Trivia: The son of a Brooklyn policeman who died when he was eight, African-American comedy superstar Eddie Murphy was raised in the comfortable middle-class community of Hempstead, NY, by his mother and stepfather. A natural-born class clown, he was voted the most popular student at Roosevelt Junior and Senior High. By the age of 15, he was doing standup gigs at 25 to 50 dollars a pop, and within a few years he was headlining on the comedy-club circuit.Murphy was 19 he was when hired as one of the backup performers on the NBC comedy weekly Saturday Night Live. His unique blend of youthful arrogance, sharkish good cheer, underlying rage, and street-smart versatility transformed the comedian into SNL's prime attraction, and soon the country was reverberating with imitations of such choice Murphy characterizations as sourball celebrity Gumby, inner-city kiddie host Mr. Robinson, prison poet Tyrone Green, and the Little Rascals' Buckwheat. Just when it seemed that he couldn't get any more popular, Murphy was hastily added to the cast of Walter Hill's 1982 comedy/melodrama feature film 48 Hours, and voila, an eight-million-dollars-per-picture movie star was born. The actor followed this cinematic triumph with John Landis' Trading Places, a Prince and the Pauper update released during the summer of 1983, the same year that the standup album Eddie Murphy, Comedian won a Grammy. In 1984, he finally had the chance to carry a picture himself: Beverly Hills Cop, one of the most successful pictures of the decade. Proving that at this juncture Murphy could do no wrong, his next starring vehicle, The Golden Child (1986), made a fortune at the box office, despite the fact that the picture itself was less than perfect. After Beverly Hills Cop 2 and his live standup video Eddie Murphy Raw (both 1987), Murphy's popularity and career seemed to be in decline, though his staunchest fans refused to desert him. His esteem rose in the eyes of many with his next project, Coming to America (1987), a reunion with John Landis that allowed him to play an abundance of characters -- some of which he essayed so well that he was utterly unrecognizable. Murphy bowed as a director, producer, and screenwriter with Harlem Nights (1989), a farce about 1930s black gangsters which had an incredible cast (including Murphy, Richard Pryor, Della Reese, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Jasmine Guy, and Arsenio Hall), but was somewhat destroyed by Murphy's lazy, expletive-ridden script and clichéd plot that felt recycled from Damon Runyon stories. Churned out for Paramount, the picture did hefty box office (in the 60-million-dollar range) despite devastating reviews and reports of audience walkouts. Murphy's box-office triumphs continued into the '90s with a seemingly endless string of blockbusters, such as the Reginald Hudlin-directed political satire The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), that same year's "player" comedy Boomerang, and the Landis-directed Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). After an onscreen absence of two years following Cop, Murphy reemerged with a 1996 remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor. As directed by Tom Shadyac and produced by the do-no-wrong Brian Grazer, the picture casts Murphy as Dr. Sherman Klump, an obese, klutzy scientist who transforms himself into Buddy Love, a self-obsessed narcissist and a hit with women. As an added surprise, Murphy doubles up his roles as Sherman and Buddy by playing each member of the Klump family (beneath piles and piles of latex). The Nutty Professor grossed dollar one and topped all of Murphy's prior efforts, earning well up into the hundreds of millions and pointing the actor in a more family-friendly direction. His next couple of features, Dr. Dolittle and the animated Mulan (both 1998), were children-oriented affairs, although in 1999 he returned to more mature material with the comedies Life (which he also produced) and Bowfinger; and The PJs, a fairly bawdy claymation sitcom about life in South Central L.A.Moving into the new millennium, Murphy resurrected Sherman Klump and his brood of misfits with the sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) before moving on to yet another sequel in 2001, the decidedly more family-oriented Dr. Dolittle 2. That same year, sharp-eared audiences were served up abundant laughs by Murphy's turn as a donkey in the animated fairy tale spoof Shrek. Nearly stealing the show from comic powerhouse co-star Mike Myers, children delighted at Murphy's portrayal of the put-upon sidekick of the kindhearted ogre and Murphy was subsequently signed for a sequel that would go into pre-production in early 2003. After bottoming out with the subsequent sci-fi comedy flop The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Murphy stepped into Bill Cosby's old shoes for the mediocre big-screen adaptation of I Spy. With the exception of a return to donkeydom in the 2004 mega-hit Shrek 2, Murphy stuck with hapless father roles during the first several years of the new millennium, Daddy Day Care being the most prominent example, with Disney's The Haunted Mansion following closely behind.In December 2006, however, he emerged with a substantial part in Dreamgirls, writer/director Bill Condon's star-studded adaptation of the hit 1981 Broadway musical about a Supremes-esque ensemble's ascent to the top. Murphy plays James Thunder Early, an R&B vocal sensation for whom the titular divas are hired to sing backup. Variety's David Rooney proclaimed, "Murphy...is a revelation. Mixing up James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson, and some of his own wiseass personae, his Jimmy leaps off the screen both in his scorching numbers (his proto-rap is a killer) and dialogue scenes. It's his best screen work." A variety of critics groups and peers agreed with that assessment, landing Murphy a number of accolades including a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Around the same time, Murphy wrapped production on director Brian Roberts' Norbit. In that picture, the actor/comedian retreads his Nutty Professor work with a dual turn as Norbit, an insecure, backward geek, and Norbit's monstrous wife, an oppressive, domineering loudmouth. The story has the unhappy couple faced with the possible end of their marriage when Norbit meets his dream-girl (Thandie Newton). Never one to stray too far from familiar territoryMurphy next reteamed with the vocal cast of Shrek yet again for the next installment in the series, Shrek the Third.Over the coming years, Murphy would appear in a handful of comedies like Meet Dave, Imagine That, and Tower Heist. In 2011, he was announced as the host of 2012 Academy Awards, with Brett Ratner (his Tower Heist director) producing the show, but Murphy dropped out after Ratner resigned. In 2013, a fourth Beverly Hills Cop was announced, but the film was pulled from Paramount's schedule after pre-production issues.

Trivia: Brittany Robertson found success as a teenage actress in the mid- to late 2000s with her small-screen portrayal of Samantha Saxton on the seriocomic period series Swingtown. The show took a headfirst dive into the confused sexual mores of the mid-'70s, played out via the intrigues of an "average" Middle American town. Prior to that, she had appeared as Steve Carell's daughter in the comedy Dan in Real Life (2007). Robertson would remain active on screen for years to come, starring on shows like Life Unexpected and The Secret Circle.

Trivia: An actress whose refinement is evident in both her coolly regal beauty and well-measured performances, Natascha McElhone first impressed international critics and audiences with her portrayal of Francoise Gilot, the long-suffering but ultimately triumphant wife of Pablo Picasso in Merchant Ivory's Surviving Picasso (1996). Born Natasha Taylor in Hampstead, London, on March 23, 1971, McElhone was raised in Brighton as the only daughter (she has several brothers) of journalist parents. After studying drama for three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, McElhone began her career in the theatre. She worked extensively on the London stage in a number of productions, and she also toured nationally with the Leicester Haymarket's production of Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. McElhone made her television debut in 1994, playing an army officer in the BBC's A Breed of Heroes, and subsequently appeared in several British TV series, including Absolutely Fabulous. Following her well-received screen debut in Surviving Picasso, McElhone played the young Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway (1997), and she had substantial roles in The Devil's Own (1997) and John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998), the latter of which featured her as a tactical strategist who organizes a team of experts to steal a mysterious briefcase from a group of criminals. She also popped up as Truman Burbank's long-lost love interest in The Truman Show (1998), and in 2000, she could be seen singing and dancing her way across the Bard's iambic pentameter in Kenneth Branagh's musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost. Two short years later audiences would find McElhone cast opposite George Clooney in director Steven Soderbergh's psycholgical sci-fi effort Solaris. She appeared as Mary Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl in 2003, and continued to work steadily landing one of her most high-profile gigs when she landed the part of Karen on the Showtime series Californication.

Trivia: Australian-born actor Xavier Samuel studied his craft at Flinders University before taking on a professional career both on-stage and onscreen. He made waves with a role on the Australian TV series McLeod's Daughters in 2003, and later transitioned to the big screen with roles in 2007's September and the 2008 film Newcastle. Two years later, Samuel became a familiar face to American moviegoers thanks to his role as Riley in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, with a subsequent role on Roland Emmerich's Anonymous (2011) revealing that the emerging actor had a flair for Shakespearean dislogue as well. Meanwhile, following a bloody struggle with an obsessed classmate in The Loved Ones, Samuel found himself pitted against nature's fiercest predator in Bait -- an Australian thriller about a group of grocery store shoppers who are pitted against man-eating sharks after a freak tsunami plunges the market underwater.

Trivia: Was a national finalist in a model search conducted by the Australian magazine Girlfriend in 2007. Performed in productions by Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company as a teenager. Starred in the music video for Thirsty Merc's song "Tommy and Krista" in 2009. First TV appearance was as an extra in the Australian series H2O: Just Add Water in 2010; cast three years later as one of the leads in a spin-off of the series, Mako: Island of Secrets. Won the leading role of Lissa in Vampire Academy two weeks after moving to Los Angeles in 2013 to pursue acting.

Trivia: Moved to California when she was 7.The 8-month audition process for the role of Mary Adler in Gifted (2017) included more than 600 girls.Learned how to ice-skate to prepare for her role as young Tonya Harding in the film I, Tonya (2017).Played young versions of many older characters, including Sabrina Spellman in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina; Tonya Harding in I, Tonya (2017); Carol in Captain Marvel (2019); Theo in The Haunting of Hill House; and Emma in Once Upon a Time.Supports PETA and Farm Sanctuary.

Trivia: With his distinct appearance, the bald and imposing African-American player Thom Barry made a seemingly perfect character actor, and thus found himself frequently cast as guards, police detectives, and heavies in mainstream Hollywood features, from the early '90s on. He landed a bit part as a guard in Rob Reiner's The American President (1995), appeared as Samahani in Congo (1995), and played Sgt. Marcus in the Shaquille O'Neal-headlined superhero picture Steel (1997). Barry maintained a higher profile as Agent Bilkins in two Jerry Bruckheimer-produced action pictures, The Fast and the Furious (2001) and its sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). Additionally, after years of guest-acting work on the small screen, he signed for his first regular role -- that of homicide investigator Will Jeffries -- on the popular detective series Cold Case (2006).