Trivia: Born in Boston in October 1980, he began to realize his passion for acting after attending the Interlochen Theater Arts Summer Program. After writing, directing, and starring in his first play at the age of 12, it wasn't long before the venom of the acting bug had successfully worked its way into the budding thespian's blood. Devoting his life to acting, Foster dropped out of high school at 16 and prepared to face the challenges that accompany such a career. In 1999, Foster won his breakthrough role in Liberty Heights. Set in 1950s Baltimore, Foster starred as a Jewish high school student whose socially taboo relationship with an African-American classmate (Rebekah Johnson) finds him facing negative pressure from his family and friends. He would go on to appear in many other films, like The Laramie Project, Big Trouble, 30 Days of Night, Alpha Dog, 3:10 to Yuma, Pandorum, Rampart, and more. Foster would also have a succesful TV run, with a role on the popular HBO series Six Feet Under. He played William Burroughs in 2013's Kill Your Darlings and also appeared in Ain't Them Bodies Saints and Lone Survivor the same year. Foster also focused on his stage work, starring in A Streetcar Named Desire in London in 2014.

Trivia: Before he started acting, Mark Wahlberg was best known as Marky Mark, the pants-dropping rapper who attained fame and notoriety with his group the Funky Bunch. In the tradition of Will Smith and Ice Cube, Wahlberg has made a successful transition from music to film, garnering particular early praise for his role in Boogie Nights.Born June 5, 1971, in Dorchester, MA, Wahlberg had a troubled early life. One of nine children, he dropped out of school at 16 (he would later earn his GED) and committed a number of minor felonies. After working various odd jobs, Wahlberg briefly joined brother Donnie and his group New Kids on the Block before forming his own, Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch. The group had widespread popularity for a time, most notably with its 1992 hit single "Good Vibrations." However, it was Wahlberg himself who received the lion's share of attention, whether it was for the homophobia controversy that surrounded him for a time, or for the 1992 Calvin Klein ad campaign featuring him wearing nothing more than his underwear, Kate Moss, and an attitude. In 1993, Wahlberg turned his attentions to acting with a role in The Substitute. The film, co-starring a then-unknown Natasha Gregson Wagner, was a critical and commercial failure, but Wahlberg's next project, 1994's Renaissance Man, with Danny De Vito, gave him the positive notices that would increase with the release of his next film, The Basketball Diaries (1995). Although the film received mixed reviews, many critics praised Wahlberg's performance as Mickey, Leonardo Di Caprio's friend and fellow junkie. Following Diaries, Wahlberg appeared in Fear (1996) in the role of Reese Witherspoon's psychotic boyfriend.It was with the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights in 1997 that Wahlberg finally received across-the-board respect for his commanding yet unassuming performance as busboy-turned-porn-star Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler. The film was nominated for three Oscars and a slew of other awards by associations ranging from the British Academy to the New York Film Critics Circle to MTV. The positive attention landed Wahlberg on a wide range of magazine covers and gave him greater Hollywood pulling power. He had, as they say, arrived. Wahlberg's follow-up to Boogie Nights was 1998's The Big Hit, an action comedy that, particularly in the wake of Boogie Night's acclaim, proved to be a disappointment. This disappointment was hardly lessened by the relative critical and commercial shortcomings of Wahlberg's next film, The Corruptor (1999). An action flick that co-starred Chow Yun-Fat, The Corruptor showcased Wahlberg's familiar macho side and indicated that success in Hollywood is a strange and unpredictable thing. Though he gained positive notice for his role in David O. Russell' s unconventional war film Three Kings the same year, the film was only a moderate success, paving the way for an even more dramatic turn in the downbeat true story of the ill-fated Andrea Gail, The Perfect Storm, in 2000.The following year found Wahlberg filling some big shoes -- and receiving some hefty criticism as a result -- with his lead role in Tim Burton's much-anticipated remake of Planet of the Apes. Taking over the role that Charlton Heston made famous, Wahlberg found himself pursued onscreen by sinister simians, as well as offscreen by critics who decried the lack of depth that the actor brought to the role. Late that summer, Wahlberg came back down to Earth -- specifically to the everyday-Joe-rises-to-fame territory of Boogie Nights -- with Rock Star, the story of a tribute-band singer who gets a chance to sing for the band he idolizes. Though his noble attempt to fill the considerable shoes of Hollywood legend Cary Grant in the 2002 Charade remake The Truth About Charlie would be only slightly exceeded by his assumption of the role originally played by Michael Caine in the following year's remake of The Italian Job, Wahlberg would subsequently prove that there's nothing like the fresh breeze of an original script in director David O. Russell's existential 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees. Of course, Wahlberg was never one to let a crowd down, and after riling audiences alongside Tyrese Gibson and André Benjamin in the Detroit-based revenge flick Four Brothers, the athletic actor would take to the gridiron to tell the inspirational story of one football fan whose dreams of playing in the NFL actually came true in the 2006 sports drama Invincible. Also released in the fall of 2006, The Departed allowed Wahlberg to act opposite such heavy hitters as Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, and his old Basketball Diaries co-star Leonardo Di Caprio under the direction of Martin Scorsese. Not only did Wahlberg hold his own against the cast of critics' darlings, he landed the film's only acting Academy Award nod. In 2007, Wahlberg starred in the suspense actioner The Shooter, as well as in director Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones. Wahlberg starred as the leader of a ragtag group trying to survive amidst murderous plant life in M. Night Shyamalan's so-bad-it's-good The Happening (2008), and played the titular role of Max Payne, which was adapted from a video game of the same name. In 2010 the actor starred in the inspirational docudrama chronicling the life of brothers Micky and Dicky Ecklund as they take on the world of boxing. Wahlberg earned an Academy Award nomination for producing the film; that same year, he began producing a new show for HBO, Boardwalk Empire. Wahlberg had a huge hit in 2012 with Seth MacFarlane's Ted, and joined the Transformer franchise in Transformers: Age of Extinction in 2014. Wahlberg continued his steady work, starring and producing both Deepwater Horizon (which was nominated for two Oscars) and Patriots Day (about the Boston Marathon bombing) in 2016.

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: Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch began his career as a model, signing with the agency IMG and moving to New York at the age of 21. As his career in front of the camera slowly but surely developed, Kitsch became a certified trainer and nutritionist. In 2006, his acting career had a breakthrough, and he was cast in the movies John Tucker Must Die and The Covenant, as well as the popular NBC 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. He appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and had a major part in The Bang Bang Club in 2010. Two years later he would be the lead in a pair of big-budget action spectacles - the notorious misfire John Carter, and the board-game inspired Battleship. He also was in Oliver Stone's crime thriller Savages.

Trivia: A popular and easygoing Australian comedian whose keen adaptability lent itself well to aggressive-oriented early film roles, Eric Bana's hatred of firearms may seem ironic in contrast to the Aussie funnyman's fledgling film portrayals of real-life mass murderer (and popular cult celebrity figure in the land Down Under) Mark "Chopper" Read (Chopper [2000]) and a military man caught in heated battle on a rescue mission (Black Hawk Down [2001]). Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Bana's career as a comedian began while working as a bartender at his native city's Castle Hotel in 1991. Television offers began flowing in a few short years later, and in 1993, Bana took his sharp wit to the small screen as he assumed the roles of both writer and performer on one of Australia's top comedy programs, Full Frontal. His star on the rise, the increasingly popular comedian made audiences laugh even harder when he co-produced and starred in his own 1996 comedy special Eric (later to become a series) and kicked off The Eric Bana Show Live the following year. 1997 proved to be a busy year for Bana as he also made his feature debut in The Castle, though all of his hard work would pay off when he took a feature role in Australian television's Something in the Air in 2000 and was voted Australia's Most Popular Comedy Performer at the Logies. Bana next took on the role of notorious Aussie author/murderer Mark "Chopper" Read in Chopper (2000). Hollywood was soon calling for Bana, and he answered by accepting a role in the tense true story of the Battle of Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down, followed by the title role in Ang Lee's The Hulk. While Lee's adaptation of the comic would be universally panned, Bana continued his upward trajectory, playing a major role in the acclaimed film Munich, playing the head of the squadron assigned to avenge the murder of Israeli athletes at the 172 Olympics. He then showcased his range by playing opposite Drew Barrymore in the Curtis Hanson film Lucky You, followed by a turn as infamous Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl. Bana would round out the next few years with roles that cemented his position in Hollywood, like Star Trek, Funny People, The Time Traveler's Wife, Hanna, and Deadfall.

Trivia: Performer Alexander Ludwig ascended to fame as a child star, largely on the basis of two portrayals: the young grifter-to-be Kenny Kimes (played as an adult by Jonathan Jackson) in director Richard Benjamin's well-received made-for-television feature A Little Thing Called Murder (2006) and -- as his first lead -- the role of Will Stanton, a young boy who discovers that he is actually a warrior, in director David Cunningham's spectacular fantasy The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007).

Trivia: Like many other actors of the mid- to late 2000s who hailed from the same geographic region, Ali Suliman signed for a number of roles that played off of an ethnic typecast, capitalizing on the public interest surge in Middle Eastern events and issues. Suliman was by no means limited to bit parts, however; in fact, as one of his first major credits, he signed for a lead -- in the controversial terrorist-themed drama Paradise Now. In that critical and public favorite, the actor offered a harrowing portrayal of Khaled, a young Palestinian man who drifts casually into a suicide-bombing mission. Suliman also landed a small role in Peter Berg's gripping counter-terrorism thriller The Kingdom (2007).

Trivia: Inspired by a teacher to pursue a career in acting while studying theater in college. Made his professional acting debut in 2000 on an episode of The King of Queens. Has used the alias Zack Morris while staying at hotels because Saved by the Bell was his favorite TV show while growing up. Has considered himself less outgoing and less outspoken than Turtle, his character on Entourage. Was the best man at the 2006 Las Vegas wedding of his Entourage costar Kevin Dillon. Co-owner of the Los Angeles deli Fat Sal's, which opened in 2010. Hobbies include golfing and playing video games; is a self-described homebody who doesn't do a lot of clubbing. Is not an avid traveler because he doesn't enjoy flying. Is a huge sports fan who dreamed of being a sports analyst before turning to acting.