Trivia: Discovered at age 3 while attending a production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle by a director who noticed his intense concentration. Mother accompanied him on set for all his projects until he began filming the TV series Skins when he was 17. Visited slums in the Kenyan city of Nairobi in 2010 to raise awareness about poverty as part of Christian Aid Week. Appeared in the video for the song "Lez be Friends" by the British musical-comedy act Midnight Beast in 2010. Modelled eyewear in a advert for the 2010 Tom Ford spring collection after appearing in Ford's film A Single Man. Played a villain in a 2014 commercial for Jaguar, part of a series that also featured Ben Kingsley and Tom Hiddleston.

Trivia: Actor Nicolas Cage has always strived to make a name for himself based on his work, rather than on his lineage. As the nephew of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Cage altered his last name to avoid accusations of nepotism. (He chose "Cage" both out of admiration for avant-garde musician John Cage and en homage to comic book hero Luke Cage). Even if he had retained the family name, it isn't likely that anyone would consider Cage holding fast to his uncle's coattails. Time and again, Cage travels to great lengths to add verisimilitude to his roles.Born January 7, 1964, in Long Beach, CA, to a literature professor father and dancer/choreographer mother, Cage first caught the acting bug while a student at Beverly Hills High School. After graduation, he debuted on film with a small part in Amy Heckerling's 1982 classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Following a lead role in Martha Coolidge's cult comedy Valley Girl (1983), Cage spent the remainder of the decade playing endearingly bizarre and disreputable men, most notably as Crazy Charlie the Appliance King in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Hi McDonough in Raising Arizona (1987), and Ronny Cammareri in the same year's Moonstruck, the last of which won him a Golden Globe nomination and a legion of female fans, ecstatic over the actor's unconventional romantic appeal.The '90s saw Cage assume a series of diverse roles, ranging from a violent ex-con in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) to a sweet-natured private eye in the romantic comedy Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) to a dying alcoholic in Mike Figgis' astonishing Leaving Las Vegas (1995). For this last role, Cage won a Best Actor Oscar for his quietly devastating portrayal, and, respectability in hand, gained an official entrance into Hollywood's higher ranks. After winning his Oscar, along with a score of other honors for his performance, Cage switched gears in a way that would prove to be, with the occasional exception, largely permanent. He dove into a series of action movies like the Michael Bay thriller The Rock, the prisoners-on-a-plane movie Con Air, and the infamous John Woo flick Face/Off. Greeted with hefty paychecks and audience approval, Cage forged ahead on a career path lit largely with explosions.There would be exceptions, like 1998's City of Angels, a remake of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, and Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, and the the lightly dramatic romantic comedy The Family Man, but Cage stuck mostly to thrillers and action movies. A spate of such films would fill his resume, like Gone in 60 Seconds, The Life of David Gale, 8MM, and Snake Eyes, but Cage would briefly revisit his roots in character work, teaming with Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze in 2002 for a duel role in the complex comedy Adaptation (2002). With Cage appearing as both screenwriter Charlie Kaufman as well as his fictional brother Donald, Adaptation followed Charlie's attempt to adapt author Susan Orlean's seemingly unfilmable novel The Orchid Thief as a feature film, and Donald's parallel efforts to write his own hacky yet lucrative script by following the guidance of a caustic, Syd Field-like screenwriting instructor (Brian Cox). A weighty role that demanded an actor capable of portraying characters that couldn't differ more emotionally despite their outward appearance, Adaptation brought Cage his second Oscar nomination -- and he was soon back to business as usual.2004 saw the release of the megahit adventure film National Treasure, which cast Cage as an archaeologist convinced there's a treasure map on the back of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The outrageous film would earn a sequel in 2007, but first Cage made the ill-advised decision to star in Neil LaBute's reworking of the Robin Hardy/Anthony Shaffer collaboration The Wicker Man (2006). Though video compilations of the movie's most hilariously hackneyed moments would become popular on the internet, Cage was soon portraying a motorcycle-driving stuntman who sells his soul to Mephistopheles -- in Mark Steven Johnson's live-action comic book adaptation Ghost Rider. Upon premiering in the States, the film became a big success. In the same year's sci-fi thriller Next, directed by Lee Tamahori, Cage plays Cris Johnson, a man who attains the ability to see into the future and must suddenly decide between saving himself and saving the world; the film failed to ignite the way Ghost Rider did just a couple months before it. Next came Bangkok Dangerous, Knowing, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans, Drive Angry, Seeking Justice, and Trespass -- all high octane, high adrenaline movies that found Cage diving, leaping, and shooting his way through the story. Cage found himself with a surprise hit in Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass (2010), playing a vigilante former cop in the black comedy film. He voiced the main character in 2013's animated The Croods, but then mostly stuck to action-crime-thriller-type movies for the next couple of years, including films like Left Behind (2014), The Runner (2015) and The Trust (2016).

Trivia: Grew up in Forest Hills, Queens.Started rapping when she was 13.Played the trumpet in high school and trained in classical music and jazz.Released her debut album, Yellow Ranger, on February 11, 2014.Studied Journalism, Women's Studies and Mandarin in college.Made her film debut in the 2016 comedy Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, playing Christine.

Trivia: Actor and veteran of the Upright Citizen's Brigade comedy troupe Ben Schwartz began making his way into the world of television by appearing on shows like Parks and Recreation and in sketches on CollegeHumor.com. He eventually began making appearances in feature films, like 2009's Everybody's Fine and 2010's The Other Guys, before moving on to more prominent roles, like in the 2011 comedy Peep World.

Trivia: An Iranian actress whose strong political beliefs almost led her to a career as a journalist, Shohreh Aghdashloo decided instead that she could reach more people by working in film and theater -- and with her Oscar-nominated role in the tragedy House of Sand and Fog, she found an audience the size of which she never dreamed possible. Born in Tehran in 1952 to an intellectual, creative family, Aghdashloo was drawn to the theater at an early age, and by her twenties was performing in various cutting-edge performance groups, among them the acclaimed Drama Workshop of Tehran. Filmmakers often drew upon talent from the Workshop, and Aghdashloo was cast by directors Abbas Kiarostami and Ali Hatami -- two towering figures of the nascent Iranian New Wave -- to play starring roles in several of their formally adventurous, socially progressive productions, including 1977's Gozaresh and Sutedelan.But in the late '70s, with the Ayatollah Khomeini reintroducing an era of strict rule based on religious doctrine, Aghdashloo's work as a performer was either censored or forbidden outright. Eager to escape the turmoil of the Iranian Revolution, Aghdashloo left her husband and her career to go to London, where she earned a degree in international relations. She was on the verge of accepting a position at a newspaper when a friend presented her with a play, called Rainbow, about the Revolution and its discontents. He had written a role specifically for her, and Aghdashloo believed in the project enough to put her journalism career on hold -- for what would turn out to be an indefinite length of time. Rainbow was such a success, it toured the United States, where Aghdashloo was reunited with a Workshop colleague of hers, Houshang Touzie; a romance soon developed, and two married in Los Angeles in the late '80s.Discouraged by the dearth of non-stereotyped roles for Middle Eastern women in Hollywood, Aghdashloo focused her attention instead on stage work, even creating a traveling theater troupe with her husband that performed plays in Farsi for Iranian audiences. Her occasional film work included roles in such topical dramas as America So Beautiful and Maryam, both about the struggle of Iranian immigrants in the U.S. It was such work that caught the attention of director Vadim Perelman, who was looking to cast the supporting role of Nadi in his big-screen adaptation of the bestseller House of Sand and Fog. Perelman and his casting agent contacted Aghdashloo directly -- at the time, the actress had no agent or manager -- and were soon convinced that she was the woman for the part. Having read the book upon its release, Aghdashloo had long envisioned ways that she could play Nadi, a strong but subservient Iranian-American wife and mother caught between her husband's wishes and her own conscience. Opposite the formidable Ben Kingsley in a cast of established performers, Aghdashloo's subtle, simmering performance brought her kudos from the New York Film Critics and Los Angeles Film Critics Associations, both of whom named her 2003's Best Supporting Actress. The Academy followed suit, nominating her against such Hollywood stalwarts as Renée Zellweger and Holly Hunter.Following a recurring role on the wildly popular television hit 24 that served well to introduce the increasingly prominant actress to audiences outside of the art-house circuit, Aghdashloo turned in impressive supporting performances in such popular wide release films as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, American Dreamz, and X-Men: The Last Stand. In 2006 Aghdashloo would heed the call of Hollywood once again to take a featured role as the best friend of Sandra Bullock's lonely character in the romantic fantasy remake The Lake House. She went on appear in The Stoning of Soraya M., The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and House of Saddam, and narrated the documentaries Iranium and For Neda.

Trivia: Attended first audition for a role in the television series Unsolved Mysteries. The audition was a literal race which Martinez won. Performed in Mail Order Bridge, a film which was almost entirely improvised. Won a screenwriting competition and earned an invitation to a conference for the National Association of Latino Independent Producers in 2009. One of only a handful of actors to have worked in the United Nations building on two separate occasions. A vocal advocate of self-empowerment for people of color, and frequently speaks on the importance of generating one's own opportunities.

Trivia: Mother is an actor, father a dental technician. Involved with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. A writer-performer with the sketch-comedy collective the Cool Table. Founding artistic director of XIII Pocket, a Chicago multimedia production company. Trained at Chicago's Second City Improv for Actors. Has an extensive vinyl-record collection. Publishes a yearly literary magazine.