Trivia: One of the leading actors of her generation, Kirsten Dunst made her name in teen films without succumbing to entrapment in the teen film ghetto. Skinny, blonde, and possessing a charmingly crooked Pepsodent smile, she has repeatedly demonstrated her talent and charisma in projects ranging from kiddie comedies to high school romances to towering summer blockbusters.Born in Point Pleasant, NJ, on April 30, 1982, Dunst first appeared in front of a camera at the age of three, when she became a Ford model and commercial actor. She continued to model and do commercials until 1989, when she made her film debut in Woody Allen's New York Stories. Her uncredited role led to a part as Tom Hanks' daughter in the infamously troubled 1990 adaptation of Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities.Three years later, Dunst got her first big break when director Neil Jordan chose her over 5,000 hopefuls for the role of Claudia, the child vampire in his 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. Dunst made a big impact on audiences and critics alike with her portrayal of a woman trapped eternally in the body of an 11-year-old, kissing co-star Brad Pitt, and gorging herself on human and animal blood. That same year, Dunst also appeared alongside Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Little Women; the combined success of these two movies propelled Dunst to the top of the child-actor hierarchy, in terms of both bankability and exposure.Dunst followed up with a lead role in the Robin Williams action-fantasy Jumanji (1995), and lent her voice to a few animated features, including Disney's Anastasia (1997). She also had a brief but memorable turn as a refugee from a war-torn country in Barry Levinson's highly praised satire Wag the Dog (1997).1999 marked a turning point in Dunst's career, as she began appearing in films that cast her as a young woman instead of a precocious child. She starred as a small-town beauty queen contestant in the satirical comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous and as one of two teenage girls (the other played by Michelle Williams) who unwittingly uncover the Watergate scandal in Dick, another satirical comedy. Dunst further lived up to her title as one of Teen People's 21 Hottest Stars Under 21 with her leading role as the sexually rebellious Lux in Sofia Coppola's acclaimed adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides' novel The Virgin Suicides (1999). Her work in the film proved to be a critical breakthrough for Dunst, whom critics praised for her portrayal of the conflicted, headstrong character.Dunst subsequently did her bit for the high school comedy-romance genre, starring as a cheerleader in Bring It On (2000), and as another teen queen in Get Over It (2001); she also forsake makeup and a hairdresser for her role as the archetypal poor little rich girl in crazy/beautiful (2001), a teen romantic drama.Subsequently cast as the actress Marion Davies in Peter Bogdanovich's The Cat's Meow, Dunst got her first shot at playing a grown woman. She garnered praise for her work in the period drama, but any notice she received was quickly eclipsed by the maelstrom of publicity surrounding her starring role as Mary Jane Watson, true love of Peter Parker in Sam Raimi's big-budget adaptation of Spider-Man. Playing opposite Tobey Maguire as the web-spinning superhero, Dunst spent a lot of the movie running around as a damsel in distress, but there was nothing distressing about the 110-million dollars the film grossed in its opening weekend, breaking new box-office records and catapulting both Dunst and Maguire into the rarefied realm of full-fledged movie stars. She would stick with the franchise as it became a trilogy, and she became a bigger star than ever before.Even though Spider-Man gave her a great deal of box-office clout, Dunst would continue to appear in more independent minded films as the years wore on as well. While appearing in films like Mona Lisa Smile and Elizabethtown, Dunst would also earn accolades for appearances in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Marie Antoinette, and Melancholia. After spending a couple of years making small appearances in even smaller movies, Dunst resurged in a big way, playing the lead in season 2 of Fargo on FX. Dunst earned raved reviews for her work on the series and spent the next seasons on the awards circuit.

Trivia: Blonde, vivacious actress Bonnie Hunt made a memorable film debut as the waitress who drops toothpicks after she is inadvertently intimidated by autistic savant Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (1989). The sixth of seven children, Hunt was born in Chicago, on September 22, 1964. Her love of acting began in high school and, though she wanted to become a professional actor, her father pushed her toward nursing, the profession she pursued after graduation. Even after her father passed away while she was in nursing school, Hunt continued with the program and upon graduation worked in the oncology ward of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Working with so many terminally ill cancer patients had a profound effect on her, inspiring her not to wait to pursue her original dream. While still working as a nurse, she landed roles in small plays and began studying at the Second City Improvisational Theater. She worked for a time with a different improv troupe before being invited to join Second City's touring company in 1986. Within a few weeks, she had proven to be such a gifted comedienne that she was promoted to the troupe's first string of performers. Shortly after debuting in Rain Man, Hunt accepted an offer to work with Second City's Los Angeles-based troupe; two months later, she left the troupe and within a few days of her initial unemployment was offered the chance to star in a sitcom on NBC. However, the show, entitled Grand, lasted less than a season. She made a second attempt at television, playing Jonathan Winters' daughter on Davis Rules, but she again found herself unemployed when it was cancelled. In 1992, Hunt made her first appearance on Late Night With David Letterman. The appearance proved to be an important juncture for Hunt as she not only charmed the irascible Letterman, but wowed the audience with her witty stories. Hunt became a personal friend of the talk show host and made frequent return visits. Around 1993, Letterman produced the short-lived CBS sitcom The Building, which Hunt had created and for which she penned 20 episodes. Hunt herself starred along with cronies from her Second City days; with the show's first airing, she became the first woman to write and star in her own series.In film, Hunt had her first starring role in Beethoven (1992), followed by a cameo role as a White House tour guide in the romantic comedy Dave (1993). She has subsequently alternated between supporting and leading roles. One of her best-known parts was the sharp-tongued Laurel in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996). She also appeared in Frank Darabont's The Green Mile (1999) as the wife of a prison security guard (Tom Hanks). In 2000, Hunt added feature film directing and screenwriting to her resume with Return to Me, a romantic comedy starring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. Hunt also took on a supporting role in the film which went on to become a modest sleeper hit. After trying her hand behind the camera, in 2002 Hunt decided to take her fourth shot at the small screen (1995's The Bonnie Hunt Show was a flop too), producing and starring in ABC's Life With Bonnie. A mix of traditional sitcom and improv, the show proved to be a hit and netted the actress consecutive Best Actress Golden Globe nominations.In the wake of the show's success, Hunt returned to film, starring alongside Steve Martin in 2003's Cheaper by the Dozen. The film saw Hunt play the mother of twelve children and proved to by quite a success, raking in well over $100 million at the box-office. A featured role in Tim Kirkman's episodic indie-drama Loggerheads preceded a trip back into the realm of Pixar magic when Hunt provided the voice of sexy Porche Sally in 2006's computer animation hit Cars. Hunt rejoined Pixar in 2010 to voice Dolly the doll in Toy Story 3, and reprised her role as Sally for Cars 2.

Trivia: Left Australia for the United Kingdom in 1969; shortly after his arrival, he saw Ian McClellan perform on the stage in Richard II and decided to become an actor. Was an original cast member of Not the Nine O'Clock News; left the show when it underwent heavy cast changes for the second season. Is an Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; performed in the RSC's tour of King Lear in 2007, opposite Ian McKellan. Is an accomplished singer and painter.

Trivia: A versatile actress who has displayed a talent for both comedy and drama, Bebe Neuwirth is also a gifted dancer and vocalist who has won acclaim for her work on the musical stage, though she's still best known to television viewers as Lilith Sternin, Frazier Crane's tightly wound girlfriend (and later wife) on the popular comedy Cheers. Born Beatrice Neuwirth on New Year's Eve, 1958, she was raised in Princeton, NJ, where her father, Lee Neuwirth, was a mathematician and her mother, Sydney Anne Neuwirth, was an artist. Bebe began taking dance lessons at the age of five, and, while a student at Princeton High School, she began appearing in local ballet productions and community theater productions. After high school, Neuwirth studied dance at New York's prestigious Juilliard School, and in 1980 she made her professional debut as Shelia, a once-famous dancer looking to make a comeback, in a touring production of the long-running musical A Chorus Line. In 1982, Neuwirth hit Broadway in two different shows, Dancin', directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, and Little Me. In 1986, Neuwirth won the starring role in another Fosse musical, a revival of Sweet Charity, which later earned her a Tony award and cemented her reputation on Broadway. That year also marked Neuwirth's television debut (not counting a brief appearance as a member of the Whitney Dance Theater on the daytime drama The Edge of Night in 1981) with her first appearance as Lilith Sternin on Cheers; Lilith soon became a regular fixture on Cheers and Neuwirth won two Emmy awards for her work until Lilith was written out of the show (at Neuwirth's request) in 1992, to allow Neuwirth to pursue film and stage work. Lilith, however, occasionally made return visits to Cheers, and later on Kelsey Grammer's spin-off series, Frasier. Neuwirth made her feature-film debut in 1989 with a small role as a guidance counselor in Say Anything..., and while a steady stream of supporting roles followed in such films as Bugsy, Green Card, and Jumanji, she had a hard time finding screen roles which suited her edgy charm. She continued to have better luck on-stage, and in 1997 her performance in the Broadway revival of Chicago won her the Tony and Drama Desk awards. After scoring meatier roles in the films Summer of Sam and Liberty Heights, Neuwirth returned to episodic television in the well-reviewed but short-lived drama series Deadline, in which she worked alongside Oliver Platt, Lili Taylor, and Tom Conti. In 2002, Neuwirth finally scored a film role that truly suited her talents as Diane, a sexy fourtysomething woman who seduces her best friend's teenage son in the independent comedy Tadpole. She had a small part in the romantic comedy How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and in 2005 she landed a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2009 she played one of the teachers at a high school for the performing arts in the remake of Fame.

Trivia: David Alan Grier may be best known as a dexterous TV comedy star, but he is also a multi-talented veteran of musicals, plays, and numerous films. Born in Detroit, Grier graduated with a B.A. in radio, TV, and film from the University of Michigan. Shortly after earning his master's degree at the Yale School of Drama, Grier made his Tony award-nominated Broadway debut in 1981, starring in the musical The First. Along with a stint in the hit musical Dreamgirls, Grier also did Shakespeare and acted in the off-Broadway drama A Soldier's Play. Moving to film, Grier earned the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor prize for his first feature, Robert Altman's Streamers (1983). Grier was subsequently one of several cast members to make the transition from stage to screen when A Soldier's Play was adapted into the critically lauded, Best Picture nominee A Soldier's Story (1984). Grier moved to lighter cinematic fare with a starring role in the advertising parody Beer (1985) and appeared in a series of undistinguished films, including From the Hip (1986) and Almost an Angel (1990). Grier's brief role in Keenen Ivory Wayans' dead-on blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! (1988), however, turned into an even more fruitful collaboration when Wayans cast Grier in his comedy sketch show In Living Color. Throughout In Living Color's 1990-1994 run, Grier created some of the show's most memorable characters, including flamboyant, circle-snapping critic Antoine Merriweather of "Men On. . ." Grier maintained his film career by appearing as himself in Altman's Hollywood satire The Player (1992) and co-starring in the Eddie Murphy vehicle Boomerang (1992), as well as Damon Wayans' superhero spoof Blankman (1994). After the show ended, Grier continued to alternate between TV and films, executive producing and starring in the short-lived series The Preston Chronicles (1995), as well as appearing in the Robin Williams hit Jumanji (1995). Grier re-teamed with his "Men On" cohort Damon Wayans for the latter's 1998 sitcom Damon, but it failed to match In Living Color's popularity. Grier notched a ratings hit, and got to display his dramatic chops with his performance as a Black Panther in the miniseries The 60s (1999). After appearing in the lackluster Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) and Return to Me (2000), Grier took another shot at sitcom success as the title Secret Serviceman in DAG (2000). He subsequently tried starring in a number of sitcoms that failed to take off, but always found consistent supporting work, with recurring roles on Life with Bonnie, Crank Yankers, and in several feature films. Grier also returned to the stage in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and in 2008, he was given his own show, a no-holds-barred mock-news program in the style of the Daily Show called Chocolate News, which presented both real and fictional news stories from an African American perspective. In 2009 he competed on the eighth season of the reality show Dancing With the Stars, and also appeared in the spoof film Dance Flick. He lent his voice to the animated project Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil.

Trivia: Born and raised in New Orleans, deep-voiced actress Patricia Clarkson studied drama at Yale. She stayed on the East coast working in theater productions before her feature film debut in The Untouchables (1987) as the wife of Elliot Ness. Continuing to work in film, she gained attention for her role as the drug-addicted Greta in the independent film High Art. Also working in TV, she had reoccuring roles on Wonderland and Fraser, and even won an Emmy award for her role as Sarah on the HBO drama Six Feet Under. She gave memorable performances in her smaller film roles, such as the bedridden wife in The Green Mile. Her career really picked up in 2002 with appearances in such films as the Russo brothers' Welcome to Collinwood, Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, and Lars von Trier's Dogville. In 2003, Clarkson appeared in several films at the Sundance Film Festival, where she won the Outstanding Performance award for her work in All the Real Girls, The Station Agent, and Pieces of April. She continued to work steadily in projects such as the inspirational hockey drama Miracle, and George Clooney's Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck. She was part of the high-powered ensemble put together for the box-office disappointment All the King's Men, but remained one of the most in-demand character actresses of her time, In 2007 she appeared in Lars and the Real Girl, Married Life, and No Reservations. In 2008 she began a working relationship with Woody Allen when she was cast in Vicky Cristina Barcelona that continued with Whatever Works. She had a single scene in Martin Scorsese's paranoid thriller Shutter Island in 2010, the same year she appeared in the sleeper hit Easy A. The next year she acted in the romantic drama One Day as well as the comedy Friends With Benefits.

Trivia: A fixture of American musical theater during the mid- to late 2000s, Laura Bell Bundy sported a résumé that could have easily been mistaken for a laundry list of most covetable Broadway roles. Bundy gravitated to stage performance at the tender age of nine in regional and Manhattan-area theater in such productions as Ruthless! The Musical, but achieved greatest prominence on the Great White Way for originating the role of Amber von Tussle in the Tony Award-winning musical of Hairspray (2002), loosely adapted from the 1988 John Waters comedy of the same name. Subsequent stage roles included that of Glinda in the musical Wicked (adapted from the Gregory Maguire novel) and valley girl Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical. Bundy later appeared in Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for the New Elle Woods, a competition-themed reality series that -- per its title -- depicted the contest of the various tryouts hoping to be selected as the successor for the Blonde role.Alongside her theatrical work, Bundy also built up a substantial array of feature film portrayals in outings including Life with Mikey (1993), Jumanji (1996), and Dreamgirls (2006). She also essayed a role on the daytime soap The Guiding Light and embarked on a recording career beginning with the release of the country and western album Longing for a Place Already Gone, and following with Achin' and Shakin' in 2010. Meanwhile, prominant roles in the made-for-TV movies Hound Dogs, Trailer Trash, and To the Mat kept her acting career going strong.