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: An actor who has demonstrated a fearless capacity for exploring the darker side of human nature, Peter Sarsgaard became synonymous with the term "edgy young performer." With looks that allow him to either play soft-skinned pretty boys or greasy-haired white trash refuse, Sarsgaard has used his malleable features and brooding charisma to great effect in such films as Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry.A graduate of St. Louis' Washington University, where he was a co-founder of the improvisational group Mama's Pot Roast, Sarsgaard studied at the Actors' Studio in New York. After he completed his studies, he was cast in the off-Broadway production of Horton Foote's Laura Dennis, and, as a member of Douglas Carter Beane's Drama Department, he appeared in John Cameron Mitchell's off-Broadway production of Kingdom of Earth.Sarsgaard made his screen debut in Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking (1995) but had his first substantial role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), which cast him as the ill-fated son of John Malkovich's dueling Muskateer. He then appeared in a series of largely unseen independent features, including Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise and Morgan J. Freeman's Desert Blue (both 1998). In 1999, Sarsgaard broke out of obscurity with his role in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry. Cast as a violent yet charismatic ex-con, the actor managed to stand out in a film saturated with strong performances, and the film's unanticipated success provided him with an introduction to a wide audience. His increased profile was reflected in the number of projects he was involved with the following year, including P.J. Hogan's Unconditional Love, a drama about a woman (Kathy Bates) who joins forces with the lover of a dead pop star to track down the star's murderer.Sarsgaard reached a new level of critical acclaim with his supporting performances in two little-seen but highly praised features: 2003's journalist drama Shattered Glass and 2004's biopic Kinsey. In the former, he played dedicated, soft-spoken New Republic editor Chuck Lane, who becomes increasingly more agitated as he catches hotshot reporter Steven Glass fabricating stories. Racking up scores of Best Supporting Actor nods from critics' groups and the Golden Globes, it seemed inevitable that the Academy would recognize Sarsgaard, but he was passed over. A similar fate occurred with Kinsey, in which the actor convincingly played the curious, bisexual assistant - and occasional lover - of the sex researcher.Though ignored by the Oscars, Sarsgaard found his profile rising with powerful casting directors, and in turn, the public. After memorably essaying the role of a stoner gravedigger in the popular 2004 indie Garden State, the actor broke through to mass audiences in 2005 with a trio supporting performances in big-budget genre films: the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key, the blockbuster Flighplan, and the war memoir Jarhead. Bringing his distinctively low-key delivery to a range of parts that were by turns mystical, sinister and conflicted, Sarsgaard secured his place in the pantheon of great Hollywood character actors.Saarsgard delivered solid performances in Year of the Dog and Rendition (both 2007), and co-starred with Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson for the psychological drama Elegy in 2008. The following year he played the role of a man who becomes increasingly concerned about the behavior of his adoptive daughter for The Orphan, and took on the part of the much-older boyfriend of a 16-year-old girl (Carey Mulligan) for the coming of age drama An Education. Saarsgard joined Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise for a supporting role in the action comedy Knight and Day (2010), and joined the cast of The Green Lantern in 2011.

Trivia: Though she began her career with playwriting ambitions, Greta Gerwig soon skirted to fame as one of the preeminent actresses in "mumblecore" films. As led by the Amerindie filmmakers including Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha), Jay and Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair), and Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs), this movement of early-21st century American cinema relied on shoestring budgets and characterized itself via such elements as shaky, handheld photography, loosely strung narratives, and ultra-informal, from-the-hip dialogue that sustained the illusion of complete spontaneity. Gerwig -- a graduate of Barnard College and a longtime resident and habitué of Brooklyn, NY -- first made her presence known in Swanberg's 2006 LOL (as a girl who sends pictures of herself to an admirer via cell phone), but only rocketed to fame the following year, as the lead in the same director's Hannah Takes the Stairs. In that feature, she fully evoked the complexities and contradictions of a young woman drifting through a long, hot Chicago summer and blithely but unsuccessfully attempting to fulfill her romantic yearnings. The picture (like LOL) immediately became a sensation and turned Gerwig into a screen favorite among enthusiasts of grassroots independent filmmaking. In many ways, however, 2008 represented Gerwig's breakthrough year -- the year that witnessed her essaying supporting roles in two additional mumblecore features (Yeast and Baghead) and posing a triple threat as lead actress, screenwriter, and co-director (alongside Swanberg) on Nights and Weekends. This off-center romantic comedy stars Gerwig and Swanberg as two geographically estranged lovers grappling with the impracticalities of a long-distance relationship.In 2010, Gerwig received rave reviews and critical acclaim as the female lead opposite Ben Stiller in Noah Baumbach's Greenberg. The next year, she moved to mainstream films, appearing in No Strings Attached and with Russell Brand in the remake of Arthur, and in 2012, played a supporting role in Woody Allen's To Rome With Love. Gerwig also continued to star in smaller movies, playing the title role in Lola Versus and reteaming with Baumbach for Frances Ha.

Trivia: Initially known for his work on the stage, Billy Crudup emerged in the late '90s as a young actor of considerable talent, gracing the screen in an increasing number of films. Tall, lean, and possessing one of the best-defined jaws in the Western Hemisphere,Crudup was born on Long Island, NY, on July 8, 1968. Raised in Florida and Texas, he earned an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then received a Master's degree from New York University.Crudup first won audience attention and critical acclaim in his role as an amorous tutor in the widely praised New York production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. His performance netted him both an Outer Critics Circle Outstanding Newcomer Award and a Theater World Award. He followed this success with a lead in the stage production of Bus Stop, winning similarly excellent reviews for his performance. He made his film debut in 1996 with a small part in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, and the same year he got a more sizable part among the all-star cast of Sleepers. Acting alongside Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, and Minnie Driver, Crudup received some recognition for his portrayal of a troubled survivor of childhood abuse. This recognition was amplified the following year, when he starred with Joaquin Phoenix in Inventing the Abbotts, a small film that cast him as an amorous, destructive ladies' man. That same year, he starred with Woody Harrelson in Stephen Frears' critically maligned The Hi-Lo Country (1998), and he won kudos for his performance as runner Steve Prefontaine in Without Limits. Critics praised both his physical resemblance to the late athlete and his ability to portray him with a vivid blend of arrogance, pathos, and sympathy. In 1999, Crudup could be seen starring in the acclaimed independant film Jesus' Son, but his mainstream breakthrough would happen the following year in Cameron Crowe's ode to 70s-era rock-and-roll, Almost Famous. Cruddup's performance as an up-and-coming rock star made him a stop tier star as well as a sex-symbol, and he would capitalize on his success over the coming years with selective, prominent roles in films like Charlotte Grey, Big Fish, The Good Shepherd, Watchmen, Eat Pray Love, and Too Big to Fail.

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: Tall, gangly, and possessed of a frenetic intensity that lends itself to the highly eccentric and often borderline insane characters he plays, British actor Richard E. Grant is nothing if not one of the more distinctive performers to have gained celluloid immortality. His wild eyes and high-strung demeanor occasionally giving him an uncanny resemblance to a meerkat on speed, Grant has been delighting and shocking observers with both his on- and off-screen persona since his 1987 breakthrough in Withnail & I. Born Richard Grant Esterhuysen on May 5, 1957, in Mbabane, Swaziland, Grant had a somewhat distinctive upbringing, thanks in part to his father's job as the Swazi Minister of Education. His parents' divorce when the actor was 11, for example, was the source of a fair amount of scandal in South Africa. For his part, Grant knew early on that he wanted to be an actor, something that was fueled by an infatuation with Barbra Streisand and a steady diet of movies. He followed the career of Donald Sutherland with particularly rapt attention, as, like Grant, Sutherland was tall, thin, long-faced, and hailed from the middle of nowhere.After studying English and Drama at Cape Town University, where he co-founded the multi-racial, avant garde Troupe Theatre Company, Grant headed for London in 1982. He was greeted by a period of unemployment and frustration that lasted for almost five years. The actor eventually began finding work on the stage, and in 1984 was dubbed by Plays and Players magazine as "most promising newcomer" for his performance in Tramway Road at Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre. Ironically enough, given his years of struggle, it was Grant's portrayal of a bitter, pill-popping, unemployed actor in Bruce Robinson's black comedy Withnail & I that finally put him on the map. The film was a genuine cult classic, and Hollywood soon came sniffing around, if only to cast Grant in the 1988 demons-on-the-loose flop Warlock. The following year, the actor again tapped into his reserves of unpleasantness for Robinson, starring as a toxic advertising executive who develops a talking boil in the satirical How to Get Ahead in Advertising. Grant's hilariously vile characterization was considered by many to be the highlight of the film, and further paved the way for greater industry appreciation.Grant subsequently earned recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to a number of diverse and often peculiar roles in films of widely varying quality. Particularly memorable during the early to mid-'90s were portrayals Anais Nin's well-intentioned but dull husband in Henry & June (1990), the evil billionaire Darwin Mayflower in the spectacularly disappointing Hudson Hawk (1991), an overly insistent screenwriter in Robert Altman's The Player (1992), high society lounge lizard Larry Lefferts in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993), and an outrageous fashion designer that Grant described as a "male Vivienne Westwood" in Altman's disastrous Pret-A-Porter (1994).Despite his eccentric persona, Grant has time and again proven himself more than capable of essaying straight man roles, as he demonstrated in such films as Jack and Sarah (1995), in which he played a grieving widower; The Portrait of a Lady (1996), in which he had a small but memorable role as one of Isabel Archer's most ardent suitors; and the made-for-TV The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999), which cast him as its titular hero. He has also continued to shine in films that impress upon his comedic abilities, as evidenced by his role as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night (1996) and his portrayal of a disgruntled advertising man in A Merry War (1997) (otherwise known as Keep the Aspidistra Flying), a satirical comedy based upon a novel by George Orwell.Enlisted again by Altman, Grant showed up alongside a star-studded ensemble cast in 2001's critically-acclaimed Gosford Park. Supporting roles continued to suit him well as he would later take on parts in Steven Fry's Bright Young Things and the 2004 John Malkovich-starrer Colour Me Kubrick.

Trivia: Character actor John Carroll Lynch first gained notice for his performance as Frances McDormand's sweet and supportive husband in the Coen brother's critically acclaimed Fargo. He subsequently appeared on the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show as the title character's cross-dressing brother. The role was initially a recurring one, but Lynch was eventually added as a full-time cast member. Along the way, he also popped up in a number of small roles in large films like 1997's Volcano and 2000's Gone in 60 Seconds.Following the cancellation of The Drew Carey Show, Lynch switched gears from comedy to drama, but stayed on the small screen, taking a role on HBO's bleak and bizarre Carnivàle. That stint was followed by a season on the CBS legal drama Close to Home. And in 2007, he was cast alongside Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser in Fox's post-Hurricane Katrina cop show K-Ville. That same year, he could be seen on the big-screen in David Fincher's Zodiac. Lynch would remain an active perormer for years to come, appearing in movies like Shutter Island and Crazy, Stupid, Love, as well as starring on TV shows like Body of Proof.

Trivia: A successful character actress most adept at playing matronly types, Beth Grant took her onscreen bow in the late '80s and began tackling innumerable roles in Hollywood features, usually bit parts as housewives, female doctors, or down-home small-town women. Grant received her first feature assignment as a harried mother at a farmhouse in Barry Levinson's Rain Man (1988). She subsequently divided her time between film and television roles, guest-acting on dozens of series and occasionally taking on more extensive small-screen roles, such as on Coach and Jericho. Grant's many big-screen credits include the films Don't Tell Her It's Me (1990), Speed (1994), Donnie Darko (2001), and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). She was particularly memorable in the latter, as one of the snotty and obnoxious pageant judges. Darko represented Grant's first experience working with helmer Richard Kelly; she re-teamed with Kelly for his follow-up, the dystopian black comedy Southland Tales (2005).

Trivia: Is half Italian and half Jewish. Birth name was Max Deitch, but took his mother's maiden name when he became an actor. Went to the same high school as Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck, and studied drama with the same teacher. Auditioned for the 1994 biopic Ed Wood, was hired by director Tim Burton and began shooting all in the same day. Played actor Paul Marco in Ed Wood; the real Marco tried to evict him from his on-set trailer because the actors had their character names on the doors, leading Marco to believe Casella had taken his dressing room. In 1997, played Timon in the original Broadway production of The Lion King. Starred with Richard Thomas in a 2011 production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens at New York's Public Theater.

Trivia: Performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1980s. In 1997, won the Best Supporting Actress Olivier Award for her role as Hilda in Stanley. Won the 2015 Clarence Derwent Award for Best Supporting Female for her role as Volumnia in Coriolanus. In 2017, was nominated for the Best Featured Actress in a Play Tony Award for her role in The Children. As of 2020, has played Ruth in BBC legal drama The Split since its 2018 debut.

Trivia: Began her career in Australian theatre. In 1976, made her television debut in Australian soap opera Bellbird. Moved to the United Kingdom in the early 1980s, making her British television debut in a 1984 episode of Minder. In 1991, was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, for her performance as Marianne in Scenes from a Marriage. Appeared as Gertrude in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, and its 2009 television adaptation. Is an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.