Trivia: Staying true to his last name, Joaquin Phoenix has made a career out of making a couple of films, disappearing, and then reappearing from the ashes to rise upward toward greater glory. The actor, who began his career under the name of "Leaf," lived for a long time in the shadow of his older brother, River. After River's tragic death at the age of 23, Leaf abandoned his career for two years, making a comeback in 1995 with his performance in To Die For, directed by Gus Van Sant (who ironically directed River in one of his last films, 1993's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues). Since then, the actor, who changed his name back to Joaquin in the early '90s, has worked steadily in Hollywood, solidifying both his experience and reputation.Born Joaquin Raphael Phoenix on October 28, 1974, in Puerto Rico, Phoenix was raised in a close-knit, unconventional family. His parents encouraged all of their children to go into acting, and Phoenix did just that, following in the footsteps of older siblings River and Rain. As Leaf Phoenix, he got his first significant role in 1986's Spacecamp, and then went on to star in Russkies (1987) and Parenthood (1989), the latter of which was successful enough to make Phoenix something of a fledgling star. However, he chose to retreat from Hollywood, spending a few years traveling and living with his father in Mexico.It was River's 1993 death that brought his younger brother -- now called Joaquin -- back into the limelight, albeit a very unwelcome limelight. The 911 call that Phoenix made as his older brother lay dying was broadcast over radio and television in the aftermath of River's death. Again, Phoenix left Hollywood, not to be seen again until 1995, when his performance as the tragically confused and horny Jimmy Emmett won him an array of positive reviews. From there, Phoenix went on to film Inventing the Abbotts (1997), which failed at the box office but introduced the actor to his co-star Liv Tyler, with whom he had a three-year relationship.Phoenix's next project, Oliver Stone's U-Turn (1997), also proved to be a modest flop, but Return to Paradise (1998), in which he starred with Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, was a bigger hit among critics and filmgoers. He starred again with Vaughn in Clay Pigeons (1998), which unfortunately didn't fare as well as his previous film. However, his next endeavor, 8MM with Nicolas Cage, although not a huge box office hit, did win him acclaim for his portrayal of thoughtful porn shop owner Max California, further proving that the family talent was not solely the province of Phoenix's late, great older brother. In 2000 Phoenix took one of his biggest and most extravagant roles to date as Commodus in director Ridley Scott's big-budget peplum Gladiator. Phoenix's turn as the devious Commodus was a marked departure from the actor's generally likeable characterizations, and proved further indication of his dramatic versitility. On the opposite end of the period piece spectrum, Jaoquin appeased art-house crowds with a memorable performance as the priest who runs the asylum housing the Marquis de Sade in Quills before moving closer to the present and impressing critics with a leading role in Buffalo Soldiers (2001). As a bored military camp clerk who runs goods in the black market, Phoenix's impressive performance was well recieved by festival critics and continued to provide further argument for his viability as a leading man. Phoenix would next turn-up alongside Mel Gibson in The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan's rural alien invasion thriller Signs. Replacing actor Mark Ruffalo after Ruffalo pulled out of the film due to ill-health, Phoenix stepped into the role as Gibson's younger brother, a member of a family caught in an alien invasion following the appearance of crop circles in the family's cornfield. In 2003, Phoenix lent his voice to the Disney animated film Brother Bear, before re-teaming with M. Night Shyalaman for The Village, a thriller in the same vein as Signs that proved a major disappointment to audiences and critics alike. He followed this with a small part in the highly respected Hotel Rwanda, playing an American camera man covering the 1994 war in Rwanda that ended in 1 million deaths as a result of genocidal murder. This performance, along with his role as a rookie firefighter in Ladder 49 helped him establish himself as an everyman, as well as a character actor.By 2005, Phoenix had developed a reputation as a dependable, versatile actor, but he would rise from respectability to greatness with his depiction of legendary country singer Johnny Cash in James Mangold's biopic Walk the Line. Performing all his own singing for the part and learning the guitar from scratch, Phoenix received a Golden Globe Award for the film, along with his costar Reese Witherspoon.Phoenix's reputation for reliability fell under question when he arrived for a guest spot on Late Night with David Letterman disheveled and seemingly intoxicated. Though his appearance on Letterman was intended as a promotional piece for Two Lovers (2008), a romantic drama following a depressed young man (Phoenix) who finds himself in the middle of a love triangle, it was eventually revealed that the Letterman appearance was intended for I'm Still Here, a "biopic" depicting Phoenix as a drug-addled, emotional disaster. Shortly before the premier of I'm Still Here, director Casey Affleck admitted the film was satirical in nature and not meant to be taken literally.Two years after that public-relations hiccup, Phoenix returned earning rave reviews for his role as a disturbed war veteran who falls under the spell of a charismatic cult leader in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama The Master. His work in that film was recognized by the Academy, who tapped Phoenix for the Best Actor category.

Trivia: An actress with a knack for light comedy, Amy Adams was born in Italy and raised in Castle Rock, Colorado. After high school, she studied dance and worked in regional dinner theater until age 20, when she moved to Minnesota with her family after being spotted by a visiting Minneapolis producer and recruited to work in his dinner theater there. She landed her first film role in the satiric 1999 comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was, appropriately enough, set in Minnesota. After appearing in the independent comedy Psycho Beach Party, Adams made guest appearances on a number of television series, including That 70s Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The West Wing; she was also cast as a regular in Manchester Prep, a TV spin-off of the hit film Cruel Intentions. Manchester Prep, however, was never aired when its network decided that the show's sexual content was too strong for television, although several episodes were eventually re-edited into a direct-to-video feature entitled Cruel Intentions 2. 2002 proved to be a very busy year for Adams, who appeared in no fewer than four features, including the eagerly anticipated Catch Me if You Can, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.Adams took a 2 year break following Catch Me If You Can, reemerging in 2004 to appear with Fred Savage in the low-key comedy/drama The Last Run. The next year she took a substantial role in the romantic comedy The Wedding Date, but the part that proved to be a career-shaping one was the very innocent, very pregnant Ashley in Phil Morrison's independent film Junebug. Adams was adored by audiences and praised by critics for her quirky, sensitive performance, and she netted a Best Supporting Actress nomination in the process.The young actress rounded out 2005 with a brief series of regular appearances on the wildly popular TV comedy The Office. In 2006 Amy co-starred in the NASCAR comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, alongside Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen. 2007 provided a big boost to her lead-actress stock in the form of Disney's Enchanted, a Splash-like confection in which Adams played a fairytale princess inadvertently plopped into the alternate universe of modern-day New York City. The family-friendly Thanksgiving release racked up considerable praise and millions of box-office dollars. Adams picked up her second Academy Award nomination in 2008 for her work in John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his award winning play Doubt. In addition to that honor, she scored nods from the Screen Actors Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press. The following year, Adams teamed with Doubt star Meryl Streep again, to play a young amateur chef who attempts to cook every recipe in a massive cookbook by Julia Child (Streep) in the Nora Ephron-directed Julie and Julia.The following year, Adams played the romantic interest of Mark Wahlberg in the Oscar contender The Fighter, earning tremendous critical acclaim both for her tough performance and spot-on Boston accent. Then in 2011, Adams teamed up with funnyman Jason Segel for a much anticipated relaunching of Jim Henson's beloved Muppets franchise. In 2012 she played the controlling wife of a cult leader in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama The Master, and captured her fourth Best Supporting Actress nomination in just eight years for her work in that film. In 2013 she took on the legendary part of Lois Lane in the Superman reboot Man of Steel.

Trivia: Actress Rooney Mara didn't exactly come from a show business family. One great-grandfather founded the Pittsburgh Steelers; another founded the New York Giants. Despite her heritage, Mara opted to go into acting instead of sports, and made her professional debut with a bit-part in the direct-to-video Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (which starred her older sister, Kate). She followed this with a handful of appearances on episodes of shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The Cleaner, eventually scoring a number of film roles, appearing in 2009's Tanner Hall, Youth in Revolt, and Friends (With Benefits).Her career changed forever when David Fincher cast her in a small but key part in The Social Network, and then trusted her to play Lisbeth Salander in his English-language adaptation of the international best-seller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a part that earned young performer Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress. She appeared in Spike Jonze's Her and Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, both in 2013. In 2015, Mara was controversially cast as Tiger Lily in Joe Wright's Pan. She followed that up with Todd Haynes' Carol, playing opposite Cate Blanchett; Mara nabbed her second Oscar nomination for her work in the film.

Trivia: Born June 21, 1979, native Minnesotan actor Chris Pratt scored his first big break on television as the troubled physician's son Bright Abbott on the WB series drama Everwood, opposite Treat Williams and others, and segued into film with a prominent role in the biting satire Strangers with Candy (2005) alongside Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert. Successive features included Deep in the Valley (2008), Wanted (2008), and Bride Wars (2009) (as the ineffectual fiancé of Anne Hathaway). In 2009, Pratt joined the NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation as a guest star, but his turn as the dim-witted Andy Dwyer was so well-received that he was promoted to series regular for season 2. While on the show, Pratt also juggled some major movie roles, co-starring with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill as baseball player Scott Hatteberg in the blockbuster Moneyball (2011) and appearing as a Navy SEAL in 2012's controversial Zero Dark Thirty.

Trivia: On many an occasion, Olivia Wilde's sleek hair (which alternated between blonde and coal black), sultry figure, and haunting blue eyes typecast her in the mold of an evil seductress and vamp. The N.Y.-born Wilde -- not a blood relation to the famous writer Oscar Wilde, as is commonly assumed, but one inspired by him, who borrowed his surname -- launched into show business with a portrayal of Jewel Goldman, the female lead of Jerry Bruckheimer's short-lived Fox drama Skin (2003). The series constituted an update of Romeo and Juliet and depicted the romance between a porn producer's daughter and a district attorney's son. It folded not long after it premiered, but provided a convenient showcase for Wilde's talents. After key roles in two drug-themed features -- the Nick Cassavetes-directed Alpha Dog and director John Herzfeld's Bobby Z -- Wilde catapulted sensationalism-hungry viewers to their television sets when she portrayed a lesbian bartender who attempts to seduce lovely Mischa Barton on The O.C. She then received regular billing as Jenny Reilly on The Black Donnellys (2007), an NBC series about the exploits of an Irish crime family residing in Hell's Kitchen, which didn't make it past its first season. Wilde rebounded quickly with a coveted role on the smash-hit Fox medical series House, joining the cast during the show's fourth season. She remained on the show for three seasons, and also built up a big-screen career with roles in Year One, Tron: Legacy, The Change-Up, Butter, Cowboys & Aliens, and People Like Us. Once leaving House, she largely focused on her film work, often alternating bigger budget films (like 2013's Rush) with smaller, independent films (like 2013's Drinking Buddies, which she also executive produced).

Trivia: Square-jawed comedic actor Bill Hader emerged as an onscreen presence in the mid- to late 2000s, both as a regular player on the hallowed Saturday Night Live and as an occasional performer in movies such as the animated Doogal (2004) and the Owen Wilson vehicle You, Me and Dupree (2006). Hader rose to higher billing with his guffaw-inducing turn in the frat-boy comedy Superbad (2007), playing a seriously irresponsible cop and the partnered with Seth Rogen. He was the brother to Jason Segel's character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, had a brief but memorable cameo right at the beginning of Pineapple Express, and played a sycophantic assistant to Tom Cruise's monstrous Hollywood mogul in Tropic Thunder, all in 2008. The next year he had a huge hit voicing a character in the animated smash Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and earned good reviews for his work in Adventureland. He appeared in the sci-fi comedy Paul in 2011. Hader continued to appear in supporting and cameo roles in films, appearing in an impressive nine films in 2013 (many of them voice roles, including Monsters University and reprising his role in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2), before annoucing he was leaving Saturday Night Live. Once leaving SNL, he stretched his acting legs by starring opposite Kristen Wiig in the dramedy The Skeleton Twins in 2014.

Trivia: Initially known as one of the cast members of Saturday Night Live (she joined in 2005), comedian Kristen Wiig cemented her reputation as a schtickmeister with hilarious and memorable SNL characterizations of such personalities as Drew Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, and Megan Mullally, and performed a particularly memorable recurring bit on that program as an overanxious Target employee. Like Will Forte, Will Ferrell, and others, Wiig arrived on SNL as an alumnus of The Groundlings, Los Angeles' legendary comedic ensemble. Wiig broke through to feature-film acclaim in 2007, with supporting roles in the comedies Bill, Knocked Up, and The Brothers Solomon. Brothers, a picture co-starring a number of Wiig's fellow SNL cast mates including Maya Rudolph and Will Arnett, told the story of two socially backward loser brothers seeking a woman to have their baby. In 2007, Wiig also showed up in the music-biopic spoof Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, playing the rock star's first wife.She continued to work steadily in films even as she became one of the most celebrated SNL performers in that show's rich history, becoming one of the few performers to get nominated for an acting Emmy for her work on the program. Big-screen credits like Whip It, MacGruber, and Date Night, eventually led to her starring role in Bridesmaids, the R-rated comedy that not only became a box-office smash, but garnered Wiig an Oscar nomination as well as a WGA nod for Best Original Screenplay. In 2012 she left SNL, getting a memorable send-off where she was serenaded by Mick Jagger and danced with every other member of the cast. In the years to come, Wiig would continue her upward trajectory in the comedy world, appearing in numerous projects as well as continuing to flex her muscles behind the camera as a writer and producer.

Trivia: First professional acting job was in the play The Tropical Pickle at the Jeff Daniels Purple Rose Theater Company in Chelsea, MI. Made his film debut with a small role in Gettysburg (1993) after director Ron Maxwell saw him on stage. Broke into television in 1995 with the short-lived CBS series Almost Perfect. Appeared on Broadway in Neil Simon's Proposals in 1997. Wrote and directed a farce called Sea of Fools, which premiered at his old stamping grounds in Chelsea, MI.

Trivia: With his slightly rugged and rough-cut, urban look, actor Steve Zissis fit the bill for lead and supporting roles in grassroots indie productions. Zissis studied at such institutes as The Actor's Center, the Chekhov Studio, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and then began to amass a series of roles in cutting-edge low-budget films including Tale of a Phoenix, Climbing Out, The Intervention, Ping Pong La-Lou, and Baghead.

Trivia: Grew up in the Chicago and Denver metro areas. Trained at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. Is an avid fan of the men's basketball team of his undergraduate alma mater, University of Kansas.

Trivia: Actress Portia Doubleday broke into films during the late '90s and made infrequent on-camera appearances over the following decade. Movies that featured her included the 1997 Legend of the Mummy and the 2009 Michael Cera teen comedy Youth in Revolt. She also appeared in the cross-dressing comedy Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son and the prison drama K-11.

Trivia: Growing up in Scotland, the descendent of Irish immigrants, Brian Cox always felt an affinity to American cinema that eventually led him to pursue his career stateside. Born on June 1, 1946, in Dundee, Scotland, Cox knew he wanted to act from an early age, but identified more with the characters portrayed in American films than in "zany British comedies," to use his phrase. While working at the local theater, where he started by mopping the stage, the 15-year-old Cox would watch the actors and study their styles to separate the wheat from the chaff. He attended drama school in London and got caught up in British theater and television during the 1970s. Cox landed on Broadway in the early '80s, but found more closed doors than open ones. It was while performing a play transplanted from the U.K. that a casting agent for Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) noticed him. The film would become the first cinematic treatment of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter (spelled "Lecktor" at the time) character, which Anthony Hopkins would make his own in Silence of the Lambs (1991). Cox was cast in the role, paving the way for the success that had eluded him until his 40th year.Despite the breakthrough, Cox remained better identified with television than film during the late '80s and early '90s, though his roles significantly increased in number. His initiation to regular film work came through appearances in two 1995 sword epics, Braveheart and Rob Roy. Over the latter half of the 1990s he materialized in character-actor roles -- police officers, doctors, fathers -- in such films as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Rushmore (1998), and The Minus Man (1999). Although he appears more often in American than British cinema, Cox has also paid homage to his Scottish and Irish roots, such as playing an IRA heavy in Jim Sheridan's The Boxer (1997).In 2001, Cox secured major acclaim -- and an American Film Institute nomination for best supporting actor -- with the release of L.I.E., the debut film of director Michael Cuesta. Like Todd Solondz' critical darling Happiness (1998), the film presents a child molester (Cox) as one of its major characters without condemning him, if not actually leaving him altogether unjudged. Cox's complicated, intense portrayal enabled such shades of gray, raising the character above the bottom rung of the morality food chain.As the decade continued, so did Cox's visibility in bigger hollywood films. In 2002 alone, he took on substantial roles in The Bourne Identity, The Rookie, The Ring, The 25th Hour, and Adaptation, a film that saw him stealing scenes with an appropriately over-the-top turn as blowhard screenwriting guru Robert McKee. The following year audiences could see him in the blockbuster comic-book sequel X2: X-Men United, and in 2004 he starred alongside Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the epic retelling of the Iliad, Troy. He returned to the Bourne franchise for The Bourne Supremacy, and appeared in the thriller Red Eye. He was the psychiatrist in the comedy Running With Scissors, and in 2007 portrayed Melvin Belli in David Fincher's Zodiac. He was cast in the geriatric action film Red, and joined up with Wes Anderson a second time to lend his voice to a bit part in Fantastic Mr. Fox. In 2011 Ralph Finnes tapped Cox to play Menenius in his big-screen adaptation of The Bard's Coriolanus.

Trivia: A notoriously shy prankster with a penchant for skateboarding and tall tales, Spike Jonze might not have been the most obvious candidate for "most promising director" or "best first feature" status. With the release of Being John Malkovich in the fall of 1999, however, those were exactly the kinds of superlatives being lauded upon the impetuous wunderkind.Purportedly an heir to the Spiegel catalog empire, Jonze was born Adam Spiegel in 1969 in St. Louis, MO. Nicknamed "Spike" at a young age -- he was fond of buzz haircuts -- he would adopt the "Jonze" later in life as an homage to the comic bandleader of the 1940s. After his parents divorced, Jonze spent most of his formative years with his mother in Maryland, where he cultivated interests in skateboarding, freestyle biking, and photography. He opted out of college to take a position at one of his favorite magazines, Freestyle, and before long, he was creating his own monthly, Dirt. The nationally distributed publication promptly failed, and Jonze returned to his bread and butter: shooting photo spreads and videos of skaters.It was Jonze's skateboarding photography which brought the attention of the rock group Sonic Youth, who enlisted him to contribute skate footage to their "100%" video in 1992. From there, video offers streamed in, and Jonze's distinctive clips for bands such as the Breeders, R.E.M., and Weezer quickly made him one of the most sought-after video directors in the business. Even within the confines of a three-minute spot, Jonze would find ways to subtly reference pop culture: his "Sabotage" video for the Beastie Boys aped the look and feel of 1970s cop shows; in the Breeders' "Cannonball," he gave a nod to the 1956 children's classic The Red Balloon; and Jonze transformed Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" into an elaborate musical fantasy number inspired by Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.It didn't take long for the movie industry to take notice, and in 1995, Jonze was offered the chance to direct the film adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon, with a script by The Player scribe Michael Tolkin. After much pre-production work, however, the project went into developmental limbo, and Jonze continued to work on videos and advertisements while he searched for the perfect debut material. It arrived in 1997 in the form of Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman's dark, surreal comedy about the havoc wreaked when a disaffected puppeteer discovers a portal into the mind of the titular actor. Instead of playing up the script's more fantastical elements, Jonze chose to approach the film with an almost deadpan realism, exhibiting his skills with cinéma vérité as well as a particularly uncanny knack for re-creating corporate training films. In 1999, The National Society of Film Critics named Malkovich best picture of the year, and its director was rewarded with best debut feature awards from both the New York Film Critics Association and the Independent Spirit Foundation. Though Jonze would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, the film was shut out of the Best Picture category.Malkovich wasn't the only film for which Jonze was receiving praise in the fall of 1999. After a handful of bit parts in such films as The Game and Mi Vida Loca, he was cast as a dim but well-meaning soldier in director David O. Russell's Gulf War saga Three Kings. Critics noted Jonze's ability to bring depth and warmth to the somewhat stereotypical role of the impudent loose cannon from the backwoods, Private Conrad Vig. 1999 was also the year that Jonze married into one of the most venerable filmmaking clans in America, as he exchanged vows with longtime girlfriend and fellow director Sofia Coppola.Following up Being John Malkovich proved to be no easy task. At the turn of the century, Jonze laid low, lending his skills to more music videos and commercials, and teaming up with skating buddy Johnny Knoxville to create Knoxville's immediately infamous weekly revue of self-mutilation, MTV's Jackass. Around this time, Jonze learned of Kaufman's assignment to translate Susan Orlean's best-selling nonfiction account The Orchid Thief to the screen for Columbia Pictures. Unbeknownst to the studio, Kaufman had decided to write an account of his own difficulties penning the script, an idea aided and abetted by Jonze. The resulting film, Adaptation, arrived in theaters in time for 2002's awards season, and garnered reviews just as favorable as the duo's 1999 effort. Citing the film's sure-handed, matter-of-fact direction -- encompassing two separate but seamlessly integrated Nicolas Cage performances -- critics noted Jonze's skill at managing a wide swath of performance styles, from the two mannered Cages to a contemplative Meryl Streep to a chameleon-like Chris Cooper. Not surprisingly, Kaufman's script and all of the three leads in Adaptation were remembered for Academy Award nods -- with Cooper taking home the statue over Catch Me If You Can's shoo-in, Christopher Walken -- but Jonze found himself shut of the crowded Best Director category.Still, Jonze could take consolation in his considerable box-office returns from 2002: not for Adaptation, which, despite a more aggressive marketing push, failed to top Being John Malkovich's modest 22-million-dollar total. Instead, producers Jonze and Knoxville saw their no-budget, big-screen installment of Jackass power past 60 million dollars, grossing more than a dozen times its cost and sparking many a debate over the death of cinema, the limits of "reality" entertainment, and the merits of inserting sundry implements into one's bodily orifices.Although he and Sofia Coppola ended their marriage after just a short time, Jonze kept busy with a variety of projects including creating a television show and overseeing a DVD collection of many of his best music videos. He produced another feature length Jackass movie, and he took on the responsibility of bringing the beloved children's book Where the Wild Things Are to the big screen. In 2010 he pitched in to help the Jackass crew with their third feature film.