not Spock. After Star Trek's cancellation, Nimoy joined the cast of Mission: Impossible in the role of "master of disguise" Paris (he replaced the series' previous master of disguise Martin Landau, who ironically had originally been slated to play Spock). In the early 1970s, Nimoy began racking up directorial credits on such series as Night Gallery. He also made his first Broadway appearance in 1973's Full Circle. And, perhaps inevitably, he returned to Spock, thanks to the popular demand engendered by the then-burgeoning Star Trek cult. His initial reacquaintance with the role was as voiceover artist on the 1973 Saturday-morning cartoon version of Star Trek. Then Spock went on the back burner again as Nimoy devoted himself to his theatrical commitments (a touring production of Sherlock Holmes, his one-man show Vincent), his writing and directing activities, and his hosting chores on the long-running (1976-82) TV documentary series In Search Of.... Finally in 1978, Nimoy was back in his Enterprise uniform in the first of several Star Trek theatrical features. The Spock character was killed off in the second Trek picture The Wrath of Khan, but Nimoy stayed with the franchise as director of the next two feature-length Trek entries (PS: Spock also came back to life). He went on to direct such non-Trek filmic endeavors as 3 Men and a Baby (1987), The Good Mother (1988), Funny About Love (1990) and Holy Matrimony (1994). He also produced and acted in the 1991 TV movie Never Forget, and served as executive producer of the 1995 UPN network series Deadly Games. Perhaps because he will always have dozens of professional irons in the fire, Leonard Nimoy now seems resigned to being forever associated with the role that brought him international fame; his most recent autobiographical work was aptly titled I Am Spock. In 2009 he returned to his iconic role portraying Spock in J.J. Abrams smash-hit reboot of the Star Trek franchise. He next took on a recurring role in the sci-fi series Fringe, playing scientist William Bell. Nimoy made a final cameo appearance in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He died in 2015, at age 83.

Trivia: Considering his previous experience essaying the recurring role of Julius Caesar on the popular small screen fantasy adventure series Xena: Warrior Princess, it seems only natural that New Zealand born actor Karl Urban would advance to slay orcs in Peter Jackson's epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. Appearing as a somewhat more rugged version of screen heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, it's obvious from his work in such films as The Price of Milk that the handsome young actor has the looks and the skills to make it on his own. A Wellington native and son of a leather goods manufacturer, Urban's first acting experience came with an appearance in a New Zealand television show at the age of eight. Though he would subsequently eschew an acting career until after graduating from high school, Urban was drawn back in front of the cameras when he was offered the opportunity to appear on an evening soap opera entitled Shortland Street while preparing to attend Victoria University. The acting bug was a bit harder to shake the second time around, and after a mere year at Victoria, Urban abandoned higher education for a career on the stages of Wellington. A relocation to Auckland found Urban gaining exposure on New Zealand television, and after a turn as a heroin addict in Shark in the Park, he made an impression in the 1998 Scott Reynolds thriller Heaven. An unaired pilot for a show called Amazon High was eventually incorporated into an episode of Xena, and Urban would next take to the screen for the gory horror outing The Irrefutable Truth About Demons. A turning point of sorts came when Urban was cast as the lead in the romantic fantasy The Price of Milk, and his performance as a milk farmer whose relationship is on the rocks found him gaining increasing recognition on the international art house circuit. Though mainstream American audiences would begin to get acquainted with Urban courtesy of his role in the seafaring horror outing Ghost Ship, his role in the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers later that same year ensured that audiences would be seeing plenty more of him in the future. Following his escapades in Middle Earth, Urban would take to the stars opposite Vin Diesel in The Chronicles of Riddick (2004). Action roles continued to come at a clip when, after dodging bullets in the fast-moving sequel The Bourne Supremacy, Urban jettisoned to Mars to do battle with a particularly nasty breed of evil in the video game-to-screen adaptation Doom. From the far future to the distant past, Urban next laid down his plasma rifle to take up sword against his own people when he assumed the role of a Viking boy raised by Native Americans in director Marcus Nispel's 2006 fantasy adventure Pathfinder. He had his widest success to that point when he was cast as Bones in J.J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek, returning for the first of that franchise's sequel as well. In between he could be seen in the action comedy RED, as well as the 3D comic-book adaptation Dredd.

Trivia: Formerly of the RADA and Royal Shakespeare Company, British leading man Ben Cross made an impressive film debut as Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in Chariots of Fire (1981). Cross' participation in this Oscar-winning film immediately opened up new professional doors and increased his asking price. But he was not about to blindly capitalize on his new fame; he turned down 100,000 dollars to play Prince Charles in a made-for-TV movie in favor of appearing for a comparative pittance in a BBC miniseries adaptation of A.J. Cronin's The Citadel. He has continued to select film, stage, and TV roles on the basis of quality rather than monetary potential. One exception may be Cross' acceptance of the role of centuries-old vampire Barnabas Collins in the failed 1991 revival of the cult-favorite TV series Dark Shadows.

Trivia: A popular and easygoing Australian comedian whose keen adaptability lent itself well to aggressive-oriented early film roles, Eric Bana's hatred of firearms may seem ironic in contrast to the Aussie funnyman's fledgling film portrayals of real-life mass murderer (and popular cult celebrity figure in the land Down Under) Mark "Chopper" Read (Chopper [2000]) and a military man caught in heated battle on a rescue mission (Black Hawk Down [2001]). Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Bana's career as a comedian began while working as a bartender at his native city's Castle Hotel in 1991. Television offers began flowing in a few short years later, and in 1993, Bana took his sharp wit to the small screen as he assumed the roles of both writer and performer on one of Australia's top comedy programs, Full Frontal. His star on the rise, the increasingly popular comedian made audiences laugh even harder when he co-produced and starred in his own 1996 comedy special Eric (later to become a series) and kicked off The Eric Bana Show Live the following year. 1997 proved to be a busy year for Bana as he also made his feature debut in The Castle, though all of his hard work would pay off when he took a feature role in Australian television's Something in the Air in 2000 and was voted Australia's Most Popular Comedy Performer at the Logies. Bana next took on the role of notorious Aussie author/murderer Mark "Chopper" Read in Chopper (2000). Hollywood was soon calling for Bana, and he answered by accepting a role in the tense true story of the Battle of Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down, followed by the title role in Ang Lee's The Hulk. While Lee's adaptation of the comic would be universally panned, Bana continued his upward trajectory, playing a major role in the acclaimed film Munich, playing the head of the squadron assigned to avenge the murder of Israeli athletes at the 172 Olympics. He then showcased his range by playing opposite Drew Barrymore in the Curtis Hanson film Lucky You, followed by a turn as infamous Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl. Bana would round out the next few years with roles that cemented his position in Hollywood, like Star Trek, Funny People, The Time Traveler's Wife, Hanna, and Deadfall.

Trivia: Canadian character actor Bruce Greenwood spent the 1970s working in regional Vancouver theater, and appeared in many Canadian TV shows during the '80s. His first American film was a walk-on role in Rambo: First Blood. In the U.S., he fared much better with television pilots, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies. His first big role was Dr. Seth Griffin on St. Elsewhere from 1986-1988. Other TV projects included The FBI Murders, The Servants of Twilight, and Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys. By the '90s, he had found a home for himself on television. Greenwood played Pierce Lawson in 1991 on the evening soap opera Knots Landing, earned a Gemini (the Canadian Emmy) nomination for The Little Kidnappers, and then took home an award for his role in Road to Avonlea. He also starred as Thomas Veil on the UPN dramatic series Nowhere Man and guest starred as Roger Bingham on the HBO comedy series The Larry Sanders Show. He did quite well on NBC, as well, appearing in many TV movies (including Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge) and starring in the sci-fi mystery show Sleepwalkers as Dr. Nathan Bradford.Greenwood made the leap to the big screen with a fellow Canadian, Egyptian-born filmmaker Atom Egoyan. In Exotica, he played the troubled Francis, a tax collector obsessed with a stripper. The film was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival, and Greenwood re-teamed with the director for his next film, The Sweet Hereafter, which won a special jury prize at Cannes, while Greenwood was nominated for a Genie award for his supporting role of mourning father Billy Ansell. By contrast, he played bad guys in mainstream thrillers in the '90s, with starring roles in Disturbing Behavior, Hide and Seek, Double Jeopardy, and Rules of Engagement He may be most well known, however, for playing President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the political thriller Thirteen Days, for which he won a Golden Satellite Award. With this role under his belt, Greenwood moved into more dramatic territory with the A&E miniseries The Magnificent Ambersons as well as a dual role in Egoyan's Ararat. In 2003, he produced fellow Canadian Deepa Mehta's film The Republic of Love and appeared in the action comedy Hollywood Homicide and the sci-fi thriller The Core. He continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including I, Robot, Racing Stripes, Capote, Déjà vu, and had a small part in Todd Haynes' 2007 idiosyncratic Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. That same year he played the president in the hit sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets. He had a brief but memorable turn as Captain James T. Kirk's father in J.J. Abrams Star Trek, and played a bad guy in the comedy Dinner for Schmucks. He had a major role in the arty western Meek's Cutoff, and reteamed with Abrams when he appeared in the Spielberg homage Super 8.

Trivia: Perhaps the busiest television actor on either side of the pond, British standup comedian-turned-actor Simon Pegg has become a ubiquitous presence to U.K. television viewers since making his debut in the popular 1995 comedy series Six Pairs of Pants. With his role as the writer and hapless title character in the British "zom-rom-com" (zombie romantic comedy) Shaun of the Dead, Pegg's popularity set sail for U.S. shores as well. A Glouchester native who completed his education at Bristol University before segueing into film and television, Pegg showed considerable promise as an actor in his early television appearances. It was during the production of Six Pairs of Pants that Pegg made the acquaintance of future collaborators Jessica Stevenson and Edgar Wright, and in the years that followed, the trio would find notable small-screen success in such efforts as Asylum and Spaced -- with the latter finding an especially strong following on U.K. television. Additional roles in Saturday Live, the outlandish Big Train, and as the lead in Hippies also served to boost Pegg's profile, and in 2001 he joined an impressive cast for a small role in Tom Hanks' acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers. Though the majority of Pegg's exposure had been limited to the small screen at the dawn of the new millennium (save for brief appearances in such features as The Parole Officer and 24 Hour Party People), the prolific television comic made a successful leap to the big screen as the writer and eponymous character in 2004's Shaun of the Dead. Cast as a put-upon electronics-store employee who attempts to rescue his friend (played by Pegg real-life best friend and Spaced co-star Nick Frost), mother, and ex-girlfriend as the zombie apocalypse rages around them, Pegg drew big laughs with Shaun, and it wasn't long before the film was scheduled for stateside release. A film championed by the likes of even zombie-genre inventor George A. Romero for its witty writing and cleverly constructed chills, Shaun of the Dead found considerable success when released into stateside theaters in September 2004 (it would come as no surprise to fans of the film that it won the award for Best Screenplay at the 2004 British Independent Film Awards). Back on the BBC, Pegg joined I'm Alan Partridge star Steve Coogan in the bizarre genetically modified talking-animals comedy I Am Not an Animal before joining Shaun mate Peter Serafinowicz for a few episodes of Look Around You and making an appearance in the 2005 series of his favorite childhood television program, Doctor Who. A brief cameo in Romero's eagerly anticipated Land of the Dead quickly followed, and after lending his voice to the scatological computer-animated comedy Free Jimmy, Pegg would "go-Hollywood" in a very big way by joining the Tom Cruise team in Alias director J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III.Though Pegg went on to play a substantial role in director Jean-Baptiste Andrea's Big Nothing shortly thereafter, the film was released straight to DVD in the U.S., and it wasn't until the release of Hot Fuzz that American audiences would once again get a good look at Pegg and pal Frost as they re-teamed with director Wright to parody the action-packed police thrillers that fueled their imaginations as impressionable young children. Pegg would go on to enjoy sustained success in the comedy world, appearing in movies like Run, Fatboy, Run, and Paul. He would also cement himself into a hugely popular franchise, taking on the role of Scotty in the J.J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek.

Trivia: It's not every day that an unknown actor lands a role that will allow him to deliver a line that enters into the public lexicon and still manages to avoid the "Where's the beef?" syndrome of being forever linked with the resulting catch phrase, but with his role as the "MILF" guy in the breakout comedy American Pie, actor John Cho somehow managed to do just that. With stage skills that aren't limited to Shakespeare (Cho spends his off-time touring with his band Left of Zed) and a killer sense of comic timing onscreen, the fresh-faced Korean actor has transcended his status as Asian-American "It" boy to become one of the most promising stars of his generation. A move from Korea to Los Angeles found young Cho's interest in acting piqued when he began studying English literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and after taking to the boards in a Berkeley Repertory Theater production of The Woman Warrior (which would subsequently move to Boston's Huntington Theater and Los Angeles' James Doolittle Theater), the up-and-coming talent made his screen debut in director Justin Lin's decidedly bizarre 1997 feature Shopping for Fangs.Subsequent years found Cho essaying supporting roles in such high-profile features as Wag the Dog and Bowfinger, with his breakout role in American Pie preceding roles in such widely seen films as Bowfinger, American Beauty, Evolution, and the Chris Rock comedy Down to Earth. Though the films may not have offered Cho the most memorable parts, they kept him familiar with audiences until he reprised his most famous role to date in the hit sequel American Pie 2. In 2002, Cho truly got to show his talent in director Lin's critically acclaimed indie effort Better Luck Tomorrow. Following a crew of high-school-aged Asian-Americans who use their reputations as studious bookworms to mask their criminal activities, the movie proved without a doubt that Cho had what it took to make it in film. More supporting roles in Big Fat Liar and Solaris were quick to follow, and after rounding out the "American" trilogy in American Wedding, it was burger time for Cho as he played one of the titular characters (opposite Van Wilder's Kal Penn) in the 2004 comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. The next year, Cho went on to essay a supporting role on the short-lived chef sitcom Kitchen Confidential before returning to feature films. Over the coming years, Cho would continue to reimain an active force on screen over the coming years, appearing on shows like FlashForward and as Sulu in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek franchise.

Trivia: Rarely do beauty and talent combine in a form so complimentary to each other than in the case of actress Zoe Saldana. Whether gracefully gliding across the stage in dance, pounding the boards in a play, or lighting up the screen in such popular films as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the multi-faceted Saldana seems capable of achieving anything she puts her mind to. The New Jersey native was raised in Queens until the age of ten, when her family relocated to the Dominican Republic. The move proved a fateful blessing when young Saldana discovered her love of dance and enrolled in the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy shortly thereafter, where she would study ballet, jazz, and modern Latin dance. Following her sophomore year in high school, Saldana and her family returned to the U.S. It was while completing her primary studies stateside that Saldana became involved with the Faces theater troupe, whose aim was to make a positive impact on teenage audiences by performing improvisational skits on such issues as substance abuse and sexuality. Involvement with another troupe, the New York Youth Theater, provided more traditional stage experience through such productions as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and it was while performing with that troupe that a talent agent recognized great potential in the burgeoning actress. In 1999, Saldana received what seemed to be the ideal first film role when she was cast as a talented but snippy dancer vying for a spot at the fictional American Ballet Company in the dance drama Center Stage. Other film roles followed, including Get Over It, Snipes, and a featured part in the Britney Spears teen drama Crossroads, which offered Saldana's first major theatrical release. Widely panned by critics but performing moderately at the box office thanks to legions of Spears fans, Crossroads proved just the fuel needed to get Saldana's struggling feature career running. The following year, she was back on the big screen in Drumline, which found her once again utilizing her dance skills as a college dance major and love interest of the talented but conflicted protagonist. Though her subsequent role as the sole female pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean offered little screen time, her performance as the only woman able to cast a spell over Johnny Depp's charismatic Jack Sparrow offered one of the film's most memorable comic scenes. Back on the indie circuit, Saldana headlined the 2003 rock musical Temptation as a talented singer facing hard times. A brief turn as a by-the-books customs officer in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal found the charming Saldana slowly warming to an immigrant stuck in bureaucratic limbo (played by Tom Hanks).She was the female lead in Guess Who in 2005 and continued to work steadily. However, in 2009 she broke through in a big way when she was cast as Uhura in J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, and later that year she was the female lead in James Cameron's mega-smash Avatar. She followed that up with the action film The Losers in 2010, and was front and center in another action spectacle, Columbiana, the year after that. She reprised her role in the sequel Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, and played Gamora in the 2014 smash Guardians of the Galaxy, ensuring her place in yet another action franchise.

Trivia: A Russian immigrant who came to the United States with his figure-skater parents when he was merely six months old, Anton Yelchin found success in his new land since making his acting debut at the age of nine in A Man Is Mostly Water (1999). Acquiring an impressive résumé by the ripe old age of ten, Yelchin appeared in no less than three major motion pictures in 2001 alone, including 15 Minutes, Along Came a Spider, and Hearts in Atlantis opposite Anthony Hopkins. He transitioned to older roles, taking the lead in Alpha Dog (2006) and playing the title character in Charlie Bartlett (2007). In 2009, Yelchin assumed two famous roles: Pavel Chekov in Star Trek (a role he'd reprise in two sequels) and Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation. He voiced Clumsy Smurf in the 2011 big-screen version of the film and several subsequent sequels and shorts. Yelchin died in 2016, at the age of 27, after a freak car accident.

Trivia: Following her breakthrough in 1988's Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder emerged as one of the most celebrated actresses of her generation. Adept at playing characters ranging from depressed, angst-ridden goths to Edith Wharton debutantes, the saucer-eyed, porcelain-skinned Ryder has attained critical respect in addition to widespread popularity.Ryder was born in and named after the city of Winona, MN, on October 29, 1971. The daughter of communal hippies and the goddaughter of LSD guru Timothy Leary, she grew up on a commune in Northern California. Ryder's family moved to Petaluma when she was ten; following regular abuse from her classmates, who targeted her for her unconventional, androgynous appearance (she was once jumped by a group of boys who had mistaken her for a gay boy), she was home schooled. At the age of 11, she joined the American Conservatory Theatre, and was soon trying out for movie roles. An audition for the part of Jon Voight's daughter in Desert Bloom failed to yield a role but did land the actress an agent, and at the age of 14, Ryder -- who had changed her last name from Horowitz -- made her film debut in Lucas (1986).Finding popularity with her turn as a suicidal teen who has more in common with the ghosts living in her attic than with her yuppie parents in Tim Burton's black comedy Beetlejuice, Ryder quickly became one of the most steadily employed actresses in Hollywood. She continued to corner the alienated and/or confused teen market with starring roles in a number of offbeat films, including the 1989 cult classic Heathers, Great Balls of Fire (in which she played Jerry Lee Lewis' 13-year-old bride), Burton's Edward Scissorhands, and Mermaids.The early '90s saw Ryder begin to branch out from teen roles toward parts requiring greater maturity. Following a turn as a taxi driver in Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), the actress starred in Francis Ford Coppola's lavish adaptation Bram Stoker's Dracula and then went on to play Antonio Banderas' lover in the critically disembowelled The House of the Spirits. Greater success came with Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Ryder won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Daniel Day-Lewis' picture-perfect wife, and in the process started getting taken seriously as an actress capable of playing more adult characters.A second Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Actress -- followed the next year for Ryder's portrayal of Jo March in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Little Women. The same year, the actress took on an entirely different role in Reality Bites, in which she played a twentysomething suffering from post-graduation angst. Similar twentysomething angst followed in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) but was then traded for Puritanical adultery, hair extensions, and another turn with Daniel Day-Lewis in Nicholas Hytner's 1996 adaptation of The Crucible.Following a starring role in the highly anticipated and almost as highly criticized Alien Resurrection in 1997, Ryder had a turn as the waif-ish object of Kenneth Branagh's affections in Woody Allen's Celebrity. She managed to escape much of the criticism leveled at both of these films, and in 1999 and 2000, she reappeared with lead roles in two films, Girl, Interrupted, in which she played a mental institution inmate in the female answer to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the supernatural thriller Lost Souls. Winona shed her skin once more in 2002, when she took the romantic lead in Mr. Deeds, a typically goofy Adam Sandler vehicle. This was a surprising move for Ryder, who, despite making a niche for herself in nearly every imaginable genre, has rarely delved into the world of madcap romantic comedies. Of course, 2001-2002 wouldn't be complete without mention of Winona's inexplicable thievery; the young millionaire was convicted for stealing $5,500 worth of merchandise from a Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. 2003, meanwhile, meant more unfamiliar territory for Ryder -- she left fiction behind for a part in the documentary The Day My God Died. An uncredited turn as a warped child psychologist in director Asia Argento's The Heart is Decietful Above all Things showed without question that Ryder was still willing to shake things up on the silver screen, and in 2006 she would play an insurance claims investigator assigned the task of investigating a curious death in the aptly titled comedy The Darwin Awards. Later that same year, Ryder would be rotoscoped for a supporting role in director Richard Linklater's animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel A Scanner Darkly. The next few years found the maturing actress eschewing Hollywood for roles in smaller independent features such as Sex and Death 101 and David Wain's The Ten, and on the heels of a brief yet memorable turn as Spock's mother in 2009's Star Trek, Ryder channeled her dark energy into the role of a former ballet ingenue on the decline in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. Meanwhile, in 2012, a voice role in Tim Burton's canine creature feature Frankenweenie found Ryder reuniting with the director who helped launch her to cinema stardom in the late-1980s.

Trivia: Australian actor Chris Hemsworth became a favorite face in his native country when he wasn't yet a teenager, appearing on Australian TV shows like Neighbours and Home and Away in the early 2000s. He would go on to cross the pond, appearing in American movies like 2009's Star Trek, in which he played George Kirk. His next big splash in Hollywood would come in the years to follow, as he was cast as Thor in the big screen adaptations of The Avengers and Thor. The Avengers turned out to be a mega-smash, lending even more luster to his other films from that year including Snow White and the Huntsman and the remake of Red Dawn. In 2013, he played British race car driver James Hunt in Rush, before picking up the hammer again in Thor: The Dark World.

Trivia: Distinguished by his versatility and uncanny ability to immerse himself in the characters he portrays, filmgoers may recall Clifton Collins Jr. from his role as the intimidating thug Cesar in 187 (1997) or from his numerous other roles in such films as the Hughes brothers' Dead Presidents (1995) and Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed Traffic (2000). A native Angeleno, Collins Jr. is the grandson of actor Pedro Gonzalez. One of the first Mexicans to find Hollywood success, Gonzalez appeared alongside John Wayne in various Westerns and war films. Sometimes credited as Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez in honor of his grandfather's name, Collins Jr.'s range has found him work in a rich variety of films throughout the 1990s both in television and film. Other roles in The Replacement Killers and Disney's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (both 1998) showed great promise for a young actor on the verge of stardom heading into the new millennium. Supporting roles in such wide-release features as The Last Castle, and The Rules of Attraction found the young up-and-comer slowly gaining the momentum to set an enduring career in motion, and in 2004 Collins appeared opposite hot-property Eion Bailey in the thriller Mindhunters and the alcoholism-themed comedy drama Glory Days. That same year also found Collins taking a role in director Troy Duffy's Boondock II: All Saints Day - the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his 1999 cult hit The Boondock Saints.

Trivia: An actress who first earned her critical laurels (and reeled in a substantial television fanbase) as Dr. Alison Cameron on the blockbuster medical drama House (2004), Jennifer Morrison grew up well outside the realm of Hollywood, in a middle-class family in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. As a preteen and teenager, Morrison entered showbusiness via modeling, appearing in innumerable print campaigns and gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids at one point; after wrapping up high school, she attended Loyola University as a theater major (reportedly graduating in only three years) and subsequently trained with the legendary Steppenwolf theatrical ensemble, onetime home to such stars as John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, and Glenne Headly. From there, Hollywood fame was merely a short leap away; by the time of her Loyola graduation, Morrison had already officially debuted onscreen, with a small part as the daughter of Richard Gere and Sharon Stone in the psychological drama Intersection (1994) and a more significant role as a missing girl who psychically haunts Kevin Bacon in the supernatural thriller Stir of Echoes (1999). Morrison signed for her first lead with a role that many felt unworthy of her talents and intelligence: that of Amy Mayfield, a young film student who gets in way over her head amid a thesis project on urban legends, in John Ottman's slasher outing Urban Legends: The Final Cut (2000). Subsequent projects included Michael Davis's teen-oriented romantic comedy 100 Women (2002), Casey La Scala's teen comedy Grind (2003), and -- as something of a nadir -- the critically despised holiday gross-out fest Surviving Christmas (2004), in which she played Ben Affleck's snotty girlfriend.As indicated, House represented Morrison's breakthrough and the role that finally brought her public attention. The long-running Fox drama told of Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a diagnostician with an astounding degree of medical knowledge and an absolute dearth of social skills. As Dr. Cameron (an immunologist with a not-so-secret crush on the physician), Morrison brought a much-needed dose of warmth and vulnerability to the series.Morrison subsequently made headlines in 2007, when she was tapped to appear as Winona Kirk, James T. Kirk's mother, in J.J. Abrams's much-anticipated 11th installment of the Star Trek series. Despite it being a fairly small role, Morrison still managed to make a big impression in Star Trek, and a somewhat meatier role in 2011's Warrior, as the wife of a natural born fighter from a fractured family, preceded her departure from House the following year. Her ties to television remained tight, however, thanks to a recurring role on the hit CBS comedy series How I Met Your Mother starting in 2010, with a turn as Emma Swan -- a mother who doesn't believe in fairy tales -- in ABC's Once Upon a Time revealing that Morrison possessed a flair for fantasy as well.

Trivia: A child star well before he reached his teens, Jimmy Bennett began his career with appearances in commercials, then moved into feature work with a litany of roles in A-list Hollywood releases. Projects included a plum role in the Eddie Murphy-headlined family comedy Daddy Day Care (2003, as the highest-profiled of Murphy's young charges -- a little boy named Tony who insists on being called "The Flash" and shows up at day care each day dressed in a superhero outfit); one of the voices in Robert Zemeckis' CG-animated Christmas movie The Polar Express (2004); a little boy trapped with his mother (Jacinda Barrett) on a capsized ocean liner in Poseidon (2006); and the child version of Admiral James T. Kirk in the J.J. Abrams remake Star Trek (2009). In the coming years, Bennett woudl remain an active presence on screen, appearing on shows like No Ordinary Family.

Trivia: As an actor, writer, producer, and director of films and stage plays, the New Orleans-born Tyler Perry began his career as a dramatist in 1992. When inspired by Oprah Winfrey to channel his creativity through writing, Perry put pen to paper as a method of healing the wounds that lingered from a painful childhood. His first production, entitled I Know I've Been Changed, hit the stage to rapturous reviews in 1997, and following a collaborative period with Bishop T.D. Jakes that resulted in the plays Woman, Thou Art Loosed and Behind Closed Doors, Perry flew solo to create cantankerous 68-year-old grandmother Mabel "Madea" Simmons (whom Perry played, in full drag) in I Can Do Bad All by Myself around 2000 A slew of Madea-based projects were quick to follow, and shortly thereafter Perry joined Grammy Award-winner Kelly Price for the play Why Did I Get Married?. His plays garnered countless fans thanks to Perry's trademark practice of releasing them on home video. Throughout this period, many credited Perry with resuscitating (and reinventing) African-American theater; in the process, Perry's first eight plays reportedly earned a cumulative gross of over 75 million dollars in ticket and video sales.Perry didn't fully enter the public spotlight, however, until he cropped up in mid-2005 with the oddball A-lister Diary of a Mad Black Woman, self-adapted from his own hit play. This story of an African-American woman Helen McCarter (Kimberly Elise) struggling to rebound after a painful separation, whose life is invaded (in more ways than one) by the obnoxious, loudmouthed, chainsaw-wielding (!) Madea, Diary -- a bizarre combination of domestic melodrama, violent, racially-oriented farce, and Christian proselytizing -- understandably left many critics running for the exit, but, of course, ticket buyers prevailed. The film scored with its intended African-American audience and grossed a healthy 50 million dollars (it ranked as number one at the box office during February 2005), leading to an early 2006 sequel, Madea's Family Reunion, this one written and directed by Perry. Either because Perry's talent had matured within a year or because the press had grown accustomed to the playwright-cum-filmmaker's defiantly unconventional style, critics were slightly kinder about the sophomore Madea outing, which benefits from finely-felt supporting turns by the legendary Cicely Tyson and Maya Angelou. Like its predecessor, Reunion struck box office gold, and even topped Diary's net, reeling in an estimated 63.3 million dollars in international grosses. Perry then scrapped the Madea character for a tertiary cinematic outing, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls. This romantic dramedy concerns Monty (Idris Elba), a financially strapped African-American mechanic who loses custody of his children to his drug-pushing ex-wife, and then falls in love with the beautiful attorney (Gabrielle Union) whom he hires to get the children back. Increasingly prolific on stage and screen in the following years, Perry continued packing fans into theaters with Madea Goes to Jail (2009), I Can Do Bad All By Myself (also 2009), Good Deeds (2012) and Madea's Witness Protection while simultaneously making a mark on television as creator of the hit sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Perry also began to take some acting roles in films that he didn't write/direct/producer, like the titular character in Alex Cross (2012) and a supporting role in David Fincher's Gone Girl (2014).

Trivia: A prominent writer/producer of Hollywood features who later went on to make a name for himself as the creator of such popular small-screen hits as Felicity and Alias, J.J. Abrams has managed the rare feat of finding success in the all-too-often mutually exclusive worlds of both film and television. It was at the age of eight that the wide-eyed youth first discovered his love of film while on a Hollywood studio tour with his grandfather, and when the pair returned home, Abrams convinced his father to let him try his hand at filmmaking with the family's Super-8 camera. During the following decade, the young auteur grew increasingly comfortable behind the camera, and he continued to turn out his impressive amateur films at an exhausting rate. Later attending New York's Sarah Lawrence College and teaming with a close friend to pen a feature-film treatment, Abrams got his first taste of success when the screenplay was eventually adapted into the James Belushi comedy Taking Care of Business. In the following years, Abrams' career continued to gain momentum as he penned screenplays for such features as Regarding Henry, Forever Young, and Gone Fishin', and it was during this period that the ambitious screenwriter also began to try his hand at producing. As Abrams subsequently began to branch out by producing features that he had no hand in writing, such as The Pallbearer and The Suburbans, he also continued to write by contributing to the screenplay for Michael Bay's Armageddon. Abrams next made his first foray into television as the writer and creator of the hit television series Felicity -- which also found the tireless Abrams stepping into the director's chair for the first time in his professional career. As the series progressed, he was publicly vocal about his frustrations regarding the limitations of the series, and after joking that the series would be more interesting if the titular character had a secret life as a spy, the seed was planted for his most popular effort to date. Premiering on television in 2001, Abrams' second small-screen effort, Alias, told the story of a beautiful young international spy's efforts to battle the evil Alliance of 12 while attempting to find a balance between her secret and social lives. Not only did Alias immediately connect with television viewers, but it also found Abrams growing increasingly into his own as a writer and director. Three years later, Abrams had yet another hit on his hands as the writer/producer/director of Lost, which had the dubious distinction of being the most expensive television pilot ever produced. A haunting tale of a group of airplane-crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island, Lost stood alongside Desperate Housewives as one of the hits that kept the faltering ABC network afloat, picking up Emmy Awards and Golden Globes. Back in the world of film, fans were no doubt surprised when it was announced that Abrams would be returning to the world of features to direct the eagerly anticipated action sequel Mission: Impossible 3, which would serve as his feature-film directorial debut.Abrams would continue writing for TV over the coming years, penning the thriller series Undercovers, and the sci-fi series Fringe. He would also wear various combinations of the writer, producer, and director hats simultaneously for a number of projects, such as the hotly anticipated first-person monster movie Cloverfield in 2008, the massively successful Star Trek in 2009, and the drama/thriller/fantasy movie Super 8 in 2011.

Trivia: Though he did other things in the film and television industry, producer/filmmaker/actor Gene Roddenberry will always be best remembered as the father of Star Trek, a relatively short-lived science fiction television series that became a cultural phenomenon of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and on, spawned three sequel series, a string of novels and novellas, a cartoon show, and a highly successful series of feature films. Born in El Paso, TX, Roddenberry originally studied law, then aeronautical engineering in college. He then became a pilot and volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941. Piloting a B-17, he earned medals for his bombing in the Pacific Theater. After the war ended, he became a commercial pilot for Pan Am airlines. The newly developed medium of television intrigued Roddenberry and he wanted to become a writer. When that didn't work out, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department where he eventually became a sergeant. He used his writing skills to write speeches for the department chief and during the '50s, became a writer for two police shows, Dragnet and Naked City. He then became the head writer for the popular Western Have Gun Will Travel. By the early '60s, the idea for Star Trek had begun to grow in Roddenberry's mind. Star Trek was launched on the NBC network in 1966. Produced at Desi-Lu studios on a fairly low budget, the series was a sci-fi excursion like no other. Intelligently written and focused on relationships and modern issues as much as action/adventure, Star Trek was an optimistic, humanist vision of the distant future in which people of all races, humanoid or not, struggled to find peace. Among its innovations was the first interracial/interspecies crew that worked without racial discrimination, a hot topic during the mid-'60s. Roddenberry initially attempted to present women as equals to men (another fairly radical concept back then) as can be seen in the original pilot episode "The Menagerie" (which did not air until the series was established). Unfortunately, the network was uncomfortable about that notion and relegated the female characters to wearing short skirts and playing slightly more "feminine" roles. Despite the attire though, Star Trek's women were strong, intelligent, and courageous. The show was not enormously popular, but it had a devoted core of fans who, in another unprecedented move, launched a tremendous letter-writing campaign that brought the series back for a third year after it was canceled at the end of the second. By the time the show was finally canceled for good, the fan base for Star Trek had grown. Since the early '70s, large groups of fans the world over congregate at enormous Star Trek conventions. Millions of dollars of merchandise have been sold, and the show has spun off into a series of novels and a cartoon show. During the third season, Roddenberry left Star Trek to try other venues. In 1971, he produced and wrote the screenplay for Roger Vadim's black comedy Pretty Maids All in a Row. In the late '70s, Roddenberry returned to the Star Trek venue to produce and write the screenplay for Star Trek: the Motion Picture, the first of a long series of related feature films. On subsequent series entries, he returned as executive consultant. He also served as executive producer on the first television series sequel Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) until his death of cardiac arrest in 1991.

Trivia: Screenwriter Damon Lindelof gained major notoriety for his role in writing, producing, and showrunning the popular, enigmatic TV series Lost. The writer of Marvel's comic book miniseries Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk soon became a go-to-guy for science fiction, and was unsurprisingly tapped to co-write scripts for Prometheus, Cowboys & Aliens, Star Trek, Tomorrowland, and more.

Trivia: Grew up in Richmond, Virginia and danced professionally with the Richmond Ballet.Focused on French and Postcolonial works while studying Literature at Harvard University.Served as the publicity manager for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals in 2003.Is fluent in French.Appears in the music videos for Counting Crows' "You Can't Count on Me" and Bon Jovi's "What Do You Got?"

Trivia: In the late 1800s, his maternal great-grandparents published the first Pakistani magazine for women. Parents are actor-writer-directors. Originally considered majoring in business and economics in college, but switched to theater. For his Iron Man screen test, director Jon Favreau had him and costar Robert Downey Jr. do the same scene 10 different ways. Played the villainous Raza, who kidnapped and tortured the lead character, in Iron Man (2008). Upon reading the screenplay, he convinced the filmmakers to make the bad guys mercenaries instead of the originally scripted Muslim terrorists. Son, Javan, had a small role in Iron Man.

Trivia: At age 13, he auditioned for his first school play. Performed in 27 theatre productions before graduating from high school. Briefly considered becoming a social worker and traveled to Peru and Mexico City before he was cast on Popular. Wrote a script with a friend that landed him a staff writing position on Bob's Burgers.

Trivia: Model-turned-actress Rachel Nichols began a plush and lucrative career as one of America's most sought-after cover girls during her late teens and early twenties, then transitioned fluidly from modeling into acting. During her early film career, producers took great advantage of Nichols' appearance, casting her as glamorous eye candy in films such as the 2000 Autumn in New York (at age 19), Dumb and Dumberer (2003), Shopgirl (2005), and The Amityville Horror (2005). In addition to her film work, Nichols also made a splash on the small screen, starting with a guest role on on the popular cable comedy Sex and the City (2002), in which she played an alluring hostess at a chic restaurant, whom Samantha (Kim Cattrall) has a threesome with, along with her boyfriend. A few years later, Nichols starred in the shortlived FBI drama The Inside (2005), as Special Agent Rebecca Locke, the survivor of a kidnapping by a brutal serial killer, who used her disturbing experience to her advantage in profiling other murderers. After that series folded, she quickly followed it up by joining the cast of the popular spy drama Alias, as CIA agent Rachel Gibson, during its last season. Nichols ascended to lead status on the big screen and essayed a second outing as a scream queen in the thriller P2 (2007) -- playing a young woman unwittingly kidnapped and tormented by a maniac one fateful Christmas Eve.