Trivia: Pixie-ish British actress Keira Knightley went from a relative unknown to a blockbuster leading lady after 2002's sleeper soccer flick Bend It Like Beckham caught on with an international audience. Born in Teddington, London, England, in 1985, young Knightley was enticed by the lure of cinema at an early age. Playwright mother Sharman McDonald and actor father Will Knightley were at first reluctant to let their daughter follow them into show business. Although they would accommodate her wish three years later, their strict demand that their daughter study through school holidays and only take jobs that didn't interfere with her education ensured that Keira would keep her priorities straight.Trained in dance from an early age, Knightley made her film debut when she was 12 in Moira Armstrong's romantic drama A Village Affair. Gradually climbing the credits with subsequent roles in Innocent Lies (1995) and the made-for-TV features Treasure Seekers (1996) and Coming Home (1998), she got her first big break when cast as the decoy queen in the eagerly anticipated Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Knightley resembled the actual queen (portrayed by Natalie Portman) so much that her mother couldn't distinguish the two and some fans still insist both were portrayed by Portman. Returning to non-decoy status for the television miniseries Oliver Twist (2000), Knightley stayed with the small screen as Robin Hood's daughter in the 2001 adventure Princess of Thieves. Although audiences would truly begin to take note of her talent in the thriller The Hole that same year, her star-making turn in the sleeper comedy drama Bend It Like Beckham endeared her to audiences everywhere and ultimately served as her breakthrough starring role. Playing the best friend to Parminder K. Nagra, Knightley proved that she could turn what might have been little more than a noteworthy supporting role into a truly spunky, scene-stealing performance. As Lara Antipova in the 2002 miniseries Doctor Zhivago, Knightley gracefully slipped into a role that was previously made famous by Julie Christie, and the timeless romantic drama proved a hit with U.K. television viewers. With the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, however, the actress was catapulted into an entirely new realm of popularity. Opposite Johnny Depp's truly eccentric portrayal of pirate Jack Sparrow, Knightley charmed as the beautiful young maiden whose blood may hold the key to life for a group of undead pirates.While King Arthur (2004) and Domino (2005) were high-profile flops, Knightley's status as a movie-star on both sides of the pond was firmly cemented in early 2006 when she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in 2005's Pride & Prejudice. 2006 also saw the release of the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which was shot back-to-back with the franchise's third entry, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was scheduled for release in 2007. In the meantime, Knightley forged ahead on the period drama Silk, opposite Michael Pitt. As the decade wore on, Knightly remained a fixed presence on screen, appearing in such films as The Duchess, London Boulevard, A Dangerous Method, Anna Karenina, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.Knightley appeared in a pair of indie films in 2014, {Laggies and Begin Again, as well as the big-budget action film Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. However, she earned the most praise that year for her supporting turn in The Imitation Game, playing a woman who helps crack German codes during WWII. She garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work in that film, which also scored Best Picture and Best Actor nods.

Trivia: British actor Matthew MacFadyen studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before beginning his career on the stage. He joined the renowned theater company Cheek and Jowl, with whom he participated in productions of The School for Scandal, Much Ado About Nothing, The Duchess of Malfi, and other plays. In 1998, he made a much-noticed transition to the screen with the role of Hareton Earnshaw in a television adaptation of Wuthering Heights. He would go on to appear in such films as Enigma and Almost Strangers before being cast in the lead role of Tom Quinn in the spy series MI-5 (aka Spooks) in 2002. He stayed with the series until 2004, and the next year he made yet another foray into period drama, playing the male lead of Mr. Darcy in a big-screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, opposite Keira Knightley. He soon followed it up with a turn in the quirky comedy Death at a Funeral in 2007, before signing on for the 2008 Ron Howard film Frost/Nixon. MacFayden would continue to appear on screen in several series to come, most notably on Little Dorrit, The Pillars of the Earth, Any Human Heart, and MI-5.

Trivia: Though Brenda Blethyn has enjoyed a long and successful career as an actress on the British stage and in television, it wasn't until the release of Mike Leigh's film Secrets and Lies in 1996 that she became well-known to moviegoers as well, earning a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for what was only her third film.Blethyn's early stage experience included stints in the stock companies of the Bubble Theatre and the Belgrade Theater of Coventry. In 1975, she joined the Royal National Theater, where she worked with some of Britain's leading stage directors, including Peter Wood, Peter Hall, and Bill Bryden, and her roles ran the gamut from Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House to Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday. With the Royal Shakespeare Company, she appeared under the direction of Maximillian Schell in Tales From the Vienna Woods and in Alan Ayckbourn's Wildest Dream. In 1991, she received the British Drama Awards' Best Actress prize for her role in Steaming and the Theatre World Awards' Outstanding New Talent prize for her role in the Broadway production of Absent Friends.Blethyn made her film debut in 1990, with a small part in Nicholas Roeg's The Witches. Robert Redford cast her as Brad Pitt's mother in A River Runs Through It in 1992, but 1996's Secrets and Lies provided Blethyn with her first substantial screen role. In a story developed through six months of improvisations with Leigh and the cast, Blethyn's performance as a woman getting to know the daughter she had given up made her an international sensation almost overnight. Blethyn received another Oscar nomination in 1999, for her role as the overbearing mother in Little Voice; her nomination complemented her growing popularity in Hollywood, reflected by her casting in such high profile projects as Billy Bob Thornton's Daddy and Them (1999). The actress would go on to appear in such films as Beyond the Sea, Pride & Prejudice, and Atonemen.On television, Blethyn would also make splashes in BBC productions like King Lear, Henry VI, Part One, The Labours of Erica, The Buddha of Suburbia, War and Peace, and Vera.

Trivia: Certainly one of the most distinctive looking men ever to be granted the title of movie star, Donald Sutherland is an actor defined as much by his almost caricature-like features as his considerable talent. Tall, lanky and bearing perhaps the most enjoyably sinister face this side of Vincent Price, Sutherland made a name for himself in some of the most influential films of the 1970s and early '80s.A native of Canada, Sutherland was born in New Brunswick on July 17, 1935. Raised in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, he took an early interest in the entertainment industry, becoming a radio DJ by the time he was fourteen. While an engineering student at the University of Toronto, he discovered his love for acting and duly decided to pursue theatrical training. An attempt to enroll at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art was thwarted, however, because of his size (6'4") and idiosyncratic looks. Not one to give up, Sutherland began doing British repertory theatre and getting acting stints on television series like The Saint. In 1964 the actor got his first big break, making his screen debut in the Italian horror film Il Castello dei Morti Vivi (The Castle of the Living Dead). His dual role as a young soldier and an old hag was enough to convince various casting directors of a certain kind of versatility, and Sutherland was soon appearing in a number of remarkably schlocky films, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and Die! Die! Darling! (both 1965). A move into more respectable fare came in 1967, when Robert Aldrich cast him as a retarded killer in the highly successful The Dirty Dozen. By the early '70s, Sutherland had become something of a bonafide star, thanks to lead roles in films like Start the Revolution without Me and Robert Altman's MASH (both 1970). It was his role as Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the latter film that gave the actor particular respect and credibility, and the following year he enhanced his reputation with a portrayal of the titular private detective in Alan J. Pakula's Klute.It was during this period that Sutherland became something of an idol for a younger, counter culture audience, due to both the kind of roles he took and his own anti-war stance. Offscreen, he spent a great deal of time protesting the Vietnam War, and, with the participation of fellow protestor and Klute co-star Jane Fonda, made the anti-war documentary F.T.A. in 1972. He also continued his mainstream Hollywood work, enjoying success with films like Don't Look Now (1973), The Day of the Locust (1975), and Fellini's Casanova (1976). In 1978, he won a permanent place in the hearts and minds of slackers everywhere with his portrayal of a pot-smoking, metaphysics-spouting college professor in National Lampoon's Animal House.After a starring role in the critically acclaimed Ordinary People (1980), Sutherland entered a relatively unremarkable phase of his career, appearing in one forgettable film after another. This phase continued for much of the decade, and didn't begin to change until 1989, when the actor won raves for his starring role in A Dry White Season and his title role in Bethune: The Making of a Hero. He spent the 1990s doing steady work in films of widely varying quality, appearing as the informant who cried conspiracy in JFK (1991), a Van Helsing-type figure in Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992), a wealthy New Yorker who gets taken in by con artist Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), and a general in the virus thriller Outbreak (1995). In 1998, the actor did some of his best work in years (in addition to the made-for-TV Citizen X (1995), for which he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe) when he starred as a track coach in Without Limits, Robert Towne's biopic of runner Steve Prefontaine. In 2000, Sutherland enjoyed further critical and commerical success with Space Cowboys, an adventure drama that teamed the actor alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood, and James Garner as geriatric astronauts who get another chance to blast into orbit.Sutherland didn't pause as the new millennium began, continuing to contribute to several projects a year. He won a Golden Globe for his performance in the 2003 Vietnam era HBO film Path to War, and over the next few years appeared in high-profile films such as The Italian Job, Cold Mountain, and Pride and Prejudice, while continuing to spend time on smaller projects, like 2005's Aurora Borealis. The next year, Sutherland appeared with Mira Sorvino in the TV movie Human Trafficking, which tackled the frightening subject matter of modern day sexual slave trade. He also joined the cast of the new ABC series Commander in Chief, starring Geena Davis as the American vice president who assumes the role of commander in chief when the president dies. Sutherland's role as one of the old boys who is none too pleased to see a woman in the Oval Office earned him a Golden Globe nomination in 2006, as did his performance in Human Trafficking. In 2006, Sutherland worked with Collin Farrell and Salma Hayek in one of screenwriter Robert Towne's rare ventures into film direction with Ask the Dust. Sutherland has also earned a different sort of recognition for his real-life role as the father of actor and sometimes tabloid fodder Kiefer Sutherland. The elder Sutherland named his son after producer Warren Kiefer, who gave him his first big break by casting him in Il Castello dei Morti Vivi. In 2009 he voiced the part of President Stone in the film Astro Boy, an adventure comedy for children. Sutherland played a supporting role in the action thriller The Mechanic (2011), and joined the cast of The Hunger Games in the role of the coldhearted President Stone.

Trivia: Her acting break came after attending an open audition in London for TV detective show Poirot in 2003. In 2011 was named a Brit To Watch by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Once took a zero-gravity flight over California with then-husband Elon Musk and Titanic director James Cameron. A life long writer, she released novel Acts Of Love in 2016 and claimed she was inspired by the reaction to Fifty Shades Of Grey to create a female Christian Grey character. Co-founded app Forge that allows low paid retail and restaurant staff to schedule their own working hours.

Trivia: To be deceived by actress Rosamund Pike's seemingly fragile beauty and theatrical background may indeed be a fatal mistake, especially if your name is James Bond. As the mysterious Miranda Frost, Pike proved a fierce fencing competitor to the screen's most beloved spy in her feature debut Die Another Day (2002). Though English television viewers may be familiar with Pike for her numerous small-screen roles during the millennial crossover, stateside filmgoers were blind-sided by her role as a Bond girl in the super-spy's 20th outing. Pike, born in London, England, in January 1979, is the child of professional opera singers. As a student studying English literature at Oxford, the bookish Pike began to discover her passion for theater and would subsequently appear in many of the school's plays. After refining her talents on-stage, the burgeoning actress would abandon her field of study upon graduation to appear in a series of BBC productions. Making her television debut in 1998 with A Rather English Marriage, Pike soon began accepting a steady stream of roles consisting mostly of period dramas before making the journey stateside as a prospective Bond girl. Though admittedly intimidated by appearing alongside such luminaries as Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, and Halle Berry in her mainstream debut, the confident actress seemed well fit for her role in one of the longest-running celluloid franchises in cinematic history. Though Pike raised a few eyebrows by remaining relatively silent during the press conference for Die Another Day, the actress' decision to let her well-known co-stars do most of the talking indicated that she is a smart actress who chooses her words, as well as her roles, with careful consideration. In the coming years, Pike would maintain a steady presence on screen, appearing in everything from Pride & Prejudice to Doom, from An Education to Surrogates. She would also find particular success in Wrath of the Titans. However, she had her true breakthrough with American audiences in 2014 when she was given the plum role of Amy Dunne in David Fincher's adaptation of the best-selling novel Gone Girl. The movie was a hit at the box office, and Pike earned a number of year-end accolades including an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Trivia: A child actress who made her film debut as the star of Anjelica Huston's 1996 adaptation of Dorothy Allison's Bastard out of Carolina, Jena Malone has appeared in films ranging from Contact (1997), in which she played the younger version of Jodie Foster's character, to Stepmom (1998), which featured her as one of Susan Sarandon's children. A native of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where she was born November 21, 1984, Malone was influenced to become an actress by her mother, who was active in community theatre. After persuading her mom to move to L.A., the aspiring actress began working in commercials and music videos. Following her debut in Bastard out of Carolina, she went on to do steady work, and in 2000, she starred in Christmas with J.D., which also featured Devon Sawa, Neve Campbell, and Christian Campbell. That same year, the young actress made headlines when she filed charges against her mother accusing her of squandering her earnings; the lawsuit resulted in Malone's legal emancipation from her mother, who was forbidden from interfering with her daughter's career and earnings. Coming out on the up side of the bitter family feud, Malone could next be seen in both the slightly surreal teen fantasy Donnie Darko and the bittersweet family drama Life as a House (both 2001). Following future appearances in The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys and The United States of Leland (both 2002), Malone would announce her intentions of studying photography at a northern California community college in the fall of 2002. She had a key role in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys in 2002, and the next year had a cameo in Cold Mountain. In 2005 she was one of the younger sister in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice, and two years later she was the younger sister in Sean Penn's Into the Wild. She had a brief but memorable turn as the ex-girlfriend of a soldier in The Messenger, and in 2011 she was one of the kick-ass girls at the center of Sucker Punch. In 2012 she appeared in Hatfields & McCoys as one of the McCoy clan. In 2013, she joined the Hunger Games series as fan-favorite Johanna Mason, appearing in Catching Fire and Parts 1 and 2 of Mockingjay. Malone was cast as Barbara Gordon in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), but her scenes were ultimately cut in the editing room, and she only appeared in the home version of the film.

Trivia: English-born actress Carey Mulligan made her on-screen debut with the role of Kitty in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. She would go on to appear in TV series like The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard and Doctor Who, as well as in movies like Public Enemies. However, it was her work in 2009's An Education, as a smart high school girl who throws away the chance for higher education after falling in love with a shady older man, which was her breakthrough. For her work in the film, Mulligan won a number of critics awards for Best Actress, as well as garnering nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy. She became one of the most respected and in-demand young actresses of her generation and she continued to choose challenging projects like the psychological sci-fi film Never Let Me Go, and the Olive Stone directed sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. In 2011 she appeared in audience dividing films. She starred opposite Ryan Gosling in the action film Drive, and played the sister of a sex addict in Shame. In 2012 she was tapped to play the iconic literary role of Daisy Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

Trivia: Unlike some Englishmen who have been known to play against type (portraying Americans et al.), unconventionally attractive British actor Tom Hollander banked off of his Anglo roots and accent by building up an impressive resumé of English characterizations, Cockney and otherwise. He earned some of his first screen credits on the cult sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, then moved quickly into feature work, hitting both highs (Gosford Park, Pride & Prejudice) and lows (Paparazzi) -- though nearly always in supporting capacities. In 2007, Hollander essayed memorable roles as Sir Aymas in the Cate Blanchett period film Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Cutler Beckett in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced farce Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Trivia: One of Britain's most respected and popular actresses, Judi Dench can claim a decades-old career encompassing the stage, screen, and television. A five-time winner of the British Academy Award, she was granted an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 1988.Born in York, England, on December 9, 1934, Dench made her stage debut as a snail in a junior school production. After attending art school, she studied acting at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1957, she made her professional stage debut as Ophelia in the Old Vic's Liverpool production of Hamlet. A prolific stage career followed, with seasons spent performing with the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Dench broke into film in 1964 with a supporting role in The Third Secret. The following year, she won her first BAFTA, a Most Promising Newcomer honor for her work in Four in the Morning. Although she continued to work in film, Dench earned most of her recognition and acclaim for her stage work. Occasionally, she brought her stage roles to the screen in such film adaptations as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) and Macbeth (1978), in which she was Lady Macbeth to Ian McKellen's tormented king. It was not until the mid-'80s that Dench began to make her name known to an international film audience. In 1986, she had a memorable turn as a meddlesome romance author in A Room with a View, earning a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for her tart portrayal. Two years later, she won the same award for her work in another period drama, A Handful of Dust.After her supporting role as Mistress Quickly in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed 1989 adaptation of Henry V, Dench exchanged the past for the present with her thoroughly modern role as M in GoldenEye (1995), the first of the Pierce Brosnan series of James Bond films. She portrayed the character for the subsequent Brosnan 007 films, lending flinty elegance to what had traditionally been a male role. The part of M had the advantage of introducing Dench to an audience unfamiliar with her work, and in 1997 she earned further international recognition, as well as an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe award, for her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown.While her screen career had taken on an increasingly high-profile nature, Dench continued to act on both television and the stage. In the former medium, she endeared herself to viewers with her work in such series as A Fine Romance (in which she starred opposite real-life husband Michael Williams) and As Time Goes By. On the stage, Dench made history in 1996, becoming the first performer to win two Olivier Awards for two different roles in the same year. In 1998, Dench won an Oscar, garnering Best Supporting Actress honors for her eight-minute appearance as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love. Her win resulted in the kind of media adulation usually afforded to actresses one-third her age. Dench continued to reap both acclaim and new fans with her work in Tea with Mussolini and another Bond film, The World is Not Enough. For her role as a talented British writer struggling with Alzheimer's disease in Iris (2001), Dench earned her third Oscar nomination. Sadly, that same year Dench's husband died of lung cancer at the age of 66.The prophetic artist continued to act in several films a year, wowing audiences with contemporary dramas like 2001's The Shipping News and period pieces like 2002's Oscar Wilde comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. She reprised the role of M again that same year for Brosnan's last Bond film Die Another Day, before appearing in projects in 2004 and 2005 such as The Chronicles of Riddick, Pride & Prejudice, and an Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated performance as a wealthy widow who shocks 1930s audiences by backing a burlesque show in Mrs. Henderson Presents. In 2006, she followed the Bond franchise into a new era, maintaining her hold on the role of M as Brosnan retired from playing the title character and Daniel Craig took over. Casino Royale was the first Bond movie to be based on an original Ian Fleming 007 novel in 30 years, and it was a great success. In 2008, Dench rejoined the Bond franchise for Quantum of Solace.Dench shared the screen with Cate Blanchett for the critical smash Notes on a Scandal (2006). The film's emotional themes ran the gamut from possession and desire to loathing and disgust, and Dench rose to the challenge with her usual strength and grace, earning her a sixth Oscar nomination and seventh Golden Globe nomination.Dench joined the cast of 2011's Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, as well as taking on the pivotal role of Mrs. Fairfax in Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre. The actress also joined Leonardo DiCaprio to play the intimidating mother of J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar (2011). In 2012, Dench starred alongside fellow film great Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a compassionate comedy-drama following a group of senior citizens' experience with a unique retirement program in India.

Trivia: After studying at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts, Rupert Friend made his big-screen debut with the supporting role of Downs in the 2004 historical drama The Libertine. Art house films would prove to be a good niche for the actor, and he subsequently made waves with roles in The Moon and the Stars and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Friend then scored an even bigger break when he was cast as the title role in the 2009 Stephen Frears film Chéri. He followed that up as the male lead in the period piece The Young Victoria. He directed the short film Steve in 2010, and starred in the war drama 5 Days of War. Friend joined the Showtime hit Homeland in season 2, playing Peter Quinn, a CIA operative.

Trivia: Actress Kelly Reilly grew up in a working-class neighborhood in London. Too timid to voice her desires to study drama, she learned about acting the hard way, plunging into a professional career and picking up as much as she could along the way. She began picking up small roles on British television and regularly worked throughout the next decade before she began snatching up roles in higher profile projects like 2005's Pride & Prejudice and Mrs. Henderson Presents.

Trivia: Has dyslexia. Attended a convent boarding school. Made her West End debut in John Osborne's West of Suez opposite Ralph Richardson in 1971; and has acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre Company. Became a household name in England in the mid-1980s due to her work on the BBC sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. Honored with the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2004; elevated to a Dame in 2016. Bestowed with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Hull in North Yorkshire, England, in 2012.

Trivia: Born in 1980, fair-haired British actress Sinead Matthews attended London's exclusive Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and thereafter divided her efforts between film, television, and the stage. Theatrically, her efforts include work in productions of The Wild Duck, The Crucible, The Women of Troy (at the National Theatre), and innumerable other plays. On television, Matthews placed her strongest emphasis on small-screen features including Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and Viva Las Blackpool. Matthews took one of her first major big-screen bows with a small supporting turn as one of schoolteacher Poppy's (Sally Hawkins) carefree friends, in Mike Leigh's critically praised seriocomedy Happy-Go-Lucky (2008).

Trivia: British supporting actor, former juvenile, onscreen from the early '60s.

Trivia: Acted in two different biopics about Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Understudied for a then-unknown Daniel Day Lewis in stage production of Another Country. Performed on the soundtrack for an episode of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple television series. Provided voice-work for the award-winning documentary Letters from Baghdad. Guest starred as a monster-of-the-week on Doctor Who.

Trivia: Was born in England, but lived in Dubai with her parents until she was 13. First acting role was as Georgiana Darcy in Pride and Prejudice in 2005. Has had poetry published in Platforms magazine. Completed the Royal Court Theatre's Young Writers Programme. Became a patron of Build Africa in 2012.