Trivia: A star in his native Australia thanks to his work on television and in musical theatre, actor Hugh Jackman became known to American audiences through his role as Logan/Wolverine in Bryan Singer's lavish adaptation of the popular Marvel comic X-Men (2000). Born of English parentage in Sydney on October 12, 1968, Jackman was raised as the youngest of five children. After earning a communications degree as a journalism major from Sydney's University of Technology, he attended the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied drama. The fledgling actor got his first big break immediately after graduation, when he was offered a starring role on the popular TV series Corelli; his casting proved to be doubly serendipitous, as it provided him with an introduction to his future wife, actress Deborra-Lee Furness, with whom he would have a son. Jackman starred in a number of other TV series -- and also began to earn recognition for his work on the stage in such productions as Beauty and the Beast, Sunset Boulevard, and Trevor Nunn's acclaimed Royal National Theatre production of Oklahoma!, the latter of which featured the actor in an Olivier-nominated performance as Curly McLain. In 1999, a year after being nominated for the Olivier, Jackman was again honored, this time with a Best Actor nomination from the Australian Film Institute for his portrayal of a man estranged from his brother in the urban drama Erskineville Kings. The actor's winning streak continued when he was hired to replace Dougray Scott as Wolverine in Bryan Singer's high-profile adaptation of X-Men. The film, whose cast also included Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, James Marsden, and Halle Berry, opened to strong reviews and box-office to become one of the biggest hits of the summer. Jackman's rising international popularity was reflected by his casting in Tony Goldwyn's Someone Like You, a romantic comedy also starring Ashley Judd and Greg Kinnear. Jackman was hard to ignore in 2001, appearing just a few short months later in John Travolta's latest comback, Swordfish.2003 saw the return of the X-Men and, with them, Jackman's Wolverine in X2: X-Men United, a film that not only repeated the first film's financial success, but was considered by many to be the rare sequel that outdoes its predecessor. Sticking with the action genre, Jackman could next be seen in the title role of the 2004 ultra-big-budget film Van Helsing. Although Van Helsing was met with critical disdain, and underperformed at the box office, Jackman rebounded by earning rave reviews as the lead in the Broadway musical The Boy From Oz. That same year he hosted the annual Tony awards, again to great acclaim.Fans had numerous opportunities to see Jackman on the big screen in 2006. He took a humorous turn that summer as a possible serial killer in Woody Allen's comedy Scoop, and in fall he starred opposite Oscar winner Rachel Weisz in the stylish The Fountain as a man who searches through three different time periods concurrently, on a single spiritual journey. That same autumn, Jackman could also be seen in the dark fantasy The Prestige, playing a turn of the century magician who some speculate performs real magic, and before winter, audiences were hearing his vocal work in a pair of animated films, Flushed Away and Happy Feet. 2006 also proved to be the year Jackman announced he would produce and star in a big-screen adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.Jackman would spend the following years appearing in numerous films, like X-Men: First Class, Butter, and Real Steel. He would enjoy one of his biggest successes playing Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper's adaptation of the stage musical Les Miserables, a role that earned Jackman a Best Actor nomination from the Academy, his first Oscar nod.

Trivia: Best known as one-half of a popular British comedy team that also included Matt Lucas, comedic writer and actor David Walliams soared to fame on the back of the hit program that he and Lucas created during the early 2000s, Little Britain. A sketch comedy revue that coupled the irreverence of Saturday Night Live with a quintessentially English sensibility, this program quickly evolved into a British institution, and garnered legions of American fans, as well, when it ran on BBC America; its popularity prompted HBO to pick up the international rights for an American remake, christened Little Britain USA.Born David Williams in Surrey, England, in August 1971, Walliams grew up as the son of a lab technician mother and a father employed by London Transport. He studied at Reigate Grammar School and Bristol University, then enrolled in the National Youth Theater, where he and Lucas met and developed a fast friendship. The duo teamed up to create a music-themed spoof series, Rock Profile, in 1999. Though it evaded hit status, it did become something of a cult phenomenon, and inspired Walliams and Lucas to try again; the result, of course, was Little Britain (2003).On the side, Walliams also essayed on-camera comedic roles from time to time, in films including Clancy's Kitchen (1998), Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005), Capturing Mary (2007), and Run, Fat Boy, Run (2007). In 2008, Walliams provided the voice of Bulgy Bear in Andrew Adamson and Walden Media's big-budget fantasy The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. He appeared in both Dinner for Schmucks and Marmaduke in 2010, and that same year he reteamed with Matt Lucas for the series Come Fly with Me.

Trivia: Actor, comedian, novelist, columnist, noted wit, vocal gay rights advocate, and general bon vivant, Stephen Fry is nothing if not one of the more versatile and outspoken talents to come along in the latter half of the 20th century. Since beginning his creative partnership with Hugh Laurie in 1981, Fry has become a fixture on British television with programs such as A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. In addition, he has made a number of films and established himself as a respected commentator on the various happenings in British society.Born in London on August 24, 1957, Fry was the second of three children born to a homemaker mother and physicist/investor father. The family moved to Norfolk when Fry was very young and he was sent off for a public school education at the age of eight. Over the course of his education, first at Uppingham and then at Stout's Hill, Fry got into lavish amounts of trouble thanks to his tendency to lie, cheat, and steal, a habit that would land him in jail for three months when he was 18. After serving time at Pucklechurch prison for credit card fraud, Fry began to turn his life around, beginning with an acceptance to Queens College, Cambridge. It was at Cambridge that he began doing comedy, performing with the legendary Cambridge University Footlights Club (previously home to various Monty Python members, among others). Other Footlighters at the time included Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, and Hugh Laurie, the last of whom was introduced to Fry by Thompson. Fry and Laurie began their collaboration in 1981, performing Footlights revues at various venues around Great Britain, including the Edinburgh Festival, and doing a three month tour of Australia. In 1984, after making occasional television appearances for a couple of years (including a hilarious send-up of the Oxbridge set on an episode of The Young Ones), Fry found great critical and financial success when he was asked to rewrite Noel Gay's Me and My Girl. The stage production, which starred Fry's Cambridge friend Emma Thompson, won wide acclaim, eventually garnering Fry a 1987 Tony nomination. Throughout the remainder of the decade, Fry won fame in his native country for his work on various television and radio shows, and in supporting roles in a number of films. Some of his more notable television work included A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1987) and Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder series, while he made appearances in films such as A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and the same year's A Handful of Dust. Meanwhile, Fry was also gaining recognition for his columns for The Daily Telegraph, as well as a certain amount of notoriety for various well-publicized statements he made in the press. Two of the more memorable of these were a magazine article in which he declared his celibacy and a television appearance where he claimed the U.K. record for saying "f***" the most times in one live broadcast.The 1990s brought more film and television work for Fry, as well as the publication of three best-selling novels The Liar, The Hippopotamus, and Making History, as well as Paperweight, a collection of his columns, and Moab Is My Washpot, his autobiography. In addition to the transatlantic recognition he received for his books, some of the films he appeared in gave him fame beyond the PBS set (who had become further acquainted with him via the acclaimed series Jeeves and Wooster, in which he starred with Laurie). Most memorable of these were: Peter's Friends (1992), in which Fry co-starred with Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, and various members of the Footlights set; John Schlesinger's Cold Comfort Farm (1995); Wilde (1997); Spice World (1998); and A Civil Action (1998). He got particular attention for his work in Wilde, owing both to the filmmakers' decision not to gloss over the details of the Victorian playwright's sex life and to Fry's uncanny physical resemblance to Oscar Wilde, something that no doubt helped to enhance the actor's performance.The following decade found the next generation getting acquainted with Fry as the narrator of the popular Harry Potter series of audiobooks and videogames, with film roles on The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (as famed British clairvoyant and astrologer Maurice Woodruff), MirrorMask, and V for Vendetta keeping him a familiar face on the big screen. And despite candidly detailing his struggle with bipolar disorder in the 2006 documentary Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, it was Fry's role as host of the long-running comedy panel show QI, which debuted in 2003, that provided his fans with the kind of witty and irreverent social commentary they had come to expect from the multi-talented star. With four new comedians gathering each week to share personal anecdotes, answer trivia questions, and quip about the latest headlines, QI was always fresh and relevant even after being on the air for nearly a decade.Fry continued to work in all forms of media, and expanded his fan base by taking high-profile roles like Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) and playing the Mayor of Laketown two of the three Hobbit movies, The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). He also had a recurring role in the series 24: Live Another Day, playing the British Prime Minister.

Trivia: Due to Alopecia, lost all his hair at age 6. Attended the same boarding school as Sacha Baron Cohen, who was in Lucas's older brother's class. Met longtime comedy collaborator David Walliams when both attended the National Youth Theater (which also boasts alumni such as Helen Mirren and Daniel Craig). The pair debuted on stage together in 1995 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Lucas and Walliams co-created Little Britain for BBC 4 Radio in 2001, BBC television in 2003 and then HBO (as Little Britain USA) in 2008. Entered into a civil partnership with Kevin McGee at a December 2006 ceremony, which included guests such as Elton John and Courtney Love; the union was legally dissolved in October 2008.

Trivia: Born October 1, 1969, in North Carolina, Zach Galifianakis emerged as one of the more distinct comedic performers to grace the stage during the mid- to late 2000s. A short, slightly stocky presence with a thick outgrowth of beard that quickly became a personal trademark, Galifianakis used his behind-the-mike stints to riff on everything from veganism to multiple personality disorder, while constantly displaying a lightning-flash wit and marked inventiveness. He debuted with feature roles during the early 2000s, in films including Heartbreakers (2001) and Bubble Boy (2001). He also briefly emceed his own short-lived talk show, Late World with Zach (2002), on the VH1 network.By 2003, Galifianakis secured a regular role (as a morgue worker, Davis) on the Fox supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003-2005). Thereafter, the performer spent many years placing his strongest emphasis on standup and on filmed standup specials, such as the 2005 Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion and the 2007 Comedians of Comedy: Live at the Troubador, but continued to tackle occasional feature work from time to time. Among other screen accomplishments, Galifianakis ushered in a rare dramatic turn in Sean Penn's biographical drama Into the Wild (2007) and then played a socially maladroit friend of Ashton Kutcher in the sex farce What Happens in Vegas (2008).It wasn't until his role as a well-meaning but socially lacking participant in a bachelor party horribly gone wrong, however, that the actor would find true mainstream recognition. Alongside Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms, Galifianakis starred in The Hangover, 2009's wildly successful buddy film (the actor reprised the role for 2011's The Hangover Part 2). He would go on to co-star with Robert Downey Jr. in Due Date (2010), which followed the mismatched couple on a wacky road trip to L.A., and take on supporting roles in Dinner for Schmucks, Youth in Revolt, and Up in the Air. He lent his voice to the 2011 animated film Puss in Boots, and co-stars with Will Ferrell in the political comedy Campaign (2012).

Trivia: Bearing the kind of sharp-eyed, vaguely sinister good looks that often get actors cast as charismatic drug dealers or murder suspects, Timothy Olyphant first impressed film audiences playing none other than the resident charismatic drug dealer of Doug Liman's Go (1999). Born in Hawaii on May 20, 1968, Olyphant grew up in California. After attending the University of California, where he swam competitively, the actor made his professional debut in the Playwrights Horizons' production of The Monogamist, for which he won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. Olyphant's first film appearance came courtesy of a miniscule role in The First Wives Club (1996); somewhat more substantial work followed in 1997's Scream 2, in which the actor was cast as one of Neve Campbell's friends. After a turn in When Trumpets Fade (1998), a critically acclaimed made-for-TV WWII drama, and a memorable guest-shot on an episode of Sex and the City, Olyphant gave a scene-stealing performance in Go, managing to stand out in an ensemble cast that included Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Taye Diggs, and Scott Wolf. His work caught the notice of more than one industry observer, and by the following year, the actor had a number of projects in the works. Included among them were The Broken Hearts Club, a comedy that cast Olyphant as a gay photographer; Gone in Sixty Seconds, which featured him as a detective on the trail of a car thief (Nicolas Cage); and Auggie Rose, a drama about assumed identity in which Olyphant played the ex-cellmate of a dead con man. In 2001, Olyphant would turn up in the tale of an aspiring singer who gets to live a dream, Rock Star.Once touted as "the next big thing," Olyphant's stock seemed to drop after attaching himself to a string of duds, most notably the aforementioned Rock Star, Dreamcatcher, and A Man Apart, the latter two both released in 2003. Fortunately, the following year saw things looking up for the actor, with a starring role on the critically acclaimed series from HBO, the Western Deadwood. Over the next several years, Olyphant would appear in films like Live Free or Die Hard and I Am Number Four, in addition to a role on the night time drama Damages, as well as the massively popular series Justified.

Trivia: Rarely do beauty and talent combine in a form so complimentary to each other than in the case of actress Zoe Saldana. Whether gracefully gliding across the stage in dance, pounding the boards in a play, or lighting up the screen in such popular films as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the multi-faceted Saldana seems capable of achieving anything she puts her mind to. The New Jersey native was raised in Queens until the age of ten, when her family relocated to the Dominican Republic. The move proved a fateful blessing when young Saldana discovered her love of dance and enrolled in the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy shortly thereafter, where she would study ballet, jazz, and modern Latin dance. Following her sophomore year in high school, Saldana and her family returned to the U.S. It was while completing her primary studies stateside that Saldana became involved with the Faces theater troupe, whose aim was to make a positive impact on teenage audiences by performing improvisational skits on such issues as substance abuse and sexuality. Involvement with another troupe, the New York Youth Theater, provided more traditional stage experience through such productions as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and it was while performing with that troupe that a talent agent recognized great potential in the burgeoning actress. In 1999, Saldana received what seemed to be the ideal first film role when she was cast as a talented but snippy dancer vying for a spot at the fictional American Ballet Company in the dance drama Center Stage. Other film roles followed, including Get Over It, Snipes, and a featured part in the Britney Spears teen drama Crossroads, which offered Saldana's first major theatrical release. Widely panned by critics but performing moderately at the box office thanks to legions of Spears fans, Crossroads proved just the fuel needed to get Saldana's struggling feature career running. The following year, she was back on the big screen in Drumline, which found her once again utilizing her dance skills as a college dance major and love interest of the talented but conflicted protagonist. Though her subsequent role as the sole female pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean offered little screen time, her performance as the only woman able to cast a spell over Johnny Depp's charismatic Jack Sparrow offered one of the film's most memorable comic scenes. Back on the indie circuit, Saldana headlined the 2003 rock musical Temptation as a talented singer facing hard times. A brief turn as a by-the-books customs officer in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal found the charming Saldana slowly warming to an immigrant stuck in bureaucratic limbo (played by Tom Hanks).She was the female lead in Guess Who in 2005 and continued to work steadily. However, in 2009 she broke through in a big way when she was cast as Uhura in J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, and later that year she was the female lead in James Cameron's mega-smash Avatar. She followed that up with the action film The Losers in 2010, and was front and center in another action spectacle, Columbiana, the year after that. She reprised her role in the sequel Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, and played Gamora in the 2014 smash Guardians of the Galaxy, ensuring her place in yet another action franchise.

Trivia: In 2010, made her television debut in an episode of 'Casualty'. Between 2011 and 2012, appeared as Irri on 'Game of Thrones'. In 2013, was nominated for Best Actress at the Norwegian Amanda Awards for her role in 'I Am Yours'. As of 2019, has starred as Doctor Ruby Walker in 'The Good Karma Hospital' since its 2017 debut. Is an ambassador for the charity ChoraChori.

Trivia: One of the first ladies of contemporary British stage and cinema, Emma Thompson has won equal acclaim for her work as an actress and a screenwriter. For a long time known as Kenneth Branagh's other half, Thompson was able to demonstrate her considerable talent to an international audience with Oscar-winning mid-1990s work in such films as Howards End and Sense and Sensibility. Born April 15, 1959 in Paddington, West London, Thompson grew up in a household well-suited for creative expression. Both of her parents were actors, her father, Eric Thompson, the creator of the popular TV series The Magic Roundabout, and her actress mother, Phyllida Law, a cast member of This Poisoned Earth (1961), Otley (1968) and several other films. Thompson and her sister, Sophie (who also became an actress), enjoyed a fairly colorful upbringing; as Emma later said, "I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals." She excelled at school, was well liked, and went on to enroll at Cambridge University in 1978. It was at Cambridge that Thompson started performing as part of the legendary Footlights Group, once home to various members of Monty Python, who provided a huge inspiration to the fledgling comedienne. Unfortunately, Thompson's studies and her work with fellow Footlights members Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were interrupted when her father had a debilitating stroke. Thompson went home for a few months, where she taught him how to speak again. After her return to Cambridge, she graduated in 1980 with a degree in English, and she got her first break working for a short-lived BBC radio show. Personal tragedy struck for Thompson in 1982 when her father died of a heart attack. Ironically, it was in the wake of this turmoil that her professional life began to move forward: she got a job touring with the popular satire Not the Nine O'Clock News and worked with co-conspirators Fry and Laurie on the popular BBC comedy sketch show Alfresco. This led to Thompson's biggest break to date when she was picked for the lead in a revised version of the musical Me and My Girl. Coincidentally featuring a script by Fry, the show proved popular and established Thompson as a respected performer. She stayed with the show for over a year, after which she got her next big break when she was cast as one of the leads in the miniseries Fortunes of War (1988). The other lead happened to be Kenneth Branagh, and the two were soon collaborating off-screen as well as on. Following Thompson's BAFTA Award for her work on the series (as well as a BAFTA for her role on the TV series Tutti Frutti), she helped Branagh form his own production company, Renaissance Films. In 1989, the same year that she starred in the nutty satire The Tall Guy (which teamed her with Black Adder stalwarts Rowan Atkinson, Richard Curtis and Mel Smith)and in a televised version of Look Back in Anger with Branagh, she appeared as the French queen in Branagh's acclaimed adaptation of Henry V. Following the success of Henry V, Thompson had a droll turn as a frivolous aristocrat in Impromptu (1990) and then collaborated with Branagh on the noirish suspense thriller Dead Again in 1991. The film proved a relative hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and it further established the now-married Branagh and Thompson as the First Darlings of contemporary British theatre. The following year, Thompson came into her own with her starring role in Merchant Ivory's Howards End. She won a number of awards, including an Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for her portrayal of Margaret Schlegel, and she found herself an international success almost overnight.After a turn in the ensemble comedy Peter's Friends that same year, Thompson starred as Beatrice opposite Branagh's Benedict in his adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in 1993. That year proved an unqualified success for the actress, who was nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, the former for her portrayal of a repressed housekeeper in Merchant Ivory's The Remains of the Day and the latter for her role as Daniel Day-Lewis's lawyer in In the Name of the Father. Although she didn't win either award, Thompson continued her triumphant streak when -- after starring in Junior in 1994 -- she adapted and starred in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in 1995. Directed by Ang Lee, the film proved popular with critics and audiences alike, and it won Thompson a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. She also earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination, a BAFTA Best Actress Award, and a Golden Globe for Best Adapted Screenplay.1995 also proved to be a turning point in Thompson's personal life, as, after a much-publicized separation, she and Branagh divorced. Just as well publicized was Thompson's subsequent relationship with Sense and Sensibility co-star Greg Wise. The somewhat tumultuous quality of her love life mirrored that of Dora Carrington, the character she played that year in Carrington. This story of the famed Bloomsbury painter was not nearly as successful as Sense, and Thompson was not seen again on the screen until 1997, when she starred in Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest. The film -- which featured the actress and her mother, Law, playing an estranged daughter and mother -- received fairly positive reviews. The following year, Thompson continued to win praise for her work with a starring role in Primary Colors and a guest spot on the sitcom Ellen, for which she won an Emmy. In 1999, Thompson announced her plans for semi-retirement: pregnant with Wise's child, she turned down a number of roles -- including that of God in Dogma -- in order to concentrate on her family. The two married in July 2003. In the years that followed Thompson would still remain fairly active onscreen, with roles as a frustrated wife in Love Actually (which found her BAFTA nominated for Best Supporting Actress) and a missing journalist whose husband (played by Antonio Bandaras) is looking for answers in Missing Argentina (which marked the second collaboration, after Carrington, between Thompson and director Christopher Hampton) serving to whet the appetites of longtime fans. For her role as a respected English professor who is forced to re-evaluate her life in Mike Nichols' made-for-television drama Wit (2001), the renowned veteran actress and screenwriter would earn Emmy nominations for both duties. Following an angelic turn in the HBO mini-series Angels in America, Thompson essayed a pair of magical roles in both Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Nanny McPhee - in which she potrayed a governess who utilizes supernatural powers to reign in her unruly young charges.Thompson then joined the cast of Marc Forster's fantasy comedy Stranger than Fiction, which Columbia slated for U.S. release in November of 2006. She plays Kay Eiffel, an author of thriller and espionage novels suffering from a massive writer's block. The central character in Eiffel's book (an IRS agent played by Will Ferrell) hears Kay's audible narration and - realizing that she's planning to kill him off - tries to find a way to stop her, with the help of Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman). She appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman in Last Chance Harvey, and in 2009 had a memorable turn as the head of the school in An Education. In 2010 she wrote and starred in the sequel Nanny McPhee Returns. In 2012 she had a hand in tow big hits, playing Agent O in the third Men In Black film, and voicing the mother in Pixar's Brave.

Trivia: Began acting at age 9. Made his Broadway debut in a revival of Private Lives in 2002. Stepped in last minute to take on the lead role in the controversial play Paul in London in 2005. Researched autism for several months before portraying Raymond Babbitt in the 2008 stage adaption of Rain Man in London. Was unfamiliar with the comic-book series Powers before landing a role on the related TV series of the same name.

Trivia: A British actor with a memorable face, Christopher Neame developed a reputation as a character actor in Hammer Horror films like Lust for a Vampire and Dracula A.D. in the early '70s. Able to convey an imposing feeling on screen, he would also find a niche playing bad guys on British TV shows, particularly those with a military bent, such as Lt. Dick Player on the prisoner drama Colditz, Kaiser Wilhelm II on Edward the King, and Flight Lt. John Curtis on Secret Army. During the '80s, Neame would make numerous appearances on American TV as well, making cameos on The A-Team and The Fall Guy. Neame's performance as Fallon in the 1989 Bond movie License to Kill struck a chord with audiences on both sides of the pond, and he would go on to serve his cult fan base with appearances on Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, and Sliders throughout the '90s. By the 2000's, Neame had all but completely established himself as a veteran genre actor, appearing on The Invisible Man, Star Trek Enterprise, and in the Christopher Nolan film The Prestige.

Trivia: Made his voice acting debut in 1979 at the age of 8 in an episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.Played bass guitar in the rock band Boy Hits Car since their founding in 1993, but left in 2006.Has done brand endorsement work for Netflix, Nextel and Best Buy.Got the callback for Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters a year after his audition.Has voiced characters in cartoons, anime and animation, radio, commercials, films and video games.