Gorgeous List
It's simple. This is a non-exhaustive list of women I find physically attractive. Some may be in line with popular tastes, others not.
Note: For the most part, this is based on looks, not on personality or other characteristics that can indeed make a woman much more or less attractive. I'm sure the other factors may have played in subconsciously, though.
Note: For the most part, this is based on looks, not on personality or other characteristics that can indeed make a woman much more or less attractive. I'm sure the other factors may have played in subconsciously, though.
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- Actress
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Born in Western Australia in 1990, Adelaide Kane had been acting since she was 6 and got her first major role, in 2006, when she won the role of "Lolly Allen" on Neighbours (1985). She entered a Dolly Magazine Competition and won the role in late 2006. When she got the role, she and her family had to move from Perth to Melbourne, where "Neighbours" is filmed, she was in Year 11 at the time. In her free time, she enjoys singing and singing lessons. She is good friends with Caitlin Stasey, Eliza Taylor, and Sianoa Smit-McPhee, who are also on the show.Another Australian. She's just amazing looking.- King appeared in several short films before landing guest roles on the CBS procedurals Blue Bloods and Person of Interest. Her big break came in 2012 when she was cast as new surgical intern Cassandra Kopelson on the CW drama Emily Owens, M.D. The series was canceled after a single season in 2013. She later starred in the Amazon Studios comedy pilot The Onion Presents: The News. King also played Wendell Pierce's daughter Abigayle in the independent film Four, released on September 13, 2013. Along with her castmates, she won a Los Angeles Film Festival Award for her role in this movie.
In 2014, King had a recurring role in the ABC drama series Black Box, and was later cast as one of the leads in the Shonda Rhimes' legal thriller How to Get Away with Murder.The first time I saw her, my jaw literally dropped open. Stunning. - Actress
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Indiana Rose Evans born 27 July 1990 is an Australian actress and singer-songwriter, best known for her roles in Home and Away (1988) as Matilda Hunter, H2O: Just Add Water (2006) as Bella Hartley, and Blue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012) as Emmaline Robinson. Evans had an interest in performing since the age of five, when she would perform for family and friends. At the age of seven, Evans' parents enrolled her into dance lessons, which started with ballet and then evolved to jazz and tap.She is almost too gorgeous to believe.- Actress
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Nicole Beharie is an American actress.
Her critically acclaimed film debut was in the film American Violet (2008) alongside Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson and Will Patton. Beharie also played Ernie Davis' girlfriend in the movie The Express (2008). Her upcoming projects include My Last Day Without You (2011) and Steve McQueen's Shame (2011) opposite Michael Fassbender.
Beharie developed a passion for acting and performing as a child. She attended South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, SC. She was the first student from the Governor's school to be accepted into Juilliard Drama School in NYC.- Actress
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Naomi Ellen Watts was born on September 28, 1968 in Shoreham, England to Myfanwy Edwards "Miv" (Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume/set designer, and Peter Watts (Peter Anthony Watts), Pink Floyd's road manager. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh. Her father died when she was seven and she followed her mother and brother around England until she was 14 and they finally settled in Australia, homeland of her maternal grandmother. When they arrived, she coaxed her mother to let her take acting classes. After bit parts in commercials, she landed her first role in For Love Alone (1986). Naomi met her best friend Nicole Kidman when they both auditioned for a bikini commercial and shared a taxi ride home. In 1991, Naomi starred with Kidman in the sleeper hit Flirting (1991), directed by John Duigan. Naomi continued her career by starring in the Australian Brides of Christ (1991) co-starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Brenda Fricker.
In 1993, she worked with John Duigan again in Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) and director George Miller in Gross Misconduct (1993). Tank Girl (1995), in 1995, an adaptation of the comic book was a cult hit, starred Naomi as "Jet Girl", but it didn't do at the box-office or do much for her career. Watts continued to take insignificant parts in movies including the much forgotten film Children of the Corn: The Gathering (1996). It wasn't until David Lynch cast her in the critically acclaimed film Mulholland Drive (2001) that she began to become noticed. Her part as an aspiring actress showed her strong acting ability and wide range and earned her much respect, as much as to say by some that she was overlooked for a Oscar nomination that year. Stardom finally came to Naomi in the surprise hit The Ring (2002), which grossed over $100,000,000 at the box-office and starred Watts as an investigative reporter hunting down the truth behind several mysterious deaths seemingly caused by a video tape. While the movie did not fare well with the critics, it launched her into the spotlight. In 2003, she starred in Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams (2003) which earned her - what some say is a much overdue Oscar nomination and brought others to call her one of the best in her generation of actors. The same year, she was nominated for 21 Grams (2003), Naomi was chosen to play "Ann Darrow" in director Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) which took her to New Zealand for a five month shoot. Watts completed her first comedy in I Heart Huckabees (2004) for director David O. Russell, playing a superficial spokes model - a break from her usual intense and dramatic roles she is known for.
In 2005, she reprized her role as the protective-mother-reporter "Rachel Keller" in The Ring Two (2005). The movie, released in March, opened to $35,000,000 at the box office in the first weekend and established her as a box-office draw. Also in 2005, it was decided that her independent movie Ellie Parker (2001) would be re-released in late 2005 after its success at resurfacing at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which Naomi also produced, features her in the title role and is a bit biographical, but yet exaggerated take of the life of a struggling actress as she comes to Hollywood and encounters nightmares of the profession (it also features Watts' own beat-up Honda which she travels around in). In 2006, she starred with Edward Norton in The Painted Veil (2006). In July of 2007, Naomi gave birth to a boy, Alexander Pete (Sasha Schreiber) in Los Angeles with Liev Schreiber. Since then her career choices have gathered even more critical acclaim with starring roles roles in German director Michael Haneke's American remake of his thriller Funny Games (2007), David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (2007), and the action-thriller, The International (2009), released in February 2009. In mid-2008, Watts announced she was expecting her second child with Schreiber and gave birth to second son Samuel Kai Schreiber, in New York on December 13.It's hard to reconcile her looks with her age. Not that she's ancient, but she looks ten years younger than she is.- Actress
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Jennifer Jason Leigh was born Jennifer Lee Morrow in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of writer Barbara Turner and actor Vic Morrow. Her father was of Russian Jewish descent and her mother was of Austrian Jewish ancestry. She is the sister of Carrie Ann Morrow and half-sister of actress Mina Badie.
Jennifer's parents divorced when she was two. Jennifer worked in her first film at the age of nine, in a nonspeaking role for the film Death of a Stranger (1973). At 14 she attended summer acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg and later landed a role in the Disney TV movie The Young Runaways (1978). She received her Screen Actors Guild membership for an episode of the TV series Baretta (1975) when she was 16. Jennifer performed in several TV movies and dropped out of Pacific Palisades High School six weeks short of graduation for her major role in the film Eyes of a Stranger (1981). Her first major success came as the female lead in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
Jennifer was married to writer/director Noah Baumbach from 2005 to 2013, and the two have a son.I've liked her for a long time. She continues to age gracefully.- Actress
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Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years, she trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts, a part-time theatre school where she studied singing, dancing and acting. By the age of ten, she had performed and taken the lead in various Stagecoach productions and school plays.
In 1999, casting began for Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (2001), the film adaptation of British author J.K. Rowling's bestselling novel. Casting agents found Emma through her Oxford theatre teacher. After eight consistent auditions, producer David Heyman told Emma and fellow applicants, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, that they had been cast for the roles of the three leads, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. The release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) was Emma's cinematic screen debut. The film broke records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings and was the highest-grossing film of 2001. Critics praised the film and the performances of the three leading young actors. The highly distributed British newspaper, 'The Daily Telegraph', called her performance "admirable". Later, Emma was nominated for five awards for her performance in the film, winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film.
After the release of the first film of the highly successful franchise, Emma became one of the most well-known actresses in the world. She continued to play the role of Hermione Granger for nearly ten years, in all of the following Harry Potter films: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). Emma acquired two Critics' Choice Award nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for her work in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. The completion of the seventh and eight movies saw Emma receive nominations in 2011 for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award, and for Best Actress at the Jameson Empire Awards. The Harry Potter franchise won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in February 2011.
2011 saw Emma in Simon Curtis's My Week with Marilyn (2011), alongside a stellar cast of Oscar nominees including Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, in addition to Eddie Redmayne, Dame Judi Dench, Dougray Scott, Zoe Wanamaker, Toby Jones and Dominic Cooper. Chronicling a week in Marilyn Monroe's life, the film featured Emma in the supporting role of Lucy, a costume assistant to Colin Clark (Redmayne). The film was released by The Weinstein Company and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. In 2012 Emma was seen in Stephen Chbosky's adaptation of his coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), starring opposite Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller. This independent drama centered around Charlie (Lerman), an introverted freshman who is taken under the wings of two seniors (Watson and Miller) who welcome him to the real world. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and received rave reviews. The film won the People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Movie and Emma also picked up the People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Movie Actress. Emma was awarded a second time for this role with the Best Supporting Actress Award at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards where the film also won the Best Ensemble Performance Award.
In summer 2013, Emma starred in Sofia Coppola's American satirical black comedy crime film, The Bling Ring (2013), opposite Katie Chang and Israel Broussard. The film took inspiration from real events and followed a group of teenagers who, obsessed with fashion and fame, burgled the homes of celebrities in Los Angeles. The film opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Emma also appeared in a cameo role as herself in Seth Rogen's apocalypse comedy This Is The End (2013). The film tells the story about what happens to some of Hollywood's best loved celebrities when the apocalypse strikes during a party at James Franco's house.
In 2014, Emma was seen in Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014), opposite Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Douglas Booth, Logan Lerman, and Anthony Hopkins. The film told the epic, biblical tale of Noah and the ark. Emma plays the role of Ila, a young woman who develops a close relationship with Noah's son, Shem (Booth). Noah made an outstanding $300m since its release in March. In 2015, Emma starred in Regression (2015), written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar and Occultum Luciferus. Also headlined by Oscar-nominated Ethan Hawke, and set in Minnesota in 1990, Regression tells the story of Detective Bruce Kenner (Hawke), who investigates the case of young Angela, played by Emma, who accuses her father of sexual abuse.
In 2012, Emma was honored with the Calvin Klein Emerging Star Award at the ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards. In 2013, Emma was awarded the Trailblazer Award at the MTV Movie Awards in April and was honored with the GQ Woman of the Year Award at the GQ Awards in September. Further to her acting career, Emma is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Emma graduated from Brown University in May 2014.
In 2017, Emma starred in the live-action Disney fantasy Beauty and the Beast (2017), one of the biggest movies of all time in the U.S., and the dramatic thriller The Circle (2017).She grew up really nicely.- Actress
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Tatiana Gabrielle Maslany was born September 22, 1985 in Regina, Saskatchewan, to Renate, a translator, and Dan, a woodworker. She graduated from Dr. Martin LeBoldus High school in 2003. She was a well respected student, and participated as often as possible in school productions. She is well known for her participation in the Canadian Improv Games. Maslany starred in the 2006 television movie, Booky Makes Her Mark (2006) along with Megan Follows and Stuart Hughes.
She had supporting roles in the films Eastern Promises (2007) and The Vow (2012), and came to fame starring in the series Orphan Black (2013), playing multiple roles. Maslany also had a large role in the 2015 film Woman in Gold (2015), playing a young version of Maria Altmann, Helen Mirren's character.- Chanelle Harquail-Ivsak was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress, known for The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco (2018), Another Life (2019) and Sacred Lies (2018).I saw her on a kids show and she really stood out. Incredibly pretty!
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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 (2006). 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 (2007) 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 (1997), Buffalo Girls (1995), The X-Files (1993) and The Practice (1997)). She also starred as stripper-turned-criminal "Dale" in the British/Australian co-production Restraint (2008), 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 (2006). Set in Tokyo, the horror sequel to the box-office hit The Grudge (2004) 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 (2008), but was subsequently replaced by Rachel Bilson.
Early 2007 saw her star opposite former boyfriend Topher Grace as the love interest in the retro comedy film Take Me Home Tonight (2011). 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 (2008), a Disney children's comedy starring Lucy Lawless, Guy Pearce and Keri Russell and was released on Christmas 2008.Apparently Australia is teeming with beautiful women or something.- Actress
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Jessica Lucas (born September 24th, 1985) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is known for her roles in television, such as Edgemont, Melrose Place (1992) and Cult, and in the films The Covenant (2006), Cloverfield (2008) and 2013's Evil Dead (2013). She also starred in the music video for Coldplay's 2014 single "True Love". Lucas was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. She began acting at seven years old, and trained with the Children's Arts Theatre School in Toronto. She started her career appearing in stage productions, including local productions of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, Grease, Cinderella, Mousetrap and Music Medley.- Actress
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Odette Annable was born Odette Juliette Yustman on 10 May, 1985, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Lydia (Nodarse), is Cuban. Odette's father, Victor Oscar Yustman, was born in Bogotá, Colombia, of Italian and Polish Jewish descent. Odette started her career with a minor role in the movie Kindergarten Cop (1990) as "Rosa."
After graduating from Woodcrest Christian High School in Riverside, California, where she was the homecoming queen, she turned to modeling with a few roles through the years. Some of her credits include Danielle Steel's Remembrance (1996) and Dear God (1996) with a few guest appearances in Quintuplets (2004). In 2006, Odette was cast in Jennifer Lopez's South Beach (2006) where she played "Arielle Casta". She was then cast in the drama October Road (2007) as "Aubrey," which has received its second season. She has since been seen in the action monster movie Cloverfield (2008) as "Beth McIntyre".- Actress
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Actress Elizabeth Anne "Lizzy" Caplan was born in Los Angeles, California, to Barbara (Bragman), a political aide, and Richard Caplan, a lawyer. She has two older siblings, Julie and Benjamin, and was raised in a Jewish household. Her mother was a cousin of publicist Howard Bragman. Caplan was educated at Alexander Hamilton High School, where she showed an interest in acting and was cast in school plays.
After graduating, Caplan made her onscreen debut in the TV movie From Where I Sit (2000). Other roles followed in TV shows such as Freaks and Geeks (1999), Smallville (2001) and The Pitts (2003). Caplan made her big screen debut with a small role in Orange County (2002) and went on to play Janis Ian in the hit Mean Girls (2004). Further successes include Cloverfield (2008), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and 127 Hours (2010).
More recently, Caplan has played Virginia Johnson in the television series Masters of Sex (2013), for which she received an Emmy nomination. Her 2010s film work includes co-starring in The Interview (2014), opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Night Before (2015), and alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson, and Daniel Radcliffe in Now You See Me 2 (2016).- Actress
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Bridgit Claire Mendler was born in Washington DC, and lived there until she was eight years old. Her family moved to the west coast, just outside of San Francisco, California. This is when she first expressed an interest in acting and began booking local jobs. In 2004, she landed her first role in the animated film, The Legend of Buddha (2004), as "Lucy". When she was 13, she landed her first acting role, as a guest star on General Hospital (1963). In 2008, she landed a role, as "Kristen Gregory", in the film, The Clique (2008). In 2009, Mendler became a recurring character on the Disney channel sitcom, Wizards of Waverly Place (2007), as "Juliet Van Heusen", until the series finale in 2012. Also in 2009, Mendler auditioned for the role of "Sonny Monroe" in Sonny with a Chance (2009). But the part was won by Demi Lovato. In 2010, Mendler won the role of "Teddy Duncan" on Good Luck Charlie (2010). In 2011, she starred as "Olivia White", the lead role in the Disney Channel original movie, Lemonade Mouth (2011). Also in 2011, Mendler had the role of "Appoline" in the film, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (2011). Mendler later co-wrote and sang the Disney's "Friends for Change Games" anthem, called "We Can Change the World". In 2012, she guest-starred on the television series, House (2004), as "Callie Rogers". She later voiced the lead role of "Arrietty" in The Secret World of Arrietty (2010). Mendler's debut album, "Hello, My Name Is...", was released on October 22, 2012, by Hollywood Records. On February 12, 2013, her second single, "Hurricane", was released for radio airplay. The song peaked at number 1 Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100, in United States, and sold over 300,000 digital copies.- Actress
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Victoria Justice is an American actress and singer. She was born on February 19, 1993 in Hollywood, Florida, USA. She is the daughter of Serene Reed and Zack Justice. Her mother has Puerto Rican ancestry, while her father is of English, German, and Irish descent. She has a younger half-sister, Madison Reed.
She rose to fame on Nickelodeon, starring as Lola Martinez in the television series, Zoey 101 (2005), and Tori Vega in the sitcom, Victorious (2010).
She starred in the films, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (2010), The First Time (2012) and Fun Size (2012).
She released her debut single "Gold" on June 18, 2013.
She starred in the film, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List (2015) in the MTV television series, Eye Candy (2015).- Actress
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Daveigh Chase was born on July 24, 1990 in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was raised in the small town of Albany, Oregon; where she continues to spend much of her time. She began singing and dancing in her hometown and other local areas at community events and shows starting at age 3. After visiting Los Angeles, she did her first commercial for Campbell's Soup at age 7. At this time, she was also offered a starring role in the Musical Theatre production "Utah!". At age 8, she auditioned for the the voice of "Lilo", and tested at CBS network for her first television series. She continued to test and be cast as a series regular, working on many different television pilots, before finally FOX picked up the show Oliver Beene (2003) in which Daveigh starred as Oliver's quirky best friend "Joyce". In the meantime, she appeared in several movies, including Donnie Darko (2001), in which she played Donnie's youngest sister and was a member of the "Sparkle Motion" dance group; and "R.L. Stines The Haunted Lighthouse" which continues to show at various Busch Garden Theme Parks. In 2003, she won the "Best Villian" award at the MTV Movie Awards for her work as "Samara" in DreamWorks hit, The Ring (2002). She is the voice of "Lilo" from the hit animated and Oscar nominated Disney feature film, Lilo & Stitch (2002), and she continues to voice "Lilo" for the Disney Channel series, as well as various DVD's and video games. Daveigh is also cast as the English voice of the lead heroine "Chihiro" in Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Gibli's Spirited Away (2001) (aka Spirited Away) which won the 2002 Oscar for Best Animated Film.
Daveigh is also a very talented singer. Back in 1999, she had the opportunity to join up as lead singer with a small band and take the stage as an opening act for Reba McEntire and, later on, sang "Holly Jolly Christmas" for the "School's Out! Christmas" album released by Universal Records Hip-O Records, which also features the voices of other child stars, including Mae Whitman, Evan Rachel Wood, Jesse McCartney, and others. She was handpicked by director Steven Spielberg to sing "God Bless America" in his film, A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001); and in the Oliver Beene (2003) episode, entitled Oliver & the Otters (2004), Daveigh was given the opportunity to showcase her talent by singing the hit 60s song, "Tossin' and Turnin'". She has since recorded four original songs.
Outside of the entertainment industry, some of Daveigh's favorite activities are surfing, horseback riding, dancing, reading, and just hanging out with family & friends.- Rachel Clare Hurd-Wood is an English actress and model, best known for her roles as Wendy Darling in Peter Pan (2003), Corrie McKenzie in Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010), and Sibyl Vane in Dorian Gray (2009). She was born on 17 August 1990 in the Streatham district of South London, England, as daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood. Hurd-Wood's career in acting started in 2002 when she was picked for the role of Wendy Darling, after her grandparents spotted a television clip that said P.J. Hogan was searching for a "young English rose" for the feature film Peter Pan. She traveled to Gold Coast, Australia for eight months for filming. Her performance received good reviews and was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor, and a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress. Hurd-Wood portrayed the character Imogen Helhoughton in the 2004 TV film Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, as a 13-year-old victim of a serial killer. Also in 2004, she had a major role of Betsy Bell in the thriller An American Haunting, as a girl who is haunted and tormented by an unrelenting demon. Hurd-Wood was nominated for the 2006 Teen Choice Awards in the category Movie - Choice Scream for her role. In 2005 she appeared in an adaptation of the best-selling novel by German writer Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Set in 18th century France, Hurd-Wood portrayed Laura Richis, the red-headed virgin daughter of a politically connected merchant played by Alan Rickman. She had her brunette hair dyed red. She was nominated for the "Best Supporting Actress" award at the 33rd Saturn Awards by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for her role. The year 2007 saw Hurd-Wood starring as a waitress in the music video for the song "A Little Bit" by Madeleine Peyroux. In the 2008 film Solomon Kane, she played Meredith Crowthorn, a Puritan captured by a band of marauders who killed her family and whom Kane sought to rescue. Her younger brother Patrick appears in the film as her brother Samuel. During filming, Hurd-Wood studied for her GCSE A-levels at Godalming College in Surrey. Later in the year she acted in the film Dorian Gray based on the Oscar Wilde novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. She was in the small but key role of the young budding actress Sibyl Vane, with whom Gray falls in love. She was studying in the first year of the linguistics course at UCL while working in this film. In her first contemporary role, Hurd-Wood was cast as Corrie Mackenzie, one of the principal characters in the 2009 Australian action-adventure film Tomorrow, When the War Began, based on the novel by John Marsden. At this point, she discontinued studying for a Linguistics degree to concentrate full-time on acting. Hurd-Wood portrayed the lead character Mae-West O'Mara in the 2010 film Hideaways, narrating a story to her six-year-old daughter, about the strange powers of the men in the Furlong family. Her performance was well-received by critics. Later in the year, she played the younger version of the character Isabel, played by Jenny Agutter, in the short film The Mapmaker. Also in the same year, she was featured in the music video for "Revolver" by Warehouse Republic. In 2014, Hurd-Wood played the female lead role of Elisabeth James in the film Highway to Dhampus, a story about the effect foreigners in Nepal and Nepali expatriates have on the locals.
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British actress Imogen Poots was born in Hammersmith, London, England, the daughter of English-born Fiona (Goodall), a journalist, and Trevor Poots, a Northern Ireland-born television producer. She was educated at Bute House Preparatory School for Girls, Queen's Gate School for Girls and Latymer Upper School, all in London. When she was a teenager she began attending the Youngblood Theatre Company, and developed a love of acting.
Poots' initial screen debut was a (2004) role in British medical drama Casualty (1986). She made her big screen debut as Young Valerie in V for Vendetta (2005), then went on to appear in various projects, including 28 Weeks Later (2007), Me and Orson Welles (2008), Centurion (2010), Bouquet of Barbed Wire (2010), Fright Night (2011), A Late Quartet (2012), Greetings from Tim Buckley (2012), and The Look of Love (2013).- Actress
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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 (2003), as well as the WB's Raising Dad (2001) and MGM's teen comedy Sleepover (2004) - all before graduating from middle school.
Brie's work includes the coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009) and the dark comedy, Just Peck (2009), with Marcia Cross and Keir Gilchrist. She earned critical praise for her role in the independent feature, Remember the Daze (2007) (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 (2009), created by Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody and based on an original idea by Steven Spielberg.
She starred in The Trouble with Bliss (2011) 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 (2010) and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg (2010). In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Brie played rock star "Envy Adams", former flame of Michael Cera, and in Greenberg (2010), 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.- Actress
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Jane Levy was born in California, USA. Jane attended Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, California. While in school, she was on the hip hop dancing team and was captain of the soccer team. During that time, she also appeared in Community Theater productions of Annie and The Wizard of Oz. She attended Goucher College for a semester. After that, she attended the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City.
Levy's parents and siblings supported her in her career. She moved back to Los Angeles after two years of living in New York City. Levy was cast as "Mandy Milkovich" in a five-episode role on the Showtime series Shameless (2011) within a few weeks of returning to the West Coast. In March 2011, she landed the first lead role of her career on the sitcom Suburgatory (2011), with Jeremy Sisto and Cheryl Hines. On May 9, 2014, Suburgatory (2011) was canceled by ABC after three seasons.
Levy was named by both TV Guide and TheInsider.com as one of the breakout stars of 2011, and was included on the top eleven list of funniest women compiled by AOL. Forbes named her as one of the handful of entertainment stars on their list of 30 under 30 who are "reinventing the world" (a list of the brightest stars of the future). She appeared in two films in 2012, Fun Size (2012) and Nobody Walks (2012). Released before Halloween, Fun Size (2012) co-starred Victoria Justice and comedian Chelsea Handler. While filming it, Levy was disappointed that she failed to meet co-star Johnny Knoxville, as he was on set for the one week of shooting that she was not.
Levy later starred in the 2013 remake of the horror classic Evil Dead (2013), as the drug-dependent Mia, replacing Lily Collins, who had originally been cast. The following year, she starred in two independent films, About Alex (2014) and Bang Bang Baby (2014). In 2015, Levy co-starred opposite Rene Russo in Frank and Cindy (2015). In 2016, she starred in her Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez's horror film Don't Breathe (2016), the story of friends who break into the house of a wealthy blind man. That same year, she co-starred with Lucas Till in Monster Trucks (2016), Paramount Animation's first live-action/CGI film, directed by Chris Wedge.
In 2017, Levy appeared in I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) directed by Macon Blair, and will star in zombie comedy Office Uprising (2018). She played the female lead in the The Pretenders (2018), a romantic drama directed by James Franco. Also in 2017, Levy appeared in the Showtime series Twin Peaks (2017).- Actress
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Alexis Merizalde Knapp hails from Allegheny in Pennsylvania. She worked as a model before breaking into acting, starting with small roles in Couples Retreat (2009) and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010). She also came to public attention during a high-profile relationship with Ryan Phillippe, which ended on September 2010. On July 2011, Knapp gave birth to her first child, a girl named Kailani Merizalde Phillippe-Knapp.- Leslie Jean Mann was born in San Francisco, California. She was raised in Newport Beach, California by her mother, Janet Ann Ayres. At the age of seventeen, she launched her career, appearing in various TV commercials.
Her screen break came when she was cast as Nurse Mary in the short-lived Birdland (1994). Further TV and film roles followed, including The Cable Guy (1996), where she met her husband, Judd Apatow, who was a producer on the film. The story goes that after Mann left her audition for the role, Apatow turned to his colleagues and said "there goes the future Mrs. Apatow".
Further successes followed for Mann in such projects as George of the Jungle (1997) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). She also appeared alongside her daughters - Maude Apatow and Iris Apatow - in Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009) and This Is 40 (2012). - Actress
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Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in Hounslow, Middlesex, 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 (1974), Porridge (1974) and The Lovers (1970). 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 (1991), 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 (1993). Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, beginning with a part in the medieval historical drama Royal Deceit (1994), 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 (1994). 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 (1995), 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 (1995), 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 (1996). Her last film of 1996 was the comedy Shooting Fish (1997), 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.- Actress
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Vera Farmiga is an American actress who has received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Up in the Air (2009) and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Bates Motel (2013) and When They See Us (2019).
She was born Vera Ann Farmiga, the second of seven children, on August 6, 1973, in Clifton, New Jersey, USA, to Ukrainian parents. She did not speak English until the age of six, and was raised in the Ukrainian Catholic home of her mother, Luba (Spas), a schoolteacher, and her father, Michael Farmiga, a computer systems analyst. Her younger sister is actress Taissa Farmiga, who is 21 years her junior. Young Vera was a shy, nearsighted girl, who played piano and folk danced with a Ukrainian touring company in her teens.
In 1991, she graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. Farmiga initially dreamed of becoming an optometrist, but she later changed her mind and studied acting at Syracuse University's School of Performing Arts, graduating in 1995. The following year, she began her professional acting career, making her Broadway debut as an understudy in the play "Taking Sides". Her stage credits included performances in "The Tempest", "Good", "The Seagull", and in a well-reviewed off-Broadway production of "Second-Hand Smoke" (1997). That same year, she made her television debut as the female lead, opposite a then-unknown Heath Ledger, in Fox's adventure series Roar (1997).
In 1998, Farmiga made her big screen debut in the drama Return to Paradise (1998), then played the daughters of Christopher Walken in The Opportunists (1999) and Richard Gere in Autumn in New York (2000). She starred as a working-class mother struggling to keep her life and marriage together while hiding her drug addiction in Down to the Bone (2004), for which she was awarded Best Actress from the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Farmiga's acting talent shone in a range of characters, from her role as a senator's daughter in The Manchurian Candidate (2004), the wife of a mobster in Running Scared (2006), a humorous prostitute in Breaking and Entering (2006), and a police psychiatrist in The Departed (2006).
In 2010, Farmiga received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Up in the Air (2009). In 2011, she made her directorial debut with the drama Higher Ground (2011), in which she also appeared in the leading role. Although the film had a limited release, Farmiga's direction and performance received attention at several festivals. In 2013, she began starring in the drama thriller series Bates Motel (2013), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in the first season. In 2019, she received a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie category, for her role in the drama miniseries When They See Us (2019).
Farmiga was formerly married to actor Sebastian Roché, whom she met during production of Roar (1997). The two eloped to the Bahamas after the series ended in 1997. They separated and subsequently divorced in 2004. On September 13, 2008, she married musician Renn Hawkey, with whom she has two children, son Fynn McDonnell (b. 2009) and daughter Gytta Lubov Hawkey (b. 2010). Farmiga lives with her family in Hudson Valley, New York. Her other activities, outside her acting profession, include reading, playing piano, boxing, jujitsu, and spending time with her pet angora goats.- Actress
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Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts near the New York border, on February 10, 1974. She is the daughter of Anne Marie (Wallace), who worked in a bank, and Mark Phineas Mitchell, a factory worker. Elizabeth describes herself as having been seen as a "goody two-shoes" in her youth who was nominated for the local Harvest Queen.
Banks left home to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania--from which she graduated Magna cum Laude--and went on to attend the Advanced Training Program at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, graduating in 1996. She then moved to New York and worked in the theater, and began getting small roles in films and on television. Seeking more screen work, she moved to Los Angeles and was soon cast in supporting roles. She also had to change her last name, to Banks, in order to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell.
Her breakthrough role was as Betty Brant, the secretary of the cantankerous newspaper tycoon in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002). She followed up this performance with small roles in other movies: Swept Away (2002), Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002), Seabiscuit (2003) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). In 2003 she won the Exciting New Face Award at the Young Hollywood Awards. The winsome, beautiful Banks projected an exceptionally charming screen presence that drew comparisons to Audrey Hepburn, and Hollywood eventually began to take notice, Banks being cast in the lead in such films as Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) and in Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush, W. (2008), as Laura Bush.
In television, Banks was a recurring guest star on Scrubs (2001) as Dr. Kim Briggs, the love interest of Zach Braff's J.D. In 2010 she was cast as Alec Baldwin's love interest in season four of 30 Rock (2006). Originally scheduled to appear in only four episodes, she was brought back as a recurring character for two more seasons, and earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for two consecutive years. Elizabeth has also appeared in such films as Our Idiot Brother (2011), Man on a Ledge (2012), What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), People Like Us (2012), and Pitch Perfect (2012). She also won the coveted role as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).
After an eleven-year courtship, Banks married Max Handelman, a sports writer and producer, in 2003. They have two sons, Felix, who was born in March 2011, and Magnus, born in Nov. 2012, both by gestational surrogacy.- Actress
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Leslie Louise Bibb was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, on November 17, 1973, and raised in Nelson County, Virginia. Later she and her mother, along with her three older sisters, moved to Richmond, where Leslie attended an all-girls Catholic high school, St. Gertrude.
In 1990 The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) and the Elite Agency held a nationwide modeling search; Leslie's mother took photos of her then 16-year-old daughter and sent them in. Although Leslie wasn't impressed with the photos, the judges--John Casablancas, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Iman--were, and they picked her as the winner.
After finishing her junior year, Leslie flew to New York City and signed a contract with Elite. She modeled over the summer, and went on a trip to Japan. She returned home for her senior year and graduated in 1992, then decided to forgo a full-time modeling career to attend the University of Virginia. After a single semester, however, she dropped out and moved to New York City. She attended the William Esper acting studio for three years and took nine months off in which she did more modeling in Europe. Her photographs have appeared in such magazine as Maxim and FHM.
Leslie had her first film role in the comedy Private Parts (1997), which was followed by her first television series (where she replaced the departed Susan Walters as the female lead) in the second season of The Big Easy (1996) on USA. Unfortunately, the show was canceled just months later.
In 1999 she appeared as the lead character on the WB Network television series Popular (1999). The show was a success among teenagers, and led Leslie to more recognizable film roles, such as The Skulls (2000) and See Spot Run (2001). Most recently she has appeared as intern Erin Harkins in ER (1994).- Actress
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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 (1996). Her breakthrough part came when she was cast in Freaks and Geeks (1999). 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 (2002). She also co-starred in 'Brian Robbins'' Good Burger (1997), Legally Blonde (2001), with Reese Witherspoon, and Tom McLoughlin's The Unsaid (2001) with Andy Garcia, as well as in the Adam Sandler-produced comedy, Grandma's Boy (2006).
In 2005, Cardellini starred in the ensemble film, American Gun (2005), 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 (2005), 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 (2008), 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 (2014), 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 (2011). 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 (2009).
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.I first saw her on ER, but then I became familiar with more of her work. There's something in her eyes that just makes her so beautiful to me.- Actress
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Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American and her mother, who is caucasian, has German, English, and Dutch ancestry. Her family lived across the street from the 20th Century Fox lot when she was growing up and she was a fan of films from her earliest years. Her mother, who also appreciated good films, was a schoolteacher, and her father was a lawyer. Paula claims that as a girl she would escape by "pretending to be someone else" so it was not a surprise that she acted in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her favorite role was that of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". However, she went on to study film at the University of Southern California in a summer program, and won a 3-month assignment making documentaries for PBS. This led to her working as a production assistant for TV documentaries, and also for Howie Mandel's talk show. She progressed to actually producing documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula now professes that she liked what she was doing, but her dream remained the same as when she was small so she took acting lessons and shifted gears to become a performer. She was almost immediately successful and, within three years, had played parts in major features, Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) and the female lead in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.- Actress
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Judy Greer was born and raised outside of Detroit, Michigan, as Judith Therese Evans. She is the daughter of Mollie Ann (née Greer), a hospital administrator and former nun, and Richard Evans, a mechanical engineer. She has German, Irish, English, Welsh, and Scottish ancestry. After training for nearly ten years in classical Russian ballet, Greer shifted her interest to acting and was accepted into Chicago's prestigious Theatre School at DePaul University.
After a variety of odd jobs during college, from telemarketer to oyster shucker, Greer landed her first on-screen role just three days after graduation -- a small part in the Jason Lee-David Schwimmer comedy Kissing a Fool (1998). She flew to Los Angeles for the film's premiere and never left. Greer quickly landed a role in the dark comedy Jawbreaker (1999), with Rose McGowan and Rebecca Gayheart. Greer starred as a school wallflower-turned-babe in a story about high school girls who accidentally kill their best friend and try to cover up the murder.
She went on to play a news correspondent in David O. Russell's Three Kings (1999), landing a memorable opening love scene with George Clooney. Her performance caught the eye of Hollywood, and she appeared next in Mike Nichols's What Planet Are You From? (2000) as a flight attendant opposite Garry Shandling. Her television credits include a recurring role as Jason Bateman's assistant Kitty on Fox's Arrested Development (2003), as well as guest-starring roles on Love & Money (1999), Maggie Winters (1998), and Early Edition (1996).
Greer starred opposite Jennifer Garner in Columbia Pictures' romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 (2004), directed by Gary Winick. Greer played an office colleague alongside Garner's character, with whom she shares a checkered past.
She co-starred in writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004), opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sigourney Weaver, and William Hurt. Set in 1897, the film revolves around a close-knit community that lives with the knowledge that a mythical race of creatures resides in the woods surrounding them. The Village (2004) was released July 30, 2004, by Touchtone Pictures. Greer also co-starred in director Wes Craven's Cursed (2005), a modern twist on the classic werewolf tale written by Kevin Williamson. The busy actress also landed a co-starring role opposite Orlando Bloom and Susan Sarandon in writer-director Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown (2005), playing the sister of Bloom's character and daughter of Sarandon's character.
She also joined Jeff Bridges and Jeanne Tripplehorn in the independent film The Amateurs (2005) by writer-director Michael Traeger. The film revolves around a motley group of friends who band together to make an amateur porn film. Greer plays a young temptress at the local mattress store who secures a role in the movie by allowing the store to be used as a film location.
Greer wrapped production in New York on a co-starring role opposite Tom McCarthy ("The Station Agent") in Danny Leiner's The Great New Wonderful (2005) for Serenade Films/Sly Dog Films. The dark comedy tells five different stories against the backdrop of an uncertain post-September 11 New York. The cast also includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco and Tony Shalhoub.
She also appeared in writer-director Adam Goldberg's psychological drama I Love Your Work (2003), opposite Giovanni Ribisi. The film is about a fictional movie star (Ribisi) and his gradual meltdown and increasing obsession with a young film student and his girlfriend. The stellar cast also included Franka Potente, Christina Ricci, and Jason Lee and debuted at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. In the film, Greer plays Samantha, the personal assistant of Ribisi's character.
Greer had a starring role as the female lead role in the comedy The Hebrew Hammer (2003) as the feisty, fearless Esther, who joins forces with an Orthodox Jewish Blaxploitation hero (Adam Goldberg) to save Hanukkah from an evil son of Santa Claus (Andy Dick). The Hebrew Hammer (2003) debuted at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and premiered on Comedy Central followed by a theatrical release.
She also appeared in Adaptation. (2002), from director Spike Jonze. In the film, Nicolas Cage stars as self-loathing writer Charlie Kaufman (and twin brother Donald) as he attempts to adapt the novel "The Orchid Thief" for the big screen. Greer played Alice, the waitress with whom he becomes obsessed -- the object of his fantasies.
Greer turned in a scene-stealing comedic performance in The Wedding Planner (2001), with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey, in which she played Penny, Lopez's sweet but ditsy assistant who tries hard, but often falls a little short. Equally adept at more dramatic roles, Greer gave a standout performance opposite Mel Gibson in What Women Want (2000), playing a suicidal file clerk rescued by the one man who can hear women's thoughts. Greer's pivotal scene with Gibson is the heart of the film.
With a genuine gift for comedy and an engaging on-screen presence, Judy Greer has quickly become one of Hollywood's most captivating talents. Having appeared in such diverse films as Jawbreaker (1999), What Women Want (2000), The Wedding Planner (2001), Adaptation. (2002), and Wilson (2017) as well as a number of upcoming feature film projects, Greer turns in scene-stealing performances opposite some of the industry's biggest stars.- Producer
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Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, a city in the greater Johannesburg area, in South Africa, the only child of Gerda Theron (née Maritz) and Charles Theron. She was raised on a farm outside the city. Theron is of Afrikaner (Dutch, with some French Huguenot and German) descent, and Afrikaner military figure Danie Theron was her great-great-uncle.
Theron received an education as a ballet dancer and has danced both the "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker". There was not much work for a young actress or dancer in South Africa, so she soon traveled to Europe and the United States, where she got a job at the Joffrey Ballet in New York. She was also able to work as a photo model. However, an injured knee put a halt to her dancing career.
In 1994, her mother bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, and Charlize started visiting all of the agents on Hollywood Boulevard, but without any luck. She went to a bank to cash a check for $500 she received from her mother, and became furious when she learned that the bank would not cash it because it was an out-of-state check. She made a scene and an agent gave her his card, in exchange for learning American English, which she did by watching soap operas on television.
Her first role was in the B-film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995), a non-speaking part with three seconds of screen time. Her next role was as Helga Svelgen in 2 Days in the Valley (1996), which landed her the role of Tina Powers in That Thing You Do! (1996). Since then, she has starred in movies like The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and The Italian Job (2003). On February 29, 2004, she won her first Academy Award, a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Monster (2003).- Actress
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Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is from Brittany.
Raised in Orléans, France, she made her acting debut as a child with a role in one of her father's plays. She studied drama at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Orléans. After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional and minor roles in TV series such as Highlander (1992) and Extrême limite (1994), but her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s. While still a teenager, Cotillard made her cinema debut at the age of 18 in the film L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse (1994), and had small but noticeable roles in films such as Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument (1996) and Coline Serreau's comedy The Green Planet (1996).
In 1996, she had her first lead role in the TV film Chloé (1996), playing the title role - a teenage runaway who is forced into prostitution. Cotillard co-starred opposite Anna Karina, the muse of the Nouvelle Vague.
In 1997, she won her first film award at the Festival Rencontres Cinématographiques d'Istres in France, for her performance as the young imprisoned Nathalie in the short film Affaire classée (1997). Her first prominent screen role was Lilly Bertineau in Gérard Pirès's box-office hit Taxi (1998), a role which she reprised in two sequels: Taxi 2 (2000) and Taxi 3 (2003), this role earned her first César award nomination (France's equivalent to the Oscar) for Most Promising Actress in 1999.
In 1999, Cotillard starred as Julie Bonzon in the Swiss war drama War in the Highlands (1998). For her performance in the film, she won the Best Actress award at the Autrans Film Festival in France. In 2001, Marion starred in Pretty Things (2001) as the twin sisters Marie and Lucie, and was nominated for her second César award for Most Promising Actress.
Cotillard's breakthrough in France came in 2003, when she starred in Yann Samuell's dark romantic comedy Love Me If You Dare (2003), in which she played Sophie Kowalsky, the daughter of Polish immigrants who lives a love-hate relationship with her childhood friend. The film was a box-office hit in France, became a cult film abroad and led Cotillard to bigger projects.
Her first Hollywood movie was Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003), in which she played Joséphine, the wife of William Bloom (played by Billy Crudup). A few years later, Marion starred in Ridley Scott's A Good Year (2006) playing Fanny Chenal, a French café owner who falls in love with Russell Crowe's character. In 2004, she won the Chopard Thophy of Female Revelation at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, Cotillard won the César award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance of Tina Lombardi in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement (2004).
In 2007, Cotillard received international recognition for her iconic portrayal of Édith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (2007). Director Olivier Dahan cast Cotillard to play the legendary French singer because to him, her eyes were like those of "Piaf". The fact that she can sing also helped Cotillard land the role of "Piaf", although most of the singing in the film is that of Piaf's. The role won Cotillard the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a César, a Lumière Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe. That made her only the second actress to win an acting Oscar performing in a language other than English next to Sophia Loren (Two Women (1960)). Only two male performers (Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful (1997) and Robert De Niro for The Godfather Part II (1974)) have won an Oscar for solely non-English parts. Trevor Nunn called her portrayal of "Piaf" "one of the greatest performances on film ever". At the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Cotillard was given a 15-minute standing ovation. When she won the César, Alain Delon presented the award and announced the winner as "La Môme Marion" (The Kid Marion), he also praised her at the stage saying: "Marion, I give you this César. I think this César is for a great great actress, and I know what I'm talking about".
Cotillard has worked much more frequently in English-language movies following her Academy Award recognition. In 2009, she acted opposite Johnny Depp in Michael Mann's Public Enemies (2009), and later that year played Luisa Contini in Rob Marshall's musical Nine (2009) and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Time magazine ranked her as the fifth best performance by a female in 2009. The following year, she took on the main antagonist role, Mal, in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), and in 2011 she had memorable parts in Midnight in Paris (2011) and Contagion (2011) and reteamed with Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
In 2011 and 2012 respectively, Cotillard appeared on the top of Le Figaro's list of the highest paid actors in France, it was the first time in nine years that a female topped the list. Cotillard was also the highest paid foreign actress in Hollywood.
In 2012, Cotillard received wide-spread critical acclaim for her role as the legless orca trainer Stéphanie in Rust and Bone (2012). The film was a box office hit in France and received a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. Cotillard won the Globe de Cristal (France's equivalent to the Golden Globe), the Étoile d'Or award and was nominated for the Golden Globes, SAG, BAFTA, Critics' Choice and César Awards for her performance in the film. Cate Blanchett wrote an op-ed for Variety praising Cotillard's performance in "Rust and Bone", the two actresses competed for the Academy Awards for Best Actress in 2008, Cate was nominated for her performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and Marion for her performance in La Vie En Rose (2007) and Cotillard won the Oscar.
She had her first leading role in an American movie in 2013, in James Gray's The Immigrant (2013), in which she played Ewa Cybulska, a Polish immigrant who wants to experience the American dream. Cotillard received wide-spread acclaim for her performance in the film at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered, and also won several critics awards. In 2014, Cotillard played Sandra in the Belgian film Two Days, One Night (2014) by the Dardenne brothers. Her performance was unanimously praised at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, earned several critics awards, Cotillard won her first European Award for Best Actress and also received her second Oscar nomination and her sixth César award nomination.
In 2015, she played Lady Macbeth opposite Michael Fassbender in Justin Kurzel's Macbeth (2015) and voiced two animated movies: The Little Prince (2015) in which she voiced The Rose, and April and the Extraordinary World (2015), in which she voiced the lead role, Avril. Her 2016 included Nicole Garcia's From the Land of the Moon (2016), Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World (2016), Justin Kurzel's Assassin's Creed (2016), in which she worked again with her Macbeth co-star Michael Fassbender; and Robert Zemeckis's Allied (2016), with Brad Pitt.- Actress
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Actor and singer-songwriter Alicia Witt has been acting since the age of 7, when she made her film debut in David Lynch's sci-fi classic Dune. She will next be seen starring opposite Nicholas Cage in the thriller Longlegs, set for a 2024 worldwide theatrical release. She also just appeared on Fox's The Masked Singer as Dandelion, winning her first episode with her rendition of Over The Rainbow. Recent sightings include psychological drama Fuzzy Head (2023); I Care A Lot (2021) on Netflix, starring Rosamund Pike and Dianne Wiest; as a killer in Lifetime Network's true crime drama The Disappearance of Cari Farver (2022) and as Zelda on the final season of Orange Is The New Black.
Alicia is also a familiar face to Christmas audiences for her 10 holiday movies, many of which have featured her original music and continue to air every year.
Witt spent 5 weeks in the Billboard Top 30 AC Radio chart with her single Chasing Shadows, off her 2021 album The Conduit, which she co-produced alongside Jordan Lehning and Bill Reynolds. Her newest release is 2023's Witness, led by the title track, which debuted in April. A classically trained former competitive pianist, Alicia's music has been described as 'sharply personal, boldly melodic pop originals in the Carole King/Billy Joel vein' and 'touching lost-and-found love ballads' (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Witt's many films include Two Weeks' Notice, Last Holiday, The Upside of Anger, Mr. Holland's Opus, Urban Legend, Four Rooms, 88 Minutes, Vanilla Sky, and Fun, for which she was awarded the Special Jury Recognition Award from the Sundance Film Festival, and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Alicia received rave reviews for her role as Paula in Season 6 of AMC's critically acclaimed series The Walking Dead. Witt also appeared during Season 4 of ABC's 'Nashville' as country star Autumn Chase and in Season 3 of David Lynch's Twin Peaks on Showtime, reprising her role from the original as Gerstein Hayward. Other TV includes FOX's The Exorcist; Law & Order: Criminal Intent; The Mentalist; Friday Night Lights; The Sopranos; Cybill; Ally McBeal; and Twin Peaks.
Alicia has performed her original piano-driven pop music all over the world, including at the renowned Grand Ole Opry. She has also opened for Ben Folds Five, Rachel Platten, and Jimmy Webb, to name a few. Her 2018 release, 15000 Days, was produced by Grammy-winning producer Jacquire King (James Bay, Norah Jones, Kings of Leon, Dawes). Witt's previous album, Revisionary History, was produced by Ben Folds and was hailed as 'Grey Seal era Elton John, an alt-universe Fiona Apple, and a film noir chanteuse notching her nights in cigarette burns on the fallboard' (Nashville Scene).
Witt's first book, Small Changes, came out in Fall 2021 from Harper Horizon. The book is an inspiring, welcoming and simple yet effective guide to health, happiness and sustainable living. Instead of promoting a rigid diet, Small Changes offers readers a stress-and-judgment-free approach for enacting easy, incremental changes across all areas of life.
On stage, Witt starred in Neil LaBute's Tony nominated play Reasons to Be Pretty at the Geffen Playhouse. She also appeared at London's Royal Court theatre in Terry Johnson's Piano/Forte and made her West End debut with The Shape of Things. She has performed at Williamstown Theatre Festival and has made many appearances in the 24-Hour Plays on Broadway and the 24-Hour Musicals off-Broadway.- Actress
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Michelle Lynn Monaghan was born on March 23, 1976, in Winthrop, Iowa. She is the youngest of three children and the only daughter of Sharon (Hamel), who ran a day care center, and Robert L. Monaghan, a factory worker and farmer. She is of mostly Irish and German descent. After graduating from high school in Iowa, she studied journalism for three years at Chicago's Columbia College. In order to pay for college, she took a job as a model. In 1999, she quit college and moved to New York to work full-time as a fashion model. She traveled the world doing stints on the runways in Milan, Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and also appeared in a number of magazines and catalogs.
In 2000, she made her TV debut in two episodes of Young Americans (2000), then appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). She made her big screen debut with a small role of Henrietta in Perfume (2001). Monaghan shot to fame in 2002 when she co-starred as Kimberly Woods for one season on the TV series Boston Public (2000). After appearances in several supporting roles, she starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer in the black comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). Later in 2005, Monaghan was filming in China, Italy, and the United States on Mission: Impossible III (2006), as the female lead opposite Tom Cruise.
In August of 2005, in Sydney, Australia, she married her long-time sweetheart, Peter White, a New York based graphic designer, whom she met at a Manhattan party five years earlier.- Actress
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Amy Smart was born in Topanga Canyon, California to Judy, who worked at a museum, and John Boden Smart, a salesman. She has German, English, and Irish ancestry.
Smart was a relatively new arrival when she first gained notice for her supporting roles in the 1999 hit teen films Varsity Blues (1999) and Outside Providence (1999). The Los Angeles native got her start in TV-movies and made her feature debut in Stephen Kay's The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), which was screened at 1997's Sundance Film Festival alongside Keanu Reeves. She was briefly seen in Paul Verhoeven's big-budget sci-fi actioner Starship Troopers (1997) with actor Casper Van Dien and had an impressive turn in the vastly different, quirkily independent How to Make the Cruelest Month (1998), in which she played Dot, the graceful golden girl who seduces the one-time boyfriend of her sister, troubled protagonist Bell (Clea DuVall). The by-the-numbers horror film Campfire Tales (1997) followed in 1997, along with the topically chilling but clumsily executed Internet stalker thriller Dee Snider's Strangeland (1998), written and produced by and starring the titular Twisted Sister frontman as a deranged torturer who meets his victims in web chatrooms. Amy reached her widest audience with a co-starring role opposite James Van Der Beek in Brian Robbins' surprise box office hit "Varsity Blues (1999)". She played Jules Harbor, a girl who longs for life beyond her small town's high-school-football-obsessed culture but is tied to it as sister of the injured star quarterback (Paul Walker) and girlfriend of his idealistic replacement (Van Der Beek). Her next role was that of Shawn Hatosy's upper-class love interest in Michael Corrente's poignant 1970s-era comedy "Outside Providence (1999)". Based on Peter Farrelly's novel, the film followed a working-class teen (Hatosy) sent by his abrasive but loving father (Alec Baldwin) to a tony prep school after running into trouble at home.- Actress
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Born and raised in Dallas, Texas where she graduated Lake Highlands High School, Amy Acker is the oldest of four children; she has two sisters and one brother. An acting major at Southern Methodist University, Amy acted in several college theater productions. She appeared in various roles during the fantasy segments for the popular award-winning children's TV series Wishbone (1995), which was filmed in Texas and consisted of Dallas theater actors. Upon graduation she worked in Wisconsin and New York before winning the role of "Fred" on Angel (1999).- Actress
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Rashida Jones was born in Los Angeles, California, the younger daughter of media mogul, producer, and musician Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton. She has an older sister, Kidada Jones, and five half-siblings by her father's other relationships. Her father is African-American and her mother is Ashkenazi Jewish (a descendant of emigrants from Russia and Latvia). Rashida was raised in Reform Judaism. She grew up in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California. Jones has stated of her mixed race parentage, "It was the 1970s and still not that acceptable for them to be together." Jones made her professional acting debut in The Last Don, a 1997 mini-series based on the novel by Mario Puzo. Also in 1997, Rashida graduated from Harvard University.- Actress
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Diane Kruger was born Diane Heidkrüger in Algermissen, near Hildesheim, Germany, to Maria-Theresa, a bank employee, and Hans-Heinrich Heidkrüger, a computer specialist. She studied ballet with the Royal Ballet in London before an injury ended her career. She returned to Germany and became a top fashion model. She later pursued acting and relocated to Paris at the suggestion of filmmaker Luc Besson (The Fifth Element (1997)). She married French actor Guillaume Canet (The Beach (2000)) in 2001.- British actress Naomie Harris was born in London, England, the only child of television scriptwriter Lisselle Kayla. Her father is from Trinidad and her mother is from Jamaica. They separated before she was born, and Harris was raised by her mother and has no relationship with her father. She showed an interest in acting from an early age and attended the prestigious Anna Scher Theatre School. From here, Harris won roles in various projects, such as Simon and the Witch (1987) and The Tomorrow People (1992). She went on to study social and political sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, an experience Harris did not enjoy.
After graduating from the University, Harris trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Acting success soon followed and her breakthrough film role came in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002). Other notable projects include Miami Vice (2006) and Small Island (2009) (for which she was named best female actor by the Royal Television Society). Harris also won fans for her role as voodoo witch Tia Dalma in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), and further international attention came her way when she played field agent Eve Moneypenny in the James Bond film Skyfall (2012).
Naomie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the drama Moonlight (2016), which won the Best Picture Oscar that year.
Naomie Harris was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2017 New Years Honours for her services to drama. - Laura Fraser was born on 24th July 1975 and brought up in Glasgow. Her father, Alister, used to run a small building company but is now an aspiring scriptwriter; her mother, Rose, used to be a nurse but is now a college lecturer. She has an older brother who works with computers, a younger sister who is studying philosophy at university, and a younger brother who hasn't yet decided what he wants to do. Laura describes her family as a pretty close bunch.
Alister Fraser was instrumental in getting his daughter into acting when she was at school. He wrote a play for the youth club in which she played the female lead. After completing High School, Laura did a drama foundation course at Glasgow's Langside College, and than went to the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
During her time there, she got a supporting role in Gillies MacKinnon's film Small Faces (1995). This was on top of a couple of other minor roles she had taken (such as 'Big Day for the Bad Guys). The college authorities took a pretty dim view of the amount of professional work she had been taking on, questioning her commitment to the course.
Having not been enjoying her time at the Academy, and encouraged by her parents, she dropped out after a year and moved to London. She landed the starring female role in the BBC adaptation of Neil Gaiman's _"NeverWhere" (1996) (mini)_ series, and then moved to several small or supporting roles in films (Cousin Bette, Man in the Iron Mask), as well as a lead in the short film 'Paris Brixton'. She also appeared as a minor character in single TV dramas, such as 'The Investigator' and 'The Tribe'). Her role in the movie Left Luggage (1998) was more substantial and led to her getting one of the main character roles in the black comedy Divorcing Jack (1998) (at least in the first half). And her highest profile performance as the lead female in the comedy Virtual Sexuality (1999) in 1998.
From here she has appeared in a number of films, mainly in supporting roles, but always noticeable. Her performance as Lavinia in the offbeat version of Titus (1999) has particularly been singled out for praise. All these roles have demonstrated her versatility in characterization and style to the full. From the fantasy of 'Neverwhere', comedy of 'Virtual Sexuality', Shakespearean drama of 'Titus', emotional drama of 'Forgive and Forget' and slapstick of 'Kevin and Perry', Laura cannot be typecast. She effortlessly adapts to all the genres (and accents where needed; she has rarely appeared acting using her own Glasgow accent).
Laura moved to America after completing Coney Island Baby (2002). She landed a role in the well regarded HBO drama Iron Jawed Angels (2004), and also met up with Karl Geary, her co-star in 'Coney Island Baby'. They lived together in Brooklyn, and subsequently married in New York in 2003. They moved to Ireland in mid 2004.
In early 2005, Laura returned to live in Glasgow with her husband and stepdaughter, and a desire to start a family and focus on local work. She found she was pregnant in late 2005, and spent time working as a choreographer on a pantomime written by her father 'Oh Yes He Is!' for the charity Sense Scotland. In May 2006 she and Karl became proud parents of a baby girl. Laura intended to not work for 12 months and be a full-time mum, but by September 2006 she was back making a film for the BBC. - Stephanie Leonidas is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Helena in the fantasy film MirrorMask and as Irisa on the American science fiction television series, Defiance. Leonidas was born in Westminster, London.
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Anna Friel is an English actress, born in Rochdale. She has been acting since the age of 13, appearing in a number of British television programmes. She made her West End stage debut in London in 2001, and has subsequently appeared on stage in several productions, including an adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's and as Yelena in a 2012 production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. She is the recipient of a number of awards including National Television Award (1995), Drama Desk Award (1999), and the Royal Television Society Award (2009). She has also appeared in music videos and television and print media advertising campaigns and is the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Bolton.- Actress
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Evangeline Lilly, born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, in 1979, was discovered on the streets of Kelowna, British Columbia, by the famous Ford modeling agency. Although she initially decided to pass on a modeling career, she went ahead and signed with Ford anyway, to help pay for her University of British Columbia tuition and expenses.- Actress
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Emmanuelle Chriqui was born in Montreal, Quebec, to Moroccan Jewish immigrants, Liliane (Benisty) and Albert Chriqui. Her family moved to Toronto when she was two years old. At the age of 10, Chriqui appeared in a McDonald's commercial. She moved to Vancouver, guest-starring in series such as Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990), Forever Knight (1992), Once a Thief (1996) and PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal (1996). Her first Hollywood role was in Detroit Rock City (1999). Her breakout performance came in 2000's Snow Day (2000), in which she played the foxy "Claire Bonner." She appeared in rock band Hinder's "Lips of an Angel" music video in 2006. Emmanuelle later starred in several films and was nominated for a DVD Exclusive Award as Best Actress for her performance in 100 Girls (2000). She also starred in the movie, Adam and Eve (2005), opposite Cameron Douglas. Chriqui increased her visibility by playing "Sloan" on the HBO hit show, Entourage (2004), and by starring opposite Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008). She reprise her role as Sloan in Entourage (2015).- Actress
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Kerry Washington is an African-American actress, television show producer and film director who is known for her roles in Scandal, Ray, the Tim Story Fantastic Four film series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Confirmation, Django Unchained, Little Fires Everywhere, Cars 3 and The Last King of Scotland. She had two children from Nnamdi Asomugha.- Music Artist
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Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia to Nidia del Carmen Mebarak (née Ripoll Torrado) & William Alberto Mebarak Chadid. She is of Lebanese, Spanish & Italian descent. Shakira began her musical career at the age of 12 and quickly captured fans around the world. She won the 2001 Best Latin pop Grammy for her MTV Unplugged album.- Actress
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Danielle Harris is an American actress and film director from Plainview, New York. She is regarded as a scream queen for her many roles in horror films. Her better known roles include protagonist Jamie Lloyd in "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988) and "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989), and "final girl" Annie Brackett in "Halloween" (2007) and "Halloween II" (2009). As a voice actress in animation, Harris is primarily known for voicing 16-year-old Debbie Thornberry in the fantasy animated series "The Wild Thornberrys" (1998-2004).
In 1977, Harris was born in a Jewish family of Plainview, New York. Plainview is a hamlet of Long Island with a large Jewish population. The hamlet is named because its location offered a clear view over the Hempstead Plains. Harris' family soon moved to Florida, where Harris received part of her primary education.
While still in elementary school, Harris won a beauty contest for children. She was consequently offered various modeling jobs, but initially had to turn down these offers. The modeling gigs would require long-distance travel, which she could not afford at the time. When her family moved to New York City, Harris started working as a child model. She also began to regularly appear in television commercials.
In 1985, Harris joined the cast of the long-running soap opera "One Life to Live" (1968-2012) in her first acting role. She played the part of "miracle child" Samantha "Sammi" Garretson. Her character was extracted as an embryo from the womb of her recently deceased mother Samantha Vernon and implanted in family friend Delilah Ralston, with her birth considered miraculous by the other characters. Harris continued playing Samantha until 1987, when the character was written out of the series. Afterwards, Harris started making guest star appearances in other television series.
Harris auditioned for the role of child protagonist Jamie Lloyd for the horror film "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988), competing against several other child actresses. She won the role and made her film debut at the age of 11. In the film series "Halloween", serial killer Michael Myers was initially obsessed with attempts to kill his younger sister Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis). In the fourth film, Michael awakes from a coma and learns that Laurie died in an unrelated traffic accident. He decides to instead hunt down Laurie's daughter Jamie Lloyd, who is his sole living relative. The film also focuses on Jamie's relationship with her foster sister Rachel Carruthers (played by Ellie Cornell). Its finale hints that Jamie has a dark side of her own and is following in Michael's footsteps.
The fourth "Halloween" film only earned about 18 million dollars at the box office, but gained a cult following due to its cast of interesting female characters. Harris played Jamie again in the direct sequel "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989). In the film, the minds of Jamie and Michael are linked through telepathy. It was the first "Halloween" film to introduce elements of supernatural horror, and was considered controversial by the series' fans. The film earned only about $12 million at the box office, though Harris was praised for her acting skills. The "Halloween" series went on a hiatus for several years following the release of this film.
Harris' next film project was the action film "Marked for Death" (1990). She played Tracey Hatcher, niece of retired Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent John Hatcher (played by Steven Seagal). In the film, John's family is repeatedly threatened and attacked by employees of a drug lord who wants revenge against John, and styles himself as a user of black magic. The film was a surprise box office hit, earning $58 million at the worldwide box office. It was the highest-grossing film in Harris' career up to that point.
Harris had a substantial role in the television film "Don't Touch My Daughter" (1991), as a kidnapped damsel-in-distress. Her next major film project was the black comedy "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" (1991). She played Melissa Crandell, a 12-year-old tomboy. In the film, 5 siblings are supposed to spend their entire summer vacation under the care of an elderly babysitter. When the old woman dies in her sleep, they decide to cover-up her death, to take control of her car, and to start living on their own. The leader of the siblings in this film was played by Christina Applegate. The film performed modestly well at the box office, but gained more success in the home video market.
Harris returned to the action genre with the action comedy "The Last Boy Scout" (1991). She played Darian Hallenbeck, the rebellious daughter of private detective Joseph Cornelius "Joe" Hallenbeck (played by Bruce Willis). In the film, Joe is implicated in the murders of his ex-partner and a female client. While trying to clear his name, Joe learns that he is about to be framed for the assassination of a senator. He sets out to prevent this assassination, though the senator in question is one of his old enemies. The film earned $114.5 million at the worldwide box office and was credited with reviving Willis' career.
In 1992, Harris joined the cast of the sitcom Roseanne (1988-1997). She played the recurring character of Molly Tilden, the promiscuous daughter of supporting character Ty Tilden (played by Wings Hauser). Molly was depicted as a frenemy to main character Darlene Conner (played by Sara Gilbert). They hanged out together but frequently argued, and they soon realized that they were competing over the same potential boyfriend. Subplots involving Molly included her relationship with her older sister (and mother figure) Charlotte Tilden (played by Mara Hobel), and her habitual use of marijuana. Molly was written out of the series in 1993. Harris would later play Molly again in the sequel series "The Conners" (2018-), in an episode depicting Molly as a dying cancer patient.
Harris played the runaway girl Gwenie in the drama film "Free Willy" (1993). The film focused on the growing bond between a troubled orphan boy and a captive orca at an ailing amusement park. The film had a worldwide gross of about $154 million, and turned animal actor Keico the orca (1976 - 2003) into a popular star. The film had three sequels, but Harris was not involved with these film projects.
For the next couple of years, Harris was limited to playing only minor television roles. She entered negotiations to reprise the role of Jamie Lloyd in the sequel "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" (1995), but eventually declined to play the part. The character of Jamie only had limited screen time in the film and the salary offered for the role was below Harris' expectations. The role was instead played by J. C. Brandy.
In 1995, Harris made the news for her personal life. She was being stalked by obsessed fan Christopher Small, who frequently mailed death threats to her. Small was arrested after he arrived at her home with a shotgun. Several years later, Small started harassing Harris online. In 2009, Harris was granted a restraining order against Small.
In 1996, Harris co-starred with Katherine Heigl in the fantasy-themed television film "Wish Upon a Star". Harris played science nerd Hayley Wheaton, who is secretly envious of the supposedly perfect life of her older sister Alexia Wheaton (played by Heigl). The girls experience body swapping following a wish, and get to experience each other's life first hand. Hayley soon finds out that Alexia had a dysfunctional relationship with her female friends, and a rather poor relationship with her boyfriend. The life she just inherited is far from perfect. The film was one of several popular television films produced by the Disney Channel.
Harris returned to the action genre with the film "Back to Back". (1996). She played Chelsea Malone, daughter of disgraced ex-cop Bob Malone (played by Michael Rooker). She tries to raise bail money for her father, who was arrested for executing a gang of bank robbers in an episode of intense rage. But father and daughter instead find themselves hostages of a Yakuza member who is trying to flee Los Angeles. All three are soon on the run from both the local Mafia and from crooked cops. The film was marketed as a sequel to the crime film "American Yakuza" (1993), but their only similarities were depictions of conflicts between the Mafia and the Yakuza.
Harris had a supporting role in the disaster film "Daylight" (1996), which featured an accidental explosion and a consequent tunnel cave-in in the vicinity of New York City. Harris played teenager Ashley Crighton, one of several survivors who tried to find a way out of the collapsed tunnel. The film earned $159.2 million at the worldwide box office, and its sound editors were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing.
Harris' next film project was the slasher film "Urban Legend" (1998), her first appearance in a horror film since the late 1980s. The film featured a series of murders within the campus of a private university in New England, with each murder styled after an urban legend. Harris played Tosh Guaneri, a goth girl who was strangled to death within her own room. Tosh's sleeping roommate later claimed that she never heard any disturbance during the night of the murder., The film earned $72.5 million at the worldwide box office, and it was followed by two sequels. The film is credited with starting a trend of horror films which took inspiration from multiple urban legends.
In 1998, Harris was cast in the role of Debbie Thornberry in the fantasy animated series "The Wild Thornberrys" (1998-2004). It was the first time that she was part of the main cast in a series. The series featured the Thornberrys, a British family of modern-day nomads who traveled the world in order to film nature documentaries. The youngest daughter, Eliza Thornberry (voiced by Lacey Chabert), was secretly granted the ability to communicate with animals by an African shaman. She tried to keep this secret from her family, though her older sister Debbie is eventually let in on the secret. The two sisters have a love-hate relationship with each other, but each of them tries to defend the other sister from danger. The series lasted for 5 seasons and 91 episodes. Harris also voiced Debbie in the animated film "The Wild Thornberrys Movie" (2002) and the crossover film "Rugrats Go Wild" (2003). The series was one of the most popular television projects created by the animation studio Klasky Csupo, and provided Harris with a share of the spotlight for several years.
Harris had a supporting role in the crime comedy film "Poor White Trash" (2000). In the film, two teenagers from lower-class backgrounds start working together in heists in order to finance their college education. But their plans clash with those of their manipulative and opportunistic relatives, who each have agendas of their own. And the duo start hanging out with various local eccentrics in the process of their criminal plans. The film was noted for its ensemble cast, though the casting of 23-year-old Jaime Pressly in the role of of a scheming step-grandmother was regarded as the film's main appeal at the time.
In the autumn of 2000, Harris joined the main cast of the comedy-drama series "That's Life" (2000-2002). The series depicted life in the working-class suburbs of Newark, New Jersey. Harris played Plum Wilkinson, the girlfriend (and later wife) of police officer Paulie DeLucca (played by Kevin Dillon) and the close friend and college classmate of Paulie's sister Lydia DeLucca (played by Heather Paige Kent). The series was well-received by critics, but suffered from poor ratings throughout its run. It lasted for 2 seasons and 36 episodes. Its abrupt ending reportedly left several of its subplots unresolved.
In 2004, Harris became part of the main cast on the adult animated sitcom "Father of the Pride" (2004-2005). The main characters were anthropomorphic white lions, and Harris was cast as 16-year-old lioness Sierra. Her character was depicted as a rebellious teenager, who was frustrated by her inept parents. A subplot involving Sierra was that her boyfriend Dean was an older male, who already had children from a previous relationship. The series lasted for a single season and 14 episodes. While it started with strong ratings, the series' ratings rapidly declined during its run. The series won an Annie Award for its character design, which was considered unique.
During the following few years, Harris herself considered her career to have declined as she was offered no major roles in either film or television. When she heard of an upcoming remake of the original "Halloween" film, she decided to audition for a role. Rob Zombie, the film's director, was initially not interested in casting people who had participated in any of the older films in the series. He was, however, sufficiently impressed with Harris' audition to cast her in the role of Annie Brackett. Annie was a relatively minor character in the original "Halloween" film (where she was played by Nancy Kyes), but was she was re-imagined as one of the main characters in the remake. After capturing Annie, Mike Myers decides to torture her instead of killing her. She survives the events of the film. Harris' role required her to perform her first nude scene, and she noted in an interview that she felt more vulnerable than ever before.
"Halloween" (2007) was released to great success, and earned $80.4 million at the worldwide box office. It was at that time the highest-grossing film in the entire film series. As Harris had hoped, the film helped revive her career and she started being considered a potential asset to horror films. Among her next few projects were the fantasy horror film "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" (2009), the slasher film "Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet" (2009), and the superhero comedy "Super Capers" (2009). "Blood Night" was the first time that Harris played the main villain in a film.
Also in 2009, Harris played Annie Brackett in the sequel "Halloween II". Annie was depicted as Laurie Strode's housemate, scarred due to previous torture but mentally stable in comparison to the traumatized Laurie. Michael Myers eventually kills Annie, which leads to the further deterioration of Laurie's sanity. The film earned only $39.5 million at the worldwide box office, and it was seen as far more brutal than the previous films in the series.
During the 2010s, Harris further established her reputation as a scream queen with many horror-themed roles. Among her most notable appearances was playing recurring character Marybeth Dunston in two films of the "Hatchet" film series. Harris replaced Tamara Feldman, who had originally portrayed the character. In 2013, Harris directed the horror comedy "Among Friends". This was her directorial debut.
In 2013, Harris was engaged to her boyfriend David Gross. In January 2014, the couple had a private wedding ceremony in Holualoa, Hawaii. Harris was 36-years-old at the time of her wedding, and she had no previous marriages or engagements. She had her first son in 2017, and a second son in 2018. In 2019, Harris played a member of the Manson Family in the historical film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", a film depiction of the Tate murders (1969).
Harris has had relatively few new roles in the early 2020s. She maintains a large fan following due to her previous roles. By 2022, Harris was 45-year-old. She has been an actress for most of her life, and seems to have no plans to retire yet. She has stated in interviews that despite several difficulties in her career over the years, she has managed to never quit trying. This determination has helped her endure in show business for decades.- Alexandra Paige Holden is an American actress. Her credits include films such as Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Sugar & Spice (2001) and The Hot Chick (2002), and recurring roles in the television series Friends, Ally McBeal, Friday Night Lights, Franklin & Bash, and Rizzoli & Isles. She is also known for her roles in the horror films Wishcraft (2002) and Dead End (2003).
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Heather McComb was born in Barnegat, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for American Gigolo (2022), Ray Donovan (2013) and The Event (2010). She was previously married to James Van Der Beek.- Actress
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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 (1998), she co-starred in the Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows (2003), 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 (2004) 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 (2004), 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 (2005), the thriller Red Eye (2005), and the holiday drama The Family Stone (2005).
McAdams then explored the independent film world with Married Life (2007), 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 (2008), the newspaper thriller State of Play (2009), and the romance The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) followed before she starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie's international blockbuster Sherlock Holmes (2009). McAdams played the plucky producer of a failing morning TV show in Morning Glory (2010), the materialistic fiancée of Owen Wilson in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011), and returned to romantic drama territory with the hit film The Vow (2012) opposite Channing Tatum. The actress also stars with Ben Affleck in Terrence Malick's To the Wonder (2012) and alongside Noomi Rapace in Brian De Palma's thriller Passion (2012).
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 (2011) co-star Michael Sheen.- Actress
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Zoe Saldana was born on June 19, 1978 in Passaic, New Jersey, to Asalia Nazario and Aridio Saldaña. Her father was Dominican and her mother is Puerto Rican. She was raised in Queens, New York. When she was 10 years old, she and her family moved to the Dominican Republic, where they would live for the next seven years. While living there, Zoe discovered a keen interest in performance dance and began her training at the prestigious ECOS Espacio de Danza Dance Academy where she learned ballet as well as other dance forms. Not only did her training provide an excellent outlet for the enthusiastic and energetic youngster, it would also prove to be a fortunate precursor for the start of her professional acting career. At age 17, Zoe and her family moved back to the United States where her love for dance followed and an interest in theater performance became stronger.
She began performing with the Faces theater troupe which put on plays geared to provide positive messages for teens with themes dealing with issues such as substance abuse and sex. These performances not only gave her valuable experience but also a source of great pride knowing that she was making a difference in the lives of young people like herself. While performing with the Faces troupe and also the New York Youth Theater, Zoe was recruited for a talent agency and her dance training years before coupled with her acting experience greatly helped her land her first big screen role as Eva Rodriguez, the talented and headstrong ballet dancer in the film Center Stage (2000). Since her professional career began several years ago, Zoe's talent and determination have allowed her to be involved in blockbuster films and act with major actors, actresses and industry insiders at a pace that very few young professionals have experienced.
Zoe has not only held her own in major motion picture productions but gained the respect and praise from industry insiders such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Steven Spielberg and actors/actresses such as Tom Hanks, Bernie Mac, Keira Knightley, Ashton Kutcher, Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom. According to many of her co-stars, producers and directors, the sky is no limit for this young star who has incredible range, intense concentration, and a steely determination to be involved with projects that challenge her professionally with wide-ranging subject matters and characters. Just to ask practically anyone who she has worked for or with about her, glowing comments abound and earned friendships and respect are readily revealed. A star has been born, and growing every day.- Actress
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Stana Katic recently starred in the TV series, Absentia, streaming on Amazon. It's a thriller-drama produced by Sony Pictures Television. Upon debut it was one of Amazon's top-ten most popular programs.
Stana's feature film work includes, CBGB, Big Sur, The Spirit, Feast of Love, The Double and Bond franchise installment Quantum of Solace.
For 8 seasons, Stana starred as Kate Beckett on Castle. The ABC hit series brought in over 10 million viewers weekly and is in the top five syndicated series in Spain, France, the UK, Italy, and Germany.
Stana has ten award nominations and seven wins - including three People's Choice Awards, a PRISM Award, and three TV Guide Awards
Stana is also dedicated to philanthropic projects with a focus on the Environment and on Children's Education and Healthcare. This work has kept her involved with organizations from around the globe.
Stana currently resides in Los Angeles.- Actress
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Shiri jumped in front of the lens as a youngster appearing in Norman Lear Sunday Dinner and Lawrence Kasden's I Love You To Death. At 19 she had her breakout performance on the series Roswell, playing the leading role of Liz Parker. She went on to appear in ER, Six Degrees, as well as Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War, HBO's GIRLS, CW's Life Unexpected, before starring in Lifetime's critically acclaimed dramady UnReal, playing Rachel Goldberg, a producer working behind the scenes of a dating competition show, which received the Peabody Award. In 2016, Shiri was nominated for a Critics Choice Award for Best Actress for her work on the show. Shiri directed four episodes of UnReal before focusing most of her attention on directing. Shiri has directed shows such as Minx, UnPrisoned, Blackish, New Amsterdam, Young Sheldon, and many others, across all platforms.- Actress
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Minneapolis native Rachael Leigh Cook began her career as a model at the tender age of 10, gracing Milk-Bone boxes and Target ads nationwide in the USA. She also appeared in a now-famous (in the USA) anti-drug TV spot in which, armed with a frying pan, she bashed her way through a kitchen to show the disastrous effects of heroin. At 14, her modeling agency sent her to read for a short film (26 Summer Street (1996)) and changed the course of her young life--from that moment on, Cook was hooked on acting. When she reached L.A. later that year, Cook bypassed the wannabe stage and nailed her first audition (for the part of a budding entrepreneur in The Baby-Sitters Club (1995)). She returned to theaters three months later in the Jonathan Taylor Thomas vehicle Tom and Huck (1995), then filled her calendar with appearances in independent and made-for-TV movies. She divided her time between Minneapolis and Tinseltown, shuttling from school events to movie shoots with her mother in tow. Cook's starlet status crystallized in 1999, when she starred opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. in the Pygmalion retelling She's All That (1999). Her on-screen transformation from ugly duckling to ravishing beauty scored several teen-oriented awards and made Cook a hot commodity in Hollywood. She signed for a handful of plum follow-up roles, including a troubled adolescent in Sylvester Stallone's Get Carter (2000), a frontier gal in Texas Rangers (2001), and the caterwauling lead in the live-action version of Josie and the Pussycats (2001). Cook now lives primarily in Los Angeles, but she returns home frequently to visit with friends and family. Her father, Tom (a former stand-up comic), is a social worker in the public school system, and her younger brother, Ben, is an aspiring filmmaker.- Music Artist
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Norah Jones first emerged on the world stage with the 2002 release of Come Away With Me, her self-described "moody little record" that introduced a singular new voice and grew into a global phenomenon, sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Since then, Jones has become a nine-time GRAMMY-winner, sold more than 52 million albums, and her songs have been streamed ten billion times worldwide. She has released a series of critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo albums-Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), The Fall (2009), Little Broken Hearts (2012), Day Breaks (2016), Pick Me Up Off The Floor (2020), the live album 'Til We Meet Again (2021), her holiday album I Dream Of Christmas (2021), and Visions (2024)-as well as albums with her collective bands The Little Willies, El Madmo, and Puss N Boots featuring Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper. The 2010 compilation ...Featuring Norah Jones showcased her incredible versatility by collecting her collaborations with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Foo Fighters, Outkast, and Herbie Hancock. In 2022, Jones launched her podcast Norah Jones Is Playing Along which features candid conversations and impromptu musical collaborations with some of her favorite musicians.- Actress
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Kristen Anne Bell (born 1980) is an American actress and singer. She was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and is the daughter of Lorelei (Frygier), a nurse, and Tom Bell, a television news director. Her ancestry is Polish (mother) and German, English, Irish, and Scottish (father). Kristen found her talent in entertainment at an early age. In 1992, she went to her first audition and won a role in Raggedy Ann and Andy. Bell's mother established her with an agent before she was 13, and she was cast in newspaper advertisements and television commercials. At this time, she also began private acting lessons. Bell had an uncredited role in the film Polish Wedding (1998) in 1998.
Bell attended Shrine Catholic High School, where she took part in drama and music club. She won the starring role of Dorothy in her high school's production of The Wizard of Oz. After graduation Bell moved to New York City to attend prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied musical theater. In 2001, Bell left university to play the role of Becky in Tom Sawyer. That same year, she made her first credited debut in Pootie Tang (2001), but her scene was cut and her appearance exists only in the credit sequence. In 2002, Bell appeared in the Broadway revival of The Crucible with Liam Neeson and Angela Bettis. She then moved to Los Angeles, California, and appeared in a handful television shows as a special guest, finding trouble gaining a recurring role in a television series.
In 2004, Bell appeared in the Lifetime's television film, Gracie's Choice, which received high ratings. At the age 24, Bell won the title role in Veronica Mars (2004), which started broadcasting in the fall of 2004, created by Rob Thomas. Bell starred as a seventeen-year-old detective, which put her alongside actors Enrico Colantoni who played her father, Percy Daggs III, Jason Dohring and Ryan Hansen. This series received very positive reviews, and Bell received much attention for her performance. Bell and the cast of Veronica Mars were nominated for two Teen Choice Awards.
In 2005, Bell starred in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005) in the role of Mary Lane. Reefer Madness debuted on the Showtime network on April 16, 2005. The following year, Bell won the Saturn Award for 'Best Actress on Television' for her performance in Veronica Mars.
In 2013, Bell voiced the main character, Princess Anna of Arendelle, in the Walt Disney Pictures animated movie, Frozen (2013), which received the 'best animated feature' award at the 86th Academy Awards. She performed the songs: 'For the First Time in Forever', 'Love is an Open Door', 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman', and 'For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)'. Frozen (2013), which was released on November 22, 2013, was hugely successful worldwide.
On March 13, 2013, it was confirmed that a Veronica Mars (2014) movie would finally be coming to fruition. Bell and creator, Rob Thomas, launched a fund raising campaign to produce the film through Kickstarter and attained the $2 million goal in few hours. The movie was released on March 14, 2014.
Bell married Dax Shepard in October, 2013.- Actress
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Sarah Shahi was born Aahoo Jahansouzshahi in Euless, Texas, to an Iranian father and Spanish-Iranian mother. She is a former NFL cheerleader and a descendant of a 19th-century Persian Shah. She attended Trinity High School and Southern Methodist University, studied opera and majored in English. As a teenager, she won several beauty contests and took first place in the Miss Fort Worth USA pageant in 1997. She joined the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and was part of the 1999-2000 squad. She also appeared on the cover of their 2000 calendar.
While working as an extra on the set of Dr. T & the Women (2000), she met director Robert Altman, who encouraged her to move to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actress. Shahi was the first ghost in Supernatural (2005), the CW paranormal drama series. She had recurring roles in several TV series, such as Alias (2001), in which she played "Jenny"; and Dawson's Creek (1998), where she was "Sadia Shaw". She became a fan favorite in her role as the Mexican-American DJ "Carmen de la Pica Morales" in the Showtime series, The L Word (2004), which she joined in its second season. Sarah did not renew her contract with the show for a fourth season and, consequently, her character was written out.
However, she is best-known for her main role as "Sameen Shaw" on the CBS show Person of Interest (2011) playing a CIA agent turned-vigilante with a heart of gold.
She also appeared on HBO's The Sopranos (1999), in the episode Kennedy and Heidi (2007) as "Sonya Aragon", a stripper and a college student who spends a weekend with Tony after a death in his family. Although uncredited by most sources, Sarah also appeared in the Jackie Chan film, Rush Hour 3 (2007), as one of the girls being handcuffed along with Mia Tyler for a traffic offense by Chris Tucker early in the film. She also starred with Damian Lewis in the NBC show, Life (2007).
Sarah speaks English, Farsi, and some Spanish, and has a brown belt in karate.- Actress
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Zooey Deschanel's quirky charm, striking blue eyes, and distinctively offbeat humor have made her one of the most beloved indie darlings of recent decades. Hailing from a renowned entertainment family, she began her career in the late 1990s. Deschanel's talent shines through her diverse roles, encompassing both comedic and dramatic territory, as well as her musical abilities.
After a brief guest appearance on the sitcom 'Veronica's Closet,' Deschanel made her feature film debut in Lawrence Kasdan's 'Mumford' (1999). Her breakout role came courtesy of Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical 'Almost Famous' (2000), where she portrayed the enigmatic Anita Miller, the older sister of the film's protagonist. Deschanel effortlessly embodies the rebellious and free-spirited youth of the 1970s rock scene. Her nuanced performance in 'Almost Famous' solidified her status as a rising star.
Deschanel's reputation is built on her ability to portray endearingly awkward and unconventional female characters. Her portrayal of the heartbroken yet resilient Summer Finn in '(500) Days of Summer' (2009) became an iconic portrayal of unconventional romance in the 21st-century. Her deadpan delivery and self-aware humor found perfect expression in her most well-known role, Jessica Day, in the hit sitcom 'New Girl' (2011 - 2018). As the bubbly and optimistic school teacher who moves in with three male roommates, she quickly became a beloved television icon, earning numerous award nominations for her performance.
While widely recognized for her comedic roles, Deschanel has also proven her dramatic chops in independent films such as 'All the Real Girls' (2003). This critically-acclaimed film earned her recognition for authentically portraying a young woman navigating a complex relationship. She further demonstrated her versatility with the role of Trillian in the science-fiction comedy 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'(2005), demonstrating her ability to adapt to fantastical and quirky settings.
Deschanel's off-screen talents extend to her musical abilities. She often showcases her singing in films and television, notably in 'Elf' (2003) where her rendition of 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' with Will Ferrell is a holiday classic. She also starred in the television adaptation of 'Once Upon a Mattress' (2005). Deschanel formed the musical duo 'She & Him' in 2006 with singer-songwriter M. Zooey Claire Deschanel, is an American actress and musician.
Ward, where her retro-inspired vocals and songwriting talents have produced multiple successful albums.
Beyond acting and music, Deschanel has become a multi-faceted figure in popular culture. Her co-founding of the women-focused digital media company HelloGiggles in 2011 demonstrated her entrepreneurial spirit and desire to empower women. Her carefully curated personal style, often featuring vintage-inspired pieces, has also earned her recognition as a fashion icon.
Deschanel's career has continued to thrive in recent years. She lent her voice to the animated film 'Trolls' (2016) and its sequel 'Trolls World Tour' (2020), playing the cheerful and optimistic Princess Bridget. She also took on supporting roles in films like 'Rock the Kasbah' (2015) and 'The Driftless Area' (2015). Alongside her continued musical endeavors, Deschanel remains an active figure on television, hosting 'The Celebrity Dating Game' (2021).
Looking ahead, Deschanel has several projects in development. She's attached to star in 'Dreamin' Wild', a biopic where she will portray legendary singer-songwriter Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas. Deschanel is also slated to make a return to dramatic territory with the film 'Harold and the Purple Crayon,' a live-action adaptation of the beloved children's book. Her continued willingness to experiment across genres solidifies her place as a dynamic and enduring talent in the entertainment world.
With her endearing personality, comedic timing, and the ability to imbue both quirky and serious characters with depth and heart, Zooey Deschanel has built a captivating and enduring career. Her contributions to film, television, and music have earned her a devoted following and a position as a beloved figure in popular culture. As she ventures into new projects, Deschanel continues to captivate audiences with her unique blend of charm, talent, and undeniable individuality.I liked her before it was cool! And I continue liking her after it's not really cool anymore!- Actress
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Kathryn Ann "Katee" Sackhoff (born April 8, 1980) is an American actress known for playing Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009). She was nominated for four Saturn Awards for her work on Battlestar Galactica and won the award for Best Supporting Actress on Television in 2005.
Sackhoff has also starred in the short-lived TV series The Fearing Mind (2000-2001) and The Education of Max Bickford (2001-2002); had recurring roles in the TV series Bionic Woman (2007), Nip/Tuck (2009), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2010-2011), and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2012-2013); and had a lead role in the eighth season of 24 as Dana Walsh (2010). She voices several characters including Bitch Pudding on Adult Swim's stop motion animated series Robot Chicken. Between 2012 and 2017, she starred in the A&E and Netflix series Longmire as Deputy Sheriff Victoria "Vic" Moretti before recurring on The Flash as Amunet.
She had lead roles in the films Halloween: Resurrection (2002); White Noise: The Light (2007); Batman: Year One (2011); The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, Sexy Evil Genius, Riddick, Oculus (2013) and Don't Knock Twice (2016).
Sackhoff was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in St. Helens, Oregon. Her mother, Mary, worked as an English-as-second-language (ESL) program coordinator, and her father, Dennis, is a land developer. Her brother, Erick, is co-owner of a vehicle modification shop near Portland. She graduated from Sunset High School in Beaverton in 1998. She began swimming at an early age and by high school, was planning to pursue a career in the sport until her right knee was injured. This led her to begin practicing yoga-which she continues today-and to pursue an interest in acting.
Her first acting role was in the Lifetime movie Fifteen and Pregnant in which she played a teenager with a baby. The movie starred Kirsten Dunst and motivated her to move to Hollywood and pursue a career in acting after graduating high school. Sackhoff's first recurring role was Annie in MTV's Undressed, next gaining a supporting role as Nell Bickford in The Education of Max Bickford. Sackhoff made her motion picture debut in My First Mister, and next appeared in film as Jenna "Jen" Danzig in Halloween: Resurrection.
In August 2012, Sackhoff became the co-host of the Schmoes Know Movies podcast on the Toad Hop Network. One of her first shows was with guest Sean Astin.
Sackhoff announced in April 2015 a new TV-series project, Rain, which she wrote and is executive-producing through her Fly Free Productions. She also had a role in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops III, performing voice over and motion capture as Sarah Hall. She portrayed Pink Ranger Kimberly in Power/Rangers, a short depicting a dystopian future in the Power Rangers universe.
In 2017, Sackhoff joined The CW series The Flash in the recurring role of villainess Amunet (Blacksmith), for which she is billed as a special guest star.- Kandyse McClure is a Canadian actress born on March 22, 1980 in Durban in South Africa. She graduated from West Vancouver Secondary School in 1998. She is an actress, known for main roles in TV series Battlestar Galactica (2004), Hemlock Grove (2013), and from the movies Carrie (2002) and Seventh Son (2014).Best looking woman on Battlestar Galactica. Her eyes - I could stare into them eternally.
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Samaire Rhys Armstrong is an American actress and fashion designer. She is known for her roles in Stay Alive, The O.C., It's a Boy Girl Thing, and as Juliet Darling in the ABC television series, Dirty Sexy Money. She has appeared on television as Elaine Richards in the ABC fantasy-drama Resurrection. She has also appeared in music videos for "Penny & Me" by Hanson and "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter.- Actress
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Kristen Nora Connolly is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Dana in the 2011 film The Cabin in the Woods, Christina Gallagher on the Netflix series House of Cards and Jamie Campbell on the CBS series Zoo. Connolly began her career with recurring roles on several CollegeHumor digital shorts. She appeared as an extra on the films Mona Lisa Smile, Meet Dave, and The Happening. She has also appeared on two CBS daytime soap operas with recurring roles on Guiding Light and As the World Turns.
She first gained mainstream recognition in 2012, after starring as the main protagonist Dana in the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard film The Cabin in the Woods. She also starred in the horror film The Bay. In 2013, she had a starring role as Christina Gallagher on the Netflix series House of Cards alongside Kevin Spacey. On September 1, 2014 the A&E Houdini miniseries premiered with 3.7 million viewers, Connolly plays Bess Houdini with Academy Award-winning Adrien Brody playing Harry Houdini. Connolly also portrayed Jamie, a passionate journalist in the CBS drama-thriller series Zoo and co-starred as Lena in the drama series The Whispers. In 2014 she portrayed Petra Anderson in the drama thriller film A Good Marriage, based on Stephen King's short story of the same name.- Actress
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Dominique Swain was raised in Malibu, California, USA. The second of three daughters of mother Cindy and father David an electrical engineer, her sisters makeup artist Alexis and actress Chelse. She debuted her film career in the controversial remake of Vladimir Nabokov's novel and Stanley Kubrick's film Lolita by director Adrian Lyne. It was a powerful first performance by the young actress, Lyne had seen her performance on a videotape audition she put together with a friend while she was between agents, selecting her from a pool of more than 2500 actresses vying for the role. Lyne was charmed by her and her reading directly from the novel as opposed to the script. . Despite a phenomenal performance opposite Jeremy Irons as Humbert and Melanie Griffith as Lolita's mother, the film faced a great deal of controversy due to its subject matter as networks pulled away from backing wide theatrical release. After some delays, it was eventually premiered to US audiences on the Showtime network followed by a limited theatrical release.
Since then she has gone on to act and star in close to 100 other films, including Face/Off, Girl and Alpha Dog. Recently she has joined Cameo where her fans can directly reach out to her for personal videos or direct message chats.- Actress
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Larisa Oleynik was born in Santa Clara County, California, to Lorraine (Allen), a nurse, and Roman Oleynik, an anesthesiologist. Her father is of Ukrainian and Rusyn descent.
Larisa's big break came when she was eight. She had gotten the part of young Cosette in a production of "Les Misérables". Her costar was Rider Strong, playing Gavroche. The two would be reunited when Larisa guested on Rider's sitcom, Boy Meets World (1993). Larisa's most well known roles are Bianca in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), and Alex in The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994).- Actress
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Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an American-born artist (from Cincinnati, Ohio), who also acts as Natalie's agent. Her parents are both of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Natalie's family left Israel for Washington, D.C., when she was still very young. After a few more moves, her family finally settled in New York, where she still lives to this day. She graduated with honors, and her academic achievements allowed her to attend Harvard University. She was discovered by an agent in a pizza parlor at the age of 11. She was pushed towards a career in modeling but she decided that she would rather pursue a career in acting. She was featured in many live performances, but she made her powerful film debut in the movie Léon: The Professional (1994) (aka "Léon"). Following this role Natalie won roles in such films as Heat (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996), and Mars Attacks! (1996).
It was not until 1999 that Natalie received worldwide fame as Queen Amidala in the highly anticipated US$431 million-grossing prequel Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). She then she starred in two critically acclaimed comedy dramas, Anywhere But Here (1999) and Where the Heart Is (2000), followed by Closer (2004), for which she received an Oscar nomination. She reprised her role as Padme Amidala in the last two episodes of the Star Wars prequel trilogy: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). She received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Black Swan (2010).
She received a second nomination for Best Actress, for playing Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie (2016).- Actress
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Jessica Marie Alba was born on April 28, 1981, in Pomona, CA, to Catherine (Jensen) and Mark David Alba, who served in the US Air Force. Her father is of Mexican descent (including Spanish and Indigenous Mexican roots), and her mother has Danish, Welsh, English, and French ancestry. Her family moved to Biloxi, MS, when she was an infant. Three years later her father's career brought the family back to California, then to Del Rio, TX, before finally settling in Southern California when Jessica was nine. In love with the idea of becoming an actress from the age of five, she was 12 before she took her first acting class. Nine months later she was signed by an agent. She studied at the Atlantic Theatre Company with founders William H. Macy and David Mamet.
A gifted young actress, Jessica has played a variety of roles ranging from light comedy to gritty drama since beginning her career. She made her feature film debut in 1993 in Hollywood Pictures' comedy Camp Nowhere (1994). Originally hired for two weeks, she got her break when an actress in a principal role suddenly dropped out. Jessica cheerfully admits it wasn't her prodigious talent or charm that inspired the director to tap her to take over the part--it was her hair, which matched the original performer's. The two-week job stretched to two months, and Jessica ended the film with an impressive first credit. Two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney quickly followed before Jessica was featured in several independent films. She branched out into TV in 1994 with a recurring role in Nickelodeon's popular comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). She played an insufferable young snob, devoted to making life miserable for the the title character, played by Larisa Oleynik. That same year, she won the role of "Maya" in Flipper (1995) and filmed the pilot for the series. She spent 1995 shooting the first season's episodes in Australia. An avid swimmer and PADI-certified SCUBA diver, Jessica was delighted to be doing a show that allowed her to play with dolphins. The show's success guaranteed it a second season, which she also starred in. Her involvement in the show lasted from 1995 to 1997.
In 1996 she appeared in Venus Rising (1995) as "Young Eve." The next year she appeared on The Dini Petty Show (1989), a Canadian talk show, and spoke about her role in "Flipper" and her general acting career. She began working on P.U.N.K.S. (1999), featuring Randy Quaid, in 1998. In early 1998 she appeared in Brooklyn South (1997) as "Melissa." That same year she was in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) as "Leanne" and in two episodes of Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998).
She appeared in "Teen Magazine" in 1995 and various European magazines over the following years. More importantly, she was featured in the February 1999 issue of "Vanity Fair" magazine. She also had major roles in two movies that year: Never Been Kissed (1999) and Idle Hands (1999). In 2000 she had roles in Paranoid (2000) and starred in the sci-fi TV series Dark Angel (2000), gaining worldwide recognition.
Her first starring role in a major studio film was the Honey (2003), Universal Pictures' contemporary urban drama that grossed over $60 million worldwide. She has since made over 25 feature films that have earned a combined box-office total of over $800 million, including comedies and dramas, from gritty independents to major studio blockbusters. In 2005 she starred opposite Bruce Willis and an all-star cast in the provocative and critically acclaimed Sin City (2005), directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. She next starred as Sue Storm--"The Invisible Girl"--in Marvel's action-franchise blockbuster Fantastic Four (2005), which was released by 20th Century-Fox in July 2005 and became a worldwide box-office success with over $300 million in revenue.
Jessica was part of Garry Marshall's all-star ensemble romantic comedy, Valentine's Day (2010), which broke box-office records with the largest opening on a four-day President's Day weekend in history. She starred opposite Casey Affleck and Kate Hudson in director Michael Winterbottom's controversial screen adaptation of The Killer Inside Me (2010), based on Jim Thompson's novel, as well as Robert Rodriquez's Machete (2010). She co-starred in the third installment of the hit "Meet the Parents" franchise Little Fockers (2010), as well as the 4D family adventure Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), marking her third of five collaborations with Robert Rodriguez. Jessica was part of an all-star voice cast for The Weinstein Company's animated adventure, Escape from Planet Earth (2012), also featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, Brendan Fraser and James Gandolfini.
She appeared in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and starred Adam Scott, Jane Lynch and Amy Poehler. She made a cameo appearance in Machete Kills (2013) and co-starred in Robert Rodriquez's highly-anticipated, star-studded sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). That year she had a full slate of acting projects, including the period drama Dear Eleanor (2016), The Englishman opposite Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek; the IFC parody mini-series The Spoils of Babylon (2014), produced by Funny or Die, with a stellar cast including Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Tobey Maguire, Michael Sheen and Tim Robbins; and Stretch (2014), co-starring Patrick Wilson, Chris Pine, Ray Liotta, Ed Helms and Brooklyn Decker.
Jessica has received Golden Globe and People's Choice Award nominations, was voted TV Guide readers' Breakout Star of the Year, and won Favorite TV Actress at the 2001 Teen Choice Awards for "Dark Angel." She won the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Female Actress for her performance in "Fantastic Four" and an MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance in "Sin City." She received another Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress in a Horror/Thriller for The Eye (2008) and was honored by the Young Hollywood Awards as Superstar of Tomorrow in 2005. She has received ALMA Awards for her performances in "Dark Angel" and "Machete," as well as a Fashion Icon in 2009.- Actress
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Emilie was born on December 27 and grew up in Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia. When she was 15, she was accepted at the highly selective Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. However, after only a year, she dropped out and undertook acting courses.
Her first starring role was on the fantasy drama BeastMaster (1999). When her agent told her of a role in the US as newcomer Tess in the hit series Roswell (1999), she flew out and auditioned. After landing the role, she was written out of BeastMaster and started work as "Tess", an alien. She relocated to California and was on Roswell before she even owned an apartment.
After 2 years on the show, she then made notable guest appearances in CSI: Miami (2002) and The Handler (2003).
She stayed in TV, playing the bad girl Chris in Carrie (2002), a movie made for TV. She also changed genres, starring in Santa's Slay (2005), a black comedy.
Emilie has shown her versatility by branching out into film, making her debut at Sundance 2005 with the the award-winning indie film Brick (2005). She starred in the remake The Hills Have Eyes (2006) in 2006, which debuted at No.1 in the UK box office.
She was on the Emmy award-winning ABC series Lost (2004), playing "Claire", a young Australian who gave birth on the mysterious island and has a close relationship with "Charlie", played by Dominic Monaghan.
Emilie wrapped as a series regular on ABC's hit series Once Upon a Time (2011), putting a new twist on classic fairy-tales. She starred as the warm and loving "Belle," with Robert Carlyle as her beast, "Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin."
Emilie lives in California with her dogs Louise and her cat Stanley. Emilie is engaged to Eric Bilitch as of August 30, 2021 and they have a daughter Vera and son Theodore.- Actress
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Kimberly Alexis Bledel was born in Houston, Texas, to Nanette (Dozier) and Martin Bledel. Her parents are both Spanish-speakers (her mother was born in Arizona and raised in Mexico, and her father was born in Argentina), and Alexis's ancestry includes Danish, Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish, and French.
Alexis made her television debut in Gilmore Girls (2000), after spending years in front of the camera as a model. Bledel's parents encouraged her to try community theater in Houston when she was 8 years old, hoping it would help their daughter overcome her shyness. She went on to perform in productions of Our Town, The Wizard of Oz and Aladdin, and later was scouted in a local mall to model. She began her modeling career while still in high school, traveling all over to locations like Tokyo, Milan, New York and Los Angeles. After graduating, she enrolled at NYU as a film major. In the Spring of 2000, Bledel landed a manager through her modeling agency and headed to Los Angeles for her first pilot season, where she quickly landed the coveted role of Rory on Gilmore Girls (2000).
When she's not working, Bledel enjoys writing, reading, shooting photography, going to the movies and spending time with her family. She was married to actor Vincent Kartheiser, with whom she has a son.- Actress
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Rachel Bilson was born in Los Angeles, to Janice (Stango), a sex therapist, and Danny Bilson. Her father is Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother is of Italian descent. She began acting while still at Notre Dame High School. She graduated high school in 1999 and went to Grossmont College but dropped out after a year and was encouraged to pursue a career in acting by her father, himself a writer, director and producer.
She worked in commercials and landed a few one-off roles in high profile TV shows before landing the part of Summer Roberts in the hit TV series The O.C. (2003), establishing herself as a household name.- Producer
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Adriana Lima is a Brazilian supermodel, actress and businesswoman. From the young age of fifteen, Adriana's portfolio quickly skyrocketed making her one of the most successful models of all time. A global fashion icon, best known as a Victoria's Secret from 1999 to 2018, the longest-running model and named "the most valuable Victoria's Secret Angel" in 2017, Adriana has also branched into film and television acting. Adriana's 2009 Victoria's Secret Super Bowl commercial reached 103.7 million viewers! It was declared "The Most Watched Commercial in the History of Television" by Nielsen. Her modeling career started after winning Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" competition and finishing at the second place in the "Supermodel of The world." Thereafter, Elite Model Management signed Adriana Lima as a model. During her time at Victoria's Secret, Adriana opened the show on 5 distinct occasions in 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. Adriana is one of only 2 angels to have worn the Fantasy bra 3 times. She also participated to the "Angels Across America" tour, a nationwide promotion campaign for Victoria's Secret with 4 other Angels in 2004. Her last show was in 2018 after participating in 18 catwalks for Victoria's Secret. She also walked well-known designers runway shows like Versace, Jason Wu, Giorgio Armani, Vera Wang, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Christian Dior, Alexandre Herchcovitch, and Anna Sui. Her status ensured her a spot on the cover some of the most notable international magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Grazia, GQ, Numero, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Esquire across many countries including the USA, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Sweden, Czech Republic... Ethnically, Adriana is Afro-Brazilian of Portuguese, Swiss, Native Brazilian, Japanese, and West Indian ancestry.- Actress
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Lauren Cohan is a British-American actress and model, best known for her role as Maggie Greene on The Walking Dead (2010) and recurring roles on The Vampire Diaries (2009), Supernatural (2005), and Chuck (2007). After her film debut on Casanova (2005) as Sister Beatrice, she starred in the sequel to National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006), as Charlotte Higginson. Her next role was in the 2007 film, Float (2008). In February 2010, she was cast in Death Race 2 (2010), with Sean Bean and Danny Trejo, and also the supernatural-horror film The Boy (2016), where Lauren played the main character, Greta Evans. In 2016, Cohan also appeared as Martha Wayne in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
She was born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and moved to the United Kingdom as a teen. She graduated from the University of Winchester / King Alfred's College where she studied Drama and English Literature, before touring with a theatre company she co-founded at the University. Lauren then split her time and work between London and Los Angeles, working on several films as well as some non-commercial projects.- Actress
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Yvonne Jaqueline Strzechowski was born and raised in Australia. Her parents were Polish immigrants. She attended the Santa Sabina College for her high school education. She then went on to study Performance at the University of Western Sydney's School of Contemporary Arts, graduating in 2003. Shortly afterwards, she landed her first role on television in an episode of Fear Factory (2004). Her next role was also on Australian television, appearing in several episodes of Headland (2005). In 2007, she made her big screen debut in Gone (2006). This performance caught the attention of casting directors in Hollywood. She decided to move from Australia to Los Angeles and, on her third day of arrival, she landed her breakthrough role as "Sarah Walker" in Chuck (2007).- Actress
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Jessica Biel, 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, Biel 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." Biel soon turned to modeling and commercial work by competing in The International Modeling and Talent Association's Annual Conference in 1994.
Her Film debut was in the Kid's Rock Opera It's a Digital World (1994) where she demonstrated her acting and singing abilities. Her television series acting debut, playing Mary Camden on the WB's #1-rated show, 7th Heaven (1996), helped her emerge as a breakout star. She terrified moviegoers with her portrayal of Erin, "Leatherface's" greatest nemesis to date, in New Line Cinema's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), a remake of the original. Having finished filming, Blade: Trinity (2004) in Vancouver with Wesley Snipes, Ryan Reynolds, and Kris Kristofferson, she the portrayed a jet-fighter pilot in Stealth (2005), starring Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx, and Sam Shepherd, for director Rob Cohen. Biel's film career began at age 14 when she played alongside Peter Fonda in his Golden Globe-winning performance in Ulee's Gold (1997). Her other film credits include I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998), Summer Catch (2001), Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction (2002), and Cellular (2004), 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, she married actor and singer Justin Timberlake. The two have a son.- Actress
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From Monkey Trouble (1994) to American Beauty (1999)-- that's Hollywood "Hocus Pocus"!
Thora Birch was born on Thursday (as in Thor's Day) March 11, 1982 in Los Angeles. Her father, Jack Birch, and mom, Carol Connors, named her after the Norse God Thor ("Thora" being the feminine), the God of Thunder; she has a younger brother named Bolt Birch. Thora appeared in one of the "classic" California raisin commercials in 1986 (at age 4), and later did other commercials. At age 6, Thora appeared in Purple People Eater (1988) and won a Youth in Film Award for her performance. Then, she appeared in the television series Parenthood (1990), which co-starred a not-yet-discovered Leonardo DiCaprio. Thora's breakout movie was Paradise (1991) with Elijah Wood and Melanie Griffith; Thora bested 4,000 young hopefuls to land the role and she, again, got great reviews. Thora appeared in Hocus Pocus (1993) with major stars; however, she got real recognition by having a starring role in Monkey Trouble (1994), in which her affection for her pet (and sometimes scene-stealing) monkey basically carried the entire movie (she and the monkey did their own stunts). All grown up, this petite beauty (5' 4") with green eyes had a major role in American Beauty (1999) which won 5 Oscar awards. Thora delivered a strong, effective performance as the alienated daughter of parents whose mid-life crises drive them to affairs and destruction; her acting was convincing and inspired and, once again, received good reviews. A down-to-earth young woman in real life, she loves Italian food and diet root beer.- Actress
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Chyler is an actress and singer who currently stars opposite Andie MacDowell in THE WAY HOME for Hallmark. She is well-known for playing "Alex Danvers" in SUPERGIRL for six seasons and "Lexie Grey" in GREY'S ANATOMY. Chyler also reprised her role of "Alex Danvers" in THE FLASH and has been featured in ARROW, DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, and PRIVATE PRACTICE. Her initial breakout role was playing "Janey Briggs" in NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE, and she has held significant roles in other films such as BRAKE. Chyler also tours with the band EAST OF ELI, where she is featured on their songs. Chyler recently finished a long and successful run as the spokesperson for the BE VOCAL CAMPAIGN, a movement that highlights the importance of advocating for mental health.- Actress
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Mack was born in Germany but moved with her family to Long Beach, California, when she was 2. She began acting at 4 with print work and commercials, and began studying at The Young Actors Space in Los Angeles when she was 7. Before joining the cast of Smallville (2001), Allison starred in the short-lived and sorely under-rated Fox television comedy Opposite Sex (2000). Prior to that, she was a regular on Hiller and Diller (1997), working alongside great talents such as Richard Lewis, Kevin Nealon, and Eugene Levy. Allison has also guest-starred in the WB family drama 7th Heaven (1996) as a teenager caught up in the "cutting" trend.
Mack has starred in many movies for television, including the cable film My Horrible Year! (2001), which was directed by Eric Stoltz and starring Karen Allen, Mimi Rogers, and Stoltz himself. She was also in A Private Matter (1992) with Sissy Spacek and Aidan Quinn, Living a Lie (1991) with Peter Coyote and Jill Eikenberry, Unlikely Angel (1996) with Dolly Parton and Roddy McDowall, and Stolen Memories: Secrets from the Rose Garden (1996) starring Mary Tyler Moore and Linda Lavin. Allison is also an accomplished dancer and singer and she currently living in Los Angeles. She enjoys reading, going to movies and plays and spending time with her friends and family.- Actress
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Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis is a Ukrainian-American actress born to a Jewish family in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.
Her mother, Elvira, is a physics teacher, her father, Mark Kunis, is a mechanical engineer, and she has an older brother named Michael. Her family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1991. After attending one semester of college between gigs, she realized that she wanted to act for the rest of her life. She started acting when she was nine years old, when her father heard about an acting class on the radio and decided to enroll Mila in it. There, she met her future agent. Her first gig was when she played a character named Melinda in Make a Wish, Molly (1995). From there, her career skyrocketed into big-budget films.
Although she is mostly known for playing Jackie Burkhart on That '70s Show (1998), she has shown the world that she can do so much more. Since 1999, she provided the voice of self-conscious daughter Meg Griffin on the animated sitcom Family Guy (1999). Her breakthrough film was Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), in which she played a free-spirited character named Rachel Jansen. She has since starred or co-starred in the films Max Payne (2008), The Book of Eli (2010), Black Swan (2010), Friends with Benefits (2011), Ted (2012) and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).
Mila Kunis is married to actor Ashton Kutcher, with whom she has two children.- Actress
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Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is a British actress known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and The Girl on the Train (2016), among many others.
Blunt was born on February 23, 1983, in Roehampton, South West London, England, the second of four children in the family of Joanna Mackie, a former actress and teacher, and Oliver Simon Peter Blunt, a barrister. Her grandfather was Major General Peter Blunt, and her uncle is MP Crispin Blunt. Emily received a rigorous education at Ibstock Place School, a co-ed private school at Roehampton. However, young Emily Blunt had a stammer, since she was a kid of 8. Her mother took her to relaxation classes, which did not do anything. She reached a turning point at 12, when a teacher cleverly asked her to play a character with a different voice and said, "I really believe in you". Blunt ended up using a northern accent, and it did the trick, her stammer disappeared.
From 1999 - 2001, Blunt went to Hurtwood House, the top co-ed boarding school where she would excel at sport, cello and singing. She also had two years of drama studies at Hurtwood's theatre course. In August 2000, she was chosen to perform at the Edinburgh Festival. She was signed up by an agent, Kenneth Mcreddie, who led her to the West End and the BBC, scoring her roles in several period dramas on stage as well as on TV productions, such as Foyle's War (2002), Henry VIII (2003) and Empire (2005). In 2001, she appeared as "Gwen Cavendish" opposite Dame Judi Dench in Sir Peter Hall's production of "The Royal Family" at Haymarket Theatre. For that role, she won the Evening Standard Award for Best Newcomer. In 2002, she played "Juliet" in "Romeo and Juliet" at the prestigious Chichester Festival.
Blunt's career ascended to international fame after she starred as "Isolda" opposite Alex Kingston in Warrior Queen (2003). A year later, she won critical acclaim for her breakout performance as "Tamsin", a well-educated, cynical and deceptive 16-year-old beauty in My Summer of Love (2004), a story of two lonely girls from the opposite ends of the social heap. Emily Blunt and her co-star, Natalie Press, shared an Evening Standard British Film award for Most Promising Newcomer. In 2005, she spent a few months in Australia filming Irresistible (2006) with Susan Sarandon and Sam Neill. Blunt gave an impressive performance as "Mara", a cunning young destroyer who acts crazy and surreptitiously provokes paranoia in others. She also continued her work on British television, starring as "Natasha" in Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter (2005), opposite Bill Nighy, a role that won her a 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.
She continued the line of playing manipulative characters as "Emily", a caustic put-upon assistant to Meryl Streep's lead in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Blunt's performance with a neurotic twist added a dimension of sarcasm to the comedy, and gained her much attention as well as new jobs: in two dramas opposite Tom Hanks, then in the title role in the period drama, The Young Victoria (2009). Her most recent works include appearances as antiques dealer "Gwen Conliffe" in The Wolfman (2010) and as the ballerina in The Adjustment Bureau (2011).
Emily is a highly versatile actress and a multifaceted person. Her talents include singing and playing cello; she is also skilled at horseback riding.
On August 28, 2009, Blunt and Krasinski announced their engagement. The couple married on July 10, 2010, at the estate of their friend, George Clooney, on Lake Como in Italy. Blunt and Krasinski live in the Los Angeles area, California, and have two children.- Actress
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Actress and philanthropist Rooney Mara was born on April 17, 1985 in Bedford, New York. She made her screen debut in the slasher film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005), went on to have a supporting role in the independent coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009), and has since starred in the horror remake A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), the biographical drama The Social Network (2010), the thriller remake The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and the romantic drama Carol (2015).
Patricia Rooney Mara is one of four children of Kathleen McNulty (née Rooney) and NFL football team New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara. Her grandfathers were Wellington Mara, co-owner of the Giants, and Timothy Rooney, owner of Yonkers Raceway, and her grand-uncle is Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the former Ambassador to Ireland. She is the great-granddaughter of Art Rooney, the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise. Her father has Irish, German, and French-Canadian ancestry, and her mother is of Irish and Italian descent.
After graduating from Bedford's Fox Lane High School, she went to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in South America for four months as part of the Traveling School, an open learning environment. She attended George Washington University for a year and then transferred to New York University, where she studied international social policy psychology and nonprofits. She took her degree from New York University in 2010. Her studies focused on non-profit organizations, as her family has a tradition of involvement in philanthropic causes.
She had thought of acting after watching old movies and attending musical theater, but did not think of it as a serious vocation and was afraid she might fail at this. As a result of her reservations, she appeared in only one play while in high school.
She began seriously focusing on acting when she was at New York University, appearing in student films. Inspired by her older sister, actress Kate Mara, she began to pursue the craft, auditioning for acting jobs at age 19. She appeared with her sister Kate in the video horror movie Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005), billing herself as "Patricia Mara". As "Tricia Mara", she had guest roles on television and won her first lead in the movie Tanner Hall (2009), which was shot in the fall of 2007.
She originally auditioned for the supporting role of Lucasta in "Tanner Hall", a $3-million independent film, but director Tatiana von Fürstenberg was so impressed by the young actress, she had her return to audition for the lead role of Fernanda, which Mara won. Furstenberg was delighted with her nuanced performance, saying, "Still waters run deep".
Continuing to call herself Tricia Mara, this was during the making of "Tanner Hall" that she considered changing her professional name to Rooney Mara, soliciting the advice of the cast and crew. After premiering at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, her performance in "Tanner Hall" brought the rechristened Rooney Mara a "Rising Star" award at the 2009 Hamptons Film Festival and a "Stargazer Award" at the 2010 Gen Art Film Festival.
She received her first lead role in a major feature, in the $35 million remake A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The movie proved disappointing at the box office, grossing only $63 million domestically and racking up a worldwide gross of just under $116 million. However, she was noticed by critics in the small but pivotal role of the Boston University undergrad Erica Albright who dumps Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (2010). Director David Fincher subsequently cast her as the lead, Lisbeth Salander, in his thriller remake, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), based on Stieg Larsson's Millennium book series. She received critical acclaim for her performance, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama.
She starred in the thriller film Side Effects (2013), the independent drama Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013), and the acclaimed sci-fi romantic drama Her (2013). The following year, she starred in the adventure drama Trash (2014). She garnered further critical acclaim for her performance in Todd Haynes' romantic drama Carol (2015), for which she won the Best Actress Award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama and the SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In the spirit of her family's philanthropic endeavors, Rooney created Faces of Kibera, a charity that provides food, medical care and housing to orphans in Nairobi, Kenya's Kibra district, a small slum that houses a million people. There are many orphans as AIDS is rampant in the slum.- Actress
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Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. After Kings Norton Girls School, Jones attended King Edward VI Handsworth School, to complete A Levels and went on to take a gap year (during which she appeared in the BBC series Servants (2003)). She took time off from acting to attend school during her formative years, and has worked steadily since she graduated with a 2:1 from Wadham College, Oxford in 2006, where she read English. While studying English, she appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the title role, and, in 2005, Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" for the OUDS summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.
On radio, she is known for playing the long-running role of Emma Grundy in The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden. Since 2006, Jones has appeared in numerous films, including Northanger Abbey (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Chéri (2009), and The Tempest (2010). She stars in Star Wars spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) as Jyn Erso. Her performance in the 2011 film Like Crazy (2011) was met with critical acclaim garnering her numerous awards, including a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, her performance as Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014) was also met with critical acclaim, garnering her nominations for the Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 2019, Jones founded her own production company, Piecrust Productions with her brother, Alex Jones.- Actress
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Kate Bosworth was born in Los Angeles, California, to Patricia (Potter), a homemaker, and Harold Bosworth, who was an executive for Talbots. Unlike the characters Bosworth has portrayed in television and in film, which are known as "townies", Kate spent most of her childhood in different cities and states. At age 6, she and her parents moved to San Francisco, then to Connecticut at 9, and to Cohasset, Massachusetts, at 14. It was at 14 that Kate, a champion equestrian, learned of a casting call for a movie about horses.
Although Kate attended the open audition in New York for the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer (1998) simply in hopes of getting the experience of what it was like to audition for a movie role, she won the role of the female lead's best friend and the chance to work with director/star Robert Redford. Her previous acting experience had consisted of singing at county fairs in California and acting in a community theatre production of "Annie". However, since landing the movie role, Kate seemed to be in more sound stages than ranches. Fearful that an early career would rob her of her childhood, she took 18 months off to live a normal life before opting to plunge into acting again. In 2000, she landed the role of the bratty sister in the feature film The Newcomers (2000) and the part of a football co-captain's girlfriend in the Denzel Washington movie Remember the Titans (2000).
Throughout high school, Kate maintained academic excellence and was an honor roll student and a member of National Honor Society. In her spare time, she has volunteered with various non-profit organizations, including a Los Angeles program for physically challenged children who learn to ride horses with assistance.- Sarah Jones is an American actress, best known for her starring roles as NASA astronaut Tracy Stevens in the Apple TV+ original science fiction space drama series For All Mankind and as Detective Rebecca Madsen in the Fox TV drama series Alcatraz. Jones was born in Winter Springs, Florida, and graduated from Winter Springs High School in 2001. She "grew up dancing" with the expectation that it would become her career, but she turned to acting as "the next best thing" after her dancing ended because of injuries. She had gotten her first break working as a dancer for the MTV Movie Awards.
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Alice Braga Moraes born April 15, 1983 is a Brazilian actress. She has appeared in several Brazilian films, most notably as Angélica in 2002's highly acclaimed City of God and as Karina in 2005's Lower City. She came to international prominence after appearing opposite Will Smith in I Am Legend (2007) and has since become a familiar face in Hollywood, appearing in films such as Repo Men and Predators (both 2010), The Rite (2011) and Elysium (2013).- Actress
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Ebubennem Megalyn Ann Echikunwoke was born May 28, in Spokane, Washington. Her father was Nigerian and her mother is of English and Scots-Irish descent. Her last name, "Echikunwoke", means "leader of men" and Megalyn is the granddaughter of a Nigerian tribal leader of the Igbo, which technically makes her African royalty. She is known for playing "Nicole Palmer" in the first season of 24 (2001), "Angie Barnett" (Kelso's girlfriend) in the seventh season of That '70s Show (1998) and "Isabelle Tyler" in The 4400 (2004). She was raised on a Navajo Indian Reservation in Chinle, Arizona. In early 2008, she starred opposite Alessandro Nivola in an independent movie, directed by Jerry Zaks, titled Who Do You Love (2008) where she played a heroin-addicted lounge singer. She did all of her own singing in the movie.- Actress
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Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. 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 (1994). Following minor roles in Just Cause (1995), as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw's character, and If Lucy Fell (1996), she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo (1996). 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 (1997) and Home Alone 3 (1997), Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in The Horse Whisperer (1998), 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 (1999) 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 (2001), 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 (2001), opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand. She appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002) with David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer.
In 2003, she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for drama (Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)) and one for comedy (Lost in Translation (2003)), 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 (2004), as well as starring opposite John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004), which garnered her a third Golden Globe Award nomination.
She dropped out of Mission: Impossible III (2006) due to scheduling conflicts. Her next film role was in The Island (2005) alongside Ewan McGregor which earned weak reviews from U.S. critics. After this, she appeared in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) 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 (2008), the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and played Mary Boleyn opposite Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).
Since then, she has appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), the action superhero film Iron Man 2 (2010), the comedy-drama We Bought a Zoo (2011) and starred as the original scream queen, Janet Leigh, in Hitchcock (2012). She then played her character, Black Widow, in the blockbuster action films The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Black Widow (2021), and also headlined the sci-fi action thriller Lucy (2014), 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 other starring roles are in the sci-fi action thriller Ghost in the Shell (2017) and the dark comedy Rough Night (2017).
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). The couple divorced in September 2017.
She married Colin Jost in October 2020. They have one child, a son.- Jaimie Alexander was born in Greenville, South Carolina, but moved with her family to Grapevine, Texas, when she was four years old. She took theatre classes in grade school as a hobby but was kicked out in high school because she could not sing, and so she took up sports instead. At age 17 she substituted for a friend at a meeting with a scouting agency and she met her manager, Randy James, who sent her some scripts. After graduating from high school she moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue acting.
Her career was launched in 2003 when she was cast in the leading role of Hanna Thompson in the low-budget award-winning film The Other Side (2006). According to the DVD commentary, she was originally at the audition to help out by reading against the male actors, but director Gregg Bishop decided to cast her in the leading role after hearing her perform the lines. Her second role was in 2004 in Squirrel Trap (2004), in which she played the co-lead role of Sara. A year later she was cast as Jessi XX on the ABC Family series Kyle XY (2006), in which she played the role of a superhuman being created by scientists as a laboratory experiment. She was nominated for the Saturn Awards as "Best Supporting Actress on Television" for that role in 2008.
Her biggest role came in 2011, when she was cast as Lady Sif, a warrior goddess of Asgard, in the blockbuster from Marvel Comics, Thor (2011). She later reprised her role in its sequel, Thor: The Dark World (2013). - Actress
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Amanda Leigh Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on April 10, 1984, to Stacy (Friedman), a former news reporter, and Don Moore, an airline pilot. During her childhood, her family moved to Orlando, Florida, where she was raised. She has Russian Jewish (from her maternal grandfather), English, Scottish, and Irish, ancestry.
After seeing the musical "Oklahoma!", she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in singing. As a child, she performed the National Anthem at several athletic events around her hometown of Orlando, Florida, and became known as the "National Anthem girl". At the ripe age of fourteen, while she was recording in a studio in Orlando, a Fed-Ex worker who happened to be passing through heard her and was interested in her talent. He happened to know someone at Sony as well. Moore worked on cutting a demo and shortly thereafter signed a record deal with Sony 550 Music. At 15, her first record "So Real" was released. Her first tour was with the Backstreet Boys.
As her touring and recording schedule demanded more of her time, Moore withdrew from Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando and opted for a tutor/correspondence. She has stated that her education is important to her and says that the fact that she wants to go to college motivates her to continue with her schooling.
Though Moore's record sales were not up in the ranks of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, she has proved to be a formidable talent both in singing and in acting, and snagged an MTV Movie Award in June 2002 for her first feature film role in A Walk to Remember (2002). Her biggest dream, though, is to perform on Broadway someday.
Throughout the 2000s, Mandy headlined several films, ranging from the little-seen drama Try Seventeen (2002) to mid-level releases like How to Deal (2003), Chasing Liberty (2004), Racing Stripes (2005), and the more broadly comedic Because I Said So (2007) and License to Wed (2007). She also appeared in the odd-ball sci-fi film Southland Tales (2006), and voiced Rapunzel in the Disney blockbuster CGI animation Tangled (2010).
In the mid 2010s, she re-emerged as a star actress, headlining the show This Is Us (2016) and the hit thriller film 47 Meters Down (2017), with more film roles to come.- Actress
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Katharine Hope McPhee Foster is an American singer-songwriter and actress. In May 2006, she was the runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol.
Her self-titled debut album was released on RCA Records on January 30, 2007, and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 381,000 copies (as of December 2010). The album's first single, "Over It", was a Pop Top 30 hit and was certified gold in 2008. Her second album, Unbroken, was released on Verve Forecast Records on January 5, 2010, and debuted at No. 27 on the "Billboard 200". The album featured the single "Had It All", which peaked at number 22 on the AC chart. It has sold 45,000 copies as of January 2011. Her third album, the holiday-themed Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You, was released on October 12, 2010. The album debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart, while the single "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" AC chart. As of January 2011, this album had sold 23,000 copies. McPhee released her fourth album, Hysteria, on September 18, 2015. She released her fifth album, I Fall in Love Too Easily, composed of jazz standards, on November 17, 2017.
McPhee has also established an acting career, co-starring in The House Bunny and Shark Night 3D. She played Karen Cartwright, one of the lead roles on Smash. From 2014 to 2018, she starred in CBS' Scorpion as Paige Dineen.- Music Artist
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Katy Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984 in Santa Barbara, California to Mary Christine Hudson (née Perry) & Maurice Keith Hudson. She has a big sister named Angela & a little brother named David, and has English, Portuguese, German, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Her mother's half-brother was director Frank Perry.
Raised in a deeply religious family, Perry's first experience of performing was singing in church. A passion for music grew and at the age of 15, Perry began visiting Nashville, gaining experience of song writing and recording demos.
She signed to a Christian record label, Red Hill, and recorded an album, under her birth name of Katy Hudson. The album was not a success. At age 17 she moved to Los Angeles and collaborated with producer Glen Ballard, but was not able to secure a lasting record deal. Perry did sign to Columbia Records in 2004, but again this did not prove a success, and she was dropped.
An executive at Columbia recommended Perry to the chairman of Virgin Records, Jason Flom, which resulted in her signing for Capitol Music Group. She recorded her second album, "One of the Boys" and in the Spring of 2008 released the lead single, the controversial "I Kissed a Girl". The song proved a smash, hitting the number one slot in several countries. Other hit singles followed and the album was a commercial success.
Perry was now established as a pop superstar and cemented her position with the release of her next album "Teenage Dreams", which spawned more huge hits including "California Gurls" and "Firework". Many awards and music industry records followed. In 2012 Perry made the move into movies, releasing the documentary feature film Part of Me (2012).
Katy has started her own record label called "Metamorphosis Music" and has signed her very first artist Ferras, who was signed to Capitol Records back in 2007 with Katy Perry. He had released an EP the same day that the record label news was released to the public. There is also a duet with Katy on his new EP; they are expected to be on tour together in North America June 22 in Raleigh, North Carolina-October 11 in Houston, Texas.Say what you will, I think she's gorgeous.- Actress
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Rachael Taylor grew up in Tasmania, Australia, with her parents Nigel and Christine Taylor. She began modelling during her teens, working for the Skye-Jilly International agency. She competed for Miss Teen Tasmania, as well as the Miss Universe/Miss World state finals. She moved to Sydney to further her modeling career as well as to pursue acting. She also began studying for a degree in History and Politics at the University of Sydney.
In 2004, she landed her first acting role in the television movie The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004). After performing several roles, she left her studies to play a regular role on the Australian drama Headland (2005). She won a Logie Award for her performance as Most Popular New Female Talent. Her breakthrough role came in Transformers (2007) when she played Maggie Madsen.- Actress
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Freida Selena Pinto was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India, to Sylvia, a school principal, and Frederick Pinto, a senior bank branch manager. She is from a Mangalorean family.
Pinto traversed the modeling circuit in Mumbai (represented by Elite Model Management India) for two years before gaining her big break when director Danny Boyle picked her out in the audition process to play the female lead, Latika, for his project Slumdog Millionaire (2008). In a promo interview, Boyle likened spotting her to his discovery of Kelly Macdonald for Trainspotting.
Surprisingly, Freida, who studied at Mumbai's St. Xaviers College, began taking acting classes (she has done amateur theater before) only after completing her debut film -- when she attended a three-month workshop by Barry John, the veteran theater guru.
Between 2006 and 2007, she anchored Full Circle, a travel show that was telecast on Zee International Asia Pacific. She went on assignments to Afghanistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Fiji, among other countries.Elegantly beautiful in everything.- Dziena studied theatre in New York at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she wrote and acted in plays and was cast in her first role on television at the age of 17.
From 'E's' crazy, jealous girlfriend on HBO's Entourage (2004) to 'Lolita' parading around in the buff for Bill Murray in Jim Jarmusch's film Broken Flowers (2005), Alexis Dziena has played a wide range of wonderfully colorful characters in both film and television.
In the upcoming feature Without Ward (2022) for director Cory Cataldo, Dziena plays a deaf girl who falls in love with the man who lives across the street. Confined to their homes and never physically touching, they communicate through their windows, as love prevails. Alexis portrays a promiscuous pizza girl looking for love in Wrong (2012) from visionary filmmaker Quentin Dupieux for Drafthouse Films.
She has played notable roles in such films as When in Rome (2010), Fool's Gold (2008), Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008), Sex and Breakfast (2005), Havoc (2005), and Strangers with Candy (2005).
Alexis starred opposite Marcia Gay Harden in the coming-of-age movie for cable entitled She's Too Young (2004). She was a regular on the ABC series Invasion (2005) and is still asked if she can do an American accent because of the memorable Russian girl she played on Law & Order (1990) early in her career.This girl is oozing with sex appeal in a way not entirely captured in still photographs. - Actress
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Lauren Storm was born outside of Chicago, Illinois. She is a film and television actress, having worked alongside accomplished and award winning professionals for nearly two decades. In addition to acting, Lauren writes both screenplay and prose, and coaches young actors. Lauren always makes time for reading, travel, creating, and giving back. She resides in Los Angeles.- Actress
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Trachtenberg grew up in Brooklyn and started her acting career young; she began appearing in commercials at the age of 3.
She continued to act and dance through her school years, making regular television appearances from the age of 10. She landed a recurring role in the kids' TV show The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1992) and starred in Harriet the Spy (1996), but it was her role as Buffy's sister Dawn from the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) that really brought her to worldwide attention, and all before she was 18 years old.
More high profile TV and movie work followed.When I first saw her in the 90s, she was an awkward-looking kid. I never expected her to grow up so nicely, but she did!- Szohr was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin and is of Hungarian and one quarter African American ancestry. Szohr played soccer, served on the student council, and was part of the cheerleading squad while in school. She started a cleaning company with a friend, cleaning their teachers' houses.
Szohr started modeling at age six. Her first national campaign was for Quaker Oats at age ten, and she also appeared in print ads for Kohl's department store. Subsequent modeling gigs followed, including prints for Crate & Barrel, Mountain Dew, Sears, Jockey and JanSport. Szohr graduated from Menomonee Falls High School a semester early and moved to Los Angeles with her mother at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career. She initially aspired to become an interior designer and had enrolled in Columbia College Chicago, but her agent ultimately convinced her to try pilot season auditions.
Szohr made her debut as an actress in 2003 in an episode of the third season of My Wife and Kids (2000), titled Not So Hostile Takeover (2003). Her first film was Uncle Nino (2003) playing a minor role as The MC. She appeared in numerous guest teen television series such as That's So Raven (2003), Drake & Josh (2004), What I Like About You (2002), and Joan of Arcadia (2003). She also appeared in three episodes of CSI: Miami (2002) as Samantha Barrish.
In 2007, she appeared in a major recurring role as Laura for six episodes in the ABC drama series What About Brian (2006). She also appeared in the music videos for Daughtry: Over You (2007) by Daughtry, in which she played Sarah.
In the same year, Szohr earned her breakthrough role on the hit CW teen drama series Gossip Girl (2007). She plays Vanessa Abrams. The portrayal of Vanessa has drawn criticism from Ziegesar. Originally cast as a recurring role, Szohr was promoted to series regular after the season one episode The Blair Bitch Project (2008) in April 2008. In May 2011, it was confirmed Szohr would not be returning for the fifth season. She returned in for a cameo appearance on the series finale, New York, I Love You XOXO (2012), on December 17, 2012.
Szohr has appeared in small roles in films such as Somebody Help Me (2007), The Reading Room (2005) and Fired Up! (2009). She signed on to Dimension Films' horror Piranha 3D (2010), in the role of Kelly. She also appeared in a Funny or Die video promoting the film alongside Kelly Brook and others.
In April 2010, Szohr joined the cast of the romantic comedy Love, Wedding, Marriage (2011), along with Mandy Moore and Kellan Lutz. Szohr has a role in the 2012 independent post-apocalyptic sci-fi film Hirokin: The Last Samurai (2012). Her role as Orange has been described as a "cunning temptress".
Szohr stars in the indie drama Art Machine (2012) as an outlaw hipster and a pyrotechnic artist. In October 2011, she finished filming a horror comedy film in East Lothian, Scotland titled Love Bite (2012) with co-star Ed Speleers. Szohr appeared in Taylor Swift's 2013 music video for the song Taylor Swift: 22 (2013). In March 2013, she was cast as the female lead in the Fox drama pilot The List (2013), playing FBI agent Natalie Voss. However, it was reported on May 8, 2013 that Fox had passed on the pilot. In November 2013, Szohr was cast as Gretchen in USA Network's medical drama pilot Complications (2015).
In June 2015, Szohr was set as a recurring on the upcoming second season of DirecTV's MMA drama Kingdom (2014). Szohr will play Laura Melvin, an artist/photographer who has "read everything, been everywhere," and immediately intrigued by Jay (Jonathan Tucker) whom she wants to hire for a photo shoot. - Actress
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Jemima Kirke is the daughter of drummer Simon Kirke and vintage boutique owner, Lorraine Kirke. Although born in London, Kirke was raised in New York City. She was educated at Saint Ann's School in New York, before moving on to Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied art and graduated as a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Kirke met and became friends with Lena Dunham whilst at school. Dunham asked her to appear in her 2010 film Tiny Furniture (2010). This led to her breakout role as Jessa Johansson in Dunham's hit HBO series Girls (2012).- Actress
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Troian Bellisario, daughter of producers Donald P. Bellisario and Deborah Pratt, made her film debut at the age of 3 in Last Rites (1988). She made several TV and movie appearances in her teens (most of the TV appearances were in shows produced by her father) before attending the University of Southern California.
She rose to worldwide prominence as Spencer in the hit TV series, Pretty Little Liars (2010).- Actress
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Agnes Bruckner was born on 16 August 1985 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Murder by Numbers (2002), Blood and Chocolate (2007) and Anna Nicole (2013).- Actress
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Amber Laura Heard was born in Austin, Texas, to Patricia Paige Heard (née 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 (2005), in which she played Charlize Theron's character in flashbacks. Her other early film credits include: Syrup (2013), Drive Angry (2011) 3D, The Joneses (2009), Never Back Down (2008), Alpha Dog (2006) and Friday Night Lights (2004). On television, Heard starred on The CW drama, Hidden Palms (2007), and had guest starring roles on Showtime's Californication (2007) and CBS's Criminal Minds (2005).
In 2009, Heard starred in the box office hit, Zombieland (2009), opposite Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Jesse Eisenberg. She also starred in the suspense thriller, The Stepfather (2009), with Sela Ward, Dylan Walsh and Penn Badgley. In 2008, she garnered attention for her role in the comedic hit, Pineapple Express (2008), 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 (2011), opposite Johnny Depp, and John Carpenter's The Ward (2010), which premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival. She also starred in the independent film, And Soon the Darkness (2010), in which she additionally served as a co-producer.
Heard starred in Paranoia (2013), 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 (2013), which was released by "Open Road Films" on March 4, 2013, and McG's 3 Days to Kill (2014), opposite Kevin Costner and Hailee Steinfeld, which was released in 2014.
Additionally, her film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), 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, and the two divorced in 2017.- Actress
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It would seem that 2004, the year of her 18th birthday, will be remembered as pivotal for Emmy Rossum due to her appearance in two very different films, The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004). Emmy's performance in the latter film gained her a Golden Globe nomination.
Emmanuelle Grey Rossum was born in New York City, where she was raised by her single mother, Cheryl Rossum, a corporate photographer (she has only met her father a few times). Her mother is of Russian Jewish descent and her father has English and Dutch ancestry. After passing an audition at the Metropolitan Opera when she was 7 years old, Rossum performed in more than 20 operas in six different languages at Lincoln Center, alongside such figures as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. She was directed by Franco Zeffirelli in "Carmen." She left the opera when she entered her teenage years, as she had grown too tall to perform as a child. Emmy also appeared in a Carnegie Hall presentation of "The Damnation of Faust." She graduated from the Spence School, a private institution in Manhattan, in 1996 and then earned a high school diploma when 15 years old by taking online extension courses offered by Stanford University (Education Program for Gifted Youth). She later enrolled at Columbia University and studied art history and French.
In a change of venue, Emmy created the role of Abigail Williams in the daytime soap opera As the World Turns (1956) in 1997 and branched out in performances in the made-for-television movies Genius (1999) and The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000), in which she played the title character as a young teenager. Other television work included Snoops (1999), Law & Order (1990), and The Practice (1997).
Emmy made her theatrical feature debut in the indie film Songcatcher (2000), with her good friend Rhoda Griffis, which won the Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2000. Rossum received an Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance for her performance as an Appalachian orphan. She played an aspiring songwriter (the title character) in the romantic comedy Nola (2003). Cast as the ill-fated daughter of a small-business owner in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), she projected an aura of innocence that made her character's tragic death memorable and heartbreaking. This was her first major studio film.
After six months of filming her role as the fresh-faced but highly intelligent teenage damsel in distress The Day After Tomorrow (2004) in Montreal, she returned to New York and screen-tested for the role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (2004) in full costume and makeup, and was finally selected for the part by Andrew Lloyd Webber after singing for him at his home. Although she was surprised to be chosen ahead of many better-known and older actresses considered for the part, the combination of her vulnerable, fragile beauty and fine, classically trained singing voice ultimately proved that she was perfectly cast. In preparation for the role, she took ballet classes for two months and started polishing her singing. Emmy has commented that, in her approach to acting, she draws heavily upon her own experiences, so she visited locations in Paris and conjured up what she terms "past memories" to draw upon in making her performance emotionally realistic. She stood on the roof of the Opéra Garnier, where Christine sings "All I Ask of You," and went underneath the opera house, where there is actually a gloomy, dark lake. She studied Degas's paintings of ballerinas in the Musée d'Orsay to learn how to stand like one.
Her next project Poseidon (2006) was a mainstream effort, but since its release, she has been more true to advice she obtained from Sean Penn when making Mystic River (2003), that she should be picky and only accept roles that are fun to do, such as Dragonball Evolution (2009).- Actress
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Olesya Yurivna Rulina is a Russian-American actress. She is best known for co-starring in all three films of the High School Musical franchise as Kelsi Nielsen. She also starred in the films Private Valentine: Blonde & Dangerous (2008), Flying By (2009), Expecting Mary (2010) and Family Weekend (2013).