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: The youngest of four children born to Evelyn "Brandy" Foster, Jodie Foster entered the world on November 19, 1962, under the name Alicia, but earned her "proper" name when her siblings insisted upon Jodie. A stage-mother supreme, Brandy Foster dragged her kids from one audition to another, securing work for son Buddy in the role of Ken Berry's son on the popular sitcom Mayberry RFD. It was on Mayberry that Foster, already a professional thanks to her stint as the Coppertone girl (the little kid whose swimsuit was being pulled down by a dog on the ads for the suntan lotion), made her TV debut in a succession of minor roles. Buddy would become disenchanted with acting, but Jodie stayed at it, taking a mature, businesslike approach to the disciplines of line memorization and following directions that belied her years. Janet Waldo, a voice actress who worked on the 1970s cartoon series The Addams Family, would recall in later years that Foster, cast due to her raspy voice in the male role of Puggsley Addams, took her job more seriously and with more dedication than many adult actors.After her film debut in Disney's Napoleon and Samantha (1972), Foster was much in demand, though she was usually cast in "oddball" child roles by virtue of her un-starlike facial features. She was cast in the Tatum O'Neal part in the 1974 TV series based on the film Paper Moon -- perhaps the last time she would ever be required to pattern her performance after someone else's. In 1975, Foster was cast in what remains one of her most memorable roles, as preteen prostitute Iris in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Both the director and the on-set supervisors made certain that she would not be psychologically damaged by the sleaziness of her character's surroundings and lifestyle; alas, the film apparently did irreparable damage to the psyche of at least one of its viewers. In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan, and when captured, insisted he'd done it to impress Foster -- a re-creation of a similar incident in Taxi Driver. The resultant negative publicity made Foster (who'd been previously stalked by Hinckley) extremely sensitive to the excesses of the media; through absolutely no fault of her own, she'd become the quarry of every tabloid and "investigative journalist" in the world. Thereafter, she would stop an interview cold whenever the subject of Hinckley was mentioned, and even ceased answering fan mail or giving out autographs. This (justifiable) shunning of "the public" had little if any effect on Foster's professional life; after graduating magna cum laude from Yale University (later she would also receive an honorary Doctorate), the actress appeared in a handful of "small" films of little commercial value just to recharge her acting batteries, and then came back stronger than ever with her Oscar-winning performance in The Accused (1988), in which she played a rape victim seeking justice. Foster followed up this triumph with another Oscar for her work as FBI investigator Clarice Starling (a role turned down by several prominent actresses) in the 1991 chiller The Silence of the Lambs.Not completely satisfied professionally, Foster went into directing with a worthwhile drama about the tribulations of a child genius, Little Man Tate (1991) -- a logical extension, according to some movie insiders, of Foster's tendency to wield a great deal of authority on the set. Foster would also balance the artistic integrity of her award-winning work with the more commercial considerations of such films as Maverick (1994). She made her debut as producer in 1994 with the acclaimed Nell, in which she also gave an Oscar-nominated performance as a backwoods wild child brought into the modern world. Foster would continue to to produce and direct, with 1995's Home for the Holidays and 2011's The Beaver.Foster would continue to chose a challenging variety of roles, playing scientist Ellie Arroway in Robert Zemeckis' 1997 adaptation of the Carl Sagan in Contact, and a widowed schoolteacher in Anna and the King (1999), and a mother defending her daughter during a home invasion in David Fincher's Panic Room. The 2000's would see Foster appear in several more films, like Inside Man, The Brave One, and the Roman Polanski directed domestic comedy Carnage. In 2013, Foster was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, and later appeared in sci-fi thriller Elysium.

Trivia: South African filmmaker Sharlto Copley is best known for producing and starring in the short film Alive in Joburg, which the feature film District 9 was based on. He would also star in the adaptation, playing the role of Wikus. Named after a character on a radio show his mother listened to, Copley dabbled in acting in high school, but later cofounded a media production company. It was there that Copley hired a 16 year old computer-graphics designer named Neill Blomkamp. Over the years the pair developed a fruitful working relationship, and after starring in both Alive in Joberg and District 9, Copley struck out on his own as Howling Mad Murdoch in Joe Carnahan's big-screen take on The A-Team.

Trivia: The niece of famed actress Sonia Braga, Brazilian actress Alice Braga rode to fame on the back of key performances in works produced in her native country, such as City of God (2002) and Sólo Dios Sabe (2005). She then branched out into international crossover hits as the female lead in such pictures as the Hollywood sci-fi/action opus I Am Legend (2007, starring Will Smith), the David Mamet-helmed sports drama Redbelt (2008), and the illegal immigrant-themed muckraker Crossing Over (2008). That same year, she re-teamed with City of God director Fernando Meirelles for the haunting film Blindness, playing the only woman left in her village with the ability to see, after a mysterious condition renders everyone else blind. She also joined the cast of the sci-fi thriller Repossession Mambo (2009), opposite Jude Law and Forest Whitaker.

Trivia: By the time director Alfonso Cuarón's Y Tu Mamá También took stateside arthouse theaters by storm in the early months of 2002, actor Diego Luna had been a fixture of Mexican film and television for nearly a decade. Though his breakout success could only be hinted at when he appeared in director Julian Schnabel's critically acclaimed drama Before Night Falls the previous year, it was his turn as a naïve, sex-starved teen in Cuarón's coming-of-age comedy drama that catapulted him to international stardom. A native of Mexico City whose mother died in a car accident when he was a mere two years old, Diego Luna was left to be raised by his father, Alejandro -- widely renowned as one of Mexico's most talented set designers. The draw of the entertainment industry, to which his father's work exposed him, proved too irresistible for the talented aspiring actor, and before long, Luna was refining his skills on both stage and screen. Following his debut in the 1991 short film El Último Fin de Año (The Last New Year), Luna appeared opposite childhood pal Gael García Bernal in the popular television soap opera El Abuelo y Yo (1992). His star quickly rising, Luna was soon noticed by casting directors, and in 1996, he took the lead for the musical drama El Cometa and the thriller Un Dulce Olor a Muerte (both 1999). To those who saw the films, it was obvious that the young star had leading-man talent, though it was a partnership with longtime friend Bernal that truly sparked both actors' careers. Y Tu Mamá También was released in Mexico in June of 2001 to huge box-office success, and it didn't take the rest of the world long to wonder what all of the fuss was about. Alternately funny, moving, sad, and affecting, the story of two hormone-fueled friends (Luna and Bernal) who hit the road with a sexy free spirit (Maribel Verdú) drew controversy for its overt sexuality. But those willing to look past that aspect were treated to a touching tale of friendship, loss, and the importance of living every moment of life to its fullest. With international offers subsequently flooding his doorstep, Luna remained in Mexico for a trio of films before accepting supporting roles in Frida and Vampires: Los Muertos in 2002. His status as an international star was confirmed when director Kevin Costner cast Luna in the 2003 Western Open Range. Following high-profile roles in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and Criminal (both 2004) the young star stepped before the camera for none other than Steven Spielberg for the 2004 drama The Terminal, which was inspired by the true-life tale of Iranian refugee Merhan Karimi Nasseri. He worked steadily, reteaming with Bernal in 2008 for the soccer drama Rudo y Cursi. That same year he was a producer on the well-reviewed Sin Nombre, and appeared as one of Harvey Milk's lovers in the award-winning biopic by director Gus Van Sant. In 2012 he had a small part in the thriller Contraband, and had a major part, again alongside Bernal, in the Will Ferrell Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre.

Trivia: In 2007, attended boot camp with the Rio police before filming Elite Squad. Was cast as Colombian Pablo Escobar in Narcos, despite not speaking Spanish and weighing 40 pounds less than he needed to be. Supports 50 for Freedom, which fights to end modern slavery and in 2015, became a goodwill ambassador for the International Labour Organisation.

Trivia: An intense, versatile performer, William Fichtner, born November 27th, 1956, emerged as a memorable character actor through his work with some of the most notable filmmakers of the 1990s and beyond. After his military brat childhood, Fichtner studied criminal justice in college before moving to New York City to shift his focus to acting. Fichtner got his first major acting job on the serial As the World Turns in 1988 and played bit parts in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992) and Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994). Steven Soderbergh gave Fichtner his first substantial film role as a small town hood in the neo-noir The Underneath (1994). After supporting turns in Kathryn Bigelow's Y2K fantasy Strange Days (1995) and Michael Mann's stylish police saga Heat (1995), Fichtner earned kudos for his psychotic hit man in actor Kevin Spacey's directorial debut Albino Alligator (1997). As a gentle blind scientist in Robert Zemeckis' empyreal sci-fi adventure Contact (1997), Fichtner further revealed his considerable range; among the hip ensemble cast in Doug Liman's time-bending rave comedy Go (1999), Fichtner managed to stand out with his humorously unsettling performance as a narcotics cop with an agenda. Fichtner finally achieved leading man status as one of Demi Moore's amours in Passion of Mind (2000), but Alain Berliner's first American effort failed at the box office. Moving easily between independent films and big-budget Hollywood, Fichtner next co-starred as one of the ill-fated swordfishermen in Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of The Perfect Storm (2000). Maintaining his prolific ways after The Perfect Storm's success, and earning a place in Vanity Fair's 2001 photo spread of premier supporting actors, Fichtner took on a varied trio of roles in three major 2001 releases. After playing a small part as Josh Hartnett's dad in Michael Bay's overwrought $198 million disappointment Pearl Harbor (2001), Fichtner's turn as a gay detective in the lumbering comedy What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) was one of the bright spots in an otherwise disposable movie. Back in his no-nonsense manhood style, Fichtner then appeared as a master sergeant involved in the troubled 1993 mission in Somalia in Ridley Scott's Oscar bait military drama Black Hawk Down (2001).After the ensemble carnage of Black Hawk Down, Fichtner moved to the small screen for a starring role as one of two maverick ER doctors in the ABC medical drama MDs (2002). A competitive time slot and poor reviews, however, hampered MDs' ratings. Though his foray into series television stumbled, Fichtner continued to rack up movie credits, appearing alongside Christian Bale and Emily Watson in the dystopian science fiction thriller Equilibrium (2002).In 2004, Fichtner appeared in Nine Lives, a critically successful episodic drama following the lives of nine women, and after participating in a variety of films throughout 2005 (The Chumscrubber, Empire Falls) and the television series Invasion Iowa, Fichtner joined the cast of the Academy Award-winning drama Crash. The actor continued to enjoy television success in the series Prison Break (2006-07), and played a conservative judge in an episode of The West Wing. Fichtner took on a role playing a bank manager in Gotham City for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008), and joined the casts of Date Night (2010), The Big Bang, and Drive Angry (all 2011).

Trivia: Was inspired to become an actor after watching 1983's Return Of The Jedi.Appeared in a number of stage productions such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Debbie Does Dallas, Sleeping Beauty, Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, and Aladdin, among others.Speaks Afrikaans.Frequently works with District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, also from South Africa.Is co-owner and producer of the broadcast media and film production company A Breed Apart Pictures.

Trivia: Family is from Barbados.Became passionate about acting after playing the Lion in a production of The Wizard of Oz at his school when he was 11.Studied nursing in college because his mother believed he needed a backup plan if his acting career was unsuccessful.Made his producing debut on the 2016 documentary Barrow: Freedom Fighter.Often volunteers with The Kidney Foundation of Canada and Make A Wish Foundation.

Trivia: In the late 1800s, his maternal great-grandparents published the first Pakistani magazine for women. Parents are actor-writer-directors. Originally considered majoring in business and economics in college, but switched to theater. For his Iron Man screen test, director Jon Favreau had him and costar Robert Downey Jr. do the same scene 10 different ways. Played the villainous Raza, who kidnapped and tortured the lead character, in Iron Man (2008). Upon reading the screenplay, he convinced the filmmakers to make the bad guys mercenaries instead of the originally scripted Muslim terrorists. Son, Javan, had a small role in Iron Man.

Trivia: As a teenager, she played hockey in the Junior League in Canada. Wanted to be a professional hockey player in the NHL. At the age of 18, his parents encouraged him into pursuing his acting dream. After half a semester at Waterloo University in Canada, he was convinced to pursue acting and moved to Toronto to go to drama school. Is an animal advocate. Is an avid sportsman.

Trivia: Actor Maxwell Perry Cotton began his acting career as a small child, scoring the role of Cooper Whedon on the series Brothers & Sisters in 2006, when he was just six years old.

Trivia: Born in 1980 and raised in her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadian actress Carly Pope quickly carved out an acting niche for herself by honing in on socially progressive dramatic material about hot-button issues, and specializing in rebellious, alternative characterizations -- assertive and aggressive counterculture figures. The actress landed her breakthrough part on the WB series Popular (1999-2001) -- a satirical program that relentlessly skewered the conventions of such teen soapers as Beverly Hills 90210. After chalking up a long and full cinematic resumé that found the up-and-comer tackling scattered roles in features including Orange County (2002), Window Theory (2004), and The French Guy (2005), Pope returned to television once again for a multi-episode turn on the controversial series Dirt -- a wicked, acerbic satire about a pathologically ruthless tabloid publisher (Courteney Cox Arquette). On that program, Pope played a lesbian drug pusher who aggressively "hooks" and seduces one of the publication's prize starlets. The actress followed it up with a key supporting role in the comedy Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007), as Shulamith, a radical feminist graffiti painter. She appeared in Yeti in 2008, and the next year she joined the cast of 24 in that show's seventh season. In 2011 she was cast in Textuality.

Trivia: Dreamed of playing professional hockey as a teen. Studied business in college but switched to theater after failing a calculus course. Was inspired to pursue an acting career after seeing future Stargate SG-1 costar Richard Dean Anderson shoot a scene from MacGyver on a Vancouver beach. Performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for two seasons. Met his wife, Lexa Doig, while guest-starring in an episode of her sci-fi series, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. Played hockey on the Stargate SG-1 team that competed against other productions, such as Smallville, that also shot in British Columbia.

Trivia: Born on the outskirts of Toronto, classically trained Canadian actress Christina Cox attended the exclusive Arts York at Unionville High School, where she double majored in theater and dance. Graduating from that program, Cox applied and gained acceptance to Toronto's Ryerson Theatre School, then later attained recognition and exposure as a screen actress in her native Canada -- first in various guest appearances (as different characters) on the Alliance Atlantis television series Due South, then with a supporting role in the Steve di Marco-directed Canadian crime comedy Spike of Love. Cox first moved to Los Angeles in the mid- to late '90s. A number of her early appearances constituted guest spots on such programs as Andromeda, The Chris Isaak Show, and She Spies. She broke through to national fame in several capacities, however -- namely, as one of the leads, Kim, in the lesbian romantic comedy Better Than Chocolate (1999) and with her ongoing portrayal of Angie Ramirez on F/X: The Series. Cox landed her most significant role up through that time as the heroine of the Vin Diesel fantasy adventure saga The Chronicles of Riddick (2004). In that film, the actress played Eve Logan, a mercenary soldier hired to deliver Richard Riddick (Diesel) to the planet known as Crematoria. In 2006, Cox landed one of her first major leads, as Vicki Nelson -- a private eye in for the ride of her life when she mistakenly confronts a 450-year-old vampire (Kyle Schmid) -- in the fantasy television series Blood Ties, adapted from the Blood Books series of novels by Tanya Huff. In addition to her film work, Cox remains extremely active in theatrical productions.

Trivia: Chinese-Canadian actor Terry Chen first achieved international recognition at the dawn of the millennium, when he appeared in two very different A-listers: Romeo Must Die, an avant-garde, martial-arts-saturated take on Romeo and Juliet (starring ill-fated pop diva Aaliyah and DMX); and Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe's nostalgic coming-of-ager about the early experience of a rock journalist-cum-roadie. Despite occasional dips into more conventional material -- a Dean Koontz telemovie, the glamorized spy film Ballistic (2002) -- Chen remained generally selective about Hollywood parts. He was memorable as a Merc Pilot in The Chronicles of Riddick, as Chin in the futuristic Will Smith sci-fi film I, Robot (2004), and as Tom Lone in War (2007), an action-filled tale about an FBI agent enmeshed in a battle between rival Asian gangs. Over the coming years, Chen would remain active on screen, appearing in movies like The A-Team and on series like Combat Hospital.