Trivia: A Swedish actor who has become known to American audiences thanks to roles in Breaking the Waves and Good Will Hunting, Stellan Skarsgård is one of Scandinavia's best-known and most well-respected performers. Renowned for giving measured characterizations that draw their strength from a delicate complexity, Skarsgård is one of those rare actors who is able to do strong work regardless of the quality of the material he is in, displaying the sort of quiet fortitude that allows him to survive even the worst screen fiascos.Born in Gothenburg on June 13, 1951, Skarsgård became a star in his country, when, as a teenager, he was cast on the TV series Bombi Bitt och jag. After his film debut in 1972, he did years of stage work with Stockholm's Royal Dramatic and made a number of dramas with the director Hans Alfredson, the most notable of which, Den Enfaldige Mordaren, featured Skarsgård in a Silver Berlin Bear-winning performance as a misunderstood man with a deformity. In 1988, Skarsgård got a tentative introduction to a transatlantic audience with a small role in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being; two years later, he had a similarly minor role in another international hit, The Hunt for Red October.Skarsgård's true international breakthrough came courtesy of his role as Emily Watson's husband in Lars Von Trier's highly acclaimed Breaking the Waves (1996). The actor more than held his own opposite Watson, who gave one of the year's most lauded performances, and he found previously unimagined opportunities available to him in Hollywood. In 1997, he starred as a frustrated mathematician in Gus Van Sant's award-winning Good Will Hunting and was also featured in Steven Spielberg's Amistad; his work in both films culminated in an Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema award from the European Film Academy. Later that same year, the actor appeared in My Son the Fanatic as a German businessman with the unfortunate surname of Schitz -- he also gave a stellar portrayal of a detective who slowly loses his mind while investigating a murder in the Norwegian film Insomnia.A prolific actor, Skarsgård appeared in a number of small ambitious projects in 2000, including Passion of Mind with Demi Moore, Mike Figgis' Time Code, and Harlan County War. The following year, while he showed up in the poorly-received thriller The Glass House, Skarsgård gained critical praise for his performance in Taking Sides.2003 saw Skarsgård taking a role in Lars von Trier's highly anticipated Dogville and signing on for the oft-plagued The Exorcist: The Beginning. After several debacles, the prequel to the horror classic finally found its way to movie theaters in 2004, the same year the actor costarred in Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur. After going toe-to-toe with the Devil himself in 2005's Exorcist: The Beginning (as well as Paul Schrader's alternate cut Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist), Skarsgård joined the crew of the Flying Dutchman in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and its follow-up Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and went medieval in the Swedism Arn films. A chilling turn as the ruthless warden in the fact-based King of Devil's Island showed a downright malevolent side to Skarsgård, though it was subsequent roles in the Marvel Comics features Thor and the Avengers, as well as a turn as the mysterious Martin Vanger in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that offered the veteran actor the most international exposure in the wake of his voyage on the high seas.

Trivia: Spiky-haired actress Naomie Harris was raised by her single mother in London. After studying political science at Cambridge, she enrolled at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for professional stage training. In the '90s, she made a few appearances on U.K. television series, including reoccurring roles on Runaway Bay and The Tomorrow People. She gained more recognition for her role in the miniseries White Teeth as Clara, the Jamaican daughter of a fanatical Jehovah's witness mother. Adapted from the book by Zadie Smith, White Teeth was shown in the U.S. on PBS Masterpiece Theater in 2002. She made her international breakthrough the same year in Danny Boyle's post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later. For the role of urban survivor Selena opposite attractive lead Cillian Murphy, Harris trained in kickboxing and learned how to properly wield a machete. Quickly becoming noticed for her talent and skill, she also appeared in Fritz Baumann's German drama Anansi as an immigrant from Ghana. Back on television, she played a radical activist for the New Labour party in the two-part BBC1 drama The Project. Harris' feature films for 2004 include the live-action remake Thunderbirds and the thriller Trauma, starring Colin Firth.Though her star was steadily rising in Hollywood, it wasn't until 2006 that Harris would really make a splash on stateside screens; and after supporting roles in Brett Ratner's After the Sunset and Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, Harris took to the high seas for her role as Tia Dalma in the eagerly anticipated summer sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Though her role in the first sequel to the hugely successful 2003 original was something of a minor affair, Harris' loyal fans could rest assured that they would be seeing plenty more of her in the final installment of the series that was set to hit screens in 2007. Just a few short months after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest sailed into the multiplexes, Harris would trade her Jamaican accent for a Bronx inflection when she took the role of a tough New York cop in director Michael Mann's Miami Vice - a slick, big screen adaptation of the show that made pink t-shirts and white blazers all the rage in the 1980s.

Trivia: Possessing the kind of tall, dark good looks that could easily get him mistaken for David Duchovny's British brother, Jeremy Northam has impressed transatlantic audiences as the type of actor who can make everything from giant cockroaches to Jane Austen look sexy.The fourth child of two Cambridge University professors, Northam was born in Cambridge on December 1, 1961. Following his family's move to Bristol in 1972, he got his first taste of the theatrical world when he took a backstage job at a local playhouse. He went on to study English at London University, but after deciding that acting was his true vocation, left school to pursue his career. Drama studies at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, a stint as a singing waiter, and a role in the 1987 TV movie Suspicion followed. In 1989, Northam got his first -- albeit unexpected -- big break when, as an understudy in a production of Hamlet, he took over at the last minute for Daniel Day-Lewis, who suffered a nervous breakdown one night during his performance as the title character. Receiving positive notices for his impromptu portrayal, the actor found further acclaim the following year, with his performance as Edward Voysey in the Royal National Theatre's production of The Voysey Inheritance. Northam won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his work, and after appearing in 1992's Wuthering Heights and the 1995 Canadian feature Voices, he traveled to Los Angeles, where he landed a leading role in The Net (1995) within five days of his arrival. Playing Jack Devlin, Northam managed to make a mark on audiences as the charismatic villain who tries to off heroine Sandra Bullock while still finding time to sleep with her. Later that year, the actor appeared as a ne'er-do-well of a different sort, when he played one of Dora Carrington's army of lovers in Carrington. Although his role was essentially limited to a brief maritime seduction of the illustrious lady (played by Emma Thompson), Northam had already landed the considerably more substantial part of Mr. Knightley in Douglas MacGrath's 1996 adaptation of the Austen novel Emma. Starring opposite Gwyneth Paltrow, Northam won both critical praise and the distinction of being that year's thinking woman's luxury import.The following year, the actor played a supporting role in Steven Spielberg's Amistad and then went on to explore completely different territory with a turn as Mira Sorvino's husband in the big-budget giant cockroach thriller Mimic. In 1998, Northam played another married man when he starred as Parker Posey's husband in the romantic comedy The Misadventures of Margaret. He then returned to the world of corsets and BBC English, first as a lawyer in David Mamet's 1999 adaptation of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy and then as An Ideal Husband in Oliver Parker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play. Having gotten the gentrified leading man role down to an science, Northam next went in an entirely different direction as a con man forced to pose as accomplice Steve Zahn's gay lover in a small Texas town in Happy, Texas, which had its premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

Trivia: Is openly gay, and was the 38th most influencial gay person in the UK in 2010. Attended Heighington CE Primary School. Has been collecting fossils since his childhood. Has always been a fan of Doctor Who. Spent a year travelling around Europe after school. Met his League of Gentlemen co-workers at a drama school in his late teens.

Trivia: Born in Scotland and raised in England as the son of Egyptian parents, actor Khalid Abdalla drew from his own familial lineage to tackle Middle Eastern roles in Hollywood productions, but made a conscious and aggressive attempt to cut against the grain of associated onscreen stereotypes. He later expressed an understandable reluctance to take his first part when it was offered to him -- that of Ziad Jarrah, the Lebanese hijacker responsible for the takeover of United Flight 93 on September 11th -- in Paul Greengrass' docudrama United 93, but a tête-à-tête with maverick director Greengrass (who had no interest in perpetuating stereotypes or prejudices, but instead sought to capture the human side of each character presented) immediately changed Abdalla's opinion. Indeed, the actor received widespread critical kudos for his work in that acclaimed production. He followed it up with the lead in an equally promising film -- director Marc Forster's much-anticipated Khaled Hosseini adaptation The Kite Runner (2007), about a life-changing friendship that blossoms between two Afghani young men.

Trivia: A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, dramatic actress Saskia Reeves made her film debut in December Bride (1990). Prior to that, she had appeared in the television film Metamorphosis (1987). In film, Reeves has specialized in playing offbeat roles in films such as Michael Winterbottom's Butterfly Kiss (1995).