Trivia: Paul Dano first caught major attention in 2006, when he played the grumpy, nihilistic teenager Dwayne in the sleeper hit Little Miss Sunshine. Dano had actually been paying his dues in the industry for five years when the indie comedy put him on the map, first starring in the tense 2001 drama L.I.E. at the age of 17, when he performed under the name Paul Franklin Dano. Even before that, young Dano appeared in several Broadway productions including A Christmas Carol and Ragtime. He went on to appear in the crime thriller Taking Lives as well as the critically acclaimed The Ballad of Jack & Rose. Then, in 2006, Dano took the infamous role in Little Miss Sunshine of a surly teenage brother who's taken a vow of silence. He immediately followed it with the subversive Fast Food Nation before signing on to re-team with his Ballad of Jack & Rose co-star Daniel Day-Lewis in the Paul Thomas Anderson historical drama There Will Be Blood. Dano also lent his voice to the big-screen computer-animated adaptation of the classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are, voicing the main character of Alexander. He continued to jungle indie fare like Gigantic, Meek's Cutoff, and Being Flynn with supporting turns in more high-profile projects including Knight and Day as well as Cowboys & Indians.

Trivia: Daughter of screenwriters Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord, and granddaughter of prominent director Elia Kazan, actress Zoe Kazan joined the family business after graduating from Yale University in 2005. Beginning with acclaimed productions of off-Broadway plays like The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and The Things We Want, Kazan soon made her Broadway debut, starring alongside S. Epatha Merkerson in a revival of Come Back, Little Sheba. Kazan would continue to find success on Broadway, but eventually branched into on-screen acting, as well, appearing in films like Fracture, In the Valley of Ellah, and Me and Orson Welles. In 2009, the actress became a professional playwright when her play Absalom was presented at the Kazan Humana Festival of New American Plays. Kazan next joined the cast of the quirky ensemble movie happythankyoumoreplease.

Trivia: Although some of her recognition may stem from her 1992 marriage to Warren Beatty, Annette Bening has established herself as an actress capable of far more than domesticating one of Hollywood's most notorious playboys. After winning raves for her role in 1990's The Grifters, Bening turned in a series of strong performances in films ranging from The American President to Richard III to American Beauty.Born in Topeka, Kansas, on May 29, 1958, Bening moved with her family to San Diego, California when she was very young. It was there that she began to pursue her career, first as a dancer in various productions at a local college. Eventually graduating from San Francisco University (an education she paid for by working as a cook on a charter boat), Bening acted with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre before moving to New York to further her stage experience. Her career in New York had its auspicious moments, such as winning a Tony Award nomination and a Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Debut Performance for her performance in Coastal Disturbances, but Bening endured a five-year struggle before breaking into film.She made her debut as Dan Aykroyd's irritable wife in The Great Outdoors in 1988; more substantial work followed in the form of Milos Forman's Valmont, a 1989 adaptation of Chodleros de Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses that featured Bening as the scheming, manipulative Marquise de Merteuil. The film suffered in comparison to Stephen Frears's Dangerous Liaisons, which had been released the previous year; fortunately, the same couldn't be said of Bening's next major effort, 1990's The Grifters. Frears's gripping, stylish adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel of the same name, The Grifters met with almost unanimous critical acclaim, much of which was aimed at the performances of Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, and Bening as the film's protagonists. Bening won special praise for her portrayal of an ill-fated con artist, accruing Best Supporting Actress nominations from the Academy, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the British Academy.Her performance also won the attention of Warren Beatty, who was so impressed with her work that he cast her as his love interest in his 1991 Bugsy. Although the film proved a relative disappointment, it did result in both a Golden Globe nomination for Bening and a 1992 marriage for her and Beatty. The two could be seen collaborating again onscreen two years later in Love Affair, a remake of the 1957 An Affair to Remember. Unfortunately, the film fared poorly, both at the box office and at the hands of disapproving critics. Bening had more luck with her subsequent role as Michael Douglas' presidential love interest in Rob Reiner's The American President (1995), and then went on to explore politics of a different sort with Richard Loncraine's 1996 adaptation of Richard III. Her starring turn as the embattled Queen Elizabeth drew praise, and the attention she garnered for her performance helped to lighten the load of antipathy directed toward Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, the actress' other film that year.Following lead roles in 1998's underperforming The Siege and 1999's ill-fated In Dreams, Bening could be seen in American Beauty (also 1999) as Kevin Spacey's status-obsessed, control-freak wife. As part of the film's superb ensemble cast, which also featured Chris Cooper, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari, the actress won praise for her work, and the added distinction of being part of what many hailed as one of the best films of the year. Her first Best Actress Oscar nomination followed, although Bening's near-lock on the award was stolen away from her by Hilary Swank, a newcomer almost as auspicious as she once was.Adding insult to injury, Bening lost the Oscar at the same time she could be seen in theaters alongside Garry Shandling in the much-derided sci-fi comedy What Planet Are You From? Perhaps as a result of this -- or due to her decision to spend more time with her four children -- the actress chose her parts very carefully in the coming years. She re-emerged in a leading role in 2003 opposite Kevin Costner in the sleeper-hit western Open Range, and followed that comeback with a triumphant diva turn as the title character in Being Julia, an adaptation of M. Somerset Maugham's back-stabbing, backstage comic melodrama Theater. Though little-seen, the film garnered immense praise for Bening -- including a Best Actress nod from the National Board of Review -- and an eventual Best Actress Oscar nomination. However, in a moment of Hollywood irony that echoed both her character's situation in Being Julia and the fate of the 2000 awards ceremony, Bening was denied the award in favor of Hilary Swank's tour-de-force as a doomed boxer in Oscar favorite Million Dollar Baby.She was the mother in the cinematic adaptation of Running With Scissors, and had a major part in the big-budget misfire remake of The Women. In 2010 she won the SAG award for best actress and was nominated for the Oscar in that same category for her work as a lesbian mother of two who finds out her partner is cheating on her in the comedy The Kids Are All Right.

Trivia: Internationally known for his charisma and smoldering good looks, Antonio Banderas is the ultimate manifestation of the Latin heartthrob. Born in Málaga, Spain on August 10, 1960, Banderas wanted to become a professional soccer player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of fourteen. He went on to enroll in some drama classes, eventually joining a theatre troupe that toured all over Spain. His work in the theatre, and his performances on the streets, eventually landed him a spot with the National Theatre of Spain. While performing with the theatre, Banderas caught the attention of director Pedro Almodóvar, who cast the young actor in his film debut, Laberinto de Pasione (Labyrinth of Passion) (1982). He went on to appear in the director's La Ley del Deseo (Law of Desire) (1984), making headlines with his performance as a gay man, which required him to engage in his first male-to-male onscreen kiss. After Banderas appeared in Almodóvar's Matador (1986), the director cast him in his internationally acclaimed Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) (1988). The recognition Banderas gained for his role increased two years later when he starred in Almodóvar's controversial Atame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) as a mental patient who kidnaps a porn star (Victoria Abril) and keeps her tied up until she returns his love.Banderas made his first stateside appearance as an unwitting object of Madonna's affections in Truth or Dare (1991). The following year, still speaking next to no English, he starred in his first American film, The Mambo Kings. It was a testament to his acting abilities that, despite having to learn all of his lines phonetically, Banderas still managed to turn in a critically praised performance as a struggling musician. He broke through to mainstream American audiences as the gay lover of AIDS-afflicted lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) in Philadelphia (1993). The film's success earned Banderas wide recognition, and the following year he was given a substantial role in Neil Jordan's high-profile adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, which allowed him to share the screen with the likes of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Banderas subsequently appeared in a number of films of widely varying quality, doing particularly strong work in Desperado (1995), Evita (1998), and The Mask of Zorro (1998). In 1999, he made his first foray into directing with Crazy in Alabama, a black comedy starring Melanie Griffith, to whom he had been married since 1996. The following year he starred as an aspiring boxer opposite Woody Harrelson in Play It to the Bone, portrayed a Cuban tycoon with a bad seed bride (Angelina Jolie) in Original Sin, and starred alongside Bob Hoskins and Wes Bentley in The White River Kid. Well established as a hearthrob and a talented dramatic actor by the end of the 1990s, the fact that Desperato director Robert Rodriguez was the only director to have expolored Banderas' comic potential (Banderas provided one of the few memorable performances in Rodriguez's segment of the otherwise abysmal Four Rooms (1995)) hinted at a heretofore unexplored but potentially lucrative territory for the actor. Later approached by Rodriguez to portray the super-spy patriarch in the family oriented adventure comedy Spy Kids (2001), Banderas charmed children and adults alike with his role as a kidnapped agent whose children must discover their inner stregnth in order to rescue their mother and father. After reprising his role in the following year's Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, Banderas would next return to more adult oriented roles in both Brian DePalma's Femme Fatale and the ill-fated Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (both 2002). After essaying a more historic role in the dramatic biopic Frida (also 2002), the remarkably diverse actor would one again team with Rodriguez for the sprawling Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In 2004 he joined the highly successful Shrek franchise voicing Puss In Boots, and the character became so popular that he appeared in each of the following sequels, and was the subject of his own feature in 2011. In 2005 he played Zorro again, and he had a major part in the dance film Take the Lead. In 2011 he reteamed for the first time in two decades with Pedro Almodovar in the Hitchcock-inspired The Skin I Live In, and the next year he appeared as a mysterious international espionage figure in the action film Haywire. He appeared in a small role in Rodriguez's Machete Kills (2013) and later appeared in The Expendables 3 (2014).

Trivia: Steve Coogan's inspired, off-the-cuff lead performance in 2002's Brit-rock biopic 24 Hour Party People had American critics heralding the arrival of a unique new talent -- but to U.K. audiences, his star turn was the next logical step for one of that country's most celebrated comics. Born into a working-class, Catholic family in Manchester, England, Coogan took to performance in his teens, and hit the standup scene soon thereafter. It was there that television casting agents took notice of his spot-on impersonations of world leaders, pop stars, and sundry celebrities, and they soon put him to work playing various comedic bit parts in network shows. One of his early breakthroughs came when he provided several recurring voices on the long-running puppet show Spitting Image, a weekly satirical review that took aim at Margaret Thatcher, Michael Jackson, and Ronald Reagan, among others.Coogan's talents led him away from the small screen to radio, where he made an even bigger splash with the comedy program On the Hour. The show gave the comedian free reign to try out a number of vocal characterizations, among them the arrogant, ignorant radio announcer Alan Partridge, whose hilariously lame puns and non-sequiturs quickly made him -- and, by proxy, Coogan -- an audience favorite. Coogan parlayed the Partridge character into a mini-empire, first with his own mock radio talk show -- cheekily titled Knowing Me, Knowing You...With Alan Partridge -- then in the flesh on 1994's BBC 2 news satire The Day Today, and finally with the wildly successful TV show Knowing Me, Knowing You...With Alan Partridge.Not content to rest on Partridge's laurels, Coogan developed many other characters through the '90s, taking them on the road for a wildly successful standup tour late in the decade. It was around this time that he was approached by iconoclastic director Michael Winterbottom to play the part of Tony Wilson, the charismatic Manchester TV personality who found himself the unlikely founder of one of the most influential record labels of the '80s. 24 Hour Party People charted the rise and fall of Factory Records, home to such bands as Joy Division, New Order, and the Happy Mondays, all of which were nurtured by the intuitive, unpredictable Wilson. In Coogan, Winterbottom saw a spiritual heir: Both men were born and raised in Manchester, and both had been impetuous on-air performers. The director wouldn't take "no" for an answer, and as the two forged ahead on the picture, Coogan began to develop his own slant on Wilson, improvising dialogue and talking directly to the camera. The unconventional biopic won raves at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, with Coogan in particular singled out for the wit and ingenuity of his freewheeling interpretation. Though touted in the press as British cinema's "next Trainspotting," 24 Hour Party People failed to perform at the U.K. box office, where it was effectively steamrolled by two other hit British comedies, Bend It Like Beckham and Ali G: Indahouse. 24 Hour's arthouse U.S. run later that year was solid, if unremarkable, as American audiences had less of a vested interest in the subject matter. Still, Hollywood casting agents were duly impressed with Coogan, and lured him to Tinseltown for the plum role of Phileas Fogg in the big-budget updating of Around the World in 80 Days, which was prepped for a high-profile summer 2004 release.Coogan would continue to enjoy his success on screen over the coming years in films like Hamlet 2 and The Trip.

Trivia: Elliot Gould was one of Hollywood's hottest actors of the early '70s and though he reached the peak of his popularity years ago, he remains a steadily employed supporting and character actor. Gould's lifelong involvement in show business is partially the result of his mother. In classical stage mother fashion, she made an eight-year-old Gould take numerous classes in performing, singing, and dance, including ballet. She enrolled him in Manhattan's Professional Children's School and then had him perform in hospitals, temples, and sometimes on television. Gould was also a child model. During summers, Gould performed at Catskill mountain resorts. When he was 18, he made it into a Broadway chorus line. Working odd jobs in between minor stage gigs, Gould did not get his big break until he joined the chorus line of the musical Irma La Douce. From there he won the leading role opposite Barbra Streisand in I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Though the two leads got good reviews, the show did not and rapidly closed. During its short run, Gould and Streisand fell in love, and in 1963, married. The following year, Gould made an inauspicious feature-film debut playing a deaf-mute in The Confession (1964). He did much better in his second film, The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968). While Gould's career seemed jammed in neutral, his wife's popularity hit the stratosphere, and for a time, he helped arrange her television appearances. By 1967, after years of being called Mr. Streisand and undergoing analysis, Gould untied the knot with Streisand. Gould became a star in 1969 when his co-starring role in the sex comedy Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. After playing Trapper John in Robert Altman's counterculture classic M*A*S*H, Gould at last made it to the big league. Tall, curly-haired, more homely than handsome, laid-back, unconventional, sensitive, and unabashedly Jewish, Gould was tremendously popular with young adults who strongly identified with the often confused and neurotic characters he played. Gould's subsequent few films, notably Getting Straight (1970) and Little Murders, reinforced his counterculture image. For a while, he seemed to be everywhere, but by 1973, his career had already begun tapering off. A powerfully subtle performance as Philip Marlow in Altman's Long Goodbye (1973) proved that Gould had talent to spare, but over the next few years, he chose several independent, under the radar films, like California Split and Capricorn One. Over the coming decades, Gould would eventually find an ideal level of fame and activity, appearing in a massive number of films, like Dangerous Love, Bugsy, Ocean's Eleven (and its sequels), and Contagion. Gould would also enjoy a beloved recurring role on the massively successful sitom Friends as the father of Ross and Monica Geller.

Trivia: A character-oriented actor who specialized in playing American everymen, Chris Messina emerged in the mid-'90s, landing guest appearances on series programs such as Law & Order and mounting supporting parts in Hollywood features including You've Got Mail and Rounders (both 1998). Messina gained even more exposure when he joined the cast of the quirky HBO comedy drama Six Feet Under during that program's fifth and final season. On that series, Messina played Ted Fairwell, a Republican attorney smitten with Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose) who (as the program reveals) will eventually marry her. After Six Feet wrapped, Messina hearkened back to feature portrayals, this time as a lead, in director Jennifer Westfeldt's (Kissing Jessica Stein) critically praised sophomore effort Ira & Abby (2006). The actor proved he could hold his own with a multilayered turn as a neurotic therapist's son who rushes headlong into marriage only to watch his confidence fall to pieces when he learns of his new wife's two ex-husbands. In 2008, Messina took on a supporting role in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opposite Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson. In the years to come, Messina would enjoy continued success as an established actor, appearing in films like Ruby Sparks and Argo, as well as on TV series like The Mindy Project and The Newsroom.

Trivia: Has the words "Mister Baby" tattooed on her back, which is a reference to a character in the 1989 film Mystery Train. Had her first recurring TV role on the ABC series State of Grace, in which she played a young Jewish girl who has an unlikely friendship with a Catholic girl in 1965 North Carolina. Made her movie debut in the George Clooney film Three Kings, in which her father also had a small role. Had her first kiss, with costar Michael Cera, in a scene of the Fox show Arrested Development. Has been vocal about her disappointment with how Fox handled Arrested Development, claiming that there was little acknowledgment for the show's Emmy wins and too many time-slot changes. Was greeted by a rollerblading Drew Barrymore when she went to the audition for Whip It, although she admitted that she "wasn't very aware that [roller derby] was still going on."

Trivia: Started working as a Daily Show correspondent the same day he auditioned for the job. Grew up in Bradford, England, and moved to Tampa with his family when he was 16. Wrote and starred in the Obie Award-winning Sakina's Restaurant, a one-man comedy about the Indian immigrant experience.

Trivia: Saw her first play at age 7 at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, MI. Shortly after, she auditioned for a play at the same theater and was cast in a production of Sweet Charity. Attended the summer arts camp at Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts before transferring to their high school for her senior year. Has extensive theater credits, including roles in productions of Two Gentlemen of Verona, West Side Story and Footloose. Said she was more excited than nervous about being brought into the Twilight movie franchise, landing a role as a vampire in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012). Has supported the restoration of the Vogue Theatre, an old movie theater in her hometown of Manistee, MI.

Trivia: Actress Deborah Ann Woll began her career with a series of TV guest appearances playing minor roles on episodes of ER, CSI, and My Name Is Earl. Her big break came in 2008 when she was cast in the HBO series True Blood as Jessica Hamby, vampire offspring of Bill Compton.

Trivia: HBO enthusiasts will invariably remember character actor Wallace Langham for his winning multi-season portrayal of Phil, the conceited head writer of Larry Sanders' late-night talk show, on the Garry Shandling-headlined sitcom The Larry Sanders Show. Langham (who first received billing in projects as Wally Ward) grew up in Los Angeles; his parents divorced at an early age and his mother, Sunni, designed costumes for the musical variety series Donny and Marie. Langham was, by all accounts, drawn magnetically to showbusiness; he enrolled in acting classes, signed with an agent, and landed a string of television commercials beginning at age 16 (in 1981). After high school, Langham enrolled briefly in Cal State Northridge, but dropped out after snagging a bit part in John Hughes' teenage sci-fi comedy Weird Science (1985). Scattered appearances on such series as Murder, She Wrote and Star Trek: Voyager followed -- as well as the recurring role of Josh, smart-alecky assistant to lingerie proprietor Veronica on the Kirstie Alley sitcom Veronica's Closet. It was the Shandling turn, however, that put Langham on top of his game. He made occasional feature appearances in such pictures as the Nora Ephron comedy-fantasy Michael (1996) opposite John Travolta, the Eddie Murphy vehicle Daddy Day Care (2003), the ensemble comedy drama Little Miss Sunshine (2006), the award-winning The Social Network and 2012's Ruby Sparks but -- outside of Larry Sanders -- he is probably best known for his fine work on the series drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. On that program, Langham sustained a multi-season portrayal as lab technician David Hodges.