Trivia: At 17 she was accepted (early admission) to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied art. Was signed to the Def Jam record label when she was 19, but was dropped soon after. Rap star Akon signed her to his label with Interscope records, and by the time she was 20 she had a record deal. Has written songs for Britney Spears, the Pussycat Dolls, New Kids on the Block and Fergie. She took her stage name from Queen's song, "Radio Ga Ga." Her debut single, "Just Dance," was released in 2008, followed by her full-length debut album, The Fame, in August of that year. It earned critical acclaim and sold more than a million copies. Many of her eye-catching outfits are manufactured by stylists and set designers known as the Haus of Gaga. Cites David Bowie and Donatella Versace as her influences. Her Grammy-winning hit song "Poker Face" was inspired by her bisexuality. She told Heat magazine that the song, which she performed on an American Idol results show, took all of 10 minutes to write. (She generally composes on piano, aiming first for a chorus.) To those who question her flashy stage outfits, the dance-pop star's answer, as told to Billboard magazine, is: "I dress the way I do to show my commitment to show business". Was ranked number two on Time's 2011 readers' poll of the most influential people of the previous ten years, and number four on VH1's Greatest Women in Music in 2012. Named Billboard's Woman of the year in 2015. Received a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in 2016 for her roles in the mini-series American Horror Story: Hotel, and for the musical drama A Star Is Born. She also contributed to the latter's soundtrack which received a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, making her the only woman to achieve five US number one albums this century. Is one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold 27 million albums and 146 million singles by 2016. Has achieved several Guinness world records, nine Grammy Awards, and an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Has been declared Billboard's Artist of the Year and included in Forbes's power and earnings rankings. Known for her social activism and philanthropy, including support for LGBT rights, and for her non-profit organisation, the Born This Way Foundation, which focuses on empowering young people and preventing bullying.

Trivia: Brooding and intense, Al Pacino has remained one of Hollywood's premier actors throughout his lengthy career, a popular and critical favorite whose list of credits includes many of the finest films of his era. Pacino was born April 25, 1940, in East Harlem, NY. Raised in the Bronx, he attended the legendary High School for Performing Arts, but dropped out at the age of 17. He spent the next several years drifting from job to job, continuing to study acting and occasionally appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. In 1966, Pacino was accepted to train at the Actors' Studio, and after working with James Earl Jones in The Peace Creeps, he starred as a brutal street youth in the off-Broadway social drama The Indian Wants the Bronx, earning an Obie Award as Best Actor for the 1967-1968 theatrical season. A year later, he made his Broadway debut in Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? Although the play itself closed after less than 40 performances, Pacino was universally praised for his potent portrayal of a sociopathic drug addict, and he won a Tony Award for his performance. Pacino made his film debut in the 1969 flop Me, Natalie. After making his theatrical directorial debut with 1970's Rats, he returned to the screen a year later in Panic in Needle Park, again appearing as a junkie. (To prepare for the role, he and co-star Kitty Winn conducted extensive research in known drug-dealer haunts as well as methadone clinics.) While the picture was not a success, Pacino again earned critical raves. Next came Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 Mafia epic The Godfather. As Michael Corleone, the son of an infamous crime lord reluctantly thrust into the family business, Pacino shot to stardom, earning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his soulful performance. While the follow-up, 1973's Scarecrow, was received far less warmly, the police drama Serpico was a smash, as was 1974's The Godfather Part II for which he earned his third Academy Award nomination. The 1975 fact-based Dog Day Afternoon, in which Pacino starred as a robber attempting to stick up a bank in order to finance his gay lover's sex-change operation, was yet another staggering success.The 1977 auto-racing drama Bobby Deerfield, on the other hand, was a disaster. Pacino then retreated to Broadway, winning a second Tony for his performance in the title role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Upon returning to Hollywood, he starred in ...And Justice for All, which did not appease reviewers but restored him to moviegoers' good graces. Pacino next starred in William Friedkin's controversial Cruising, portraying a New York City cop on the trail of a serial killer targeting homosexuals; it was not a hit, nor was the 1982 comedy Author! Author! Brian DePalma's violent 1983 remake of Scarface followed; while moderately successful during its initial release, the movie later became a major cult favorite. Still, its lukewarm initial reception further tarnished Pacino's star. However, no one was fully prepared for the fate which befell 1985's historical epic Revolution; made for over $28 million, the film failed to gross even $1 million dollars at the box office. Pacino subsequently vanished from the public eye, directing his own film, The Local Stigmatic, which outside of a handful of 1990 showings at the Museum of Modern Art was never screened publicly. While his name was attached to a number of projects during this time period, none came to fruition, and he disappeared from cinema for over four years. Finally, in 1989, Pacino returned with the stylish thriller Sea of Love; the picture was a hit, and suddenly he was a star all over again. A virtually unrecognizable turn as a garish gangster in 1990's Dick Tracy earned him a sixth Oscar nomination, but The Godfather Part III was not the financial blockbuster many anticipated it to be. The 1991 romantic comedy Frankie and Johnny was a success, however, and a year later Pacino starred in the highly regarded Glengarry Glen Ross as well as Scent of a Woman, at last earning an Oscar for his performance in the latter film. He reunited with DePalma for 1993's stylish crime drama Carlito's Way, to which he'd first been slated to star in several years prior. Remaining in the underworld, he starred as a cop opposite master thief Robert De Niro in 1995's superb Heat, written and directed by Michael Mann. Pacino next starred in the 1996 political drama City Hall, but earned more notice that year for writing, directing, producing, and starring in Looking for Richard, a documentary exploration of Shakespeare's Richard III shot with an all-star cast. In 1997, he appeared with two of Hollywood's most notable young stars, first shooting Donnie Brasco opposite Johnny Depp, and then acting alongside Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate. Following roles in The Insider and Any Given Sunday two-years later, Pacino would appear in the film version of the stage play Chinese Coffee (2000) before a two-year periods in which the actor was curiously absent from the screen. Any speculation on the workhorse actor's slowing down ended when in 2002 Pacino returned with the quadruple-threat of Insomnia, Simone, People I Know and The Recruit. With roles ranging from that of a troubled detective investigating a murder in the land of the midnight sun, to a film producer who builds the worlds first virtual actress, Pacino reenforced his image as a versatile, energetic and adventurous an actor. The films struck uneven chords, however; Insomnia hit a zenith, critically and commercially, while Pacino scraped bottom with Simone. Pacino fared better at the box and in the press with Michael Radford's December 2004 Merchant of Venice but dodged critical bullets with the D.J. Caruso-helmed 2005 gambling drama Two for the Money. Circa 2006, Pacino starred as Jack Gramm in 88 Minutes, the gripping tale of a college prof who moonlights as a forensics expert for the feds. He also announced plans, that year, to join the cast of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen and a remake of Jules Dassin's seminal Rififi, to reunite him with City Hall helmer Harold Becker.

Trivia: With a long-limbed elegance and the voice of a serpent crossed with an angel, Jeremy Irons has long been described as swoon fodder for the thinking woman. Tall, brooding, and impossibly well-spoken, Irons has often been cast as a haunted aristocrat, but has on occasion used his well-heeled attributes to more sinister effect, most notably in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.Born September 19, 1948, on the Isle of Wight, Irons was educated at Sherborne. While a student there, he formed a band with four of his friends called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. Irons played drums -- badly, by his own estimation -- and the band attained a limited fame playing at various parties. After failed attempts to enter veterinary school, Irons decided to become an actor and received classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His training there led to a two-year stint with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, where Irons performed in a large number of plays. On the side, he supported himself by doing odd jobs, including busking (singing on the streets), and it was thanks to his musical inclinations that he got his big break in the 1972 London production of Godspell. Singing for his supper alongside David Bowie, Irons won acclaim for his portrayal of John the Baptist and was soon a respected figure on the London theater scene. Irons made his screen debut in the 1980 film Nijinsky, but didn't find true fame until the following year, when he starred in the 11-part television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. As part of a glittering cast that included Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, and Claire Bloom, Irons won raves on both sides of the Atlantic for his portrayal of the lovelorn, conflicted Charles Ryder. Following this success, the actor was in demand as a romantic lead and could soon be seen starring opposite Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). After trying his hand at playing a Polish laborer in Moonlighting (1982) and an adulterous lover in Betrayal (1983), Irons again played a tortured aristocrat in Swann in Love (1984).Following work in a few minor films and a Tony Award for his 1984 Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, Irons once again struck gold with his role as a conscientious missionary in The Mission (1986), in which he starred opposite Robert De Niro and received a 1987 Golden Globe nomination for his work. He next went completely against type, playing insane twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg's 1988 thriller Dead Ringers, a dual performance that both shocked his longtime fans and won him some new ones. For his portrayals, he garnered a New York Film Critics Circle Award, acclaim that was to be heightened two years later with his Oscar-winning turn as millionaire murder suspect Claus Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune. Irons also won a Golden Globe for his work and settled into a real-life role as one of the most respected actors on both sides of the Atlantic.Throughout the 1990s, Irons' career was one of great variety and sometimes varying quality. Less acclaimed work included 1992's Waterland, in which he starred with his wife, Sinéad Cusack; the star-studded 1993 adaptation of The House of the Spirits; and The Man in the Iron Mask, a big-budget 1998 historical action piece in which Irons appeared to be competing with Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich, and Gérard Depardieu to see who could wear the worst wig. Irons' more acclaimed films included Louis Malle's psychological drama Damage (1992); Disney's animated The Lion King (1994), to which Irons lent his voice as the villainous Scar; the following year's Die Hard With a Vengeance, in which Irons once again explored his sinister side, as a terrorist; Stealing Beauty (1996), which cast the actor as a dying artist; Chinese Box (1997), in which he portrayed yet another dying man; and Adrian Lyne's controversial adaptation of Lolita (also 1997), in which Irons gave a subtle, heartbreaking performance as Humbert Humbert. In 2000, Irons' relatively small role in the ultimately mediocre adaptation Dungeons & Dragons was once again noted as one of the highlights of an otherwise so-so film. Shortly afterward, Irons played the leading role in The Fourth Angel, which featured the actor as a magazine editor-cum-freedom fighter after his wife and three children were killed when their airplane was hijacked by terrorists. Though his performance was generally viewed as good, few Americans would enjoy it -- the original (and uncanny) plan for a United States theatrical release in fall of 2001 was canceled after the 9/11 attacks. Luckily for Irons and his loyal fan base, the 2002 releases of The Time Machine and the musical drama Callas Forever were not similarly hindered. In the same year, Irons would play the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald in director Henry Bromell's biographical feature Last Call with great success. 2003 was a busy year for Irons' vocal chords, as he provided one of the starring voices in the lavish, multi-episode television documentary Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites. Irons appeared in two small but well-received 2004 releases, taking a role alongside screen legend Al Pacino in Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice, and showing up in the comedy drama Being Julia with Annette Bening and Sheila McCarthy. However, the following year, he could be seen in director Ridley Scott's big-budget box-office dud Kingdom of Heaven, an historical film about the Crusades that failed to find an audience in the wake of similar pictures such as Troy and Alexander. Irons once again snared great notices for his work in the period drama Elizabeth I opposite Helen Mirren, winning the Golden Globe for his supporting work in that television production. He next displayed his remarkable versatility by appearing in two very different motion pictures, the fantasy action film Eragon and David Lynch's Inland Empire.An Englishman to the last, Irons has resisted the temptation to settle in Hollywood and continues to reside in England. He starred with one of his two sons, Samuel, in the 1989 television adaptation of Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World.In 2008, Irons took on the role of a cold-hearted rancher in actor/director Ed Harris' western Appaloosa, and joined the supporting cast of The Pink Panther 2 in 2009. Irons was praised for his vocal skills once more in 2011, when he narrated The Last Lions, a sweeping nature documentary. The same year, Irons took on the role of Pope Alexander VI in Showtime's historical drama series The Borgias, and co-star in Margin Call, a paranoid thriller following an investment firm analyst who becomes privy to extremely sensitive information.

Trivia: At age 8, sang in a concert at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall with Peter, Paul and Mary. Was part of the children's choir on Michael Jackson's 1995 HIStory album. Appeared in Taylor Swift's music video "I Knew You Were Trouble" (2012). Started the rock band Carney with his brother Zane. After getting the lead role in the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, his entire band joined the production.

Trivia: Director Jun Ichikawa retains a status as one of the more important and interesting Japanese filmmakers to surface during the late 20th century, emerging as he did in the wake of Mizoguchi and Ozu. Intriguingly, unlike the said directors, Ichikawa approached cinema by treading down an explicitly commercial career path; he established himself in the 1970s as one of the top-ranked directors of television advertisements in Japan, which helped him develop a facility for conveying short narratives (and ideas) in short time spans, and thus neatly paved the way for narrative features. He entered that realm in 1987, first with the acclaimed teen-oriented drama Bu-Su, then with a series of highly regarded dramas that tagged him with a recurrent signature style and thematic emphasis: innately low-key, understated examinations of daily life, in the vein of Ozu and Eric Rohmer. Ichikawa openly acknowledged his debt to these giants; other influences whom he cited ranged from Takeshi "Beat" Kitano (Violent Cop) to Mike Leigh (Naked) to François Truffaut (The Man Who Loved Women). Ichikawa earned particularly sweeping acclaim for three efforts: the gentle, observant domestic drama Tokyo Siblings (1995); the middle-aged relationship chronicle Tokyo Lullaby (1997) (both of the said films explicitly demonstrating Ozu-esque qualities); and the 2004 Tony Takitani, adapted from a story by the stylistically similar Haruki Murakami. Takitani swept up numerous honors, including the Special Jury and FIPRESCI Prizes at the Locarno Film Festival. On a tragic note, Ichikawa suddenly died at age 59 in autumn 2008 while wrapping up work on his feature Buy a Suit. The cause of death was undisclosed.

Trivia: Grew up in Pasadena, California.Worked as an announcer.Worked as a narrator for corporate videos and documentaries.Worked in English, Italian and Spanish language films.Speaks English, Italian and Spanish.Best known for playing the news anchorman in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Norman Cousins in Pope John XXIII (2002).