Trivia: An actor who hovered far too long on the brink of stardom before getting his due recognition, Adrien Brody spent much of his early career falling victim to the slings and arrows of outrageous PR. Possessing undeniable talent and looks that recall both the wasted elegance of an Aubrey Beardsley illustration and a young and hungry Al Pacino, Brody spent much of the 1990s as a candidate for his generation's "next big thing." But despite roles in two high-profile movies -- Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998) and Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999) -- and the publicity that accompanied them, it was not until Brody was cast as the lead in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002) that he won the recognition which had previously eluded him.Born on April 14, 1973, in New York City, Brody was raised in Queens. The son of a schoolteacher and a celebrated photojournalist, he was drawn to acting from an early age. Brody's first taste of show business came when he was 12-years-old and performed as a magician at children's parties; with his mother's encouragement, he subsequently enrolled in acting classes, attending both the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the High School for the Performing Arts. He found his earliest work in off-Broadway productions, and made his television debut in 1998 with a PBS movie and a turn as Mary Tyler Moore's son in the comedienne's ill-fated sitcom Annie McGuire. Following his professional debut, the actor returned to school and attended a year of college before being cast in Steven Soderbergh's 1993 Depression-era drama King of the Hill. The film, which cast Brody as its protagonist's delinquent mentor, met with wide critical acclaim and presented him with new opportunities. He won roles in several films, including 1994's Angels in the Outfield and 1997's The Last Time I Committed Suicide, a paean to the beat generation that co-starred Keanu Reeves, Gretchen Mol, and Claire Forlani. That same year, Brody had lead parts in The Undertaker's Wedding and Six Ways to Sunday, two fairly obscure films that paved the way for both more high-profile work and a turn as one of Vanity Fair's "Hot, Young, and Full of Fun" cover boys. With the 1999 cover and principal roles in two highly anticipated films, The Thin Red Line and Summer of Sam, Brody seemed perfectly positioned to step into the limelight. Unfortunately, his scenes in the former ended up on the cutting room floor, victims of time constraints. But Brody's turn as a bisexual punk in the latter earned positive notices, and was hailed by numerous critics as one of the strongest points in Lee's flawed but compelling film. Brody continued to do solid work in films like Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights (1999) and Ken Loach's Bread and Roses (2000), but it wasn't until he was cast as the eponymous protagonist of Roman Polanksi's The Pianist that critics -- and the Academy -- really took notice of his work. For his portrayal of the real-life Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish pianist struggling to survive the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto, Brody invested himself mentally, emotionally, and physically in the role, and was rewarded for his dedication with numerous honors, including the French César and an Oscar that made him the youngest-ever recipient of the Best Actor award. Many observers felt the quality of his performance in the film was matched by that of his acceptance speech, given only days after the U.S. went to war with Iraq: after bestowing a long kiss on a very surprised Halle Berry, who presented him with the award, he went on to give a speech that managed to combine heartfelt gratitude with an eloquent plea for peace and goodwill. It was an accomplishment that brought much of the ceremony's audience to a standing ovation and ensured that although fame had eluded him in the past, Brody had finally and deservedly won his time in the limelight.Brody followed up his triumph as The Village idiot in M. Night Shyamalan's allegorical film, and starred in the little-seen psychological thriller The Jacket. However, in 2005, Brody starred in Peter Jackson's gargantuan remake of King Kong. He returned to more independent films as a man attempting to unravel the mysterious death of George Reeves in Hollywoodland, and teamed with Todd Haynes in his unconventional Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan. Brody would cement himself as a leading in Hollywood over the coming years, with appearances in everything from precocious, indie-fare like Darjeeling Limited and The Brothers Bloom to action explosions like Predators and Wrecked.

Trivia: Lanky, personable, and looking for all the world like Alan Alda's long-lost son, Topher Grace made an impressive film debut with his role in Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh's epic and widely acclaimed look at the American war on drugs. Grace received positive notices for his work in the film, which cast him as a cocky prep-school boy who turns his girlfriend (Erika Christensen) on to heroin and cocaine. The role marked a drastic departure from the young actor's regular job on the popular Fox sitcom That '70s Show, where he portrayed Eric Forman, a level-headed and predominantly wholesome high school student coming of age in "Me Decade" Wisconsin.A native New Yorker, Grace was born in the city on July 12, 1978. Raised in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he began acting in school plays and was a student at New Hampshire's Brewster Academy when his performance in a school production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum effectively secured him his first professional job. Among those to see the play were Bonnie and Terry Turner, parents of one of Grace's classmates and the would-be producers of That '70s Show. Impressed with the young actor's work in the play, they tapped him for the role of Eric Forman during his freshman year at the University of Southern California. Grace, who had studied acting at the Groundlings Improvisation School and the Neighborhood Playhouse, made his television debut in 1998, winning over both new fans and critical approval. His acclaimed work in Traffic two years later saw the actor's popularity further increase, acting as another testament to the beginnings of a promising career.While continuing to appear on That '70s Show, Grace remained selective of his film roles. Aside from showing up in a cameo as himself in Traffic director Steven Soderbergh's 2001 remake of Ocean's 11, he didn't appear in a film for three years. However, with his supporting turn in the Julia Roberts drama Mona Lisa Smile, it appeared Grace's film career was building steam.For his first big-screen starring role, Grace played opposite Kate Bosworth and Josh Duhamel in the 2004 love-triangle comedy Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, which was mostly well received by critics and audiences. Later in 2004, the young actor could be seen in the ensemble film sophomore effort from Roger Dodger director Dylan Kidd, entitled P.S. Cast as a twentysomething student who appears to be the reincarnation of an older woman's deceased high-school sweetheart, Grace offered a sense of soulful gravity to the under-seen romantic fantasy before rounding out his breakthrough year with a powerful performance as an ambitious young executive whose sense of synergy sets the boardroom ablaze in In Good Company. In the short span of just one year, Grace had proven himself capable of believably playing both a lovelorn Piggly Wiggly manager who can't muster the courage to express his love to the woman of his dreams, and an overambitious white-collar powerhouse who discovers something called a soul after casually assuming the position coveted by an experienced ad man twice his age. Whereas most actors of his generation would have been happy doing teen comedies and cashing in on the success of That '70s Show, it was obvious that Grace was opting for quality over quantity in making his transition to the big screen. After wrapping up his impressive run on That '70s Show in 2006, Grace henceforth chose his roles selectively, speaking often about having little hunger for fame, but a big appetite for interesting, fun, or challenging projects. He would appear in a number of feature films over the coming years, ranging form big budge action adventure fare, like Spiderman 3, to lighthearted comedies like Take Me Home Tonight, to offbeat, independent projects, like The Giant Mechanical Man. In 2014, he had a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film Interstellar.

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: Born November 10th, 1971, the fresh-faced, southern-born character actor Walton Goggins specializes in portrayals of hot-headed and rebellious types, often with an authoritarian or aggressive edge. Raised in Lithia Springs, GA, Goggins began his film career in his twenties with small supporting roles in A-list features, including Forever Young (1992), The Next Karate Kid (1994), and The Apostle (1997). He signed for his most successful and enduring role, however, as the sharp-tempered, racist detective Shane Vendrell on the FX network's popular police drama The Shield, a role Goggins held for multiple seasons, beginning with the program's debut in 2002. Beginning not long after this, Goggins stepped behind the camera to produce and turned out a number of noteworthy efforts, including the Billy Bob Thornton-headlined psychological drama Chrystal (2004) and the crime comedy Randy and the Mob, both directed by Ray McKinnon and both co-starring Goggins.Following the conclusion of The Shield in 2007, Goggins worked as an actor and producer in That Evening Sun, a psychological drama following the efforts of an aging farmer to keep his farm after his son betrays him by leasing the property to an old nemesis. The actor joined a cast including Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell for Cowboys & Aliens in 2011's Cowboys & Aliens, and continued to enjoy television success on the police drama Justified.

Trivia: Russian actor and mixed martial artist Oleg Taktarov earned accolades in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the PRIDE Fighting Championship before retiring in 2001 to focus on a career on-screen. Leveraging his popularity in the fighting world, he began making appearances in action films like Bad Boys II, National Treasure, and Miami Vice, before coming out of retirement in 2007 to rack up additional successes, before retiring again in 2008. Taktarov then resumed his focus on movies, appearing in Predators and Righteous Kill.

Trivia: Dramatic actor Laurence Fishburne gained widespread acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his gripping performance as the Svengali-like Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It (1993) and went on to rack up an impressive string of credits playing leads and supporting roles on stage, screen, and television.Born in Augusta, GA, the sole child of a corrections officer and an educator, Fishburne was raised in Brooklyn following his parents' divorce. An unusually sensitive child with a natural gift for acting, he was taken to various New York stage auditions before landing his first professional role at the age of ten. Two years later, he made his feature film debut with a major role in Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975). A turning point in the young actor's career came when he lied about his age and won the role of a young Navy gunner in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. On location in the Philippines, the teenage actor effectively bade farewell to childhood as he endured the many legendary problems that befell Coppola's production over the next two years. In between shooting days, Fishburne hung out with the adult actors, often exposing himself to their offscreen drinking and drugging antics.Back in Hollywood by the late '70s, he continued playing small supporting roles in features and on television. Like many black actors, he was frequently relegated to playing thugs and young hoodlums. He would continue to appear in Coppola productions like Rumble Fish (1983) and The Cotton Club (1984) throughout the 1980s. Wanting a change from playing heavies, he accepted a recurring role as friendly Cowboy Curtis opposite Paul Reubens on the loopy CBS children's series Pee-Wee's Playhouse. By the early '90s, Fishburne had begun to escape the stereotypical roles of his early career. In 1990, he played a psychotic hit man opposite Christopher Walken in Abel Ferrara's King of New York and a chess-playing hustler in Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993). Following his great success in the Tina Turner biopic, he became one of Hollywood's most prolific actors, appearing in films such as John Singleton's Higher Learning (1995). Fishburne, who had known Singleton when the latter was a security guard on the Pee-Wee's Playhouse set, had previously appeared in the director's debut film Boyz 'N the Hood (1991). After Higher Learning came Othello (1995) and Always Outnumbered, which he also produced. Fishburne had previously produced Hoodlum (1997), in which he also starred. In 1999, he stepped into blockbuster territory with his starring role in the stylish sci-fi action film The Matrix. Increasingly geared towards action films, Fishburne could be seen in the fast and furious motorcycle flick Biker Boyz as fans prepared for the release of the upcoming Matrix sequels. Indeed, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) earned Fishburne further praise from both fans and critics. The same year, Fishburne co-starred with Tim Robbins and Sean Penn in the role of a homicide detective for the Academy Award-winning thriller Mystic River. The actor went on to star as a cop-killing mobster for the crime drama Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), and as a somber professor of English in the critically acclaimed urban drama Akeelah and the Bee (2006). He would co-star in the ensemble political docudrama chronicling the life and death of Robert F. Kennedy (also in 2006), and join the cast of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007. Fishburne found success again in director Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), and co-stars in the Superman reboot Man of Steel (2013) as the editor-and-chief of "The Daily Planet". In addition to his work in cinema, Fishburne has established a distinguished stage career, winning a Tony Award in 1992, for his role in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.

Trivia: With his intimidating, tattooed, muscle-bound appearance, character actor Danny Trejo has formed a successful career as the all-purpose hard case over his curious and enduring cinematic career. Beating the odds of repeat offender syndrome after being released from prison, Trejo has risen through the ranks to find himself in high demand as an actor, and has even expanded his talents to include a producer credit to his resumé. His life story is just about as pristine an example of rehabilitation as one could ask for.Raised in the mean streets of East L.A., Trejo spent many of his early years incarcerated in such legendary prisons as Folsom and San Quentin on drug and robbery convictions. Channeling his intense energy into the boxing ring and winning numerous lightweight and welterweight titles, Trejo was released as a new man after completing a life-changing 12-step rehabilitation program to overcome his addictions. Applying the ideas that changed his life in an attempt to help others headed down a similar path, upon release Trejo became involved with numerous rehabilitation and counseling programs. A chance meeting with a young man who asked for his support at a Cocaine Anonymous meeting in 1985 later found the sympathetic ex-con meeting the struggling addict on the set of Runaway Train, and Trejo was quickly offered a role as a convict presumably based on his threatening appearance. Chance piled upon chance found an old prison buddy/screenwriter who remembered Trejo's hard-hitting boxing skills on the same set, and Trejo was then offered a chance to train Eric Roberts for a film, and was eventually offered the role as his opponent in the ring. Following with roles in The Hidden (1987), and later Lock-Up (1989), Marked for Death (1990), Mi Vida Loca (1993), and Heat (1995), Trejo formed an alliance with director Robert Rodriguez with Desperado in 1995, and soon graduated to such bigger-budget films as Con Air (1997) and The Replacement Killers (1998) in the latter 1990s. The Rodriguez-Trejo twosome found the actor taking on the role of Uncle Isadore "Machete" Cortez in the director's 2001 smash hit Spy Kids, and was later cast in both the film's sequel and Rodriguez's Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2002). Trejo continued to work steadily on the big and small screens in a variety of projects such as Alias, Monk, The Devil's Rejects, Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror, the indie drama SherryBaby, and Smiley Face. He enjoyed one of his rare big-screen starring vehicles when Robert Rodriguez made Machete -- a feature-length version of the trailer he created for Grindhouse -- in 2007. He went on to appear in Valley of Angels, Saint John of Las Vegas, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, and Bad Ass.

Trivia: Is of Vietnamese and Japanese descent.Was raised in New York City, United States.Native language is English, but is also fluent in Japanese.Started his career in television doing commercials at 8-years-old.Practices Kendo, a martial art.

Trivia: With a tough, imposing, and thoroughly frightening presence -- accentuated by his muscular build, deep-set eyes, and bald head -- Derek Mears fit the bill for menacing roles in Hollywood. He remained active from the mid-'90s on, dividing his time between grueling, physically demanding stunt work -- in big-budget Hollywood outings such as World Trade Center (2006) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) -- and on-camera character turns as thugs, hoods, muggers, creepy villains, and occasional psychopaths. Mears' career culminated with the remakes of two iconic slasher movies: The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007), in which his appearance seemed to evoke the presence of Michael Berryman's Pluto from the two original Wes Craven Hills movies; and producer Michael Bay's remake Friday the 13th (2009), where he played the hockey mask-wearing, machete-wielding serial killer Jason Voorhees.

Trivia: Attended St. Mary's College on a basketball scholarship. Was an apprentice for the California Shakespeare Festival after university. Made his television debut in 2002 as Trey Sanders on Crossing Jordan. Earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his role in 2010's The Wronged Man.