Trivia: Emile Hirsch rose to prominence in 2002 with showy roles in two high-profile films: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys and The Emperor's Club. Hirsch was born in Topanga Canyon, CA, on March 13, 1985. He made his television debut at the age of 11 in an episode of the series Kindred: The Embraced. After a number of small guest roles on Two of a Kind, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Third Rock From the Sun, Hirsch moved on to more dramatic roles with appearances of NYPD Blue and ER. He appeared in a pair of made-for-TV movies, Gargantua and Houdini (in the latter playing the famed magician Harry Houdini as a boy) before making his big-screen debut as pensive Catholic school student Francis in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, which earned the teenager a number of enthusiastic reviews. After appearing in the made-for-cable drama Wild Iris, Hirsch appeared as a bright but rebellious student in the Kevin Kline vehicle The Emperor's Club. Hirsch was praised for his roles in Imaginary Heroes (2004) and Lords of Dogtown (2005), though the films themselves received lukewarm reviews. His luck would change when he was cast as a young man who finds himself while hitchhiking America for 2007's Into the Wild. Based on the popular novel from Jon Krakauer, Sean Penn directed the film, which would earn Hirsch a Best Actor nom from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Hirsch reunited with Penn to play a young gay rights activist in Milk, the multi-Academy Award winning biopic of politician and activist Harvey Milk. He lent his voice for X Games 3D: The Movie in 2009, and starred in Taking Woodstock (2009), a biopic chronicling a face-off between the owners of a small motel, and the organizers of the original Woodstock. He took a supporting role in Oliver Stone's 2012 film The Savages.

Trivia: A handsome actor with leading-man looks and charisma to spare, one only wonders why it took actor Matthew Fox's career over a decade to finally set sail with his starring role as natural-born leader Jack on the hit ABC series Lost. Commanding the screen as the brave but conflicted organizer of a group of airplane-crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island, Fox played no small part in bringing compelling drama back to the small screen in a time when reality television seemed to dominate the dial. Of course, Lost wasn't Fox's first foray into television drama, having previously established himself as one of five siblings prematurely thrust into adulthood when their parents are killed by a drunk driver in the Golden Globe-winning Party of Five, but it did find him excelling in a manner that could point to a long and fruitful career. Unlike many actors who realize their calling early in life, in the Wyoming native's early years, it seemed as if an acting career was the absolute farthest thing imaginable in terms of future job prospects. Fox was raised on a ranch that raised horses and barley, and when it came time to choose a college, he opted to study economics at Columbia University -- where he also made quite a name for himself on the gridiron. All arrows pointed to a prosperous future career on Wall Street, but when Fox was convinced to try his hand at modeling, the chips seemed to fall into place, and he was soon appearing on television commercials and essaying guest appearances on such popular sitcoms as Wings. In 1992, Fox went back to college for a role in the short-lived TV comedy Freshman Dorm, and though that show itself was decidedly short-lived, it helped his career by leading to roles in the film My Boyfriend's Back, the made-for-television feature If I Die Before I Wake, and, eventually, Party of Five. After his wining performance in Party of Five making Fox a familiar face to television viewers, it seemed only a matter of time before he stuck out on his own. This happened for the actor in 2004, when Lost debuted on ABC to impressive ratings, making Fox a familiar face in households across America. Fox would remain a vital actor henceforth, appearing in feature films like Speed Racer, Vantage Point, Emperor, and World War Z.

Trivia: Simply by growing old gracefully, actress Susan Sarandon has defied the rules of Hollywood stardom: Not only has her fame continued to increase as she enters middle age, but the quality of her films and her performances in them has improved as well. Ultimately, she has come to embody an all-too-rare movie type -- the strong and sexy older woman. Born Susan Tomalin on October 4, 1946, in Queens, NY, she was the oldest of nine children. Even while attending the Catholic University of America, she did not study acting, and in fact expressed no interest in performing until after marrying actor Chris Sarandon. While accompanying her husband on an audition, Sarandon landed a pivotal role in the controversial 1970 feature Joe, and suddenly her own career as an actress was well underway. She soon became a regular on the daytime soap opera A World Apart and in 1972 appeared in the feature Mortadella. Lovin' Molly and The Front Page followed in 1974 before Sarandon earned cult immortality as Janet Weiss in 1975's camp classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the quintessential midnight movie of its era. After starring with Robert Redford in 1975's The Great Waldo Pepper, Sarandon struggled during the mid-'70s in a number of little-seen projects, including 1976's The Great Smokey Roadblock and 1978's Checkered Flag or Crash. Upon beginning a relationship with the famed filmmaker Louis Malle, however, her career took a turn for the better as she starred in the provocative Pretty Baby, portraying the prostitute mother of a 12-year-old Brooke Shields. Sarandon and Malle next teamed for 1980's superb Atlantic City, for which she earned her first Oscar nomination. After appearing in Paul Mazursky's Tempest, she then starred in Tony Scott's controversial 1983 horror film The Hunger, playing a scientist seduced by a vampire portrayed by Catherine Deneuve. The black comedy Compromising Positions followed in 1985, as did the TV miniseries Mussolini and I. Women of Valor, another mini, premiered a year later. While Sarandon had enjoyed a prolific career virtually from the outset, stardom remained just beyond her grasp prior to the mid-'80s. First, a prominent appearance with Jack Nicholson, Cher, and Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1986 hit The Witches of Eastwick brought her considerable attention, and then in 1988 she delivered a breakthrough performance in Ron Shelton's hit baseball comedy Bull Durham, which finally made her a star, at the age of 40. More important, the film teamed her with co-star Tim Robbins, with whom she soon began a long-term offscreen relationship. After a starring role in the 1989 apartheid drama A Dry White Season, Sarandon teamed with Geena Davis for Thelma and Louise, a much-discussed distaff road movie which became among the year's biggest hits and won both actresses Oscar nominations. Sarandon was again nominated for 1992's Lorenzo's Oil and 1994's The Client before finally winning her first Academy Award for 1995's Dead Man Walking, a gut-wrenching examination of the death penalty, adapted and directed by Robbins. Now a fully established star, Sarandon had her choice of projects; she decided to lend her voice to Tim Burton's animated James and the Giant Peach (1996). Two years later, she was more visible with starring roles in the thriller Twilight (starring opposite Paul Newman and Gene Hackman) and Stepmom, a weepie co-starring Julia Roberts. The same year, she had a supporting role in the John Turturro film Illuminata. Sarandon continued to stay busy in 1999, starring in Anywhere But Here, which featured her as Natalie Portman's mother, and Cradle Will Rock, Robbins' first directorial effort since Dead Man Walking. On television, Sarandon starred with Stephen Dorff in an adaptation of Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions, and showed a keen sense of humor in her various appearances on SNL, Chappelle's Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. After starring alongside Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters, Sarandon could be seen in a variety of projects including Alfie (2004), Romance and Cigarettes (2005), and Elizabethtown (2006). In 2007, Sarandon joined Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones, director Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel of the same name. She continued her heavy work schedule into the 2010s- in 2012 alone, the actress took on the role of a long-suffering mother to two grown sons in various states of distress for Jeff, Who Lives at Home, appeared as an older version of a character played by her daughter, Eva Amurri Martino, in That's My Boy and played a variety of supporting roles in the Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas. The following year found her in the crime drama Snitch, the ensemble rom-com The Big Wedding and in the Errol Flynn biopic The Last of Robin Hood. In 2014, she played Melissa McCarthy's grandmother (despite the fact that the actresses are only 24 years apart in age) in Tammy. She made a cameo appearance, as herself, in Zoolander 2 (2016).

Trivia: With a talent as large as his girth, John Goodman proved himself both a distinguished character actor and engaging leading man. A native of St. Louis, MO, Goodman went to Southwest Missouri State University on a football scholarship, but an injury compelled him to seek out a less strenuous major. He chose the university Drama Department, attending classes with such stars-to-be as Tess Harper and Kathleen Turner. Moving to New York in 1975, he supported himself by performing in children's and dinner theater, appearing in television commercials, and working as a bouncer. Goodman made his off-Broadway debut in a 1978 staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and, a year later, graduated to Broadway in Loose Ends. His best Broadway showing was as the drunken, brutish Pap in Big River, Roger Miller's 1985 musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Goodman has occasionally played out and out villains or louts (The Big Easy, Barton Fink), but his essential likeability endeared him to audiences even when his onscreen behavior was at its least sympathetic. He contributed topnotch supporting appearances to such films as Everybody's All-American (1988), Sea of Love (1989), Stella (1989), and Arachnophobia (1990), and starred in such films as King Ralph (1991), The Babe (1992, as Babe Ruth), Born Yesterday (1993), and The Flintstones (1994, as Fred Flintstone). Goodman did some of his best work in Matinee (1992), in which he starred as William Castle-esque horror flick entrepreneur Lawrence Woolsey, and topped himself in The Big Lebowski (1998), playing a quirky security-store owner. He was seen the following year with Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames in Martin Scorsese's Bringing out the Dead as an ambulance driver.Between 1988 and 1996, Goodman appeared as blue-collar patriarch Dan Conner on the hit TV sitcom Roseanne, a role that earned him four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe award; his additional TV credits included two 1995 made-for-cable movies: the title role in Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long and Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he earned another Emmy nomination. Announcing that the 1996-1997 season of Roseanne would be his last, Goodman limited himself to infrequent appearances on the series, his absences explained away as a by-product of a heart attack suffered by his character at the end of the previous season.After making his 10th appearance on Saturday Night Live (2000), Goodman could be seen playing a red-faced bible salesman in director Joel Coen's award winning O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000), and participated in Garry Shandling's film debut What Planet Are You From? (2000). He could be spotted playing an Oklahoma cop in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), while Coyote Ugly (2000) and Storytelling (2001) found Goodman stepping back into the role of over-protective father. Interestingly enough, he donned hippie-gear to play a goth-chick's Leelee Sobieski dad in 2001's My First Mister. Though Goodman's status as an amiable big guy was well established by the early 2000's, he didn't actually appear on-screen for two of his most beloved roles. In The Emperor's New Groove (2000), Goodman lent his vocal talents for the part of Pacha, a poor farmer who taught a spoiled prince (David Spade) some valuable lessons about life, love, and the meaning of societal standing. Any film-going youngster will recognize Goodman's voice as Monsters, Inc.'s kind-hearted Sully, the furry blue monster who risked life and limb to return a little girl to her home; and who other than Goodman would have been appropriate to voice the part of Baloo, The Jungle Book 2's (2003) freewheeling bear? 2001's ill received One Night at McCool's features Goodman as one of three men lusting after Liv Tyler's character, while 2002's Dirty Deeds took John to Australia, where he played an American mafia-goon thoroughly ill suited to the intricacies of culture down under. Though 2003's Masked and Anonymous was skewered by fans and critics alike, it did give Goodman the chance to work with industry bigwigs Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, and legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan. In 2004, Goodman got even more involved in the realm of family friendly movies and TV, lending his voice to the character of Larry on the animated show Father of the Pride. The next few years in his career would include many more such titles, like Cars, Evan Almighty, and Bee Movie, and in 2008, he played Pops Racer in the candy-colored big screen adaptation of the popular cartoon Speed Racer. By this time, Goodman had become a go-to guy for PG fare, and signed on next to provide the voice of Big Daddy for the jazz-age animated film The Princess and the Frog. He earned good reviews for his work in the made-for-HBO biopic of Jack Kervorkian You Don't Know Jack in 2010. The next year he appeared in The Artist, the Best Picture Oscar winner, as the head of a Hollywood studio, and in another of the Best Picture nominees playing the doorman in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Trivia: One of the most celebrated actresses of her generation, as well as one of the few child stars to make a successful transition to adult roles, Christina Ricci has been impressing audiences and critics with her unnervingly accurate performances since debuting in 1990's Mermaids.The daughter of a lawyer and a former Ford model and the youngest of four children, Ricci was born in Santa Monica, CA, on February 12, 1980. Following her family's move to New York when she was eight, Ricci got her start acting in commercials. Her big screen debut came shortly after, when director Richard Benjamin cast her as Cher's younger daughter in Mermaids. Although much attention went to Winona Ryder, who played Ricci's older sister, the young actress made enough of an impression to land more work: The following year, she starred as the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams in the hit film adaptation of The Addams Family. The role would help to establish Ricci as an actress known for playing dark, unconventional characters; she went on to play Wednesday again in the film's 1993 sequel Addams Family Values. Following a series of films both good and bad, including Now and Then, in which she played the young Rosie O'Donnell, and the critically panned but commercially successful Casper, Ricci starred as the troubled, sexually precocious Wendy Hood in Ang Lee's widely praised The Ice Storm. The actress handled the part with uncanny maturity, leading many observers to conclude that she was truly beginning to come into her own. This assessment was solidified with Ricci's subsequent roles in films like Buffalo '66 (in which she played Vincent Gallo's unwitting abductee-turned-girlfriend), John Waters' Pecker, and Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex, the last of which cast her as Dedee, a delightfully loathsome girl who wreaks tabloid-style havoc on everyone she encounters, whether they be dead or alive. For her performance as Dedee, Ricci was nominated for a Golden Globe and attained the unofficial title of the Sundance Film Festival's 1998 "It" Girl.Now riding high as an indie teen queen, Ricci went on in 1999 to headline the much-anticipated but ultimately disappointing 200 Cigarettes; the same year, she could be seen in Desert Blue, which featured 200 Cigarettes co-stars Casey Affleck and Kate Hudson, and Sleepy Hollow, in which she played Gothic princess Katrina Van Tassel opposite Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane in Tim Burton's adaptation of Washington Irving's ghostly tale.In 2000, Ricci starred in Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried, in which she played a young Jewish woman who flees from Germany to Paris during World War II, and Bless the Child, a supernatural thriller that also starred Kim Basinger and Rufus Sewell.Though rumors of a stateside release date for Ricci's 2001 drama Prozac Nation continued to linger, the dark young starlet would move on to such unconventional efforts as The Laramie Project (2002) and the offbeat romantic comedy Pumpkin, which found her as a popular sorority girl who risks becoming a social outcast after falling for a mentally disabled young athlete whom she has volunteered to help train. Though subsequent efforts as Miranda and The Gathering (both 2002) fell beneath the radar at the box office, Ricci was a hit with Ally McBeal fans when she appeared in a recurring role in the Fox show that same year. Audiences who caught Woody Allen's 2003 comedy Anything Else found her as charming as ever (despite her sometimes shrill characterization in the film). At festivals that year, Ricci could be seen in supporting roles in actor Adam Goldberg's dark drama I Love Your Work, as well as in director Patty Jenkins' Aileen Wuornos biopic Monster.She next appeared in the werewolf film Cursed, before moving on to Penelope with Reese Witherspoon, and Black Snake Moan with Samuel L. Jackson. In 2006 Ricci turned in a memorable guest appearance on the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy as an EMT put in the difficult position of keeping a bomb stuck inside a patient from exploding. A role in the big-budget bomb Speed Racer quickly followed, but in 2011 Ricci returned to television in ABC's Pan Am -- an ambitious but shortlived period piece series following a crew of glamourous flight attendants as they tended to travelers on "The World's Most Experienced Airline." Once Pam Am was canceled, Ricci returned to films, with a supporting role in the Rob Pattinson drama Bel Ami and a voice role in 2013's sequel The Smurfs 2.

Trivia: German leading man and heartthrob Benno Fürmann was born Benjamin Fürmann in Berlin. After studying at the Lee Strasburg Institute in New York, he started acting in German features and made-for-TV movies. In 1995, he joined the cast of the German sitcom Und Tschuss! and played in several crime stories as Karsten Rohde, co-starring with Dieter Pfaff as Kommissar Hans Sperling. In 1999 he won Best Actor at the German Television Awards for his work on Die Bubi Scholz Story. After that, he started getting lead roles in major German comedies and dramas (Der Eisbär, St. Pauli Night, Punktchen und Anton, and 'Ne Günstige Gelegenheit). In 2000, he moved to thrillers for the starring role in Freunde -- winning him Best Actor at the Bavarian Film Awards -- and a supporting role in Anatomie. He followed this up Tom Tykwer's romantic drama The Princess and the Warrior, opposite Anatomie co-star Franka Potente. In 2001 he appeared in another romantic comedy, Jeans, the directorial debut of his long-time co-star Nicolette Krebitz. He quickly gained more starring roles in German films before making his first U.S. production with the religious thriller The Order in 2003.

Trivia: Was born in a rectory where his father was a vicar. Inspired to act after seeing plays at The Old Vic theatre in London, England as a boy. One of his earliest roles was the part of a pair of talking testicles in a surreal radio play. Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981. Played Inspector Javert in the original West End production of Les Misérables in 1985. Shaved off all of his body hair for his role in Privates On Parade in 2001. Appeared in his first pantomime in 2004 playing Abbanazar in Aladdin alongside Ian McKellan.

Trivia: Blaxploitation superstar Richard Roundtree earned screen immortality during the 1970s as the legendary Shaft, "the black private dick that's the sex machine to all the chicks." Born July 9, 1942, in New Rochelle, NY, Roundtree attended college on a football scholarship but later gave up athletics to pursue an acting career. After touring as a model with the Ebony Fashion Fair, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company's acting workshop program in 1967. He made his film debut in 1970's What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?, but was still an unknown when filmmaker Gordon Parks Sr. cast him as Shaft. The role shot Roundtree to instant fame, launching the blaxploitation genre and proving so successful at the box office that it helped save MGM from the brink of bankruptcy. Thanks to the film's popularity -- as well as its two sequels, 1972's Shaft's Big Score! and the following year's Shaft in Africa, and even a short-lived television series -- Roundtree became an icon of '70s-era cool, and his image graced countless magazine covers. Outside of the Shaft franchise, he also appeared in films including the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake, 1975's Man Friday, and the blockbuster 1977 TV miniseries Roots. By the end of the decade, however, the blaxploitation movement was a thing of the past, and Roundtree's stardom waned; apart from the 1981 big-budget flop Inchon, he spent the 1980s appearing almost exclusively in TV roles or low-rent, direct-to-video features. Still, he continued working steadily, and in 1995 appeared in David Fincher's smash thriller Seven. The following year he co-starred in the acclaimed Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored, and also teamed with fellow blaxploitation vets Pam Grier and Fred "the Hammer" Williamson in Original Gangstas. In 1997, Roundtree returned to series television in 413 Hope St.

Trivia: Aspired to become an actor at a very young age when she wanted to crawl into the TV to actually go exploring with Dora the Explorer. First acting job was in a Cool Whip commercial. Took her first trip to Europe to act in the 2008 big-screen version of Speed Racer, which was filmed in Germany. Is an avid music fan and aspiring singer who loves to record songs with her friends in bands such as 4evercrush and WickedSweet. Favorite sports are track, soccer and tennis. Is a fan of the Twilight series of novels. Is environmentally conscious and urges young readers to "renew, reuse and recycle" in interviews.

Trivia: Nebraska native Scott Porter got his acting feet wet in an off-Broadway production of the play Altar Boyz, and can be heard on the original cast recording of the show's soundtrack. He began working in front of the camera with a recurring role on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns in 2006, before being cast as wheelchair-bound Jason Street on the popular series Friday Night Lights, a show based on the movie of the same name, about a small town in Texas where high-school football is among the most important things in life. In 2007, Porter played the former bandmate of Hugh Grant in the romantic comedy Music and Lyrics; he then signed on to appear in the remake of the classic horror film Prom Night, as well as the live-action adaptation of the old-school anime series Speed Racer. Porter co-starred with Channing Tatum for two movies in a row, 2010's Dear John, based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, and 2012's Ten Years, taking place at a high school reunion. He also had recurring roles on Syfy's Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica and the CBS legal drama The Good Wife. In the years to come, Porter remained active on screen, notably appearing in the CW's Hart of Dixie, playing George Tucker.

Trivia: Before acting, planned to go into either finance or advertising. Fell in love with America as a high-school foreign-exchange student. Came and stayed in the U.S. after accepting an advertising internship in New York City. In 1994, crashed a post-Oscar party at Morton's in Los Angeles, where he chatted with Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise. Acting debut was as Swiss exchange student Brian Keller in Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Has appeared in a Coke commercial and made a milk commercial with Tiffani-Amber Thiessen. Made his film debut in 1995 as Luca in The Baby-Sitters Club. Has his own production company, Chabo Films. Speaks English, French and German.

Trivia: Began his film career at age 5. Toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a 1999 production of King Lear, with Nigel Hawthorne playing the title role. Won a Japanese Academy Award for his work in The Twilight Samurai (2002). Received an honorary MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2002. Has a black belt in karate.

Trivia: Son of Jamaican parents.Attended Sylvia Young Theatre School since the age of 6, where he learned tap, ballet and acting.Studied at St. Georges CE Primary School, Camberwell.Achieved 10 GCSEs in high school.Had his first child at the age of 17.Former member of So Solid Crew, performed under the nickname Asher D.In 2012, signed a recording contract and released two singles, "How You Like Me Now" and "Your Love."Joined Kingdom Drama School as a cofounder in 2017.In 2017, cofounded the independent film and television production company SLNda.