Trivia: As the only child of a stylist father and a mother who produced runway exhibitions, French actor Gaspard Ulliel came of age in the shadow of the Parisian fashion world. Ulliel undertook an early foray into drama, when an adult friend of the family sought to establish an agency for child actors and -- impressed by Ulliel's visage and natural ability -- asked the then 11-year-old actor to join. Ulliel instantly agreed, and debuted with roles in numerous French telemovies.Ulliel's first taste of international exposure arrived in 2001, when the 17-year-old actor appeared as Louis in Christophe Gans and Pascal Laugier's fantasy and martial arts epic Brotherhood of the Wolf (aka La Pacte des Loups). Derived from a legendary series of events in French history, the picture weaves the tale of a strange, rhinoceros-like beast that prowls the countryside and devours hundreds of victims, but is countered by a team of local warriors. Although the role of Louis was a relatively small part, Ulliel's work caught the eye of the brilliant French director André Téchiné, who cast the teenager opposite the luminous French actress Emmanuelle Béart in his WWII drama Strayed (aka Les Égarés, 2003). As Yves, a rough-hewn, working-class Frenchman who helps lead Béart's widow and her children to safety in an isolated, rural cabin (and subsequently conducts an affair with Béart), Ulliel impressed everyone with his haunting presence. As one journalist observed, this role finally "made critics take notice."Ulliel continued his history of pairing up with French screen goddesses when director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (of Delicatessen and Amélie fame) enlisted him as the missing soldier lover and fiancé of Audrey Tautou's Mathilde in the 2004 wartime romance A Very Long Engagement (aka Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles). The picture swept away the hearts of critics and the public when it premiered in late 2004 and received two Academy Award nominations. And although Ulliel's character is, by the very nature of the story, offscreen for much of the film, he made an enduring impression and continued his career ascent.Ulliel received premier onscreen billing for the first occasion in 2005, as Simon, a young man en route to spend Christmas with his über-dysfunctional French family, in Rodolphe Marconi's disturbingly intimate drama The Last Day (aka La Dernier Jour). That same year, Ulliel joined the massive ensemble cast of Richard Dembo's La Maison de Nina, and shot "Marais," Gus Van Sant's contribution to the film-a-sketch Paris, Je t'Aime (2007), while gearing up for his American debut.That debut (a natural for Ulliel, who speaks fluent English) arrived in the form of Peter Webber's 2007 horror picture Hannibal Rising -- the Dino de Laurentiis Company's fifth installment in the ongoing series of films about Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, the psychopathic madman who devours his victims. In the film, Ulliel plays Lecter at a young age. The story finds him watching helplessly, and driven over the edge into insane fury, as his family is slaughtered by a bunch of crazed soldiers; he then ultimately enrolls in medical school to learn how to extract brutal anatomical revenge on the war criminals responsible for extinguishing his clan. He went on to appear in The Third Part of the World, Inside Ring, The Vintner's Luck and The Princess of Montpensier.

Trivia: Welsh actor Rhys Ifans has not only one of the most distinctive names in the film industry but also one of its most idiosyncratic appearances. Tall, lanky, and snaggletoothed, Ifans can go from raving freak to persuasive romantic interest in less time than it takes to pronounce his name correctly.Ifans got his start acting in a number of Welsh language dramas and comedies, and he made his feature film debut in Anthony Hopkins' August (1996). The following year, he was part of one of the most successful films in Great Britain in 1997 when he starred in Twin Town. As one half of a set of twins (the other was portrayed by his real-life brother, Llyr Evans), he played what was undoubtedly one of the most riveting and revolting characters to come into contact with film audiences in years. The film's success opened the way for more work, and the following year he did a complete about-face, appearing as the charmingly errant father of Catherine McCormack's young son in Dancing at Lughnasa.The year after that, Ifans rejected grooming and general communication skills to play the role that was to give him international recognition, starring as Hugh Grant's hygienically challenged roommate in the romantic comedy Notting Hill. Many a critic agreed that Ifans virtually stole the show from his better-known co-stars, and that same year he had a chance to prove himself further in such diverse features as Heart, a black comedy in which he played a writer; and Rancid Aluminum, in which he starred as a man forced into business with the Russian mob after his father's death. Following an unlikely appearance as a football player in The Replacements (2000) and a turn as the son of Old Scratch in Little Nicky (2000), Ifans' role as a socially challenged forest dweller turned opera-loving socialite in the eccentric Human Nature provided audiences with abundant laughs and a further glimpse into the quirkiness of a truly unique actor.Of course the ever-eccentric Ifans was only warming up, and after supporting roles in such efforts as The 51st State, The Shipping News and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands Ifans once again took the lead in the 2003 comedy Donnie Deckchair. Cast as a man whose desperate attempt to escape the monotony of suburban life includes a bundle of large helium balloons and a lightweight deck chair, Ifans charmed Australian audiences in the family-friendly effort. Outside of his film work, Ifans briefly served as lead singer of the band Super Furry Animals before they struck the big time in the late 1990s.In 2006 he voiced McBunny in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, but had major roles the next year in two very different projects -- Hannibal Rising and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He appeared in 2009's Pirate Radio, reteaming with Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis. Ifans had a strong supporting turn in Greenberg in 2010, and was center stage in Roland Emmerich's Shakespearean drama Anonymous in 2011. The next year he was part of the cast of the Spider-Man reboot, and was the romantic rival to Jason Segel in the comedy The Five-Year Engagement.

Trivia: His role as Sandra Bullock's egotistical, self-absorbed fiancé offering audiences a hilarious glimpse of the handsome actor's notable comic talents, actor Dominic West has since gone on to display his versatility in such notably diverse projects as the acclaimed HBO series The Wire and director Rob Marshall's Best Picture-winning musical Chicago (2000). Born into a family of seven children in Sheffield, England, West's father was the owner of a plastics manufacturing plant and his mother a homemaker with a taste for the theater. At first employed in such unglamorous positions as that of a cattle herder in Argentina, it wasn't long before West enrolled in Dublin's Trinity College and graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. His love of acting propelled him next to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and West graduated from the prestigious school in 1995. Though he had previous acting experience in a few minor film roles, it was the late '90s that found West's career truly beginning to bloom. A small role in Spice World was followed by a notable performance in the British miniseries Out of Hours (1998), and after minor roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace (both 1999), he got his big feature break with 28 Days Later. As the millennium turned, so did West's career; in 2001, he took to the screen with Mark Wahlberg in the musical drama Rock Star. Cast in the lead of HBO's The Wire shortly thereafter, the show debuted in 2002 to glowing critical reviews. On that program, West played Detective Jimmy McNulty, a gifted yet defiantly individualistic Irish-American detective with the Baltimore Police Department whose penchant for subverting the traditional methods of police investigations consistently threatened to get him in hot water. The program's five seasons (all of which featured McNulty in a significant capacity) found the character (among other subplots) attempting to bring down the elusive Barksdale drug ring, aggressively attempting to solve an enigmatic series of murders, and struggling with alcoholism, as he juggled a romantic relationship with Port Authority officer Beattie Russell (Amy Ryan). Following a pair of memorable performances in Chicago and Mona Lisa Smile (2003), West appeared in director Joseph Ruben's supernatural thriller The Forgotten in 2004.He subsequently played a police inspector in the gory thriller Hannibal Rising (2007) and a devious political leader in the period epic 300 (2007). His big-screen career continued with Punisher: War Zone,Arthur Christmas, Johnny English Reborn, and John Carter, while he continued his well-respected television career by starring in The Hour.

Trivia: A Scottish actor whose heritage is betrayed as much by his pale skin and red hair as it is by his accent, Kevin McKidd first earned recognition in 1996 with parts in Trainspotting and Small Faces, two films that helped to put the Scottish film industry on the world cinema map. Born and raised in Elgin, a town in the northeast of Scotland, McKidd developed an interest in acting early on and was active with the Moray Youth Theatre throughout his childhood and adolescence. His time as an engineering student at the University of Edinburgh produced little in the way of engineering but did allow McKidd to rack up experience as part of the university's Bedlam Theatre. Finally deciding to chuck his course of study in order to pursue acting full-time, he enrolled in the Queen Margaret Drama School, where he trained until he graduated in 1994. Immediately after his graduation, McKidd auditioned for and won the lead role in The Silver Darlings, which was staged by Robert Carlyle's Rain Dog Theatre Company. This was followed by his casting as a vicious Glasgow gang leader in Gillies MacKinnon's Small Faces (1995) and his role as Tommy, an Iggy Pop-worshipping, AIDS-stricken heroin addict in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996). The huge success of the latter film got McKidd noticed, although his performance was largely overshadowed by those of co-stars Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle. However, the actor soon found more work headed in his direction and spent the rest of the decade appearing in a steady stream of small art house pictures. Among the films he appeared in were Gilles MacKinnon's Hideous Kinky (1998), in which he had a cameo as a massively stoned traveler in Morocco and Rose Troche's Bedrooms and Hallways (1998), in which he starred as a gay man grappling with bisexual urges. In addition to his work on the screen, McKidd remained active on the stage, portraying the title character in the Almeida Theatre production of Jean Racine's Britannicus and starring alongside Jude Law in director Jonathan Kent's Albery Theatre production of John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. He worked steadily throughout the next decade in projects like Anna Karenina, Dog Soldiers, and the biopic De-Lovely. In 2005 he appeared in Ridley Scott's epic Kingdom of Heaven, and that same year he was cast in the historical series Rome. Two years later he had a major role in the Silence of the Lambs prequel Hannibal Rising. The following year, in 2008, McKidd joined the ensemble cast of Grey's Anatomy, which scaled back his film work. In 2010 he was cast as Poseidon, the father of the young hero in Percy Jackson & The Olympians. He joined the Pixar family in 2012 giving voice to Lord MacGuffin in Brave.

Trivia: Made his acting debut in the children's series Dramarama. Is a member of The Disco Smith Band, an indie group based in Liverpool. His role of Angus Mhor is a minor character in the Outlander books, but was expanded for the television series. Was nominated for a Royal Television Society Best Actor award in 2013 for his role in the Sky Arts drama Ragged. Won a Satellite Award for Best Ensemble (Television) for his role in Outlander in 2016. As well as being an accomplished actor and musician, he has written and/or directed several short films, including Danny Boy, a drama about a man who has to come to terms with his mother's Alzheimer's disease.

Trivia: As the radiantly beautiful star of Zhang Yimou's finest films, Gong Li became the darling of the international art house circuit and China's most famous actress. Whether playing a pregnant villager searching for justice or a rich man's concubine struggling to survive, she lends her characters a grace and sensuality that keeps international audiences transfixed. Born in December 31st,1965 in northeastern Shenyang, Gong was the youngest daughter of an economics professor. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress, and at school she excelled at singing and dancing almost to the exclusion of other subjects. In spite of failing her college exam twice, she was eventually accepted to the Beijing Central College of Drama in 1985. At that time, Chinese cinema was experiencing a renaissance after the tumult of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) had just taken the Hong Kong International Film Festival by storm, heralding the rise of the Fifth Generation of filmmakers. One of these young directors was Zhang, the cinematographer for Yellow Earth, who cast Gong in his debut project, Red Sorghum (1987). Immediately a critical and commercial success both abroad and at home, the film garnered the Golden Bear award at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival and thrust both director and star into the international limelight.Their professional and well-publicized personal relationship would go on to shape Chinese cinema for the next decade. Yimou's films made Li an international household name, while Li's undeniable presence pulled in audiences. After appearing in the forgettable Codename Cougar (1987) and starring opposite her beau in The Terracotta Warrior (1989), Li grabbed the attention of international audiences again with the Academy Award-nominated Ju Dou (1990). Her performance as the beleaguered bride of a bitter, impotent old man glistened with barely repressed sexuality, and fierce, gleeful vengeance. In her next film, Raise the Red Lantern (1992), widely considered Yimou's masterpiece, Li again brilliantly played a woman whose independence and sensuality are oppressed by a rigidly patriarchal culture. Yet Li's performance in The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) is perhaps her most memorable. Instead of playing the object of obsession, she portrayed an unflagging agent of justice in the guise of a dumpy, pregnant peasant woman. The change in characters paid off, as she won a Best Actress award at the 1992 Venice International Film Festival. After playing the lead in Sylvia Chang's well-received Mary from Beijing (1992), Li played a prostitute turned opera star's wife turned enemy of the people in Kaige's stunning, Farewell, My Concubine (1993), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. For the first time, Li received international acclaim in a film not directed by Yimou. Though she would star in two more of Yimou's films, To Live (1994) and Shanghai Triad (1995), her career started to take her in a different direction. After the latter was released, the press reported that Li and Yimou had officially ended both their personal and professional relationships. That same year, she married Singapore tobacco tycoon Ooi Hoe Soeng. Since then, she has appeared in two more Kaige films, Temptress Moon (1996) and The Emperor and the Assassin (1999). In 1997, she appeared in her first English language role opposite Jeremy Irons in Chinese Box (1997). Her star continuing to shine brightly in such homegrown efforts as Zhou Yu's Train and Wong Kar Wei's romantic drama 2046, the Chinese actress raised a few eyebrows when cast in the role of a Japanese geisha in director Rob Marshall's 2005 effort Memoirs of a Geisha. A featured role opposite Collin Farrell and Jamie Foxx in the eagerly-anticipated big screen action extravaganza Miami Vice would find Li returning stateside to appear before the cameras once again in 2005.