Trivia: With an Oscar before the age of 30, repeated comparisons to Audrey Hepburn, and the drool of a thousand critics at her feet, Natalie Portman has emerged as one of the most promising actresses of her generation. Born in Jerusalem on June 9, 1981, to an artist mother and doctor father, Portman moved to New York when she was three. Raised on Long Island, she was discovered by a modeling agent who signed her on the spot. Her modeling stint led to an audition for Luc Besson's Leon (or The Professional, as it was called in the United States). Due to her age (she was 12 when the film was cast), Portman was initially turned down for the lead role of Mathilda, a girl who asks a hit man (Jean Reno) to train her as an assassin to avenge her brother's death and falls innocently in love with him in the process. However, she ultimately won the part and her 1994 film debut earned a number of positive notices. In interviews, Portman allowed that making her first film in the toughest sections of Spanish Harlem was frightening, but not quite so frightening, she claimed, as going back to school once shooting wrapped.Portman then took on the role of Al Pacino's step-daughter in another demanding film, Michael Mann's Heat (1995). She followed this up with lighter fare, like Mars Attacks! (1996), Everyone Says I Love You, and Beautiful Girls. After turning down title roles in both Lolita and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Portman took on another title role with her 1997 Broadway debut in The Diary of Anne Frank. She stayed with the show until May 1998, during which time she received positive notices for her performance. After lending her voice to The Prince of Egypt (1998), Portman took on her most talked-about role to date, that of Queen Amidala in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999). Despite very mixed reviews, the film went into box-office hyperdrive, further propelling Portman toward her status as a rapidly emerging talent for the new millennium. She would end the 20th century with projects like Wayne Wang's Anywhere But Here and Where the Heart Is. Offscreen, Portman also did some growing up, enrolling for her college education at Harvard University. A psychology major, she made it clear upon her enrollment that, aside from her role as Queen Amidala in the Star Wars films, she would not accept any film roles for the duration of her education. Perhaps to the disappointment of fans, she stuck to her word, remaining absent from the screen (save Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones) until she received her degree in 2003. Luckily, upon her return to acting, it was immediately evident that it had been worth the wait.Portman's first foray following graduation was the 2003 Civil War ensemble drama Cold Mountain, alongside Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman. But in 2004, Portman was at the forefront of both Garden State, a moody dramedy that endeared her to fans, and Closer, a taught, intimate drama that earned her massive critical accolades, as well as her first Oscar nomination. In 2005, as the curtain finally closed on the Star Wars franchise with the release of Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Portman could be seen with a now iconic pixie haircut after shaving her head for a role in the graphic-novel adaptation V for Vendetta. The dystopic action thriller received mixed reviews, but Portman's performance, as usual, earned accolades. Per her usual M.O. as an actress, she would complete a number of independent, arthouse, or otherwise challenging projects for every blockbuster under her belt, like the 2006 Milos Forman directed period drama Goya's Ghosts, and the Wes Anderson 2007 road (or rather, train) movie The Darjeeling Limited. After appearing opposite Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana as Anne Boleyn, the famously beheaded wife of King Henry VII in the 2008 period drama The Other Boleyn Girl, Portman turned her high-brow image on its ear the very next year, playing a small town cheerleader turned army wife in the Iraq War drama Brothers. Portman had even more impressive turns awaiting her, however, as 2010 brought the lead role in the hallucinatory Darren Aronofsky film The Black Swan, about an obsessively diligent ballerina who, in order to play both the innocent and dark sides of femininity with the leading role in Swan Lake, must battle her own conflicting inner demons as a woman. Portman trained in ballet rigorously for six months to perform the role, and her efforts paid dividends. Her performance received massive adoration from critics and audiences alike, and she emerged with an Academy Award for Best Actress - which Portman accepted while five months pregnant with a baby she was expecting with fiancé Benjamin Millepied, her choreographer whom she met while filming.Professionally, Portman had a mind to keep a balance with her choice of roles. In a change of pace from the gritty material in The Black Swan, she appeared in the stoner comedy Your Highness, the rom-com No Strings Attached, and the comic-book action thriller Thor.Portman had her first child with husband Benjamin Millepied in June of 2011.

Trivia: Lisa Kudrow first made her name playing Phoebe, the ditzy, New Age member of the titular close-knit pals on NBC's highly successful sitcom Friends. Since then, she has bridged the gap between television and film with undeniable success, winning particular acclaim for her role as an uptight school teacher in Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex (1998).Born in Encino, California on July 30, 1963, Kudrow earned a degree in biology from Vassar College before beginning her acting career. After college, she joined the Los Angeles improvisational group, The Groundlings, at the urging of family friend Jon Lovitz. Improv paved the way for more work, and Kudrow was soon appearing in bit roles in a number of films. Her first real break didn't come until 1993, when she began appearing on the TV sitcom Mad About You as Ursula, the waitress from hell. Real fame came in 1994, when the actress was cast as Phoebe on Friends; the enormous success of the show gave her both wide recognition and a steady day job. Kudrow's first leading role on the big screen was as one of the titular heroines (alongside Mira Sorvino) of the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion; unfortunately, her character was little more than a film version of Phoebe. Fortunately, Kudrow got to widen her range a little further that same year with a starring role in the independent drama Clockwatchers, portraying a struggling actress alongside the likes of Toni Collette and Parker Posey. The following year, Kudrow won raves and critical respect for her turn in The Opposite of Sex, a scathing black comedy in which she gave a comic and poignant performance as an embittered woman coping with the death of her brother, the presence of her best friend's malicious little sister (Christina Ricci), and the romantic attentions of Lyle Lovett. The acclaim she received for her portrayal was complemented the same year with an Emmy Award for her work on Friends. In 1999, Kudrow shared the screen with Robert DeNiro in the comedy Analyze This, and later that year she starred with Diane Keaton and Meg Ryan as three sisters dealing with the imminent death of their irritating father (Walter Matthau) in the comedy Hanging Up, directed by Keaton and written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron.As the new millenium unfolded, Kudrow would prove to be a strong force on screen, appearing in a number of acclaimed films, like Wonderland, Happy Endings, The Other Woman, Easy A, and in the comedy series Web Therapy.

Trivia: Though he has appeared in a number of feature films, Scott Cohen is more familiar to audiences for his TV work. A native New Yorker, Cohen trained at the Actor's Studio and began his career on the stage. After his film debut in Adrian Lyne's supernatural thriller Jacob's Ladder (1990), Cohen appeared in several 1990s films, including The Mambo Kings (1992) (as one of the Mambo Kings' band members), Peter Yates' big-hearted dramedy Roommates (1995), and the comic Howard Stern biopic Private Parts (1997). Cohen played larger roles in the B-dramas Vibrations (1995) and Sweet Evil (1997), but his career began to thrive more on television in the late '90s. Following a season on the daytime drama One Life to Live in 1994, he played prominent supporting parts in the notable HBO biopics Gotti (1996), starring Armand Assante, and Gia (1998), featuring Angelina Jolie in the title role. Dubbed "Mr. February" by Entertainment Weekly, Cohen's February 2000 guest-starring stint on ABC's durable cop drama NYPD Blue coincided with his starring role as Wolf on NBC's elaborate, much-ballyhooed fantasy miniseries The 10th Kingdom and his supporting role in CBS's docudrama about the notorious JonBenet Ramsey murder, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town. Cohen continued his TV success the following fall, with a guest-starring role on the critically acclaimed WB series Gilmore Girls (2000). Along with his stint on Gilmore Girls, Cohen joined the guest star roster of ABC's celebrated legal drama The Practice in 2001 and co-starred with The Practice's Camryn Mannheim in the TV movie Kiss My Act (2001), a Cyrano de Bergerac-style romantic comedy. Returning to feature films in the same genre, Cohen was the brusque ex-boyfriend-turned-chastened new suitor to the neurotic, bi-curious title character in Kissing Jessica Stein (2001). A hit on the festival circuit, Kissing Jessica Stein became an art house favorite upon its spring 2002 release. Cohen finally landed a regular lead in a TV series, though, with the heavier Showtime drama Street Time (2002). As a drug dealer's gambling addict parole officer, Cohen joined former Northern Exposure star Rob Morrow in playing it serious in a gritty scenario involving cops who are as morally compromised as their quarry. He had a brief turn on Gilmore Girls, and a major role in 2007's small-screen adaptation of For One More Day. In 2009 he landed a brief role in Everybody's Fine, and appeared the next year in Love and Other Drugs. He became a regular on the series Necessary Roughness in 2011, and that same year he was cast in the made for cable docudrama Justice for Natalee Holloway. He is married and has one son.

Trivia: Actor Charlie Tahan achieved his career breakthrough with a pair of roles in one year. In 2007, Tahan graced the cast of no less than two major features: Francis Lawrence's ambitious Omega Man sci-fi remake I Am Legend and Tod Harrison Williams' seriocomedy Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot.

Trivia: An actress who brings wide-eyed introspection and wry humor to her work, Lauren Ambrose first came to the attention of mainstream audiences with her supporting role as Ethan Embry's reclusive, brainy friend in the teen party flick Can't Hardly Wait (1998). Ambrose, a native of New Haven, Connecticut -- where she attended Rosemary Choate Hall and an arts magnet school -- became involved with acting through her training as a singer. After spending many of her summers studying voice at Massachusetts's prestigious Tanglewood, the aspiring performer branched out in front of the camera, landing supporting work on several episodes of NBC's Law and Order, which cast her as a mentally retarded teen gang-raped by her classmates. She made her big-screen debut as one of Kevin Kline's students in In & Out (1997), and a year later won the role in Can't Hardly Wait. In 2000 Ambrose had a busy year, starring in both the independent drama Swimming and in the screen adaptation of Charles Busch's beloved and bawdy off-Broadway musical Psycho Beach Party. The former featured Ambrose as a teenager dealing with faltering friendships and questions surrounding her own sexuality, while the latter saw her inhabit the role of Chicklet, a teenaged tomboy whose seriously split personality compromises her chances for membership in her high school's in-crowd.Ambrose's notoriety increased significantly in 2001, when she took on the character of Claire on HBO's critically-acclaimed drama series Six Feet Under. The youngest child in a family of funeral-parlor owners, the role led to multiple shared Screen Actors Guild awards for Outstanding Ensemble as well as two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Following Six Feet Under's conclusion in 2005, Ambrose landed a starring role alongside Paul Rudd in the coming-of-age drama Diggers. In 2009 she voiced the character of KW for Spike Jonze's critically acclaimed fantasy drama Where the Wild Things Are. The actress continued to appear in film and television throughout the 2010s, and rejoined Rudd for the 2012 comedy Wanderlust.

Trivia: Left school early to tour Europe with an acting troupe sponsored by the State Department. Worked as an English teacher in Beirut and translated pornography in Mexico. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Shadow Box in 1977. Played Claudius in the 1992 Broadway revival of Hamlet, opposite James Cromwell as Polonius and Elizabeth McGovern as Ophelia. Appeared in the 2010 Broadway revival of A View From the Bridge, which was Scarlett Johansson's Broadway debut.

Trivia: A classically trained actress with her roots in the theater, buxom performer Debra Monk spent years specializing in portrayals of matronly types, including aunts, mothers, and policewomen, on-stage and onscreen. Monk made one of her first film appearances as Aunt Dorothy in Norman Rene's fantasy comedy Prelude to a Kiss (1993) opposite Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan, then moved into a lengthy series of additional A-list Hollywood projects, including Fearless (1993), For Love or Money (1993), Quiz Show (1994), and Extreme Measures (1996). In the meantime, Monk also continued her stage work in such Manhattan-area productions as Death Defying Acts (1995) and Redwood Curtain (1997), for which she netted a substantial degree of acclaim. Monk found even greater success on the small screen, however, with two ongoing roles on popular series: that of Katie Sipowicz on Steven Bochco's NYPD Blue and that of Louise O'Malley on Grey's Anatomy. In 2008, Monk landed a supporting role opposite John Malkovich and Colin Hanks in the bittersweet show business drama The Great Buck Howard (2008). She was away from screens for four years after that, but returned in the 2012 Katherine Heigl vehicle One for the Money.

Trivia: Is a practicing Quaker. Her first professional role was as Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. Made her Broadway debut as an understudy in The SeagulI in 1992. Performed as Katherine in the New York Shakespeare Festival stage production of Henry V. Played Brooke Wyeth in the off-Broadway premiere of Other Desert Cities in 2011; when the show transfered to Broadway, she was replaced by Rachel Griffith, but later joined the show as a replacement.

Trivia: A film and stage actor who got his big break as one of the original cast members of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway production of Rent, Anthony Rapp has appeared as a supporting actor in a number of films. Born in the Chicago suburb of Joliet on October 26, 1971, Rapp had acting aspirations even as a young child, and at the age of ten, he managed to land the title role in a Broadway production of The Little Prince. Unfortunately, the show didn't make it to opening night, but Rapp subsequently found work in a touring company of The King and I, and at the age of 14, he won an Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in the Broadway production of Precious Sons. Rapp made his film debut at the age of 15 with a lead role in Adventures in Babysitting (1987). After graduating from high school, he moved to New York City and attended NYU until he dropped out to pursue film work in California. He appeared in supporting roles in such features as Dazed and Confused and Six Degrees of Separation (both 1993) and did some directing and scriptwriting, but it was not until he was cast as the narrator of Rent that his career began to take off. The play's success guaranteed Rapp both steady work and new opportunities, and he stayed with the production until 1998, closing it in London's West End. He also continued to appear on the big and small screens, doing guest stints on such shows as The X-Files and popping up in character roles in such films as Road Trip (2000), which cast him as an unctuous college student.