Trivia: Shia LaBeouf decided, during his preteen years, to launch himself as an actor, and stories abound concerning how far he carried his own drive to establish himself. According to People Weekly magazine, LaBeouf auditioned for Even Stevens (2000), the Disney Channel series that delivered him into the spotlight, and subsequently told each of the youngsters who were waiting to audition that he had the part -- thus eliminating the competition. Such determination, coupled with raw ability and charisma, doubtless helped propel LaBeouf straight to the head of Hollywood's young stars.Born on June 11, 1986, in Los Angeles, LaBeouf grew up in the neighborhood of Echo Park, and was raised in a decidedly colorful family of mixed ethnicity. His Cajun father, Jeffrey LaBeouf, was a Vietnam vet who held a series of odd jobs as a circus clown, a sno-cone salesman, and a stand-up comic. Shia's Jewish mother, Shayna, worked as a clothier and jewelry craftswoman. Upset about his mother's financial struggles after his parents split, Shia observed another boy of about the same age (a cast member of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) whose financial returns from Quinn gave him a posh lifestyle. LaBeouf suddenly understood the financial benefits of before-the-camera work, and -- though he had no formal dramatic training -- foresaw himself breaking into acting via comedy. He used a phone book to find an agent, then honed a stand-up comedy act over the course of two years, that found him (at age 12) delivering "blue" routines to adult audiences at a Pasadena comedy club, The Ice House. By his own admission, LaBeouf was booted out of every school he attended (for his notoriously profane mouth and for other reasons), but he more than compensated for this with his professional drive. By 2000, he auditioned for the Even Stevens series on Disney, and landed the part.That sitcom concerned the relationship between Louis Stevens (LaBeouf), a silly and goofy teen, and his older sister, Ren (Christy Carlson Romano). The program quickly found an audience on Disney and lasted for several seasons; its popularity spawned a small-screen feature, The Even Stevens Movie, in 2003. The time span of 2002 to 2003 was a busy one for LaBeouf -- arguably his breakthrough period. In addition to The Even Stevens Movie, the actor signed on to participate in season two of the controversial Project Greenlight, the Damon and Affleck-created national contest for aspiring indie filmmakers, with its attached HBO reality series of the same name. Thus, at-home viewers had the opportunity to watch LaBeouf, Elden Hensen, Kathleen Quinlan, Amy Smart, and other actors endure the tumultuous production of Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin's quirky comedy drama The Battle of Shaker Heights, months prior to that film's release. When the finished film debuted in August of 2003, it did so to generally terrible reviews, but a number of journalists (Roger Ebert among them) singled out LaBeouf's lead performance as something special amid a decidedly flawed film.That same year, LaBeouf starred in the Andrew Davis-directed Disney fantasy Holes, as a youngster sent to an oddball Texas detention center and forced to dig a series of 5-foot-deep pits in the desert sun for mysterious reasons; it scored with the public and press and became one of the sleeper hits of 2003. And indeed, its success doubtless spurred LaBeouf on to even greater heights, his dramatic ability honed even more sharply by his interaction with co-star Jon Voight (Coming Home), whom LaBeouf would later list as a key professional influence. In late 2004, LaBeouf signed on for the lead in another Disney film, The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) -- a biopic of golfer Francis Ouimet directed by Bill Paxton; the film itself divided critics rather sharply but provided an outstanding showcase for LaBeouf's talents. The next several years found LaBeouf signing on for several of the most sought-after A-list roles in Hollywood -- from director Francis Lawrence's apocalyptic fantasy Constantine (2005), as a demon-slayer fighting alongside Keanu Reeves; to Dito Montiel's A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, as a young man struggling to find a different road out of the ghetto than crime and prison. In 2007, the actor voiced a surfing penguin in the CG-animated comedy Surf's Up, and geared up for his role as Sam Witwicky in one of the most hotly anticipated releases of the year, the Michael Bay-directed Transformers -- based on the action figures that were rabidly popular in the mid-'80s. At the same time, audiences could catch LaBeouf in Salton Sea-director D.J. Caruso's thriller Disturbia -- the tale of a deeply depressed, homebound teen who teams up with a local girl to prove that their next door neighbor is a much sought-after serial killer.LaBeouf would continue to ride his popularity surge in the realm of latter-day sequels, playing Harrison Ford's sidekick in 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and young financial exec Jake Moore in 2010's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Neither film was well received by audiences or critics, but LaBeouf still had the Transformer's franchise in his pocket, and he'd continue with it for 2009's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon. In 2012 he tried his hand at a period piece with the bootlegging drama Lawless.

Trivia: Exhibiting both grit and steely, almost otherworldly beauty, Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss rapidly ascended from obscurity to international stardom as the latex-clad cyber warrior Trinity in the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix. Moss' striking performance led many viewers to question where she had been all these years; like many other fledgling Hollywood actresses, she had done time as a model and an actress in second-rate films while waiting for her big break.Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on August 21, 1967, Moss decided that she wanted to be an actress at an early age. The youngest of two children raised by a single mother, she grew up taking acting classes, and at the age of 20, she left Canada to pursue a career as a model. During a modeling stint in Spain, Moss managed to land a role on the TV serial Dark Justice. Upon her return to North America, she moved to L.A. and was cast on the Aaron Spelling series Models, Inc.After making her film debut in 1996's Sabotage, Moss continued to do TV work (most notably on the Toronto-based F/X: The Series) and appeared in fairly obscure films. Thanks to her starring role in The Matrix in 1999, Moss was soon in great demand. In 2000 alone, she could be seen in no less than four films, including the action comedy The Crew, Red Planet, and as a bartender with questionable motives in director Christopher Nolan's unconventional breakthrough, Memento. Subsequently taking another stab at sci-fi opposite Val Kilmer in Red Planet, Moss would next appear in Lasse Hallstrom's romantic drama Chocolat before stepping back into her vinyl bodysuit for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (both 2003).With the Matrix sequels behind her, Moss next starred opposite Aaron Eackhart in the serial-killer thriller Suspect Zero, a film that failed to excite either audiences or critics. Over the next three years, Moss could primarily be seen in supporting roles in small indie films like Mini's First Time and Fido. And while those films largely failed to garner audience attention, Moss received high marks for the Canadian drama Snow Cake. Also starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver, the film netted several 2007 Genie Award nominations, but only won one: Best Supporting Actress, which went to Moss.2007 also gave Moss her first taste of financial success since the Matrix films with the surprise-hit thriller Disturbia, a thinly-veiled teenage retread of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Rear Window. The actress followed this up with the gently tragic, slice-of-life drama Fireflies in the Garden (2008), joining Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds and Emily Watson in the story of family members who grapple with their feelings of love and commitment to one another when a devastating crisis occurs. In the years to come, Moss would remain a force on screen, appearing in movies like Love Hurts, and on TV series like Chuck and Vegas.

Trivia: A fixture of 1980s TV series and movies, prolific character actor David Morse became a reliable and much lauded supporting presence in feature films from the 1990s onward.Raised in Hamilton, MA, Morse began his professional career after high school, joining the Boston Repertory Theater in 1971. Over the next six years, Morse acted in over 30 productions, amply preparing him for a move to New York theater in 1977. Morse subsequently got his first big movie break when he was cast in the drama Inside Moves (1980). Though Morse proved that he could handle lighter films with Neil Simon's comedy Max Dugan Returns (1983), his detour into television in 1982 was initially more fruitful. As Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison, Morse spent six seasons on the esteemed hospital drama St. Elsewhere, co-starring with, among others, Denzel Washington. During his stint on St. Elsewhere, Morse also starred in a diverse collection of TV movies. He was a priest in love with Valerie Bertinelli's nun in Shattered Vows (1984), a prisoner attempting a breakout from Alcatraz in Six Against the Rock (1987), a detective in Down Payment on Murder (1987), and a mental hospital escapee in Winnie (1988). Continuing his presence on the small screen after St. Elsewhere, Morse appeared in several more TV movies, including starring as a deranged kidnapper in Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann (1991).Though he co-starred as a drifter in the indie film Personal Foul (1987) and appeared in Michael Cimino's noir remake The Desperate Hours (1990), Morse did not concentrate most of his energies on feature films until the 1990s. After starring as Viggo Mortensen's brother in Sean Penn's directorial debut, The Indian Runner (1991), Morse moved to more mainstream work with supporting roles in The Good Son (1993), the Alec Baldwin-Kim Basinger version of The Getaway (1994), and medical thriller Extreme Measures (1996). While he appeared in Terry Gilliam's thoughtful La Jetée (1962) remake 12 Monkeys (1995), faced off with Jack Nicholson in Penn's The Crossing Guard (1996), and starred as a janitor-turned-rich man in George B. (1997), Morse really captured audience attention in a concurrent string of high-profile projects. Returning to Alcatraz, Morse projected quiet menace as one of Ed Harris renegade Marines in the blockbuster hit The Rock (1996). Morse tapped his bad self again in the action romp The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), then cemented his versatility with a small yet vital role as Jodie Foster's gentle father in Contact (1997). Notching his third major summer release in a row, Morse played a SWAT team commander up against Samuel L. Jackson's wrongly accused cop in The Negotiator (1998). Returning to serious blockbuster fare, Morse then co-starred with Tom Hanks as prison guards who witness miracles in The Green Mile (1999). After a foray into comedy with Bait (2000), Morse stole hostage drama Proof of Life (2000) from his glamorous tabloid-ready co-stars Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe with his intense performance as Ryan's kidnapped husband. Even as he became a popular Hollywood second lead, however, Morse wasn't afraid to veer away from the multiplex, winning an Obie Award for Paula Vogel's acclaimed play How I Learned to Drive and putting a believably human face on an utterly hateful character in Lars von Trier's bleak, award-winning musical Dancer in the Dark (2000). Continuing his protean career, Morse appeared in another gentle Stephen King adaptation Hearts of Atlantis (2001) and starred in Diary of a City Priest (2001) for PBS. Morse followed the ill fated Hearts of Atlantis with a lead role in the indie drama The Slaughter Rule (2002), which was well received on the film festival circuit. Morse subsequently returned to series television, and received top billing, in the CBS drama Hack (2002). Starring Morse as an ex-cop-turned-cab driver, Hack was pummeled by critics, but audiences took to Morse's well intentioned, marginalized law enforcer and Hack became a modest ratings success. He had a recurring part on the medical drama House as a police detective driven to put the title character behind bars. In 2007 he played the bad guy in the teen thriller Disturbia. He appeared in a pair of award-winning projects in 2008 - he was a military man in The Hurt Locker, and tackled the role of George Washington in the Emmy-winning miniseries John Adams for HBO. In 2011 he had a major part in Drive Angry, and the next year he was in the family-oriented fantasy film The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

Trivia: Born in California in 1984, actress Sarah Roemer first gained the attention of moviegoers with a supporting part in the 2006 horror sequel The Grudge 2. The following year, she received greater prominence opposite Shia LaBeouf in the psychological thriller Disturbia, which became a surprise hit, perching atop the box-office charts for several consecutive weeks. Following Disturbia, Roemer scored her first lead role, starring in the 2007 supernatural horror film Asylum. Roemer would go on to find success on the small screen on shows like The Event and Daybreak. In 2013, she joined the online series Chosen.

Trivia: Born in Texas, actor Aaron Yoo attended the University of Pennsylvania and initially pursued a career in writing before a summer workshop in Shakespeare opened him up to the theretofore untapped challenge of drama. (Yoo later admitted that he unequivocally bombed in the said workshop, and that the difficulty of the experience compelled him to travel to New York and learn the acting craft.) The performer achieved his career breakthrough in 2007, with a plethora of supporting roles in A-listers that often cast him as best friends and/or emotional supports for the lead characters. That year alone, Yoo played the buddy of the lead character in the teen-oriented thriller Disturbia (2007), the hyperkinetic friend of a high-school debate team member in Rocket Science (2007), and a WWII-era Japanese teenager who must contend with extreme bigotry and discrimination when he and his family are unjustly thrown into an internment camp in Desmond Nakano's inspirational drama American Pastime (2007). In 2008, Yoo portrayed Choi, an Asian-American MIT student and member of a Las Vegas card-counting ring, in Robert Luketic's inspired-by-real-events thriller 21.

Trivia: Like many of his Canadian contemporaries, actor Matt Craven broke into films by way of such adolescent sex comedies as Meatballs (1979) and Hog Wild (1980). Craven honed his acting skills on the off-Broadway stage, beginning with the 1984 production Blue Willows. He has since contributed supporting performances to films like Blue Steel (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), and Crimson Tide (1995). Matt Craven's TV-series roles include bartender Ritchie Massina in the Robby Benson starrer Tough Cookies (1986) and Bobby Kratz in the Alan Arkin vehicle Harry (1987). In 1998, Craven was part of an ensemble cast for the medical drama L.A. Doctors. In the 21st century he enjoyed a brief recurring role on the hit medical dram ER and appeared in moves such as Dragonfly and Timeline. He continued to work steadily on a wide variety of projects including The Life of David Gale, the TV series The Lyon's Den, the remake of Assault on Precinct 13, Disturbia, Public Enemies, and the superhero prequel X-Men: First Class.

Trivia: A graduate of the Juilliard School, Viola Davis built an exceptional background in theater productions and has continued to perform on-stage throughout her television and film career. Making her feature-film debut in 1996 as a nurse in The Substance of Fire, she followed that up with several TV movies and guest-star appearances on dramatic series like Law & Order and NYPD Blue. She went on to play another nurse in City of Angels, a hospital drama with a predominately African-American cast that didn't last long on CBS. She began collaborating with Steven Soderbergh for Out of Sight, and went on to star in two of the director's next few films, Traffic and Solaris. In 2001, she appeared in Kate and Leopold and in Oprah Winfrey's television presentation of Amy & Isabelle. The next year she played parts in both Far From Heaven and Denzel Washington's directorial debut, Antwone Fisher.Davis continued to work steadily in a variety of notable projects including Steven Soderbergh's Solaris, Syriana, and played a notable part in the television movie biopic of American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino. However, in 2008 she landed the small but crucial role of the mother in John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his award-winning play Doubt. Although her screen time is minimal, her indelible performance garnered her Best Supporting Actress nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy. Davis became a well known entity almost instantly, and was soon filling her docket with projects like 2009's State of Play, 2010's Knight and Day and Eat Pray Love, and an arc on the series United States of Tara.Davis next appeared in the box office hit 2011 big screen adaptation of Kathryn Sockett 's period novel The Help, garnering still more praise as well as Best Actress nominations from the Academy, BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild. Her performance was still making waves when the critics began lauding her agian, this time for her role in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that same year.

Trivia: A native of bucolic Rigaud, Quebec, Canadian import actress Amanda Walsh entered show business courtesy of the MTV equivalent MuchMusic, on which she held sway as the network's youngest VJ up through that time. From that post, the photogenic Walsh both interviewed superstars such as Janet Jackson and Lindsay Lohan and performed in her own filmed sketches. By the mid-2000s, Walsh began to branch out into television and feature work, maintaining a particularly high profile as Jenna Halbert on Saturday Night Live progenitor Lorne Michaels's sitcom Sons & Daughters (2006). She moved into film with a small supporting role in D.J. Caruso's smash hit thriller Disturbia (2007), then signed for yet another supporting turn in the fantasy-themed romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, opposite Michael Douglas and Jennifer Garner.

Trivia: Of Irish and Scottish descent.Grew up in a Catholic home.A member of Clan Wallace and descendant of Scottish patriot William Wallace.His ancestor, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was one of the signers of The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.An experienced acting coach, has developed his own camera acting classes curriculum, and has taught and given seminars at many universities, including California State University Dominguez Hills, Richland College in Richland, Texas, and Concordia University in Montreal.