Trivia: Began acting at 7 years old, but quit at 13 to concentrate on his education. Served in the Swedish military, but returned to acting as a career once he was out of his teens. Lent his support to the Tails for Whales campaign, a global initiative calling for stronger whale protection sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The online petition features photos of people making whale tails with their upturned hands. With co-director Björne Larson, won Grand Prix and Press Awards at the 2003 Odense International Film Festival in Denmark for Att döda ett barn (To Kill a Child), a short film narrated by his father, Stellan Skarsgård. Appeared in Lady Gaga's music video for "Paparazzi." Is a fan of the Swedish soccer club Hammarby IF in Stockholm. Nominated for the Swedish Film Institute's Guldbagge ("Golden Beetle") Award for Best Supporting Actor for Hundtricket in 2002.

Trivia: Took circus classes in 1998 and earned a trapeze certificate the same year. Began acting professionally at the age of 17. Rose to fame playing Donna Freedman from 2008 to '11 in Neighbours. Enjoys surfing and snowboarding; was on a snowboarding holiday in Canada when she found out she has been cast in Neighbours. Shortly after arriving in the United States in 2011, landed the role of Laura Cameron in the short-lived TV series Pan Am. First major film role was playing Nadine Belfort in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Founded her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, in 2014. In 2017, was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and was featured by Forbes in its 30 Under 30 list.

Trivia: After spending the 1980s playing a series of drug addict and character parts, Samuel L. Jackson emerged in the 1990s as one of the most prominent and well-respected actors in Hollywood. Work on a number of projects, both high-profile and low-key, has given Jackson ample opportunity to display an ability marked by both remarkable versatility and smooth intelligence.Born December 21, 1948, in Washington, D.C., Jackson was raised by his mother and grandparents in Chattanooga, TN. He attended Atlanta's Morehouse College, where he was co-founder of Atlanta's black-oriented Just Us Theater (the name of the company was taken from a famous Richard Pryor routine). Jackson arrived in New York in 1977, beginning what was to be a prolific career in film, television, and on the stage. After a plethora of character roles of varying sizes, Jackson was discovered by the public in the role of the hero's tempestuous, drug-addict brother in 1991's Jungle Fever, directed by another Morehouse College alumnus, Spike Lee. Jungle Fever won Jackson a special acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival and thereafter his career soared. Confronted with sudden celebrity, Jackson stayed grounded by continuing to live in the Harlem brownstone where he'd resided since his stage days. 1994 was a particularly felicitous year for Jackson; while his appearances in Jurassic Park (1993) and Menace II Society (1993) were still being seen in second-run houses, he co-starred with John Travolta as a mercurial hit man in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination. His portrayal of an embittered father in the more low-key Fresh earned him additional acclaim. The following year, Jackson landed third billing in the big-budget Die Hard With a Vengeance and also starred in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah. His versatility was put on further display in 1996 with the release of five very different films: The Long Kiss Goodnight, a thriller in which he co-starred with Geena Davis as a private detective; an adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, which featured him as an enraged father driven to murder; Steve Buscemi's independent Trees Lounge; The Great White Hype, a boxing satire in which the actor played a flamboyant boxing promoter; and Hard Eight, the directorial debut of Paul Thomas Anderson.After the relative quiet of 1997, which saw Jackson again collaborate with Tarantino in the critically acclaimed Jackie Brown and play a philandering father in the similarly acclaimed Eve's Bayou (which also marked his debut as a producer), the actor lent his talents to a string of big-budget affairs (an exception being the 1998 Canadian film The Red Violin). Aside from an unbilled cameo in Out of Sight (1998), Jackson was featured in leading roles in The Negotiator (1998), Sphere (1998), and Deep Blue Sea (1999). His prominence in these films added confirmation of his complete transition from secondary actor to leading man, something that was further cemented by a coveted role in what was perhaps the most anticipated film of the decade, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), the first prequel to George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy. Jackson followed through on his leading man potential with a popular remake of Gordon Parks' seminal 1971 blaxploitation flick Shaft. Despite highly publicized squabbling between Jackson and director John Singleton, the film was a successful blend of homage, irony, and action; it became one of the rare character-driven hits in the special effects-laden summer of 2000.From hard-case Shaft to fragile as glass, Jackson once again hoodwinked audiences by playing against his usual super-bad persona in director M. Night Shyamalan's eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable (2000). In his role as Bruce Willis' brittle, frail antithesis, Jackson proved that though he can talk trash and break heads with the best of them, he's always compelling to watch no matter what the role may be. Next taking a rare lead as a formerly successful pianist turned schizophrenic on the trail of a killer in the little-seen The Caveman's Valentine, Jackson turned in yet another compelling and sympathetic performance. Following an instance of road rage opposite Ben Affleck in Changing Lanes (2002), Jackson stirred film geek controversy upon wielding a purple lightsaber in the eagerly anticipated Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. Despite rumors that the color of the lightsaber may have had some sort of mythical undertone, Jackson laughingly assured fans that it was a simple matter of his suggesting to Lucas that a purple lightsaber would simply "look cool," though he was admittedly surprised to see that Lucas had obliged him Jackson eventually saw the final print. A few short months later filmgoers would find Jackson recruiting a muscle-bound Vin Diesel for a dangerous secret mission in the spy thriller XXX.Jackson reprised his long-standing role as Mace Windu in the last segment of George Lucas's Star Wars franchise to be produced, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). It (unsurprisingly) grossed almost four hundred million dollars, and became that rare box-office blockbuster to also score favorably (if not unanimously) with critics; no less than Roger Ebert proclaimed it "spectacular." Jackson co-headlined 2005's crime comedy The Man alongside Eugene Levy and 2006's Joe Roth mystery Freedomland with Julianne Moore and Edie Falco, but his most hotly-anticipated release at the time of this writing is August 2006's Snakes on a Plane, a by-the-throat thriller about an assassin who unleashes a crate full of vipers onto a aircraft full of innocent (and understandably terrified) civilians. Produced by New Line Cinema on a somewhat low budget, the film continues to draw widespread buzz that anticipates cult status. Black Snake Moan, directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) dramatizes the relationship between a small-town girl (Christina Ricci) and a blues player (Jackson). The picture is slated for release in September 2006 with Jackson's Shaft collaborator, John Singleton, producing.Jackson would spend the ensuing years appearing in a number of films, like Home of the Brave, Resurrecting the Champ, Lakeview Terrace, Django Unchained, and the Marvel superhero franchise films like Thor, Iron Man, and The Avengers, playing superhero wrangler Nick Fury.

Trivia: Austrian-born actor Christoph Waltz began his career on the stage, making a name for himself at prestigious venues like Zurich's Schauspielhaus Zürich and Vienna's Burgtheater. He would eventually study at the Lee Strausberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, and branch out into on-camera acting, appearing in Austrian TV productions. His film career blasted into the stratosphere in 2009, however, when he was cast as Colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. His role as the feared "Jew Hunter" earned him the best supporting actor award from just about every critics group in the country, as well as from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.Flush with this worldwide success, he played bad guys in The Green Hornet and The Three Musketeers, and played the heavy in Water for Elephants, but he earned his best reviews as part of the foursome in Roman Polanski's adaptation of the award-winning play Carnage. In 2012 he reteamed with Tarantino, playing a bounty hunter in Django Unchained, again earning superb revierws as well as a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar at that year's Academy Awards ceremony.

Trivia: Actor Djimon Hounsou first gained acting attention in Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997). Born April 24th, 1964 in West Africa, he moved with his family to Paris, France, at age 13. When he left school, he became homeless and spent a couple of years wandering the streets of Paris before being discovered by fashion designer Thierry Mugler. After he resettled himself, Hounsou moved to Los Angeles to try his hand at acting. While on the way to stardom, Hounsou appeared in music videos, including those of Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Steve Winwood. After his turn as a rebellious slave in Amistad, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, he found increasingly steady employment on both the big and small screens, becoming a semi-regular on the hospital drama ER and appearing in such films as the historical epic Gladiator (2000). After such high-profile projects, Hounsou's success in the following two years would prove no surprise to anyone who glanced at his filmography. Aside from prominent roles in such high-profile French films as 2002's Le Boulet (Dead Weight) and the following year's Muraya -- l'Expérience Secrète de Mike Blueberry (The Adventures of Mike S. Blueberry), Hounsou's bid for screen stardom was simultaneously on display in such stateside features as The Four Feathers (2002), Biker Boyz, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life (both 2003).In 2003, Hounsou received his first Oscar nomination for his acclaimed supporting role in Jim Sheridan's In America. And while he spent much of the next three years appearing in films that earned mixed reactions from both audiences and critics, he was back in top form in 2006's Blood Diamond, which found him opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. The film appeared on a number of Top Ten lists, garnered Hounsou accolades from countless critics groups and snagged him his second Oscar nod.Following the success of Blood Diamond, Hounsou made several guest appearances on th popular television show Alias, and joined filmmaker Michae Bay's 2005 action drama The Island, which co-stars Scarlet Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sean Bean. In 2009, Hounsou played the rle of n aget determined to thwart the plans of a group of telekinetic American ex-pats. The actor joined the Academy-award winning actress Helen Mirren in the 2011 film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, in which Mirren played the traditionally male role of Prospero.

Trivia: Made his film debut in the 2004 Danish drama Lost Generation a.k.a. Familien Gregersen.Started playing immortal villain Vandal Savage in DC's Legends of Tomorrow in 2016.Has a daughter and a son.

Trivia: Parents are Nigerians who relocated to London. Is an avid skateboarder and was Head of Design of a small skateboard clothing company called Rmskate Ltd. in 2014. Attended London's Identity Drama School of Acting starting in 2009. Claimed his first lead role in the 2015 feature film Jet Trash.

Trivia: Was raised in Germany.Made his screen debut playing Bomber Pilot in the episode "Their Finest Hour" of the documentary TV mini-series Battlefield Britain.Made his theatrical feature film debut playing Dying German Soldier in the 2014 historical drama Testament of Youth.

Trivia: Is of English and Zimbabwean descent.Won the Spotlight Prize in 2013 for her performance of How to Get Guys to Leave You Alone.Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2013, performing with them until 2015.Played her first starring role in 2017, as Jekesai/Ester in a London production of The Convert.Is perhaps best known for her role in Netflix miniseries The Witcher.

Trivia: Father was a surgeon in the British Army who was stationed in the Federation of Malay when Simon was born. Attended boarding school in England as a chorister while the rest of his family continued to live in Asia. Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company after attending Guildhall School, and met Sam Mendes, who directed him as the title character in Richard III and as Ariel in The Tempest. Toured with the Royal National Theatre's production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1996. Appointed a CBE (a Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2003. Replaced Tim Curry as King Arthur in Spamalot on Broadway in 2005.

Trivia: Performed with improv comedy troupe The Improverts during his university education. Nominated for the 2003 Best Newcomer Perrier Award for his debut Edinburgh show. Hosted BBC Radio 7's Newsjack from 2009 to 2011. Took over from Sandi Toksvig as host of BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz in 2015.

Trivia: One of England's most versatile character actors, Jim Broadbent has been giving reliably excellent performances on the stage and screen for years. Particularly known for his numerous collaborations with director Mike Leigh, Broadbent was shown to superlative effect in Leigh's Topsy-Turvy, winning the Venice Film Festival's Volpi Cup for his portrayal of British lyricist and playwright W.S. Gilbert.Born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1949, Broadbent trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Following his 1972 graduation, he began his professional career on the stage, performing with the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and as part of the National Theatre of Brent, a two-man troupe he co-founded that performed reduced histories. In addition to his theatrical work, Broadbent did steady work on television, acting for such directors as Mike Newell and Stephen Frears. Broadbent made his film debut in 1978 with a small part in Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout. He went on to work with such directors as Stephen Frears (The Hit, 1984) and Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits [1981], Brazil [1985]), but it was through his collaboration with Leigh that Broadbent first became known to an international film audience. In 1991, he starred in Leigh's Life Is Sweet, a domestic comedy that cast him as a good-natured cook who dreams of running his own business. Broadbent gained further visibility the following year with substantial roles in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game and Newell's Enchanted April, and he could subsequently be seen in such diverse fare as Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Widows' Peak (1994), Richard Loncraine's highly acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III (1996), and Little Voice (1998), the last of which cast him as a seedy nightclub owner. Appearing primarily as a character actor in these films, Broadbent took center stage for Leigh's Topsy-Turvy (1999), imbuing the mercurial W.S. Gilbert with emotional complexity and comic poignancy. Roles in Bridget Jones's Diary, Moulin Rogue, and Iris made 2001 quite a marquee year for Broadbent; the actor earned both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his affecting turn in Iris.He remained one of the most respected actors of his generation and continued to work steadily for directors all over the world. In 2002 he was cast in Martin Scorsese's epic historical drama Gangs of New York. In 2003 he took a cameo part in Bright Young Things. In 2004 he returned for the Bridget Jones sequel, and took a bit part in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake. He worked in a number o animated films including Doogal, Valiant, and Robots. In 2007 he had the title role in Longford, a historical drama about the infamous Moor Murders, and the next year he was part of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls.As the 2010's continued, Broadbent would remain a vital, respected, and beloved force on screen, appearing most memorably in projects like The Young Victoria and The Iron Lady.

Trivia: English, soulful, darkly handsome, and no relation to Charlie, Ben Chaplin has been making a small yet significant impression on American audiences since his American film debut in 1996's The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Although not widely recognized by many Americans, the actor has enjoyed a steady career in British theater and television, and with his role in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, gained the greater exposure that had previously been lacking in his career.Raised in Hampshire, England, Chaplin had his stage debut at the age of 16. He later trained at the renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performing in a number of stage productions. He then acted on various BBC television shows and made his 1993 film debut in James Ivory and Ismail Merchant's The Remains of the Day, in which he was cast as a wayward servant. 1995's Feast of July followed, but it was with his turn in The Truth About Cats and Dogs that he began to garner transatlantic recognition. The film, in which he played the object of both Uma Thurman's and Janeane Garolfalo's affections, made him something of a thinking woman's crumpet and paved the way for his starring role in Agnieszka Holland's Washington Square (1997). Following this, he landed the part of Private Bell in The Thin Red Line. As part of a powerhouse cast that included George Clooney, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson, and John Travolta, Chaplin further cemented his standing as one of the more promising British imports to land on Hollywood soil.

Trivia: As a child, knew that she wanted to become a performer and sang and danced a lot at home. At the age of 10, emigrated from Dublin to Adelaide with her family. Moved from Adelaide to Sydney at the age of twenty to study at the NIDA. Was one of the subjects of a TV documentary on the NIDA and its students titled Drama School (2000). Cast as the understudy for Gale Edwards' New York production of The White Devil a week after graduating from NIDA in 2000. Made her TV debut in fantasy series BeastMaster in 2001. First film role was as Officer Wirtz in The Matrix Reloaded (2003). Moved to London to pursue acting opportunities in 2005. Profile raised with her lead role as Kate in TV series The Time of Your Life (2007). Played Princess Diana in the 2007 docudrama Diana: Last Days of a Princess.

Trivia: Considered one of Great Britain's most consistently brilliant players, John Hurt was at his best when playing victims forced to suffer mental, physical, or spiritual anguish. A small man with a slightly sinister countenance and a tenor voice that never completed the transition between early adolescence and manhood, Hurt was generally cast in supporting or leading roles as eccentric characters in offbeat films. The son of a clergyman, Hurt was training to be a painter at St. Martin's School of the Arts when he became enamored with acting and enrolled in London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art instead. He made his theatrical and film debuts in 1962 (The Wild and the Willing). Though he frequently appeared on-stage, Hurt, unlike his many colleagues, was primarily a film and television actor. He gave one of his strongest early performances playing Richard Rich in Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons (1966). His subsequent work remained high quality through the '70s. On television, Hurt made his name in the telemovie The Naked Civil Servant and furthered his growing reputation as the twisted Caligula on the internationally acclaimed BBC miniseries I, Claudius (1976). He received his first Oscar nomination for playing a supporting role in the harrowing Midnight Express and a second nomination for his sensitive portrayal of the horribly deformed John Merrick -- but for his voice, Hurt was unrecognizable beneath pounds of latex and makeup. In 1984, Hurt was the definitive Winston Smith in Michael Radford's version of Orwell's 1984. Other memorable roles include a man who finds himself hosting a terrifying critter in Alien (1979), his parody of that role in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987), an Irish idiot in The Field (1990), and in Rob Roy (1995).In 1997, Hurt played the lead role of Giles De'ath (pronounced day-ath) for the comedy drama Love and Death on Long Island. The film, which follows a widower (Hurt) who forms an unlikely obsession with a teen heartthrob who lives in Long Island and occasionally stars in low-brow films. Love and Death was praised for its unlikely, yet poignant portrait of unrequited love. The same year, Hurt took on the role of a multi-millionaire willing to fund a scientist's (Jodie Foster) efforts to communicate with alien life in Contact. Hurt took a voice role in the animated series Journey to Watership Down and its sequel, Escape to Watership Down in 1999, and again for The Tigger Story in 2000. In 2001, Hurt joined the cast of Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone to play the small but vital role of wand merchant Mr. Ollivander, and narrated Lars von Trier's experimental drama Dogville. Later, Hurt played an American professor in Hellboy (2004), and won praise for his portrayal of a bounty hunter in The Proposition, a gritty Western from director John Hillcoat. Hurt continued to work in small but meaty supporting roles throughout the next several years, most notably in the drama Beyond the Gates (2005), for which he played a missionary who arrived in Rwanda just before genocide erupted, and as the tyrannical Chancellor Sutler in director James McTiegue's adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta (2006). In 2010, Hurt reprised his role of Mr. Ollivander for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, and for its sequel in 2011. The actor co-starred with Charlotte Rampling in Melancholia (2011), Lars von Trier's meditation on depression, and played the Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service in the multi-Academy Award nominated spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy the same year. In 2013, Hurt appeared in the futuristic sci-fi movie Snowpiercer and later played the War Doctor in the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who. The following year, Hurt played the King of Thrace in Hercules. Hurt died in 2017, just days after his 77th birthday.

Trivia: In 2008, she beat hundreds of girls for a role in Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, and remained in the stage production for a year. Said Keira Knightley acted "like a big sister" when Purnell played a younger version of the actress in the movie Never Let Me Go. Had her first onscreen kiss with Charlie Rowe. Named in 2010 by Screen International as one of its hot up-and-coming UK Stars of Tomorrow. Handpicked by Angelina Jolie to play a teenage version of the Oscar-winning actress in Maleficent.