Trivia: One who graduated from obscure actor to Hollywood icon in just a few years, Matt Damon became an instant sensation when he co-wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting with longtime buddy and collaborator Ben Affleck. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was born on October 8, 1970, Damon grew up in prosperous surroundings with his tax preparer father, college professor mother, and older brother. At the age of ten, he befriended Affleck, a boy two years his junior who lived down the street. Educated at Cambridge's Rindge and Latin School, Damon landed his first role in a Hollywood production before the age of 18, with a one-scene turn in Mystic Pizza (1988). Not long after, Damon gained acceptance to Harvard University, where he studied for three years before dropping out to pursue his acting career. During his time there, he had to write a screenplay for an English class, that served as the genesis of Good Will Hunting. Arriving in Hollywood, Damon scored his first big break with a plum role in School Ties opposite Affleck. As the film was a relative flop, Damon's substantial role failed to win him notice, and he was back to laboring in obscurity. It was around this time, fed up with his Hollywood struggles, that Damon contacted Affleck, and the two finished writing the former's Harvard screenplay and began trying to get it made into a film. It was eventually picked up by Miramax, with Gus Van Sant slated to direct and Robin Williams secured in a major role, opposite Damon as the lead. Before Good Will Hunting was released in late 1997, Damon won some measure of recognition for his role as a drug-addicted soldier in Courage Under Fire; various industry observers praised his performance and his dedication to the part, for which he lost forty pounds and suffered resulting health problems. Any praise Damon may have received, however, was overshadowed the following year by the accolades he garnered for Good Will Hunting. His Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay win alongside Damon, and strong performance in the film virtually guaranteed industry adulation and steady employment, a development that became readily apparent the following year with lead roles in two major films. The first, John Dahl's Rounders, cast Damon as a card shark with a serious gambling addiction, who risks his own personal safety when he becomes entangled with a reckless loser buddy (Edward Norton). Damon's second film in 1998, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, brought him even greater recognition. As Ryan's title character, Damon headlined an all-star line-up and received part of the lavish praise heaped on the film and its strong ensemble cast. The following year, Damon signed for leads in two more highly anticipated films, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley and Kevin Smith's Dogma. The former cast the actor against type as the title character, a psychotic bisexual murderer, with a supporting cast that included Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Dogma also allowed Damon to cut against the grain of his nice-guy persona by casting him as a fallen angel. One of the year's more controversial films, the religious comedy reunited him with Affleck, as well as Smith, who had cast Damon in a bit role in his 1997 film, Chasing Amy. Damon next delivered noteworthy performances in a pair of low-grossing, low-key dramas, The Legend of Bagger Vance and All the Pretty Horses (both 2000), before appearing in director Steven Soderbergh's blockbuster remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's Eleven the following year. 2002 found the actor vacillating between earnest indie projects and major Hollywood releases. Behind the camera, Damon joined forces with filmmaker Chris Smith for the Miramax-sponsored Project Greenlight, a screenplay sweepstakes that gave the winner the opportunity to make a feature film and have the process recorded for all to see on an HBO reality series of the same name. Toward the end of 2001, Damon scored a box office triumph with director Doug Liman's jet-setting espionage thriller The Bourne Identity. With this effort, Damon proved once again that he could open a film with just as much star power as his best friend and colleague. Better yet, Bourne reinforced Damon's standings with the critics, who found his performance understated and believable. The press responded less favorably, however, to Damon's reunion project with Van Sant, the experimental arthouse drama Gerry (2003). Also in 2003, Damon starred opposite Greg Kinnear in the Farrelly Brothers' broad comedy Stuck On You, as the shy half of a set of conjoined twins.In 2004, Damon reprised the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy. As the actor's biggest leading-man success to date, it reinforced Damon's continued clout with audiences. Staying on the high-powered sequel bandwagon, he reunited with Brad Pitt and George Clooney for the big-budget neo-rat pack sequel Ocean's Twelve later that year. 2005 was somewhat lower-key for the actor, as he toplined Terry Gilliam's disappointing The Brothers Grimm and joined the sprawling ensemble of Syriana. After working seemingly non-stop for a few years, Damon claimed only a call from Martin Scorsese would get him to give up his resolve to take some time off. Sure enough, that call came. The Departed, an American remake of the Hong Kong mob-mole thriller Infernal Affairs, co-starred Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Playing the squirmy, opportunistic cop to DiCaprio's moral, tormented mobster, Damon underplayed his part to perfection while holding his own opposite his two co-stars. Damon then took the lead role in the Robert De Niro-directed CIA drama The Good Shepherd. In 2007, the actor once again returned to box office franchises for the sequels Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum, the latter of which netted him -- by far -- the largest opening-weekend take of his career to that point. 2009 was another great year for the hard-working star. His turn as the unstable federal informant in Steven Soderbergh's wicked comedy The Informant! earned him rave reviews, and his supporting work in Clint Eastwood's Invicus, as the leader of the South African rugby team, earned Damon nominations from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy. In 2010 he reteamed with Eastwood for the supernatural drama Hereafter, and continued working with the best filmmakers of his time by landing a supporting role in the Coen brothers remake of True Grit. Meanwhile, Damon tried his hand at small screen work with a memorable recurring role as Carol, an airline pilot and sometime boyfriend of Liz Lemon, on the NBC situation comedy 30 Rock and a lauded turn opposite Michael Douglas' Liberace in the TV movie Behind the Candelabra. Damon had long since established himself as an A-list movie star, however, and would continue to star in big screen projects for years to come, including notable titles like Contagion, The Adjustment Bureau, and We Bought a Zoo. Damon next turned in performances in three films set in outer space: Neill Blomkamp's Elysium (2013), a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) and an Oscar-nominated spin in Ridley Scott's The Martian (2015).

Trivia: With a number of high-profile projects, a variety of magazine covers, and a spot on Teen People's 21 Hottest Stars Under 21 list in 1999 under her belt, actress Julia Stiles has come a remarkably long way in a very short time. Born March 28, 1981, in New York City, Stiles was interested in performing from a very young age. When she was eleven years old, she wrote a letter to a Manhattan theater director asking to be cast in a production and was soon acting on-stage in avant-garde plays at both the La Mama and Kitchen Theaters. In 1996, Stiles made her film debut with a small part in I Love You, I Love You Not and the following year had her television debut in the Oprah Winfrey Presents: Before Women Had Wings, in which she played an abused child. The same year, she made a brief appearance as Harrison Ford's daughter in The Devil's Own and followed with roles in two 1998 films, Wide Awake and the Sundance entry Wicked. The year 1999 proved to be Stiles' breakthrough year, as she played a prominent part in the television miniseries The '60s and the lead role in 10 Things I Hate About You, the latest film to mine gold and produce endorsements out of William Shakespeare. The film was a hit, and Stiles was soon being heralded as one of the hottest, young actors of her generation. With her name attached to a number of future projects, it seemed that Stiles would indeed have success in living up to this label.Sure enough, Stiles was almost immediately cast in two modernized-for-MTV-generation Shakespeare flicks, namely director Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000) with Ethan Hawke and O, a teen-oriented adaptation of Othello starring Josh Hartnett and Mekhi Phifer. As classic literature once again fell in place behind predictable romantic comedies, Stiles could be found playing the romantic lead in Down to You with teen movie veteran Freddie Prinze Jr., and alongside Sean Patrick Thomas in Save the Last Dance, which featured Stiles in the role of a grieving ballet dancer who attends an inner-city school and eventually finds love within a primarily black high school. Though the film was not a critical success, Save the Last Dance (2001) and 10 Things I Hate About You nonetheless helped construct Stiles a respectable fan base, and the young actress -- now with a Saturday Night Live credit under her belt -- would continue to build her resumé throughout the early 2000s. In the film adaptation of novelist Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity, Stiles had the chance to participate in a film starring Hollywood golden boy Matt Damon and returned to the role in 2004's The Bourne Supremacy. Stiles was praised for holding her own against Stockard Channing in The Business of Strangers (2001), which was shown at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and fared decently in A Guy Thing, a romantic comedy-of-errors co-starring Jason Lee and Stiles' fellow Down to You alumna Selma Blair. In 2003, Stiles would play opposite the Oscar-winning Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile, which finds Stiles playing a conservative '50s college student whose beliefs undergo some serious scrutiny after coming in contact with an uncharacteristically progressive teacher (Roberts). The year 2004 promised more teen-styled roles; Stiles played the eccentric title character in Carolina under the direction of Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris and worked with director Martha Coolidge and 28 Days Later's Luke Mably in The Prince & Me. A key role in opposite William H. Macy in director Stuard Gordon's critically lauded but little seen David Mamet adaptation Edmond served well to remind audiences of Stiles acting abilities, and the following year the wholesome-looking beauty would serve as mother to the ultimate evil in the high profile horror remake The Omen. Jumping genres to action with The Bourne Ultimatum the following year, Stiles quickly ventured back into dark territory when she joined the cast of the popular Showtime series Dexter in late 2010. Cast as vengeful rape victim Lumen Ann Pierce, the versatile young actress proved an unlikely partner for the murderous protagonist, and earned an Emmy nomination for her role in the process. In 2012, Stiles had a small role in the award-winning Silver Linings Playbook.

Trivia: One of the more underrated actors in Hollywood, tall, soft-spoken David Straithairn has earned almost consistent critical appreciation for his work in a number of films, most notably his many collaborations with director John Sayles. Born in San Francisco on January 26, 1949, Straithairn gained an entrance into acting via his days at Williams College. It was there that he met fellow student Sayles, and the two had their first collaboration with Return of the Seacaucus Seven. The 1980 film, which told the story of a group of friends reuniting after college, inspired a number of similar efforts, including The Big Chill. Following his debut, the actor -- whose additional performing experience came from his training at the Ringling Brothers Clown College -- appeared in supporting roles in a number of films, including Silkwood (1983) and Dominick and Eugene (1988). He continued to collaborate with Sayles, acting in The Brother From Another Planet (1984), Matewan, (1987), and Eight Men Out (1988). Straithairn was also introduced to television audiences with his role as bookstore owner Moss Goodman on the popular dramedy series Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.In the 1990s, Straithairn had prominent roles in a number of critically acclaimed films and television miniseries. In addition to his continuing work with Sayles, in 1991's City of Hope and Passion Fish (1992), the actor lent his talents to such films as Bob Roberts (1992), Sneakers (also 1992), The River Wild (a 1994 film which reunited him with Silkwood co-star Meryl Streep), and Losing Isaiah (1995). He also appeared in miniseries such as the 1991 O Pioneers! and In the Gloaming (1997), in which he played the father of an AIDS-stricken Robert Sean Leonard. In 1997, Straithairn had a memorable turn as a high-class pimp with a dodgy mustache in the wildly lauded L.A. Confidential and after a supporting role in Simon Birch (1998), once again collaborated with Sayles, this time playing a fisherman with a past in the 1999 Limbo. He remained one of the most respected character actors of his generation appearing as the father in the remake of The Miracle Worker, and starring in the drama Blue Car as a manipulative teacher. In 2005 he garnered an Oscar nomination and the biggest high-profile success of his career playing Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck. He followed up that success with appearances in such films as We Are Marshall, The Bourne Ultimatum, Howl, and Temple Grandin. In 2012 he was cast in Steven Spielberg's long-planned biopic Lincoln as William Seward.

Trivia: Ex-marine and ex-newspaper reporter Scott Glenn was ideally suited to the action-oriented films that would become his lot in the 1980s and 1990s. After learning the rudiments of his craft at the Actors Studio and appearing off-Broadway, Glenn made his film bow in 1970's The Baby Maker. He was rescued from low-budget cycle flicks by director Robert Altman, who cast Glenn as Pfc. Glenn Kelly in Nashville (1975). As rangy and rugged off-camera as on, Glenn was one of the few film actors of recent years to flourish in western roles: among his more impressive credits within this genre are Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), Silverado (1985), My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1993), and, stretching a point a bit, Urban Cowboy (1980). Glenn has been equally laudable in such suit-and-tie roles as Jodie Foster's FBI chief in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), in "military" assignments like astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff (1981) and the U.S. sub commander in Hunt for Red October (1990). As a tribute to Robert Altman, the director who elevated him to "A" pictures back in 1975, Scott Glenn accepted a drastic cut in salary to portray "Himself" in Altman's The Player (1992). Over the next several years, Glenn remained active on screen, appearing in films like Training Day, The Virgin Suicides, The Bourne Ultimatum, W., and The Paperboy.

Trivia: Born in England, Paddy Considine worked as a photographer before turning to acting full-time. In 1999, he made quite a worthwhile film debut in the comedy drama A Room for Romeo Brass, directed by Shane Meadows. He played Morell, the strange and dangerous character who comes between the two 12-year-old leads (Andrew Shim and Ben Marshall). In 2000, he turned to more intimate drama in Pawel Pawlikowski's Last Resort. He won festival acclaim for his role of Alfie, an arcade owner in Northern England who befriends a Russian immigrant (Dina Korzun) and her son (Artiom Strelnikov). Considine returned to lighter material for his next few films: the relationship comedy Born Romantic, the strangely dark crime comedy Happy Now, and the poorly received nightmare-vacation film The Martins. By 2002, he had started to gain a little more international exposure outside of the U.K. He portrayed New Order manager Rob Groton in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, a funny biopic about the Manchester music scene that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. After starring in Nick Willing's crime thriller Hypnotic (also released as Doctor Sleep), he got his first major leading role in Jim Sheridan's semi-autobiographic drama In America. Considine adopted an Irish accent to play Johnny, Sheridan's fictional counterpart. An out-of-work actor, Johnny immigrates to New York City with his wife (Samantha Morton), daughters (Emma and Sarah Bolger), and a lot of emotional baggage. Considine also appeared in the Coldplay music video for "God Put a Smile on Your Face".

Trivia: Throughout his acting career, Albert Finney has impressed critics with his protean ability to step into a role and wear a character's persona no matter the age, nationality, or métier. In stage, film, and television productions over more than 40 years, Finney has portrayed a Polish pope, a Belgian detective, an Irish gangster, a British miser, a gruff American lawyer, a Scottish King, a German religious reformer, and an Roman warrior -- all with convincing authenticity. Finney was born on May 9, 1936, in the working-class town of Salford, Lancashire, England. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1955, he performed Shakespeare and quickly earned a coveted spot as understudy for the great Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare productions at Stratford-upon-Avon. On one occasion, he stepped into Olivier's shoes to play the lead role in Coriolanus, a play about the downfall of a proud Roman soldier, and won recognition that led to film roles.Finney's upbringing in Lancashire, a region of mills and smokestacks, exposed him to the kind of social injustice and economic hardship that helped prepare him for his role as a nonconformist factory worker in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a milestone in the development of British realist cinema. Critics -- who hardly noticed him in the bit-part role he played in his first film, The Entertainer -- universally praised his vibrant performance in Saturday Night. This success earned him the lead role in director Tony Richardson's 1963 film Tom Jones, adapted by screenwriter John Osborne from the Henry Fielding novel of the same name. As the wenching country boy Jones, Finney was a bawdy, rollicking, uproarious success, helping the film win four Academy awards.Rather than abandon live stage drama, Finney continued to pursue it with the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in London, performing in Shakespeare productions and plays by other authors. He won Tony nominations for Luther and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, as well as a best actor Oliver for Orphans. When he made his next film in 1967, he starred opposite Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Two for the Road, a comedy-drama about marital mayhem, and again won high critical praise.If there was a pattern to the types of roles he selected, it was that there was no pattern. For example, after playing a 20th century art enthusiast in 1969's Picasso Summer, he took on the role of a 19th century Dickens character in Scrooge (1970), then played a bickering husband in Alpha Beta (1973), Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), a Napoleon-era Frenchman in The Duellists (1978), a werewolf hunter in Wolfen (1981), and a plastic surgeon/murder suspect in the ludicrous Looker (1981).After winning an Academy award nomination for his performance in 1982's Shoot the Moon, Finney delivered another outstanding performance in Peter Yates' 1983 film The Dresser, which earned five Oscar nominations, including a nomination for Finney as best actor. In the film, Finney plays a boozing Shakespearean actor whose life strangely parallels the tragic life of one of the characters he portrays, King Lear. In 1984, Finney won still another Oscar nomination, as well as a Golden Globe nomination, for his role as a self-defeating alcoholic in director John Huston's Under the Volcano. In the same year, critics praised him highly for his dynamic portrayal of Pope John Paul II in an American TV production.Finney continued to take on diverse and challenging roles in the late 1980s and during the 1990s, primarily in small, independent productions. Among the films that earned him more accolades were the Coen brothers' gangster epic Miller's Crossing (1990) -- for which Finney replaced actor Trey Wilson after his untimely death -- as well as A Man of No Importance (1994), The Browning Version (1995), and Simpatico (1999). Also in 1999, he won the BAFTA TV award for best actor for his role in A Rather English Marriage. 2000's Erin Brockovich exposed Finney to the widest audience he'd seen in years: playing the hangdog attorney Ed Masry, Finney proved to be the perfect comic foil to Julia Roberts' brassy heroine, and in the process secured himself Golden Globe and Academy award nominations for best supporting actor. Though a Golden Globe Award eluded him that year, he returned in two years and won for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the made-for-television film The Gathering Storm.2003 saw Finney in his biggest role since Erin Brockovich. In Tim Burton's Big Fish, he played Edward Bloom in present-day scenes, while Ewan McGregor assumed the role of the eccentric storyteller in flashbacks. The actor once again proved to be a favorite of the Hollywood Foreign Press when he received yet another Golden Globe nomination for his work.2006 found the now veteran actor appearing in the Ridley Scott dramedy A Good Year, in which he played the uncle to a younger version of Russell Crowe through flashbacks. He also signed on to appear in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a thriller staring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei. In 2007 he was cast as the mastermind behind the program that created Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum, a roll he reprised five years later in The Bourne Legacy.Over the years, Finney saw the end of two major performances in his personal life: his first marriage to Jane Wenham (1957-61) and his second marriage to Anouk Aimée (1970-1978). He has one son, Simon, from his first marriage.

Trivia: Largely underappreciated for years in Hollywood before her Oscar-nominated turn as the First Lady in Nixon (1995), Joan Allen has had a distinguished career encompassing the stage, screen, and television. A native of Rochelle, Illinois, where she was born August 20, 1956, the blond, swanlike actress developed an interest in acting while in high school. Voted Most Likely to Succeed by her senior class, Allen went on to study theatre at Eastern Illinois University. She then moved to Chicago, where she became one of the founding members of the vaunted Steppenwolf Theatre Company, along with such respected talents as Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.Allen made her screen debut with a small role in the 1985 film Compromising Positions and a year later played two wildly different characters in Manhunter and Peggy Sue Got Married. Her portrayals of a tragically confused young woman who attempts to seduce a serial killer in the former film and a brainy high school student in the latter impressed a number of critics, but it was on the stage that Allen was most appreciated. In 1988, she won a Tony award for her Broadway debut performance in Burn This, and a year later she earned her second Tony nomination for her role in Wendy Wasserstein's highly acclaimed The Heidi Chronicles.Following increasingly substantial roles in such films as In Country (1989), Ethan Frome (1992), and Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Allen won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her stunning portrayal of First Lady Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon. The acclaim surrounding her performance in the 1995 film finally gave Allen the Hollywood recognition she deserved; the following year this recognition was further enhanced with her Oscar-nominated turn as the long-suffering Elizabeth Proctor in Nicholas Hytner's adaptation of The Crucible.More praise came Allen's way in 1997, when she headlined a stellar ensemble cast in Ang Lee's lauded adaptation of Rick Moody's The Ice Storm. Starring as a troubled upper middle-class Connecticut housewife alongside the likes of Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Christina Ricci, and Tobey Maguire, Allen gave repression a stirring, beautifully nuanced name. That same year she went in a completely different direction, starring as the wife of an FBI agent (John Travolta) in John Woo's popular action thriller Face/Off. Allen returned to the realm of the repressed housewife in 1998, starring (and reuniting with Maguire) in the acclaimed 1950s-set comedy drama Pleasantville. The turn of the century found Allen taking leads in a trio of issue-oriented dramas: In the multi-character handgun treatise All the Rage (released on video in 2000), she played the wife of a short-fused lawyer (reuniting with Pleasantville's Jeff Daniels in the process); in the Irish production When the Sky Falls, she teamed with The Long Good Friday (1980) director John Mackenzie to tell the true, tragic story of a Dublin crime reporter; and in Rod Lurie's The Contender, Allen nabbed her biggest role to date -- and her first Best Actress Oscar nomination -- as a would-be U.S. vice president who finds herself at the center of a sex scandal.After all the attention for The Contender, the savvy Allen continued to oscillate between big roles in low-profile independent films and small roles in big-budget popcorn fare, to even greater success. She featured prominently in two of the biggest box-office hits of 2004: the sentimental romance The Notebook and the wildly successful second installment of the Jason Bourne franchise, The Bourne Supremacy. In the latter, she dug into a meaty, sympathetic supporting role as an all-business CIA agent who pursues the framed title character. Spring 2005 saw the near-concurrent release of two of her indie films, both of which premiered at Sundance Festivals from years prior: Campbell Scott's lapsed-hippie family drama Off the Map and Mike Binder's Terms of Endearment-ish saga The Upside of Anger. The former cast Allen against type as a let-it-all-hang-out New Mexico naturalist who finds her family coming apart at the seams in the mid-1970s. More widely acclaimed was her Anger appearance: As a drunk, headstrong, suburban Detroit housewife who lashes out at her four daughters -- and everyone else -- after her husband leaves the family, Allen turned in a performance that was both caustic and relatable, and garnered some of the best notices of her film career.In 2008 she played the bad guy in the action film Death Race, and the year after that she starred as Georgia O'Keefe in the biopic about her directed by Bob Balaban. She returned to the role of Pamela Landy for The Bourne Legacy, the Tony Gilroy directed reboot of the popular franchise that featured Jeremy Renner taking over the title role.

Trivia: Emmigrated to the USA when he was 5-years old in 1952. Performed with the Dinglefest Theatre Company when he was at Northern Illinois University. Worked frequently with the playwright-director David Mamet when he was part of the Chicago theatre scene. Played the role of Mr. Robinson in a Broadway production of The Graduate in 2002. Played the role of Benjamin Franklin in a theatre production of Mr Foote's Other Leg at the Hampstead Theatre in 2015. Involved in a charity auction for Art for Cure, raising money for the care and cure of breast cancer in 2016.

Trivia: Made his television debut as DC Aplin in Prime Suspect: The Lost Child.Performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1995. Won the Ian Charleson award in 1997, for his performance as Konstantin in The Seagull. Played real-life figure Alistair Campbell in the 2006 film adaptation of The Queen. In 2017, starred as Jim Atwood in the third series of ITV crime drama Broadchurch.

Trivia: Began Tae Kwon Do training at age 14. Is a kickboxing instructor for the Professional Karate Association. One of his earliest acting roles was in the British soap Doctors, which filmed in his hometown of Birmingham. Frequently collaborates with director Isaac Florentine, beginning with 2003's Special Forces. Tore his ACL six weeks before filming began on Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012), but filmed that movie and his next three with it torn so he wouldn't have to back out of any commitments.

Trivia: Played on his high school's baseball and football teams. Attended college on a music scholarship. Considered becoming a physical therapist. Broke into acting when movie Benny & Joon (1993) filmed in Spokane, WA, and he served as a stand-in for Aidan Quinn. Made his big-screen debut with a small role in the 1995 thriller Crimson Tide. In 2001, started a fitness company, Bioconstructs, which teaches biomechanics to fitness professionals. Was passed over for the role of Kevin Buchanan on One Life to Live, but in 2003, won the part of Walker Laurence/Todd Manning. As a jazz percussionist, has played with musicians such as Marshall Royal, Slide Hampton, Bill Berry and Gene Harris. Has put his drum skills on display at ABC Super Soap Weekend events. Won Best Actor at the NYC Downtown Short Film Festival and the Staten Island Film Festival for his performance in the short The Art of Getting Over It (2009), which he also co-wrote and co-produced. Practices Tibetan Buddhist meditation.

Trivia: Born in Spain to a Catalan mother and Brazilian-born German father, and was subsequently raised in Germany and spent summers in Spain. Got his start on the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe in 1995. Speaks several languages; in Joyeux Noël, he speaks German, French and English. Owns a Spanish tapas bar, Bar Raval, in Berlin.

Trivia: Actor Edgar Ramirez specialized in playing thuggish, brutal types onscreen -- an image he used to portray characters on both sides of the law with great effectiveness. Growing up in his native Venezuela, Ramirez originally planned to enter a career on the landscape of global politics, as an outlet for his fascination with the human condition. Instead, he caught the drama bug early on (when a university professor felt impressed by Ramirez's work in a student film and suggested that he continue acting), and in fact warmed to it for the same basic reason -- because it gave him an opportunity to explore different perspectives, scenarios, and ideas. In the mean time, Ramirez did in fact involve himself in Venezuelan politics, specifically in the organization Dale al Voto. The actor appeared onscreen in Spanish-language productions in the early 2000s, but signed for his first major international crossover role as a bounty hunter in Tony Scott's hell-raising actioner Domino (2005). Ramirez followed this up with a high-profile turn as a nasty hit man who marks Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) for death in Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and appeared in a small supporting role in the political thriller Vantage Point (2008), starring Dennis Quaid and Forest Whitaker.

Trivia: Renowned for his startling realism, British-born director Paul Greengrass got his start working on the U.K. documentary series World in Action before taking his first stab at a feature with 1989's The Resurrection. The harsh anti-war film followed a soldier in the aftermath of the Falklands war and was nominated for the Golden Bear award at that year's Berlin Film Festival.Throughout most of the '90s, Greengrass worked primarily in television, helming such well-received TV movies as Open Fire and The One That Got Away, but he returned to the big screen in 1998 with the romantic comedy drama The Theory of Flight. The film had a lighter tone compared to Greengrass' other work and was met with mixed reviews. However, his next project, 2002's Bloody Sunday, was a return to form and garnered nearly unanimous acclaim. The fictional account of the titular massacre netted the director both another Golden Bear and the audience prize at Sundance.Greengrass' next film would find him taking a more commercial turn, as he took over directing reigns from Doug Liman for the sequel The Bourne Supremacy. Despite the dark tone of the action film, it was a box-office hit, and Greengrass earned enough cred to land a directing gig on United 93, Universal's docudrama about the ill-fated airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, after passengers overtook a group of hijackers. Using a cast of relative unknowns, Greengrass created a stark and unglamorized portrait of the tragedy and those involved. Though many approached the film with trepidation for fear that it was an attempt to exploit and capitalize on a still-open wound, it won high praise from audiences and critics alike, landing on several year-end best-of lists and earning Greengrass his first Academy Award nomination.In 2007, Greengrass returned to the Jason Bourne saga with The Bourne Ultimatum, the third and arguably most-intense entry in the espionage series. The pared-down action and striking handheld camerawork won over audiences and critics, even more so than Supremacy. Greengrass worked with Matt Damon again in 2010 when he directed Green Zone, a thriller following the unraveling of a conspiracy in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion.

Trivia: Screenwriter Tony Gilroy debuted as a scribe on a lucrative but uncharacteristic note -- lucrative because the 1992 sports-themed romantic comedy The Cutting Edge (which Gilroy scripted) grossed a respectable 25 million dollars at the domestic box office; uncharacteristic because that film in no way presaged the genres in which Gilroy came to specialize. Time and again, over the following decades, Gilroy churned out scripts for intense variants on the thriller formula -- outings that exhibited a propensity for not only high-ratcheted suspense but literate subtexts and polished dialogue. These included the incest-themed Stephen King melodrama Dolores Claiborne (1995), the medical ethos-tinged suspenser Extreme Measures (1996), and the supernaturally charged, darkly comic thriller The Devil's Advocate (1997). Gilroy's activity surged after the turn of the millennium, when producers tapped him to script the first three installments in the Bourne series of films, adapted from the novels by Robert Ludlum. In 2007, Gilroy debuted as a director, helming his own script for the hotly anticipated legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007). The picture concerned a morally dubious fixer for a major Manhattan law firm (George Clooney), faced with the most daunting moral, ethical, and logistical crisis of his legal career. The film opened to largely positive reviews, and went on to capture Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

Trivia: A 1988 graduate of Brown University, director Doug Liman found almost overnight success with his 1996 film Swingers. Only Liman's second film to date, it was written by his buddy Jon Favreau, who also acted as one of the film's stars alongside Vince Vaughn. The story of a group of Rat Pack-worshipping friends looking for a little love, the film hit an immediate chord among audiences who were intrigued -- and perhaps even a little repulsed -- by what one critic called "a worm's-eye-view" of male dating rituals. Its critical and commercial success enabled Liman (who had previously directed the 1994 black comedy Getting In) to have his choice of subsequent projects. He opted for Go, a 1999 ensemble piece featuring a virtual who's who of the Young and Hot (including Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, and Scott Wolf). The film met with mixed reviews that tended toward the positive, ensuring that, whatever the future held for Liman, employment was most likely a given. Following a three-year period in which little was heard from the hot-property director, Liman returned with another attempt at capturing his unique brand of infectious energy, The Bourne Identity. Based on Robert Ludlum's novel concerning a hunted amnesiac attempting to unravel his mysterious past and inspired by the fever-pitch energy of Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run (1998), The Bourne Identity featured Matt Damon as the titular hero and Lola herself (Franka Potente) as the woman who aids him in his quest. Additionally, the film also served as a potential franchise springboard for a series of Universal films documenting the further adventures of Jason Bourne.

Trivia: The work of sound department mixer Bob Beemer simply must be heard to be believed. From his work on such elaborate productions as James Cameron's underwater epic The Abyss to such low-key works as Sommersby (both 1993), Beemer's work is always sure to subtly enhance any film that it accompanies. A Los Angeles native and Loyola Marymount University graduate, Beemer was first nominated for a Best Sound Oscar for his work in the mountainous Sylvester Stallone thriller Cliffhanger (1993). Following the old adage "if at first you don't succeed, try and try again," Beemer did just that, winning the Oscar the following year for his work in Speed. Continuing work on such films as Independence Day (1996) and American Beauty (1999), Beemer returned to the Academy Awards again in 2001 to accept the Best Sound Oscar (along with fellow collaborators Scott Millan and Ken Weston) for his work on Ridley Scott's large-scale Gladiator.

Trivia: Wanted to be a stunt man when he was growing up. Was inspired to become an actor while helping a friend film short scenes in Queen's Park age 18. His big break was a 2-episode role in Sky One's Dream Team in 2003; was later promoted to a series regular. In 2005, starred in the comedy-drama play The Brothers by Angie Le Mar at the Hackney Empire. Appeared in the play Kingston 14 at Theatre Royal alongside the musician Goldie in 2014. Is a supporter of the African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust, appearing at the charity's 20th anniversary party in 2016.