Trivia: Tony-nominated, Drama Desk award-winning actress Anna Kendrick got her start on the stage before segueing into film with roles in the Todd Graff musical comedy Camp and Spellbound director Jeffrey Blitz's post-Napoleon Dynamite teen misfit comedy Rocket Science. Cast in the latter as the love interest of a stuttering high-school student seeking to steady his voice by joining the debate team, Kendrick charmed viewers with her effervescent radiance before taking the lead as a teen desperately searching for her missing best friend in cinematographer-turned-director Nathan Hope's 2007 thriller Elsewhere. Later that same year, Kendrick could be seen opposite Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman in director Todd Louiso's arrested-development comedy The Marc Pease Experience. In 2008 she landed a recurring part in the highly successful Twilight series, but her real breakthrough came in 2009 with her Oscar-nominated turn opposite George Clooney in Up in the Air. In 2010 she appeared in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and a year later she earned strong reviews playing a psychiatrist counseling a young cancer victim in 50/50. In 2012 she was in the ensemble pregnancy comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting, lent her voice to the animated film ParaNorman, and scored a huge hit with the a capella comedy Pitch Perfect.

Trivia: When Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures was released to international acclaim in 1994, it launched the career of a then-unknown actress by the name of Kate Winslet. Unfortunately, it didn't do the same for Winslet's co-star, the similarly unknown and equally talented Melanie Lynskey. As Pauline Parker, a New Zealand schoolgirl who, along with best friend Juliete Hulme (Winslet), brutally murders her mother, Lynskey turned in a performance that combined sullen adolescent alienation with cold-blooded brutality. Although marked as a promising newcomer, she did not enjoy a subsequent breakthrough of the magnitude of Winslet's but instead worked quietly for a few years, gradually earning belated recognition from audiences and industry figures alike.Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on May 16, 1977, Lynskey was a high school student when she was discovered by Peter Jackson's wife, Frances Walsh, who cast her in Heavenly Creatures. Following the film's success, the fledgling actress moved to Los Angeles, but encountered endless rejection thanks to her non-blonde, non-waifish physique, and after only six weeks returned to her native country. Eighteen months of film, theatre, and English studies at Victoria University followed, as did a supporting role in Jackson's The Frighteners (1996). A self-professed attitude change -- the result of her friendship with director Gaylene Preston, who encouraged the actress to make herself a stronger person -- also altered Lynskey's approach to acting, and she subsequently won a role in her first Hollywood film, Andy Tennant's Ever After (1998). Cast as the not-so-evil stepsister of Drew Barrymore's Cinderella-like heroine, Lynskey enjoyed the greater recognition the film's success afforded her and went on to supporting roles the next year in Detroit Rock City, in which she co-starred with Natasha Lyonne and Edward Furlong, and Michael Cacoyannis' adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, which also starred Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling, and Katrin Cartlidge. With another successful independent film, Jamie Babbit's But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and a Jerry Bruckheimer chick flick, Coyote Ugly, also under her belt, Lynskey began the new decade on a decidedly promising note.

Trivia: Striking parallels manifested themselves between actor Mark Webber's early life and his intense, emotionally demanding choice of onscreen roles. The child of a broken family, Webber grew up under the guardianship of his mom, and the two battled economic hardship thanks to difficult circumstances. Matters took a serious turn when Webber's mom became involved with an altruistic group called Up and Out of Poverty Now and accepted grant money from that organization that enabled her to earn a teaching certificate. Because she failed to report the grant monies, federal marshals turned up and arrested her under allegations of welfare fraud, ultimately revoking the certificate and rendering mother and child homeless for two years despite the ultimate exoneration of the mother. Acting, as Webber later recalled, came out of this naturally, for he almost instinctively began disguising his own impoverished status among schoolmates; he also fell in love with film at an early age -- as a series of magical escapes into other worlds -- and thus strongly wanted to be a part of this.Webber began acting professionally in 1997 and placed a strong emphasis, throughout his career, on small, offbeat indie productions, again, honing in almost exclusively on intense characterizations that presented great multileveled challenges. Key projects included the efforts The Laramie Project (2001) (as one of gay adolescent Matthew Shepard's killers), Ethan Hawke's directorial outing Chelsea Walls (2001) (as a lovestruck drifter in the legendary Hotel Chelsea), the Woody Allen comedy Hollywood Ending (2002) (as Allen's son), and, on an impressive but overlooked note, Pete Winters, the academically struggling younger son of a widower father in Josh Sternfeld's stunning debut drama Winter Solstice (2004). He was also memorable, in a crucial but extremely brief appearance, as a young boy misread by a loner (Bill Murray) as the man's son in Jim Jarmusch's super-low key, critically acclaimed drama Broken Flowers (2005). In 2007, Webber starred opposite Marianna Palka and Jason Ritter in the acerbic sex comedy Good Dick.

Trivia: Comedian, actress and writer Lena Dunham caught the attention of greats in her industry when she wrote, direct, and starred in her first film, Tiny Furniture in 2010, winning Best Narrative Feature at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference. The then 24 year old had studied creative writing at Oberlin College, and soon scored a production deal with HBO for her own series, Girls, executive produced by Judd Apatow. Dunham wrote, directed, and starred in the series, and would garner much acclaim and numerous awards and nominations for the show.

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.