2019 Oscars: Trending Names

1. Joel Coen

Joel Coen was born on November 29, 1954 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA as Joel Daniel Coen. He is a producer and writer, known for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), Fargo (1996) and A Serious Man (2009). He has been married to Frances McDormand since April 1, 1984. They have one child.

2. Ethan Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...

3. Barry Jenkins

Producer | If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins was born on November 19, 1979 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is a producer and director, known for If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Moonlight (2016) and Medicine for Melancholy (2008).

4. Nicole Holofcener

Director | Enough Said

Nicole Holofcener was born on March 22, 1960 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Enough Said (2013), Friends with Money (2006) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018). She was previously married to Benjamin Allanoff.

5. Jeff Whitty

Writer | Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Jeff Whitty is an actor and writer, known for Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), Shortbus (2006) and Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000).

6. Eric Roth

Writer | Forrest Gump

Eric Roth was born on March 22, 1945 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Forrest Gump (1994), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and The Insider (1999). He has been married to Debra Greenfield since 1987. They have five children.

7. Bradley Cooper

Actor | A Star Is Born

Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5, 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Gloria (Campano), is of Italian descent, and worked for a local NBC station. His father, Charles John Cooper, who was of Irish descent, was a stockbroker. Immediately after Bradley graduated from the ...

8. Will Fetters

Writer | A Star Is Born

Will Fetters is a writer and producer, known for A Star Is Born (2018), Remember Me (2010) and The Lucky One (2012).

9. David Rabinowitz

Writer | BlacKkKlansman

David Rabinowitz is a writer and producer, known for BlacKkKlansman (2018), The Shadow Guide: Prologue (2016) and Harmless (2012).

10. Kevin Willmott

Writer | BlacKkKlansman

Kevin Willmott wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature film C.S.A: Confederate States Of America, about America, had the South won the Civil War. After its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, IFC Films purchased the film for domestic theatrical distribution. CSA was released ...

11. Spike Lee

Director | Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended ...

12. Adam McKay

Producer | The Other Guys

Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. McKay has a comedy partnership with Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Ferrell and McKay also founded their comedy website Funny or Die through ...

13. Alfonso Cuarón

Writer | Gravity

Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then ...

14. Paul Schrader

Writer | First Reformed

Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a...

15. Deborah Davis

Writer | The Favourite

Deborah Davis is a writer and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), 5 News Tonight (2014) and The Oscars (2019).

16. Tony McNamara

Writer | The Favourite

Tony McNamara is a writer and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), The Great (2020) and The Rage in Placid Lake (2003).

17. Nick Vallelonga

Actor | Green Book

Nick Vallelonga is best known for winning two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes for Original Screenplay and Best Picture for "Green Book". Nick wrote and produced "Green Book" with Peter Farrelly and Brian Hayes Currie, based on the true story of Nick's father Tony Lip, who went on tour of the ...

18. Brian Hayes Currie

Actor | Green Book

Brian Hayes Currie was born in 1961. He is an actor and writer, known for Green Book (2018), Armageddon (1998) and Con Air (1997).

19. Peter Farrelly

Producer | Green Book

Peter Farrelly was born on December 17, 1956 in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, USA as Peter John Farrelly. He is a producer and writer, known for Green Book (2018), There's Something About Mary (1998) and Dumb and Dumber (1994).

20. Pawel Pawlikowski

Director | Zimna wojna

A literature and philosophy graduate, with extensive post-graduate work at Oxford on German literature, Polish-born Pawel Pawlikowski started as a documentary filmmaker in British television.

His second feature, Last Resort (2000), earned him international critical acclaim at numerous festivals, ...

21. Yorgos Lanthimos

Director | The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Athens, Greece. He studied directing for Film and Television at the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He has directed a number of dance videos in collaboration with Greek choreographers, in addition to TV commercials, music videos, short films and theater plays. Kinetta,...

22. Regina King

Actress | Ray

Regina King was born in Los Angeles, California, to Gloria, a special education teacher, and Thomas King, an electrician. She began her career in the television show 227 (1985), followed by a role in Boyz n the Hood (1991). She began to be recognized by a mainstream audience after her role as Cuba ...

23. Marina de Tavira

Actress | Roma

Marina de Tavira is a Mexican theatre, film and television actress. Her career has mainly developed on the Mexican stage working with the most prestigious directors in the scene. She has played the lead parts in stagings of play writes like Bertold Brecht, Harold Pinter, David Mamet, and Ximena ...

24. Emma Stone

Actress | La La Land

Emily Jean "Emma" Stone was born on November 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker & Jeffrey Charles "Jeff" Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish, German & British Isles descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the ...

25. Amy Adams

Actress | Arrival

Amy Lou Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy, to American parents, Kathryn (Hicken) and Richard Kent Adams, a U.S. serviceman who was stationed at Caserma Ederle in Italy at the time. She was raised in a Mormon family of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado, and has English, as well as ...

26. Rachel Weisz

Actress | The Constant Gardener

Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. ...

27. Sam Rockwell

Actor | Moon

Sam Rockwell was born on November 5, 1968, in San Mateo, California, the only child of two actors, Pete Rockwell and Penny Hess. The family moved to New York when he was two years old, living first in the Bronx and later in Manhattan. When Sam was five years old, his parents separated, at which ...

28. Sam Elliott

Actor | A Star Is Born

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 (1969). Although his future wife, Katharine Ross co-starred in the film, the two did not meet until they filmed The ...

29. Adam Driver

Actor | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

Adam Douglas Driver was born in San Diego, California. His mother, Nancy (Needham) Wright, is a paralegal from Mishawaka, Indiana, and his father, Joe Douglas Driver, who has deep roots in the American South, is from Little Rock, Arkansas. His stepfather is a Baptist minister. His ancestry includes...

30. Mahershala Ali

Actor | House of Cards

Mahershala Ali is fast becoming one of the freshest and most in-demand faces in Hollywood with his extraordinarily diverse skill set and wide-ranging background in film, television, and theater.

This past fall, Ali wrapped A24's Brad Pitt and Adele Romanski produced independent feature film, ...

31. Richard E. Grant

Actor | Gosford Park

Richard E. Grant was born on May 5, 1957 in Mbabane, Hhohho, Eswatini as Richard Grant Esterhuysen. He is an actor and director, known for Gosford Park (2001), Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) and Withnail & I (1987). He has been married to Joan Washington since November 1, 1986. They have two ...

32. Yalitza Aparicio

Actress | Roma

Yalitza Aparicio is a Mexican actress. She is best known for her film debut Roma (2018), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Aparicio was born on December 11, 1993, in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico. She also has an baccalaureate in early childhood education.

Her parents ...

33. Melissa McCarthy

Actress | The Heat

Melissa McCarthy was born in Plainfield, Illinois, to Sandra and Michael McCarthy, and was raised on her family's corn and soybean farm. She began her performing career as a stand-up comedian in New York where she appeared at the famous clubs, Stand Up New York and The Improv. She worked on her ...

34. Glenn Close

Actress | Fatal Attraction

Eight time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Bettine (Moore) and William Taliaferro Close (William Close), a prominent doctor. Both of her parents were from upper-class northeastern families.

Glenn was a noted Broadway ...

35. Lady Gaga

Soundtrack | A Star Is Born

Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is an American songwriter, singer, actress, philanthropist, dancer and fashion designer.

Gaga was born on March 28, 1986 in Manhattan, New York City, to Cynthia Louise (Bissett), a philanthropist and business executive, and Joseph Anthony ...

36. Olivia Colman

Actress | The Favourite

Olivia Colman was born on January 30, 1974 in Norwich, Norfolk, England as Sarah Caroline Olivia Colman. She is an actress and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), Tyrannosaur (2011) and The Lobster (2015). She has been married to Ed Sinclair since August 2001. They have three children.

37. Christian Bale

Actor | The Dark Knight

Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries ...

38. Rami Malek

Actor | Bohemian Rhapsody

Rami Said Malek (born May 12, 1981) is an American actor. He won a Critics' Choice Award and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his lead role as Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot. He also received Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors ...

39. Willem Dafoe

Actor | Spider-Man

Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large ...

40. Viggo Mortensen

Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Since his screen debut as a young Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), Viggo Mortensen's career has been marked by a steady string of well-rounded performances.

Mortensen was born in New York City, to Grace Gamble (Atkinson) and Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr. His father was Danish, his mother ...

41. Charlie Wachtel

Producer | BlacKkKlansman

Charlie Wachtel is a producer and writer, known for BlacKkKlansman (2018), The Oscars (2019) and Bolsa Negra.