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: Occasionally billed as Bryce Howard Dallas, this promising young talent is the daughter of director Ron Howard and actress Cheryl Howard. Rather than simply using her admittedly well-connected status to break into the acting world, Howard opted to study the craft at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, and would continue to act at the Stella Adler Conservatory. After landing roles in several off-Broadway productions, Howard made her feature-film debut in director Alan Brown's Book of Love (2003), which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival as part of the drama competition. In 2004, Howard broke into the mainstream with her performance in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, which also features Hollywood heavy-hitters William Hurt, Adrien Brody, and Joaquin Phoenix, among others. For Lars von Trier's Manderlay, Howard took over the role of Grace first played by Nicole Kidman in Dogville. In 2006 she reteamed with Shyamalan playing the title character in The Lady in the Water. That same year she was cast alongside Kevin Kline and Alfred Molina in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It. She then scored the plum role of Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. Howard would henceforth remain a consistent presence on screen, appearing in films like Terminator Salvation, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Help, and 50/50.

Trivia: Playing characters ranging from wide-eyed virgins to willful sirens to drug-addicted losers, Laura Dern (born February 10, 1967) is among the screen's most interesting modern actresses. Her parents, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, are both successful actors but initially discouraged her from becoming involved in the profession. Still, acting was Dern's childhood goal, and after her parents divorced, she made her film debut at the age of six in White Lightning (1973).The following year, Dern played a bit part in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. She got her first major role in 1980, playing a teenager in Adrian Lyne's Foxes. By 1983, she had appeared in more films, and in defiance of her parents' wishes, decided to get some formal dramatic training at the Lee Strasberg Institute, where she studied Method acting. She went on to appear in films such as Teachers (1984) and Mask (1985) and gained a reputation for realistic portrayals of goodhearted innocents. Dern could have easily been typecast into such roles had Joyce Chopra not cast her as a rebellious teen anxious to experience a sexual awakening in Smooth Talk (1986). The young actress' portrayal earned her a New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics. That same year, Dern became an even more marketable actress when she played a fresh-faced young sleuth in David Lynch's disturbing, groundbreaking Blue Velvet. She again worked with Lynch in the flamboyantly bizarre Wild at Heart (1990), in which she played an oversexed 20-year-old on the run with her lover (Nicholas Cage). The film proved to be a family affair, as Ladd played her villainous mother. The two appeared together again the following year in the beautifully wrought Rambling Rose. Dern's naturalistic performance as a troubled 19-year-old who wants love, but has confused it with sex, won her considerable acclaim that culminated in an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Ladd was also nominated, making it the first time a mother-daughter team had been so honored in the same year.In 1993, Dern became a bigger star portraying a courageous paleo-botanist in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park. Three years later, she played one of her most offbeat roles as a paint-huffing, spiteful, pregnant, and dumb as a box-of-doorknobs homeless girl who finds herself caught in the middle of a battle royale between pro- and anti-abortion groups in the black comedy Citizen Ruth. In 1999, she took on two very diverse roles, first playing a supportive high school teacher in October Sky and then returning to the realm of eccentricity -- and to sharing the screen with her mother -- as part of an unconventional Alabama family in Billy Bob Thornton's Daddy and Them. Though audiences were no doubt eager to see what Slingblade director Thornton had up his sleeve for the eagerly anticipated feature, Daddy and Them did recieve stateside release into a full two-years after production wrapped - and when it finally did find it's way into theaters critical and popular response was lukewarm at best.The disappointment was more than counterbalanced that year however when Dern and boyfriend Ben Harper gave birth to their first baby boy Ellery, and in addition to also returning to the land of dinosaurs with Jurassic Park III in 2001. Dern essayed memorable supporting performances in a number of films including Novcaine, Focus and I Am Sam. Stepping back into the lead for her role as true life HMO whistle-blower Linda Peeno in the made-for-HBO film Damaged Goods, many found Dern's performance so moving that whispers of an Emmy nomination began to circulate. That wasn't in the cards however, and the following year Dern returned to feature work with the adulterous drama We Don't Live Here Anymore.In addition to her film career, Dern has appeared on stage and television. In 1992, she won an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award for performing in the HBO docudrama Afterburn. In 1997, she again proved her versatility by offering a convincing, Emmy-nominated portrayal of a lesbian who is comfortable with her sexuality in a landmark episode of the sitcom Ellen in which star Ellen DeGeneres "comes out of the closet.""In 2000, Dern teamed with Robert Altman for the Texas-based comedy Dr. T & The Women, and co-starred in the films Within These Walls, Focus, and Novocaine. After returning to the Jurrassic Park franchise for a minor role in Jurassic Park III, Dern took on a supporting role in I Am Sam, and starred in 2002's Damaged Care and 2004's We Don't Live Here Anymore. The 2000s would prove a busy period for the actress; in 2005 she joined the ensemble cast of the comedy-drama Happy Endings, appeared in The Prize WInnder of Defiance, Ohio in 2006, reunited with David Lynch for Inland Empire (also in 2006), and worked alongside Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly, and Peter Sarsgaard for Year of the Dog (2007). In 2008, Dern won a Golden Globe award for "Best Supporting Actress" in Recount, a made-for-TV political drama about the United States' controversial Presidential election of 2000. She played a self-destructive woman piecing her life back together for two seasons on the HBO series Enlightened, winning a Golden Globe for her work on the program. In 2014 she played moms in two very different movies. She cared for a teenage daughter living with cancer in the tearjerker The Fault In Our Stars, and she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Academy for her work in Wild as the mother of a self-destructive former drug addict who tries to get her head straight by going on a grueling hike across the Pacific Northwest.

Trivia: One of the most famous film personalities to hail from the South Pacific, New Zealand-bred actor Sam Neill possesses the kind of reassuring handsomeness and soft-spoken strength that have made him an ideal leading man. Born Nigel Neill to a military family in Omagh, Northern Ireland, Neill relocated to New Zealand in 1953 at the age of six. There he picked up the nickname that would become his stage name, and attended both the University of Canterbury and the University of Victoria before beginning his acting career. Neill labored as a director/editor/screenwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit for several years; he made his first movie in 1975 and scored his first significant film success four years later as the romantic lead opposite Judy Davis in director Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. Shortly thereafter, Neill was brought to England under the sponsorship of star James Mason (who undoubtedly recognized the marked similarity between his acting style and Neill's). The actor's subsequent movie work included two memorable collaborations with actress Meryl Streep and director Fred Schepisi: Plenty (1985) and A Cry in the Dark (1988). Neill's British TV credits were highlighted by his starring role in the unorthodox espionage drama Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), for which he won the British television BAFTA Best Actor award. He also began working on American films during the '80s, including the 1981 Omen sequel The Final Conflict (in which he demonstrated a considerable breadth of range as Satan's son Damien) and the 1987 TV miniseries Amerika. Neill also kept busy with projects down under, with perhaps his most memorable film being Dead Calm (1989), a masterfully crafted thriller that starred the actor as Nicole Kidman's husband.Neill truly came to international prominence during the '90s (as evidenced by his guest spot as a cat burglar on an episode of The Simpsons). He experienced a bumper-crop year in 1993, portraying the raptor-fearing Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park, before returning to New Zealand to portray Holly Hunter's taciturn, unexpectedly violent husband in The Piano (1993). He was also honored with the Order of the British Empire that same year. Neill continued to work on a wealth of diverse international projects throughout the rest of the decade, notably John Duigan's Sirens (1994), which cast him as a '30s bohemian artist; the Australian satire Children of the Revolution (1996), reuniting him with Judy Davis; Revengers' Comedies (1997), which cast him as a suicidal businessman; the acclaimed miniseries Merlin (1998), in which he played the titular wizard; Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998), as the husband of Kristin Scott Thomas (the two had previously co-starred in Revengers' Comedies); and Bicentennial Man (1999), which featured the actor as the head of a family who purchases an uncannily human robot played by Robin Williams.Though Neill was notably absent from the 1997 sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the second sequel in the series, 2001's Jurassic Park III, found the stalwart actor once again fleeing ornery dinosaurs on a tropical island and living to tell the tale. A turn as Victor Komarovsky in the made-for-TV remake of Doctor Zhivago quickly followed, and over thecourse of the next decade Neill would alternate frequently between television (Triangle, Merlin's Apprentice) and film (Wimbledon, Dayberakers), while still managing to land the occasional meaty role in projects like The Tudors (2007) and Dean Spanley (2008). In 2011, Neill brought an impressive air of menace to the ecological thriller The Hunter with his turn as an outwardly benevolent Aussie with a dark secret, and the following year he returned to television as a federal agent on the trail of convicts who mysteriously vanished without a trace in Alcatraz. In addition to acting and managing a New Zealand winery, Neill directed an acclaimed 1995 documentary about the New Zealand film industry, Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill.

Trivia: Tall, gangly, and oddly handsome, stage, screen, and television actor Jeff Goldblum is an unlikely sex symbol. But for many women, especially those fond of eccentric intellectual types, he fits the role perfectly. Known for the range of quirky, often otherworldly characters he has portrayed, Goldblum is adept at playing lead and supporting roles in dramas and comedies alike. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, where he was born October 22, 1952, Goldblum moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career. He got his start at Sanford Meisner's distinguished Neighborhood Playhouse, and in the '70s began performing in a wide variety of on and off-Broadway productions. When he was 22, Goldblum made his film debut with a small role as a rapist in Michael Winner's brutal revenge drama Death Wish (1974). He was performing on-stage in the El Grande de Coca Cola review when Robert Altman gave him a small part in California Split (1974) and a slightly larger role in Nashville (1975). Afterwards, Goldblum was steadily employed as a bit player in both major and minor features, turning in one of his most notable performances as a nervous houseguest struggling to remember his mantra in the Los Angeles-set segment of Annie Hall (1977). In 1980, Goldblum branched out into television, starring opposite Ben Vereen in the short-lived television detective comedy Tenspeed and Brown Shoe. As Brown Shoe, Goldblum played an uptight stockbroker trying to make it as a hardboiled private detective. Although the role may have given him greater recognition, the actor gained his first really favorable reviews playing a tabloid magazine reporter in The Big Chill (1983). This led to leading roles in such films as Into the Night (1985), where Goldblum played an aerospace engineer opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, and Silverado (also 1985), which cast him as a villainous gambler. In 1986, he had his first hit movie with David Cronenberg's terrifying sci-fi-horror film The Fly (1986), playing a driven scientist whose research turns him into a gruesome mutant. His co-star was his then-wife, Geena Davis, whom he met while they were on the set of the comedy-thriller Transylvania 6-5000 (1985). The couple divorced in the early '90s and Goldblum then embarked on a highly publicized relationship with actress Laura Dern that broke up in the mid-'90s.In 1989, Goldblum made a favorable transatlantic impression in the British romantic comedy The Tall Guy, playing a perpetually unemployed actor who is cast as the lead of a musical about the Elephant Man. He continued to work steadily throughout the subsequent decade, appearing in films of markedly varying quality. He found great success in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, playing a mathematician in one of the decade's biggest blockbusters. In 1996, Goldblum again explored blockbuster territory with a leading role as a computer genius in Independence Day. He reprised his role from Jurassic Park in that film's sequel 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He starred opposite Eddie Murphy in the notorious bomb Holy Man.At the beginning of the next decade Goldblum worked primarily in independent films such as Burr Steers' debut Igby Goes Down, and playing the romantic and professional rival to Bill Murray in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In 2006 he scored a role in his most mainstream film in quite sometime as part of the impressive ensemble in Barry Levinson's satire Man of the Year. In 2009, Goldblum joined the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in the show's eighth season to play the role of Detective Zach Nichols. 2010 found the actor co-starring with Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton for the showbiz comedy Morning Glory. In 2014, he re-teamed with Anderson in The Grand Budapest Hotel. The following year, he appeared opposite Johnny Depp in Mortdecai and began filming his role in the long-awaited Indepdendence Day sequel, due in 2016.

Trivia: The son of actors George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst, Campbell Scott obviously inherited some of his parents' talent, though he bears relatively little physical resemblance to either. Somewhat ironically, Scott, who was born in New York City on July 19, 1961, and studied drama at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, spent much of his youth starring in a number of films linked with the Grim Reaper. Some highlights included the PBS AIDS-related drama Longtime Companion (1990), the Civil War-based TV movie Perfect Tribute (1991) (which climaxes on the bloody grounds of Gettysburg), and Dying Young (1992), which featured Scott as a wealthy leukemia patient. One of the most curious -- and interesting -- film assignments for the handsome, lithe Scott was as the plain and portly humorist Robert Benchley in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), a role which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Scott also turned in a winning performance in Cameron Crowe's Singles (1992), which cast him as one of the eponymous group of friends and acquaintances looking for love in grunge-era Seattle.Scott's career entered a new phase in 1996 when the actor began serving as a co-producer on various projects. Teaming up with old friend Stanley Tucci, Scott co-produced Greg Mottola's well-received independent comedy The Daytrippers, which starred Tucci -- and then, in concert with his friend, he co-directed, co-produced, and starred in Big Night, a drama about the failing fortunes of an Italian restaurant. Originally screened at the Sundance Festival, where it enjoyed an enthusiastic reception, the film earned widespread acclaim upon its general release and landed on numerous critics' top ten lists for that year.Scott followed this triumph with a return to acting, starring in David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner (1997) and in 1998 re-teamed with Tucci to star in the slapstick-on-a-steamer vehicle The Imposters. In 2000, he set sail for rougher seas, portraying the titular alcoholic in the black comedy Lush and the unreliable confidant of a man undergoing a marital crisis in the independent drama Other Voices.

Trivia: For his role in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly, talented stage and screen actor B.D. Wong (born Bradley Darryl Wong) would enter into history as the only actor ever to be honored with a Tony, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Clarence Derwent Award, and a Theater World Award for a single performance. Proving equally adept onscreen, Wong's memorable early roles in The Freshman (1990) and Father of the Bride (1991) found him simultaneously attempting to break out of the Asian-American cinema stereotype while seeking out roles that would expand his dramatic capabilities. A native of San Francisco whose musical experimentation during his childhood eventually lead to the discovery of acting, Wong's parents were consistently supportive in nurturing his creative energy. Wong worked his way into Bay Area community theater while still a student at Lincoln High School, and his association with the San Francisco Unified School District proved an essential component in developing his skills as an actor. Following his subsequent graduation from San Francisco State University Wong moved to New York City, where he performed in dinner theater and off-Broadway productions. After making his professional bow in a New York Town Hall production of Androcles and the Lion, Wong began to essay small television roles on such series as Simon & Simon and Sesame Street about the time of his feature debut in The Karate Kid II (1986). Soon thereafter, Wong received coaching from Donald Hotton to prepare for his role in M. Butterfly, and following much critical acclaim, Wong slowly gained onscreen momentum with roles in Jurassic Park (1993) and the HBO AIDS-drama And the Band Played On (both 1993). In his constant search to portray original and diverse characters, Wong had a recurring role as Father Ray Makuda on the HBO series Oz. Subsequent performances included roles in Seven Years in Tibet (1997), voice work in the animated Disney film Mulan (1998), and the crime thriller The Salton Sea (2002). Television viewers became acquainted with Wong through his role on Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit.

Trivia: Grew up in a housing project outside of Paris, France. Started his career doing skits on a local radio station with comedic partner Fred Testot. Nominated for Best Kiss and Best Supporting Actor at the NRJ Cine Awards and Raimu de la Comedie awards respectively in 2006. Released the song Bleu, Blanc, Rouge with Fred Testot in 2010. Became the first black actor to win the Cesar Award for Best Actor, 2012.

Trivia: First acted in a kindergarten play of Three Billy Goats Gruff. Hired for his first professional acting job at the age of 15 to appear in an Apple commercial. Studied acting as part of his high-school curriculum. Nominated to become a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Was taught how to rap by Kurtis Blow for his role in The Get Down.

Trivia: Discovered through her comedic YouTube videos that cleverly lampoon women's issues; often plays her alter-ego, DW Diaz. Moved to Brooklyn after stints in radio and IT in the Bay Area. Solicited donations door-to-door for her horror-film project Cocaine Sleepover. Hosts online segments on Look TV.

Trivia: Played basketball in high school.Discovered his passion for acting after enrolling in a high school play.Met James Franco after a show at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre, and had remained good friends and collaborated in many projects since then.In order to prepare himself for his role in Child of God, he had to stay in an isolated cabin in the woods in Tennessee for months. In 2006, he founded The Sherry Theater in North Hollywood, California. It was named after his mother. Created the Rattlestick West theater company along with fellow actor James Franco.

Trivia: Appeared in Australian soap opera Neighbours in 2005. Made film debut in Australian film Safety in Numbers in 2005. Cast in the Fox series Dollhouse in 2008.

Trivia: After working in television for a several years, mostly in guest roles on such series as Angel, Tru Calling, and Roswell, Kristoffer Polaha scored quite the part as his first major role -- the Reno, Nevada-born actor portrayed John F. Kennedy Jr. (no stretch, given the physical resemblance) in the warmly received 2003 telemovie America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story. Not long after that, Polaha took on his first regular TV role, playing luxery hotel manager Jason Matthews on the prime-time soaper North Shore. When that series ended after just one season, Polaha continued on with guest work on popular shows such as House, Bones, and Mad Men, appearing in a regular role again in 2008 on the very short-lived sitcom Miss Guided. On that series, he played shop teacher-turned-Spanish instructor Tim O'Malley -- the object of high-school guidence councilor Becky Freeley's (Judy Greer) affection. He continued to appear in small-screen fare such as Life Unexpected and Ringer. In his private life, Polaha made headlines in 2003, when he courted and wed Days of Our Lives heartthrob Julianne Morris -- nine years his senior -- and parented children with her not long after.