Trivia: Giving new meaning to the term America's Sweetheart, Sandra Bullock won over scores of filmgoers and critics with her wholesome, exuberant portrayals of ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances. Since her breakthrough role as Speed's unwitting heroine, Bullock has enjoyed the type of popularity that was in the past reserved for actresses along the lines of Mary Pickford or Shirley Temple.Born in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 1964, Bullock was the elder daughter of a vocal coach dad and an opera singer mom. Touring through Europe with her mother, Bullock was given her first taste of show business while still a child. Back in the States, she attended high school in Virginia and was a popular cheerleader, whose classmates dubbed her the person Most Likely to Brighten Your Day. After a stint at East Carolina University, Bullock took her sunny nature to New York, where she began concentrating on an acting career. After tending bar and studying her craft with dramatician Sanford Meisner, she got her start with a number of stage productions. It was for one of these productions, the off-Broadway No Time Flat, that Bullock received a rave review for her portrayal of a Southern belle, the strength of which was enough to land her an agent. Television work followed, with a small role in the 1989 Bionic Showdown: The Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and, after her migration to Los Angeles, Melanie Griffith's role in the short-lived television version of Working Girl. Miraculously surviving the widespread career fallout that surrounded her first starring film role in Love Potion No. 9 (1992), the actress went on the following year to star in the similarly ill-fated The Thing Called Love. However, things began to look up the same year when the struggling actress became the last-minute replacement for Lori Petty in the Sylvester Stallone action flick Demolition Man. Though her role was essentially limited to intermittent saliva exchanges with Stallone, her performance won the attention of the film's producer, Joel Silver, who in turn recommended her to Jan de Bont. De Bont, then in the process of casting his upcoming bus-with-a-bomb action film, chose the struggling actress for the part of Annie, the film's reluctant heroine. In casting Bullock against Keanu Reeves, de Bont reportedly came up against considerable resistance from studio executives, who wanted someone blonde and buxom for the part. The director persevered and, in 1994, Bullock took her place in movie history as part of Speed, one of the most successful action films ever made. The film propelled the actress to stardom, surprising no one more than Bullock herself, who later remarked, "never in a million years did I think a bus movie would open every door I ever possibly wanted open."Doors now wide open, Bullock next starred in the 1995 romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping. The film was a critical and commercial hit, and the actress followed it up with a screen adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, co-starring Ashley Judd and Matthew McConaughey. The success of that film was the last that Bullock would enjoy for a while, as she then entered something of a sophomore slump with disappointments such as In Love and War (1996), Two If By Sea (1996), and, perhaps most excruciating, Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997). Fortunately for Bullock, her audiences seemed to be inclined to forgive and forget, and she had a modest rebound with the following year's Hope Floats, which also happened to be the first project of the production company she founded, Fortis Films. The same year, Bullock also starred in another romantic comedy, Practical Magic, opposite Nicole Kidman. The film provided another modest success for Bullock, who, back in the saddle again, proceeded to do yet another romantic comedy, this time starring with Ben Affleck in Forces of Nature (1999). Although the film proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment, Bullock was back on the radar with a number of projects in 2000, including the critically disembowelled comedy Gun Shy and 28 Days, a comedy that starred the actress as a newspaper columnist forced to enter rehab after her drinking problem assumes uncontrollable proportions. Following her role in Miss Congeniality (2000) as an FBI agent forced to go undercover in the Miss U.S.A. beauty pagent in order to prevent a bombing, Bullock faced off against a more low-key menace in the thriller Murder By Numbers (2002) before returning to lighthearted drama with Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (also 2002). Her status as the reigning queen of the chick flick permanantly established, Bullock next teamed with Hugh Grant for the amiable romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice before taking a two year furlough from the big screen - during which time she would assume the duty of executive producer for the George Lopez show in addition to turning in the occasional guest appearance. In 2005, Bullock found herself at the center of Oscar talk when she essayed the role of the racist wife of a prominant district attorney in Paul Haggis' critically acclaimed drama Crash. An unflinching look at racism in the multicultural melting pot of Los Angeles, Crash defied expectations to take home best editing, best screenplay, and best motion picture at the 77th Annual Academy Awards. That same year, a return to her role as bumbling undercover FBI agent Gracie Heart in Miss Congeniality 2 found Bullock returning to familiar lighthearted territory, although the sequel performed far more poorly than the first film. With her role as a lovelorn doctor who discovers a curious rift in time in 2006's romantic fantasy The Lake House (a remake of the 2000 South Korean film Siworae), the actress marked a graceful return to swooning, romantic pictures, not to mention a reteaming with her Speed man Keanu Reeves. Determined to remain firmly planted in serious acting, Bullock singed on to play author Harper Lee in the movie Infamous which, because of its unfortunate timing, was swallowed by comparisons to the film Capote, and went largely unnoticed. Undaunted, Bullock singed on for the supernatural thriller Premonition, about a woman who experiences shifts in the events of the universe and must use the visions to prevent her husband's death.2009 turned out to be one of the popular actresses most memorable years. In addition to producing and playing the lead in the smash hit romantic comedy The Proposal, Bullock earned the best reviews of her career as a protective mother helping raise a struggling high-school football player in The Blind Side. For her work in that movie, Bullock won the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actress, not to mention the Oscar for Best Leading Actress. Fresh off her win, Bullock next took on another dramatic film, the post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. She starred in 2013's Gravity, opposite George Clooney, earning herself a second Oscar nomination. In 2015, she starred in, and produced, Our Brand Is Crisis.

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

Trivia: Despite his confident good looks and his role as the son of Zeus on television's popular Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Ryan Gosling ironically used to get chuckles by donning a Speedo and flexing like a professional weightlifter as a scrawny six-year-old. Born in London, Ontario, Canada, in November 1980, and raised in nearby Cornwall, Gosling was withdrawn for private schooling early on due to harassment by his classmates. Quickly learning the value of confidence, the bright youngster focused his energy into acting and landed a two-year role on The Mickey Mouse Club at age 12. Soon moving on to television commercials and roles in such films as Disney's Frankenstein and Me (1996), Gosling returned to television in 1997 for the short-lived Breaker High before finding more sturdy television ground in his Hercules role the following year. Since then, the actor has tackled increasingly challenging roles such as his turn as a conflicted Jewish student in The Believer (2001) and as a teen who commits murder in the name of mercy in The United States of Leland (2002). That same year, the increasingly busy Gosling starred in both The Slaughter Rule, and alongside Sandra Bullock in the crime thriller Murder by Numbers.Though he was racking up credibility as a serious young actor in indie features, Gosling became an unlikely box-office heartthrob with the 2004 summer-season romance The Notebook. Starring opposite another young break-out Canadian actor, Rachel McAdams, Gosling added some depth to the otherwise treacly adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' popular tome of enduring love before and after World War II. Rather than parlay his newfound fame into leading-man action roles, Gosling chose a route not unlike Edward Norton before him, alternating between indie features and challenging, bigger-budget Hollywood productions. This strategy didn't yield great dividends with the spooky 2005 misfire Stay, but it did bring Gosling high praise for the 2006 Sundance Festival favorite Half Nelson. A slice-of-life drama focusing on a young, cocaine-addicted, inner-city middle-school teacher and the student with whom he forms a bond, the film offered Gosling the opportunity to play another intense, conflicted young man in a natural, effortless style, a performance aided in large part by his bracing young co-star Shareeka Epps. Helped by glowing reviews, the micro-budgeted Half Nelson became an arthouse success through awards season, when Gosling's name was mentioned by numerous critics' organizations in year-end honors. Though ignored by the Golden Globes, the dark-horse Gosling was recognized among a formidable group of Best Actors when Oscar nominations were announced.Having cemented himself as one of the most formidable actors of his generation, Gosling next signed on for a quirky 2007 drama called Lars and the Real Girl, about a small town man who falls in love with a life sized doll. His performance in the film earned him a Golden Globe nod, but Gosling still had other goals he wanted to pursue. He spent the next few years playing and recording with his band, Dead Man's Bones, which released a self-titled debut in 2009. When Gosling returned to acting the following year, it was for a heart-wrenching independent relationship drama called Blue Valentine, opposite Michelle Williams. Based on a short film, the movie told the story of a relationship by showing its beginning and its end. Gosling was nominated for yet another Golden Globe, but was still up for a challenge. For his next project, he took on the thriller All Good Things, playing an upper class husband who turns violent and psychotic in All Good Things. Next on the docket was 2011's Drive, which found Gosling playing a stunt man turned getaway driver, quickly followed by the political thriller The Ides of March, opposite George Clooney. Shortly afterward, Gosling took on a supporting role in the award-winning romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love, which follows a divorced man as he finds his footing in life once again.Gosling expanded his producing credits in 2013, with Only God Forgives, in which he co-starred, and released his directorial debut, Lost River, in 2014. In 2015, he co-starred in the Oscar-nominated The Big Short, and, the following year, teamed with Russell Crowe for The Nice Guys.

Trivia: With strawberry blonde hair and an innocent smile, actress Agnes Bruckner has a strangely familiar face that seems to make her more sympathetic and identifiable than most of her onscreen contemporaries. Her stunning breakout performance as a troubled young girl who seeks escape from her downbeat life through poetry in Karen Moncrieff's Blue Car earned Bruckner an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, pointing to a bright future for the magnetic and unusually assured young actress. Born to a Russian father and Hungarian mother in Hollywood, CA, the bilingual aspiring actress found her first role in the little-seen short film Girl (1997). That same year, the then-12-year-old Bruckner landed a role on the popular daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, and the following year, she took her first lead as a young girl who dedicates herself to saving the residents of a miniature city found beneath a construction site in The Shrunken City. As Hollywood came calling, Bruckner played a supporting role in the thriller The Glass House in 2001, though her true breakthrough wouldn't come until the release of Blue Car the following year. 2002 proved a productive and exciting year for the ascending young star, with roles in the Columbine-inspired teen drama Home Room and Barbet Schroeder's Murder by Numbers making her an increasingly familiar face to moviegoers. A role in the harrowing drama Rick (2003) found Bruckner the target of an Internet predator who just happened to be her father's sleazy boss, and in 2004, following supporting roles in Stateside and May director Lucky McKee's girl-school chiller The Woods, Bruckner could be seen in the high-profile Hollywood adventure Haven.

Trivia: Although Chris Penn has achieved little of the critical acclaim and none of the notoriety of his older brother, Sean, the rotund actor has become a familiar supporting player and character actor who hasn't had to rely on Sean, either. The brothers have appeared together only once, in the 1986 film At Close Range; in the meantime, Chris has made a name for himself in projects ranging in tone and purpose from Footloose (1984) to Reservoir Dogs (1992).The son of director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of singer Michael Penn in addition to actors Sean and Matthew, Chris Penn was born on June 10, 1962, in Los Angeles. The actor, sometimes credited as Christopher Penn, started out in the profession at age 12, under the tutelage of Peggy Feury at the Loft Studio in Los Angeles. His film breakthrough came in Francis Ford Coppola's teen gang movie Rumble Fish (1983), which cast him opposite Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke. But it wasn't until Footloose the following year that Penn captured his first truly memorable role. As the burly best buddy of Kevin Bacon's rebellious dance proponent, Penn's simple decency shone through, especially in the lively production number in which his character awkwardly learns to dance, to the strains of Denise Williams' "Let's Hear It for the Boy."Penn's supporting work continued through the 1980s in films like Pale Rider (1985) before he became affiliated with organized crime movies, on both sides of the law, in the 1990s. Two collaborations with Quentin Tarantino in particular solidified this association. In the first, 1992's Reservoir Dogs, Penn played Nice Guy Eddie, the obedient son of Lawrence Tierney's mob boss. Screenwriting for director Tony Scott, Tarantino then helped Penn get cast in True Romance (1993) as a narcotics officer. From this point on, Penn began appearing in a handful of films each year, first and perhaps most notably as the frustrated husband of a phone sex operator (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993).Penn continued his criminal film streak with such projects as Mulholland Falls (1996), The Funeral (1996), and One Tough Cop (1998). In 2001, he spoofed his tough guy image by appearing as the brother of comedian Chris Kattan, the novice mob operative of the title, in Corky Romano.

Trivia: Best known for his role as Arwin in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Has done extensive voice work as well as live action film and television. Voiced numerous roles in The Loud House.

Trivia: Actor Nick Offerman honed an immediately identifiable image -- that of a rugged, imposing presence with an unmistakably menacing onscreen aura, occasionally tempered by nuttiness -- and parlayed it into a long string of offbeat characterizations. After guest spots on such prime-time series as ER and Gilmore Girls, and bit parts in features including Treasure Island (1999), Groove (2000), and November (2003), Offerman graduated to lead status with a decidedly wacky triple role in Martin Hynes' road movie The Go-Getter (2007). That same year, audiences could also catch Offerman via his small supporting role as a cop in Goran Dukic's jet-black comic romance Wristcutters: A Love Story. Meanwhile, Offerman also signed for one of the lead roles -- as an auto mechanic -- on the satirical Comedy Central series American Body Shop (2007). In 2009 he was cast as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, and this turned out to be his breakthrough role. He parlayed that success into appearances in films like The Men Who Stare at Goats, All Good Things, Casa de me Padre, and the big-screen comedy version of 21 Jump Street.