Trivia: First making an impression on international audiences with her role as the sweet, virginal Hero in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993), pale-skinned, fine-boned British actress Kate Beckinsale has since stepped beyond period pieces to prove that she is anything but a fragile English rose.The daughter of a BBC casting director and famed television actor Richard Beckinsale (known for roles on Porridge and Rising Damp), Beckinsale was born July 26, 1973. After her father's death from a heart attack in 1979, the actress was raised by her mother. By her own account, Beckinsale's childhood and adolescence were fairly troubled, marked by struggles with anorexia. She decided to follow in her father's acting footsteps while still a teenager and in 1991, had her major television debut in Once Against the Wind, a World War II drama in which she played Judy Davis' daughter. The same year, Beckinsale enrolled at Oxford, to study French and Russian Literature, and pursued her education until committing herself full-time to acting. In 1993, while still a student at Oxford, Beckinsale was cast in Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. Her supporting role was a memorable one, winning the actress a limited amount of recognition amongst American audiences, but it was not until 1995, when she starred in John Schlesinger's adaptation of Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, that her wattage began to increase, at least in art houses everywhere. The film, which was initially made for BBC television, proved to be a modest hit, bringing in respectable box office and glowing reviews. Beckinsale followed the film's success with another two years later, starring as an altruistic con artist in the quirky romantic comedy Shooting Fish. The film was an unqualified hit in its native country, becoming the third-highest grossing film in England for 1997. The same year, Beckinsale further increased her visibility with the title role in A&E's Emma.She next graced American movie screens in Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (1998). She received good reviews for her portrayal of a cool and catty WASP college graduate (for which she assumed an American accent), although the movie itself met with a deeply mixed reaction. The following year, Beckinsale, in addition to giving birth to a daughter (fathered by longtime boyfriend Michael Sheen), starred in her first big-budget Hollywood feature. Playing opposite Claire Danes in Brokedown Palace, the actress portrayed an American girl who, while on vacation with best friend Danes in Thailand, gets caught with heroin and is sentenced to 33 years in a Thai prison.That mid-budgeted film, however, was nothing compared to her next major Hollywood production. After essaying roles in a television production of Alice Through the Looking Glass (1999) and the Merchant/Ivory production of Henry James' The Golden Bowl (2000), Beckinsale was plucked from relative obscurity by director Michael Bay for his lavish World War II epic, Pearl Harbor (2001). Boasting a record-setting, nine-digit price tag and one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns ever waged on the American public, the film featured the actress as Evelyn, a plucky nurse torn between the affections of two soldiers. Though a brief foray into Laurel Canyon found Beckinsale essaying the low-key role of a Harvard graduate gone astray after a taste of the wild side of life, she once again shifted into high gear for the big-budget vampire versus werewolf battle royal Underworld in 2003. Sporting the sort of gothic vinyl duds that had fanboys crooning, Beckinsale raised arms against a brutal breed of lycanthropes and few could argue that she didn't look good doing it. So good, in fact, that not only a sequel but a prequel followed.Soon thereafter the starlet was once again doing battle with the undead (opposite X-Men's Hugh Jackman) in the action horror adventure Van Helsing. At the end of 2004, Beckinsale turned in a solid performance as Ava Gardner in Martin Scorsese's multiple Oscar-winning Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. While she would be out of theaters in 2005, Beckinsale returned in two very different projects the following year. In addition to starring in another Underworld, Beckinsale portrayed Adam Sandler's wife in the comedy Click. She would focus largely on action movies and thrillers for her next several projects, starring in Fragments in 2008, Whiteout in 2009, and Contraband in 2012, and also returned to the Underworld series and appeared in aTotal Recall remake. In 2015, she starred in Absolutely Anything, a British sci-fi comedy directed by Monty Pythoner Terry Jones, before jumping back to the Underworld for the fifth film in the series.

Trivia: As the object of Keri Russell's affections on the WB Network's TV series Felicity, Scott Speedman displays a laid-back charm that has helped him win over critics and viewers. More than a few fans of the show, upon first glimpsing the handsome actor, could understand why Felicity, in the storyline that formed the show's premise, would follow his character across the entire country.Born in London, England on September 1, 1975 to Scottish parents, Speedman was raised in Toronto. In high school, he began acting on a dare from a girlfriend. He appeared on Speaker's Corner, a Canadian version of an MTV show in which people paid money to air their views on television. Speedman caught the attention of one of the show's directors, who encouraged him to audition for the role of Robin in the upcoming Batman Forever (1995). Speedman did so and failed to get the part, but he did manage to get an agent in the process.Speedman acted in a number of Canadian television shows and spent a year at the University of Toronto, where he was an avid swimmer (he once aspired to swim for the Canadian team). After dropping out of the university, Speedman got his first film role in Kitchen Party, a Canadian film released in 1997. More lackluster work in television followed until Speedman, his career at a low, went to Manhattan to audition for the upcoming show Felicity. The show's creators were taken with his performance, and Speedman was soon living in Los Angeles, where the show was filmed. The positive attention that followed Felicity's debut made him and his co-stars the subjects of numerous interviews, articles, and websites, and gave Speedman the opportunities that he once could only dream of during his days of purgatory in Canadian television. Shortly after an appearance in the little seen 2000 comedy drama Duets, Speedman hit the big time when cast opposite Kurt Russell in the police detective thriler Dark Blue (2003). Though he did prove convincing in his role as a slightly naive LAPD homicide detective, the film quickly faded from sight at the box office and his commendable performance went largely unnoticed. His subsequent role in the romantic drama My Life Without Me once again showed his ability to carry a dramatic performance, but later that same year the up and coming actor nevertheless threw all dramatics out the window for a role as one of the sole humans in a neverending battle between vampires and werewolves. In the years to come, Smith would remain active on screen, appearing in films like The Moth Diaries and on the series Last Resort.

Trivia: Accomplished British actor Michael Sheen was born in Wales and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. As a performer at the Royal National Theatre as well as on Broadway, some of his theatrical credits include Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger, Henry V in Henry V, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus. In 1993 he made his television debut as a mentally challenged abandoned kid in the BBC miniseries Gallowglass. His made his feature-film debut two years later as Loco Oliver Parker's Othello, followed by a small part in Stephen Frears' Mary Reilly. Perhaps his best-known role to U.S. audiences was his portrayal of Robbie Ross, the close personal friend of literary icon Oscar Wilde (played by Stephen Fry) in Wilde (1997). As a voice actor, Sheen has read several of Wilde's works and other works of classic literature for Naxos Audio Books. He's also contributed to many programs for BBC Radio 4 and World Service. After he and actress Kate Beckinsale had their first child, he starred in the independent drama Heartlands and made a small appearance in the Victorian-era adventure The Four Feathers. In 2003 he was cast as werewolf leader Lucien in Len Wiseman's action fantasy Underworld, with Beckinsale starring as the vampire warrior on the opposing side of an immortal battle. The same year he completed work on sci-fi adventure Timeline, the stylish period film Bright Young Things, and the romantic comedy Laws of Attraction.He continued to work steadily, but enjoyed his biggest breakthrough returning to the role of Tony Blair for director Stephen Frears when he played opposite Helen Mirren in The Queen. Two years later he would play David Frost to Frank Langella's Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, a part he played on stage as well. He had a memorable turn as football manager Brian Clough in the sports drama The Damned United, and played Tony Blair again in the made for cable The Special Relationship. He became part of the Twilight series, taking the part of Aro in New Moon, and sticking with the franchise all the way through to the conclusion.In 2011 he played a pontificating intellectual in Woody Allen's Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris, and two years later he appeared opposite Tina Fey and Paul Rudd in the comedy Admission. In 2013, he began a starring role in Showtime's Masters of Sex, playing human sexuality researcher William Masters.

Trivia: Born in Belfast, intensely handsome actor Shane Brolly comes from a family of Irish actors, although he's done most of his film work in the U.S. He started his career in made-for-cable crime dramas in the late '90s. After some independent films, he played a small role in the sci-fi thriller Impostor, based on a story by Philip K. Dick. In 2002, he starred as the billionaire playboy Henry Brooke in Zalman King's erotic Showtime TV series Chromiumblue.com. As the owner of the yacht "Chromium Blue," his character leads stylish women and men onto his pleasure ship to fulfill their sexual fantasies. The show was made into a feature film of the same name in 2003. The same year, he seemed fit to play the aristocratic vampire leader Kraven in Len Wiseman's action fantasy Underworld.

Trivia: BAFTA-winning veteran actor Bill Nighy gained international recognition in 2003 thanks to his role as a Keith Richards-esque former rock star in the hit romantic comedy Love Actually. Nighy had remained a relatively obscure figure even in his native England until a memorable turn as a controversial politician in series three of the acclaimed television comedy drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet found him finally thrust into the spotlight in 2002. A Caterham, Surrey native, Nighy excelled in English language and literature early on; however, even though his journalistic instincts were strong, his lack of education prevented him from a career in the media. Work as a bike messenger for Field Magazine helped the aspiring writer keep his toes in the business, and a suggestion by his girlfriend that Nighy try his hand at acting eventually prompted him to enroll in the Guildford School of Dance and Drama. As the gears began to turn and his career as an actor started to gain momentum, Nighy was encouraged to stick with the craft after landing a series of small roles. Though British television provided Nighy with most of his early exposure, supporting roles in such features as Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) and The Phantom of the Opera (1989) found the actor honing his skills and laying the groundwork for future feature success. Though Nighy stuck almost exclusively to the small screen in the early '90s, his supporting role in the 1993 Robin Williams film Being Human seemed to mark the beginning of a new stage in his career, focusing mainly on features. A part in the 1997 film Fairy Tale: A True Story found Nighy climbing the credits, and the following year he joined an impressive cast including Timothy Spall, Stephen Rea, and Billy Connolly in the rock comedy Still Crazy. It was his role in Still Crazy that gained Nighy his widest recognition to date -- earning the up-and-coming actor the Peter Sellers Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy Performance. Nighy's role as a conflicted husband who embarks on a heated extramarital affair in 2001's Lawless Heart continued his impressive career trajectory, and later that same year he would land a role in The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo's jailbreak comedy Lucky Break. A role in the long-running U.K. television series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet finally found Nighy earning some deserved recognition in 2002, and after a winning performance as the patriarch of an eccentric family in I Capture the Castle (2003), he continued to earned even more accolades for his performance in Love Actually. His part as an ancient vampire in the gothic action horror hit Underworld found Nighy's recognition factor rising for mainstream audiences on the other side of the pond, and before jetting into the future with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 2005, the increasingly busy actor would appear in three feature films in 2004, including the horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, Doogal, and Enduring Love. By the time Nighy received an Emmy nomination for his role as a loved-starved civil servant falling for an enigmatic younger woman in the 2005 made-for-television romantic comedy-drama The Girl in the Café, television fans in both the U.S. and the U.K. knew well of Nighy's impressive range as an actor. Yet another small-screen role in that same year's Gideon's Daughter allowed Nighy a chance to play a serious role once again. Playing a burned-out PR agent who is forced to reevaluate his life when his adult daughter threatens to cease all contact with him, Nighy gave a performance that moved critics and audiences alike, later earning him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie. Soon the actor was venturing into lands of fantasy once again, however, reprising his role as Viktor in Underworld: Evolution, and taking to the high seas as the legendary squid-faced sailor Davy Jones (captain of the Flying Dutchman) in director Gore Verbinski's big-budget summer extravaganza Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. That film, of course, became a predictable sensation (it grossed over one billion dollars worldwide) and (more than any of Nighy's prior efforts) launched the British actor into the public spotlight for audiences of all ages, who were understandably impressed with the presence he was able to exude onscreen despite the layers of makeup and CG it took to make him into a squid-man.Nighy stayed the course of big-budget fantasy, with a turn as Alan Blunt in that same year's Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker, then signed on for another turn as Davy Jones in 2007's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, co-starring this time with the inspiration for some of his previous characters, Keith Richards. Nighy would spend the next several years appearing in such acclaimed films as Valkyrie, Pirate Radio, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.Nighy has maintained a life partnership with veteran British stage and screen actress Diana Quick since 1981. Though the two don't subscribe to the legal institution of marriage (much like long-standing Hollywood couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon), Nighy has been known to refer to Quick as his wife simply to avoid confusion. The couple's daughter, Mary Nighy, was born in 1984 and is also an actress.

Trivia: A conservative, bourgeois vicar's daughter who reportedly made a concerted effort to avoid errant behavior as a young woman, the refined and genteel British actress Sophia Myles paradoxically found herself typecast, throughout her early years, in rebellious and "edgy" roles. Myles specialized in tackling parts in adaptations of the classics, and was particularly memorable, for example, as Agnes Fleming in Oliver Twist (1999), Kate in Nicholas Nickleby (2000), and Isolde in Tristan & Isolde (2005). With Myles' transition to Hollywood material, she branched out into more conventional buttered-popcorn fare, such as the effects-heavy sci-fi opuses Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Outlander (2008), and similarly essayed one of the main roles on the fantasy television series Moonlight (2007), playing a beautiful investigative reporter whose life is saved by the program's vampiric lead character. In the years to come, Myles would continue to find success on the small screen, particularly with the British series MI-5.

Trivia: The strikingly handsome and refined British actor Wentworth Miller gained his greatest notoriety as Michael Scofield on the Fox network's serial drama Prison Break. Born June 2, 1972, in Chipping Norton, England, as the son of a Rhodes Scholar, Miller moved to Brooklyn with his parents as a boy; his family relocated to Pennsylvania's Quaker country during Miller's adolescence. After high school, Miller attended Princeton University and studied English, but -- despite a love of acting that he had harbored since boyhood -- he reportedly gravitated away from drama in the pro-business atmosphere of the university. Following graduation, Miller moved to Los Angeles and held down jobs as an assistant at a film production company and a bookstore clerk while he gradually realized his own desire to act and started attending auditions. He debuted before the cameras in a one-episode role, as Gage Petronzi on the hit syndicated series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and landed another one-time stint as Mike Palmieri on ER. But he was poised to break through to more prominent roles with his turn in the 2003 Robert Benton-directed, Nicholas Meyer-scripted drama The Human Stain. That picture casts Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk, a Negro who has spent all his life passing as a Jew; Miller plays the young Silk, and delivers some of the most effective scenes in the film. (One memorable bit has him climbing into the boxing ring and beating a black opponent senseless, out of self hatred). Unfortunately, despite outstanding craftsmanship and winning performances all around, the public mysteriously rejected The Human Stain, and thus inadvertently held Miller back from A-list stardom. (The critics were particularly vicious about Miller's inclusion in the film -- The New York Times' A.O. Scott unfairly complained that Miller looked nothing like Hopkins, and cynically remarked that his juxtaposition alongside coal-black parents reminded one of Steve Martin in The Jerk). Miller's determination doubled, however, and he became notoriously selective, even turning down less esteemed roles to hold out for more respected films and parts. The gamble paid off: after a solid turn as Dr. Adam Lockwood in the sci-fi action thriller Underworld (2003) and a best-forgotten contribution to the embarrassing action thriller Stealth (2005) -- as the voice of the computer EDI -- the thesp landed second billing on Prison Break. His Michael Scofield is a structural engineer whose brother Lincoln sits on death row in a local penitentiary, for a crime he did not commit. Armed with a full blueprint of the prison and an outrageously complex escape plan, Michael commits a crime to have himself incarcerated and assist his brother with a breakout. The program premiered in late 2005 to solid ratings; Variety observed of the program: "Thus far, easily the most compelling element is Miller, who with his steely intensity conveys a guy capable of outwitting, outlasting, and outplaying whatever the prison and its gruff warden (Stacy Keach, billed as a guest star) can throw at him."

Trivia: With an inspiring fan-boy-makes-good backstory that proves a testament to the old adage about hard work and dedication paying off in the long run, Underworld writer/star Kevin Grevioux went from comic book-collecting bouncer to Hollywood hot property by bringing the vampire versus werewolf action-horror hybrid Underworld to the big screen in 2003. Though movie lovers may not yet recognize his name, chances are you've seen his face in such efforts as The Mask and Men in Black II. Born in Chicago, Grevioux's somewhat nomadic childhood found him and his family frequently moving from city to city. It was around the age of 11 that Grevioux developed an enduring addiction to comic books, and though the self-professed "Marvel zombie" could often be found escaping into lovingly framed flights of fancy by such legends as Stan Lee, his Harvard-educated parents influenced him to relegate his favorite pastime to a hobby and pursue a more sensible career in microbiology at Howard University. It was while studying genetic engineering in grad school (and working nights as a bouncer to support himself) that Grevioux found his mind constantly wandering into comic book fantasies, and when his writing began to interfere with his scientific studies, he abandoned grad school to chase his dreams to Hollywood. Initially writing by night and educating himself in the business of movies by day, work as an extra on the film Stargate found Grevioux making the acquaintance of aspiring director Len Wiseman -- then working as a prop boy. The two genre fans hit it off immediately, and it wasn't long before they were collaborating on what initially was going to be a simple werewolf film. As Grevioux hit the books to research the history of lycanthropes, his comic book and science backgrounds collided, and the story eventually became a racial allegory with vampires and werewolves locked in a never-ending struggle for power. In the end, Grevioux not only served as a writer for the film, but one of the main werewolves as well; his background in bouncing and stunts providing the required physical groundwork. Though Grevioux had been appearing in such capacity -- as well as minor supporting roles -- since his feature debut in 1994's Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Underworld proved to be the Hollywood breakthrough he had been looking for. The film was such a success that both a prequel and a sequel were immediately green-lighted for production. That same year, Grevioux lived out a childhood dream by providing stunt work for the long-awaited feature The Hulk.

Trivia: Something of a modern-day Renaissance man, the multitalented Danny McBride began as an actor, in outings such as the Mel Brooks spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and The Hidden 2 (1994) ,and also did frequent work as a stuntman. He branched out into different areas in a major way as the co-screenwriter, associate producer, and second unit director of the sci-fi movie Underworld (2003), an action-packed, über-gothic vampires vs. werewolves saga headlined by Kate Beckinsale that lit up the international box office. He capitalized on the success of this outing by executive producing, scripting, and co-authoring the story of the sequel, Underworld: Evolution (2006), also a monetary winner, and one that essentially reprised the story of the first film. He is not to be confused with Danny R. McBride, the character actor frequently associated with Jody Hill and Judd Apatow, who worked at about the same time and appeared in such films as Pineapple Express (2008), Observe and Report (2009), and 30 Minutes or Less. McBride would also find tremendous success on the series Eastbown & Down.