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: Actor Kyle Chandler grew up in Georgia, where he helped take care of the family farm. He eventually went to college at the nearby University of Georgia, where he majored in drama. It was there that a scout from ABC noticed his charm and signed him to a contract with the network. Chandler traveled to L.A., where he started out doing odd jobs but eventually worked his way onto shows like Tour of Duty, Homefront, and What About Joan; TV movies like 1988's Quiet Victory; and feature films such as 1996's Mulholland Falls. The parts steadily became bigger and more numerous, eventually leading to the starring role of Gary Hobson on the TV drama series Early Edition and the role of Bruce Baxter in 2005's King Kong.Chandler also guest-starred in a memorable post-Super Bowl two-parter on the medical drama series Grey's Anatomy, playing a bomb squad leader who comes to the hospital when a patient is admitted who has unexploded munitions lodged in his chest, thanks to his attempt to make a homemade bazooka. Chandler's performance was so impressive that he was later nominated for an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series Emmy. Following that, he landed the starring role of head coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights, a show based on the movie of the same name, about a small town in Texas where high-school football is among the most important things in life. He would earn rave reviews for his work on the high-school football series, eventually garnering an Emmy nomination in 2010. On the big-screen he could be seen in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and he was cast as the father in J.J. Abrams Steven Spielberg-inspired sci-fi drama Super 8.

Trivia: Made his TV debut in 1981 in the television movie Enter the Ninja (1981).Has performed in multiple Shakespeare's plays, including Othello and The Tempest.Has worked in multiple films directed by Roland Emmerich playing military personnel, including Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996) and Godzilla (1998).Has appeared in multiple shows from the JAG and NCIS universe, including JAG, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans.Best known for his work in NCIS: New Orleans, In the Dark and 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Trivia: While most rising stars would be reluctant to tarnish their all-American image by appearing in films that demand they morph into another gender or in television roles that call for them to be as prickly as possible, handsome theater veteran Taylor Handley is always willing to throw the viewing audience the kind of curveballs that set him well apart from the pack. Born and raised in Santa Barbara, CA, Handley took to acting at the tender age of eight and cut his teeth in summer stock. While few of the aspiring actor's early television appearances -- including bit roles in Frasier, Touched By an Angel, and CSI -- would call for anything out of the ordinary, more substantial roles in Dawson's Creek and The O.C. began to reveal an actor of unusual complexity and ambition. It was his role as bad-boy Oliver Trask on The O.C., in particular, that first brought Handley to the attention of many television viewers, yet even with that edgy performance on his resumé, few could have foreseen something as strange as his role in the decidedly off-kilter romantic comedy Zerophilia a couple years later. Cast as an insecure teen boy who realizes he is gradually morphing into a female in writer/director Martin Curland's gender-bending film, Handley went places that few rising stars would be bold enough to venture. Handley next appeared in the period drama September Dawn, which detailed the historic confrontation between a traveling band of peaceful settlers and a renegade Mormon group. He could also be seen in the rip-roaring horror sequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, which pitted him against one of the most notorious madmen in screen history. Back on the small screen, following an appearance on CSI: Miami, Handley scored the lead role of Johnny Miller on the weekly guilty pleasure Hidden Palms. Scripted by Dawson's Creek mastermind Kevin Williamson, Hidden Palms told the tale of a troubled teen (Handley) doing his best to recover from his father's recent suicide and a stint in rehab by connecting with the angst-ridden kids who inhabit his new Palm Springs neighborhood.

Trivia: The embodiment of the line "when Irish eyes are smiling, they're up to something bad," Aidan Gillen oozed ruthless charisma and wicked sex appeal in his role as the sexually prolific Stuart Alan Jones in the 1999 British TV series Queer As Folk. Bringing wry humor and understatement to a potentially over-the-top role, Gillen earned a reputation as one of the U.K.'s most compulsively watchable new performers.Born in Dublin, Gillen got his professional start in the late '80s, appearing in minor film roles. He worked steadily through the 1990s, in film and on television, popping up in such diverse offerings as Circle of Friends (1995), Some Mother's Son (1996), and Jez Butterworth's Mojo (1997). His major breakthrough role was inarguably that of Queer As Folk's Stuart, an arrogant, vain, and thoroughly sexy PR executive who strips countless men of both their clothing and resistance. The success of the controversial miniseries ensured that it -- and its talented actors -- would be back for a second go-round, which followed in 2000. That same year, Gillen found accompanying acclaim on the big screen, in Jamie Thraves' acclaimed directorial debut The Low Down, in which he starred as an amiable but frustrated commercial artist whose life changes when he meets a radiant, ambitious woman. He appeared in both My Kingdom and Lorna Doone, as well as the action comedy Shanghai Knights before joining the cast of the revered HBO series The Wire in that show's third season. When his time on that program came to a close he was in the action film 12 Rounds, and then was cast in the series Identity.