Trivia: Once relegated to decorative parts for years and long acknowledged as the wife of Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman spent the latter half of the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium earning much-deserved critical respect. Standing a willowy 5'11" and sporting one of Hollywood's most distinctive heads of frizzy red hair, the Australian actress first entered the American mindset with her role opposite Cruise in Days of Thunder (1990), but it wasn't until she starred as a homicidal weather girl in Gus Van Sant's 1995 To Die For that she achieved recognition as a thespian of considerable range and talent. Though many assume that the heavily-accented Kidman hails from down under, she was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 20, 1967, to Australian parents. Her family, who lived on the island because of a research project that employed Kidman's biochemist father, then moved to Washington, D.C. for the next three years. After her father's project reached completion, Nicole and her family returned to Australia.Raised in the upper-middle-class Sydney suburb of Longueville for the remainder of the 1970s and well into the eighties, Kidman grew up infused with a love of the arts, particularly dance and theatre. Kidman took refuge in the theater, and landed her first professional role at the age of 14, when she starred in Bush Christmas (1983), a TV movie about a group of kids who band together with an Aborigine to find their stolen horse. Brian Trenchard-Smith's BMX Bandits (1983) -- an adventure film/teen movie -- followed , with Kidman as the lead character, Judy; it opened to solid reviews. Kidman then worked for the gifted John Duigan (The Winter of Our Dreams, Romero) twice, first as one of the two adolescent leads of the Duigan-directed "Room to Move" episode of the Australian TV series Winners (1985) and, more prestigiously, as the star of Duigan's acclaimed miniseries Vietnam (1987).In 1988, Kidman got another major break when she was tapped to star in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm (1989). A psychological thriller about a couple (Kidman and Sam Neill) who are terrorized by a young man they rescue from a sinking ship (Billy Zane), the film helped to establish the then-21-year-old Kidman as an actress of considerable mettle. That same year, her starring performance in the made-for-TV Bangkok Hilton further bolstered her reputation. By now a rising star in Australia, Kidman began to earn recognition across the Pacific. In 1989, Tom Cruise picked her for a starring role in her first American feature, Tony Scott's Days of Thunder (1990). The film, a testosterone-saturated drama about a racecar driver (Cruise), cast Kidman as the neurologist who falls in love with him. A sizable hit, it had the added advantage of introducing Kidman to Cruise, whom she married in December of 1990.Following a role as Dustin Hoffman's moll in Robert Benton's Billy Bathgate (1991), and a supporting turn as a snotty boarding school senior in the masterful Flirting (1991), which teamed her with Duigan a third time, Kidman collaborated with Cruise on their second film together, Far and Away (1992). Despite their joint star quality, gorgeous cinematography, and adequate direction by Ron Howard, critics panned the lackluster film.Kidman's subsequent projects, My Life and Malice ( both 1993), were similarly disappointing, despite scattered favorable reviews. Batman Forever (1995), in which she played the hero's love interest, Dr. Chase Meridian, fared somewhat better, but did little in the way of establishing Kidman as a serious actress even as it raked in mile-high returns at the summer box office. Kidman finally broke out of her window-dressing typecasting when Gus Van Sant enlisted her to portray the ruthless protagonist of To Die For (1995). Directed from a Buck Henry script, this uber-dark comedy casts Kidman as Suzanne Stone, a television broadcaster ready and eager to commit one homicide after another to propel herself to the top. Displaying a gift for impeccable comic timing, she earned Golden Globe and National Broadcast Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress. Further critical praise greeted Kidman's performance as Isabel Archer in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady. Now regarded as one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, Kidman starred opposite George Clooney in the big-budget action extravaganza The Peacemaker (1997) and opposite Sandra Bullock in the frothy Practical Magic (1998). In 1999, Kidman starred in one of her most controversial films to date, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's Traumnovelle and cloaked in secrecy from the beginning of its production, the film also stars Cruise as Kidman's physician husband. During the spring and summer of 1999, the media unsurprisingly hyped the couple's onscreen pairing as the two major selling points. However, despite an added measure of intrigue from Kubrick's death only weeks after shooting wrapped, Eyes Wide Shut repeated the performance of prior Kubrick efforts by opening to a radically mixed reaction.As the new millennium arrived, problems began to erupt between Kidman and Tom Cruise; divorce followed soon after, and the tabloids swirled with talk of new relationships for the both of them. She concurrently plunged into a string of daring, eccentric film roles much edgier than what she had done before. The trend began with a role in Jez Butterworth's Birthday Girl (2001) as a Russian mail order bride, and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (2001), which cast her, in the lead, as a courtesan in a 19th century Paris hopped up with late 20th century pop songs. The picture dazzled some and alienated others, but once again, journalists flocked to Kidman's side.Following this success (the picture gleaned a Best Picture nod but failed to win), Kidman gained even more positive notice for her turn as an icy mother after the key to a dark mystery in Alejandro Amenabar's spooky throwback, The Others. When the 59th Annual Golden Globe Awards finally arrived, Kidman received nominations for her memorable performances in both films. Though it couldn't have been any further from her flamboyant turn in Moulin Rouge, Kidman's camouflaged role as Virginia Woolf in the following year's The Hours (2002) (she wears little makeup and a prosthetic nose), for which she delivered a mesmerizing and haunting performance, kept the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations steadily flowing in for the acclaimed actress. The fair-haired beauty finally snagged the Best Actress Oscar that had been so elusive the year before. Post-Oscar, Kidman continued to take on challenging work. She played the lead role in Lars von Trier's Dogville, although she declined to continue in Von Trier's planned trilogy of films about that character. She swung for the Oscar fences again in 2003 as the female lead in Cold Mountain, but it was co-star Renee Zellweger who won the statuette that year. Kidman did solid work for Jonathan Glazer in the Jean-Claude Carriere-penned Birth, as a woman revisited by the incarnation of her dead husband in a small child's body, but stumbled with a pair of empty-headed comedies, Frank Oz's The Stepford Wives and Nora Ephron's Bewitched (both 2005), that her skills could not save. She worked with Sean Penn in the political thriller The Interpreter in 2005. For the most part, Kidman continued to stretch herself with increasingly demanding and arty roles throughout 2006. In Steven Shainberg's Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Kidman plays controversial housewife-cum-photographer Diane Arbus. Meanwhile, Kidman returned to popcorn pictures by playing Mrs. Coulter in Chris Weitz's massive, $150-million fantasy adventure The Golden Compass (2007), adapted from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series of books. She also headlined the sci-fi thriller The Invasion, a loose remake of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Also in 2007, Kidman teamed up with Noah Baumbach for a starring role as a supremely dysfunctional mother in Margot at the Wedding (2007). The actress then set out to recapture her Moulin Rouge musical success with a turn in director Rob Marshall's 8 1/2 remake Nine (2009), teamed up with indie cause-célèbre John Cameron Mitchell and Aaron Eckhart for the psychologically-charged domestic drama Rabbit Hole (2010), and starred opposite Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in the Dennis Dugan-helmed comedy Go With It (2011). Kidman would spend the next few years continuing her high level of activity, appearing in movies like Trespass and The Paperboy.

Trivia: British actor Daniel Craig grew up in Liverpool before moving to London and studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He made his film debut in The Power of One, directed by John G. Avildsen. A few made-for-TV movies followed before his role of Master Kane in the Disney adventure A Kid in King Arthur's Court. Returning to the U.K., he starred in the miniseries Our Friends in the North, the four-part series Moll Flanders, and the TV mystery The Ice House. In 1997 he worked with German director Peter Sehr on Obsession where he met his future girlfriend, German actress/VJ Heike Makatsch. His first leading role in the U.K. came in 1998 with his portrayal of George Dyer, the intimate friend of painter Francis Bacon (played by Derek Jacobi) in John Maybury's Love Is the Devil. Other leading roles followed in the U.K. films Love & Rage, The Trench, Some Voices, and Hotel Splendide. In Hollywood, he had smaller roles in I Dreamed of Africa, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Road to Perdition. In 2002, he played the German physicist Werner Heisenberg in the BBC historical drama Copenhagen. His first mainstream leading role came in 2003 as Ted Hughes, the partner of Sylvia Plath (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) in Christine Jeffs' Sylvia. In 2004, he can be seen in the U.K. films Layer Cake and Enduring Love.

Trivia: Sprightly British actress Dakota Blue Richards achieved her first major cinematic coup as eloquently named Lyra Belacqua, heroine of the effects-heavy fantasy extravaganza The Golden Compass (2007). The story -- adapted from the best-selling novel by Philip Pullman -- finds 12-year-old Lyra journeying into a stunning fantasy world to rescue her best friend, a world that encompasses "dæmons," witches, massive polar bears, and all sorts of other stunning beings. She would next star in another fantasy-novel adaptation, The Moon Princess, as Maria Merryweather.

Trivia: Through a cruel twist of fate, American actor Sam Elliott came to films at just the point that the sort of fare in which he should have thrived was dying at the box office. A born cowboy star if ever there was one, the stage-trained Elliot made his debut in a tiny role in the 1969 western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Within a few years, the western market had disappeared, and Elliot had to settle for standard good-guy roles in such contemporary films as Lifeguard (1976). Never tied down to any one type, Elliot's range has embraced sexy "other men" (Sibling Rivalry [1989]) and vicious rapist/murderers (the TV movie A Death in California [1986]). Still, one yearned to see Elliot playing frontiersmen; fortunately, the western genre had not completely disappeared on television, and Elliot was well-served with such hard-riding projects as The Sacketts (1977), I Will Fight No More Forever (1981), The Shadow Riders (1982), Houston: The Legend of Texas (1986) and Conagher (1991), in which he appeared with his wife, actress Katherine Ross. When westerns began showing up on the big screen again in the 1990s, Elliot was there, prominently cast as Virgil Earp in Tombstone (1993) and the made-for-cable sagebrusher The Desperate Trail (1995). Awarded Bronze Wrangler trophies for his involvement in Conagher, The Hi-Lo Country, and You Know My Name, Elliot also made an impression on Cohen Brothers fans with a memorable performance as the laid back Stranger in the cult hit The Big Lebowski. A featured role in the 2000 made for television remake Fail Safe found Elliot hanging up his duster to revisit rising Cold War tensions, and later that same year he would finally make the leap into the new millennium with his role as a presidential aid in Rod Lurie's Oscar-nominated hit The Contender. Rewarded with a double hernia as a result of his intense training efforts to prepare for a role in the 2002 Vietnam War drama We Were Soldiers, the then fifty-seven-year-old endured the pain through the entire production and put of surgery until shooting had wrapped. Though Elliot would remain in the armed forces to portray a military general hell-bent on destroying the Hulk in 2003, his onscreen authority would weaken somewhat when he was cast as a cancer-riddled Marlboro Man in the 2005 comedy Thank You for Smoking. After traveling to the far corners of the globe to carry out a little vigilante justice in the 2006 made for television thriller Avenger, Elliot would next break a little new ground by venturing into the world of animation by lending his distinctive voice to the character of Ben the Cow in Steve Oedekerk's rural family romp Barnyard. He co-starred with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in The Golden Compass (2007), a film adaptation of the first installment of the wildly successful book series from author Philip Pullman. In 2009 he took on a role in the award winning comedy drama Up in the Air, and co-starred as an eccentric billionaire in director Tony Krantz's The Big Bang in 2011. He joined Robert Redford and Julie Christie to play a supporting role in 2012's comedy drama The Company You Keep.

Trivia: Born July 5th, 1980, Eva Green eventually became a rare example of an actress who begun her career well into her adult life. Her first feature-film role was the female lead in Bernardo Bertolucci's 2003 erotic drama The Dreamers, when she was 22. Green made quite an impression with her debut performance, working with a legendary director and appearing in so many nude and/or sexually explicit scenes that the film originally received an NC-17 rating. The young actress was praised for her tremendous presence onscreen, and the delicateness with which she portrayed both fierceness and vulnerability. Audiences, perhaps inescapably, also noted her exquisite beauty, as well as the ease with which she brought her own sensuality to the sexually charged film, never compromising her character in the process. Achieving such exposure (so to speak) at the very beginning of her film career, Green was in no hurry to become a superstar. For her next role, she starred alongside Kristin Scott Thomas in the French adventure Arsene Lupin, a modest, low-profile project. Her next film, however, Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, was anticipated to be the big-budget blockbuster of its season. While Green's performance as Sybilla of Jerusalem was respectable, the film was panned by critics and audiences alike. This hardly effected Green, who continued to take interest in whatever films appealed to her, rather than those that promised to advance her career. She signed on to take part in the fantasy film The Golden Compass, alongside the likes of Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, but before filming began for this niche adventure, she would appear with Craig in another film, and one much more mainstream. Taking the role of Bond girl Vesper Lynd in 2006's hotly anticipated Casino Royale, Green added tremendous vivacity to an effort that promised to breath new life into the James Bond franchise, as the film marked not only her first foray into the action genre, but the first film with Craig in the role of 007. As fans and critics speculated over whether the actor would be a good fit, only enthusiasm swelled around anticipation of Green's performance, as the actress's onscreen combination of intellect and sex appeal left little doubt about her capacity as a femme fatale.In 2011, the actress took on the role of sorceress Morgan in the television fantasy drama series Camelot, and co-starred with Johnny Depp in filmmaker Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.

Trivia: After several years in secondary film roles, the skeletal, menacing Christopher Lee achieved horror-flick stardom as the Monster in 1958's The Curse of Frankenstein, the second of his 21 Hammer Studios films. Contrary to popular belief, Lee and Peter Cushing did not first appear together in The Curse of Frankenstein. In Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing plays the minor role of Osric, Lee appears as the cadaverous candle-bearer in the "frighted with false fires" scene, one of his first film roles. In 1958, Lee made his inaugural appearance as "the Count" in The Horror of Dracula, with Cushing as Van Helsing. It would remain the favorite of Lee's Dracula films; the actor later noted that he was grateful to be allowed to convey "the sadness of the character. The terrible sentence, the doom of immortality...."Three years after Curse, Lee added another legendary figure to his gallery of characters: Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist of Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes. With the release eight years later of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Lee became the first actor ever to portray both Holmes and Holmes' brother, Mycroft, onscreen. Other Lee roles of note include the title characters in 1959's The Mummy and the Fu Manchu series of the '60s, and the villainous Scaramanga in the 1974 James Bond effort The Man With the Golden Gun. In one brilliant casting coup, the actor was co-starred with fellow movie bogeymen Cushing, Vincent Price, and John Carradine in the otherwise unmemorable House of Long Shadows (1982). Established as a legend in his own right, Lee continued working steadily throughout the '80s and '90s, appearing in films ranging from Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) to Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999).In 2001, after appearing in nearly 300 film and television productions and being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the international star with the most screen credits to his name, the 79-year-old actor undertook the role of Saruman, chief of all wizards, in director Peter Jackson's eagerly anticipated screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Thought by many to be the millennial predecessor to George Lucas' Star Wars franchise, audiences thrilled to the wondrous battle between Saruman and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) atop the wizard's ominous tower, though Lee didn't play favorites between the franchises when Lucas shot back with the continuing saga of Anakin Skywalker's journey to the dark side in mid-2002. Wielding a lightsaber against one of the most powerful adversaries in the Star Wars canon, Lee proved that even at 80 he still had what it takes to be a compelling and demanding screen presence. He lent his vocal talents to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride in 2005, and appeared as the father of Willy Wonka in the same director's adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic. He appeared as Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith, and voiced the part for the animated Clone Wars. He appeared in the quirky British film Burke & Hare in 2010, and the next year he could be seen Martin Scorsese's Hugo. In 2012 he teamed with Tim Burton yet again when he appeared in the big-screen adaptation of Dark Shadows.Now nearly into 90s, Lee returned to Middle Earth in 2012 with Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, appearing in the first (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) and third (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) films. He also reprised the role in a number of video games based on the two series. Lee was still actively working when he died in 2015, at age 93.

Trivia: Actor Tom Courtenay studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his theatrical debut in the Old Vic production of The Seagull in 1960; in 1961 he took over Albert Finney's role in Billy Liar, a part he would later play in the film version. In his first British film, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), he made a big impression on audiences and critics alike. Courtenay went on to play numerous lead roles in American and British films, often as a misunderstood, underprivileged, nonconformist youth. He was nominated for a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar for his work in Doctor Zhivago (1965) and for a "Best Actor" Oscar for The Dresser (1983). His screen career mysteriously came to a near-halt after 1971, but he continued to succeed as a stage actor, making his belated Broadway debut in 1977's Otherwise Engaged. He is married to stage actress Cheryl Kennedy.

Trivia: One of Britain's most distinguished stage performers, Derek Jacobi is one of two actors (the other being Laurence Olivier) to hold both Danish and English knighthoods. Primarily known for his work on the stage, he has also made a number of films and remains best-known to television audiences for his stunning portrayal of the titular Roman emperor in I, Claudius.Born in Leytonstone, East London, on October 22, 1938, Jacobi was raised with a love of film, and he began performing on the stage while attending an all-boys school. Thanks to the school's single sex population, his first roles with the drama club -- until his voice broke -- were all female. It was with one of his first male roles that Jacobi earned his first measure of acclaim: playing Hamlet in a school production staged at the 1957 Edinburgh Festival, he made enough of an impression that he was approached by an agent from Twentieth Century Fox. Ultimately deemed too young to be signed to the studio, Jacobi instead went to Cambridge University, where he studied history and continued acting. His stage work at Cambridge was prolific and allowed him to work with classmates Ian McKellen and Trevor Nunn, and, thanks to his performance as Edward II, landed him his first job after graduation. Jacobi acted with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre until his portrayal of Henry VIII attracted the attention of Laurence Olivier. Olivier was so impressed with Jacobi's work that he invited him to London to become one of the eight founding members of the prestigious National Theatre.Jacobi went on to become one of his country's most steadily employed and respected actors, performing in numerous plays over the years on both sides of the Atlantic (in 1985, he won a Tony Award for his work in Much Ado About Nothing). He also branched out into film and television, making his film debut with a secondary role in Douglas Sirk's Interlude (1957). He acted in numerous film adaptations of classic plays, including Othello (1965) and The Three Sisters (1970). However, it was through his collaborations with Kenneth Branagh on various screen adaptations of Shakespeare that he became most visible to an international film audience, appearing as the Chorus in Branagh's acclaimed 1989 Henry V and as Claudius in the director's 1996 full-length adaptation of Hamlet. Jacobi made one of his most memorable (to say nothing of terrifying) screen impressions in Branagh's Hitchcock-inspired Dead Again (1991), portraying a hypnotist with a very shady background. In 1998, Jacobi earned more recognition with his portrayal of famed painter Francis Bacon in John Maybury's controversial Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon.On television, in addition to his celebrated work in I, Claudius, Jacobi has also earned praise for his roles in a number of other productions. In 1989, he won an Emmy for his performance in the 1988 adaptation of Graham Greene's The Tenth Man.In 1994 he began a successful run as a mystery-solving monk in the TV series Cadfael, a program that ran for three years. He had a Shakespeare heavy 1996 playing Claudius opposite Branagh's Hamlet, and appearing in Al Pacino's documentary Looking for Richard. He lent his voice to the animated version of Beowulf. He began the new century appearing in the Best Picture winner Gladiator, and was part of the rich ensemble compiled by Robert Altman for Gosford Park. In 2005 he was in the cast of the hit children's film Nanny McPhee, and two years later he was in The Golden Compass. In 2010 he appeared in another Oscar winning best picture when he was in The King's Speech. The next year he appeared in Anonymous as well as My Week With Marilyn.

Trivia: Englishman Simon McBurney enjoyed two distinct phases of his screen career; he began as a character player, who excelled at playing ruddy-faced, wizened, vaguely sinister types, often of a European or Eastern European origin. His resumé -- in this capacity -- includes such films as Kafka (1991), Eisenstein (as the famous Russian director), and Jonathan Demme's political thriller remake The Manchurian Candidate (2004). As of 2007, however, McBurney shifted gears somewhat by stepping behind the camera, when he executive produced and authored the screen story of the Rowan Atkinson vehicle Mr. Bean's Holiday.

Trivia: Was head boy of his high school in his final year. Left the University of Sussex after two years to join a fringe theatre group called the Brighton Combination. Performed with the Madhouse Company of London, a comedy troupe, during the 1970s. Attended a circus school in New York during the 1970s, where he learned to walk the tightrope, ride a unicycle, juggle and perform magic. Met wife Imelda Staunton when they were both cast in a 1982 production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal National Theatre in London. They later worked together in a production of The Wizard of Oz; he was the Cowardly Lion to her Dorothy. Serves as chairman of the Hampstead Cricket Club.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from 1969.

Trivia: During WWII, her father was an assassin for the Polish resistance. Is of Polish and Scottish descent; moved to Australia with her family in 1966. Met fellow D-Generation alums Michael Veitch and Tom Gleisner in 1983 in the Melbourne University revue Too Cool for Sandals. Was a writer for, and starred in, the sketch-comedy Fast Forward from 1989 to '92; some of her most-popular characters include Pixie-Anne Wheatley and Chenille from Janelle's Beauty Spot. First big-screen role was playing Esme Hoggett in 1995's Babe; reprised the role in the 1998 sequel Babe: Pig in the City. At the 2006 AFI Awards, made out with Heath Ledger on the red carpet while playing one of her most iconic characters, Sharon Strzelecki from Kath & Kim. Was a spokesperson for Jenny Craig from 2009 to '11.

Trivia: Began acting in television commercials and modeling for billboards as a young child. Won Best Supporting Actor at the Los Angeles New Wave International Film Festival for his role in the short film Disco (2010). At 16, became the youngest actor ever cast in a leading role at London's renowned Old Vic Theatre (portraying the title role in the 2013 revival of playwright Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy).

Trivia: Comes from a theatrical background; Laurence Olivier once helped her with her homework at a summer party. Met her fiance Blake Ritson when both were invited to be in a Cambridge Footlights pantomime; she played Little Red Riding Hood. Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001, making her professional theatre debut at Stratford-upon-Avon in Love in a Wood. In 2008, played Clair in Martin Crimp's The City alongside Benedict Cumberbatch at the Royal Court Theatre, London. In 2012, won the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her portrayal of Nora in A Doll's House.

Trivia: Following graduation, established himself as a stage actor but has since achieved considerable experience in films and television. Member of the National Theatre. Initially intended to pursue a career as a PE teacher, but was unable to achieve the requisite grades. Attended RADA at the same time as Ralph Fiennes, Iain Glen and Jane Horrocks. Dedicated his 2015 BAFTA TV Award win to his late daughter, Maude, who died of sepsis at age 2 in 2011. Played Mr. Twit in the Royal Court production of Roald Dahl's The Twits in 2015. Won the Royal Television Society Award in 2016 for the Best Drama Serial The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies. Campaigns for greater awareness of sepsis.

Trivia: British actor and theatrical director John Franklyn-Robbins was primarily involved with performing and helming classic theater. He began appearing in his first films in 1949 and continued to do occasional film work through the early '90s. In 1956, he came to radio where he appeared as an actor, a narrator, and a reader. Franklyn-Robbins also worked on television.

Trivia: At once pixie-ish and masculine with a pair of piercing blue eyes that seem to glow even while under the bright spotlights of Hollywood, former top-list model-turned-actor Ian Somerhalder has the unique looks to make it in both worlds. Add to that an introspective philosophy toward acting, which he claims is a unique opportunity to explore his true inner motivations and feelings, and you have all the ingredients necessary to create one of the most sought-after young actors of the new millennium. A native of Covington, LA, who spent much of his childhood enjoying such outdoor activities as training horses, Somerhalder would soon join up with the school's drama club and make many stage appearances with the local theater group. Encouraged by his mother to pursue a career in modeling, Somerhalder's career was soon ablaze with many summers spent in New York City. Though he would shy away from modeling in junior high school to focus more on academics and athletics, an opportunity to travel Europe while modeling was too much to resist and the worldly youngster was soon posing for the likes of Guess?, Versace, Calvin Klein, and Dolce and Gabanna. Settling in New York at age 17 to devote himself to acting under the tutelage of William Esper proved a fateful move that found the developing thespian eschewing his modeling career entirely. Though his feature debut as an extra in Black and White (1998) would eventually end up on the cutting-room floor, his presence caught the attention of a visiting talent agent who immediately signed Somerhalder for representation. After gaining exposure on the television series The Young Americans (2000), the up-and-comer would appear in the made-for-MTV drama Anatomy of a Hate Crime (also 2000) before returning to features, role fully intact, in 2001's Life as a House. Reluctant to discuss his modeling career lest he be considered just another pretty face, Somerhalder turned up in Changing Hearts (2002) before accepting a prominent role in director Roger Avery's edgy teen drama The Rules of Attraction. But it wasn't until he got Lost on an island in 2004 that Somerhalder found stardom, as he played a plane-crash survivor secretly in love with his spoiled brat of a step-sister. Although his character was killed off in the first season, the time-bending nature of the show didn't rule out appearances in future seasons. Film work followed, as well as a racy (and undressed) role on HBO's Tell Me You Love Me. In 2009, Somerhalder once again landed steady series work, playing a not-so-nice vampire on the CW's hit Vampire Diaries. Off-screen, he is an animal lover and has even filmed PSAs for Louisiana's Humane Society.

Trivia: Was a member of London's renowned National Youth Music Theatre from 1993 to 1995. Nominated for the prestigious Ian Charleson Award for his part in the 2009 production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband at London's Vaudeville Theatre. Played Stanley Kowalski opposite Rachel Weisz as Blanche in the 2009 West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Swam 26 kilometers across Lake Zurich in Switzerland on August 7, 2011 to raise funds for the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, which provides care for premature babies at the London-based hospital. Stepped behind the camera for the first time in 2013, picking up a producer credit for the thriller Dreck, in which he also stars.