Trivia: One of Hollywood's sexiest and most magnetic leading men, Denzel Washington's poise and radiantly sane intelligence permeate whatever film he is in, be it a socially conscious drama, biopic, or suspense thriller. More importantly, Washington's efforts, alongside those of director Spike Lee, have done much to dramatically expand the range of dramatic roles given to African-American actors and actresses.The son of a Pentecostal minister and a hairdresser, Washington was born in Mount Vernon, NY, on December 28, 1954. His parents' professions shaped Washington's early ambition to launch himself into show business: from his minister father he learned the power of performance, while hours in his mother's salon (listening to stories) gave him a love of storytelling. Unfortunately, when Washington was 14, his folks' marriage took a turn for the worse, and he and his older sister were sent away to boarding school so that they would not be exposed to their parents' eventual divorce. Washington later attended Fordham University, where he attained a B.A. in Journalism in 1977. He still found time to pursue his interest in acting, however, and after graduation he moved to San Francisco, where he won a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theatre. Washington stayed with the ACT for a year, and, after his time there, he began acting in various television movies and made his film debut in the 1981 Carbon Copy. Although he had a starring role (as the illegitimate son of a rich white man), Washington didn't find real recognition until he joined the cast of John Falsey and Joshua Brand's long-running TV series St. Elsewhere in 1982. He won critical raves and audience adoration for his portrayal of Dr. Phillip Chandler, and he began to attract Hollywood notice. In 1987, he starred as anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom alongside Kevin Kline, and though the film itself alienated some critics (Pauline Kael called it "dumbfounding"), Washington's powerful performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.Two years later, Washington netted another Best Supporting Actor nod -- and won the award -- for his turn as an embittered yet courageous runaway slave in the Civil War drama Glory. The honor effectively put him on the Hollywood A-List. Some of his more notable work came from his collaboration with director Spike Lee; over the course of the 1990s, Washington starred in three of his films, playing a jazz trumpeter in Mo' Better Blues (1990), the title role in Lee's epic 1992 biopic Malcolm X (for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination), and the convict father of a high-school basketball star in He Got Game (1998).Washington also turned in powerful performances in a number of other films, such as Mississippi Masala (1991), as a man in love with an Indian woman; Philadelphia (1993), as a slightly homophobic lawyer who takes on the cause of an AIDS-stricken litigator (Tom Hanks); and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), as a 1940s private detective, Easy Rawlins. Washington also reeled in large audiences in action roles, with the top box-office draw of such thrillers as The Pelican Brief (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), and The Siege (1998) attesting to his capabilities. In 1999, Washington starred in another thriller, The Bone Collector, playing a paralyzed forensics expert who joins forces with a young policewoman (Angelina Jolie) to track down a serial killer. That same year, he starred in the title role of Norman Jewison's The Hurricane. Based on the true story of a boxer wrongly accused of murdering three people in 1966, the film featured stellar work by Washington as the wronged man, further demonstrating his remarkable capacity for telling a good story. His performance earned him a number of honors, including a Best Actor Golden Globe and a Best Actor Oscar nomination.After another strong performance as a high-school football coach in Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans, Washington cut dramatically against his "nice guy" typecast to play a corrupt policeman in Training Day, a gritty cop drama helmed by Antoine Fuqua. Washington surprised audiences and critics with his change of direction, but in the eyes of many, this change of direction made him a more compelling screen presence than ever before. (It also netted him an Oscar for Best Actor.) 2002 marked an uneven year for Washington. He joined the cast of Nick Cassavetes' absurd melodrama John Q., as a father so desperate to get medical attention for his ailing son that he holds an entire hospital hostage and contemplates killing himself to donate his own heart to the boy. Critics didn't buy the film; it struck all but the least-discriminating as a desperate attempt by Washington to bring credulity and respectability to a series of ludicrous, manipulative Hollywood contrivances. John Q. nonetheless performed healthily at the box (it grossed over a million dollars worldwide from a 36-million-dollar budget). That same fall, Washington received hearty praise for his directorial and on-camera work in Antwone Fisher (2002), in which he played a concerned naval psychiatrist, and even more so for director Carl Franklin's 2003 crime thriller Out of Time. Somewhat reminiscent of his role in 1991's crime drama Ricochet, Out of Time casts Washington as an upstanding police officer framed for the murder of a prominent citizen. In 2004, Washington teamed up with Jonathan Demme for the first occasion since 1993's Philadelphia, to star in the controversial remake of 1962's The Manchurian Candidate. Washington stars in the picture as soldier Bennett Marco (the role originally performed by Frank Sinatra), who, along with his platoon, is kidnapped and brainwashed during the first Gulf War. Later that year, Washington worked alongside Christopher Walken and Dakota Fanning in another hellraiser, director Tony Scott's Man on Fire, as a bodyguard who carves a bloody swath of vengeance, attempting to rescue a little girl kidnapped under his watch. Washington made no major onscreen appearances in 2005 -- and indeed, kept his activity during 2006 and 2007 to an absolute minimum. In '06, he joined the cast of Spike Lee's thriller Inside Man as a detective assigned to thwart the machinations of a psychotically cunning burglar (Clive Owen). The film opened to spectacular reviews and box-office grosses in March 2006, keeping Washington on top of his game and bringing Lee (whose last major feature was the disappointing 2004 comedy She Hate Me) back to the pinnacle of success. That same year, Washington joined forces once again with Tony Scott in the sci-fi action hybrid Déjà Vu, as an ATF agent on the trail of a terrorist, who discovers a way to "bridge" the present to the past to view the details of a bomb plot that unfolded days earlier. The Scott film garnered a fair number of respectable reviews but ultimately divided critics. Déjà Vu bowed in the U.S. in late November 2006. Meanwhile, Washington signed on for another action thriller, entitled American Gangster -- this time under the aegis of Tony Scott's brother Ridley -- about a drug-dealing Mafioso who smuggles heroin into the U.S. in the corpses of deceased Vietnam veterans.Washington appeared as New York City subway security chief Walter Garber in the 2009 remake of the 1974 thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and begun filming the post-apocalyptic drama The Book of Eli in the same year. He earned a Best Actor nomination in 2012 for his work as an alcoholic pilot in Robert Zemeckis' drama Flight.

Trivia: Born in Chile, Pascal and his family fled the country in the 1970s as political refugees during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Spent time in Denmark, Texas and Southern California, before moving to New York City at age 18 to pursue theatre. Was a competitive swimmer as a child, qualifying for the state championships in Texas at age 11. The stage veteran received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award and Garland Award for his role in the International City Theatre production of Orphans. Directed original productions for the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and as a member of Off-Broadway's renowned LAByrinth Theatre Company. Before filming Series 1 of Narcos, he and his co-star Boyd Holbrook spent a week in Virginia, during which they were able to train at Quantico and met the real-life undercover DEA agents they portray on the Netflix series. Appeared with Heidi Klum in a video set to Sia's "Fire Meet Gasoline" filmed for the model's Intimates Lingerie collection.

Trivia: Grew up performing in the theatre, jumping in and out of plays, sometimes 3 or 4 plays a year. Made his feature film debut playing Will in the 2013 western adventure drama The Retrieval. Was pursuing a BFA in acting at The Theatre School at DePaul University before leaving to focus on his acting career in 2016. Notably played Teen Chiron in the the Best Picture winning 2016 film Moonlight. Has modelled for Calvin Klein. Father is a fashion designer, and has hinted at possibly doing some of his own design work in the future.

Trivia: "My name is Orson Bean. Harvard '47, Yale Nothing." Actually, that oft-repeated introduction is a double deception: actor Orson Bean didn't go to Harvard, and his name isn't really Orson Bean. As a boy magician, Dallas Frederick Burrows borrowed the first half of his stage name from another prestidigitator of note, Orson Welles. Bean made his legitimate stage bow in 1945, then worked up a nightclub comedy act which premiered in New York at the now-defunct Blue Angel (in 1954, he hosted a summer-replacement TV series emanating from this celebrated nightspot). Landing on Broadway in the 1953 production Men of Distinction, Bean won a Theatre World Award for his work in the 1954 revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac, and Critics' Circle Awards for his performances in Mister Roberts and Say Darling. His later stage credits included Broadway's Subways are for Sleeping (1962) and Never too Late (1964) not to mention his extensive tours in the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharah musical Promises, Promises. In films from 1955, Bean's best-received screen performance was as the testifying army physician in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959). An inescapable presence on TV, Bean has participated in virtually every quiz show known to man, from the familiar (To Tell the Truth, I've Got a Secret) to the obscure (Laugh Line). He was also a regular as the ineffectual Reverend Brim on the Norman Lear syndicated series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977) and Forever Fernword (1978), and more recently was seen on a weekly basis as cranky general store owner Loren Bray on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women (1993- ). Outside of his showbiz activities, Bean has proven a difficult subject to categorize: blacklisted for his outspoken liberal views in the early 1950s, he was an ardent supporter of Richard M. Nixon in 1968. A man of many interests, Orson Bean was the founder of the arts-oriented 15th Street School of New York, the author of the oddball 1971 volume Me and the Orgon, and one of the charter members of The Sons of the Desert, the famed Laurel & Hardy appreciation society.

Trivia: An alumnus of State University of New York and the University of Massachusetts, American actor Bill Pullman excelled in both wacky comedy and intense drama during his stage years, working with such repertory companies as the Folger Theatre Groupe and the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Before college, he attended a technical institute and studied building construction (years later he used those skills to build his own house in California). In films, Pullman could be relied upon to almost invariably lose the girl, as witness his brace of 1993 films, Sleepless in Seattle and Somersby. He almost lost his screen wife Geena Davis to Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own (1992), but this gratuitous plot point was eliminated from the script. Only since 1994 has Pullman won the heroine's hand with any regularity. The summer of 1995 found Bill Pullman with back-to-back leading roles in two of the season's biggest box-office successes: While You Were Sleeping and Casper: The Movie. Pullman gained even more recognition for his heroic portrayal of the self-sacrificing U.S. president in the special effects blockbuster Independence Day. Up to this point, Pullman was pretty well typecast in "nice guy" roles. In David Lynch's Lost Highway (1996), he broke that mold by appearing as a deeply disturbed husband. In 1995, Pullman began a side career as a producer when he founded his own production company Big Town.

Trivia: After supporting roles in a handful of small films and a short stint on the soap opera All My Children, New York-born Melissa Leo gained prominence on the critically-acclaimed Barry Levinson-produced television drama Homicide: Life on the Streets. After leaving the show in 1997, Leo continued to appear in a range of features, including 1999's 24 Hour Woman. But it was her role as Benicio Del Toro's wife in 2003's 21 Grams that gave Leo her first exposure to a wide moviegoing audience. The performance also won her recognition from the L.A. Film Critics Association, who named Leo the runner-up for the Best Supporting Actress honor.Leo continued to work steadily in a series of independent films including American Gun, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and Stephanie Daley. In 2008 she landed the lead role in Courtney Hunt's debut feature Frozen River. As a financially strapped woman who turns to human-trafficking in order to earn a living, Leo earned thunderous critical praise as well as Best Actress nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.Frozen River led her to steady work un a variety of projects, but it was as the matriarch of the boxing brothers in The Fighter that Leo had the biggest success of her career capturing numerous year-end critics awards as well as the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. In the years after that she appeared in works as diverse as the remake of Mildred Pierce for HBO, and Kevin Smith's Red State.

Trivia: Fair-haired Canadian actor (and Toronto native) Jonathan Scarfe began signing for roles in the late '90s; he specialized predominantly in bit parts and guest roles on television series programs including Murder, She Wrote, NYPD Blue, and especially ER, where he enjoyed a lengthy, multi-episode run as heroin addict Chase Carter (Dr. John Carter's cousin). Scarfe also carved out a frequent presence on telemovies such as Our Mother's Murder (1997), White Lies (1998), and Judas (2004).

Trivia: Danced for the Joffrey Ballet during her childhood. Studied Chinese at Vassar College and intended to be a translator before opting to become an actress. Starred in the Funny or Die online sitcom Halal in the Family alongside Aasif Mandvi. Was a passenger on the Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia on May 12, 2015.

Trivia: Is of Singaporean descent. Began her career in digital advertising. Worked as a freelance food critic. In 2009, co-founded the hospitality group TOYS Collective. Co-hosted cookery contest The Chefs' Line between 2017 and 2018. In 2020, joined the judges' panel of MasterChef Australia.

Trivia: With his cooler-than-thou shades and a quick smile that's a testament to his easygoing demeanor, director Antoine Fuqua looks more like a leading man than a man who leads the team. Nevertheless, the music video and commercial director-turned-feature-film visionary has continually impressed moviegoers ever since bringing Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat to American audiences with his flashy feature debut, The Replacement Killers (1998). A native of Pittsburgh, Fuqua cut his teeth in film by directing videos for such artists as Arrested Development, Prince, and Toni Braxton, and the tell-tale signs of admitted influence Tony Scott could clearly be seen even in these early works. Commercials for Reebok and Toyota found Fuqua continuing to develop his strong sense of style, and in 1998, he finally earned his first feature-film credit with The Replacement Killers. A loud, flashy, and exciting journey through the criminal underworld, the film was initially dismissed as an exercise in style over substance, despite the fact that it was an undeniably enjoyable action romp. Though his subsequent follow up, Bait (2000), an action comedy starring comic Jamie Foxx, disappeared quickly from the box office, it was Fuqua's next film that would prove that he could also paint interesting and compelling characters. Though the good-cop/bad-cop routine had been played out through and through by the time Training Day hit theaters in 2001, the combination of David Ayer's smart script, Fuqua's assured direction, and powerhouse performances by lead actors Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke created one of the most arresting police dramas of its time. In addition to substantially boosting its director's reputation, Training Day earned lead actors Washington and Hawke both Academy Award nominations -- with Washington taking home the Oscar for Best Actor. Though Fuqua's follow-up, the bombastic action thriller Tears of the Sun (2003), was greeted at the box office with little fanfare, his return to feature territory promised better results. As Fuqua's most expensive production to date, King Arthur -- a historical drama detailing the life of the eponymous leader of the Knights of the Round Table -- netted mixed reviews but grossed healthy box office. For Fuqua, the 2004 documentary Lightning in a Bottle -- a massive blues homage whose participants included B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy and Dr. John -- represented not merely a shift in genre, but a shift in form per se (a documentary, not a feature)where the generally flashy director toned things down a bit to investigate the history of one of America's most beloved musical styles. Unsurprisingly, it reeled in glowing critical praise and even suggested a shift in direction on Fuqua's part; within a few years, however, the helmer cut back to basics for a far more conventional project - the action saga Shooter (2007), about an out-of-commission sniper (Mark Wahlberg) reeled back into service and then scapegoated by the cruel manipulations of the United States government. He directed the 2009 cop drama Brooklyn's Finest, assembling a cast that included Richard Gere and Don Cheadle as boys in blue dealing with various ethical and personal issues.