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|Chloë Grace Moretz
Chloë Grace Moretz was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Teri (Duke), a nurse, and McCoy Lee Moretz, a plastic surgeon. She has four brothers, all older, including actor Trevor Duke-Moretz. Her ancestry is mostly German and English.
Chloë's first two appearances were as Violet in two episodes of the series The Guardian. Her first movie role was as Molly in Heart of the Beholder, a story about a family that opened the first video rental store in 1980. This was followed by a small role in Family Plan as Young Charlie. After that, however, came Chloe's biggest role, and the one that made her famous: The Amityville Horror, the remake of the famous The Amityville Horror. Next she landed a small role in Today You Die as the Little Girl, and has since appeared in Room 6 and Big Momma's House 2. She filmed Wicked Little Things in Bulgaria, in which she plays Emma Tunney. In 2007 she completed The Third Nail, in which she appeared as Hailey Deonte.
In 2010 she appeared as Hit-Girl in director Matthew Vaughn's action film Kick-Ass, based on the comic book series of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Although her role in the violent action film engendered some controversy, she received widespread critical acclaim for her portrayal. Moretz trained with Jackie Chan's stunt crew for three months prior to filming "Kick-Ass" and did most of her own stunts in the film. Also that year she played Abby, a 12-year-old vampire, in Let Me In, the UK/US remake of the Swedish film Let the Right One In, which was released on October 1, 2010. She played Ann Sliger in the crime thriller Texas Killing Fields, released on October 14, 2011.
Chloe next played Isabelle in Martin Scorsese's Hugo, a film adaptation of "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". "Hugo", which was nominated for 11 Oscars, co-starred Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helen McCrory. Moretz then starred in Hick, an adaptation of the novel by Andrea Portes. She was in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows, based on the iconic TV series Dark Shadows, playing the role of Carolyn Stoddard, a rebellious teenage daughter.
In 2013 she reprised her role as Hit-Girl in the sequel Kick-Ass 2, which received mixed reviews, but once again her performance was highly praised. The same year she also appeared in a short segment in Movie 43 and played the title character in Carrie, a remake of Carrie, based on a Stephen King story and directed by Kimberly Peirce. In January 2013 Moretz was chosen to play Mia in the film adaptation of Gayle Forman's If I Stay, which was released in August 2014. On January 16, 2014, it was announced Moretz would appear in an off-Broadway show directed by Steven Soderbergh entitled "The Library".
In 2014 Chloë was in six films: a cameo as a newspaper girl in Muppets Most Wanted, the female lead of prostitute Teri alongside Denzel Washington in The Equalizer and teenage party girl Annika with Keira Knightley and Sam Rockwell in Laggies. In December she played the role of very young Hollywood actress with a scandalous reputation Jo-Ann Ellis alongside Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche in Clouds of Sils Maria.
In April it was announced that Chloë would be playing the lead role of Cassie Sullivan in The 5th Wave, another adaptation similar to The Hunger Games, alongside Nick Robinson and Alex Roe. It was later announced that Chloë would play the lead female role of Digger in the movie adaptation of Sam Munson's novel "November Criminals". Moretz's character is the best friend of Addison Schacht, played by Ansel Elgort,
|Tom Hardy
With his breakthrough performance as Eames in Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller Inception, English actor Tom Hardy has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences worldwide. However, the versatile actor has been steadily working on both stage and screen since his television debut in the miniseries Band of Brothers. After being cast in the World War II drama, Hardy left his studies at the prestigious Drama Centre in London and was subsequently cast as Twombly in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down and as the villain Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis.
Tom was born on September 15, 1977 in Hammersmith, London; his mother, Elizabeth Anne (Barrett), is an artist and painter, and his father, Edward Hardy, is a writer. He is of English and Irish descent. Hardy was brought up in East Sheen, London, and first studied at Reed's School. His education continued at Tower House School, then at Richmond Drama School, and subsequently at the Drama Centre London, along with fellow Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender. After winning a modeling competition at age 21, he had a brief contract with the agency Models One.
Tom spent his teens and early twenties battling delinquency, alcoholism and drug addiction; after completing his work on Star Trek: Nemesis, he sought treatment and has also admitted that his battles with addiction ended his 5-year marriage to Sarah Ward.
Returning to work in 2003, Hardy was awarded the Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer Award for his theatre performances in the productions of "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" and "Blood". In 2003, Tom also co-starred in the play "The Modernists" with Paul Popplewell, Jesse Spencer and Orlando Wells.
During the next five years, Hardy worked consistently in film, television and theatre, playing roles as varied as Robert Dudley in the BBC's The Virgin Queen, Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist and starring in "The Man of Mode" at the National Theatre. On the silver screen, he appeared in the crime thriller Layer Cake with Daniel Craig, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, and the romp Scenes of a Sexual Nature.
In 2006, Hardy created "Shotgun", an underground theatre company along with director Robert Delamere, and directed a play, penned by his father for the company, called "Blue on Blue". In 2007, Hardy received a best actor BAFTA nomination for his touching performance as Stuart Shorter in the BBC adaptation of Alexander Masters' bestselling biography Stuart: A Life Backwards. Hardy, hailed for his transformative character acting, was lauded for his emotionally and physically convincing portrayal in the ill-fated and warmhearted tale of Shorter, a homeless and occasionally violent man suffering from addiction and muscular dystrophy.
The following year, he appeared as gay hoodlum Handsome Bob in the Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla, but this would be his next transformation that would prove his extensive range and stun critics. In the film Bronson, Hardy played the notorious Charles Bronson (given name, Michael Peterson), the "most violent prisoner in Britain". Bald, pumped-up, and outfitted with Bronson's signature strongman mustache, Hardy is unrecognizable and gives a harrowing performance that is physically fearless and psychologically unsettling. Director Nicolas Winding Refn breaks the fourth wall with Hardy retelling his tales directly to viewers as well as performing them outright before an audience of his own imagining. The performance mixes terrifying brutality, vaudevillian showmanship, wry humor, and an alarming amount of commitment, and won Hardy a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor. The performance got Hollywood's attention, and in 2009, Hardy was named one of Variety's "10 Actors to Watch". That year, he continued to garner praise for his starring role in The Take, a four-part adaptation of Martina Cole's bestselling crime novel, as well as for his performance as Heathcliff in a version of Wuthering Heights.
Recent work includes the aforementioned breakthrough appearance in Inception alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. The movie was released in July 2010 and became one of top 25 highest grossing films of all time, collecting eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and winning four.
Other films include Warrior, opposite Joel Edgerton, the story of two estranged brothers facing the fight of a lifetime from director Gavin O'Connor, and This Means War, directed by McG and co-starring Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine. Tom also starred in the heralded Cold War thriller, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Colin Firth and Gary Oldman.
Hardy rejoined Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises; he played the villain role of Bane opposite Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gary Oldman. Hardy's menacing physique and his character's scrambled, hard-to-distinguish voice became a major discussion point as the film was released.
Outside of performing, Hardy is the patron for the charity "Flack", which is an organization to aid the recovery of the homeless in Cambridge. And in 2010, Hardy was named an Ambassador for The Prince's Trust, which helps disadvantaged youth. On the recent stage, he starred in the Brett C. Leonard play "The Long Red Road" in early 2010. Written for Hardy and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, the play was staged at Chicago's Goodman Theater.
In 2015, Hardy starred as the iconic Mad Max in George Miller's reboot of his franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road. He also collected a British Independent Film Award for his portrayal of both the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, in Legend, and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Fitzgerald in The Revenant.
He has an outlaw biker story among other projects in development. In 2010, Hardy became engaged to fellow English actress Charlotte Riley, whom he starred with in The Take and Wuthering Heights, and is raising a young son, Louis, with ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed.
|Jackie Cruz
Jackie Cruz has been singing and acting her whole life, and has entertained thousands with her unique sound, and artistic skills on screen with her roles on Netflix's #1 series, Orange Is the New Black as Flaca.
At a young age, Jackie has made amazing strides in her career with being named one of the "Top Latino Powerhouses in Hollywood Under 40" by The Hollywood Reporter in November 2013. She joined the list with star-studded names that include Eva Longoria, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and many more.
In addition, Jackie continues to evolve her career as a singer by working on new material for her English and Spanish EP. Recently, Jackie was a Fashion Correspondent during 2014's New York Fashion Week for OK! Magazine, and was named by Latina Magazine as their "Celebrity Style Crush" and "Best Dress Latina."
|Karen Gillan
Karen was born and raised in Inverness, Scotland, the daughter of Marie (Paterson) and John Gillan, who is a singer and recording artist. She developed a love for acting very early on, attending several youth theatre groups and taking part in a wide range of productions at her school, Charleston Academy.
At age 16, Karen decided she wanted to pursue her acting career further and, studied under the renowned theatre director Scott Johnston at the Performing Arts Studio Scotlond. She later attended the prestigious Italia Conti academy in London. During her first year, she landed a role in Rebus and soon appeared in a variety of programs including Channel 4's Stacked and The Kevin Bishop Show, as well as a two-year stint in the long-running series Doctor Who. Karen also stars in the film Outcast, starring James Nesbitt. Her most recent starring role is as Eliza Dooley in "Selfie" (2014),
When she's not acting, Karen likes to play the piano and loves rummaging through vintage clothes shops.
|Jennifer Lawrence
The highest-paid and most powerful actress in the world, with her films grossing over $5.5 billion worldwide, Jennifer Lawrence is often cited as the most successful actor of her generation.
Lawrence was born Jennifer Shrader Lawrence on August 15, 1990 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Karen (Koch), who manages a children's camp, and Gary Lawrence, who works in construction. She has two older brothers, Ben and Blaine, and has English, German, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.
Her career began when she traveled to Manhattan at the age of fourteen. After conducting her first cold read, agents told her mother that "it was the best cold read by a 14- year-old they had ever heard", and tried to convince her stage mother that she needed to spend the summer in Manhattan. After leaving the agency, Jen was spotted by an agent in the midst of shooting an H&M ad and asked to take her picture. The next day, that agent followed up with her and invited her to the studio for a cold read audition. Again, the agents were highly impressed and strongly urged her mother to allow her to spend the summer in New York City. As fate would have it, she did, and subsequently appeared in commercials such as MTV's "My Super Sweet 16" and played a role in the movie, The Devil You Know.
Shortly thereafter, her career forced her and her family to move to Los Angeles, where she was cast in the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, and in smaller movies like The Poker House and The Burning Plain.
Her big break came when she played Ree in Winter's Bone, which landed her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. Shortly thereafter, she secured the role of Mystique in franchise reboot X-Men: First Class, which went on to be a hit in Summer 2011. Around this time, Lawrence scored the role of a lifetime when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen in the big-screen adaptation of literary sensation The Hunger Games. The film went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies ever with over $407 million at the domestic box office, and instantly propelled Lawrence to the A-list among young actors/actresses. Three Hunger Games sequels were released in each consecutive November, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, with Lawrence reprising her role.
In 2012, the romantic comedy, Silver Linings Playbook earned her the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Satellite Award and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress, among other accolades, making her the youngest person ever to be nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actress and the second-youngest Best Actress winner.
She starred in David O. Russell's popular drama-comedy American Hustle, as Roselyn Rosenfield, and teamed with the director again to play inventor Joy Mangano in another family comedy, Joy, receiving Oscar nominations for both roles (Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively).
|Katheryn Winnick
Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick stars in the critically acclaimed, Emmy award-winning television series Vikings. produced by MGM and The History Channel. Entertainment Weekly declared that her role as "Lagertha" may be the most exciting feminist character on TV." Her portrayal of the fierce shield maiden has garnered her several impressive nominations including a nomination for a Critic's Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Performance by a Lead Dramatic Actress (2014), Best Actress in a Drama Series by the Women's Image Network in both 2014 & 2015 and a Golden Maple Award nomination for Best Actress in a TV Series. In addition to these prestigious nominations, Katheryn won the Serendipity Film's Award of Excellence at the Banff World Media Festival in 2015.
Recently, Winnick wrapped production on the highly anticipated adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Dark Tower, starring Academy Award-winner Matthew McConaughey and Golden Globe winner Idris Elba due for release in February 2017. Winnick also stars opposite Gerard Butler in the Warner Brother's feature film Geostorm.
Winnick's other credits include roles in such movies as Love & Other Drugs with Jake Gyllenhaal, Killers starring Ashton Kutcher, as well as Stand Up Guys with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin. She also starred in the Paul Giamatti comedy drama Cold Souls, which received a best ensemble performance nomination in the 2009 Gotham Independent Film Awards.
Off the big screen, Katheryn is no stranger to TV and in addition to Vikings has had numerous television appearances including roles in Person of Interest, House M.D., CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and a notable recurring role on the hit prime time series Bones.
In 2015, Winnick was named as the brand ambassador for luxury Swiss watch company Raymond Weil and is the face of their 2016 elegant and feminine Shine Collection. Katheryn proudly endorses the brand of watches, which celebrates both the strength and beauty of the active modern woman worldwide.
In addition to acting, Katheryn Winnick is an accomplished martial artist who holds a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a second-degree black belt in Karate. By twenty-one she had founded and owned three martial arts schools. After completing her university education at York University, Toronto, Katheryn went on to successfully pursue an acting career in New York and subsequently Los Angeles.
|Cara Delevingne
Cara Jocelyn Delevingne was born in London, England, to Pandora Anne (Stevens) and Charles Hamar Delevingne, a property developer. Her parents are both from prominent upper-class families, with her ancestors including Viscounts (Greenwood), Baronets (Hulton, Faudel-Phillips), Majors and Lord Mayors of London.
Delevigne is a fashion model, and the face of Burberry's Beauty campaign. She was previously the face of Burberry's spring/summer 2012 campaign and spring/summer 2011 campaign. She has been featured in advertising campaigns for other brands including H&M, Zara and Chanel. She also appeared on the catwalk for brands such as Moschino, Jason Wu, Oscar de la Renta, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and Stella McCartney. Delevigne was on the covers of Vogue UK, Vogue Korea, i-D, Love, Russh, Jalouse and Style.com's Spring 2013 issue. She also walked down the catwalk as a model at the 2012 Victoria's Secret fashion show.
Delevigne is ranked #17 on models.com's 50 Top Models (2013). She also won Model Of The Year 2012 at the British Fashion Awards.
|Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Darren was always artistic: he loved classic movies and, as a teenager, he even spent time doing graffiti art. After high school, Darren went to Harvard University to study film (both live-action and animation). He won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, "Supermarket Sweep", starring Sean Gullette, which went on to becoming a National Student Academy Award finalist. Aronofsky didn't make a feature film until five years later, in February 1996, where he began creating the concept for Pi. After Darren's script for Pi received great reactions from friends, he began production. The film re-teamed Aronofsky with Gullette, who played the lead. This went on to further successes, such as Requiem for a Dream and, most recently, the American remake of the Japanese film series "Kozure okami" (1973) (aka "Lone Wolf & Cub").
|Brie Larson
Brie Larson has built an impressive career as an acclaimed television actress, rising feature film star and emerging recording artist. A native of Sacramento, Brie started studying drama at the early age of 6, as the youngest student ever to attend the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She starred in one of Disney Channel's most watched original movies, Right on Track, as well as the WB's Raising Dad and MGM's teen comedy Sleepover - all before graduating from middle school.
Brie's work includes the coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall and the dark comedy, Just Peck, with Marcia Cross and Keir Gilchrist. She earned critical praise for her role in the independent feature, Remember the Daze (aka "The Beautiful Ordinary"), singled out by Variety as the "scene stealer" of the film, opposite Amber Heard and Leighton Meester.
Brie garnered considerable acclaim for her series regular role of "Kate", Toni Collette's sarcastic and rebellious daughter, in Showtime's breakout drama United States of Tara, created by Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody and based on an original idea by Steven Spielberg.
She starred in The Trouble with Bliss opposite Michael C. Hall, playing a young girl out to seduce him while, in turn, teaching him more about his own life. She also starred in Universal's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg. In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Brie played rock star "Envy Adams", former flame of Michael Cera, and in Greenberg, she starred as a young temptress trying to flirt with Ben Stiller, a New Yorker traveling West to try to figure out his life.
In addition to her talents as an actress, Brie has simultaneously nurtured an ever-growing musical career. At 13, Brie landed her first record deal at Universal Records with Tommy Mottola, who signed her sight-unseen. Her first release in 2005 led to a nationwide tour.
|Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress, singer, martial artist, and model. She was born in Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel, to a Jewish family (from Poland, Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia). Her parents are Irit, a teacher, and Michael, an engineer. She served in the IDF for two years, and won the Miss Israel title in 2004.
Gal began modeling in the late 2000s, and made her film debut in the fourth film of the Fast and Furious franchise, Fast & Furious, as Gisele. Her role was expanded in the sequels Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, in which her character was romantically linked to Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang). In the films, Gal performed her own stunts. She also appeared in the 2010 films Date Night and Knight and Day.
In early December 2013, Gal was cast as Wonder Woman in the superhero team-up film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and filming began in 2014 for a March 2016 release. Gadot received swordsmanship, Kung Fu kickboxing, Capoeira and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training in preparation for the role. As a result, her performance as the superhero, which is the first time for the character on film, was hailed as one of the best parts of the otherwise poorly-received film. The film is part of the DC Extended Universe, and Gadot plays the role again in the solo film Wonder Woman, which was received very positively, and superhero team-up Justice League.
Gal is a motorcycle enthusiast, and owns a black 2006 Ducati Monster-S2R. She has been married to Israeli businessman Yaron Versano since September 28, 2008. They have two daughters.
|Teresa Palmer
Actress and model Teresa Palmer has gathered some impressive film credits. She was born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Kevin Palmer, an investor, and Paula Sanders, a former missionary and nurse. She completed high school at Mercedes College in 2003, where she was a popular student who was well-known for her practical jokes. She worked in a Cotton On outlet in Rundle Mall until she was discovered and cast on the spot--without an audition--in her feature film debut and breakthrough role in 2:37. Made by first-time writer/director/producer Murali K. Thalluri, the film competed in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival in "Un Certain Regard" and chronicles the lives of six students over the course of day and ends in a devastating suicide.
Teresa immediately went to work on back-to-back film projects including December Boys opposite "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe--a coming-of-age story about four adolescent orphans, based on the book by Michael Noonan and directed by Rod Hardy (Robinson Crusoe, Buffalo Girls, The X-Files and The Practice). She also starred as stripper-turned-criminal "Dale" in the British/Australian co-production Restraint, a film noir/psychological thriller that follows the plight of a pair of fugitives on the run from a murder scene. Directed by David Denneen, the film also features former Calvin Klein model Travis Fimmel and British actor Stephen Moyer. In 2006 Teresa worked with Japanese director Takashi Shimizu on the Sony Pictures production The Grudge 2. Set in Tokyo, the horror sequel to the box-office hit The Grudge also starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Beals. Later that year Teresa signed on to play the female lead in Doug Liman's action fantasy film Jumper, but was subsequently replaced by Rachel Bilson.
Early 2007 saw her star opposite former real-life boyfriend Topher Grace as the love interest in the retro comedy film Take Me Home Tonight. Shortly after filming ended, Teresa decided to move permanently from Adelaide to Los Angeles following a public split from her then-boyfriend of two years, Australian Rules football star Stuart Dew. Teresa was due to play a small part in George Miller's doomed superhero film "Justice League: Mortal", but the production fell through after months of problems. Teresa briefly dated her "Justice League: Mortal" co-star Adam Brody in early 2008; later that year she had a relationship with British comedian Russell Brand, whom she met on the set of her latest film, Bedtime Stories, a Disney children's comedy starring Lucy Lawless, Guy Pearce and Keri Russell and was released on Christmas 2008.
|Melissa George
The second of four children, Australian actress Melissa George was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1976. The daughter of Pamela, a nurse, and Glenn George, a construction worker, Melissa initially expressed interest in various forms of dance rather than acting. During her childhood, George studied tap, ballet, and jazz, later transitioning into professional rollerskating - similar to figure skating on ice.
By age 16, George had won several awards at various National Rollerskating Championships in Australia, and subsequently began modeling after dropping out of high school. George met a casting agent while doing modeling work, and was given a role on the popular Australian soap opera Home and Away; George moved to Sydney and worked on the show for three years until deciding to pursue other projects.
In 1996, George left Australia and moved to Los Angeles in search of bigger roles. She garnered various supporting parts in films such as Dark City and Steven Soderbergh's crime thriller The Limey, before landing a key part in David Lynch's acclaimed neo noir mystery film, Mulholland Dr.. While in Bali in 1998, George met future husband, Chilean filmmaker Claudio Dabed; the two were married in late 2000.
The early 2000s would have George playing bit parts in several American television shows, including Friends and Monk, ultimately landing a recurring role on the hit Alias alongside Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan. Through the later part of the decade, George had roles in various horror and thriller films, beginning with the 2005 version of The Amityville Horror, as well as the commercially-successful thriller Derailed alongside Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston and Vincent Cassel.
George finished the decade with several more horror films, including Turistas and 30 Days of Night, as well as independent horror titles such as The Killing Gene, The Betrayed and Triangle. George was also active in television work, landing a role on the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Her greatest critical success would come with a role on In Treatment, playing the love interest of Gabriel Byrne, which would garner her a Golden Globe nomination in 2009.
Though a veteran of television in both Australia and the United States, George has achieved considerable success in her film career, which has hardly spanned over a decade.
|Rhona Mitra
Mitra was born in Paddington, London, England, the daughter of Nora Downey and Anthony Mitra, a cosmetic surgeon. She has an older and a younger brother. Her father is of Bengali Indian and English descent, and her mother is Irish. In 1984, when Mitra was eight, her parents divorced, and she was sent to boarding school. She spent several years at two different schools, including Roedean, but Mitra claims she was eventually expelled from both of them.
Mitra's first main role came as Scott Wolf's illicit love interest on Party of Five. In 2000, Mitra had a small, key role in the film Hollow Man, as the rape victim of Kevin Bacon, an incident that drives his character insane. She had a main role in the medical drama Gideon's Crossing, as "Dr. Alejandra Ollie Klein". Mitra then had roles in Ali G Indahouse; Sweet Home Alabama; Stuck on You, and leading roles in Highwaymen and Spartacus. Mitra appeared in the final season of The Practice as "Tara Wilson", and continued that role into its spin-off Boston Legal, but left not long into the second season. In 2005, Mitra played the role of "Kit McGraw" during Season 3 of Nip/Tuck. Mitra then went on to appear in Skinwalkers, The Number 23 and Shooter. In 2008, Mitra starred in the lead role of the science fiction/action film Doomsday as "Major Eden Sinclair", and, in 2009, went on to star in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans as "Sonja", the daughter of the powerful vampire elder, "Viktor" (played by Bill Nighy).
Mitra appeared as the live action model for "Lara Croft", the lead character in Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider video game series. She was ranked #46 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2001.
|Alyson Stoner
Alyson Stoner got her start as a triple threat on the Disney Channel, co-hosting "Mike's Super Short Show". By age seven, she won the hearts of an older generation as the "Little Pigtailed Dancer" in Missy Elliott's music video, Missy Elliott: Work It. Since her early reign, Alyson has become a powerhouse heavy-weight with blockbuster movies like Cheaper by the Dozen and the "Step Up" franchise, hit TV shows across networks and cable, and record-setting viral videos. She just completed a 24-city national tour with her original music, leading up to the release of her EP, "While You Were Sleeping", and is Head of Music for the award-winning QWunder app, educating children in emotional and social intelligence.
Alyson is the 6th Most Searched Actress on Google, 16th Most Searched Actress on IMDB, and has over 40 film credits including three in production for 2017. Her social reach is over one Million and she has over 110 Million Views as a fully independent artist on YouTube. Alyson is a true multi-hyphenate, the empowered female voice of a generation, redefining what it means to be a millennial woman.
|Tom Holland
Thomas Stanley Holland was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, to Nicola Elizabeth (Frost), a photographer, and Dominic Holland (Dominic Anthony Holland), who is a comedian and author. His paternal grandparents were from the Isle of Man and Ireland, respectively. He lives with his parents and three younger brothers - Paddy and twins Sam and Harry. Tom attended Donhead Prep School. Then, after a successful eleven plus exam, he became a pupil at Wimbledon College. Having successfully completed his GCSEs, in September 2012 Tom started a two-year course in the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology notable for its numerous famous alumni.
Holland began dancing at a hip hop class at Nifty Feet Dance School in Wimbledon, London. His potential was spotted by choreographer Lynne Page (who was an Associate to Peter Darling, choreographer of Billy Elliot and Billy Elliot the Musical) when he performed with his dance school as part of the Richmond Dance Festival 2006. After eight auditions and subsequent two years of training, on 28 June 2008 Tom made his West End debut in Billy Elliot the Musical as Michael, Billy's best friend. He gave his first performance in the title role of Billy on 8 September 2008 getting rave reviews praising his versatile acting and dancing skills.
In September 2008 Tom (together with co-star Tanner Pflueger) appeared on the news programme on channel FIVE and gave his first TV interview. In 2009 Tom was featured on ITV1 show "The Feel Good Factor". At the launch show on 31 January he and two other Billy Elliots, Tanner Pflueger and Layton Williams, performed a specially choreographered version of Angry Dance from Billy Elliot the Musical, after which Tom was interviewed by host Myleene Klass. Then he became involved into training five ordinary British schoolboys learning to get fit and preparing their dance routine (fronted by Tom) for the final "The Feel Good Factor" show on 28 March 2009. On 11 March 2010 Tom Holland along with fellow Billy Elliots Dean-Charles Chapman and Fox Jackson-Keen appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV1.
On 8 March 2010, to mark the fifth anniversary of Billy Elliot the Musical, four current Billy Elliots, including Tom Holland, were invited to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was Tom Holland who was chosen to be a lead at the special fifth anniversary show on 31 March 2010. Elton John, Billy Elliot the Musical composer, who was at the audience, called Tom's performance "astonishing" and said that he was "blown away" by it. Holland had been appearing on a regular basis as Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical rotating with three other performers till 29 May 2010 when he finished his run in the musical.
In two months after leaving Billy Elliot the Musical, Holland successfully auditioned for a starring role in the film The Impossible[18] (directed by Juan Antonio Bayona) alongside Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. The Impossible was based on a true story that took place during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2012, and was released in Europe in October 2012, and in North America in December 2012.
Tom has received universal praise for his performance, in particular: "What a debut, too, from Tom Holland as the eldest of their three lads" (The Telegraph); "Tom Holland, making one of the finest feature debuts in years" (HeyUGuys); "the excellent Tom Holland" (The Guardian); "The child performers are uncanny and there is an especially terrific performance from Tom Holland as the resourceful, levelheaded Lucas terrified but tenacious in the face of an unspeakable ordeal" (Screen Daily); "Young Holland in particular is astonishingly good as the terrified but courageous Lucas." (The Hollywood Reporter); "However, the real acting standout in The Impossible is the performance of Tom Holland as the eldest son Lucas. His portrayal is genuine, and at no moment does it feel melodramatic and forced. The majority of his scenes are separate from the lead actors and for the most part it feels like The Impossible is Holland's film" (Entertainment Maven); "Mr. Holland, meanwhile, matures before our eyes, navigating the passage from adolescent self-absorption to profound and terrible responsibility. He is a terrific young actor" (New York Times).
Tom has given a number of interviews about his role in The Impossible. In particular, he talked on video to Vanity Fair Senior West Coast editor Krista Smith and with IAMROGUE's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick. He has also given interviews to The Hollywood Reporter,[32] to the MovieWeb, to Today Show on NBC and to other outlets. Tom's director and co-stars have also talked about him. Juan Antonio Bayona: "He had this extraordinary ability to get into the emotion and portray it in a very, very easy way. The best I'd ever seen in a kid." Ewan McGregor: "It was wonderful watching Tom who had never worked in front of a camera before, to see him really get it and grow as a film actor as he went along. He's really talented and polite to everyone. It's very easy for children to lose perspective but he's absolutely on the right road and a brilliant actor." Naomi Watts: "He has an incredible emotional instrument and an unbelievable sense of himself... Tom Holland and I had a couple of moments where we came together and I could just tell how wonderful he was and what a beautiful instrument he had. It was just easy to work with him, that was one of the greatest highlights for me: discovering a friendship with Tom off-screen and this beautiful relationship between mother and son on-screen. The intimacy that develops through the course of the film between Lucas and Maria, I just loved that relationship. I mean, Tom is a beyond gifted actor. He's just a raw, open talent that is just so easy to work with. And Tom, he's inspiring, he kind of lifts everyone's game around him because he can do nothing but tell the truth. He was great."
In his turn, Tom Holland has returned favours to Naomi Watts when he was asked to present Desert Palm Achievement Award to her at Palm Springs International Film Festival. According to HitFix: "One recurring theme of the night was how the introductions were often better than actual winner's speeches... The best intro, however, had to go to 16-year-old Tom Holland who intro'd his "Impossible" co-star Watts. Holland admitted of all of Watts' great performances his dad had only let him see "King Kong" and while they spent six weeks shooting in a water tank he didn't know it was "difficult" because he actually "loved it"... Most important, this was Holland's first film role and he sweetly noted, "From the moment I met you, you took my hand and you never let go." Cue the "awwww" from the audience." The presentation is available on video.
In 2011, Holland was cast in British version of the animation film Arrietty, produced by Japan's cult Studio Ghibli. He has provided voice over for the principal character Sho. In 2012 Tom Holland played the starring role of Isaac in the film "How I lived Now"[44] (directed by Kevin Macdonald) alongside Saoirse Ronan. The film is due to be released in 2013. [edit]Awards, nominations and affiliations
On 17 October 2012, Holland became a recipient of Hollywood Spotlight Award for his role in The Impossible. "We are very excited that we will be able to recognize acting talents that are on the road to discovery and stardom," said Carlos de Abreu, founder and executive director of the Hollywood Film Awards in a statement. On 6 December 2012 it was announced that Holland became a winner of the National Board of Review award in the "Breakthrough Actor" category. In the end of December 2012, Holland was voted a winner for the year's Best Youth Performance in Nevada Critics Awards.
In December 2012, Holland received a number of nominations (pending) for his role in The Impossible: for the 18th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards, in the "Best Young Acror/Acress" category; for Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2012 in the "Most Promising Performer" category; for the 27th Goya Awards in the "Best New Actor" category; for the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 2012 in the "Best Youth Performance" category; for the London Film Critics Circle Awards 2012 in the "Young British Performer of the Year" category.
Kristopher Tapley, Editor-at-Large of HitFix, reported on 27 August 2012 that Summit Entertainment, the company responsible for distribution of The Impossible in USA, would be campaigning Holland rather than McGregor as the lead, and strongly argued that Tom Holland deserved to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actor category. The fact of long-listing for an Academy Award was confirmed in the article in the Hollywood Reporter: "And though McGregor stars as his father in the film, Holland has been submitted as the lead actor for awards consideration. Regardless if he receives any nominations, his performance as the strong-willed and determined eldest son is garnering critical acclaim."
As one of the most promising young actors, Holland was featured in Screen International's "UK Stars of Tomorrow - 2012" and in Variety's "Youth Impact Report 2012". Holland has been signed up by William Morris Endeavor (WME) global talent agency and is represented by Curtis Brown literary and talent agency.
In 2015, Tom was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sony and Marvel's upcoming films. He will play the role starting with Captain America: Civil War and the Spider-Man: Homecoming.
|Maisie Williams
Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams (born 15 April 1997) is an English actress. She made her professional acting debut as Arya Stark in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones, for which she won the EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama, the Portal Award for Best Supporting Actress - Television and Best Young Actor, and the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.
Williams has also had a recurring role in Doctor Who as Ashildr in 2015. In addition to television, she made her feature film debut in the mystery The Falling, for which she won the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Young Performer of the Year.
Williams was born in Bristol, UK. She has always been known as "Maisie" after the character from the comic strip The Perishers. Williams is the youngest of four children; her three older siblings are James, Beth and Ted. Born to Hilary Pitt (now Frances), a former university course administrator, she grew up in Clutton, Somerset. She attended Clutton Primary School and Norton Hill School in Midsomer Norton, before moving to Bath Dance College to study Performing Arts.
Since 2011, Williams has played Arya Stark, a tomboyish young girl from a noble family, in the HBO fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones. Arya was Williams' first role in any professional capacity. She has received critical acclaim for her performance in the series. Williams continued to garner praise for her performance in the show's second season, and HBO submitted her for consideration in the Outstanding Supporting Actress category for the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards, although she did not receive a nomination. She won the 2012 Portal Award for Best Supporting Actress - Television, and the Portal Award for Best Young Actor. At 15 years of age, Williams was the youngest actress ever to win in the Best Supporting Actress category. In March 2013, she was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series - Supporting Young Actress and, in November 2013, won the BBC Radio 1 Teen Award for Best British Actor. To date, she has appeared in all six broadcast seasons.
In 2012, Williams played Loren Caleigh in the BBC series The Secret of Crickley Hall and appeared in a Funny or Die skit titled The Olympic Ticket Scalper. She also appeared in the independent films Heatstroke (2012) and Gold (2013), and the short films Corvidae (2013) and Up On The Roof (2013).
Williams also signed on to play Lorna Thompson in the Sci-Fi film We Are Monsters, which was set for a 2014 release.
In 2014, Williams portrayed Lydia in the British film The Falling, which premiered on 11 October 2014, and was released on 24 April 2015 in the UK. In December, Williams was in talks with Naughty Dog to star as Ellie in the film adaptation of the video game The Last of Us.
In January 2015, Williams appeared in one-off Channel 4 doc-drama Cyberbully, and in February she received European recognition with a Shooting Stars Award at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.
In February 2015, Williams played the leading role in the video-clip of Oceans by the British band Seafret. The theme of this clip is also bullying.
On 30 March 2015, the BBC announced that Williams would guest star in two episodes of Doctor Who ("The Girl Who Died" and "The Woman Who Lived"). Williams later returned to the series in the first and third episodes of the three-part series finale, entitled "Face the Raven" and "Hell Bent" respectively.
|Christopher Nolan
Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear storytelling, acclaimed writer-director Christopher Nolan was born on July 30, 1970 in London, England. Over the course of 15 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made.
At 7 years old, Nolan began making short movies with his father's Super-8 camera. While studying English Literature at University College London, he shot 16-millimetre films at U.C.L.'s film society, where he learned the guerrilla techniques he would later use to make his first feature, Following, on a budget of around $6,000. The noir thriller was recognized at a number of international film festivals prior to its theatrical release, and gained Nolan enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for his next film.
Nolan's second film was Memento, which he directed from his own screenplay based on a short story by his brother Jonathan. Starring Guy Pearce, the film brought Nolan numerous honors, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Nolan went on to direct the critically acclaimed psychological thriller, Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.
The turning point in Nolan's career occurred when he was awarded the chance to revive the Batman franchise in 2005. In Batman Begins, Nolan brought a level of gravitas back to the iconic hero, and his gritty, modern interpretation was greeted with praise from fans and critics alike. Before moving on to a Batman sequel, Nolan directed, cowrote and produced the mystery thriller The Prestige, starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as magicians whose obsessive rivalry leads to tragedy and murder.
In 2008, Nolan directed, cowrote and produced The Dark Knight which went on to gross more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Nolan was nominated for a Directors Guild of America (D.G.A.) Award, Writers Guild of America (W.G.A.) Award and Producers Guild of America (P.G.A.) Award, and the film also received eight Academy Award nominations.
In 2010, Nolan captivated audiences with the sci-fi thriller Inception, which he directed and produced from his own original screenplay. The thought-provoking drama was a worldwide blockbuster, earning more than $800,000,000 dollars and becoming one of the most discussed and debated films of the year. Among its many honors, Inception received four Academy Awards and eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Nolan was recognized by his peers with D.G.A. and P.G.A. Award nominations, as well as a W.G.A. Award for his work on the film.
One of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing movies of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises concluded Nolan's Batman trilogy. Due to his success rebooting the Batman character, Warner Bros. enlisted Nolan to produce their revamped Superman movie Man of Steel, which opened in the summer of 2013. In 2014, Nolan directed, wrote and produced the science fiction epic Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. released the film on November 5, 2014 to positive reviews and strong box-office results, grossing over $670 million dollars worldwide.
Nolan currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and their children. Nolan and Thomas also have their own production company, Syncopy.
|Margot Robbie
Margot Robbie was born in Dalby, Queensland, Australia and raised on the Gold Coast, spending much of her time at the farm belonging to her grandparents. Her mother, Sarie Kessler, is a physiotherapist. Robbie attended and graduated from Somerset College. In her late teens, she moved to Melbourne to pursue an acting career. Her first break came when she appeared in two films directed by Aash Aaron - Vigilante and I.C.U.. In 2008, she began appearing as Donna Freedman in the soap opera Neighbours. The role and performance was popular and Robbie was nominated for several Logie Awards. She left the series in 2010 and set off to pursue Hollywood opportunities, quickly landing the role of Laura Cameron on the ABC drama Pan Am.
Margot made her big screen debut in Richard Curtis' romantic comedy-drama About Time, and co-starred in Martin Scorsese's biography The Wolf of Wall Street. In 2015, Robbie co-starred in the romantic comedy-drama Focus; appeared in the romantic World War II drama Suite Française; and starred in the sci-fi drama Z for Zachariah. In May 2012, Robbie joined the cast of Richard Curtis romantic comedy About Time, alongside Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy. "About Time" was released in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2013 and in the United States on November 1, 2013. The film received positive reviews and grossed $87 million on its $12 million budget. In June 2012, this was announced that Robbie was in talks to appear in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Matthew McConaughey.
In 2015, Robbie starred opposite Will Smith in the romantic comedy-drama Focus. In the film, she plays an inexperienced grifter learning the craft from Smith's character. The film was released on February 27, 2015 to generally mixed reviews, however Robbie's performance was praised. In 2016, she headlined two summer blockbusters, first as Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan and then as the maniacal Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad.
|Josh Brolin
Rugged features and a natural charm have worked for Josh Brolin, the son of actor James Brolin. He has recently seen a massive surge in his career, finding well-known roles such as a policeman, a hunter, and the President of the United States.
Brolin was born February 12, 1968 in Santa Monica, California, to Jane Cameron (Agee), a Texas-born wildlife activist, and James Brolin. Josh was initially against the lifestyle of the entertainment business, in light of his parents' divorce, and both of them being actors. However, during junior year in high school, he took an acting class to see what it was like and played Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and became hooked. His first major screen role was as the older brother in the film The Goonies, based on a story by Steven Spielberg. He then immediately moved on to work on television, taking roles on such series as Private Eye and The Young Riders. "Private Eye" was a chance for Brolin to play a detective. "The Young Riders" was set just before the Civil War, and was co-directed by Brolin's father, James Brolin.
After The Young Riders, Brolin moved back to the big screen, with mediocre success. He played a supporting role in The Road Killers, but the film was not a success. He followed up with the crime film Gang in Blue, the romantic film Bed of Roses, the thriller film Nightwatch, and appeared with his father in My Brother's War. However, nothing truly stuck out, especially not the box office flop The Mod Squad. The 2000s initially brought no significant change in Brolin's career. He appeared in the independent film Slow Burn, the sci-if thriller Hollow Man and starred on the television series Mister Sterling. In 2004, he married actress Diane Lane and are still together.
It was not until 2007 that Brolin received much acclaim for his films. He took a supporting role in the Quentin Tarantino-written Grindhouse which was a two-part film accounting two horror stories. He also played two policemen that year: corrupt officer Nick Trupo in the crime epic American Gangster, and an honest police chief in the emotional drama In the Valley of Elah which starred Tommy Lee Jones and was directed by Paul Haggis. However, it was his involvement in No Country for Old Men that truly pushed him into the limelight. The film, directed by the Coen brothers, was about a man (Brolin) who finds a satchel containing two million dollars in cash. He is pursued by an unstoppable assassin (Javier Bardem, who won an Oscar for his work) and his friend, a local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones). The film won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Brolin found high-profile work the next year, being cast as Supervisor Dan White in the film Milk. His performance as the weak and bitter politician earned him an Oscar nomination, and Brolin received more praise for his fascinating portrayal of George W. Bush in the Oliver Stone film W.. Despite the mediocre success of W., he was recognized as the best part of the film, and Milk was another triumph, critically and commercially.
Brolin then acted in the smaller comedy Women in Trouble before landing a number of large roles in 2010. The first of these was the film based on the comic book figure Jonah Hex. The film was a box office flop and critically panned, but Brolin also forged a second collaboration with legendary director Oliver Stone for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Brolin played a large role alongside such young stars as Carey Mulligan and Shia LaBeouf, and older thespians such as Michael Douglas, Eli Wallach, and Frank Langella. Brolin's character was Bretton James, a top banker in the film, and also the film's chief antagonist. Brolin also appeared in Woody Allen's London-based film You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and a second collaboration with the Coen Brothers, which was a remake of True Grit.
Despite his earlier mediocre success and fame, Brolin has maintained a choosiness in his films and, recently, these choices have paid off profoundly. Hopefully, he continues this streak of good fortune that his talents have finally given him.
|Natalie Dormer
Natalie Dormer born 11 February 1982 is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Anne Boleyn on the Showtime series The Tudors (2007-10), as Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series Game of Thrones (2012-present), Irene Adler on the CBS series Elementary (2013-15), and as Cressida in the science-fiction adventure films The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015). She has been nominated for Best Performance at the Gemini Awards for her work in The Tudors. She has also been nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award for her performance in Game of Thrones.
|Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson was born in New York City. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, is from a Jewish family from the Bronx, and her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish-born architect, from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, a brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter Johansson, born three minutes after her, and a paternal half-brother, Christian. Her grandfather was writer Ejner Johansson.
Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions. She made her professional acting debut at the age of eight in the off-Broadway production of "Sophistry" with Ethan Hawke, at New York's Playwrights Horizons. She would audition for commercials but took rejection so hard her mother began limiting her to film tryouts. She made her film debut at the age of nine, as John Ritter's character's daughter in the fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw's character, and If Lucy Fell, she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo. Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, and positive reviews, one noting, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson", while San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle commentated on her "peaceful aura", and wrote, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress.".
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3, Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford, where she played Grace MacLean, a teenager traumatized by a riding accident. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film. In 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig and in the music video for Mandy Moore's single, "Candy". Although the film was not a box office success, she received praise for her breakout role in Ghost World, credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age". She was also featured in the Coen Brothers' dark drama The Man Who Wasn't There, opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand. She appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks with David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer.
In 2003, she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for drama (Girl with a Pearl Earring) and one for comedy (Lost in Translation), her breakout role, starring opposite Bill Murray, and receiving rave reviews and a Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival. Her film roles include the critically acclaimed Weitz brothers' film In Good Company, as well as starring opposite John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which garnered her a third Golden Globe Award nomination.
She dropped out of Mission: Impossible III due to scheduling conflicts. Her next film role was in The Island alongside Ewan McGregor which earned weak reviews from U.S. critics. After this, she appeared in Woody Allen's Match Point and was nominated again for a Golden Globe Award. In May 2008, she released her album "Anywhere I Lay My Head", a collection of Tom Waits covers featuring one original song. Also that year, she starred in Frank Miller's The Spirit, the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and played Mary Boleyn opposite Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl.
Since then, she has appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You, the action superhero film Iron Man 2, the comedy-drama We Bought a Zoo and started as the original scream queen, Janet Leigh, in Hitchcock. She then played her character, Black Widow, in the blockbuster action films The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War, and also headlined the science-fiction thriller Lucy, a box office success. With more than a decade of work already under her belt, Scarlett has proven to be one of Hollywood's most talented young actresses.
Her 2017 roles are the sci-fi action thriller Ghost in the Shell and the dark comedy Rough Night.
Scarlett and Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds were engaged in May 2008 and married in September of that year. In 2010, the couple announced their separation, and subsequently divorced a year later. In 2013, she became engaged to French journalist Romain Dauriac, the couple married a year later. In January 2017, the couple announced their separation, and subsequently divorced in March of that year. They have a daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac (born 2014).
|Lily Collins
Lily Jane Collins was born in Guildford, Surrey, England. Her father is English musician Phil Collins, while her mother, Jill Tavelman, who is from Los Angeles, California, was president of the Beverly Hills Women's Club for three terms. Lily moved with her mother to LA at the age of five, after her parents split up. She is of Russian Jewish (from her maternal grandfather), English, and German descent.
Her first screen role was at the age of two in the BBC series Growing Pains, in 1992. Collins performed at the Youth Academy for Dramatic Arts as a child, but her main interest was journalism. She graduated from the Harvard-Westlake School, and attended the USC, where she majored in broadcast journalism. She began writing a column ("NY Confidential") for the British magazine Elle Girl in her teens as well as contributing to Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and the Los Angeles Times magazines.
After some early television appearances as a presenter/reporter (for instance, covering the 2008 US Presidential campaign as a host on the Nickelodeon show, Kids Pick the President), she made a couple of appearances on 90210 in 2009. She co-starred as the daughter of Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock's characters in the massive box office hit The Blind Side. More dramatic roles followed, and she came to worldwide attention when she played the starring role in Mirror Mirror, following it up by headlining The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Love, Rosie.
|Amber Heard
Amber Laura Heard was born in Austin, Texas, to Patricia Paige Heard (Parsons), an internet researcher, and David C. Heard (David Clinton Heard), a contractor. She has English, Irish, Scottish, German, and Welsh ancestry.
Heard appeared in the Academy Award-nominated film, North Country, in which she played Charlize Theron's character in flashbacks. Her other early film credits include: Syrup, Drive Angry 3D, The Joneses, Never Back Down, Alpha Dog and Friday Night Lights. On television, Heard starred on The CW drama, Hidden Palms, and had guest starring roles on Showtime's Californication and CBS's Criminal Minds
In 2009, Heard starred in the box office hit, Zombieland, opposite Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Jesse Eisenberg. She also starred in the suspense thriller, The Stepfather, with Sela Ward, Dylan Walsh and Penn Badgley. In 2008, she garnered attention for her role in the comedic hit, Pineapple Express, with Seth Rogen and James Franco. Heard received a 2008 Young Hollywood Award for her breakthrough performance in "Pineapple Express".
She appeared in The Rum Diary, opposite Johnny Depp, and John Carpenter's The Ward, which premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival. She also starred in the independent film, And Soon the Darkness, in which she additionally served as a co-producer.
Heard starred in Paranoia, opposite Harrison Ford, Liam Hemsworth and Gary Oldman. The film was released by "Relativity Media" on August 16, 2013. She also starred in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills, which was released by "Open Road Films" on March 4, 2013, and McG's 3 Days to Kill, opposite Kevin Costner and Hailee Steinfeld, which was released in 2014.
Additionally, her film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, was released by The Weinstein Co. in theaters in the fall of 2013.
Heard resides in Los Angeles, where she is actively involved with Amnesty International. In 2015, she married actor Johnny Depp.
|Jason Bateman
Jason Bateman is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Michael Bluth on the television sitcom Arrested Development, as well as his role on Valerie.
He was born in Rye, New York, USA. His father, Kent Bateman, from a Utah-based family, is a film and television director, and founder of a Hollywood repertory stage company. His mother, Victoria Bateman, was born in England and worked as a flight attendant. His sister is actress Justine Bateman. In 1981, at the age of 12, young Bateman made his debut on television as James Cooper Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie: Uncle Jed, appearing in 18 more episodes in one season. Jason also appeared in the original Knight Rider with David Hasselhoff for the season 3 episode "Lost Knight" (aired Dec 1984) playing the character "Doug" who befriends Kitt when he loses his memory. In the mid-1980s, he became the DGA's youngest-ever director when he directed three episodes of Valerie at age 18. During the 2000s, Bateman's film career has been on soaring trajectory. In 2005, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy, for Arrested Development, and received other awards and nominations.
Bateman has been enjoying a happy family life with his wife, actress Amanda Anka (daughter of singer Paul Anka). Their first child, Francesca Nora Bateman, was born in Los Angeles on October 28, 2006. The Batemans reside in Los Angeles, California.
|Alexandra Daddario
Alexandra Anna Daddario was born on March 16, 1986 in New York City, New York, to Christina, a lawyer, and Richard Daddario, a prosecutor. Her brother is actor Matthew Daddario, and her grandfather was congressman Emilio Daddario (Emilio Q. Daddario), of Connecticut. She has Italian, Irish, Hungarian/Slovak, German, and English ancestry. She wanted to be an actress when she was young. Her first job came at age 16, when she got the role of "Laurie Lewis" on All My Children. Alex co-starred, with Logan Lerman and Brandon T. Jackson, in the role of Annabeth Chase in the Percy Jackson movies, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, which were based on Rick Riordan's best-selling teen books. At the end of 2012, Alex starred in the music video, Imagine Dragons's "Radioactive".
Alexandra became more known in the 2010s, as she starred as Blake Gaines in earthquake film San Andreas, alongside Dwayne Johnson, and in the films Hall Pass, Texas Chainsaw 3D, and Baywatch. She has appeared on many TV series, including White Collar, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and American Horror Story: Hotel. In 2014, Daddario gained attention for her role on the first season of the HBO series, True Detective.
|Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is an English stage, television, and film actor.
He was born Aaron Perry Johnson in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, to Sarah and Robert Johnson, a civil engineer. He has a sister, Gemma Johnson, who had a small role in his movie Tom & Thomas. Aaron is of English-Russian Jewish background.
He began performing at age six, appearing in plays like Macbeth and All My Sons. He worked frequently on television as a young actor, having roles in the TV films The Apocalypse, Behind Closed Doors, The Best Man, and Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, and series The Bill, Family Business, Feather Boy, Casualty, Talk to Me, and Nearly Famous. He made his feature debut in the British film Tom & Thomas, where he played the dual title roles. His first American film was the sequel Shanghai Knights, playing a child version of Charles Chaplin, and his early film credits also include Dead Cool, The Thief Lord, and The Illusionist, where he played a young version of Edward Norton's character Eisenheim.
Aaron became known in England after playing a leading role in the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, opposite Georgia Groome. He then co-starred with Carey Mulligan in the American drama The Greatest, played John Lennon in the biography Nowhere Boy, and had the lead role of a teenage would-be superhero, Dave Lizewski, in the action superhero riff Kick-Ass, which introduced him to a wide American audience.
After appearing in the thriller Chatroom, Aaron had a large part in the Irish-set drama Albert Nobbs, and co-starred with Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively in Oliver Stone's California-based action-thriller Savages. Also in 2012, he played Keira Knightley's character's forbidden love interest, Count Vronsky, in the adaptation Anna Karenina, set in Russia.
After reprising his role in the sequel Kick-Ass 2, Aaron had starring roles in his two biggest films to date, the blockbusters Godzilla, as soldier Ford Brody, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, as Pietro Maximoff (known as Quicksilver in the Marvel comic books). He first played Pietro in a mid-credits scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
While filming Nowhere Boy, Aaron began a relationship with the film's director, artist Sam Taylor-Wood. The two married in 2012, and blended their surnames together. Aaron began being credited as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, while Sam became known as Sam Taylor-Johnson. The couple has two children together, and Aaron is also stepfather to Sam's two daughters from her previous marriage.
|Tom Cruise
In 1976, if you had told fourteen year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history.
Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.
Though below average height and not particularly handsome in the traditional sense, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top grossing films of the 1980s including Top Gun; The Color of Money, Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July. By the 1990s he was one of the highest paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth.
|Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard was born Samuel Shepard Rogers in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, to Jane Elaine (Schook), a teacher, and Samuel Shepard Rogers, a teacher and farmer who was also in the army. As the eldest son of a US Army officer (and WWII bomber pilot), Shepard spent his early childhood moving from base to base around the US until finally settling in Duarte, California. While at high school he began acting and writing and worked as a ranch hand in Chino. He graduated high school in 1961 and then spent a year studying agriculture at Mount San Antonio Junior College, intending to become a vet.
In 1962, though, a touring theater company, the Bishop's Company Repertory Players, visited the town and he joined up and left home to tour with them. He spent nearly two years with the company and eventually settled in New York where he began writing plays, first performing with an obscure off-off-Broadway group but eventually gaining recognition for his writing and winning prestigious OBIE awards (Off-Broadway ) three years running.
He flirted with the world of rock, playing drums for the Holy Modal Rounders, then moved to London in 1971 where he continued writing.
Back in the US by 1974, he became playwright in residence at San Francisco's Magic Theater and continued to work as an increasingly well respected playwright throughout the 1970s and into the '80s.
Throughout this time he had been dabbling with Hollywood having, most notably in the early days, worked as one of the writers on Zabriskie Point, but it was his role as Chuck Yeager in 1983's The Right Stuff (co-starring Fred Ward and Dennis Quaid) that brought him fully to the attention of the wider, non-theater audience.
Since then he has continued to write, act and direct, both on screen and in the theater.
|Peter Dinklage
Peter Hayden Dinklage was born in Morristown, New Jersey, to Diane (Hayden), an elementary school teacher, and John Carl Dinklage, an insurance salesman. He is of German, Irish, and English descent. In 1991, he received a degree in drama from Bennington College and began his career. His exquisite theatre work that expresses brilliantly the unique range of his acting qualities, includes remarkable performances full of profoundness, charisma, intelligence, sensation and insights in plays such as "The Killing Act", "Imperfect Love", Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country" as well as the title roles in William Shakespeare's "Richard III" and in Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya".
Peter Dinklage received acclaim for his first film, Living in Oblivion, where he played an actor frustrated with the limited and caricatured roles offered to actors who have dwarfism. In 2003, he starred in The Station Agent, written and directed by Tom McCarthy. The movie received critical praise as well as Peter Dinklage's work including nominations such as for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the "Screen Actors Guild" and Best Male Lead at the "Film Independent Spirit Awards". One of his next roles has been the one of Miles Finch, an acclaimed children's book author, in Elf. Find Me Guilty, the original English Death at a Funeral, its American remake Death at a Funeral, Penelope, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and X-Men: Days of Future Past are also included in his brilliant work concerning feature films.
His fine work in television also includes shows such as Entourage, Life As We Know It, Threshold and Nip/Tuck. In 2011, the primary role of Tyrion Lannister, a man of sharp wit and bright spirit, in Game of Thrones was incarnated with unique greatness in Peter Dinklage's unparalleled performance, which for he was also honored with Emmy Awards at The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards and The 67th Primetime Emmy Awards.
|Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe, who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her father was Richard Beckinsale, born in Nottingham, England. He starred in a number of popular British television comedies during the 1970s, most notably the series Rising Damp, Porridge and The Lovers. He passed away tragically early in 1979 at the age of 31.
Kate attended the private school Godolphin and Latymer School in London for her grade and primary school education. In her teens she twice won the British bookseller W.H. Smith Young Writers' competition - once for three short stories and once for three poems. After a tumultuous adolescence (a bout of anorexia - cured - and a smoking habit which continues to this day), she gradually took up the profession of acting.
Her major acting debut came in a TV film about World War II called One Against the Wind, filmed in Luxembourg during the summer of 1991. It first aired on American television that December. Kate began attending Oxford University's New College in the fall of 1991, majoring in French and Russian literature. She had already decided that she wanted to act, but to broaden her horizons she chose university over drama school. While in her first year at Oxford, Kate received her big break in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, beginning with a part in the medieval historical drama Royal Deceit, cast as Ethel. The film was shot during the spring of 1993 on location in Denmark, and she filmed her supporting part during New College's Easter break. Later in the summer of that year she played the lead in the contemporary mystery drama Uncovered. Before she went back to school, her third year at university was spent at Oxford's study-abroad program in Paris, France, immersing herself in the French language, Parisian culture and French cigarettes.
A year away from the academic community and living on her own in the French capital caused her to re-evaluate the direction of her life. She faced a choice: continue with school or concentrate on her flourishing acting career. After much thought, she chose the acting career. In the spring of 1994 Kate left Oxford, after finishing three years of study. Kate appeared in the BBC/Thames Television satire Cold Comfort Farm, filmed in London and East Sussex during late summer 1994 and which opened to spectacular reviews in the United States, grossing over $5 million during its American run. It was re-released to U.K. theaters in the spring of 1997.
Acting on the stage consumed the first part of 1995; she toured in England with the Thelma Holts Theatre Company production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull". After turning down several mediocre scripts "and going nearly berserk with boredom", she waited seven months before another interesting role was offered to her. Her big movie of 1995 was the romance/horror movie Haunted, starring opposite Aidan Quinn and John Gielgud, and filmed in West Sussex. In this film she wanted to play "an object of desire", unlike her past performances where her characters were much less the siren and more the worldly innocent. Kate's first film project of 1996 was the British ITV production of Jane Austen's novel Emma. Her last film of 1996 was the comedy Shooting Fish, filmed at Shepperton Studios in London during early fall. She played the part of Georgie, an altruistic con artist. She had a daughter, Lily, in 1999 with actor Michael Sheen.
|Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney was born in New York City on February 5, 1964, into a theatre family. Her father was prominent playwright Romulus Linney, whose own great-grandfather was a congressman from North Carolina. Her mother, Miriam Anderson (Leggett), is a nurse. Although she did not live in her father's house (her parents having divorced when she was an infant), Linney's world revolved, in part, around his profession from the earliest age. She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and studied acting at Juilliard and the Arts Theatre School in Moscow and, thereafter, embarked on a career on the Broadway stage receiving favorable notices for her work in such plays as "Hedda Gabler" and "Six Degrees of Separation".
Linney's film career began in the early 1990s with small roles in Lorenzo's Oil and Dave. She landed the role of Mary Anne Singleton in the PBS film adaptations of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" series, playing her in Tales of the City, More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City. Linney's first substantial big-screen role was as the ex-girlfriend of Richard Gere's character in Primal Fear and her superb performance brought her praise and a better selection of roles. Clint Eastwood chose Linney to play his daughter, another prominent role, in 1997's Absolute Power, followed by another second billing in the following year's The Truman Show.
Always a strong performer, Linney truly came into her own after 2000, starting the decade auspiciously with her widely-praised, arguably flawless performance in You Can Count on Me. She found herself nominated for an Academy Award for this, her first lead role, for which her salary had been $10,000. Linney won numerous critics' awards for her role as Sammy, a single mother whose life is complicated by a new boss and the arrival in town of her aimless brother. On the heels of this success came her marvelous turn as Bertha Dorset in The House of Mirth, clearly the best performance in a film of strong performances. Since then, Linney has frequently been offered challenging dramatic roles, and always rises to the occasion, such as in Mystic River, in which she worked again with Clint Eastwood, and Kinsey, for which she received another Academy Award nomination.
|Leonardo DiCaprio
Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3, to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s, as the hunky lead actor in movies such as Romeo + Juliet and Titanic, to then become a leading man in Hollywood blockbusters, made by internationally renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan.
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Irmelin DiCaprio (née Indenbirken) and former comic book artist George DiCaprio. His father is of Italian and German descent, and his mother, who is German-born, is of German and Russian ancestry. His middle name, "Wilhelm", was his maternal grandfather's first name. Leonardo's father had achieved minor status as an artist and distributor of cult comic book titles, and was even depicted in several issues of American Splendor, the cult semi-autobiographical comic book series by the late 'Harvey Pekar', a friend of George's. Leonardo's performance skills became obvious to his parents early on, and after signing him up with a talent agent who wanted Leonardo to perform under the stage name "Lenny Williams", DiCaprio began appearing on a number of television commercials and educational programs.
DiCaprio began attracting the attention of producers, who cast him in small roles in a number of television series, such as Roseanne and The New Lassie, but it wasn't until 1991 that DiCaprio made his film debut in Critters 3, a low-budget horror movie. While Critters 3 did little to help showcase DiCaprio's acting abilities, it did help him develop his show-reel, and attract the attention of the people behind the hit sitcom Growing Pains, in which Leonardo was cast in the "Cousin Oliver" role of a young homeless boy who moves in with the Seavers. While DiCaprio's stint on Growing Pains was very short, as the sitcom was axed the year after he joined, it helped bring DiCaprio into the public's attention and, after the sitcom ended, DiCaprio began auditioning for roles in which he would get the chance to prove his acting chops.
Leonardo took up a diverse range of roles in the early 1990s, including a mentally challenged youth in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, a young gunslinger in The Quick and the Dead and a drug addict in one of his most challenging roles to date, Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries, a role which the late River Phoenix originally expressed interest in. While these diverse roles helped establish Leonardo's reputation as an actor, it wasn't until his role as Romeo Montague in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet that Leonardo became a household name, a true movie star. The following year, DiCaprio starred in another movie about doomed lovers, Titanic, which went on to beat all box office records held before then, as, at the time, Titanic became the highest grossing movie of all time, and cemented DiCaprio's reputation as a teen heartthrob. Following his work on Titanic, DiCaprio kept a low profile for a number of years, with roles in The Man in the Iron Mask and the low-budget The Beach being some of his few notable roles during this period.
In 2002, he burst back into screens throughout the world with leading roles in Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York, his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. With a current salary of $20 million a movie, DiCaprio is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world. However, he has not limited his professional career to just acting in movies, as DiCaprio is a committed environmentalist, who is actively involved in many environmental causes, and his commitment to this issue led to his involvement in The 11th Hour, a documentary movie about the state of the natural environment. As someone who has gone from small roles in television commercials to one of the most respected actors in the world, DiCaprio has had one of the most diverse careers in cinema. DiCaprio continued to defy conventions about the types of roles he would accept, and with his career now seeing him leading all-star casts in action thrillers such as The Departed, Shutter Island and Christopher Nolan's Inception, DiCaprio continues to wow audiences by refusing to conform to any cliché about actors.
In 2012, he played a mustache-twirling villain in Django Unchained, and then tragic literary character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
DiCaprio is passionate about environmental and humanitarian causes, having donated $1,000,000 to earthquake relief efforts in 2010, the same year he contributed $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
|Jordana Spiro
Jordana Ariel Spiro was born on April 12, 1977 in Manhattan, New York. She was raised in Manhattan and studied at the Circle in the Square Theatre School. She also briefly attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Spiro splits her time between Los Angeles and New York. In addition to acting, Spiro has a passion for photography and has produced and directed several shorts. In fall 2009, she began the MFA Program in Filmmaking at Columbia University.
Spiro begun her acting career in the 1990's appearing in mostly comedic TV shows and TV movies: Maybe This Time, Her Last Chance, If These Walls Could Talk, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Silk Stalkings, Beverly Hills, 90210 and City Guys. She got her first recurring roles on One World and Undressed. Her first regular role was on the short lived The Huntress as Annette O'Toole's bounty hunter daughter. After The Huntress she mostly guest starred on TV shows, such as Out of Practice, CSI: NY, Cold Case and had a recurring role on JAG as Lt. Catherine Graves.
She also appeared in feature films: Must Love Dogs, Partner(s), Alone with Her, Living & Dying, The Year of Getting to Know Us and Trespass. She starred in TBS' comedy My Boys as P.J., a twenty-something guy's girl, who tries to find romance within her world dominated by male friends. "My Boys" ended in 2010 after four seasons. She also appeared in Neal Brennan's The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard opposite Jeremy Piven, Ed Helms and Rob Riggle. In 2011, she had a recurring role on Harry's Law as Rachael Miller. She also guest starred on Dexter and had a recurring role as Detective Jenna Villette on The Good Wife. She was the lead on The Mob Doctor, but unfortunately it was cancelled after 13 episodes. Besides guest starring on Tyrant and Royal Pains, she has had a recurring role since 2015 on NBC's hit Blindspot as Sarah Weller.
|Jessica Biel
Jessica Biel, with her good looks and talent, has become one of Hollywood's most sought-out actresses. She was born in Ely, Minnesota, to Kimberly (Conroe) and Jonathan Edward Biel, who is a business consultant and GM worker. Biel was raised in Boulder, Colorado. She is of Hungarian Jewish, Danish, English, and German descent.
As a child, Jessica initially pursued a career as a vocalist, performing in musical theater. Beginning at age nine, she starred in such productions as "Annie," "The Sound of Music," and "Beauty and the Beast." A natural beauty, Jessica soon turned to modeling and commercial work by competing in The International Modeling and Talent Association's Annual Conference in 1994.
Her television series acting debut, playing Mary Camden on the WB's #1-rated show, 7th Heaven, helped her emerge as a breakout star. She then excited and terrified moviegoers with her portrayal of Erin, "Leatherface's" greatest nemesis to date, in New Line Cinema's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a remake of the famous original. Having finished filming, Blade: Trinity in Vancouver with Wesley Snipes, Ryan Reynolds, and Kris Kristofferson, she transported her toned and trained body of a vampire hunter/killer to Australia to fill the uniform and project the integrity of one of filmdom's first female jet-fighter pilots in Columbia/Sony Pictures new film, Stealth, starring Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx, and Sam Shepherd, for director Rob Cohen. Jessica's film career began at age 14 when she played alongside Peter Fonda in his Golden Globe-winning performance in Ulee's Gold. Her other film credits include I'll Be Home for Christmas, Summer Catch, Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction, and Cellular, which stars Chris Evans, Kim Basinger, and William H. Macy.
In her spare time, Biel is involved with charities such as Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and PETA. Her hobbies include ballet, soccer, running, yoga and hiking with her dog "East." She resides in Los Angeles.
In 2012, Jessica married actor and singer Justin Timberlake. The two have a son.
|James McAvoy
McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Elizabeth (née Johnstone), a nurse, and James McAvoy senior, a bus driver. He was raised on a housing estate in Drumchapel, Glasgow by his maternal grandparents (James, a butcher, and Mary), after his parents divorced when James was 7. He went to St Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Jordanhill, Glasgow, where he did well enough and started 'a little school band with a couple of mates'.
McAvoy toyed with the idea of the Catholic priesthood as a child but, when he was 16, a visit to the school by actor David Hayman sparked an interest in acting. Hayman offered him a part in his film The Near Room but despite enjoying the experience McAvoy didn't seriously consider acting as a career, although he did continue to act as a member of PACE Youth Theatre. He applied instead to the Royal Navy and had already been accepted when he was also offered a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).
He took the place at the RSAMD (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and, when he graduated in 2000, he moved to London. He had already made a couple of TV appearances by this time and continued to get a steady stream of TV and movie work until he came to attention of the British public in 2004 playing car thief Steve McBride in the successful UK TV series Shameless and then to the rest of the world in 2005 as Mr Tumnus, the faun, in Disney's adaptation of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In The Last King of Scotland McAvoy portrayed a Scottish doctor who becomes the personal physician to dictator Idi Amin, played by Forest Whitaker. McAvoy's career breakthrough came in Atonement, Joe Wright's 2007 adaption of Ian McEwan's novel.
Since then, McAvoy has taken on theatre roles, starring in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' (directed by Jamie Lloyd), which launched the first Trafalgar Transformed season in London's West End and earned him an Olivier award nomination for Best Actor. In January 2015, McAvoy returned to the Trafalgar Studios stage to play Jack Gurney, a delusional English earl, in the first revival of Peter Barnes's satire 'The Ruling Class', a role for which he was subsequently awarded the London Evening Standard Theatre Award's Best Actor.
On screen, McAvoy has appeared as corrupt cop Bruce Robertson in Filth, a part for which he received a Scottish BAFTA for Best Actor, a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor, a London Critics Circle Film Award for British Actor of the Year and an Empire Award for Best Actor. Most recently, he reprised his role as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and starred in the next film in the franchise, X-Men: Apocalypse, and M. Night Shyamalan's thriller Split.
|Linda Cardellini
Linda Edna Cardellini was born in Redwood City, California, to Lorraine (Hernan) and Wayne David Cardellini, a businessman. She is of Italian (from her paternal grandfather), Irish (from her mother), German, English, and Scottish descent. Linda grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, California, the youngest of four children. She became interested in acting at age ten, when she performed a singing role in a school Christmas play. She continued to do school productions and community theater.
Linda attended Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California. After graduating, she had to decide whether to go to New York to pursue theater or Los Angeles to pursue film and television. She chose LA. Linda was cast in her first role, on the series Bone Chillers. Her breakthrough part came when she was cast in Freaks and Geeks. She played academic decathlete Lindsay Weir on the celebrated series, which won an Emmy Award in the Category of "Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series".
Cardellini captured the hearts of young girls, boys and teenagers, worldwide, for her portrayal of Velma in Warner Bros.'s Scooby-Doo. She also co-starred in 'Brian Robbins'' Good Burger, Legally Blonde, with Reese Witherspoon, and Tom McLoughlin's The Unsaid with Andy Garcia, as well as in the Adam Sandler-produced comedy, Grandma's Boy.
In 2005, Cardellini starred in the ensemble film, American Gun, for IFC Films, alongside Donald Sutherland, Forest Whitaker and Marcia Gay Harden. "American Gun" was the debut feature of director/co-writer Aric Avelino, which has earned a Best Picture nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2007. In the same year, Cardellini delivered a heartfelt performance as a jilted lover in Ang Lee's highly-acclaimed drama, Brokeback Mountain, which garnered major accolades from critics, including an Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe win for Best Picture and Outstanding Ensemble in a Motion Picture Drama by the Screen Actor's Guild.
It was upon working with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana on this film, that they later cast her in CBS's Hallmark Hall of Fame mini-series Comanche Moon, a testament to their trust in Cardellini's talent and presence on screen. Cardellini starred alongside Val Kilmer and Steve Zahn in the six-hour, epic mini-series in 2008, written by McMurtry (based on McMurtry's novel of the same name), directed by Simon Wincer and executive-produced by Ossana. This western, which was the prequel to "Lonesome Dove," (the television series created in 1989 by McMurtry) aired on three consecutive evenings for two hours each night.
In 2008, Cardellini portrayed the lead role of 'Julie Ingram' in the feature film "The Lazarus Project" starring alongside 'Paul Walker'. Directed by John Glenn, this thriller tells the story of a former criminal who is drawn into an illicit endeavor and subsequently finds himself living an inexplicable new life working at a psychiatric facility.
In 2011, Cardellini co-starred in Jonathan Hensleigh's independent feature film "Kill the Irishman," alongside Christopher Walken, Ray Stevenson and Val Kilmer. The film was based on the true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970s. In February 2012, Cardellini starred as 'Kelli' in the independent film "Return," opposite Michael Shannon and John Slattery which earned Cardellini an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "Best Female Lead." "Return" was featured in the Director's Fortnight section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was an official entry at The Deauville, London and Palm Springs International Film Festivals. "Return" follows 'Kelli' as she returns home from war and learns how to adjust to a slower, normal life.
In 2013, Cardellini was almost unrecognizable, but turned heads, for her provocative portrayal of 'Sylvia Rosen,' 'Don Draper's' married mistress, in a guest arc in the sixth season of the critically acclaimed AMC series, "Mad Men." She received her first Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Guest Actress in A Drama Series" for her portrayal.
Working in both film and television, Linda is well-known for her portrayal of 'Nurse Samantha Taggart' on NBC's highly-rated, critically acclaimed series, "ER". She will next be seen as 'Meg Rayburn' in Netflix's new untitled family drama series created by Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman and Todd Kessler. Cardellini also has a co-starring role in the indie comedy Welcome to Me, opposite an all-star cast that includes Kristen Wiig, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, James Marsden and Wes Bentley. The film is directed by Shira Piven. "Welcome to Me" was produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
On the small screen, Cardellini was a guest star, playing 'Dr. Megan Tillman', in CBS' Person of Interest. The crime drama show was created by Jonathan Nolan and stars Jim Caviezel, Taraji P. Henson and Michael Emerson. Cardellini also lends her voice to a diverse group of animated series including Nickelodeon's "Sanjay & Craig" wherein she plays 'Megan,' IFC's "Out There" wherein she voices 'Starla,' and Disney's "Gravity Falls," in which she is 'Wendy.' Cardellini's past voiceover work includes the role of 'Bliss,' the family daughter in the ABC animated television program, The Goode Family.
Linda has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from Loyola Marymount University, and completed a summer study program at the National Theatre in London. She resides in Los Angeles.
|Christina Hendricks
Christina Rene Hendricks was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho. Her father, Robert, originally from England, worked for the U.S. Forest Service, while her mother, Jackie Sue (Raymond), was a psychologist. At the age of 13 her father transferred to the Forest Service Washington, D.C. headquarters and the family moved to nearby Fairfax, Virginia. She began acting at school and went into modeling from the ages of 18 to 27. In her early 20s, she also began appearing on television, landing a recurring role in Beggars and Choosers in 2000 and another on Kevin Hill before rising to international fame in Mad Men. As well as her more famously conventional awards nominations (Emmys) and wins (SAG Awards) she also won a SyFy Genre Award in for "Best Special Guest/Television" for her role as Saffron in Joss Whedon's short-lived Firefly.
|Matthew McConaughey
American actor and producer Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business. He is of Irish, Scottish, English, German, and Swedish descent. Matthew grew up in Longview, Texas, where he graduated from the local High School (1988). Showing little interest in his father's oil business, which his two brothers later joined, Matthew was longing for a change of scenery, and spent a year in Australia, washing dishes and shoveling chicken manure. Back to the States, he attended the University of Texas in Austin, originally wishing to be a lawyer. But, when he discovered an inspirational Og Mandino book "The Greatest Salesman in the World" before one of his final exams, he suddenly knew he had to change his major from law to film.
He began his acting career in 1991, appearing in student films and commercials in Texas and directed short films as Chicano Chariots. Once, in his hotel bar in Austin, he met the casting director and producer Don Phillips, who introduced him to director Richard Linklater for his next project. At first, Linklater thought Matthew was too handsome to play the role of a guy chasing high school girls in his coming-of-age drama Dazed and Confused, but cast him after Matthew grew out his hair and mustache. His character was initially in three scenes but the role grew to more than 300 lines as Linklater encouraged him to do some improvisations. In 1995, he starred in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, playing a mad bloodthirsty sadistic killer, opposite Renée Zellweger.
Shortly thereafter, moving to L.A., Matthew became a sensation with his performances in two high-profile 1996 films Lone Star, where he portrayed killing suspected sheriff and in the film adaptation of John Grisham's novel A Time to Kill, where he played an idealistic young lawyer opposite Sandra Bullock and Kevin Spacey. The actor was soon being hailed as one of the industry's hottest young leading man inspiring comparisons to actor Paul Newman. His following performances were Robert Zemeckis' Contact with Jodie Foster (the film was finished just before the death of the great astronomer and popularizer of space science Carl Sagan) and Steven Spielberg's Amistad, a fact-based 1839 story about the rebellious African slaves. In 1998, he teamed again with Richard Linklater as one of the bank-robbing brothers in The Newton Boys, set in Matthew's birthplace, Uvalde, Texas. During this time, he also wrote, directed and starred in the 20-minute short The Rebel.
In 1999, he starred in the comedy Edtv, about the rise of reality television, and in 2000, he headlined Jonathan Mostow's U-571, portraying officer Lt. Tyler, in a WW II story of the daring mission of American submariners trying to capture the Enigma cipher machine.
In the 2000s, he became known for starring in romantic comedies, such as The Wedding Planner, opposite Jennifer Lopez, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, in which he co-starred with Kate Hudson. He played Denton Van Zan, an American warrior and dragons hunter in the futuristic thriller Reign of Fire, where he co-starred with Christian Bale. In 2006, he starred in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch, and later as head coach Jack Lengyel in We Are Marshall, along with Matthew Fox. In 2008, he played treasure hunter Benjamin "Finn" Finnegan in Fool's Gold, again with Kate Hudson. After playing Connor Mead in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, co-starring with Jennifer Garner, McConaughey took a two year hiatus to open different opportunities in his career. Since 2010, he has moved away from romantic comedies.
That change came in 2011, in his first movie after that pause, when he portrayed criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller in The Lincoln Lawyer, that operates mostly from the back seat of his Lincoln car. After this performance that was considered one of his best until then, Matthew played other iconic characters as district attorney Danny Buck Davidson in Bernie, the wild private detective "Killer" Joe Cooper in Killer Joe, Mud in Mud, reporter Ward Jensen in The Paperboy, male stripper club owner Dallas in Magic Mike, starring Channing Tatum. McConaughey's career certainly reached it's prime, when he played HIV carrier Ron Woodroof in the biographical drama Dallas Buyers Club, shot in less than a month. For his portrayal of Ron, Matthew won the Best Actor in the 86th Academy Awards, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, among other awards and nominations. The same year, he also appeared in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. In 2014, he starred in HBO's True Detective, as detective Rustin Cohle, whose job is to investigate with his partner Martin Hart, played by Woody Harrelson, a gruesome murder that happened in his little town in Louisiana. The series was highly acclaimed by critics winning 4 of the 7 categories it was nominated at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards; he also won a Critics' Choice Award for the role.
Also in 2014, Matthew starred in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film Interstellar, playing Cooper, a former NASA pilot.
|Cillian Murphy
Striking Irish actor Cillian Murphy was born in Douglas, the oldest child of Brendan Murphy, who works for the Irish Department of Education, and a mother who is a teacher of French. He has three younger siblings. Murphy was educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork. He went on to study law at University College Cork, but dropped out after about a year. During this time Murphy also pursued an interest in music, playing guitar in various bands. Upon leaving University, Murphy joined the Corcadorca Theater Company in Cork, and played the lead role in "Disco Pigs", amongst other plays.
Various film roles followed, including a film adaptation of Disco Pigs. However, his big film break came when he was cast in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later..., which became a surprise international hit. This performance earned him nominations for Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards and Breakthrough Male Performance at the MTV Movie Awards.
Murphy went on to supporting roles in high-profile films such as Cold Mountain and Girl with a Pearl Earring, and then was cast in two villain roles: Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka The Scarecrow, in Batman Begins and Jackson Rippner in Red Eye. Although slight in nature for a villain, Murphy's piercing blue eyes helped to create creepy performances and critics began to take notice. Manhola Dargis of the New York Times cited Murphy as a "picture-perfect villain", while David Denby of The New Yorker noted he was both "seductive" and "sinister".
Later that year, Murphy starred as Patrick "Kitten" Braden, an Irish transgender in search of her mother, in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, a film adaptation of the Pat McCabe novel. Although the film was not a box office success, Murphy was nominated for a Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical and he won Best Actor for the Irish Film and Television Academy Awards.
The following year, Murphy starred in Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley. The film was the most successful independent Irish film and won the Palm D'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Murphy continued to take roles in a number of independent films, and also reprised his role as the Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Nolan is known for working with actors in multiple films, and cast Murphy in Inception, as Robert Fischer, the young heir of the multi-billion dollar empire, who was the target of DiCaprio's dream team.
Murphy continues to appear in high profile films such as In Time, Red Lights, and The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Nolan's Batman trilogy.
Murphy is married to Yvonne McGuinness, an artist. The couple has two sons, Malachy and Aran.
|Carice van Houten
One of Europe's most celebrated actresses, Carice van Houten is perhaps best known for her lead roles in Paul Verhoeven's award-winning Black Book, Bryan Singer's Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise and Game of Thrones.
Her Dutch-language feature Love Life, gained her further critical acclaim and broke box office records in her native Holland. Her next film Happy Housewive won her a record breaking 5th Golden Calf at The Netherlands Film Festival and was voted 'Best Dutch Actress of All Time' by the Dutch audience. Other awards include Best Actress for Black Butterflies at the Tribeca Film Festival. Recent credits include Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intruders and Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate, the Jesse Owens biopic, Race, with Jason Sudekis and Jeremy Irons and voiced a character in The Simpsons. She can next be seen in Brimstone, opposite Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Kit Harrington, and will be reprising her role in HBO's hit series, Game of Thrones as the Priestess, Lady Melisandre.
|Elizabeth Olsen
Elizabeth Chase "Lizzie" Olsen (born February 16, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films, Silent House, Liberal Arts, Godzilla, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. For her role in the critically-acclaimed Martha Marcy May Marlene, she was nominated for numerous awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She is the younger sister of actresses and fashion designers Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen.
Olsen was born in Sherman Oaks, California, the daughter of Jarnette "Jarnie", a personal manager, and David "Dave" Olsen, a real estate developer and mortgage banker. She is the younger sister of twins Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, who became famous as TV and movie stars at an early age.
Her oldest brother is named Trent Olsen, and she has two younger half-siblings as well. In 1996, Olsen's parents were divorced. The Olsens have Norwegian ancestry on their father's side and English ancestry on their mother's side.
As a child, Olsen received ballet and singing lessons. She began acting at a very young age, with appearances in her sisters' films. Before the age of eleven, Olsen had small roles in How the West Was Fun and the straight-to-video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley. Having appeared in her sisters' videos, when she was in the fourth grade, Olsen began to go on auditions for other projects.
She attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California from kindergarten through grade 12. After graduation, she enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2009, Olsen spent a semester studying in Moscow, Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre School through the MATS program at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Olsen began acting when she was four years of age and co-starred in six of Mary-Kate and Ashley's productions; she also auditioned for the film Spy Kids. She almost quit acting in 2004 due to the media frenzy surrounding Mary-Kate's eating disorder.
Olsen's breakout role came in 2011, when she appeared in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene. The film, along with Olsen's performance, received critical acclaim. Olsen was nominated for and won numerous critics awards for her portrayal of the titular character Martha, a girl suffering from delusions and paranoia after fleeing her life in a cult and returning to her family. She next appeared in the horror film remake Silent House, in which she played the role of Sarah. The film received mixed reviews, although Olsen's performance was once again praised. Olsen also appeared in the music video "The Queen" by Carlotta. Olsen filmed the movie Red Lights during mid-2011, and it was released in the U.S. on July 13, 2012. She starred in Josh Radnor's film Liberal Arts, which was released on January 22, 2012. She and Dakota Fanning starred in Very Good Girls, a 2013 release. In January 2013, Olsen was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. She co-starred in the 2013 American remake of the 2003 South Korean film Oldboy; she played Marie, a young social worker who developed a relationship with the protagonist, played by Josh Brolin. She played Edie Parker, Jack Kerouac's first wife and the author of the Beat Generation memoir You'll Be Okay, in Kill Your Darlings.
In 2014, Olsen starred in Legendary's Godzilla a reboot, opposite Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Olsen joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe by playing the character of Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the 2015 sequel to The Avengers. She first appeared as the character in a mid-credits scene of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, again alongside her Godzilla co-star Taylor-Johnson, who portrayed her brother Quicksilver. She reprized her role as the Scarlet Witch in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron and the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War.
In September 2014, it was announced that Olsen would portray Audrey Williams, Hank Williams' wife, manager, and duet partner in the upcoming 2015 biopic I Saw the Light directed by Marc Abraham and starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams.
In January 2016, it was announced that Olsen would team up with her Avengers: Age of Ultron co-star Jeremy Renner in Taylor Sheridan's directorial feature film debut, Wind River.
Olsen attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company and graduated in March 2013 after six years of intermittent study. Her sisters' clothing line "Elizabeth and James" was named after her and her older brother.
Olsen started dating fellow actor Boyd Holbrook in September 2012 after meeting him on the film Very Good Girls. In March 2014, the couple became engaged but they split and called off their engagement in January 2015.
|Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves, whose first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, was born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Patricia Taylor, a showgirl and costume designer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. Keanu's father was born in Hawaii, of British, Portuguese, Native Hawaiian, and Chinese ancestry, and Keanu's mother is originally from England. After his parents' marriage dissolved, Keanu moved with his mother and younger sister, Kim Reeves, to New York City, then Toronto. Stepfather #1 was Paul Aaron, a stage and film director - he and Patricia divorced within a year, after which she went on to marry (and divorce) rock promoter Robert Miller and hair salon owner Jack Bond. Reeves never reconnected with his biological father. In high school, Reeves was lukewarm toward academics but took a keen interest in ice hockey (as team goalie, he earned the nickname "The Wall") and drama. He eventually dropped out of school to pursue an acting career.
After a few stage gigs and a handful of made-for-TV movies, he scored a supporting role in the Rob Lowe hockey flick Youngblood, which was filmed in Canada. Shortly after the production wrapped, Reeves packed his bags and headed for Hollywood. Reeves popped up on critics' radar with his performance in the dark adolescent drama, River's Edge, and landed a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated Dangerous Liaisons with director Stephen Frears.
His first popular success was the role of totally rad dude "Ted Logan" in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. The wacky time-travel movie became something of a cultural phenomenon, and audiences would forever confuse Reeves's real-life persona with that of his doofy on-screen counterpart. He then joined the casts of Ron Howard's comedy, Parenthood and Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You to Death.
Over the next few years, Reeves tried to shake the Ted stigma with a series of highbrow projects. He played a slumming rich boy opposite River Phoenix's narcoleptic male hustler in My Own Private Idaho, an unlucky lawyer who stumbles into the vampire's lair in Dracula, and Shakespearean party-pooper Don John in Much Ado About Nothing.
In 1994, the understated actor became a big-budget action star with the release of Speed. Its success heralded an era of five years in which Reeves would alternate between small films, like Feeling Minnesota and The Last Time I Committed Suicide, and big films like A Walk in the Clouds and The Devil's Advocate. (There were a couple misfires, too: Johnny Mnemonic and Chain Reaction.) After all this, Reeves did the unthinkable and passed on the Speed sequel, but he struck box-office gold again a few years later with the Wachowski siblings' cyberadventure, The Matrix.
Now a bonafide box-office star, Keanu would appear in a string of smaller films -- among them The Replacements, The Watcher, The Gift, Sweet November, and Hardball - before The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were both released in 2003.
Since the end of The Matrix trilogy, Keanu has divided his time between mainstream and indie fare, landing hits with Something's Gotta Give, The Lake House, and Street Kings. He's kept Matrix fans satiated with films such as Constantine, A Scanner Darkly, and The Day the Earth Stood Still. And he's waded back into art-house territory with Ellie Parker, Thumbsucker, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, and Henry's Crime.
Most recently, as post-production on the samurai epic 47 Ronin waged on, Keanu appeared in front of the camera in Side by Side, a documentary on celluloid and digital filmmaking, which he also produced. He also directed another Asian-influenced project, Man of Tai Chi.
In 2014, Keanu played the title role in the action revenge film John Wick, which became popular with critics and audiences alike. He reprised the role in John Wick: Chapter 2, taking the now-iconic character to a better opening weekend and even more enthusiastic reviews than the first go-around.
|Chris Evans
Christopher Robert Evans began his acting career in typical fashion: performing in school productions and community theater.
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Lisa (Capuano), who worked at the Concord Youth Theater, and G. Robert Evans III, a dentist. His uncle is congressman Mike Capuano. Chris's father is of half German and half Welsh/English/Scottish ancestry, while Chris's mother is of half Italian and half Irish descent. He has an older sister, Carly Evans, and two younger siblings, a brother named Scott Evans, and a sister named Shana Evans. The family moved to suburban Sudbury when he was 11 years-old. Bitten by the acting bug in the first grade because his older sister, Carly, started performing, Evans followed suit and began appearing in school plays. While at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, his drama teacher cited his performance as "Leontes" in "The Winter's Tale" as exemplary of his skill. After more plays and regional theater, he moved to New York and attended the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.
On the advice of friends, he landed an internship at a casting office and befriended a couple of the agents he regularly communicated with - one of whom later took him on as a client. The screen - not the stage - then became his focus; Evans soon began auditioning for feature films and television series. Evans made one of his first appearances on The Fugitive (CBS, 2000-2001), a remake of the 1960s series and feature film starring Harrison Ford. In the episode "Guilt", Evans played the son of a small-town sheriff who tries to exact revenge after Dr. Richard Kimble - incognito as a liquor store owner - refuses to sell him and his friends alcohol. After small roles in Cherry Falls and The Newcomers - two unknown low-budget features - Evans appeared in Boston Public (Fox, 2000-2004) as a murder suspect. He then appeared in his first major feature, Not Another Teen Movie, a spoof on teen comedies wherein he played a jock who makes a bet that he can turn an unpopular and unkempt girl (Chyler Leigh) into prom queen.
After filming a couple of television pilots he was confident would be successful - Just Married and Eastwick - he appeared in another listless teen comedy, The Perfect Score, playing an average, ho-hum student who takes part in a plot to steal the SAT test. Hijinks naturally ensue. Then, Evans broke through to the Big Time, grabbing the lead in the kidnapping thriller, Cellular, a suspenseful B movie with a cheesy gimmick - a random wrong number on his cell phone forces him into a high-stakes race to save an unknown woman's life. Despite an unassuming performance from Evans and Kim Basinger as the damsel in distress, Cellular failed to break any box office records or please a wide majority of critics. Evans then prepared himself for super stardom when he signed on to play Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four, 20th Century Fox's long-awaited adaptation of the Marvel comic. Although the film was wildly uneven and disappointing, Evans nearly stole the show with his energetic, unfettered performance. In that year itself, Chris was noticed by critics and made it into magazine and Internet countdowns, scoring himself a third position of the hot body countdown from Gay.com and #18 on E! Television's 2006 101 Sexiest Celebrity Bodies.
The year 2007 also proved to be one successful year for Chris, as he had two movies released around the world that same year, starting with the second installment of the Marvel franchise Fantastic Four. Chris received positive reviews for his performance. The Nanny Diaries, where Evans played Harvard Hottie, showed his sensitive. The year 2008 saw Chris Evans' part of the movie Street Kings, playing the character Detective Paul Diskant. The movie is about police officers trying to cover up their wrongdoings and audiences got to see a serious side of Chris. In the same year, Chris also worked on the movie The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.
|Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a gifted actress, known for her versatile work in a variety of film and television projects. Possibly most known for her role as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, she has also starred in critically acclaimed independent films such as Smashed, for which she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination, as well as genre fare like Final Destination 3 and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.
Winstead was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina but largely raised in Sandy, Utah which is where she discovered a love for the performing arts. She grew up training to be a ballerina and attended the Joffrey Ballet School training program at the age of 12. It was also around this time that she began to pursue a career in acting and soon started working steadily in television and film.
Winstead is also a recording artist and performs under the name "Got a Girl" alongside producer Dan the Automotor.
|Fionn Whitehead
Born into a family of all-Londoners, Tim and Linda Whitehead, Fionn Whitehead grew up in Richmond, Surrey (South east of England and also one of the home counties bordering Greater London) alongside his two sisters Maisie and Hattie and a younger brother named, Sonny. Maisie, the eldest of the four, is a Dancer and an Aerialist-Yoga enthusiast while Hattie is a folk artist who has released a folk album.
Fionn Whitehead is a native of London. Named after Gaeilge folk legend Fionn mac Cumhaill, Whitehead grew up living an artistic environment much due to the fact that his father, Tim Whitehead is an acclaimed British Jazz musician who despite having a law degree from Manchester University, decided to give up being a lawyer to pursue his music career. He had a long and varied career as a jazz composer, performer and teacher. During his career, Tim has played extensively throughout the UK and Europe, and more recently in the USA with American pianist Phil DeGreg. In the 70s he toured with Ian Carr's Nucleus and Graham Collier Music and won the Young Jazz Musicians of the Year Award with his own band South of the Border in 1977.
Fionn began acting at the Orange Tree Theatre when he was 13 years old, then went to Orleans Park School where he was among of the top lads, awarded 12 passes at A* or A. Upon finishing school Fionn went to Richmond College and entered the National Youth Theatre's summer course.
By 2015, he was an aspiring actor who worked at a coffee shop in Waterloo, London. He starred in the 2016 British miniseries the ITV three-part series HIM while continuing to be an active member of the Youth Theatre. He also acted in a stage performance of Glenn Waldron's Natives and is one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow 2016.
The year 2017 marked big for Fionn Whitehead, as the 19-year-old (Born in 1997) English actor was cast as the lead for Christopher Nolan's British historical epic Dunkirk alongside many of his well established all country mates. Nolan compared Whitehead to "a young" Tom Courtenay. In 2017 Fionn will star as the lead role in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk and has just finished shooting the young lead in the feature The Children Act opposite actress Emma Thompson and actor Stanley Tucci.
He is represented by the Curtis Brown Agency and according to Deadline, Whitehead has signed with UTA for agency representation by Curtis Brown and Peikoff Mahan.
|Sam Elliott
Tall, thin, wiry Sam Elliott is the classic picture of the American cowboy. Elliott began his acting career on the stage and his film debut was in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Although his future wife, Katharine Ross co-starred in the film, the two did not meet until they filmed The Legacy Together. Over the years there would be few opportunities to act in feature westerns, but it would be television that gave him that opportunity, in The Sacketts, The Shadow Riders and The Yellow Rose, among others. He would also work in non-westerns, usually as a tough guy, as in Lifeguard and Road House. In the 1990s, Elliott was back on the western trail, playing everyone from Brig. Gen. John Buford in the film Gettysburg to Wild Bill Hickok in the made-for-TV movie Buffalo Girls. In 1991 he wrote the screenplay and co-starred with his wife in the made-for-TV western Conagher.
|Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams was born on November 17, 1978 in London, Ontario, Canada, to Sandra Kay (Gale), a nurse, and Lance Frederick McAdams, a truck driver and furniture mover. She is of English, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish descent. Rachel became involved with acting as a teenager and by the age of 13 was performing in Shakespearean productions in summer theater camp; she went on to graduate with honors with a BFA degree in Theater from York University. After her debut in an episode of Disney's The Famous Jett Jackson, she co-starred in the Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows, a comedy-drama about the trials and travails of a Shakespearean theater group, and won a Gemini award for her performance in 2003.
Her breakout role as Regina George in the hit comedy Mean Girls instantly catapulted her onto the short list of Hollywood's hottest young actresses. She followed that film with a star turn opposite Ryan Gosling in the adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks bestseller The Notebook, which was a surprise box office success and became the predominant romantic drama for a new, young generation of moviegoers. After filming, McAdams and Gosling became romantically involved and dated through mid-2007. McAdams next showcased her versatility onscreen with the manic comedy Wedding Crashers, the thriller Red Eye, and the holiday drama The Family Stone.
McAdams then explored the independent film world with Married Life, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and also starred Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper and Patricia Clarkson. Starring roles in the military drama The Lucky Ones, the newspaper thriller State of Play, and the romance The Time Traveler's Wife followed before she starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie's international blockbuster Sherlock Holmes. McAdams played the plucky producer of a failing morning TV show in Morning Glory, the materialistic fiancée of Owen Wilson in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, and returned to romantic drama territory with the hit film The Vow opposite Channing Tatum. The actress also stars with Ben Affleck in Terrence Malick's To the Wonder and alongside Noomi Rapace in Brian De Palma's thriller Passion.
In 2005, McAdams received ShoWest's "Supporting Actress of the Year" Award as well as the "Breakthrough Actress of the Year" at the Hollywood Film Awards. In 2009, she was awarded with ShoWest's "Female Star of the Year." As of 2011, she has been romantically linked with her Midnight in Paris co-star Michael Sheen.
|Cole Sprouse
Cole Sprouse was born in Arezzo, Italy, to American parents, Melanie (Wright) and Matthew Sprouse. Cole began his acting career alongside his identical twin brother at the tender age of six months. From 1993 to 1998 the twins shared the role of Patrick Kelly, on ABC's hit series Grace Under Fire, soon booking Julian in Adam Sandler's box office hit, Big Daddy. During that same month, their second feature film, The Astronaut's Wife, starring Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron, was also released. Cole appeared without his brother on the NBC series Friends, portraying Ross's son, Ben Gellar, and, in the fall of 2003, both Cole and his brother again shared a lead role of Jeremiah in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. There following, Cole began starring alongside his twin in his own half-hour sitcom, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on the Disney Channel. After wrapping his sixth year of the Disney program Cole chose to attend university at NYU, remaining absent from entertainment until he finished his education in 2015. Having graduated with honors, Cole returned and soon booked the role of Jughead in "Riverdale" (2017).
|Will Smith
Willard Carroll "Will" Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood". Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.
In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for six seasons (1990-96) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. After the series ended, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office, eleven consecutive films gross over $150 million internationally, and eight consecutive films in which he starred open at the number one spot in the domestic box office tally.
Smith is ranked as the most bankable star worldwide by Forbes. As of 2014, 17 of the 21 films in which he has had leading roles have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million each, five taking in over $500 million each in global box office receipts. As of 2014, his films have grossed $6.6 billion at the global box office. He has received Best Actor Oscar nominations for Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.
Smith was born in West Philadelphia, the son of Caroline (Bright), a Philadelphia school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith, Sr., a refrigeration engineer. He grew up in West Philadelphia's Wynnefield neighborhood, and was raised Baptist. He has three siblings, sister Pamela, who is four years older, and twins Harry and Ellen, who are three years younger. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia. His parents separated when he was 13, but did not actually divorce until around 2000.
Smith attended Overbrook High School. Though widely reported, it is untrue that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); he never applied to college because he "wanted to rap." Smith says he was admitted to a "pre-engineering [summer] program" at MIT for high school students, but he did not attend. According to Smith, "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college."
Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes as producer, as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably "Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Summertime". They gained critical acclaim and won the first Grammy awarded in the Rap category (1988).
Smith spent money freely around 1988 and 1989 and underpaid his income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service eventually assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Smith, took many of his possessions, and garnished his income. Smith was nearly bankrupt in 1990, when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him.
The show was successful and began his acting career. Smith set for himself the goal of becoming "the biggest movie star in the world", studying box office successes' common characteristics.
Smith's first major roles were in the drama Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and the action film Bad Boys (1995) in which he starred opposite Martin Lawrence.
In 1996, Smith starred as part of an ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. The film was a massive blockbuster, becoming the second highest grossing film in history at the time and establishing Smith as a prime box office draw. He later struck gold again in the summer of 1997 alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the summer hit Men in Black playing Agent J. In 1998, Smith starred with Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State.
He turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix in favor of Wild Wild West (1999). Despite the disappointment of Wild Wild West, Smith has said that he harbors no regrets about his decision, asserting that Keanu Reeves's performance as Neo was superior to what Smith himself would have achieved, although in interviews subsequent to the release of Wild Wild West he stated that he "made a mistake on Wild Wild West. That could have been better."
In 2005, Smith was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for attending three premieres in a 24-hour time span.
He has planned to star in a feature film remake of the television series It Takes a Thief.
On December 10, 2007, Smith was honored at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Smith left an imprint of his hands and feet outside the world-renowned theater in front of many fans. Later that month, Smith starred in the film I Am Legend, released December 14, 2007. Despite marginally positive reviews, its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the United States during December. Smith himself has said that he considers the film to be "aggressively unique". A reviewer said that the film's commercial success "cemented [Smith's] standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood." On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported that Smith was selected as one of America's top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008.
In 2008 Smith was reported to be developing a film entitled The Last Pharaoh, in which he would be starring as Taharqa. It was in 2008 that Smith starred in the superhero movie Hancock.
Men in Black III opened on May 25, 2012 with Smith again reprising his role as Agent J. This was his first major starring role in four years.
On August 19, 2011, it was announced that Smith had returned to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to work on his fifth studio album. Edwards has worked with artists such as T.I., Chris Brown, and Game. Smith's most recent studio album, Lost and Found, was released in 2005.
Smith and his son Jaden played father and son in two productions: the 2006 biographical drama The Pursuit of Happyness, and the science fiction film After Earth, which was released on May 31, 2013.
Smith starred opposite Margot Robbie in the romance drama Focus. He played Nicky Spurgeon, a veteran con artist who takes a young, attractive woman under his wing. Focus was released on February 27, 2015. Smith was set to star in the Sci-Fic thriller Brilliance, an adaptation of Marcus Sakey's novel of the same name scripted by Jurassic Park writer David Koepp. But he left the project.
Smith played Dr. Bennet Omalu of the Brain Injury Research Institute in the sports-drama Concussion, who became the first person to discover chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in a football player's brain. CTE is a degenerative disease caused by severe trauma to the head that can be discovered only after death. Smith's involvement is mostly due to his last-minute exit from the Sci-Fi thriller-drama Brilliance. Concussion was directed by Peter Landesman and-bead filmed in Pittsburgh, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. It received $14.4 million in film tax credits from Pennsylvania. Principal photography started on October 27, 2014. Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw played his wife. Omalu served as a consultant.
As of November 2015, Smith is set to star in the independent drama Collateral Beauty, which will be directed by David Frankel. Smith will play a New York advertising executive who succumbs to an deep depression after a personal tragedy.
Nobel Peace Prize Concert December 11, 2009, in Oslo, Norway: Smith with wife Jada and children Jaden and Willow Smith married Sheree Zampino in 1992. They had one son, Trey Smith, born on November 11, 1992, and divorced in 1995. Trey appeared in his father's music video for the 1998 single "Just the Two of Us". He also acted in two episodes of the sitcom All of Us, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on the David Blaine: Real or Magic TV special.
Smith married actress Jada Koren Pinkett in 1997. Together they have two children: Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born 1998), his co-star in The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth, and Willow Camille Reign Smith (born 2000), who appeared as his daughter in I Am Legend. Smith and his brother Harry own Treyball Development Inc., a Beverly Hills-based company named after Trey. Smith and his family reside in Los Angeles, California.
Smith was consistently listed in Fortune Magazine's "Richest 40" list of the forty wealthiest Americans under the age of 40.
|Pilou Asbæk
Pilou Asbæk graduated from The Danish National School of Performing Arts in 2008. Same year he played the leading role in Niels Arden Oplev's drama WORLDS APART. In 2010 he had his breakthrough as the inmate Rune in Lindholm & Noer's prison drama R for which he won the price for Best actor at The Danish Critic Association Award, Bodil, and at the Danish Film Academy Awards, Robert. Furthermore, he was pointed as Shooting Star at the Berlinale in 2011 for this performance; an honor that is given to ten European Actors. Also, for three years he starred in the BAFTA winning and critically acclaimed television series BORGEN as Kasper Juul; spin doctor for the Danish Prime Minister. The following years Pilou played the leading role in Tobias Lindholm's A HIJACKING and A WAR. A WAR was nominated in the category Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards 2015. In 2014, Pilou shot Luc-Besson's LUCY starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freemand, and this year he played Pontius Pilate in Timur Bekmambetov's BEN-HUR. In 2017 he's again playing opposite Scarlett Johansson in Rupert Sander's GHOST IN THE SHELL. Pilou starred as Euron Grayjoy in the 6th season of GAME OF THRONES which he continues to in the 7th season coming out in 2017.