Trivia: Hailed by many critics as one of the most brilliant and versatile actors of his generation, Robert Downey Jr. chalked up a formidable onscreen track record that quickly launched the young thesp into the stratosphere. Although, for a time, Downey's stormy offscreen life and personal problems threatened to challenge his public image, he quickly bounced back and overcame these setbacks, with a continued array of impressive roles on the big and small screens that never sacrificed his audience appeal or affability.The son of underground filmmaker Robert Downey, Downey Jr. was born in New York City on April 4, 1965. He made his first onscreen appearance at the age of five, as a puppy in his father's film Pound (1970). Between 1972 and 1990, he made cameo appearances in five more of his father's films. The actor's first significant role, in 1983's Baby, It's You, largely ended up on the cutting-room floor; it wasn't until two years later that he began landing more substantial parts, first as a one-season cast member on Saturday Night Live and then in the comedy Weird Science. In 1987, he landed plum roles in two films that capitalized on the Brat Pack phenomenon, James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist, (opposite Molly Ringwald), and Less Than Zero, for which he won acclaim playing cocaine addict Julian Wells.Through it all, Downey cultivated an enviable instinct for role (and script) selection. His turns in Emile Ardolino's classy reincarnation fantasy Chances Are (1989), Michael Hoffman's Soapdish (1992), Robert Altman's Short Cuts (as the Iago-like Hollywood makeup artist Bill Bush), and Richard Loncraine's Richard III (1995) wowed viewers around the world, and often, on those rare occasions when Downey did choose substandard material, such as the lead in Richard Attenborough's deeply flawed Chaplin (1992), or an Australian media parasite in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), his performance redeemed it. In fact, critics deemed Downey's portrayal as one of the only worthwhile elements in the Chaplin biopic, and it earned the thesp a Best Actor Oscar nomination, as well as Golden Globe and British Academy Award noms.Around this time, Downey's personal life took a turn for the worse. In June 1996, the LAPD arrested the actor (who had already spent time in three rehabilitation facilities between 1987 and 1996) on counts including drug use, driving under the influence, possession of a concealed weapon, and possession of illegal substances, a development which struck many as ironic, given his star-making performance years prior in Less than Zero. A month after this arrest, police found Downey Jr. unconscious on a neighbor's lawn, under the influence of a controlled substance, and authorities again incarcerated him, taking him -- this time -- to a rehab center. A third arrest soon followed, as did another stint in rehab. His stay in rehab didn't last long, as he walked out, thereby violating the conditions of his bail. More arrests and complications followed -- in fact, the actor had to be released from rehab to make James Toback's Two Girls and a Guy -- but he still landed a few screen appearances and won praise for his work in Mike Figgis' One Night Stand (1997) and Altman's otherwise-disappointing Gingerbread Man (1998). In addition, he starred in one of his father's films, the offbeat Hugo Pool (1997). In 1999, he had three films out in theaters: Friends and Lovers, Bowfinger, and In Dreams. He delivered a particularly chilling performance in the latter, as longhaired psychopathic child murderer Vivian Thompson, that arguably ranked with his finest work. But Downey's problems caught up with him again that same year, when he was re-arrested and sentenced to 12 months in a state penitentiary. These complications led to the actor's removal from the cast of the summer 2001 Julia Roberts/Billy Crystal comedy America's Sweethearts and his removal from a stage production of longtime friend Mel Gibson's Hamlet, although a memorably manic performance in Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys made it to the screen in 2000. Downey's decision -- after release -- to pursue television work, with a recurring role on Ally McBeal, marked a brief comeback (he won a 2001 Best TV Series Supporting Actor Golden Globe for the performance). Nevertheless, series creator David E. Kelley and the show's other producers sacked Downey permanently when two additional arrests followed. During this period, Downey also allegedly dated series star Calista Flockhart.In 2002, a Riverside, CA, judge dismissed all counts against Downey. In time, the former addict counseled other celebrity addicts and became something of a spokesperson for rehabilitation. He starred as a hallucination-prone novelist in The Singing Detective in 2003, and while the film didn't achieve mainstream success, critics praised Downey for his interpretation of the role, alongside Oscar winners Adrien Brody and Mel Gibson. The same could be said for Gothika (2003), the psychological thriller that placed him opposite Hollywood heavyweight Halle Berry. In 2004, Downey appeared in Steven Soderbergh's portion of the film Eros.Downey achieved success throughout 2005 with appearances in George Clooney's critically lauded Good Night, and Good Luck -- as one of Ed Murrow's underlings -- and he paired up with Val Kilmer in Shane Black's directorial debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. He continued balancing more mainstream fare, such as Disney's Shaggy Dog remake, with challenging films such as Richard Linklater's rotoscoped adaptation A Scanner Darkly. That same year, Downey wrapped production on Hanson's Lucky You, the story of a card shark (Eric Bana) who faces off against his father (Robert Duvall) at the legendary World Series of Poker, while simultaneously attempting to woo a beautiful singer (Drew Barrymore).Downey continued to show his versatility by joining the casts of Zodiac, David Fincher's highly-touted film about the Zodiac Killer, and the Diane Arbus biopic Fur, with Nicole Kidman. A supporting role in Jon Poll's 2007 directorial debut Charlie Bartlett followed. The biggest was yet to come, however, as 2007 found Downey taking on the roles that would make him an even bigger star than he'd been in his youth, as he took on the leading role of sarcastic billionaire and part-time super hero Tony Stark in the big screen adaptation of the comic book Iron Man, as well as self-important actor Kirk Lazarus in the comedy Tropic Thunder. Both films turned out to be not just blockbuster successes at the box office, but breakaway hits with critics as well, and in addition to major praise, the actor also walked away from 2008 with an Oscar nomination for his performance in Tropic Thunder.After Iron Man premiered, Marvel studios decided to move forward with a film empire, and Downey's Tony Stark became the anchor of the series, starring in his own Iron Man trilogy and appearing in many other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like the Avengers (2012) and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014). Downey still found time to appear in side projects, like The Judge (2014), which he also produced.

Trivia: Australian actor Chris Hemsworth became a favorite face in his native country when he wasn't yet a teenager, appearing on Australian TV shows like Neighbours and Home and Away in the early 2000s. He would go on to cross the pond, appearing in American movies like 2009's Star Trek, in which he played George Kirk. His next big splash in Hollywood would come in the years to follow, as he was cast as Thor in the big screen adaptations of The Avengers and Thor. The Avengers turned out to be a mega-smash, lending even more luster to his other films from that year including Snow White and the Huntsman and the remake of Red Dawn. In 2013, he played British race car driver James Hunt in Rush, before picking up the hammer again in Thor: The Dark World.

Trivia: After 12 years as a struggling actor, Mark Ruffalo became the next big thing with his exceptional performance in the Oscar-nominated independent film You Can Count on Me (2000). Born in Wisconsin on November 22nd, 1967, Ruffalo wanted to be an actor as a child, but he ignored his early aspirations until the end of high school. Not sure what else to do, Ruffalo headed to Los Angeles at 18 "out of desperation" to study the craft at the prestigious Stella Adler Conservatory. After taking classes for several years and evading career decisions, Ruffalo began to venture into L.A. theater and independent film. Along with acting in over 30 plays, as well as writing and directing one of his own theater works, Ruffalo spent the 1990s amassing roles in indie movies, beginning with A Gift From Heaven (1994). Working mostly in comedies, Ruffalo appeared in The Last Big Thing (1996) and alongside comic character actor stalwarts Steve Zahn and Paul Giamatti in Safe Men (1998); he also starred as an artist with love problems in the romantic comedy Life/Drawing (1999). Trying his hand at screenwriting, Ruffalo penned Slamdance success The Destiny of Marty Fine (1996). Two potentially higher-profile films, the disco period film 54 (1998) and Ang Lee's Civil War epic Ride With the Devil (1999), failed to make a positive impression on critics and audiences.Ruffalo's luck began to change, however, when he was cast in an off-Broadway production of This Is Our Youth. Not only did he win an acting award, but Ruffalo also got to know the playwright, Kenneth Lonergan. Despite his non-resemblance to future onscreen sister Laura Linney, Ruffalo talked Lonergan into auditioning him for the role of Linney's brother in Lonergan's first film, You Can Count on Me. Well-matched in familial chemistry, Ruffalo's self-destructive, irresponsible, sensitive Terry meshed perfectly with Linney's uptight Sammy and her sheltered son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), creating a deeply felt portrait of troubled yet strong family bonds. Earning raves for its nuanced performances as well as sharp writing, You Can Count on Me garnered Ruffalo the Montreal Film Festival's Best Actor prize and talk of an Oscar nod. Though he didn't get the nomination, Ruffalo swiftly moved up the Hollywood ranks, starring as an imprisoned military pilot caught between Robert Redford and James Gandolfini in The Last Castle (2001), and as a soldier in John Woo's WWII saga Windtalkers (2001).Ruffalo's ascent to stardom was temporarily sidetracked, however, when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor while filming The Last Castle in 2000. Forced to drop out of the Joaquin Phoenix role in M. Night Shyamalan's summer hit Signs (2002), Ruffalo had surgery and spent months rehabilitating from the procedure. Having made a full recovery, Ruffalo returned to work.After Ruffalo appeared as Gwyneth Paltrow's boyfriend in the woeful flop View From the Top (2003), his lead performance as the male axis of a complicated love triangle in the indie film XX/XY (2003) garnered far more enthusiastic critical kudos than the movie itself. Ruffalo also stayed firmly within the independent cinema realm, co-starring as terminally ill Sarah Polley's lover in the drama My Life Without Me (2003). Ruffalo subsequently scored roles in two higher-profile, if still offbeat, Hollywood projects. In Jane Campion's long-gestating adaptation of erotic thriller In the Cut (2003), Ruffalo co-starred as a homicide detective who becomes involved with Meg Ryan's lonely New York professor.2004 started off with a bang for Ruffalo when We Don't Live Here Anymore, a film he both starred in and produced, received the top dramatic prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The film saw the actor teamed with Laura Dern, Peter Krause, and Naomi Watts and traced the crumbling of four characters' friendships and marriages when two of them engage in an affair. Ruffalo's next two roles would be increasingly lighter by comparison. In the Charlie Kaufman-scripted brain twister The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he played a goofy scientist who attempts to erase Jim Carrey's memories of Kate Winslet. He then starred opposite Jennifer Garner in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30.Three for three with the critics in 2004, Ruffalo's next project of the year was not only met with positive reviews but was a box-office winner as well. In Michael Mann's Collateral, Ruffalo played the lawman trying to track down a menacing hitman played by Tom Cruise as the hired gun terrorizes cabdriver Jamie Foxx.Ruffalo attempted to capture a mass audience with a pair of big-budget romantic comedies in 2005. Sadly, both Just Like Heaven and Rumor Has It... failed to garner large box office, even though Ruffalo was fine in both efforts. The next year, he appeared in Kenneth Lonergan's second directorial feature, Margaret, and he was part of the powerhouse cast for Steven Zaillian's remake All the King's Men, which included Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Anthony Hopkins. While All the King's Men, too, failed to gain a solid following -- an especially shocking surprise given the powerhouse cast on display in the film -- the verdict on Margaret had yet to be decided when, in early 2007, Ruffalo appeared onscreen opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal in director David Fincher's Zodiac. Ruffalo was praised for his performance as a South Boston native struggling to end the cycle of poverty and crime in 2008's crime drama What Doesn't Kill You, and delivered a solid supporting performance in the complex romantic comedy The Brothers Bloom.Ruffalo's star would grow exponentially throughout the late 2000s and beyond after he delivered solid performances in a series of critically acclaimed features including a turn as partner to Detective Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Martin Scorsese's haunting adaptation of author Dennis Lehane's thriller Shutter Island. The actor then took over the role of the Hulk in The Avengers, a 2012 summer blockbuster from director Joss Whedon.He was part of the ensemble in the box office hit Now You See Me in 2013, and enjoyed stellar reviews in the made-for-HBO drama The Normal Heart in 2014. That same year Ruffalo scored a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Academy for his role in Foxcatcher, playing the champion wrestler David Schultz. In 2015, he reprised his role in the Avengers sequel, and earned a third Oscar nomination for his work in Spotlight.

Trivia: A handsome young actor whose breakout role as a popular jock in Not Another Teen Movie found him in high demand, Chris Evans (born June 13th, 1981) followed with a role in the moderately successful comedy The Perfect Score before truly coming into his own before the cameras. Born in Sudbury, MA, Evans spent the majority of his childhood in Boston before his love of acting brought him to New York City the summer after his junior year of high school. It was during this time that the aspiring actor alternated between an internship at a casting office and summer acting classes. With a little help from a contact he made that summer, Evans began auditioning shortly after graduating from high school. A supporting role in the short-lived television series Opposite Sex gave the up-and-comer his first break on the small screen, and a supporting role in the feature The Newcomers preceded an appearance in the popular prime-time drama Boston Public.At this point it appeared as if everything was going smoothly for Evans, but his career would soon shift gears and kick into overdrive thanks to a featured role in the teen comedy parody Not Another Teen Movie. Cast as the popular jock who transforms an ugly duckling into a popular princess, Evans ran with the role and proved a more than capable comic talent. If audiences had wondered where Evans had disappeared to in the following few years, their curiosities were answered when the young actor took a leading role in the moderately successful comedy The Perfect Score. Though to many it may have seemed that Evans career had stalled somewhat, a role as an unsuspecting young man who receives a desperate phone call from a kidnapping victim in the 2004 thriller Cellular offered some relief from the seeming drought of choice roles. A subsequent role in the same year's The Orphan King served as a strong follow-up before hearty roles in such 2005 releases as Fierce People and The Fantastic Four found him leaning ever closer to becoming a true marquee draw.The role of Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four would be somewhat telling of what was in store for the actor -- though not for a few more years. He would appear in projects like the romcom The Nanny Diaries in 2007 and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in 2010, but none of these breaks compared to the big one he scored in 2011, playing the title role in 2011's Captain America: America's Soldier. He found similar success in 2012's wildly successful The Avengers, for which he reprised his role as Captain America.

Trivia: Universally known as one of the sexiest women in Hollywood, Scarlett Johansson has actually been acting professionally since the age of eight. A native of New York City, where she was born on November 22, 1984, Johansson was raised -- along with her twin brother -- as the youngest of four children, and she developed an interest in acting at the age of three. After enrolling in classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute for Young People, she made her stage debut opposite Ethan Hawke in the off-Broadway production of Sophistry. Her film debut followed in 1994, when she had a supporting role in North, and she subsequently appeared in the little-seen Just Cause (1995) and If Lucy Fell (1996). Johansson had her first significant screen breakthrough with her role as one of two orphaned teenaged sisters in Manny & Lo (1996), a coming-of-age drama directed by Lisa Krueger. Johansson, who shared the screen with Aleksa Palladino and Mary Kay Place, earned an Independent Spirit Award Best Actress nomination for her work in the film, and she soon found herself being tapped by Robert Redford to star as Kristin Scott Thomas' daughter in The Horse Whisperer (1998). Although the film met with a very mixed reception, Johansson was widely praised for her portrayal of a girl who loses her leg and her best friend in a horrific accident.In 2000, the actress signed on to play one of the heroines (alongside Thora Birch) of Terry Zwigoff's screen adaptation of Ghost World, Daniel Clowes' celebrated comic about the adventures of two teen girls grappling with post-high school life. That same year, she starred in American Rhapsody, in which she portrayed a young girl who escapes communist Hungary in the 1950s and travels to the U.S.Though she would take a brief detour into camp with the 2002 giant spider fiasco Eight Legged Freaks, the respect Johansson had gained in the film industry as a result of her previous dramatic roles found the young actress in high demand among indie directors while quickly catching the eye of the Hollywood elite. With Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, Johansson's touching performance as a young girl who strikes a tentative friendship with a washed-up American actor (memorably portrayed by Bill Murray) left no doubts regarding her dramatic skills, and although a Best Actress Oscar nomination eluded her, she received a boatload of nods from critics' groups and the Golden Globes. The rising starlet was soon cast in the lead of such subsequent films as The Girl with the Pearl Earring (2003) and The Perfect Score (2003).After sticking to form in 2004 with roles in In Good Company and A Love Song for Bobby Long, Johansson took her first stab at a lead role in a big budget Hollywood flick, starring opposite Ewan MacGregor in Michael Bay's futuristic actioner The Island. While the picture was panned by critics and avoided by audiences, it did nothing to slow the young star down. She closed out the year by receiving virtually unanimous praise for her performance in Woody Allen's Match Point.She immediately reteamed with Allen, who was full of praise for the young actress after their first collaboration, for the supernatural comedy/murder mystery Scoop in 2006. Johansson would spend the next several years enjoying her status as an A-list actress, appearing in a wide range of projects, like The Nanny Diaries and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In 2012, she joined The Avengers as Natasha Romanoff, playing the character in several more films in the series.

Trivia: When British actor Benedict Cumberbatch signed for his first cinematic roles in the early 2000s, he immediately unveiled a proclivity -- and a gift -- for essaying a diverse array of characterizations. Cumberbatch began with BBC television productions, notably a supporting part in the lesbian-themed period drama Tipping the Velvet (2002) and the lead role of the brilliant, physically disabled scientist Stephen Hawking in the BBC telemovie Hawking (2004). Cumberbatch landed one of his first significant international crossover roles (and his first major big-screen assignment) as one of the leads in Michael Apted's arthouse hit Amazing Grace (2006) -- portraying William Pitt, an 18th century British prime minister who crusaded against slavery. While appearing on the British stage and in British television shows, Cumberbatch slowly built up an impressive résumé of supporting film roles. He had a small (but significant) part in Joe Wright's period drama Atonement (2007), and played William Carey, Mary Boleyn's husband in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).In 2010, Cumberbatch took on his breakout role, playing Sherlock Holmes in a BBC series reboot. His career exploded after the show took off. He played The Necromancer/Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy, Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, a plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave and nabbed his first true starring role playing Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. In 2014 Cumberbatch portrayed the pioneering British mathematician Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, and his work earned him a Best Actor nomination from the Academy, the first nod of his career.

Trivia: An acclaimed character actor of the stage, screen, and television, Don Cheadle often manages to steal most of the scenes in which he appears. That is no small feat, for the slender African-American actor has, at first glance, a rather unassuming physical presence, particularly when compared to some of his big-name co-stars. An actor whose style compliments rather than overshadows the performances of those around him, Cheadle stands out for his rare ability to bring a laid-back intensity and subtle charisma to his roles.A native of Kansas City, MO, Cheadle was born on November 29, 1964, to a psychologist father and bank manager mother. During his early childhood, his family moved to Denver and then Nebraska. One thing that remained a constant in Cheadle's childhood was his interest in performing, which began around the age of five. In addition to acting, he was interested in jazz music and his parents supported both of these endeavors. By the time he graduated from high school, he had scholarships from both music and acting schools; choosing the latter, he attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Following graduation, Cheadle made his film debut with a small role as a hamburger server in Moving Violations (1985). He honed his acting skills as a guest star on television series ranging from Hill Street Blues to Night Court, and, in 1992, he landed a regular role as a fussy hotel manager on The Golden Palace. Although the show faltered after only one season, Cheadle landed on his feet, subsequently snagging the plum role of earnest district attorney John Littleton on Picket Fences (1993-1995). While he was building a career on television, Cheadle was also earning a reputation in feature films. He first made an impression on audiences with his lead role in Hamburger Hill (1987), and, in 1994, he had his true screen breakthrough portraying Denzel Washington's best friend in Devil in a Blue Dress. So good was his performance -- which earned him a number of film critics awards -- that many felt an Oscar nomination was inevitable; when the Academy passed him over, many, including Cheadle, wondered why. However, the actor chalked it up to politics and got on with his career, working steadily throughout the remainder of the decade. 1997 proved to be a big year for him: he co-starred in three major films, Volcano, Boogie Nights, and John Singleton's Rosewood. He won particular praise for his work in the latter two films, earning nominations for SAG and Image awards.The following year, Cheadle made a triumphant return to television with his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in The Rat Pack, winning an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award. Also in 1998, he did stellar work in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight and Warren Beatty's Bulworth, playing a down and dirty ex-con in the former and a drug lord in the latter. Another Emmy nomination followed in 1999, for Cheadle's powerful portrayal of a school teacher sent in to counsel a young man on death row, in A Lesson Before Dying. Cheadle would become something of a fixture in Soderbergh's films, and in fact delivered a stunning performance as a federal drug agent in the director's epic muckraking drama Traffic (2000).Cheadle then turned up in Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's Eleven in 2002.The chasm between Traffic and Ocean's Eleven (not in terms of quality but in terms of intended audience and depth) is instructive; it established a definitive career pattern for Cheadle during the mid-late 2000s. Throughout that period, the gifted actor continually projected versatility by alternating between buttered-popcorn pictures - such as Soderbergh's 2004 and 2007 follow ups to Eleven (Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen) - and more complex, demanding, intelligent material. For example, in 2004 (a particularly vital year for Cheadle) the actor delivered a four-barrelled lead portrayal in the heart-wrenching docudrama Hotel Rwanda. In that politically-tinged, factually-charged account, the actor plays the Rwandan manager of a Kigali hotel, so devastated by the surrounding massacres of his fellow countrymen that he turns the establishment into a clandestine refugee camp. Cheadle justly netted an Oscar nomination for his work. That same year, the thespian held his own against lead Sean Penn (no small feat, that) in the depressing and despairing yet critically acclaimed psychodrama The Assassination of Richard Nixon. Cheadle reserved his most formidable coup, however, for 2005, when he both produced and co-starred (opposite many, many others) in Paul Haggis's difficult ensemble film Crash-a searing, biting meditation on racism and the Best Picture winner of its year. In early 2007, Cheadle paired up with actor Adam Sandler and writer-director Mike Binder for Reign Over Me, a two-character drama about a dentist (Cheadle) reunited with his displaced college roommate (Sandler) after the trauma of 9/11. The picture reeled in generally favorable, if not universally positive, reviews. Later that same year, the actor essayed the lead role in Talk to Me. As directed by Kasi Lemmons, this period drama recreated the life and times of the controversial 1960s convict-cum-shock jock Petey Greene (Cheadle) who rides to fame amid the throes of the civil rights movement and Vietnam-era tumult; many critics tagged the portrayal as definitively Oscar worthy.Cheadle would remain a top star over the coming years, appearing in everything from the kid-friendly Hotel for Dogs to the gritty crime thriller Brooklyn's Finest. Cheadle would also take over the role of Lt. James Rhodes in the Iron Man sequel, replacing Terrence Howard. Cheadle would also find success on the small screen, producing and starring in the critically acclaimed comedy series House of Lies.

Trivia: Father is Dominic Holland, a famous British comedian and novelist. Started performing as a young child when he began studying dance at Nifty Feet Dance School in London. In 2006, was noticed at a dance showcase by Lynne Page, the choreographer of Billy Elliot The Musical, who decided to train him in preparation for a role in the stage show. After training for two years and auditioning numerous times, starred in the titular role of Billy Elliot The Musical in the West End in London from 2008 until 2010. Played Lucas in the 2012 film The Impossible, a role that earned him an award for Best Breakthrough from the National Board of Review and for which he was honored at the Hollywood Spotlight Awards. Is involved with the Anthony Nolan Trust, a charity that aims to persuade people to donate bone marrow and stem cells.

Trivia: Was an athlete as a child; involved with Little League baseball but primarily played basketball. Studied acting at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford after graduating from Howard University in Washington, United States. Originally aspired to be a director. Made his TV debut in a 2003 episode of Third Watch. Trained for five months with baseball coaches to prepare for his role as Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013).

Trivia: A former Westminster Bridge busker who shot to fame in such stateside efforts as A Knight's Tale and A Beautiful Mind (both 2001), actor Paul Bettany's willingness to challenge himself by jumping genres has given him rare exposure on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in London, Bettany was raised in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire from age nine. Introduced to acting by his father (a teacher and ex-actor who gave up the stage for the classroom) and fueled by a love of cinema (Casablanca [1942] and Brief Encounter [1945] provided Bettany with early inspiration), the aspiring actor would subsequently pursue studies at London's Drama Center. Though the popular misconception that he was raised in a "theater family" continues to shadow the actor, Bettany has publicly stated that, by the time he was around, his father was working as a teacher and his mother's days as a singer were long behind her. Following his stage debut in the West End production of An Inspector Calls, it wasn't long before Bettany made his television debut in the U.K. mystery series Wycliffe in 1994; and his feature debut in 1997's harrowing war drama Bent showed much promise. Alternating between film and television work with such efforts as The Land Girls (1997) and Coming Home (1998) in the following years, Bettany continued to climb the credits until his breakthrough performance in 2000's Gangster No. 1. Though Bettany would return to the role of supporting player for Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) (2000), that same year's depraved black comedy Dead Babies once again found him taking the lead. The following year would introduce the talented young actor to American audiences in the adventure comedy A Knight's Tale, as well as in the biopic A Beautiful Mind, in which he played the college roommate of troubled mathematician John Nash (Russell Crowe). In addition to providing him with an introduction to future wife Jennifer Connelly (the couple would wed in January of 2003), the film made an impact with American audiences. That same year Bettany appearred opposite Willem Dafoe in The Reckoning, and a supporting performance in director Lars von Trier's 2003 thriller Dogville kept audiences hungering for more. Later re-teaming with A Beautiful Mind co-star Crowe for director Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Bettany would next make his first foray into romantic comedy territory opposite Kirsten Dunst in Wimbledon. Action/adventure roles would prove to be a bread and butter for Bettany as the 2000's continued, with roles in Firewall, The Da Vinci Code, Inkheart, The Tourist, Priest, and even a turn as the voice of Jarvis in Iron Man (a role he would return to for subsuquent sequels, as well as The Avengers).

Trivia: The sister of the famous twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, Elizabeth Olsen learned the ropes of acting by hanging around the set of Full House. She also opted to learn her craft in a structured setting, enrolling at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and performing with the Atlantic Theater Company. Eventually turning her attention to on-camera acting, Olsen made waves with her film debut, playing a woman attempting a normal life after living in a cult in the 2011 drama Martha Marcy May Marlene. The performance earned the actress much acclaim as well as numerous award nominations, and she followed its success with a role alongside Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver in Red Lights, and by taking the lead in the America remake of Silent House. In 2013, Olsen appeared in the Beat Generation bio-pic Kill Your Darlings, playing Jack Kerouac's first wife, Edie; she also starred in Oldboy, the American remake of the 2003 film of the same name. The following year, she starred in the big-budget reboot of Godzilla. The film was a success, but it was Olsen's cameo appearance in another film that year that caused bigger waves. In a post-credit scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Olsen was revealed to be the Scarlet Witch, setting up her starring role in 2015's Avengers: The Age of Ultron.

Trivia: Can play the piano. Got her start in youth theater productions. Attended Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, whose alumni include Doctor Who actors William Hartnell and Bonnie Langford and Doctor Who director Graeme Harper. Played several characters on the sketch-comedy series The Kevin Bishop Show. Portrayed a soothsayer in the 2008 Doctor Who episode "The Fires of Pompeii" before landing the role of the Doctor's companion, Amy Pond.

Trivia: Rarely do beauty and talent combine in a form so complimentary to each other than in the case of actress Zoe Saldana. Whether gracefully gliding across the stage in dance, pounding the boards in a play, or lighting up the screen in such popular films as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the multi-faceted Saldana seems capable of achieving anything she puts her mind to. The New Jersey native was raised in Queens until the age of ten, when her family relocated to the Dominican Republic. The move proved a fateful blessing when young Saldana discovered her love of dance and enrolled in the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy shortly thereafter, where she would study ballet, jazz, and modern Latin dance. Following her sophomore year in high school, Saldana and her family returned to the U.S. It was while completing her primary studies stateside that Saldana became involved with the Faces theater troupe, whose aim was to make a positive impact on teenage audiences by performing improvisational skits on such issues as substance abuse and sexuality. Involvement with another troupe, the New York Youth Theater, provided more traditional stage experience through such productions as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and it was while performing with that troupe that a talent agent recognized great potential in the burgeoning actress. In 1999, Saldana received what seemed to be the ideal first film role when she was cast as a talented but snippy dancer vying for a spot at the fictional American Ballet Company in the dance drama Center Stage. Other film roles followed, including Get Over It, Snipes, and a featured part in the Britney Spears teen drama Crossroads, which offered Saldana's first major theatrical release. Widely panned by critics but performing moderately at the box office thanks to legions of Spears fans, Crossroads proved just the fuel needed to get Saldana's struggling feature career running. The following year, she was back on the big screen in Drumline, which found her once again utilizing her dance skills as a college dance major and love interest of the talented but conflicted protagonist. Though her subsequent role as the sole female pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean offered little screen time, her performance as the only woman able to cast a spell over Johnny Depp's charismatic Jack Sparrow offered one of the film's most memorable comic scenes. Back on the indie circuit, Saldana headlined the 2003 rock musical Temptation as a talented singer facing hard times. A brief turn as a by-the-books customs officer in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal found the charming Saldana slowly warming to an immigrant stuck in bureaucratic limbo (played by Tom Hanks).She was the female lead in Guess Who in 2005 and continued to work steadily. However, in 2009 she broke through in a big way when she was cast as Uhura in J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, and later that year she was the female lead in James Cameron's mega-smash Avatar. She followed that up with the action film The Losers in 2010, and was front and center in another action spectacle, Columbiana, the year after that. She reprised her role in the sequel Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, and played Gamora in the 2014 smash Guardians of the Galaxy, ensuring her place in yet another action franchise.

Trivia: Worked as a bouncer after high school. Began his career as a professional wrestler in the Ohio Valley Wrestling league in 2000, under the name Leviathan. Joined the WWE in 2002, as Batista. Released his autobiography, Batista Unleashed, in 2007. Appeared as a judge on an episode of Iron Chef America in 2008. Made his MMA debut in 2010, against Vince Lucero; Bautista won the fight with a TKO.

Trivia: Decided he wanted to become an actor at age 13. Spotted in a Cambridge production of A Streetcar Named Desire by a talent agent, which led to his being cast in an ITV production of Nicholas Nickleby. Won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer to the London stage in 2008 for his performance in Cymbeline; he was also nominated for his performance in Othello. Auditioned for the title role in the 2011 film Thor and made it to the final five before being turned down; instead offered (and accepted) the part of Loki.

Trivia: A Big Easy-born actor who honed his skills at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts before completing his education at Juilliard, Anthony Mackie portrayed ill-fated rapper Tupac Shakur in a stage production of Up Against the Wind before taunting Detroit-based rapper Eminem as a member of the rival rhyming crew in the box-office hit 8 Mile. Subsequently appearing onscreen alongside some of the biggest names in the business, Mackie took the lead as a sperm-donating former biotech executive opposite Ellen Barkin and Ossie Davis in Spike Lee's She Hate Me, and proved that he could even hold his own against such screen legends as Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman with a substantial role in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. While it may be on the silver screen that Mackie has courted the majority of fame, the ascending star also appeared on the Broadway stage in high-profile productions of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Drowning Crow.Few actors could dream of a career that advanced as quickly as Mackie's did, and the same year he played leading man in She Hate Me, the then-twenty-five-year-old would earn an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his memorable portrayal of a homeless shelter employee struggling with his cultural and sexual identity in Brother to Brother. Just when it seemed as if Mackie's rigorous work schedule couldn't get any more demanding, the actor would appear in no less than six movies in 2006 including the racially charged kidnapping drama Freedomland, the underground street-ball drama Crossover, and opposite Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox in the fact-based football film We Are Marshall.Firmly established, he played a supporting role in the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker in 2008, and reprised his role of Tupac Shakur in the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, Notorious (2009). Mackie played a former Black Panther in Night Catches Us (2010) and played a supporting role in The Adjustment Bureau (2011). In 2012, he played the historical figure William H. Johnson, Abraham Lincoln's valet, in the fictionalized (obviously) historical action film, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Mackie joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014, playing Sam Wilson/Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and reprised the role in later MCU movies.

Trivia: Actor Sebastian Stan studied drama at Rutgers University before beginning his professional acting career, making minor appearances on TV shows like Law & Order. Eventually, Stan was cast in the 2006 film The Architect, as well as 2007's The Education of Charlie Banks. Then, in 2009, the actor scored a major role in a TV series, playing Jack Benjamin on the NBC series Kings. He went on to appear in the award-winning Black Swan, the comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, the superhero flick Captain America: The First Avenger, Gone, and The Apparition.

Trivia: First role was on a BBC radio play called Kai Mei Sauce in 1993. Was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for his supporting role in Dirty Pretty Things. Made his West End stage debut in 2013 in Chimerica.

Trivia: Born in London on September 6, 1972, and raised in the Hackney borough, Elba pursued acting as a high school student at the behest of a drama teacher. Elba paid his dues with many supporting roles on British television, including such series as Bramwell, The Bill, Degrees of Error, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, and The Governor. The actor grew deeply frustrated, however, over the seemingly irrepressible tendency of British casting directors to peg him in supporting roles. "Back in London," he later recalled, "I was always just going to be the best friend, or the crook or the detective on the side." When Elba could take no more of this, he immigrated to the United States. Within a few years, Elba landed a starring role on what would come to be known as one of the best TV series of all time, The Wire.Elba's performance as pusher "Stringer" Bell attained widespread popularity with viewers and helped put Elba on the map. Elba then transitioned into big-screen roles in movies like The Gospel, The Reaping, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls, 28 Weeks Later, and the Alien prequel Prometheus. Elba also enjoyed more stateside TV success on shows like The Office and Luther.

Trivia: Parents are from Zimbabwe; she moved there with them when she was 5. Has written three plays that she says are "a trilogy of Zimbabwe's coming-of-age from a female perspective." Calls herself a Zimerican because of her roots in Zimbabwe and America. Speaks four languages: French, Shona, Xhosa and English. Taught playwriting and acting in Zimbabwe, Liberia and South Africa. Received the Macalester College 2011 Young Alumni Award.

Trivia: Although she initially gained fame for her real-life role as Brad Pitt's girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow went on to build a solid reputation as one of the leading actresses of her generation. Repeatedly summoning comparisons to such classic presences as Grace Kelly, the blonde, blue-eyed Paltrow has won acclaim for her parts in a number of films, most notably Shakespeare in Love, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar in 1999.The daughter of actress Blythe Danner and producer/director Bruce Paltrow, Paltrow was born in Los Angeles on September 28, 1972. When she was 11, her family moved to Massachusetts so that her father could direct summer stock productions -- it was there that the actress began to receive theatrical training under her parents' tutelage. Schooled at Manhattan's exclusive Spence School, Paltrow went on to study anthropology at the University of California before deciding to drop out to pursue her acting career. She got her first screen role in the 1991 movie Shout and in the same year she played the young Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Hook.Two years later, Paltrow made her first significant impression with a chilling turn as a young con artist in Flesh and Bone. She went on to minor but memorable roles in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) and Jefferson in Paris (1995) before earning her first true taste of fame with her part as Brad Pitt's wife in Seven (1995). Unfortunately, she got more attention for her status as the actor's girlfriend than for her work in the film, becoming one of the world's most photographed arm ornaments.However, the actress was able to come into her own the following year with the title role in Douglas McGrath's adaptation of Emma. She won acclaim for her work and her flawless British accent, and the same year she could be seen in two more films: The Pallbearer, with David Schwimmer, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight. However, it was not until 1998 -- having broken off her engagement with Pitt the previous year -- that Paltrow became better-known for her acting than for her ability to look good in designer evening gowns. That year, she had starring roles in no less than five films. Although both Hush and A Perfect Murder proved disappointments, and Great Expectations received mixed reviews, Paltrow's two English excursions, the comedy Sliding Doors and John Madden's Shakespeare in Love, netted positive receptions. The latter film drew particular acclaim, eventually winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Paltrow.The following year, she had the lead in another high-profile project, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Starring opposite Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett, Paltrow took part in a film that boasted one of the most photogenic collections of young stars that audiences had seen that year and it further enhanced her reputation as one of the most celebrated members of her generation to step in front of a camera. As photogenic as she may be, however, Paltrow's healthy sense of humor would give the delicate actress the gusto she needed to take on the role of a 300-pound object of funnyman Jack Black's affection in the Farrelly brothers' cheerfully offensive Shallow Hal in 2001. With roles in The Anniversary Party, Possession, and Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums that same year, Paltrow's versatility and popularity showed no signs of waning - even if the subsequent flight attendant comedy View From the Top didn't even climb high enough at the box office to take a nosedive.Of course the failure of View From the Top could not be placed squarely on the shoulders of Paltrow, and given the film's troubled production history it's a small wonder that the film was released at all. If that film had simply been a glazed-over comedy that gave its starlet little chance to shine, Paltrow would close out the year with a commendable and notably heavier performance in Sylvia. A film based on the life of literary legend Sylvia Plath, Sylvia couldn't have been more different than A View From the Top and provided Paltrow with a role she could truly sink her teeth into. Both her performance as well as the film itself fared fairly well through the duration of its limited art-house run, despite the fact that Plath's real life daughter Frieda Hughes publicly denounced the endeavor. The film also provided Paltrow with the opportunity to appear onscreen opposite her real-life mother Danner, who also played her ill-fated character's mother in the film.In the wake of her accolades from Sylvia, Paltrow closed out 2003 by wedding Coldplay singer Chris Martin. The new family would soon expand five months later with the birth of their first child, a girl they bestowed with the unique moniker Apple Martin. But family life didn't slow Paltrow's film career too much. By Autumn she could be seen opposite Jude Law in the sci-fi actioner Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and before the close of the year, audiences could catch her in director John Madden's Proof. Paltrow played a supporting role in the drama Infamous in (2006), and co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in the 2008 romantic drama Two Lovers. Paltrow appeared in Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2011) as the loyal assistant of zillionaire and hero du jour Tony Stark. The actress played a brief but vital role in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion in 2011, and reprised her role of Pepper Potts for the summer blockbusters The Avengers in 2012 and Iron Man 3 in 2013.

Trivia: Known for his dark intensity and idiosyncratic performances, Benicio Del Toro became one of Hollywood's more unique actors. His looks suggesting a hidden background as Wednesday Addams' hunky older brother, he first became known to film audiences in 1995 with his breakthrough performance in The Usual Suspects. Born February 19, 1967 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Del Toro was the son of lawyers. His mother died when he was nine, and, four years later, his father moved the family to Mercersberg, PA, where they lived on a farm. While attending the University of California at San Diego, where he was working toward a business degree, Del Toro took an acting class and was soon hooked. He appeared in a number of student productions, one of which led to a stint performing at a drama festival at New York's Lafayette Theatre. Del Toro decided to remain in New York to study acting at the Circle in the Square Acting School and won a scholarship to the Stella Adler Conservatory.A move to Los Angeles, where he studied at the Actors Circle Theatre, led to Del Toro's first television roles, which included a guest spot on Miami Vice and an appearance as a drug dealer on the miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990). The actor also began showing up in feature films, perhaps most notably as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee-wee (1988). Despite fairly steady work, Del Toro was still virtually unknown when he was cast as the eccentric criminal Fenster in Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects. His slurred, otherworldly performance earned widespread praise, an Independent Spirit Award, and, coupled with the film's great success, Del Toro was soon thrust into the limelight that had hitherto eluded him. The actor followed up The Usual Suspects with a supporting role as the titular artist's best friend in Julian Schnabel's Basquiat (1996). Despite intriguing subject matter and a stellar cast, the film was something of a critical and commercial disappointment, although Del Toro's work did earn him a second Independent Spirit Award. Having thus put his trademark on offbeat character acting -- something that was also helped by his role as a gangster in Abel Ferrara's The Funeral (1996) -- Del Toro played a romantic lead opposite Alicia Silverstone in Excess Baggage (1997), a botched caper comedy that cast the actor as a bumbling car thief.Del Toro's next film, Terry Gilliam's much anticipated 1998 adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, would receive an intensely mixed critical reception. A drug-addled, hallucinatory odyssey, it starred Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo, protagonist Raoul Duke's (Johnny Depp basically playing Thompson) partner in crime. Del Toro earned strong notices for his portrayal of the portly, freewheeling, Samoan lawyer (based on real-life Thompson cohort Oscar Acosta), and his performance was widely touted as one of the best aspects of the film. Del Torogained further notice when he won several awards -- including the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar -- for his role as a Mexican cop entangled in the international drug-trade war in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000). The next year, Del Toro played a mentally disabled man wrongly accused of murder in director Sean Penn's sad tale of obsession, The Pledge, and earned his second Academy Award nomination for his performance in 21 Grams in 2003. Del Toro made his directorial debut in 2004, reuniting with Depp for an adaptation of another Hunter Thompson book, The Rum Diaries. He was also starred in Che (2008), Terrence Malick's biopic about Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. This role led t many awards, including the Best Actor Award at the celebrated Cannes Film Festival. Later, in 2010, Del Toro starred in a remake of The Wolf Man, the classic creature feature from Lon Chaney, Jr.

Trivia: Rugged leading man Josh Brolin was raised on a horse ranch in California, a fact that would come to inform his persona as an actor in years to come. But when the 17 year old made his big-screen debut in 1985's The Goonies, most viewers knew him as the son of actor James Brolin. The younger Brolin didn't shy away from his Hollywood roots, and when he relocated to L.A. to pursue an acting career, he moved in with his dad while he studied the craft under the esteemed Stella Adler. He soon followed his appearance in The Goonies with a lead role in the series Private Eye, and though the show didn't last, Brolin decided to stay in TV, starring in the Western series Young Riders. The show ended its three-year run in 1992, when Brolin's marriage to Alice Adair ended as well, and Brolin seemed intent on flying under the radar for the next several years, pursuing mostly smaller, independent projects like My Brother's War and Mimic. In 2007, he caught on with a new core group of fans when he played the sinister Doc Block in Robert Rodriguez's instant cult favorite Planet Terror, one half of the Grindhouse double feature. Later that same year, however, he would be reintroduced to audiences on a much huger scale when he took the lead role in the Coen brothers' highly acclaimed No Country for Old Men. The sleeper film would become one of the biggest films of the year, winning the Oscar for Best Picture and making Brolin a household name for the first time in over a decade.Brolin next signed on to play the title role in W., Oliver Stone's satirical biopic about president George W. Bush. Buzz gathered around the project before so much as a trailer was released, praising the actor's complete transformation into what had originally seemed like a strange role for him to play. Although the buzz was that he would garner some awards for his role as the 43rd President, it turned out that a different political film from 2008 would bring him the biggest accolades of his career. His portrayal of Dan White, the man who assassinated Harvey Milk, in Gus Van Sant's Milk garnered Brolin his first Academy Award nomination, as well as a nod from the Screen Actors Guild.In 2010 he would play the title character in the adaptation of the comic book Jonah Hex, but he would find much greater success as the dastardly Tom Chaney in the Coen brothers remake of True Grit. He shares a very funny story in the 2011 documentary Woody Allen: A Documentary. In 2012 he stepped into the successful Men In Black franchise with MiB3, playing a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones's character. He next appeared in Gangster Squad, opposite Ryan Gosling, and took on the lead in the 2013 English language remake of Oldboy. Brolin joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing the villainous Thanos, first in Guardians of the Galaxy and later reprising his role in other films in the MCU. In 2014, he also appeared in the Sin City sequel A Dame to Kill For and Inherent Vice. He later took a role in the disaster film, Everest, based on the real-life disaster the occurred on the mountain in 1996.

Trivia: Born June 21, 1979, native Minnesotan actor Chris Pratt scored his first big break on television as the troubled physician's son Bright Abbott on the WB series drama Everwood, opposite Treat Williams and others, and segued into film with a prominent role in the biting satire Strangers with Candy (2005) alongside Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert. Successive features included Deep in the Valley (2008), Wanted (2008), and Bride Wars (2009) (as the ineffectual fiancé of Anne Hathaway). In 2009, Pratt joined the NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation as a guest star, but his turn as the dim-witted Andy Dwyer was so well-received that he was promoted to series regular for season 2. While on the show, Pratt also juggled some major movie roles, co-starring with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill as baseball player Scott Hatteberg in the blockbuster Moneyball (2011) and appearing as a Navy SEAL in 2012's controversial Zero Dark Thirty.

Trivia: One of the top leading men of the '80s, William Hurt, born March 20th, 1950, is notable for his intensity and effective portrayals of complex characters. Although born in Washington, D.C., Hurt had already seen much of the world by the time he was grown, as his father worked for the State Department. His early years spent in the South Pacific near Guam, Hurt moved to Manhattan with his mother after his parents divorced when he was six years old. He spent the summers with his father, vacationing in a variety of international locales, including Sudan. At the age of ten, Hurt's life again changed dramatically when he became a stepson to Henry Luce III, the heir to the Time-Life empire. His mother's second marriage indirectly led to Hurt's initial involvement with the theater: sent away to a boarding school in Massachusetts, he found comfort in acting.After going on to Tufts University to study theology for three years at his stepfather's urging, Hurt married aspiring actress Mary Beth Supinger and followed her to London to study drama. Upon their return to the U.S., Hurt studied drama at Juilliard. By this time, under the realization that his marriage was failing, Hurt divorced his wife, got a motorcycle, and headed cross country for the Shakespeare festival in Ashland, OR, where he made his professional debut in a production of Hamlet. He later joined New York's Circle Repertory Company, and went on to receive critical acclaim for his work on the New York stage.Hurt made his feature film debut in Ken Russell's Altered States in 1980, but it was not until he appeared opposite Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981) that he became a star and sex symbol. Four years later, he won Best Actor Oscar and British Academy awards as well as a similar honor at Cannes for his sensitive portrayal of a gay prisoner in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985). He was again nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his two subsequent films, Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). Further success followed in 1988 when he starred in The Accidental Tourist.As bright as his star shone on stage and screen, by the end of the '80s, a darker side of Hurt was exposed when he was sued by his former live-in love and mother of his daughter Alex, ballet dancer Sandra Jennings, who claimed to be his common-law wife. Despite his personal problems, Hurt continued to stay relatively busy, beginning the new decade with a fine turn in Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World (1991). He subsequently appeared in such acclaimed films as Smoke (1995), Jane Eyre (1996), One True Thing (1998), and Dark City (1998). In 1998, Hurt appeared as the patriarch of one of televisions most beloved sci-fi families in the big-budgeted remake of Lost in Space, and as a gubernatorial candidate with a shadowy past in George Hickenlooper's political drama The Big Brass Ring (1999).Still alternating between stage and screen into the new millennium, Hurt stuck mainly to the small screen in the next few years. After lending his voice to the animated portrayal of the life of Jesus Christ in The Miracle Maker, appearing in the mini-series Dune, and taking the title role of The Contaminated Man in 2000, Hurt returned to features with his role in director Steven Spielberg's long anticipated (post-mortem) collaboration with the late Stanley Kubrick, A.I. As the well-intending scientist who sets the story of an artificial boy capable of learning and love into motion, Hurt's character seemed to provide the antithesis of the regressive experiments his previous character had flirted with in Altered States.Hurt played a supporting role in Changing Lanes (2002), an thought-provoking thriller following two very different New York City residents whose lives fatefully intersect following a car accident, and again in the political thriller Syriana, which would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005. The actor was praised the same year for his work as a supporting character in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. In 2007, Hurt starred as the murderous alter ego of a businessman in Mr. Brooks, and co-starred with Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, and Dennis Quaid for the political thriller Vantage Point (2008). Hurt stars as an ex-con looking to start over for The Yellow Handkerchief (2008), and Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, Bruce Banner's nemesis, in The Incredible Hulk (2008).In 2009, Hurt reunited with Vantage Point director Pete Travis for the historical thriller Endgame, for which he played the leading role of philosophy Professor Willie Esterhuyse, an essential member of a team dedicated to securing the release of Nelson Mandela. Director Julie Gavras' 2011 romantic comedy found Hurt starring alongside the legendary Isabella Rossallini. Hurt is slated to work in the The Host, a dystopian thriller adapted from a novel from author Stephanie Meyers, in 2013.

Trivia: Moved to London, England, at the age of seven.The film Akeelah and the Bee (2006) inspired her to become an actor.Studied at the Identity School of Acting.Found out she got the role of Shuri in Black Panther (2018) while she was at a bus stop in London.Featured in Drake's music video "Nice for What."Skilled at rapping and freestyling.

Trivia: Mother is Korean; father is French-Russian. Traveled with her family extensively during the first years of her life through Japan, the Ivory Coast and France. Learned how to ride reindeer while working on the independent film Wolf in Oriental Siberia. Made her Hollywood debut in Spike Lee's Oldboy. Studied taekwondo and had a purple belt in 2014.

Trivia: Displaying the type of understated, dark-eyed good looks that make him a natural candidate for an art house pinup, Paul Rudd impressed filmgoers throughout the latter half of the 1990s with his talent for turning in performances marked by thoughtful insight and an unassuming charisma. Since his turn as Alicia Silverstone's endearingly self-righteous stepbrother in the 1995 film Clueless, Rudd has enjoyed a sort of low-key fame that has allowed him to branch out both in film and on the stage.The son of British-born parents, Rudd came into the world via Passaic, NJ, on April 6, 1969. Because of his father's job in the airline industry, Rudd and his family traveled a great deal, eventually settling in Kansas City, KS. After graduating from high school, Rudd attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater. Following his graduation, he was accepted as a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts/West in Los Angeles. His studies there led to a three-month theater workshop at Oxford University's British Drama Academy, where he was tutored by the producer and editor Michael Kahn. During his time in England, Rudd also co-produced the Globe Theatre's Bloody Poetry, in which he starred as the poet Percy Shelley, and then performed the title role of Hamlet, in a production directed by Ben Kingsley. Back in the States, Rudd made his television debut in 1992, in the series Sisters. As Ashley Judd's boyfriend Kirbie Philby, Rudd stayed with the show until 1995. During this time, he also appeared in other television productions, including the short-lived series Wild Oats (1994). In 1995, he made his big-screen debut in Amy Heckerling's Clueless, a film that met with a lavish dose of unanticipated success. Although much of the limelight was reserved for the film's star Alicia Silverstone, Rudd also received a fair amount of press, as well as the adulation of a new generation of fans who warmed to the actor's unconventional appeal. The same year, he played the lead in the sixth Halloween installment, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. The year 1996 proved to be one of hits and misses, as it included his leading part in the straight-to-video Overnight Delivery, co-starring Reese Witherspoon, and the highly successful William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, in which he played against type as the arrogant Dave Paris. The same year, Rudd starred in the obscure but critically praised Canadian independent The Size of Watermelons, before going on to make the equally obscure, critically trashed The Locusts (1997). Theatrically, however, 1997 provided positive experience in the form of a Broadway production of Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo, in which Rudd had a lead role. There were further positive experiences for Rudd in 1998, as in addition to his principal role in the well-received The Object of My Affection, he starred in the high-profile Lincoln Center production of Twelfth Night, which co-starred Helen Hunt and was directed by Nicholas Hytner, his Object director. Rudd continued his theater work the following year, with Neil LaBute's Bash, an off-Broadway show that also featured Calista Flockhart and Ron Eldard. In addition, he had a starring role in 200 Cigarettes, a film remarkable for both its enviable ensemble cast (including Christina Ricci, Ben Affleck, and Martha Plimpton) and the overwhelmingly desultory reviews it received. However, even the most savage of critics were able to single out Rudd for praise, further reflecting the actor's ability to make a favorable impression in even the most unfavorable of films.After a turn as Nick Caraway in a made-for-television adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Rudd showed off his ability pull off broad-comedy in the largely improvised 2001 parody film Wet Hot American Summer. He changed gears considerably for his next project, The Shape of Things which saw him reteam with director LaBute.In 2004, Rudd again flexed his skills as a comedic scene-stealer with a supporting role in the 70s-era Will Ferrell vehicle Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Keenly aware that he was very much on to a good thing, Rudd kept the laughs coming in Tennis, Anyone...? and The Baxter before hitting yet another comedy homerun in the 2005 Steve Carrell comedy The 40 Year Old Virgin. The movie moved Rudd several notches up on the radar of comedy fans, and he followed it up with memorable turns in many more laugh-fests over the coming years, including Knocked Up in 2007, Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008, Role Models in 2009, and I Love You, Man in 2009. Having made himself a favorite comic actor in the industry, Rudd was soon able to pick and choose increasingly perfect roles for his style, starring in 2010's Dinner for Schmucks with Steve Carrell in 2010, and Our Idiot Brother with Zooey Deschanel in 2011. The following year, on the heels of the big screen comedy Wanderlust and a recurring role on television's Parks and Recreation, Rudd reprised his role from Knocked Up in writer/director Judd Apatow's semi-sequel This is 40.

Trivia: Standing four feet five inches tall, actor Peter Dinklage has had a prolific career both on-stage and in film. After graduating from college in Vermont, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and the Welsh School of Music and Drama in Wales. He worked in several productions off-Broadway and wrote his own play entitled Frog. He made his film debut in Tom DiCillo's 1995 independent comedy Living in Oblivion as the dwarf in the dream sequence. He then appeared in Safe Men, Bullet, Never Again, and Just a Kiss before returning to independent comedies. In 2001 he had a substantial role in Michel Gondry's Human Nature, written by Charlie Kaufman. In 2002, he played Binky, the sidekick to the clown Bananas played by Steve Buscemi in Alexandre Rockwell's 13 Moons. His first starring film role was in Tom McCarthy's The Station Agent as Finbar McBride, a lonely misfit who shacks up in an abandoned railway depot. Also starring Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale, the film won festival acclaim at Sundance. In 2003, Dinklage can be seen in both the Lincoln Center production of Toulouse Lautrec and the Jon Favreau holiday comedy Elf starring Will Ferrell. After a supporting role in The Baxter found Dinklage appearing in one of the year's most off-beat romantic comedies, and the sci fi television series Threshold afforded him the opportunity to appear alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner, Dinklage would next share the screen with the most popular canine in film and television history in the 2006 family-oriented adventure Lassie. In 2005, Dinklage took on a starring role in Threshold, a short-lived science fiction series from CBS, and joined the cast of filmmaker Michael Showalter's comedy The Baxter, in which he played a wedding planner. The following year the actor would make waves in Ryan Murphy's highly sexed drama Nip/Tuck. After appearing in a variety of television roles (including a stint playing himself on HBO's popular series entourage) Dinklage once again teamed with HBO to join the cast of Game of Thrones. This proved a fateful decision on his part, as the adaptation of George R. R. Martin's popular series of novels would become wildly successful, in no small part due to Dinklage's portrayal of Tyrion Lannister, the "imp" whose political savvy and brilliant mind allow him to thrive in a world that is less than kind to those it perceives as physically limited. The role led to an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2012.

Trivia: A respected actress of the stage, screen, and television, Angela Bassett has been one of the few African-American actresses to break Hollywood's color boundary. She has specialized in playing strong women familiar with adversity and has worked in genres from "chick flick" (Waiting to Exhale) to sci-fi action (Strange Days) to biography (What's Love Got to Do with It?), the last of which featured her in a star-making performance as Tina Turner.Born in New York City on August 16, 1958, Bassett was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida by her mother. Growing up in a household where money was tight, she was taught determination and independence. These values were called into service after an eleventh grade Upward Bound trip to Washington, D.C., when Bassett saw James Earl Jones in a Kennedy Center production of Of Mice and Men. Deciding that acting was her calling, she became involved in a number of local productions in St. Petersburg. She continued to act at Yale University, where she earned a scholarship; after completing a B.A. in African-American studies, she also spent three years at the Yale School of Drama. One of Bassett's mentors at Yale was the drama school's dean, stage director Lloyd Richards, who was so impressed with her talent that he cast her in two of his productions, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Although she enjoyed relative success on the stage, Bassett, like other African-American actors, had a difficult time finding roles in television and film.In 1986, Bassett made her screen debut in the cult favorite F/X. Following supporting roles in Kindergarten Cop (1990) and John Sayles' City of Hope (1991), she had her first significant screen role in John Singleton's acclaimed Boyz 'N the Hood, playing a struggling single mother. Two years later, after playing the wife of civil rights leader Malcolm X in Spike Lee's biopic and the Jackson Family matriarch in the made-for-TV The Jacksons: An American Dream, Bassett had her screen breakthrough as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It?, a performance that earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. As her newfound status allowed her to expand her range of work, Bassett went on to star in a series of diverse films. In 1995, a foray into futuristic action in Strange Days was complemented by a lead in the successful women's ensemble drama Waiting to Exhale (based on the novel by Terry McMillan), in which Bassett starred alongside Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon, and Loretta Devine. In 1998, she starred as the title character in another McMillan adaptation, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, playing a divorcee whose discontent is ably assuaged by a hunky twenty-year-old (Taye Diggs). The following year, she had a supporting role in Music of the Heart and again tried her hand at action in Supernova, a sci-fi thriller. Starring in former Orson Welles collaborator and blacklisted director John Berry's critically panned swansong Boesman and Lena in 2000, Bassett (along with co-star Danny Glover) earned praise for their sensitive performances as a troubled South African couple striving to seek stability in the face of Apartheid.Her career continued to evolve with a part in The Score in 2001. The next year she executive produced and starred in a biopic about civil rights figure Rosa Parks. She was part of the large ensemble John Sayles brought together for Sunshine State, and co-starred opposite Bernie Mac in the sports comedy Mr. 3000. In 2006 she played the mother in the spelling bee drama Akeelah and the Bee, and she continued to land parts in big-budget blockbusters such as Green Lantern and This Means War.Since 1997, Bassett has been married to actor Courtney B. Vance, whom she had known since their days at Yale.

Trivia: Was recruited to the University of Mount Union to play soccer. Studied at American Players Theatre. Cast as Honey in a Steppenwolf Theatre production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 2010; the show eventually transferred to Broadway in 2012 Made her big screen debut alongside Ben Affleck in 2014's Gone Girl.

Trivia: The youngest of six children. First professional acting job was in a commercial for the Illinois lottery. A co-creator of the web series James Gunn's PG Porn with brothers James and Brian. Nicknamed "The Judge," which originated from older Matt, who jokingly accused him of being judgmental. Has previously roomed with fellow actors Judy Greer and Gilmore Girls co-star John Cabrera. Appeared in the second episode of Gilmore Girls as Mick, before being brought back later in the season to play eccentric Stars Hollow resident Kirk; he eventually became a series regular.

Trivia: Recalled helping her mother in her restaurant when he was young.At the age of 9, he moved from Trinidad and Tobago to the United States along with his family.Actress Jenna Marbles studied with him in high school.While in college, he acted in theater.Studied along with actress Lupita Nyong'o at Yale School of Drama.Is an advocate for the awareness and prevention of diabetes, and has contributed to the American Diabetes Association.

Trivia: Spent her childhood in Essen, Germany attending elementary school and high school there. Was inspired to become a performer at age 12 after watching a production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe rock musical Starlight Express. Made her professional screen acting debut playing Silke in the 2001 Dutch motion picture hit Ik ook van Jou. Some of the many musicals in which she has performed include Cats, West Side Story, Beauty and the Beast, Evita, Chicago and The Lion King. Is fluent in English, German and Dutch. Is a passionate martial artist skilled in Tai Chi Chen, Tai Chi Yang, Qi Gong and Shaolin Kung Fu.

Trivia: Of Filipino descent.Understands Filipino even though he doesn't speak it.Attended Honolulu's Kapi'olani Community College to study music theory but dropped out.Was discovered by a scouting agency from Los Angeles who visited Hawaii to find new talents.Submitted a self-taped audition for the role of Ned in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), which he eventually got.

Trivia: Born in New Zealand, and moved to Australia at age 8. First acting role was playing a robbery victim in a training video for police. Worked as a stunt double before getting cast in breakout role on Heartbreak High. Played a bad boy on Heartbreak High; very different from his own high school days, where he enjoyed art and poetry. Has played villains in both the Marvel and DC cinematic universes; Jack Rollins in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Anatoli Knyazev in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Trivia: Actress and singer Brie Larson began her career in the late '90s, making appearances on shows like Touched By an Angel when she was still in elementary school. In 2001, she scored a starring role on the series Raising Dad, which lasted for just one season, but the young actress had no trouble finding new projects, as she was cast in the Disney Channel TV movie Right on Track in 2003. She subsequently appeared in another Disney movie, Sleepover, and released an album, Finally Out of P.E., in 2005. Larson would go on to appear in movies like 13 Going on 30 and The Babysitter, before being cast as Kate on the acclaimed Showtime series The United States of Tara. She played Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (which let her showcase her vocal talents) and was the love interest in 21 Jump Street. Larson has a supporting role in Joseph Gordon Levitt's Don Jon and had a recurring role on Community. In 2015, she played Amy Schumer's sister in Trainwreck, but made a bigger mark later in the year with the independent film Room. Playing a young woman held captive for seven years, Larson won rave reviews and an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Trivia: A former die-hard theater actor who made a comfortable transition to screens both big and small in the late '90s, Jeremy Renner drew praise and courted controversy with his portrayal of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. A California native, Renner discovered his love for acting while drifting through various majors at college. He dabbled in computer science and criminology before taking an acting class, and soon decided to double major in theater and psychology, the stage offering the struggling student a healthy outlet for his sometimes bottled emotions. After graduation, the aspiring actor moved to Los Angeles in hopes of finding work. A starring role in the play Search and Destroy (which he also co-directed) earned Renner positive notice from critics, and, in 1995, he made his feature debut in the critically panned gross-out comedy National Lampoon's Senior Trip. Numerous film and television supporting roles followed, including a 1999 guest-starring appearance as a former puritan turned menacing vampire on the popular WB series Angel. Three years later, and despite bearing almost no physical resemblance to the titular character, Renner's chillingly low-key performance as a true-life murderer and cannibal in the biopic Dahmer earned him an Independent Spirit Award Best Actor nomination. In 2003, he received more exposure in a role opposite Colin Farrell in the big-budget action thriller S.W.A.T. After taking the lead as an institutionalized member of the Aryan Nation in Neo Ned, he then stepped before the camera for Italian actress/director Asia Argento in J.T. LeRoy's 2004 screen adaptation of his story collection The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.Renner scored big roles in the drama North Country and the zombie sequel 28 Weeks Later before heading up the quirky TV cop show The Unusuals, which lasted only one season on ABC. However, his work in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, as a soldier who specializes in disarming IED's in Iraq, brought him stellar reviews and a number of industry accolades including Best Actor nominations from The Screen Actors Guild, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Academy. He aslo won that very same award from numerous critics groups.Two years later he returned to the Oscar race for his supporting turn as Ben Affleck's best frined in The Town. He would follow that up with a pair of giant box office hits, co-starring opposite Tom Cruise in the fourth Mission: Impossible movie, and then taking the part of Hawkeye in The Avengers in 2012. That same year he would take over the part of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Legacy, and he lent his voice to the animated film Ice Age: Continental Drift. He appeared in the Academy Award-nominated American Hustle in 2013 and then filled his plate with sequels like The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mission: Impossible 5.

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: Though sharp-eyed Game Show Channel fanatics may recall her from her fireplace-winning stint on The Price Is Right or her appearance on Family Feud, pretty actress Linda Cardellini may be most affectionately known among her fans for her memorable early role as conflicted high school student Lindsay Weir on the short-lived television series Freaks and Geeks. Born in June of 1975 in Redwood, CA, Cardellini became fascinated with acting when asked to sing in a school play at the age of ten. Soon dedicating all of her spare time to stage productions and acting classes during her tenure at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, CA, the young actress received her first television role when she was cast as a student at the ominously named Edgar Allen Poe High School in the creepy kids show Bone Chillers (1996). Feature roles followed shortly thereafter, with Cardellini appearing in such films as Good Burger the following year, and alongside future Freaks and Geeks cast mate (and future love interest) Jason Segel in Dead Man on Campus (1998). Later turning up as a teen tormented by a sadistic Dee Snyder in Strangeland, Cardellini appeared in small roles in a few other small-screen productions before finding herself in the studious but free-thinking shoes of her Freaks and Geeks alter-ego. Examining the flip side of the Beverly Hills 90210 beautiful and privileged teen set, the smart show had a solid cast, insightful writing, and a dedicated following. Unfortunately, it was canceled after less than 20 episodes. Following with supporting roles in The Prince and the Surfer (1999), Legally Blonde, and The Unsaid (both 2001), Cardellini's rising popularity contributed to her largest feature, that of the brainy super sleuth Velma in the live-action adaptation of the beloved animated mainstay Scooby-Doo. She joined the cast of the long-running NBC medical drama E/R in2003, and had one of her most-high-profile successes in 2005 when she appeared in the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain. She lent her voice to the short-lived animated series The Goode Family in 2009, and the next year she acted in James Gunn's Super. In 2011 she appeared in Kill the Irishman, and was part of the voice cast of All-Star Superman.

Trivia: Major star and producer, and member of one of Hollywood's most prominent families to boot, Michael Douglas was born to movie icon Kirk Douglas and British actress Diana Dill on September 25, 1944, in New Brunswick, NJ. From the age of eight he was raised in Connecticut by his mother and a stepfather, but spent time with his father during vacations from military school. It was while on location with his father that the young Douglas began learning about filmmaking. In 1962, he worked as an assistant director on Lonely Are the Brave, and was so taken with the cinema that he passed up the opportunity to study at Yale for that of studying drama at the University of California at Santa Barbara. At one point he and actor/director/producer Danny De Vito roomed together, and have remained friends ever since. Douglas also studied drama in New York for a while, and made his film debut as an actor playing a pacifist hippie draft evader who decides to fight in Vietnam in Hail Hero! (1969). He appeared in several more dramas, notably Summertree (1971). In 1972, he was cast as volatile rookie police inspector Steve Keller on The Streets of San Francisco. Douglas appeared in the series and occasionally directed episodes of it through 1976. In 1975, Douglas became one of the hottest producers in Tinseltown when he produced Milos Forman's tour de force adaptation of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which starred Jack Nicholson in one of his best roles. Originally, Douglas' father Kirk owned the film rights to the story. Having appeared in the Broadway version, the elder Douglas had wanted to star in a film adaptation for years, but had no luck getting it produced. The younger Douglas persuaded his father to sell him the rights and give up the notion of starring in the film. The result: a box-office smash that earned five Oscars, including Best Picture. After this triumph, Douglas resumed acting and began developing his screen persona. His was a decidedly paradoxical persona: though ruggedly handsome with an honest, emotive face reminiscent of his father's, onscreen Douglas retained an oily quality that was unusual in someone possessing such physical characteristics. He became known for characters that were sensitive yet arrogant and had something of a bad-boy quality. Through the '70s, Douglas appeared in more films, most notably The China Syndrome, which he also produced. In 1984, Douglas teamed with Kathleen Turner to appear in Romancing the Stone, an offbeat romantic adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones. Co-starring old friend Danny De Vito, it was a major box-office hit and revitalized Douglas' acting career, which had started to flag. Turner, Douglas and De Vito re-teamed the following year for an equally entertaining sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. It was in 1987 that Douglas played one of his landmark roles, that of a reprehensible yuppie who pays a terrible price for a moment's weakness with the mentally unbalanced Glenn Close in the runaway hit Fatal Attraction. The performance marked Douglas' entrance into edgier roles, and that same year he played an amoral corporate raider in Oliver Stone's Wall Street, for which he earned his first Oscar as an actor. In 1989, Douglas reunited with Kathleen Turner to appear in Danny De Vito's War of the Roses, one of the darkest ever celluloid glances at marital breakdown. By the end of the decade, Douglas had become one of Hollywood's most in-demand and highly paid stars. Douglas found success exploring the darker realms of his persona in Black Rain (1989) and the notorious Basic Instinct (1992). One of his darkest and most repugnantly intriguing roles came in 1993's Falling Down, in which he played an average Joe driven to cope with his powerlessness through acts of horrible violence. In 1995, Douglas lightened up to play a lonely, widowed president in The American President, and returned to adventure with 1996's box-office bomb The Ghost and the Darkness. In 1997 he appeared in the David Fincher thriller The Game, and followed that with another behind-the-scenes role, this time as executive producer for the John Travolta/Nicholas Cage thriller Face/Off. Returning to acting in 1998, Douglas starred with Gwyneth Paltrow in A Perfect Murder, a remake of Hitchcock's classic Dial M for Murder. As the new millenium rolled in, Douglas remained a force on screen, most memorably in films like the critically acclaimed Wonder Boys, and Steven Soderbergh's drug-war epic Traffic -- a critical and box office smash. Douglas had other life successes as well, such as his marriage to longtime girlfriend Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2000, and the birth of their subsuquent children. Around this time, Douglas formed a new production company, Further Films. which saw its first wide release in 2001 with the ensemble comedy One Night at McCool's. In 2003 he made It Runs in the Family, a comedy concerning three generations of a dysfunctional family attempting to reconcile their longtime differences. Fiction reflected reality in the film due to the involvement of father Kirk and son Cameron portraying, conveniently enough, Michael's father and son respectively. The 2010's would see Douglas playing roles in films like The Sentinel , King of California, You, Me and Dupree, and the long awaited sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. In 2013, he played Liberace in the HBO TV movie Behind the Candelabra, which earned Douglas an Emmy award.

Trivia: Acting debut came when he was 8 years old, playing the role of Boy in Waiting For Godot at the Gate Theatre in London. Met his wife, Claire Cox, when they were working at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester in 2007 and proposed to her on St Stephen's Green in 2010. Won the award for Best Actor at the Irish Times Theatre Awards for his role Arturo in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2009. Played two parts in the play Howie The Rookie, "The Howie" Lee and his enemy-turned-ally "The Rookie" Lee, at the Everyman Theatre in Cork in 2013. Is an ambassador of the charity Barnardos which helps children living in poverty, and took part in the Cadbury's Egg Run to raise money for the charity in 2014.