Trivia: Given his formidable success in numerous arenas of the entertainment industry, the multi-talented Will Smith qualifies as an original "Renaissance man." Although Smith initially gained fame as the rap star Fresh Prince prior to the age of 20, (with constant MTV airplay and blockbuster record sales), he cut his chops as an A-list Hollywood actor on the small and big screens in successive years, unequivocally demonstrating his own commercial viability and sturdy appeal to a broad cross section of viewers. A Philadelphia native, Smith entered the world on September 25, 1968. The son of middle-class parents (his father owned a refrigeration company and his mother worked for the school board) and the second of four children, Smith started rapping from the age of 12, and earned the nickname "Prince" thanks to his ability to slickly talk his way out of trouble. Smith engendered this moniker as a household phrase when he officially formed the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, with fellow performer Jeff Townes in 1986. That team netted two Grammys (one for the seminal 1988 youth anthem "Parents Just Don't Understand" and one for the 1991 single "Summertime") and scored commercially with a series of albums up through their disbandment in 1993 that did much to dramatically broaden the age range of rap listeners (unlike artists in the gangsta rap subgenre, Smith and Townes never ventured into R- or X-rated subject matter or language). However, by the time he was 21, Smith had frittered away much of his fortune and had fallen into debt with the IRS. Help arrived in the form of Warner Bros. executive Benny Medina, who wanted to create a family-friendly sitcom based on his own experiences as a poor kid living with a rich Beverly Hills family, starring the genial Smith. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air debuted on NBC on September 10, 1990, and became a runaway hit, lasting six seasons. The program imparted to Smith -- who had turned down an MIT scholarship to pursue his career -- even wider audience exposure as the show's protagonist, introducing him to legions of viewers who fell outside of the rap market. During Prince's lengthy run, Smith began to branch out into film work. Following roles in Where the Day Takes You (1992) and Made in America (1993), he drew substantial critical praise on the arthouse circuit, as a young gay con man feigning an identity as Sidney Poitier's son, in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), directed by Fred Schepisi and adapted by John Guare from his own play. Smith also elicited minor controversy around this time for remarks he made in an interview that some perceived as homophobic. In 1994, Smith and Martin Lawrence signed on with powerhouse producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to co-star in the action-comedy Bad Boys, in which the two play a hotshot pair of Miami cops; it eventually raked in over 141 million dollars worldwide. The following year, Smith topped his Bad Boys success (and then some) with a turn in the sci-fi smash Independence Day, the effects-laden tale of an alien invasion. Co-written, executive-produced, and directed by Roland Emmerich for 20th Century Fox, this picture eventually pulled in over 816 million dollars globally, making it not only the top grosser of 1996, but one of the most lucrative motion pictures in history. Smith then tackled the same thematic ground (albeit in a completely different genre), as a government-appointed alien hunter partnered up with Tommy Lee Jones in Barry Sonnenfeld's zany comedy Men in Black (1997), another smash success. Not long after this, Smith achieved success on a personal front as well, as he married actress Jada Pinkett on New Year's Eve 1998. The following autumn, Smith returned to cinemas with Enemy of the State, a conspiracy thriller with Gene Hackman that had him on the run from government agents. That film scored a commercial bull's-eye, but its triumph preceded a minor disappointment. The following summer, Smith starred opposite Kevin Kline in Wild Wild West, Sonnenfeld's lackluster follow-up to Men in Black, an overwrought and ham-handed cinematic rendering of the late-'60s TV hit.The late fall of 2000 found Smith back in cinemas, playing a mysterious golf caddy who tutors down-on-his-luck putter Matt Damon in the syrupy The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). Smith then trained rigorously for his most demanding role up to that point: that of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali in director Michael Mann's biopic Ali (2001). The film struggled to find an audience, and critics were mixed, even if Smith's well-studied performance earned praise as well as his first Oscar nomination. While Smith executive produced the Robert De Niro/Eddie Murphy comedy Showtime (2002), he doubled it up with work in front of the camera, on the sci-fi comedy sequel Men in Black II, also helmed by Barry Sonnenfeld. As expected, the film made an unholy amount of money; he followed it up with yet another sequel, the Bruckheimer-produced Bad Boys II. It topped the box office, as expected. The next year saw Smith pull the one-two punch of I, Robot -- a futuristic, effects-laden fantasy -- and the CG-animated Shark Tale, in which he voiced Oscar, a little fish with a big attitude who scrubs whales for a living. While Smith had proven himself as an action star time and again and had received high marks for his dramatic work, it remained to be seen if he could carry a romantic comedy. All speculation ceased in early 2005 with the release of Hitch: Starring Smith as a fabled "date doctor," the film had the biggest opening weekend for a rom-com to date, leading many to wonder if there was anything Smith couldn't do.The following year, Smith starred in the period drama The Pursuit of Happyness. Set in early-'80s San Francisco, and directed by Gabriele Muccino (a director specifically summoned for the task by Smith), the film recounted the true story of Charles Gardner (Smith), a single dad struggling in an unpaid position as an intern at Dean Witter, all in an effort to be able provide for his son. The film tapped new reserves of compassion and desparation in Smith's persona, as he managed to fully embody another real-life character while maintaining all of the qualities that endeared him to audiences in the first place: His humor, his hustle and his ingenuity. Upon its release, Happyness provided Smith with perhaps his first cinematic hat trick: critical praise, a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and staggering box-office success (the film would become one of his largest hits). Meanwhile, he began work as the lead in I Am Legend (2007), the third screen incarnation of sci-fi giant Richard Matheson's seminal novel of the same title (following a 1964's The Last Man on Earth, and 1971's The Omega Man).The actor continued to keep busy in 2008 with films including Seven Pounds (despite an unintentionally comical suicide by sea life, the film was a critical failure) and superhero comedy Hancock, featuring Smith in the lead role as a hard-drinking ne'er-do-well who is reluctantly thrust into the world of crime-fighting. After producing a remake of The Karate Kid (starring his son, Jaden Smith) and spy comedy This Means War, Smith reprised his role as Agent J for Men in Black III in 2012. MIB III was a box office success, in no small part due to the chemistry between Smith and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones).

Trivia: Considered one of the best actors of his generation, Robert De Niro built a durable star career out of his formidable ability to disappear into a character. The son of artists, De Niro was raised in New York's Greenwich Village. The young man made his stage debut at age 10, playing the Cowardly Lion in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz. Along with finding relief from shyness through performing, De Niro was also entranced by the movies, and he quit high school at age 16 to pursue acting. Studying under Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, De Niro learned how to immerse himself in a character emotionally and physically. After laboring in off-off-Broadway productions in the early '60s, De Niro was cast alongside fellow novice Jill Clayburgh in film-school graduate Brian De Palma's The Wedding Party (1969). He followed this with small movies like Greetings, Hi, Mom!, Sam's Song, and Bloody Mama.De Niro's professional life took an auspicious turn, however, when he was re-introduced to former Little Italy acquaintance Martin Scorsese at a party in 1972. Sharing a love of movies as well as their neighborhood background, De Niro and Scorsese hit it off. De Niro was immediately interested when Scorsese asked him about appearing in his new film, Mean Streets, conceived as a grittier, more authentic portrait of the Mafia than The Godfather. De Niro's appearance in the film made waves with critics, as did his completely different performance as a dying simple-minded catcher in the quiet baseball drama Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). Francis Ford Coppola was impressed enough by Mean Streets to cast De Niro as the young Vito Corleone in the early 1900s portion of The Godfather Part II. Closely studying Brando's Oscar-winning performance as Don Corleone in The Godfather, and perfecting his accent for speaking his lines in subtitled Sicilian, De Niro was so effective as the lethally ambitious and lovingly paternal Corleone that he took home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role.De Niro next headed to Europe to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's opus, 1900 (1976) before returning to the U.S. to collaborate with Scorsese on the far leaner (and meaner) production, Taxi Driver. After working for two weeks as a Manhattan cabbie and losing weight, De Niro transformed himself into disturbed "God's lonely man" Travis Bickle. One of the definitive films of the decade, Taxi Driver earned the Cannes Film Festival's top prize and several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and De Niro's first nod for Best Actor. Controversy erupted about the film's violence, however, when would-be presidential assassin John W. Hinckley cited Taxi Driver as a formative influence in 1981.De Niro and Scorsese would reteam for the lavish musical New York, New York (1977), and though the film was a complete flop, De Niro quickly recovered with another risky and ambitious project, Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978). One of the first wave of Vietnam movies, The Deer Hunter starred De Niro as one of three Pennsylvania steel-town friends thrown into the war's inferno who emerged as profoundly changed men. Though the film provoked an uproar over its portrayal of Viet Cong violence as (literally) Russian roulette, The Deer Hunter won several Oscars.Returning to the realm of more personal violence, De Niro followed The Deer Hunter with his and Scorsese's masterpiece, Raging Bull, a tragic portrait of boxer [%Ray La Motta]. Along with his notorious 60-pound weight gain that rendered him unrecognizable as the middle-aged Jake, De Niro also trained so intensely for the outstanding fight scenes that La Motta himself stated that De Niro could have boxed professionally. Along with his physical dedication, De Niro won over critics with his ability to humanize La Motta without softening him. Raging Bull received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.Though he was well suited to star in Sergio Leone's epic homage to gangster films, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Leone's tough, transcendent vision couldn't survive the studio's decision to hack 88 minutes out of the American release version. De Niro next took a breather from films to return to the stage, playing a drug dealer in the New York Public Theater production Cuba and His Teddy Bear. During his theater stint, De Palma made De Niro a movie offer he couldn't refuse when he asked him to play a small role in his film version of The Untouchables (1987). As the rotund, charismatic, bat-wielding Al Capone, De Niro was a memorable adversary for Kevin Costner's upstanding Elliot Ness, and The Untouchables became De Niro's first hit in almost a decade. De Niro followed The Untouchables with his first comedy success, Midnight Run (1988), costarring as a bounty hunter opposite Charles Grodin's bail-jumping accountant.Though he earned an Oscar nomination for his touching performance as a patient in Penny Marshall's popular drama Awakenings (1990), movie fans were perhaps more thrilled by De Niro's return to the Scorsese fold, playing cruelly duplicitous Irish mobster Jimmy "The Gent" opposite Ray Liotta's turncoat Henry Hill in the critically lauded Mafia film Goodfellas (1990). De Niro worked with Scorsese again in the thriller remake Cape Fear (1991), sporting a hillbilly accent and pumped-up physique. It was Scorsese and De Niro's biggest hit together and earned another Oscar nod for the star. De Niro subsequently costarred as a geeky cop in the Scorsese-produced Mad Dog and Glory (1993).De Niro also revealed that he had learned a great deal from his work with Scorsese with his own directorial debut, A Bronx Tale (1993). A well-observed story of a boy torn between his father and the local mob, A Bronx Tale earned praise, but De Niro was soon back to working with Scorsese, starring as Vegas kingpin Sam Rothstein in Casino (1995) -- based on the story of real-life handicapper Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal -- staged with Scorsese's customary visual brilliance and pairing De Niro with his Raging Bull brother and Goodfellas associate Joe Pesci.Appearing in as many as three films a year after 1990, De Niro was particularly praised for his polished reserve in Michael Mann's glossy policer Heat (1995), which offered the rare spectacle of De Niro and Pacino sharing the screen, if only in two scenes. After indifferently received turns in The Fan (1996), Sleepers (1996), and Cop Land (1997), De Niro stepped outside his comfort zone to play an amoral political strategist in Barry Levinson's sharp satire Wag the Dog (1997) and a dangerously dimwitted crook in Quentin Tarantino's laid-back crime story Jackie Brown (1997). De Niro was front and center -- and knee deep in self-parody -- in the comedy Analyze This (1999), aided and abetted by a nicely low-key Billy Crystal as his reluctant psychiatrist. De Niro would continue to lampoon his own tough-guy image in the sequel Analyze That, as well as the popular Meet the Parents franchise. As the decade wore on, De Niro took on roles that failed to live up to his acclaimed earlier work, such as with lukewarm thrillers like The Score, Godsend, Righteous Kill, and Hide and Seek. However, De Niro continued to work on his ambitious and long-planned next foray behind the camera, the acclaimed CIA drama The Good Shepherd.He continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including Stardust, What Just Happened, and Everybody's Fine. He became a Kennedy Center honoree in 2009. He reteamed with Ben Stiller for Little Fockers in 2010, and played a corrupt politician in Machete that same year. In 2011 he appeared opposite Bradley Cooper in the thriller Limitless, which seemingly laid the groundwork for their reteaming as father and son in the 2012 comedy Silver Linings Playbook. For his work in that movie, De Niro earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Trivia: Until she headlined Jerry Maguire opposite Tom Cruise in late 1996, Renée Zellweger claimed extremely limited public recognition. Though Zellweger essayed several key roles before Maguire, the vulnerability and versatility that the actress exhibited as Cruise's (long undeclared) love interest in Cameron Crowe's seriocomedy netted much-deserved praise from critics and audiences alike. Though the Academy passed her over when that year's Oscar nominations rolled around, she received several other laurels for her work in Maguire, including the title of Best Breakthrough Performer by the National Board of Review.Born April 25th, 1969, the willowy, strawberry blonde Zellweger began life in Katy, TX, a small town on the outskirts of Houston. The town was so small that it possessed neither cable television nor a movie theater. As a result, Zellweger reportedly did not see her first art film until she was a student at the University of Texas in Austin. Her career at U.T. was an exceptional one; a regular on the Dean's List, she graduated a year early with a B.A. in Radio, Film, and Television. While in college, Zellweger took an acting class and discovered a knack for performing; following graduation, she made her feature-film debut with a bit part in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993). She then landed a role playing a whacked-out waitress in Love and a .45 (1994), for which she won her first Independent Spirit Award nomination; she won a second nomination for The Whole Wide World (1996), earning additional acclaim at various film festivals.Following the tremendous success of Jerry Maguire, Zellweger went on to prove herself as a versatile actress able to play roles ranging from an ambitious journalist (who temporarily shelves her career to care for her mother) in One True Thing (1998) to a rebellious Hassidic Jew in Boaz Yakin's A Price Above Rubies (1998). She then exhibited a capacity for romantic comedy in The Bachelor (1999), starring as the long-suffering girlfriend of a commitment-phobic Chris O'Donnell. Zellweger's second role as a deeply confused soap opera fanatic in Neil LaBute's offbeat crime comedy Nurse Betty won her the Best Actress in a Comedy Award at the 2000 Golden Globes. Nominated for yet another Golden Globe the following year for her memorable performance in Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), that same role also earned Zellweger her maiden Oscar nod. The following few years found Zellweger's leading lady status growing and numerous lucrative film offers flowing in, and the release of White Oleander (2002) the starlet received numerous positive reviews despite the film's lackluster performance. Later that same year, Zellweger was on top of the world when she received rave reviews for her role in Chicago. Based on the popular Broadway musical of the same name, director Rob Marshall's flashy cinematic extravaganza received nearly unanimous praise accompanied by multiple Academy Award nominations, including a second Best Actress in a Leading Role nod to Ms. Zellweger for her lively performance.Zellweger lost the award bid to Nicole Kidman, and then teamed up with that actress for Anthony Minghella's epic Cold Mountain. The performance netted Zellweger her third Oscar nomination, and on February 29, 2004, her losing streak ended as she took home the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Attempting to keep up the momentum, Zellweger then returned to the character that earned her her first Oscar nod, starring in the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). Unfortunately, that outing (directed by To Wong Foo helmer Beeban Kidron) failed to draw the critical acclaim of its predecessor and was widely greeted with public apathy in the States, but in the final analysis, it grossed nearly as much as the premier outing (with a massive overseas take). After the second Bridget Jones installment, Zellweger's screen activity decrescendoed somewhat, but she placed a heightened emphasis on more offbeat and unusual roles, including a portrayal of children's author Beatrix Potter in the Weinstein Company outing Miss Potter (2006), and a throwback role to the days of classic Hollywood screwball comedy, as the romantic lead of George Clooney and John Krasinski in the period sports outing Leatherheads (2008). The actress lent her voice to the animated children's fantasy Monsters vs. Aliens, and will reprise her role as Bridget Jones for Bridget Jones' Baby. Off-camera, Zellweger has been romantically linked to funnyman Jim Carrey and to rocker Jack White, of The White Stripes. She was married very briefly to Kenny Chesney; the two received an annulment in less than a year.

Trivia: Actor, musician, and cult idol ascendant, Jack Black is known for both the characters he portrays on the screen and as one of the forces behind Tenacious D, a rock band/standup routine that Black has described as "a Smothers Brothers for the Dungeons and Dragons misfits set."A native of Santa Monica, CA, Black attended the University of California at Los Angeles. He got his professional start on the stage, appearing in Tim Robbins' production of Carnage at the 1989 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He would go on to collaborate with Robbins throughout his career, making his screen debut in the director's 1992 political satire Bob Roberts and appearing in Robbins' Dead Man Walking (1995) and Cradle Will Rock (1999). Black spent the '90s playing supporting and lead roles in a variety of films, including Demolition Man (1993), The Cable Guy (1996), which cast him as the best friend of Matthew Broderick's character, and Jesus' Son (1999), in which Black had a small but extremely memorable role as a pill-popping hospital orderly.In 2000, Black had one of his most recognizable and enthusiastically received screen roles to date in High Fidelity. Stephen Frears' popular adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, it featured Black as Barry, a thoroughly obnoxious record-store employee. The part allowed the actor to do some of his own singing, a talent that he had previously inflicted on numerous audience members during his years with the aforementioned Tenacious D. The band, comprised of Black and fellow holy terror Kyle Gass, had existed since 1994, and it had been featured on the TV comedy series Mr. Show and as the subject of their own HBO series entitled (tongue firmly in cheek) Tenacious D: The Greatest Band on Earth. It was only a matter of time before Black stepped up from supporting character to leading man, and with the Farrelly brother's Shallow Hal Black may just have found the ideal vehicle for the successful transition. As a superficial man who falls in love with a 300-pound woman after being hypnotized to see only the "inner beauty" of the opposite sex, Black co-starred alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Jason Alexander in what promised to be a charmingly offensive addition to the Farrelly canon.Though MTV Films' heavily marketed Orange County (2002) was not a huge commercial success, Black's supporting role as the lead character's slacker brother was well received by critics and long-time fans alike, and the once obscure figure began appearing on media outlets including Saturday Night Live, Primetime Glick, commercials for The Osbournes, and various MTV music and film awards. In 2003, Black starred in his first big hit -- director Richard Linklater's musical comedy School of Rock, which featured Black as a disgruntled heavy metal-guitarist doing a substitute teaching gig for extra cash. Critics were so taken by his performance that he was honored with a Golden Globe nomination.2004 saw Black turn in a cameo in the Will Ferrell vehicle Anchorman, after starring opposite Ben Stiller in director Barry Levinson's black comedy Envy. While the film was a box-office bomb after having its release pushed back several times, Black still had much to celebrate when it was announced he would be taking the lead in Peter Jackson's highly anticipated 2005 remake of King Kong. The epic film helped transition Black from a cult hero to a traditional movie star, though he was still careful to keep his original fans happy. In 2006, he starred in Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess' comedy Nacho Libre. The part of a disgruntled monk turned Lucha Libre idol was a perfect fit for the bombastic star, and he followed the performance up with another comic offering for his serious fans as he and Kyle Gass, his partner in Tenacious D, starred in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. This big screen telling of the band's mythical history promised to be full of the over-the-top laughs that rocked fans of the group's HBO series, and also included appearances by rock and metal idols like Ronnie James Dio and Meatloaf, who portrayed Black's dad. Black didn't abandoning straight acting. He would appear in a number of more conventional, and even dramatic roles over the coming years, like in The Holiday and Margot at the Wedding, while still pursuing the broad comedic roles he was known for in full force, with comedies like Be Kind Rewind, Tropic Thunder, Year One, and The Big Year. In 2012, Black reteamed with Richard Linklater for a unique blending of comedy, drama, and crime, playing a congenial southern murder suspect in Bernie.

Trivia: Next to Liv Tyler, Angelina Jolie is the only actress of her generation who can thank her famous father for the lips that have become her trademark. The actress was born Angelina Jolie Voight to the pillow-lipped Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles.Raised mostly by her mother after her parents divorced while she was still a baby, Jolie moved around a lot with her mother and brother. She also did a fair amount of traveling as a professional model, living in such places as London, New York, and Los Angeles before settling for a time in New York as a student at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and New York University, where she first started acting in theater productions. The fledgling actress soon moved on to film with a small role in 1993's Cyborg 2, followed in 1995 by her turn as a computer hacker in the more widely seen Hackers. The film gave her her first taste of recognition, as well as an introduction to Trainspotting's Jonny Lee Miller, to whom she was married for a short time.After appearing in a number of mediocre films, Jolie finally hit it big in 1997 with her Golden Globe-winning performance as George Wallace's wife in the highly acclaimed TV movie George Wallace. The role, coupled with her Emmy-nominated performance in the title role of HBO's Gia, provided Jolie with a new level of professional respect and recognition. She was soon appearing on talk shows and in magazines, answering questions about everything from her multiple tattoos to her famous father to her brief marriage.She was also netting roles in high-profile projects: In 1998 Jolie headlined an ensemble cast that included Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands, Anthony Edwards, Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillippe, and Madeline Stowe in Playing By Heart. The following year, she was part of another high-voltage cast in Mike Newell's Pushing Tin, co-starring alongside John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. Although the film was neither a critical nor a financial success, it did little to diminish the rapid ascent of the career of the actress, who was in hot demand for projects that would further elevate her already rising star. In 2000, Jolie's star received one of its greatest boosts to date when the actress won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a volatile mental patient in Girl, Interrupted. Later that year, her personal life also got a boost in the form of her April marriage to Billy Bob Thornton.Onscreen, Jolie was hard to miss in 2000. She starred in a number of films, including the crime thriller Gone in Sixty Seconds, in which she co-starred as a car thief alongside Nicolas Cage, and Original Sin, a thriller that featured her as the bad-seed bride of a Cuban tycoon (Antonio Banderas). If she was hard to miss in 2000, Jolie was impossible to escape in 2001 with her turn as shapely video-game adventuress Lara Croft in the long anticipated film adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider video-game franchise. Carrying on the tradition of video-game movies that are light on plot but heavy on the action, Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life (2003) scored with summer audiences and quickly shot to number one at the box office despite disparaging reviews citing an incoherent story line, unlike Life or Something Like It, the 2002 romantic comedy-drama that critics and audiences alike would rather not have seen. On July 18th, 2002, Jolie filed for divorce from Thornton, claiming that their priorities no longer meshed after having adopted a Cambodian son, Maddox. Though the famously quirky couple were no longer, Angelina's film schedule remained hectic. In 2003 she would play a rich-girl-turned-humanitarian in Beyond Borders, while 2004 saw a host of parts for Jolie, including a role in Oliver Stone's Alexander, an epic biography of Alexander the Great starring Colin Farrell, as well as a turn alongside fellow Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and a role as a tough FBI agent in the thriller Taking Lives. Finally, Jolie closed out the year by lending her voice to Dreamworks' animated kid-flick Shark Tale.While the Jolie-starring Mr. and Mrs. Smith proved one of Summer 2005's biggest money-makers, the actress's name fell on the lips of gossip-mongers for most of the year not for the film itself, but rather for Jolie's relationship with costar Brad Pitt. Though the couple long shirked and denied rumors of an affair, the paparazzi regularly caught them together in public, and Pitt eventually filed for divorce from wife Jennifer Aniston. Subsequently, they not only conceived a child in fall 2005 (whom they named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, but became foster parents to two adopted children, Maddox and an Ethiopian girl, Zahara Marley. Jolie delivered Shiloh in Namibia, via caesarian section, as May 2006 wrapped, and the couple flew an ob-gyn in from Los Angeles to assist with the birth. By mid-2006, Jolie - as an actress, personality, and sex symbol - claimed an almost matchless status in Hollywood popularity, rivaled only by Jennifer Aniston, ironically. That year saw Jolie claim a supporting role in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, and announce her forthcoming role in Beowulf. By late 2007, talk had begun to swirl in the trades regarding Jolie's enlistment in a high-budget action franchise based on the life and adventures of U.S. intelligence operative Kathi Lynn Austin. In 2007, her portrayal of Marianne Pearl in Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of A Mighty Heart earned her strong reviews and nominations for Best Actress from a number of organizations including the Screen Actors Guild. Although Oscar snubbed her for that performance, she landed in the big race the following year with her work in Clint Eastwood's The Changeling. As a mother searching for her kidnapped son, Jolie again garnered nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the Screen Actors Guild, as well as securing her first Oscar nod since winning years earlier for Girl, Interrupted. For her next several projects, Jolie kept things upbeat and intense, starring in action movies like Wanted, The Tourist, and most notably, 2010's Salt, in which Jolie's performance as the title character Evelyn Salt had many reviewers calling her the female James Bond. Jolie would also provide the voice of Tigress in the childrens' animated film Kung Fu Panda and its sequel, before taking on her next big hurdle: stepping behind the camera.Never timid when it comes to new challenges, Jolie dove into her new role full force, directing as well as producing the 2012 war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey, a tragic love story that takes place during the Bosnian War. The film's uncompromising depiction of the war atrocities that marked the conflict caused some stir in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia, but her choices were largely celebrated by Bosnians, as well as most critics in the U.S. and Europe.Jolie returned to acting in 2014, playing the title character in Disney's Maleficent, which would prove to Jolie's biggest live-acting hit, passing the box office totals for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, taking in $600 million.

Trivia: Formed The Melody Makers with three of his siblings in 1981. Released his first solo album, Dragonfly, in 2003. Released a comic book titled Marijuanaman in 2011. Has his own line of organic coconut oils and hemp seed snacks called Ziggy Marley Organics, which was launched in 2012. Released his first children's book, titled I Love You Too, in 2014.

Trivia: The most renowned filmmaker of his era, Martin Scorsese virtually defined the state of modern American cinema during the 1970s and '80s. A consummate storyteller and visual stylist who lived and breathed movies, he won fame translating his passion and energy into a brand of filmmaking that crackled with kinetic excitement. Working well outside of the mainstream, Scorsese nevertheless emerged in the 1970s as a towering figure throughout the industry, achieving the kind of fame and universal recognition typically reserved for more commercially successful talents. A tireless supporter of film preservation, Scorsese has worked to bridge the gap between cinema's history and future like no other director. Channeling the lessons of his inspirations -- primarily classic Hollywood, the French New Wave, and the New York underground movement of the early '60s -- into an extraordinarily personal and singular vision, he has remained perennially positioned at the vanguard of the medium, always pushing the envelope of the film experience with an intensity and courage unmatched by any of his contemporaries. Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942, in Flushing, NY. The second child of Charles and Catherine Scorsese -- both of whom frequently made cameo appearances in their son's films -- he suffered from severe asthma, and as a result was blocked from participating in sports and other common childhood activities. Consequently, Scorsese sought refuge in area movie houses, quickly becoming obsessed with the cinema, in particular the work of Michael Powell. Raised in a devoutly Catholic environment, he initially studied to become a priest. Ultimately, however, Scorsese opted out of the clergy to enroll in film school at New York University, helming his first student effort, What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?, a nine-minute short subject, in 1963. He mounted his second student picture, the 15-minute It's Not Just You, Murray!, in 1964, the year of his graduation. His next effort was 1967's brief The Big Shave; finally, in 1969 he completed his feature-length debut, Who's That Knocking at My Door?, a drama starring actor Harvey Keitel, who went on to appear in many of the director's most successful films. The feature also marked the beginning of Scorsese's long collaboration with editor Thelma Schoonmaker, a pivotal component in the evolution of his distinct visual sensibility. After a tenure teaching film at N.Y.U. (where among his students were aspiring directors Oliver Stone and Jonathan Kaplan), Scorsese released Street Scenes, a documentary account of the May 1970 student demonstrations opposing the American military invasion of Cambodia. He soon left New York for Hollywood, working as an editor on films ranging from Woodstock to Medicine Ball Caravan to Elvis on Tour and earning himself the nickname "The Butcher." For Roger Corman's American International Pictures, Scorsese also directed his first film to receive any kind of widespread distribution, 1972's low-budget Boxcar Bertha, starring Barbara Hershey and David Carradine. With the same technical crew, he soon returned to New York to begin working on his first acknowledged masterpiece, the 1973 drama Mean Streets. A deeply autobiographical tale exploring the interpersonal and spiritual conflicts facing the same group of characters first glimpsed in Who's That Knocking at My Door?, Mean Streets established many of the thematic stylistic hallmarks of the Scorsese oeuvre: his use of outsider antiheroes, unusual camera and editing techniques, dueling obsessions with religion and gangster life, and the evocative use of popular music. It was this film that launched him to the forefront of a new generation of American cinematic talent. The film also established Scorsese's relationship with actor Robert De Niro, who quickly emerged as the central onscreen figure throughout the majority of his work. For his follow-up, Scorsese traveled to Arizona to begin shooting 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, a response to criticism that he couldn't direct a "women's film." The end result brought star Ellen Burstyn a Best Actress Oscar at that year's Academy Awards ceremony, as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination for co-star Diane Ladd. Next up was 1974's Italianamerican, a film Scorsese often claimed as his personal favorite among his own work. A documentary look at the experience of Italian immigrants as well as life in New York's Little Italy, it starred the director's parents, and even included Catherine Scorsese's secret tomato sauce recipe. Upon his return to New York, Scorsese began work on the legendary Taxi Driver in the summer of 1974. Based on a screenplay by Paul Schrader, the film explored the nature of violence in modern American society, and starred De Niro as Travis Bickle, a cabbie thoroughly alienated from humanity who begins harboring delusions of assassinating a Presidential candidate and saving a young prostitute (Jodie Foster) from the grip of the streets. Lavishly acclaimed upon its initial release, Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. Five years later, it became the subject of intense scrutiny when it was revealed that the movie was the inspiration behind the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, who had become obsessed with the film as well as Foster herself. Scorsese's next feature was New York, New York, an extravagant 1977 musical starring De Niro and Liza Minnelli. The first of his major films to receive less-than-glowing critical acclaim, it was widely considered a failure by the Hollywood establishment. Despite doubts about his artistry, Scorsese forged on and continued work on his documentary of the farewell performance of the Band, shot on Thanksgiving Day of 1976. Complete with guest appearances from luminaries ranging from Muddy Waters to Bob Dylan to Van Morrison, the concert film The Last Waltz bowed in 1978, and won raves on the festival circuit as well as from pop music fans. American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince, a look at the raconteur who appeared as the gun salesman in Taxi Driver, followed later that same year. In April 1979, after years of preparation, Scorsese began work on Raging Bull, a film based on the autobiography of boxer Jake LaMotta. Filmed in black-and-white, the feature was his most ambitious work to date, and is widely regarded as the greatest movie of the 1980s. De Niro won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of LaMotta, while newcomer Cathy Moriarty won a Best Actress nomination for her work as LaMotta's second wife. (Additionally, Thelma Schoonmaker won an Academy Award for editing.) De Niro again reunited with Scorsese for the follow-up, 1983's The King of Comedy, a bitter satire exploring the nature of celebrity and fame. Since the age of ten, Scorsese had dreamed of mounting a filmed account of the life of Jesus; finally, in 1983 it appeared that his adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel The Last Temptation of Christ was about to come to fruition. Ultimately, just four weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin, funding for the project fell through. Scorsese was forced to enter a kind of work-for-hire survival period, accepting an offer to direct the 1985 downtown New York comedy After Hours. In the spring of 1986, he began filming The Color of Money, the long-awaited sequel to Robert Rossen's 1961 classic The Hustler. Star Paul Newman, reprising his role as pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson, won his first Academy Award for his work, while co-star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio scored a Best Supporting Actress nomination. The Color of Money was Scorsese's first true box-office hit; thanks to its success, he was finally able to film The Last Temptation of Christ. Starring Willem Dafoe in the title role, the feature appeared in 1988 to considerable controversy over what many considered to be a blasphemous portrayal of the life and crucifixion of Christ. Ironically, the protests helped win the film a greater foothold at the box office, while making its director a household name. After contributing (along with Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen) to the 1989 triptych New York Stories, Scorsese teamed with De Niro for the first time since The King of Comedy and began working on his next masterpiece, 1990's Goodfellas. Based on author Nicholas Pileggi's true crime account Wiseguy, the film dissected the New York criminal underworld in absorbing detail, helping actor Joe Pesci earn an Oscar for his supporting role as a crazed mob hitman.As part of the deal with Universal Pictures which allowed him to make Last Temptation, Scorsese had also agreed to direct a more "commercial" film. The result was 1991's Cape Fear, an update of the classic Hollywood thriller. The follow-up, 1993's The Age of Innocence, was a dramatic change of pace; based on the novel by Edith Wharton, the film looked at the New York social mores of the 1870s, and starred Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer. In 1995, Scorsese resurfaced with two new films. The first, Casino, documented the rise and decline of mob rule in the Las Vegas of the 1970s, while A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies examined the evolution of the Hollywood filmmaking process. In 1997, he completed Kundun, a meditation on the formative years of the exiled Dalai Lama. That same year he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement honor. In 1998, he participated in the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, once again doing his part to help bridge the films of the past with those of the future.Scorsese returned to the director's chair in 1999 with Bringing Out the Dead. A medical drama starring Nicolas Cage as an emotionally exhausted paramedic, it marked the director's return to New York's contemporary gritty milieu. Scorsese began the new century making his first film for Miramax. Gangs of New York, a drama about New York gangs set during the Civil War, had been on the auteur's mind for over a quarter century by the time it finally was released in December of 2002. The film garnered multiple Oscar nominations including Best Picture and another Best Director nod for Scorsese, but the film went home without any hardware. Gangs of New York was co-scripted by Kenneth Lonergan, leading to Scorsese acting as an executive producer on his directorial debut, You Can Count on Me. Scorsese followed up his historical epic with yet another period piece. The Aviator was a biopic of multi-millionaire Howard Hughes that focused on his younger days as a Hollywood mogul and playboy. Both Gangs and The Aviator found Scorsese casting Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role after his most famous collaborator, Robert De Niro, recommended the Titanic star to the director. 2004 saw the release of Shark Tale, an animated film for which Scorsese voiced one of the characters.In 2005 Scorsese garnered outstanding reviews as the director of the Peabody Award-winning No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, a nearly four-hour documentary about Bob Dylan that charted his life and artistic development up through his historic U.K. concerts where the crowd revolted against his using electric instruments. The next year, Scorsese teamed with DiCaprio for a third time in The Departed, an adaptation of Infernal Affairs. The film, about an undercover cop, featured an impressive cast that included Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon. It opened to strong reviews, and went on to become one of the biggest box-office hits of Scorsese's career, earning the beloved director many industry and critics awards including the Golden Globe for Best Director and finally his long deserved Oscar for Best Director. In 2008 Scorsese returned to the rock doc genre, filming a Rolling Stones show in New York City and releasing the result, Shine a Light, the first of his films to play on IMAX screens. In 2010 Scorsese released his adaptation of Dennis Lahane's paranoid thriller Shutter Island, his fourth partnering with Leonardo DiCaprio.He continued helming documentaries about famous pop-culture figures including the witty Fran Liebowitz profile Public Speaking, the deeply personal homage to Elia Kazan A Letter to Elia, and 2011's George Harrison: Living in the Material World.For Hugo, his 2011 adaptation of Brian Selznick's award-winning children's book, Scorsese took on the technical challenge of working in 3D for the first time in his career, and the resulting film got more Oscar nominations than any other movie that year. The work garnered Scorsese a Best Director win from the Golden Globes, as well as Oscar, Directors Guild, and BAFTA nominations for that same award.

Trivia: Born Douglas Bourne in Brooklyn in 1970, Doug E. Doug emerged in the 1990s as a triple-threat actor, writer, and director, with a particular flair for comedy. Best known in feature films for his acting work in Cool Runnings (1993), he also became a television star during the second half of the decade on Cosby, the sitcom starring Bill Cosby, which ran from 1996 until 2000. For four years, he and Cosby in their scenes together comprised one of the funniest comedy double acts seen on television, his innocent yet conniving Griffin Vesey making the perfect foil to Cosby's ill-tempered curmudgeon Hilton Lucas; another highlight of his portrayal (and a clever "in" joke referring back to his work in Cool Runnings) were Griffin's occasional attempts to impress women by passing himself off as a West Indian, affecting a Jamaican accent. Doug later wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the spoof Citizen James (2000). In 2002, he portrayed Harlan, the comically paranoid radio personality in Eight Legged Freaks.

Trivia: Before his starring role in The Sopranos made his name, character actor Michael Imperioli worked in numerous films during the 1990s with an impressive array of New York-based talent. Born in Mount Vernon, NY, Imperioli did not have to move far when he decided to study acting at New York City's Stella Adler Conservatory. Soon after his 1988 movie debut, Imperioli burnished his acting resumé with a small part as Spider, shot by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990). The following year, Imperioli earned his first role in a Spike Lee film, Jungle Fever (1991). Becoming a Lee regular, Imperioli also played small parts in Malcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995), and Girl 6 (1996), and garnered his first feature screenplay credit as co-writer and executive producer of Lee's Summer of Sam (1999). Imperioli added Italian-American authenticity to Nancy Savoca's quirky ethnic tale Household Saints (1993) and appeared with future Sopranos co-stars Dominic Chianese in The Night We Never Met (1993) and Edie Falco in Abel Ferrara's vampire allegory The Addiction (1995). Briefly "going Hollywood" with parts in the first Michael Bay extravaganza Bad Boys (1995), and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996), Imperioli returned to his New York state of mind in the latter half of the 1990s. Working with The Addiction star Lili Taylor again, Imperioli was an arrogant Ondine to Taylor's disturbed Factory hanger-on Valerie Solanas in Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Audiences could finally attach a name to Imperioli's oft-seen face when he was cast as drug-addicted wannabe screenwriter/mobster Christopher Moltisanti in David Chase's Mafia series The Sopranos. A critical hit from its 1999 debut onward, The Sopranos' potent combination of black comedy, family drama, and violence allowed Imperioli to display the full range of his talents onscreen, particularly when Christopher dabbles in Method acting, and offscreen as one of the second season writers. Imperioli is married and has two children.

Trivia: Well-known for his pivotal role in the popular HBO series The Sopranos, it will probably come as no surprise to many that some of Pastore's earliest roles were in such films as the Italian wedding comedy True Love (1989) and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas.Born in 1946, Pastore was a well-known nightclub manager in New York for 20 years before friends Kevin and Matt Dillon convinced him to consider a career in acting. Soon taking acting lessons and turning up in community theater productions, Pastore made his feature debut in the heavy metal horror fiasco Black Roses before gaining ground on the familiar roles that would follow him through to his breakthrough success on The Sopranos. Along the way to that success, Pastore would turn up in numerous popular films including Awakenings (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), and the 1997 television miniseries The Last Don.

Trivia: Best known as the rumpled television detective Columbo, character actor Peter Falk also enjoyed a successful film career, often in association with the groundbreaking independent filmmaker John Cassavetes. Born September 16, 1927, in New York City, Falk lost an eye at the age of three, resulting in the odd, squinting gaze which later became his trademark. He initially pursued a career in public administration, serving as an efficiency expert with the Connecticut Budget Bureau, but in the early '50s, boredom with his work sparked an interest in acting. By 1955, Falk had turned professional, and an appearance in a New York production of The Iceman Cometh earned him much attention. He soon graduated to Broadway and in 1958 made his feature debut in the Nicholas Ray/Budd Schulberg drama Wind Across the Everglades.A diminutive, stocky, and unkempt presence, Falk's early screen roles often portrayed him as a blue-collar type or as a thug; it was as the latter in 1960's Murder Inc. that he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, a major career boost. He was nominated in the same category the following year as well, this time as a sarcastic bodyguard in Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles. In 1962, Falk won an Emmy for his work in the television film The Price of Tomatoes, a presentation of the Dick Powell Theater series. The steady stream of accolades made him a hot property, and he next starred in the 1962 feature Pressure Point. A cameo in Stanley Kramer's 1963 smash It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World preceded Falk's appearance in the Rat Pack outing Robin and the Seven Hoods, but the film stardom many predicted for him always seemed just out of reach, despite lead roles in 1965's The Great Race and 1967's Luv.In 1968, Falk first assumed the role of Columbo, the disheveled police lieutenant whose seemingly slow and inept investigative manner masked a steel-trap mind; debuting in the TV movie Prescription: Murder, the character was an immediate hit, and after a second telefilm, Ransom for a Dead Man, a regular Columbo series premiered as part of the revolving NBC Mystery Movie anthology in the fall of 1971, running for seven years and earning Falk a second Emmy in the process. In the meantime, he also continued his film career, most notably with Cassavetes; in 1970, Falk starred in the director's Husbands, and in 1974 they reunited for the brilliant A Woman Under the Influence. In between the two pictures, Falk also returned to Broadway, where he won a Tony award for his performance in the 1972 Neil Simon comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue. In 1976, Cassavetes joined him in front of the camera to co-star in Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky, and directed him again in 1977's Opening Night.After Columbo ceased production in 1978, Falk starred in the Simon-penned mystery spoof The Cheap Detective, followed by the William Friedkin caper comedy The Brink's Job (1978). After 1979's The In-Laws, he starred two years later in ...All the Marbles, but was then virtually absent from the screen for the next half decade. Cassavetes' 1986 effort Big Trouble brought Falk back to the screen (albeit on a poor note; Cassavetes later practically disowned the embarrassing film) and and in 1987 he starred in Happy New Year along with the Rob Reiner cult favorite The Princess Bride. An appearance as himself in Wim Wenders' masterful Wings of Desire in 1988 preceded his 1989 resumption of the Columbo character for another regular series; the program was to remain Falk's focus well into the next decade, with only a handful of film appearances in pictures including 1990's Tune in Tomorrow and a cameo in Robert Altman's The Player. After the cancellation of Columbo, he next turned up in Wenders' Desire sequel Far Away, So Close before starring in the 1995 comedy Roommates. Falk continued to work in both film and television for the next decade and a half, starring in various Columbo specials through 2003, appearing with Woody Allen in the made-for-TV The Sunshine Boys in 1997, and playing a bar owner caught up in mafia dealings in 1999's The Money Kings. Other projects included the Adam Sandler-produced gangster comedy Corky Romano (2001), the Dreamworks animated family film A Shark Tale (as the voice of Ira Feinberg), and the Paul Reiser-scripted, Raymond de Felitta-directed comedy-drama The Thing About My Folks (2005). In 2007, Falk starred opposite Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore in Lee Tamahori's sci-fi thriller Next. That same year, Falk announced to the public that he had Alzheimer's disease. He died in June 2011 at age 83.

Trivia: The newscaster with the thousand-watt smile, Katie Couric became a vital companion to millions of Americans getting ready for work when she assumed hosting duties of the Today show in 1991. Effervescent, intelligent, and always energetic, Couric became a cultural icon during her 15-year run on the program, sharing the sympathy of legions when her husband died in 1998 of colon cancer. In order to spread public awareness about the preventative nature of colon cancer, Couric surprised viewers in 2000 by broadcasting her own colonoscopy on national television. Always a risk taker, Couric announced in 2006 that she'd be leaving the program to become the first solo female anchor of a nightly national news program at CBS.

Trivia: Bobb'e J. Thompson skirted to fame as a child actor well before his teens, initially with a small but colorful and energetic supporting role as the pint-sized Tupac in the unofficial Three Men and a Baby update My Baby's Daddy (2003), then with an ongoing small screen characterization as the infatuated Stanley on the situation comedy That's So Raven. Thompson provided one of the voices in the CG-animated adventure comedy Shark Tale (2004) and contributed to OutKast mainstay Bryan Barber's offbeat, inventive musical drama Idlewild (2006), before teaming up with Vince Vaughn in the holiday comedy Fred Claus, and Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott in the acerbic farce Role Models (2008). Alongside his film work, Thompson culled favorable attention for his prominent contributions to the youth-oriented urban dance video JammX Kids: Can't Dance Don't Want To, which afforded him the opportunity to show off his flair for urban music and footwork.

Trivia: Had to audition for high school in 1983, which required two three-minute monologues from a dramatic work; unable to find a script from a play, rented a VHS copy of The Odd Couple and memorized dialogue by the characters Oscar and Felix. Went to high school with Jennifer Aniston and Chastity Bono (now Chaz Bono). Made Broadway debut in a 2007 revival of Terrence McNally's The Ritz, starring Rosie Perez and Kevin Chamberlin. Other stage work includes Gilbert David Feke's Psychoneurotic Phantasies (1990), Eduardo de Filippo's Filumena (1996) and Ethan Coen's Happy Hour (2011).

Trivia: New Jersey-born character actor Frank Vincent is best known for playing threatening thugs and gangsters, but he actually started out working with Joe Pesci as a comedy duo during the early '70s. Before that, Pesci and Vincent had worked together in a honky tonk band, the Aristocrats, in which Pesci sang lead and Vincent played the drums. The duo broke up in 1975, but not before landing supporting roles as gangsters in the low-budget crime drama Death Collector. Afterward, Vincent disappeared from the entertainment industry until 1978, when he again encountered Pesci, who helped him land the part of Salvi, the gangster whom Pesci badly beats in Martin Scorsese's epic biography Raging Bull (1980). The former duo subsequently teamed in Dear Mr. Wonderful (1982), Scorsese's GoodFellas (1990), where Pesci gave Vincent a fatal beating, and in Casino, where the worm turned and Vincent got to kill Pesci. Vincent found fairly steady employment playing small supporting roles in films of widely varying quality through the early '90s. After appearing in Alan Rudolph's Mortal Thoughts and Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991), Vincent began getting larger screen roles.

Trivia: Best known for playing unapologetically mature, assertive, and intelligent adult women, African-American supporting actress Jenifer Lewis originally launched her career as a vocalist, singing in a church choir in Kinloch, MO. Lewis' passion (and gift) for singing carried her to the Great White Way, where she appeared in a number of sell-out Broadway musicals -- including Ain't Misbehavin' and Dreamgirls. She subsequently migrated to the West Coast for a string of appearances in TV programs such as Roc, A Different World, Murphy Brown, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Touched by an Angel, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and graduated to features in 1992. The films in which Lewis has appeared run the gamut of quality, from outstanding (What's Love Got to Do With It?, 1993) to satisfactory (Sister Act, 1992; The Preacher's Wife, 1996) to downright abominable (Frozen Assets, 1992); many, however, demonstrated her fine gifts. More recently, Lewis attained some much-deserved recognition (and ascended to higher than usual billing) with her multi-season portrayal of Lana Hawkins in the prime-time medical drama Strong Medicine (2000).

Trivia: Appeared on Star Search at the age of 9. Sang the national anthem at age 10 before games for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Penguins and Pirates. Was a member of the talent-heavy cast of Disney's The New Mickey Mouse Club, which produced the likes of pop superstars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, and actors Keri Russell and Ryan Gosling. Is half-Ecuadorian and released a Spanish-language album, Mi Reflejo, although she is not fluent in Spanish; she learned the lyrics phonetically. Cowrote American Idol Kelly Clarkson's hit single "Miss Independent." Was named by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 greatest singers of all time. Made her film debut in the 2010 film Burlesque and wrote several songs for the soundtrack.