Trivia: When he began signing for cinematic parts, British lead Eddie Redmayne took full advantage of his sweet, open-faced, and congenial appearance, ironically selecting a series of roles that required him to project an undercurrent of intransigent, occasionally pathological emotional extremity blanketed by a cover of innocence. He made his first significant mark in 2006 with two such psychologically demanding roles: that of Alex Forbes, a young murderer cracking under the weight of a severely dysfunctional friendship with his second victim and his own father's mistreatment in the psychological thriller Murderous Intent; and that of Edward Wilson Jr., a CIA suit's son reeling from his father's emotional removal in Robert De Niro's ambitious period drama The Good Shepherd. In 2007, Redmayne waxed equally intense as a young homosexual who commits rueful matricide in Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, and -- on a slightly different note -- donned period costume for a small role in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He stayed in his Tudor garb for a small role as Mary Boleyn's husband in The Other Boleyn Girl. In 2011, he played future filmmaker Colin Clark in My Week With Marilyn, chronicling Clark's time as a production assistant on the set of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl. Redmayne next showcased his singing voice as revolutionary Marius in 2012's Les Miserables. He followed that up with a star-making turn playing theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014), a part that earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Redmayne had similar success the following year, nabbing another Academy Award nomination for The Danish Girl.

Trivia: Daughter of the refined, Oscar-nominated American actor Sam Waterston (The Killing Fields, Law & Order), statuesque actress Katherine Waterston attended New York University and then followed her dad's footsteps by entering the arena of acting, taking her on-camera bow in fellow show-business scion Bryce Dallas Howard's short-subject film Orchids. Waterston scored her feature film debut with a bit part in Tony Gilroy's Best Picture-nominated Michael Clayton (2007) and signed for her first lead in a Hollywood feature in David Ross' black comedy The Babysitters (2007), in which she played an honors student who slides into an affair with a dissatisfied suburban househusband and then turns the tables to engage in a little fly-by-night prostitution (and collect some college money in the process) via affairs with the husband's friends.

Trivia: Did her first vocal performance at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Canada Flintridge. Her stage name as a musician, A Fine Frenzy, comes from a line in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Released her first album titled One Cell in the Sea in 2007. Is a IUCN Goodwill Ambassador.

Trivia: With his heavyset, bug-eyed, and occasionally wild appearance, character actor Dan Fogler suggested a cross between Sam Kinison and Jack Black, but his inventive genius ranked him far higher, inviting frequent comparisons to the likes of John Belushi. Though Fogler would eventually gain recognition as a film star, he rocketed to fame not for his cinematic work but for a most unusual theatrical coup: his evocation of William Barfee, the slightly obnoxious, mucous-ridden, duck-walking braggart at the heart of the Broadway production The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. That show actually evolved from a series of improvisatory exercises cultivated during Fogler's tenure at Boston University (when it was entitled C-R-E-P-U-S-C-L-E) to an off-Broadway show to a white-hot Broadway production that deservedly netted Fogler the 2005 Tony Award for Best Actor.Of course, Hollywood stardom was not far off, and beginning in 2006 (with a small appearance in the Billy Bob Thornton comedy School for Scoundrels), Fogler did appear onscreen, to consistently enthusiastic notices. He also ascended with incredible rapidity from supporting parts to leads, and invariably chose interesting features, such as the silly sports comedy Balls of Fury (2007), with Fogler as a ping-pong player who must square off against maniacal arch-fiend Christopher Walken, and that same year's comedy The Marconi Brothers, in which Fogler and Brendan Sexton III play brothers who leave the family carpet business to videotape weddings for a living. He also signed on to voice one of the main characters in the 2008 animated feature Horton Hears a Who, adapted from the legendary Dr. Seuss children's book, as well voicing a character in the DreamWorks animated comedy Kung Fu Panda.

Trivia: Possibly Ireland's hottest cinematic export since Liam Neeson got his kilt off in Rob Roy, Colin Farrell enjoyed a generous helping of trans-Atlantic buzz for his work in Joel Schumacher's 2000 military drama Tigerland. Previously known in his native Ireland for supporting parts in film and television productions, Farrell earned both industry recognition and international heartthrob status for his portrayal of a young drifter recruited to fight in the Vietnam War, winning over critics and audiences with talent, charisma, and his fearless assumption of a Texan accent.The son of famed footballer Eamon Farrell, Farrell was born in Dublin, on May 31, 1976. Growing up, he planned to follow in the footsteps of his father and an uncle, who was also a well-known footballer in the 1960s. However, Farrell's plans changed when, while he was still in high school, his sister enrolled in acting classes at Dublin's Gaiety School of Drama. His interest piqued, the nascent actor followed suit, signing up for classes at the Gaiety School and then making his film debut in a low-budget production called Drinking Crude before he even made it to the Gaiety's classrooms.Having dropped out of high school in order to pursue acting, Farrell dropped out again -- this time from the Gaiety -- after a successful audition for the Irish TV series Ballykissangel. Joining the show in 1996, he earned a degree of fame in his native country, which opened the door for further work in the U.K. In 1999, he could be seen in the family drama The War Zone, Tim Roth's directorial debut, and on TV in Love in the 21st Century, a segmented series that also featured such up-and-comers as Ioan Gruffudd and Catherine McCormack.His first glint of overseas recognition came the following year, when Farrell was cast in a supporting role in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's Ordinary Decent Criminal, an Irish gangster drama starring Kevin Spacey and Linda Fiorentino. Criminal, which didn't fare well on U.S. shores, was quickly followed by Joel Schumacher's Tigerland. Although the low-key ensemble film, which was set in a Louisiana boot camp in 1971, received a lukewarm reaction from critics and audiences, Farrell's performance was the subject of almost ubiquitous praise. Quickly labeled as one of the most exciting new actors to be detected by the Hollywood radar, the young Dubliner subsequently found himself enmeshed in the distinctly American phenomenon of almost overnight success; before the year was out, he had secured starring roles in a number of projects, including American Outlaws, in which he starred as Jesse James alongside Scott Caan and Kathy Bates, and Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth, a thriller about a young man (Farrell) fighting for his life inside the titular enclosure. Although the long-delayed Outlaws did little for Farrell's career, far more ticket buyers were able to see the young actor alongside Bruce Willis in the somber POW drama Hart's War in early 2002. The following year, Farrell was virtually unavoidable. Not only did 2003 see the release of the aforementioned The Phonebooth, is also found the actor on the right side of the law in both The Recruit and SWAT and on the wrong side as the villainous Bullseye in the comic book superhero film Daredevil. As if the year was busy enough, he also turned up in a pair of smaller films, Veronica Guerin and Intermission.The two ensuing years might not have seen Farrell churning out a half-dozen pictures apiece, but he continued to grow in stature, first with a supporting part in the indie period piece A Home at the End of the World, then the title role in Oliver Stone's ambitious flop Alexander (both 2004). Indeed, Farrell's most notorious appearance around this time was, like so many before him, in a much-circulated sex tape leaked on the Internet. Two major roles in films by well-respected directors followed: The lead in Terrence Malick's critically-acclaimed but, again, little-seen The New World (2005), and the challenging role of author Arturo Bandini in Robert Towne's Ask the Dust. 2006 brought Michael Mann's much-anticipated remake of his own groundbreaking '80s TV show, Miami Vice, which he quickly followed with a turn in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream, as well as the critically acclaimed crime comedy In Bruges in 2008.Having all but completely cemented his position in Hollywood, Farrell joined the ranks of other leading men like Johnn Depp and Jude Law, who all stepped in to play various incarnations of the universe-hopping protagonist in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, filling in for the film's original lead Heath Ledger, who died tragically, midway through filming. Farrell would spend the coming years enjoying a variety of projects, most notably in movies like Crazy Heart, Horrible Bosses, and Fright Night.

Trivia: With only a handful of film credits to her name, British actress Samantha Morton earned a reputation as one of the most critically lauded up-and-comers of the late '90s. Small-boned and possessed of almost elfin features, Morton, who was born in Nottingham in 1977, began acting on television at the age of 13. She appeared in a number of series, including the popular crime drama Cracker and such costume extravaganzas as Jane Eyre and Emma.Morton became known to an international film audience in 1997, when she won wide acclaim for her wrenching, fearless portrayal of a young woman driven to promiscuous behavior by the death of her mother in Carine Adler's Under the Skin. The following year, she did starring work in The Last Yellow and Dreaming of Joseph Lees, playing the girlfriend of a small-time crook in the former and a dissatisfied young woman harboring romantic feelings for her long-absent second cousin (Rupert Graves) in the latter. In 1999, Morton's name became an increasingly familiar one to American filmgoers, thanks to starring roles in two very different films. The first, Jesus' Son, cast the actress as a heroin addict, while the second, Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown, featured her as a shy, mute woman who gets used and abused by a legendary jazz guitarist (Sean Penn) whose musical talent runs in inverse proportion to his qualities as a human being. Heralded for both films, Morton scored a surprise Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the latter. Not resting on the laurel, the actress immediately set to work with a pair of venerable cineastes, directors Julien Temple (in Pandemonium) and Amos Gitai (in his first English-language production, Eden). Director Steven Spielberg soon followed Allen's lead, casting Morton in a small but pivotal role as a shivering, near-mute, clairvoyant "Precog" in his Blade Runner-esque mystery Minority Report, which premiered in the summer of 2002. Though the film would introduce Morton to her largest audience yet, it was a pair of independent features released in late 2002 and 2003 that would garner her even more significant critical attention. Teaming with the maverick Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, the actress would essay the enigmatic, directionless title character in Morvern Callar, a dreamy, elliptical adaptation of Alan Warner's cult novel. About a year later, Morton would see the release of In America, Jim Sheridan's acclaimed slice-of-life tale of an Irish family immigrating to New York City's Hell's Kitchen, for which she would receive her second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress.Morton continued to take on challenging assignments such as the futuristic Code 46 opposite Tim Robbins and directed by British helmer Michael Winterbottom, and appearing opposite Johnny Depp in the little-seen The Libertine, and the period drama River Queen. Although Lassie may seem like a unusual film for Morton to appear in, she has a history of working in family friendly fare having provided the voice for Ruby in the Max and Ruby animated television series based on the popular children's books by Rosemary Wells.In 2007 she appeared as Mary Stuart in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and appeared in the Ian Curtis biopic Control. She had a leading part as a suspected murderer in the superb Longford. She played one of the women in the life of the troubled writer at the center of Synecdoche, New York, and she was a war widow in Oren Moverman's The Messenger. In 2012 she provided one of the voices for the aliens in the big-budget flop John Carter, but also worked with David Cronenberg on his Cosmopolis.

Trivia: Stuttered as a young child. Performed in the Philip Glass opera White Raven at age 6. Sang with the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus from age 9 to 11. Dropped out of high school at 16. Received the Chopard Trophy for male Revelation of the Year at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. Plays drums and sings in the band Sons of an Illustrious Father.

Trivia: The son of a Czech-American golf pro, Jon Voight was active in student theatricals in high school and at Catholic University. In 1960 he began studying privately with Neighborhood Playhouse mentor Sanford Meisner, and made his off-Broadway debut that same year in O Oysters, receiving a daunting review which opined that he could "neither walk nor talk." Fortunately, Voight persevered, and in 1961 took over the role of "singing Nazi" Rolf in the Broadway hit The Sound of Music (his Liesl was Laurie Peters, who became his first wife).Blessed with handsome, Nordic features, Voight kept busy as a supporting player on such TV series as Gunsmoke, Coronet Blue, and NYPD, and in 1966 spent a season with the California National Shakespeare Festival. The following year, he won a Theatre World Award for his stage performance in That Summer, That Fall. Thus, by the time he became an "overnight" star in the role of wide-eyed hustler Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969), he had nearly a decade's worth of experience under his belt. The success of Midnight Cowboy, which earned Voight an Oscar nomination, prompted a fast-buck distributor to ship out a double feature of two never-released mid-'60s films: Fearless Frank, filmed in 1965, starred Voight as a reluctant superhero, while Madigan's Millions was a 1968 turkey featuring Voight's Cowboy co-star (and longtime friend) Dustin Hoffman.Entering the 1970s with dozens of producers clamoring for his services, Voight refused to accept roles that banked merely on his youth and good looks. Instead, he selected such challenging assignments as crack-brained Army officer Milo Minderbinder in Catch 22 (1970), a political activist known only as "A" in The Revolutionary (also 1970), reluctant rugged individualist Ed Gentry in Deliverance (1972), and real-life teacher/novelist Pat Conroy in Conrack (1974). In 1978, he won both the Oscar and the Cannes Film Festival award for his portrayal of paraplegic Vietnam veteran Luke Martin in Hal Ashby's Coming Home. The following year, he earned additional acclaim for his work in the remake of The Champ.Devoting increasing amounts of time to his various sociopolitical causes in the 1980s and 1990s, Voight found it more and more difficult to fit film roles into his busy schedule. A reunion project with Ashby, on the godawful gambling comedy Lookin' to Get Out (produced 1980, released 1982), failed dismally, with many reviewers complaining about Voight's terrible, overmodulated performance, and the paper-thin script, which the actor himself wrote. Voight weathered the storm, however, and enjoyed box-office success as star of the 1983 weeper Table for Five. He also picked up another Oscar nomination for Andrei Konchalovsky's existential thriller Runaway Train (1985), and acted in such socially-conscious TV movies as Chernobyl: The Final Warning (1991) and The Last of His Tribe (1992). He also produced Table for Five and scripted 1990's Eternity. Voight kept busy for the remainder of the decade, appearing in such films as Michael Mann's Heat (1995), Mission: Impossible (1996), and The General, a 1998 collaboration with Deliverance director John Boorman, for which Voight won acclaim in his role as an Irish police inspector. During the same period of time, a bearded Voight also essayed a wild one-episode cameo on Seinfeld - as himself - with a scene that required him to bite the hand of Cosmo Kramer from a parked vehicle. In 1999, Voight gained an introduction to a new generation of fans, thanks to his role as James Van Der Beek's megalomaniacal football coach in the hit Varsity Blues, later appearing in a handful of other films before teaming onscreen with daughter Angelina Jolie for Tomb Raider in 2001. After essaying President Roosevelt later that same year in Pearl Harbor, Voight went for laughs in Ben Stiller's male-model comedy Zoolander, though his most pronounced role of 2001 would come in his Oscar nominated performance as iconic newsman Howard Cosell in director Michael Mann's Mohammad Ali biopic, Ali.Taken collectively, all of Voight's aformentioned roles during the mid-late 1990s demonstrated a massive rebound, from the gifted lead of '70s American classics to a character actor adept at smaller and more idiosyncratic character roles in A-list Hollywood fare ( the very same transition, for instance, that Burt Reynolds was wrongly predicted to be making when he signed to do Breaking In back in 1989). To put it another way: though Voight rarely received first billing by this point, his volume of work per se soared high above that of his most active years during the '70s. The parts grew progressively more interesting as well; Voight was particularly memorable, for instance, in the Disney comedy-fantasy Holes, as Mr. Sir, the cruel, sadistic right-hand-man to camp counselor Sigourney Weaver, who forces packs of young boys to dig enormous desert pits beneath the blazing sun for a mysterious reason. Voight then signed for a series of parts under the aegis of longtime-fan Jerry Bruckheimer, including the first two National Treasure installments (as John Patrick Henry) and - on a higher-profiled note - the audience-rouser Glory Road (2005), about one of the first all-black basketball teams in the U.S.; in that picture, Voight plays Adolph Rupp, the infamous University of Kentucky coach (nicknamed 'Baron of the Bluegrass') with an all-white team vying against the competitors at the center of the story.In 2007, Voight tackled roles in two very different high-profile films: he played one of the key characters in Michael Bay's live-action extravaganza Transformers, and portrayed a Mormon bishop who perishes in a Brigham Young-instigated massacre, in the period drama September Dawn, directed by Christopher Cain (Young Guns. He appeared in 24: Redemption, and became a part of that show's regular cast for its seventh season. Voight is the father of Angelina Jolie, and has often been the subject of tabloid coverage because of their occasionally fraught public bickering.

Trivia: The daughter of a Nigerian businessman and a Scotch tour guide, exotically beautiful British actress Carmen Ejogo grew up in London and won her first part at age 11, but only broke through to international acclaim in 1997, as Eddie Murphy's onscreen paramour in the comic actioner Metro. Later, Ejogo disclosed the full extent of her dramatic range with a skilled portrayal of Sally Hemings -- Thomas Jefferson's mistress -- (a part she inherited from Thandie Newton and others) in the acclaimed television miniseries Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000). The crime comedy What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001), with Danny DeVito and Martin Lawrence, represented a low point, but Ejogo saved face via exemplary supporting work in such pictures as Lackawanna Blues (2005) and The Brave One (2007). In the coming years, Ejogo would find additional success on the small screen, on series like Kidnapped and Chaos.

Trivia: Ron Perlman grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City, where his father was a radio/TV repairman and his mother an employee with the city's Department of Health. A profoundly unhandsome youth, Perlman was nonetheless very active in high school theater by virtue of his height (6-foot-2) and his deep, rolling voice. He continued studying drama at Lehman College and later at the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a master's degree in theater arts. He went to work with New York's Classic Stage Company, an organization specializing in Elizabethan and Restoration plays. Perlman starred in several Manhattan and touring productions staged by Tom O'Horgan of Hair fame before accepting his first film role as a Neanderthal man in 1981's Quest for Fire. Emotionally drained, Perlman backed off from acting after finishing the movie, but was soon back in the groove, essaying such attention-getting roles as the hunchbacked Salvatore in The Name of the Rose (1986). Most often cast as brooding, inarticulate, villainous characters in films (such as Pap in 1993's The Adventures of Huck Finn), Perlman became best known for his performance as the beneficent, albeit hideously ugly, sewer-dwelling Vincent in the late-'80s TV series Beauty and the Beast. Though this remained the actor's defining role for years after the show's run had drawn to a close, he was busier than ever through the '90s. Appearing in everything from obscure arthouse hits (Cronos [1993] and The City of Lost Children [1995]) to voice-over work for television (Aladdin) and video games (Fallout, A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game) to overblown Hollywood blockbusters (Alien Resurrection), Perlman left few stones unturned in terms of flexibility and experimentation in new media. He continued this trend into the early 2000s, alternating between various arenas with remarkable ease and refusing to be pigeonholed, appearing in such high-profile releases as Titan A.E. (2000), Enemy at the Gates (2001), and Blade II (2002). Though his recognition factor seemed higher than ever, few could foresee the opportunity just ahead when Blade II and Cronos director Guillermo del Toro announced that Perlman would star in the film adaptation of Mike Mignola's popular comic book Hellboy, although it seemed highly unlikely that studios would invest the millions of dollars needed to bring the comic to life with an actor of such minimal "marquee value." They wanted Vin Diesel for the role, but del Toro, with the blessing and encouragement of character originator Mignola, eventually won out to have Perlman play the Nazi-creation-turned-superhero in the 2004 fantasy-action film.

Trivia: Dan Hedaya has played a wide variety of characters on the stage, screen, and television. Fans of the long-running sitcom Cheers will remember Hedaya for his portrayal of barmaid Carla's grease bag husband Nick Tortelli. Following studies in literature at Tufts University, Hedaya launched his acting career. He then went on to act in the New York Shakespeare Festival for many years. Hedaya made his feature film debut in The Passover Plot (1975). Since 1980, Hedaya has appeared in over 20 feature films, and is frequently cast as cops, criminals, or rough-edged regular joes. In Blood Simple (1984), he got the opportunity to play a leading role as Marty, the jealous husband who hires a creepy detective to kill his faithless wife. It is on television, that Hedaya has found most of his work. He has guest-starred on numerous shows ranging from police and courtroom dramas like Hill Street Blues and Law and Order, to sitcoms such as Family Ties.

Trivia: Is of British and Dominican origin. Trained at the Peggy O'Farrell Stage and Theatre School from the age of 3, performing in shows at the Hackney Empire. Performed as a commercial dancer with musical groups and artists until 2012, including Kylie Minogue, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Ne-Yo and 50 Cent. Performs as a singer under the name Miss Tipper; she released her first single, "Superstar," in 2012. Has performed roles in films such as Fast Girls, Vampire Academy and MindGamers. Known for her television acting debut in 2015 as Naomi Nagata in the sci-fi series The Expanse.

Trivia: Moved to Glasgow in the 1980s. Recorded the song "Diamonds Rap (We Are The Diamonds)" in 1986 to promote the Glasgow Diamonds American football team. Has performed in many plays at the Old Vic in London including Spooks and Inherit the Wind. Produced, directed and appeared in the feature-length documentary film U & Me & Tennessee: An American Romance in 2007. Has been a longtime supporter of Meher Baba, an Indian spiritual master who died in 1969 and claimed to be the Avatar, God in human form. Is an experienced theatre and film actor. Created the voice-over for one of the main characters in the video game, Crysis 2, in 2011. His son, Ross Matthew Birchard, is a music producer also known as Hudson Mohawke.

Trivia: Studied law at the University of Oxford, but declined a job at the law firm Slaughter and May after graduation, and chose to pursue a career in acting. Reached the final 3 in the first series of Sky One's Project Catwalk in 2006. Worked as a model for a year to raise money for drama school, applying without her parents' knowledge. Appeared in the play Turandot at the Hampstead Theatre in London in 2008. Sold the dress she wore to the 2013 BAFTA Awards for eBay's Big Charity 50, donating the money to Breast Cancer Care.

Trivia: Studied English and Drama in university.Made his debut on the stage playing Hassan Hassan the Handsome Turkish Man in The Great Extension at the Stratford Theatre Royal East in 2009.Made his feature film debut in the 2011 biography/ thriller The Devil's Double.Among the sports listed as skills on his resume are boxing, bowling, falconry, sword fighting, football and cycling.Has listed cabaret singing, rock singing and harmonica as his musical skills on his resume.

Trivia: Sang with the Manchester Girls Choir for eleven years. Made her stage debut in The Great Theatre of the World. Appeared as part of the 2008 UNDEREXPOSED exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, bringing attention to of black role models and artistic talent. Won Best Female Performance at the Screen Nation Awards for her role in I Am Slave. Won the 2017 BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Damilola, Our Loved Boy.

Trivia: While growing up in London, was a member of youth theater groups with the Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic and Youngblood at Riverside Studios. Studied performing arts at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Trained in physical theater and mime at the Desmond Jones School. At the age of 19, founded his own theater company with a friend and began writing and performing in original plays. Performed the role of Pioratto in a stage production of The Honest Whore opposite Mark Rylance at Shakespeare's Globe in 1998. Made his writing and directorial film debut in 2008 with the short film Love, which won the award for Best International Short at the Gijón International Film Festival in Spain. Has done voice over work for television commercials for Fox, North Face and Hugo Boss. Trains in martial arts, specifically Jeet Kun Do.

Trivia: The daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, actress Zoe Kravitz took her first major feature bow in the 2007 romanic comedy No Reservations, followed soon after by a turn in the Jodie Foster revenge thriller The Brave One.