Trivia: Long before she recited her first line as an actress, Justine Waddell was playing roles -- real-life roles. First, she was a South African child, then a Scottish adolescent, and finally an English teenager after her family planted itself in London. There, Waddell took root and blossomed as one of Britain's finest young actresses. But she wasn't finished with multiculturalism. During and after her education at Cambridge University, she played characters in adaptations of English, Norwegian, French, and Russian authors. Then, in Dracula 2000, based on Irish-born author Bram Stoker's Dracula, she played an Englishman's daughter living in America who is pursued by a Transylvania vampire. Obviously, the world has been very much with Waddell, as Wordsworth might observe, and it is no wonder that she studied political science and sociology at Cambridge's Emmanuel College. There are, however, at least two constants in Waddell's life: one, striking beauty; two, extraordinary acting talent. The latter quality is, of course, the more important. But it doesn't hurt for an actress to have a stunning face and a symmetrical body when she is trying out to play Tess in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles or Estella in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Waddell played both roles, to the delight of audiences and critics, in TV miniseries.Waddell was born in Johannesburg in 1976. Her Scottish-born father, Gordon Waddell, was a member of Parliament and an employee of De Beers, the world's largest producer and distributor of diamonds. Her South African-born mother, Cathy Gallagher Waddell, was a fashion designer who also operated a small shop in Soweto, a ghetto southwest of Johannesburg that rebelled often against unfair laws. To escape the dangerous social climate in South Africa, the Waddells moved to Kelso, Scotland, near the tranquil River Tweed, in the mid-'80s. About four years later, they moved to London, where Justine Waddell attended a school on Baker Street and eventually enrolled in Cambridge. Though not a school of drama as such, it did offer courses that introduced her to acting. While still a student there, she played Joan of Arc in the Edinburgh Festival's production of Jean Anouilh's drama The Lark. Then came roles in period costume dramas requiring her to squeeze into corsets and plumb the keen insights she gleaned as a cultural hybrid. Among the roles that challenged her were Sasha (opposite Ralph Fiennes) in Chekhov's Ivanov, performed in London and Moscow, and Nina in Ibsen's The Seagull, performed in Stratford-upon-Avon. She also played Laura in Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, Countess Nordston in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Tess in Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Julia in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Estella in Dickens' Great Expectations, and Molly in Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters.

Trivia: Scottish actor Gerard Butler spent seven miserable years studying law before trying his hand at acting on the London stage. Half a decade later, a much happier Butler had over a dozen theater, movie, and television credits under his belt, including starring roles in the stage version of Trainspotting (1996) and the award-winning film Mrs. Brown (1997).Born on November 13, 1969, in Glasgow, Butler is the youngest of Margaret and Edward Butler's three children; he has a sister and a brother. When Butler was barely six months old, his family relocated to Montréal, Canada, where his father undertook several failed business ventures. A year and a half later, Butler's parents divorced, and his mother took the children back to Scotland. He saw his father once more when he was four years old, and then not again until he was 16. In the meantime, Butler grew up in his mother's hometown of Paisley, where he frequented a nearby movie theater. Enamored with acting, he convinced his mother to take him to auditions, eventually joining the Scottish Youth Theatre and playing a street urchin in Oliver! at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow. An exceptional student, Butler graduated at the top of his class. Hoping to please his family and his teachers, who felt acting was an unrealistic career choice, Butler enrolled in Glasgow University's law program. He served as the president of the school's law society and earned an honor's degree. After finishing college, Butler took a year and a half off to live in Los Angeles, where he appeared as an extra in the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston vehicle The Bodyguard (1992). He then traveled to Canada to be at his father's bedside as he succumbed to cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Butler returned to Scotland to begin a two-year law traineeship in Edinburgh at one of the country's top firms. But he was bored and discontented as a lawyer, and still dreamed about performing. He went to see Trainspotting on-stage at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh and knew he had made the wrong career choice. Soon enough, Butler's unhappiness began to show in his work, and his firm fired him with only a week left in his training. Two days later, at age 25, he moved to London to begin his acting career. Butler took on a series of odd jobs -- from waiting tables to demonstrating clockwork toys at a trade show -- while looking for work as an actor. He was supposed to be serving as a casting assistant for the play Coriolanus at the Mermaid Theatre when he ran into the show's director, actor Steven Berkoff, at a coffee bar and asked to read for a part. Impressed with the ex-barrister's moxie, Berkoff agreed and Butler secured his first professional acting role. While rehearsing for Coriolanus, he accompanied one of the other actors to an audition for the same stage adaptation of Trainspotting he had seen in Edinburgh and landed the lead part of Mark Renton. In 1997, with his theater career firmly established, Butler made his big-screen debut opposite Billy Connolly and Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown. Sometime later, he had returned to the film's shooting location, Taymouth Castle, for a picnic when he saw a child drowning in the nearby River Tay. Butler dove into the water and saved the boy. The actor received a Certificate of Bravery from the Royal Humane Society for his selfless act. That same year, he earned a small speaking part as a bad guy in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies before spoofing ex-Wet Wet Wet singer Marti Pellow for the 1998 series The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star. Butler finished out the '90s by appearing in the television comedy Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, as well as returning to the stage to appear opposite Sheila Gish and Rachel Weisz in Suddenly, Last Summer in London's West End. Butler began the new millennium with supporting parts in the gangster film Shooters (2000) and the war drama Harrison's Flowers (2000). He then simultaneously landed the high-profile title roles in Wes Craven's Dracula 2000 (2000) and the USA television movie Attila (2001). Produced by the creators of The Mummy franchise, Attila chronicled the life of the eponymous fifth century barbarian and co-starred veteran actors Tim Curry and Powers Boothe. It also re-teamed Butler with his Coriolanus director, Berkoff, who played his uncle in the film. The hype that surrounded both Dracula 2000 and Attila was fueled by CNN's announcement that Butler was the frontrunner to replace Pierce Brosnan as the next James Bond. The following months, however, were anticlimactic for Butler. Dracula 2000 bombed at the box office and Attila, though one of the year's highest-rated television miniseries, proved to be forgettable. The rumors surrounding his involvement with 007 were quickly quelled when Brosnan announced that he was staying on for at least two more Bond films, and the series' producers never contacted Butler. Determined to get back on his feet, Butler signed on with a new agency. He returned to British television for ITV's miniseries The Jury (2002), which also featured Derek Jacobi and Antony Sher, while simultaneously filming a role as Christian Bale's dragon-slaying best friend in the special-effects spectacle Reign of Fire (2002). He then quickly landed a supporting role in Renny Harlin's Mindhunters with Val Kilmer and LL Cool J, but pulled out of the project to play the lead in Richard Donner's long-awaited adaptation of Michael Crichton's best-selling novel Timeline (2003). Butler also turned heads as Angelina Jolie's hunky love interest in the sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life that same year.Though, to this point in his career, Butler had no doubt displayed immense talent as an actor, the films he had appeared in had almost consistently disappointed in terms of box-office returns. In 2004, that disheartening trend continued as Butler donned the famous mask of the disfigured musical genius made popular on the stage by actor Michael Crawford in the big-screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, with subsequent roles in The Game of Their Lives and Beowulf & Grendel doing little to increase his international recognizability. By 2006, it seemed that Butler was finally poised to break big, and as he prepared to lead the soldiers of Sparta in battle against the overwhelming forces of the Persian Empire in Dawn of the Dead director Zack Snyder's adaptation of Frank Miller's popular graphic novel 300, it appeared as if he was determined to do so in style.The movie was a huge international box-office hit, and Butler followed it up with the Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla the next year. In 2009 he took the starring role in the thriller Law Abiding Citizen, and appeared in the virtual reality action film Gamer. 2010 saw the release of his romantic comedy The Bounty Hunter opposite Jennifer Aniston, and in 2011 he starred in the drama Machine Gun Preacher. That same year he played the arch enemy of Coriolanus in Ralph Fiennes adaptation of that Shakespearean tragedy.

Trivia: The grandson of Bernard Lee (better known to the world as M in the James Bond movies), Jonny Lee Miller ironically became famous for his portrayal of the Sean Connery-obsessed Sick Boy in the 1996 film Trainspotting. Contrary to popular belief, the actor is English, not Scottish, and was born outside of London on November 15, 1972. Interested in the theater from an early age, Lee Miller participated in a number of school productions and made his television debut at the age of 11, in the miniseries Mansfield Park. Following appearances in a number of other productions, including 1993's Prime Suspect 3, Lee Miller made his film debut in Iain Softley's Hackers in 1995. His turn as a cyberpunk gave the actor both a wider audience and an introduction to co-star Angelina Jolie, whom he would marry in 1995 (they divorced in 1999). Lee Miller's big break came with his casting as Sick Boy, in director Danny Boyle's film adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel Trainspotting. The film became an international hit, boosting the careers of Lee Miller and his co-stars, Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle. Lee Miller chose to remain on Scottish soil for his next project, Gillies MacKinnon's Regeneration (1997). Subsequently, Lee Miller headlined an all-star cast in the relationship drama Afterglow, in which he co-starred with Nick Nolte, Lara Flynn Boyle, and the formidable Julie Christie. In 1999, the actor reunited with Trainspotting co-star Robert Carlyle to star in Plunkett & Maclean, which also featured Liv Tyler. Though subsequent roles in lowbrow fare like Dracula 2000, Mindhunters, and Aeon Flux hinted that the talented actor's career was circling the drain, Lee Miller's memorable performances in the shortlived ABC series Eli Stone (in which he played the title character) and Dexter (as a malevolent motivational speaker) helped both to keep in in the public eye, and offer further proof of his versitilty. In 2011 Lee Miller shared an Oliver Award with actor Benedict Cumberbatch for their performances in Boyle's stage production of Frankenstein (the two actors alternated between playing Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature), and the following year he kept up the gothic vibe with his turn as the shady Roger Collins in Tim Burton's feature adaptation of the spooky soap opera Dark Shadows.

Trivia: A budding TV star, Jennifer Esposito (born April 11th, 1973) opted to focus more exclusively on movies after landing one of the lead roles in Spike Lee's incendiary Summer of Sam (1999). A native New Yorker, Esposito trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute and worked on TV in the early 1990s, including a recurring role on New York Undercover. Following small roles in indie films Kiss Me, Guido (1997) and A Brother's Kiss (1997), Esposito gained prime time notice in 1997 as Michael J. Fox's sassy "Noo Yawk" secretary on ABC's hit sitcom Spin City. During her two seasons on the show, Esposito also appeared in Edward Burns' blue collar romance No Looking Back (1998), the teen slasher sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), and Spike Lee's basketball drama He Got Game (1998). After playing the more substantial dramatic part of Adrien Brody's punk singer girlfriend in Summer of Sam, however, Esposito left Spin City in 1999. Dividing critics and audiences over its dicey slice of New York City 1977 life and Lee's visual pyrotechnics, Summer of Sam failed at the box office. Esposito next appeared as one of Chris O'Donnell's ex-girlfriends in The Bachelor (1999). The millennial turnover found the beautiful rising starlet establishing herself as a versatile actress in such efforts as Dracula 2000 (2000) and Don't Say a Word (2001), and after appearing alongside Dana Carvey in the family comedy The Master of Disguise (2002), Esposito joined an impressive cast including Luis Guzman, William H. Macy and George Cloony for the caper comedy Welcome to Collinwood (also 2002). In 2004, Esposito took on a role as the long-suffering supervisor of a bumbling police officer in the less than successful comedy Taxi. The following year, however, her luck would change when she joined the cast of filmmaker Paul Haggis' Academy Award-winning drama Crash, in which she played the girlfriend and partner of an emotionally distant police officer. Afterwards, the actress joined several television shows including FX's drama Rescue Me, in which she worked alongside the show's star Denis Leary, and also appeared in ABC's comedy Samantha Who?, NBC's medical drama Mercy and CBS's cop procedural Blue Bloods.

Trivia: If you could put a face to the term "smart aleck," it would likely resemble that of That '70s Show star Danny Masterson. Taking sarcasm to a new level with his role as the shaggy-side-burned Steven Hyde, Masterson has become a familiar face to millions of television viewers with his popular character on the enduring retro series. A native of Albertson, Long Island, NY, who was a mere four years old when he got his start in the film industry as a child model, Masterson subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where he made the leap to television with appearances in numerous commercials. The increasingly in-demand actor dropped out of the public-school system in the tenth grade and opted for a tutor when his workload began to infringe upon his education, and though he would pursue an education at the Pasadena Art Center, he was forced to drop out after one semester when work and school became too much to bear. Television work on Cybill, Roseanne, and NYPD Blue was quick to follow, and in 1997, the up-and-coming star could be seen getting a pummeling from John Travolta in director John Woo's Face/Off. The following year, That '70s Show made its debut on FOX television, launching the young actor into the public eye as a close friend of the Forman family. Roles in such high-profile features as The Faculty and Dracula 2000 served to balance parts in more obscure films, including Wild Horses and Dirt Merchant (in which he played the eponymous character). Though Masterson would remain on That '70s Show well into the new millennium, he continued to branch out with a number of smaller, independent features. Outside of his acting career, Masterson has frequently been spotted behind the turntables of some of L.A.'s hottest nightclubs -- spinning the grooves under the guise of his alter ego, DJ Donkey Punch. And while it may be a bit of an overstatement to say that Masterson's film career "took off" after That 70's Show went off the air in 2006, he did remain active on the silver screen -- and even managed to display some versitility -- with roles in such films as Smiley Face, Made for Each Other, The Bridge to Nowhere, California Solo, and The Chicago 8. In 2012, Masterson returned to television in the TBS comedy Men at Work.

Trivia: Jeri Lynn Ryan is the stunning actress adored by science fiction fans for her portrayal of the Borg-human Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager. She was born in Munich, Germany, but was raised on several military bases all over the world. Settling on Illinois for college, she joined a sorority and competed in beauty pageants, making it all the way to the Miss America Pageant in 1990. She started her acting career with TV movies (Co-Ed Call Girl) and made several guest appearances on shows like Matlock and Melrose Place. In 1997, she gained a reoccurring role on the short-lived NBC series Dark Skies and joined the cast of Voyager. She has since gained a loyal fan base for this role, which requires a costume so tight it takes nearly an hour to get into it. In 2001, she moved on to the role of Ronnie Cooke on the Fox drama Boston Public, a role creator David E. Kelley penned specifically for her. After that show's demise, Ryan popped up as a guest on a number of series, notably The O.C. as a con artist, but the drama she faced on screen was nothing compared to her tumultuous personal life. When her former husband, Jack Ryan, ran for the Illinois state senate in 2004, details of their 1999 divorce became public, including her allegations that he had tried to pressure her into visiting sex clubs. But the scandal failed to tarnish the actress' reputation, and in 2006 she landed a regular role as a district attorney on Shark. Once that show ended, she maintained her presence on TV with guest roles on Law & Order: SVU, Leverage and Psych, before joining the main cast of the new show Body of Proof. She made her feature film breakthrough in Men Cry Bullets, followed by starring roles in The Last Man and Down With Love.

Trivia: A talented actor who began to win due notice in the late '90s, Sean Patrick Thomas broke through to mainstream audiences with winning turns in such films as Cruel Intentions (1999) and Save the Last Dance (2001). The son of immigrants from Guyana, Thomas was born in Wilmington, DE, in 1970. While attending the University of Virginia, where he studied English and planned to become a lawyer, Thomas decided to pursue a career in acting after auditioning for a student production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Thomas broke into film with small roles in productions that included Courage Under Fire (1996), Conspiracy Theory (1997), and Can't Hardly Wait (1998). In 1996, he further added to his acting credentials by earning an M.A. in drama from New York University. Relative fame and even a blush of notoriety greeted the actor in 1999, with a pivotal role in Cruel Intentions, Roger Kumble's free and loose adaptation of Choderlos De Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Co-starring alongside alpha-teens Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Ryan Phillippe in the torrid tale of lust, betrayal, and negligent parenting on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Thomas earned (literal) exposure as the cello teacher/illicit lover of one of the film's principle characters. Even greater exposure followed for Thomas the subsequent year, when he was cast in a substantial role as Detective Temple Page on the critically acclaimed TV series The District. Riding high, he then won his first starring role on the big screen in Save the Last Dance (2001), an interracial love story set in Chicago's South Side that featured him as a black high school student in love with a white classmate (Julia Stiles). Although the film earned mixed reviews, it found an appreciative audience, and with it, a growing fan base for the young actor.

Trivia: From his 1950 debut onward, Christopher Plummer has been regarded as one of the most brilliant Canadian actors of his generation. His portrayal of Hamlet was a major ratings coup when telecast over the CBC in the early '60s. Following his first Broadway appearance in 1954 (among his New York stage credits are JB, Royal Hunt of the Sun and The Good Doctor), efforts were made to convert Plummer into an American matinee idol, most of these attempts were resisted by Plummer himself. His first two films, Stage Struck (1957) and Wind Across the Everglades (1958), set no new box office records, although the latter, directed by Nicholas Ray, did earn strong critical notices. Plummer was shown to better advantage in such live network-TV presentations as The Prisoner of Zenda and A Doll's House.In 1965, the actor was cast as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, an assignment he despised, reportedly referring to the musical blockbuster as The Sound of Mucus. Nonetheless, and as Plummer has ruefully noted on many occasions, this one film did more to make the actor bankable in Hollywood than any previous effort. He went on to do steady, if varied, work throughout the rest of the century. Among Plummer's more notable films were The Return of the Pink Panther (1974), the British Empire extravaganza The Man W ho Would Be King (1975), 1979's Murder by Decree (in which he starred as Sherlock Holmes), Somewhere in Time (1980), the legendary 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds, 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and 1995's Dolores Claiborne and Twelve Monkeys. In 1999, Plummer received some of the strongest notices of his career for his uncannily accurate portrayal of 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace in Michael Mann's The Insider. Throughout his long career, the actor has won many awards, including Tonys for the musical Cyrano and the one-man stage show Barrymore, and an Emmy for his work in the TV miniseries The Moneychangers. Genie nominated for performances in the films Ararat and Blizzard in 2002 and 2003 respectively, Plummer and his daughter Amanda were both nominated for Emmy awards for their television performances in 2005. Though the father would ultimately walk away empty-handed, the award would stay in the family when Amanda was bestowed the honor for her memorable guest appearance in an episode of Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit. With roles in such high profile theatrical releases including The New World, Inside Man, and The Lake House keeping Plummer very much in the spotlight, it was obvious that his talent and passion for acting were still as strong as ever. 2009 turned out to be one of his busiest and most successful years in a very long time. In addition to appearing in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Plummer voiced the bad guy in Pixar's mega hit Up, and portrayed the legendary author Leo Tolstoy in Michael Hoffman's The Last Station. His work in that film, opposite Helen Mirren, earned the Canadian his first Academy Award nomination, as well as nods from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, and the Independent Spirit Awards.He followed up and improved on that awards success in 2011 with his role as a senior citizen who comes out of the closet in Beginners. That performance garnered him the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as an Oscar in that same category. He also scored a box-office success as the head of the feuding Vanger clan in David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.Talent seems to run in Plummer's family: he and first wife, actress Tammy Grimes, are the parents of acclaimed actress Amanda Plummer.

Trivia: Bearing talent and good looks in equal measure, African American actor Omar Epps first became visible to audiences and critics alike with his 1992 film debut in Ernest R. Dickerson's urban drama Juice. Epps shone in his role as one of a group of four Harlem friends trying to make good, with the praise he earned for his work paving the way for steady industry employment.Born Omar Hashim Epps in Brooklyn, New York, on July 23, 1973, Epps was raised by his mother, an elementary school principal. He nurtured his interest in acting at both the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the New York High School for the Performing Arts. After his breakthrough in Juice, Epps ran the risk of being typecast, playing athletes in a series of films. However, his performances were consistently solid, and he earned particular acclaim for his portrayal of a young man attending college on an athletic scholarship in John Singleton's Higher Learning (1995). Around this same time, Epps also excelled in a brief recurring role as an emotionally stressed intern on E.R.; he would later identify that role as the one that made it possible for audiences to finally put a name to his face.After some memorable roles in Scream 2, In Too Deep, and Love & Basketball, Epps entered the 2000's strong. He would appear in various films over the coming years, like Perfume, Big Trouble, and Against the Ropes. Epps would also find tremendous success on the small sceen, with a starring role on the massively popular medical drama House M.D.

Trivia: The sultry Shane West -- a Gemini whose genuine handsomeness is doubly effective in combination with his mesmerizing raspy voice -- made his mark on the Hollywood scene within the realm of teen drama. Beginning with appearances on television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Picket Fences, West was soon cast as a more permanent staple in teenage tube-life, as well as on the big screen.West was born on June 10, 1978, in Baton Rouge, LA, where he spent his life until he made the decision to pursue an acting career in 1995. Upon moving to L.A., West found much success on dramatic television, landing a starring role on ABC's Once and Again (1999) as Eli Sammler after appearing in the Showtime original movie The Westing Game (1997). A more contemporary rendition of the Cyrano de Bergerac story, Whatever It Takes (2000) featured a book-smart West. He appeared in Dracula in 2000, and made a cameo in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven. Huge publicity surrounding the pop superstar status of Mandy Moore brought West much attention as her love interest in 2002's A Walk to Remember. From the cool crowd, West's character, Landon Carter, learns of matters of a deeper significance during his interaction with Jamie Sullivan (Moore). West's adoring fan base increased in significance as well in his role as sexy and romantic Landon. He joined the cast of ER for that show's final three seasons, and then went on to appear as punk hero Darby Crash in the biopic What We Do Is Secret. He followed that up with The Lodger, Red Sands, and The Presence.

Trivia: Born Richard Laughlin Munro in the small town of Lac La Hache in British Columbia, Canadian-born actor Lochlyn Munro made a name for himself with high-strung comic performances in such films as Scary Movie, Dead Man on Campus, and A Guy Thing, as well as turns in more dramatic roles. A gifted sportsman who won awards as a competitive athlete, Munro was in his mid-'20s when he began to focus on a career in acting. His first professional credits were guest appearances on such TV series as Wiseguy and Neon Rider, and while he made his big-screen debut with a bit part in Cadence, he spent much of the early to mid-'90s doing television work, and began building a fan base when he was cast as a regular on the Canadian drama Northwood. He also starred in the short-lived crime series Two, and played recurring roles on JAG and Charmed. Munro's breakthrough was the comedy Dead Man on Campus, in which he played an overly intense college student whose roommates, in hopes of scoring an easy A, attempt to lead him to his death; he was cast as another tightly wound young man in A Night at the Roxbury. In 2000, Munro appeared in the top-grossing horror film spoof Scary Movie, as well as a more straightforward terror tale, Dracula 2000, and Bruce Paltrow's karaoke-themed comedy drama Duets.

Trivia: Born in Alberta, Canada, in 1971, Nathan Fillion took his acting ambitions to the United States when he moved to New York in 1994 to portray Joey Buchanan on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. Having previously appeared in a single TV movie, Ordeal in the Arctic, Fillion's acting career had taken a backseat to his plans to be an English teacher. His three-year stint on the long-standing daytime TV staple, however, changed his focus in a big way. When his time on One Life to Live was up, the 27-year-old actor relocated to Los Angeles to assume a regular role on the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place. Shortly afterward, he made a memorable appearance as the "wrong Ryan" in Steven Spielberg's WWII epic Saving Private Ryan. He also made appearances on The Outer Limits, King of the Hill, Pasadena, and other projects. It was in 2002, however, that he assumed the role that would make his career. Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon selected Fillion to portray rugged captain Mal Reynolds for his new sci-fi/Western series Firefly. The show found a rabidly loyal cult fan base, as well as incomparable critical praise, but tragically, failed to find the wide audience that Fox had been hoping for. The show was canceled after only 11 episodes, but Fillion had reached a level of familiarity with the public that most actors never hope to achieve. He reprised the role of Mal in 2005 for the feature-film adaptation of Firefly, Serenity, to the delight of fans. In 2006, Fillion stayed on the cream of the fringe with the much anticipated horror film Slither. Starring alongside Elizabeth Banks, the actor stole the show with his humorous, low-key performance. For his next project, he signed on to act alongside Keri Russell in the romantic comedy Waitress. When the writer's strike hit, Fillion teamed with his old collaborator Joss Whedon to star in the direct-to-the-web musical miniseries Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. In 2009 he landed the title role on the ABC series Castle, and took a small role in the dark superhero comedy Super in 2010.