Trivia: Paul Dano first caught major attention in 2006, when he played the grumpy, nihilistic teenager Dwayne in the sleeper hit Little Miss Sunshine. Dano had actually been paying his dues in the industry for five years when the indie comedy put him on the map, first starring in the tense 2001 drama L.I.E. at the age of 17, when he performed under the name Paul Franklin Dano. Even before that, young Dano appeared in several Broadway productions including A Christmas Carol and Ragtime. He went on to appear in the crime thriller Taking Lives as well as the critically acclaimed The Ballad of Jack & Rose. Then, in 2006, Dano took the infamous role in Little Miss Sunshine of a surly teenage brother who's taken a vow of silence. He immediately followed it with the subversive Fast Food Nation before signing on to re-team with his Ballad of Jack & Rose co-star Daniel Day-Lewis in the Paul Thomas Anderson historical drama There Will Be Blood. Dano also lent his voice to the big-screen computer-animated adaptation of the classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are, voicing the main character of Alexander. He continued to jungle indie fare like Gigantic, Meek's Cutoff, and Being Flynn with supporting turns in more high-profile projects including Knight and Day as well as Cowboys & Indians.

Trivia: Lost his father, a firefighter, in the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the age of 7. Began doing stand-up comedy at 16. Was discovered by Nick Cannon at age 17. Made his television premiere on Gotham Comedy Live. Was named as one of Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch for 2014. Is the first cast member of Saturday Night Live to be born in the 1990s.

Trivia: An actor whose hulking presence belies his ability to slip quietly into an astonishing variety of roles, Vincent D'Onofrio is one of Hollywood's most unpredictable and compelling performers. Throughout his career, D'Onofrio has played a diverse range of characters, from Full Metal Jacket's fatally unhinged army recruit to a wholly convincing Orson Welles in Ed Wood to a bisexual porn star in The Velocity of Gary.Born in Brooklyn, NY, on June 30, 1959, D'Onofrio was raised in the diverse locales of Hawaii, Colorado, and Miami's Hialeah section. His career as an actor began on the stage, with study under Sonia Moore of New York's American Stanislavsky Theatre and Sharon Chatten at the Actors Studio. D'Onofrio's early years in the theater were filled with an obligatory helping of obscurity and miniscule paychecks (so miniscule that he worked for a time as a bouncer to help pay the bills). His fortunes began to shift in 1984, when he joined the American Stanislavsky Theatre as a performer. There, he appeared in such well-regarded productions as Of Mice and Men and David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and also made his Broadway debut in Open Admissions.D'Onofrio debuted onscreen in the straight-to-oblivion 1983 comedy The First Turn-On!, but it was not until his haunting portrayal of Pvt. Pyle (a role for which the actor gained 70 pounds) four years later in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket that he earned much-deserved notice for his work. Defying easy categorization, D'Onofrio next appeared in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza (1988), slimming down to his normal weight and giving a convincing portrayal as Lili Taylor's lovestruck boyfriend.Having thus given audiences a glimpse of his remarkable versatility, D'Onofrio spent the next few years making his presence felt in such films as JFK (1991), in which he played assassination witness Bill Newman; The Player (1992), which cast him in the pivotal role of ill-fated screenwriter David Kahane; and Nancy Savoca's Household Saints (1993), which, through a particularly odd feat of casting, had him playing the father of Lili Taylor. Although D'Onofrio worked at a prolific pace, it was not until he portrayed Conan the Barbarian author Robert E. Howard in the 1996 The Whole Wide World that he really had his screen breakthrough. A low-key romantic drama about the relationship between Howard and a schoolteacher (Renée Zellweger), the film allowed D'Onofrio to take center stage, rather than lend support to better-known co-stars. Critics roundly applauded his performance, but although the actor kept working steadily, he was by no means a Hollywood fixture. Eschewing the limelight, he turned in particularly memorable performances in Feeling Minnesota (1996) as Cameron Diaz's cuckolded fiancé and in the 1997 blockbuster Men in Black, which cast him as the film's resident bad guy.D'Onofrio had long since become an established actor by the 2000's, and he would remain a solid force on screen in such films as The Cell, Happy Accidents, Steal This Movie, andThumbsucker. D'Onofrio would also find just as much notoriety on the small screen, most notably as Detective Robert Goren on the phenomenally successful Law & Order spin-off Criminal Intent, and even step behind the camera, penning, helming and starring in the drama Mall.

Trivia: Few aspiring actresses could ever hope to experience the early career success of Ugly Betty starlet America Ferrera. In the scant four years after earning a Sundance Jury Award, an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and a Young Artist Award nomination for her role as a first-generation Mexican-American girl teetering on the cusp of womanhood for Real Women Have Curves, the hardworking actress rose quickly through the ranks to become one of television's brightest young stars.A Los Angeles native and the youngest of six siblings born to Honduran parents, Ferrera, born April 18, 1984, was raised by her mother in Woodland Hills, CA. Though at first hesitant to pursue a career on camera, the natural-born actress and high school valedictorian displayed an instinctive talent on the stage that seemed to signal she had found her true calling. It was during this time that Ferrera began working as a waitress to fund her classes and pay for headshots, and shortly thereafter she made her screen debut as a cheerleader in the Disney Channel feature Gotta Kick It Up! (2002). Later, while attending summer theater camp at Northwestern University, Ferrera taped an audition for Real Women Have Curves; after six auditions, she was ecstatic to learn that she had been cast as first-generation American Ana Garcia. It was the perfect role for the emerging actress, as she too was among the first of her family to be born in America.In the following two years, Ferrera appeared in a number of film and television projects while studying International Relations and Theater at the University of Southern California, with high-profile roles in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Lords of Dogtown helping to form a solid foundation for an enduring career. Roles in the addiction drama 3:52 and the working-class drama Steel City were quick to follow, and in 2006 Ferrera became a small-screen sensation with her role as an unattractive secretary working for a popular fashion magazine in ABC's Ugly Betty. An Americanized remake of the popular Columbian comedy drama Yo Soy Betty, la Fea, Ugly Betty was produced by screen star Salma Hayek and became an immediate hit with viewers. When the Golden Globes were handed out in early 2007, young star Ferrera was visibly thrilled to be bestowed with a Best Actress award for her work on the series. She also won a the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Comedy Series shortly thereafter. That same year, Ferrera would expand her resumé to include the role of producer for the dramatic crime thriller Towards Darkness -- in which she also starred as a girl who shares a sensitive relationship with a young kidnapping victim.2008 saw Ferrera with a starring role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and the actress would voice the role of Astrid in 2010's animated hit How to Train Your Dragon. The same year, Ferrera appeared in The Dry Land; the film premiered at te Sundance Film Festival in 2010, and won the Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Dallas International Film Festival. Ferrera will co-star alongside Rosario Dawson in Chavez, a biopic depicting the life of labor activist Cesar E. Chavez slated for release in 2013.

Trivia: Actor Nick Offerman honed an immediately identifiable image -- that of a rugged, imposing presence with an unmistakably menacing onscreen aura, occasionally tempered by nuttiness -- and parlayed it into a long string of offbeat characterizations. After guest spots on such prime-time series as ER and Gilmore Girls, and bit parts in features including Treasure Island (1999), Groove (2000), and November (2003), Offerman graduated to lead status with a decidedly wacky triple role in Martin Hynes' road movie The Go-Getter (2007). That same year, audiences could also catch Offerman via his small supporting role as a cop in Goran Dukic's jet-black comic romance Wristcutters: A Love Story. Meanwhile, Offerman also signed for one of the lead roles -- as an auto mechanic -- on the satirical Comedy Central series American Body Shop (2007). In 2009 he was cast as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, and this turned out to be his breakthrough role. He parlayed that success into appearances in films like The Men Who Stare at Goats, All Good Things, Casa de me Padre, and the big-screen comedy version of 21 Jump Street.

Trivia: Of Puerto-Rican descent.While attending Halsey Junior High School, was a member of the musical group Halsey Trio.While in school, wanted to become a baseball player.Original cast member of the Broadway hit Hamilton.In 2017, released The Freedom EP, his first solo EP.

Trivia: Canadian-born actor Seth Rogen tapped into his skills as a comedian when he was only 13, signing up for comedy classes and honing his deadpan style. He tooled around as an amateur for a few years but eventually took his act down south, hoping to find success as an actor and standup comedian in the U.S. He was soon discovered by Judd Apatow and was cast in his short-lived series Freaks and Geeks. After its cancellation, Apatow cast Rogen in his next series, Undeclared -- for which Rogen significantly contributed as a writer. Undeclared met the same fate as Freaks and Geeks and was canceled mid-season, but both series became surprisingly hot cult hits upon their DVD releases. Rogen went on to write for Da Ali G Show and take minor roles in Donnie Darko and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy before being tapped by Apatow once again for a new project, this time on the big screen. The film was 2005's The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Rogen's role as Steve Carell's well-meaning friend Cal finally brought him the large-scale success that made his comic skills a valuable commodity. Rogen also acted as co-producer on the film, which was touted as the funniest movie in years by critics and audiences alike, eventually grossing well over a hundred million dollars. There was obviously good chemistry on the set of The 40 Year Old Virgin, so Rogen signed on to appear in Apatow's 2007 comedy Knocked Up. Appearing alongside his old cast mates Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann, Rogen starred as a man who is forced to deal with serious unforeseen consequences when his one-night stand becomes pregnant. After the filmmakers' initial plans to cast Anne Hathaway in the opposite role fell through, Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl signed on to star as the female lead. The smash success of Superbad made him one of the biggest comedy stars of his generation and led to Pineapple Express, a pot comedy opposite James Franco. He was Zack in Zack and MIri Make a Porno, and took a screenwriting credit on Drillbit Taylor in 2008. He lent his distinctive gravelly voice to a number of animated films including Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens. In 2009 he stretched himself, reteaming with Apatow for Funny People, and taking the lead in the black comedy Observe and Report. In 2011 he was The Green Hornet, but he also appeared as the best friend to a young cancer victim in the comedy 50/50. He also played the husband of Michelle Williams in Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz.

Trivia: Actor Sebastian Stan studied drama at Rutgers University before beginning his professional acting career, making minor appearances on TV shows like Law & Order. Eventually, Stan was cast in the 2006 film The Architect, as well as 2007's The Education of Charlie Banks. Then, in 2009, the actor scored a major role in a TV series, playing Jack Benjamin on the NBC series Kings. He went on to appear in the award-winning Black Swan, the comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, the superhero flick Captain America: The First Avenger, Gone, and The Apparition.

Trivia: Best known as troubled high-schooler Amy Juergens on the TV series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Shailene Woodley began her career as a child model in her native California. Within a few years, she was making appearances on episodes of popular TV shows like Crossing Jordan and Without a Trace, soon landing a recurring role on the night-time soap The O.C. in 2003. The 14 year-old found subsequent success starring in the TV movies Felicity: An American Girl Adventure and Final Approach, before she was cast on Secret Life in 2008. Woodley moved to the big screen in a big way, starring as George Clooney's troubled daughter in 2011's The Descendants and garnering an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress in the process.

Trivia: Retained her British citizenship after her family moved to Manhattan, but considers herself to be an American actress. Made her silver-screen debut in 1969 in Anne of the Thousand Days, which starred her famous father, Richard. Was nominated for two Tony Awards in 2002 for her work in Hedda Gabler and The Elephant Man. Received an honorary doctorate from Brown University, her alma mater, in 2007. Portrayed all of the adult female roles in the 2008 hit Broadway show Spring Awakening. Narrated audio books for novels written by Patricia Cornwell, Lisa Scottoline, Iris Johansen and Dean Koontz.

Trivia: A tall, intense, hulking actor who was a natural to play Frankenstein's monster in The Bride (1985), Clancy Brown has utilized his naturally menacing exterior for a career's worth of villainous roles, most notably in films such as Highlander and The Shawshank Redemption. With good looks that could be described as somewhat Neanderthal in nature, he has also found the occasional sympathetic portrayal, and been equal to the task of acting it. Clancy Brown was born on January 5, 1959, in Urbana, OH, the son of a newspaperman-turned-U.S. congressman. He was raised in both Urbana and Washington, D.C., and claims to have been introduced to acting by a neighbor who got him into Shakespeare at a young age. Brown acted in high school and during his teenage summers before enrolling at Northwestern University on a track scholarship as a discus hurler. He graduated with a degree in speech and went on to mix drinks in Chicago while working in local theater. Brown's first film role established the trend for how his services would be used throughout his career. He appeared as Viking in the Sean Penn "juvy" drama Bad Boys (1983), in which he threw around his muscle as one of the detention center's intimidators. Next he appeared in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) as the cowboy Rawhide, then as Highlander's sword-wielding embodiment of evil, Kurgan, in the 1986 cult classic. A succession of roles as bruising heavies, often corrupt cops, followed during the late '80s and '90s, in films such as Dead Man Walking (1996) and The Hurricane (1999). The most memorable among these was Captain Byron Hadley, the crooked prison guard with the deadly billy club in the multiple-Oscar-nominated The Shawshank Redemption (1994). In 1997, he played one of his more infrequent good guy roles as Sergeant Zim in Starship Troopers. From 1997-1998, he had a prominent recurring guest role as a doctor on NBC's ratings champ ER. His prolific television career also includes a role on the sci-fi series Earth 2 (1994). In 2002, Brown appeared among an ensemble cast in the HBO film The Laramie Project, which was about the beating death of gay Wyoming teen Matthew Shepard. The next year, he took on the prominant role of Brother Justin Crowe on HBO's cryptic period drama Carnivàle, joining another talented ensemble cast and once again tapping into his dark side. Brown's distinctive voice has been in high demand throughout his career, resulting in dozens of voice-over credits in animated features such as The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) and television series. Of course his distinctively brute face was still very much an important part of his career, with an onscreen role in the hit television series Lost serving well to provide viewers with a valuable history of the mysterious "hatch." A trip back in time found the hulking Brown assuming the role of a monstrous viking in director Markus Nispel's Pathfinder, and later that same year the actor could once again be spotted on the big screen in the Kevin Costner Coast Guard drama The Guardian. In 2008 he appeared in the college football film The Express, and the next year had small but crucial roles in the indie drama The Twenty, as well as Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! He continued to land small parts in bug budget Hollywood spectacles like the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Cowboys & Aliens, and Green Lantern.

Trivia: Began acting as a child in community and school theatre. Made his Broadway debut as understudy to Haley Joel Osment in the short lived 2008 revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo. Won an Obie Award in 2010 for his performance in Annie Baker's play The Aliens, directed by Sam Gold, at New York's Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. Met his wife, actress Anna Wood, while they were both students at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Was the star of Prada's spring/summer 2014 menswear campaign, the second time he modeled for the brand.

Trivia: Actress Olivia Thirlby accepted one of her earliest on-camera roles when she signed to work for director Paul Greengrass on his acclaimed docudrama United 93 -- and thereby delivered a haunting onscreen evocation of the late Nicole Carol Miller, 21-year-old college student and victim of one of the September 11th hijackings. Thirlby subsequently tackled supporting roles in such productions as David Gordon Green's explosive small-town drama Snow Angels (2007) and Jason Reitman's seriocomedy Juno (2007), then teamed up with Lili Taylor and X-Files stalwart David Duchovny for Vincent Perez's supernatural thriller The Secret (2007). The following year Thirlby made her stage debut in the 2008 off-Broadway production of Farragut North, and in 2009 she played the recurring role of Suzanne, Jonathan's ex-girlfriend, on HBO's Bored to Death. A supporting appearance in No Strongs Attached preceded a leading role in the sci-fi dud The Darkest Hour, and after lending her voice to David Gordon Green's animated comedy series Good Vibes, she landed the plum role of a young artist who upsets the delicate balance of a California household in the low-key drama Nobody Walks. But that was all talk, and Thirlby fans who craved a bit more action got exactly what they were looking for when she teamed with Karl Urban to battle a vicious gang of futuristic drug dealers in Dredd -- a feature adaptation of long-running comic strip that originated in the British science fiction comic 2000 A.D. (and was previously adapted for the screen in a 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle).