Actress, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Australia to an American father and an Australian mother. She has an older brother and an younger sister. When she was ten years old, her 40-year old father died of a sudden heart attack. Her mother never remarried, and her grandmother moved in to help her mother...

Actress, Walk the Line

Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon was born on March 22, 1976 at Southern Baptist Hospital (now Memorial Medical Center) in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the second child born to Dr. John Witherspoon and Betty Reese. Her father was a military surgeon specializing in the ear, nose and throat. Her mother was a Registered Nurse who later became a Ph.D in pediatric nursing...

Actress, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

The daughter of actor Will Knightley and playwright Sharman Macdonald. After she requested an agent at the age of three, her parents allowed her to work on productions in her summer holidays. Her first role was at the age of 9, in Moira Armstrong's A Village Affair. However, Knightley's first high profile role came in 1999...

Actress, Midnight in Paris

Born on November 17, 1978, in London, Ontario, Canada, Rachel McAdams 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...

Actress, Les Misérables

Amanda Seyfried grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and began modeling when she was 11-years-old. She acted in high school productions as well as taking singing lessons, and landed a recurring role in the long-running US soap, As the World Turns, when she was just age 15. More soap work followed as she...

Actress, Les Misérables

Anne Hathaway's first major role came in the short-lived television series Get Real. She gained widespread recognition for her roles in The Princess Diaries and its 2004 sequel as a young girl who discovers she's a member of royalty, opposite Julie Andrews and Heather Matarazzo. She also had a notable role in Nicholas Nickleby opposite Charlie Hunnam and Jamie Bell...

Actress, Spider-Man

Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, who also holds German citizenship. She was born on April 30, 1982 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, to parents Inez (née Rupprecht) and Klaus Dunst. She has a younger brother named Christian Dunst, born in 1987. Her career began at the age of 3 when she started modeling and appearing in commercials...

Actress, Lost in Translation

Scarlett Johansson was born in New York City. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, is from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, and her father, Karsten Johansson, is Danish. Scarlett showed a passion for acting at a young age and starred in many plays. She has a sister named Vanessa Johansson, a brother named Adrian, and a twin brother named Hunter Johansson born three minutes after her...

Actress, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Almost everyone who has spent time with Kate Hudson -including directors, family members, co-stars and interviewers - is quick to comment on her ability to light up a room. Through some combination of a winning smile, solid work ethic, and good old-fashioned talent, the young actress has gone from indie beginner to Vanity Fair cover girl in just three years...

Actress, V for Vendetta

Natalie Portman was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel, to a Jewish family. She is the only child of a doctor father (from Israel) and an artist mother (from Cincinnati, Ohio), who also acts as Natalie's agent. She left Israel for Washington, D.C., when she was still very young...

Actress, There's Something About Mary

Cameron Diaz was born in 1972 in San Diego. Her mother, Billie (Early), has English, Scots-Irish, and German ancestry, and her father, Emilio Diaz, was from a Cuban family (of Spanish origin). Self-described as "adventurous, independent and a tough kid," Cameron left home at 16 and for the next 5 years lived in such varied locales as Japan...

Actress, The Help

Stone began acting as a child as a member of the Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, where she made her stage debut in a production of Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows". She appeared in many more productions through her early teens until, at the age of 15, she decided that she wanted to make acting her career...

Actress, Django Unchained

Actress, The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate

Born in Sherman Oaks, California, Jennifer Aniston spent a year of her childhood living in Greece with her family. Her family then relocated to New York City where her parents, actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, divorced when she was 9. Jennifer was raised by her mother and her father landed a role...

Actress, Juno

Jennifer Garner, who has catapulted into stardom with her lead role on the television series Alias, has come a long way from her birthplace of Houston, Texas. Raised in Charleston, West Virginia by her mother Pat, a retired English teacher, and her father, Bill, a former chemical engineer...

Actress, Magnolia

The daughter of a military judge and a Scottish social worker, Julianne Moore was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on December 3, 1960. She spent the early years of her life in over two dozen locations around the world with her parents before she finally found her place at Boston University, where...

Actress, Man of Steel

Amy Lou Adams was born in Italy, to American parents Kathryn (Hicken) and Richard Kent Adams, while her father was a U.S. serviceman. She was raised in a Mormon family of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado. Adams sang in the school choir at Douglas County High School and was an apprentice dancer at a local dance company...

Actress, The Devil Wears Prada

Considered by many critics to be the greatest living actress, Meryl Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an astonishing 18 times, and has won it three times. Born Mary Louise Streep in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, Meryl's early performing ambitions leaned toward the opera. She became interested...

Actress, The Pursuit of Happyness

Thandie Newton is the daughter of a Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean) mother from the Shona people and a British father. She lived in Zambia until political unrest caused her family to move back to the UK. She then lived in Cornwall in the southwest of Britain until the age of 11. At that time she enrolled in London's Art Educational School...

Actress, The Dark Knight Rises

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. Raised in Orléans, France, she made her acting debut as a child with a role in one of her father's plays...

Actress, Now You See Me

Isla Lang Fisher was born on February 3, 1976 to Scottish parents in the Middle Eastern country of Oman. Her family moved to Australia in the early 1980s. From a young age, Isla showed an interest in both acting and writing. At nine years old, she was appearing in Australian TV commercials. She landed some small parts in the Australian television series Bay Cove (aka "Bay City")...

Actress, King Kong

Naomi Watts was born in Shoreham, England on September 28, 1968 to Peter and Miv Watts. Peter Watts, the road manager to Pink Floyd, died when Naomi was seven and she began to follow her mother and her brother around England until they settled in Australia when she was fourteen. She coaxed her mother into letting her take acting class when they arrived...

Actress, The Dark Knight Rises

Juno was born in England into a showbiz family. Her mother is a producer, Amanda Temple, and her father is the film director, Julien Temple. She was named 'Juno' after her parents took a visit to the Grand Canyon, during pregnancy, and found they were standing on a butte of Cape Final known as Juno Temple...

Actress, Alice in Wonderland

Mia is an Australian born actress. She was born and raised in the country's capital Canberra. She is the middle child of three children. She has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai. Her parents are both photographers. Her mother is Polish and her father is Australian. At age 8, her family moved to Poland for a year...

Actress, Shutter Island

A small town girl born and raised in rural Kalispell, Montana, Michelle Williams was first known as bad girl Jen Lindley in the television series Dawson's Creek. She appeared in the comedy film Dick which was a parody of the Watergate Scandal along with Kirsten Dunst as well as Prozac Nation with Christina Ricci...

Actress, In Time

Olivia Wilde was born Olivia Jane Cockburn in New York City. She was raised in Washington, D.C. and went to school there, as well as in Andover, Massachusetts, where she graduated in 2002. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, was born in England and later became an Irish citizen, giving Olivia dual American and Irish nationality...

Actress, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Anna started acting very young but not professionally. She loved watching plays and eventually produced her own with all the neighborhood children. She was always encouraged with the emphasis that she wasn't just "pretending" but rather being an unpaid producer, director, writer and actor. Her first paid job was at the Seattle Repertory Theatre at age nine...

Actress, Moulin Rouge!

Elegant redhead Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Australian parents Anthony (a biochemist and clinical psychologist) and Janelle (a nursing instructor) Kidman. The family moved almost immediately to Washington, D.C., where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer...

Actress, Notting Hill

Julia Fiona Roberts, born in Smyrna, Georgia, never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. As a child, due to her love of animals, Julia originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but later studied journalism. When her brother, Eric Roberts, achieved some success in Hollywood...

Actress, Scream

Charming, free-spirited and - above all - talented, Drew Barrymore has come a long way since her big-screen breakout in Steven Spielberg's beloved sci-fi blockbuster, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Despite a troubled and much-publicized adolescence during which she appeared in only a handful of films, Barrymore's star was officially on the rise during the mid-1990s with notable appearances in Poison Ivy...

Actress, American Beauty

Annette Bening was born on May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her family moved to California when she was young, and she grew up there. She graduated from San Francisco State University and began her acting career with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, eventually...

Actress, Titanic

Ask Kate Winslet what she liked about any of her characters, and the word "ballsy" is bound to pop up at least once. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels; as a result, she's built an eclectic resume; that runs the gamut from Shakespearean tragedy to modern-day mysticism and erotica...

Actress, Rush

Actress, Sex and the City

Sarah Jessica Parker was born March 25, 1965, in Nelsonville, Ohio to parents Stephen Parker and Barbra Forste (who remarried Paul Forste after divorcing Sarah's father). After her mother wed Forste, she had four more children, bringing the total to eight. Sarah Jessica now had 3 full siblings and 4 half siblings...

Actress, Bridget Jones's Diary

Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas, USA to parents Emil Erich Zellweger, a Swiss-born engineer who married Renée's mother Kjellfrid Irene Andreassen, a Norwegian-born former nurse and midwife in 1963. Renée also has a brother named Drew Zellweger, a marketing executive born on February 15...

Actress, Changeling

Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning actress who has become popular by taking on the title role in the "Lara Croft" series of blockbuster movies. Off-screen, Jolie has become prominently involved in international charity projects, especially those involving refugees. She often appears on many "most beautiful women" lists...

Actress, Sleepy Hollow

Precocious, outspoken child-teen starlet of the 1990s, Christina Ricci was born in 1980 in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of four children of a lawyer father and realtor mother. She made her screen debut at the age of 9 in Mermaids, in which she worked with Winona Ryder and Cher...

Actress, The Dark Knight

Academy Award-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal was born on November 16, 1977, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Her parents, Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Foner, are both filmmakers, and Maggie made her film debut in Stephen's film Waterland. She had sporadic roles throughout her teenage years...

Actress, Prometheus

Charlize Theron grew up on a farm outside Benoni, South Africa, as the only child. She got an education as a ballet dancer and has danced both the "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker". There wasn't much for a young actress or dancer to do in South Africa, so she soon traveled to Europe and United States of America...

Actress, Fight Club

In the late 1990s, Helena Bonham Carter seemed poised to embark on the next phase of her career, moving from capable actress to compelling star. Audiences and critics had long been enchanted by her delicate beauty, evocative of another time and place; in 1997, she showed that she was more than a pretty face and a skilled line-reader...

Actress, Looper

Emily Blunt is a British actress best known for her roles in The Young Victoria and The Devil Wears Prada. She was born on February 23, 1983, in Roehampton, South West London, England, the second of four children in the family of a teacher mother and barrister father. She received a rigorous education at Ibstock Place School...

Actress, Knocked Up

Katherine Marie Heigl was born in Washington, DC, on November 24, 1978, to Nancy Heigl and Paul Heigl. A short time afterward, the family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Katherine was to spend the majority of her childhood; the youngest member of her family, Katherine--or "Katie" as she is nicknamed--has two elder siblings...

Actress, The Bourne Ultimatum

Julia O'Hara Stiles was born on March 28, 1981 in New York City, the outgoing daughter of an elementary school teacher father and a Greenwich Village artist mother, and the eldest of three children. Encouraged to take modern dance lessons at an early age, she was introduced to Shakespeare and theater...

Actress, Edward Scissorhands

Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz and named after the town in which she was born, Winona, Minnesota. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California which had no electricity. She is the goddaughter of Timothy Leary. Her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and once edited a book called "Shaman Woman Mainline Lady"...

Actress, Meet the Robinsons

Captivating, gifted, and sensational, Angela Bassett's presence has been felt in theaters, stages, and television screens throughout the world. A native of New York City, Bassett and her sister D'nette grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida with their mother Betty. As a single mother and social worker, Betty stressed the importance of education for her children...

Actress, Elf

Zooey Deschanel was born in 1980 into a showbiz family. Her father, Caleb Deschanel, is an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer (perhaps most notably for The Passion of the Christ) and her mother, Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir), is an actress who appeared in Twin Peaks. Driven from an early age to become a successful actress...

Actress, Frozen

Kristen Anne Bell (born in 1980) is an American actress and singer, born and raised in Michigan. Bell 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...

Actress, The Roommate

Although born in Texas when her mother was serving a jail sentence for her part in a marijuana-smuggling ring, Leighton Meester spent her early years in Marco Island, Florida with her grandparents where she became involved with the local playhouse and made her stage debut in a production of "The Wizard of Oz"...

Actress, 8 Mile

Brittany Murphy was born Brittany Bertolotti to Angelo "AJ" Bertolotti and Sharon Murphy on November 10, 1977 in Atlanta, GA. Her father moved the family back to Edison, New Jersey as a native New Yorker and to be closer to other siblings from previous marriages. While dining out one night in the presence of Hollywood royalty...

Actress, Black Swan

The talented Milena "Mila" Markovna Kunis was born to a Jewish family in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, USSR (now independent Ukraine). Her mother, Elvira, is a physics teacher, her father, Mark Kunis, is a mechanical engineer, and she has an older brother named Michael. After attending one semester of college between gigs...

Actress, Watchmen

Malin was born in Sweden and raised in Toronto, Canada. Her father is an insurance-broker and her mother is a model. They moved to Toronto when she was age 2. At age 5, she began appearing in TV commercials. Her parents divorced when she was 6 and her father returned to Sweden. At age 17, she won the Canadian title of Ford Supermodel...

Actress, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Gemma was born and raised in Gravesend, Kent, UK. Her parents divorced when she was age 5, and so Gemma lived with her younger sister and her mother. Her father is a welder and her mother a cleaner. They encouraged their children to explore their creative abilities. Gemma's sister, Hannah, liked to sing, whereas Gemma chose acting...

Actress, Atonement

Saoirse was born in New York City, New York, United States. Her father is Paul Ronan, an Irish actor, and her mother is Monica Ronan. When Saoirse was age 3, the family moved to Ireland. Saoirse grew up in County Carlow, Ireland. Saoirse made her first TV appearance with a small role in a few episodes of the TV series...

Actress, Sucker Punch

Australian actress Emily Browning was born in 1988 in Melbourne, Australia. She has two younger brothers. Her start in acting came after a classmate's father, involved in the acting business, noticed her "acting all ditsy" in a school play. Emily found an agent and was soon filming on location for the Hallmark TV-movie...

Actress, X-Men: First Class

Rose was born in Sydney, Australia. She landed her first role in a movie, Dallas Doll, when she was 15 years old. Since then, Rose has appeared in a variety of Australian televisions shows including Heartbreak High, Echo Point, and the film Two Hands alongside Heath Ledger. After this...

Actress, Bridesmaids

Originally from Rochester, New York, she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in the middle of its 2005-2006 season. She is a member of the renowned sketch comedy theater The Groundlings Main Company in Los Angeles, where she was promoted up from the Groundlings Sunday Company after just one year. She left SNL near the end of the 37th season to pursue other projects.

Actress, Scarface

Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California to Dick and Donna Pfeiffer. She has an older brother and two younger sisters - Dedee Pfeiffer, and Lori Pfeiffer, who both dabbled in acting and modeling but decided against making it their life's work. She graduated from Fountain Valley High School in 1976...

Actress, The Mummy

Rachel Weisz was born on 7th March 1970, in London, England, to Edith (Teich), an Austrian-born psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, a Hungarian-born inventor. Rachel was a model when she was 14 and began acting during her studies at Cambridge University. While there, she formed a theater company named "Talking Tongues"...

Actress, Chicago

Catherine Zeta-Jones was born on September 25, 1969 in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales, UK, the daughter of Dai Jones, who formerly owned a candy factory, and Pat Jones. Her brother David Jones (b. 1967) is a development executive and brother Lyndon Jones (b. 1972) works at her production company. Catherine showed an interest early on in entertainment...

Actress, Gravity

Sandra Bullock was born in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., to Helga (Meyer), a German opera singer, and John W. Bullock, a U.S. voice teacher from Alabama. She grew up on the road with her parents and younger sister. She often performed in the children's chorus of whatever production her mother was in...

Actress, Drive

Carey Mulligan is a British actress, born May 28, 1985. Her first major appearance was playing "Kitty Bennet" in Pride & Prejudice alongside Keira Knightley, Judi Dench and Donald Sutherland. Carey also played orphan "Ada Clare" in the B.B.C. television series, Bleak House. Carey has said that her passion and love for acting was first kindled at her old school Woldingham School...

Actress, Big Fish

On April 20, 1949, Jessica Lange was born in Cloquet, Minnesota, USA, where her father worked as a traveling salesman. She obtained a scholarship to study art at the University of Minnesota, but instead went to Paris to study drama. She moved to New York, working as a model for many years, until producer Dino De Laurentiis cast her as the female lead in King Kong...

Actress, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Offbeat, unconventionally pretty, and utterly mesmerizing, Ellen Barkin was born in 1954 of Jewish parentage, the daughter of a chemical salesman and hospital administrator. Raised in the South Bronx and Queens, New York area, she wanted to be an actress as early as her teens and was eventually accepted into Manhattan's High School of the Performing Arts...

Actress, Titanic

Kathleen Doyle Bates was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters born to Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer, and his homemaker wife Bertye Talbot. Kathy's great-great Irish grandfather, who emigrated to New Orleans, once served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor...

Actress, Skyfall

Attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and at Old Vic Theatre. She is a ten-time BAFTA winner including Best Actress in a Comedy Series for A Fine Romance in which she appeared with her husband...

Actress, A History of Violence

Maria Bello was born on 18 April, 1967 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. She went to Villanova University, majoring in political science. She had every intention of becoming a lawyer, but she took an acting class during her senior year, just for fun. She discovered she was very good at it, and she was soon cast in small off-Broadway plays...

Actress, Carrie

As a kid, Sissy Spacek climbed trees, rode horses, swam, and played in the woods. She was born Mary Elizabeth Spacek on December 25, 1949, in Quitman, Texas. Sissy attended Quitman High School and was homecoming queen. After graduating, she embarked on an acting career, gaining interest in the profession through her cousin...

Actress, The English Patient

Her father was a pilot for the British Royal Navy and died in a flying accident in 1964. Her stepfather was also a pilot and died six years later under similar circumstances. Her childhood home was Dorset, England. She left at the age of 19 to work as an au pair in Paris. She was married to Fran?ois Oliviennes...

Actress, Captain Phillips

Catherine Keener is an Oscar nominated actress for her roles in the independent films Being John Malkovich and Capote. Acclaimed in her community for her quirky roles in independent film and mainstream such as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Keener got her start as a casting director in New York City. Keener was raised in Hialeah...

Actress, American Beauty

Allison Janney is an award-winning actress who has earned a solid reputation in stage productions and in many supporting roles on screen, and who more recently has become prominent by portraying one of the major characters in the popular TV series The West Wing. Entertainment Weekly magazine describes Janney's screen presence as "uncommonly beautiful and infinitely expressive"...

Actress, Pilot

Christina is the daughter of record producer Robert Applegate and singer-actress, Nancy Priddy. Her parents split-up shortly after her birth. She has two half-siblings from her father's re-marriage - Alisa (b. 10 October 1977) & Kyle (b. 15 July 1981). Alisa and Christina are best friends and even lived together while Alisa was going to college...

Actress, Thelma & Louise

It was after the 1968 Democratic convention and there was a casting call for a film with several roles for the kind of young people who had disrupted the convention. Two recent graduates of Catholic University in Washington DC, went to the audition in New York for Joe. Chris Sarandon, who had studied to be an actor, was passed over. His wife Susan got a major role...

Actress, All Good Things

Actress, Out of Sight

Jennifer was born on July 24, 1969, in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx. Her father, David Lopez, was a computer technician. Her mother, Guadalupe Lopez, taught kindergarten. Jennifer is the middle of three daughters. Her elder sister, Leslie Lopez, is a housewife who sings opera. Her younger sister...

Actress, The Godfather: Part II

Diane Keaton was a California native who studied Drama at Santa Ana College before dropping out to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. After appearing in summer stock for several months, she got her first major stage role in the Broadway rock musical "Hair." As understudy to the lead, she gained attention by not removing any of her clothing...

Actress, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Known outside her native country as the "Spanish enchantress", Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born in Madrid to Eduardo (a retailer) and Encarna (a hairdresser). As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to focus her energies on dance...

Actress, Shutter Island

This remarkable, one-of-a-kind actress has, since the early 1990s, intrigued film and TV audiences with her glowing, yet careworn eccentricity and old world-styled glamour. Very much in demand these days as a character player, Patricia Clarkson nevertheless continues to avoid the temptation of money-making mainstream filming while reaping kudos and acting awards in out-of-the-way projects...

Actress, Limitless

Abbie Cornish grew up on her parents' 170 acre farm in the Hunter Valley town of Lochinvar with her 3 brothers and younger sister. Abbie started modeling at age 13. Her first acting job was at age 15 on the Australian Broadcasting Commission series Children's Hospital playing a quadriplegic.

Actress, Crash

Loretta Devine was born August 21, 1949 in Houston, Texas to Eunice O'Neal and James Devine. Loretta grew up in the Acres Home area of Houston and later enrolled at the University of Houston, where she earned a a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Drama, and later Brandeis University where she earned a MFA in Theater...

Actress, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Paula's 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...

Actress, Zero Dark Thirty

Jessica Chastain was raised in a middle-class family in a northern California suburb. She discovered dance at the age of nine. By the age of 13, she was in a dance troupe. She took her mother's maiden name and began performing in Shakespearean productions all over the Bay area. An actor in a production of "Romeo & Juliet" encouraged her to audition for Juilliard as a drama major...

Actress, Hellboy II: The Golden Army

2008 was a busy year for Selma Blair. After My Mom's New Boyfriend (aka "Homeland Security"), Selma returned to the big screen as "Liz Sherman" in Guillermo del Toro's blockbuster sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army. She also starred in an independent film by writer and director Lori Petty, titled The Poker House, starring opposite Oscar and Golden Globe nominee...

Actress, 30 Days of Night

The second of four children, Australian native Melissa George was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1976. The daughter of a nurse and a construction worker, George initially expressed interest in various forms of dance rather than acting. During her childhood, George studied tap, ballet, and jazz, later transitioning into professional rollerskating - similar to figure skating on ice...

Actress, Sense and Sensibility

Emma Thompson was born in London on April 15, 1959, into a family of actors - her father was Eric Thompson, who has passed away, and her mother, Phyllida Law, has co-starred with Thompson in several films (her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well). Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born...

Actress, The Princess Bride

Robin Virginia Wright was born in Dallas, Texas, but grew up in San Diego, California. She started her professional career as a model in 1980 at age 14, and worked both in Paris and Japan. After finishing high school she decided to become an actress. She got a role on the soap opera Santa Barbara...

Actress, Back to the Future Part III

Mary Steenburgen is an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was born February 8, 1953, in Newport, Arkansas, USA. Her mother, Nellie May (Wall) Steenburgen, was a school-board secretary, and her father, Maurice H. Steenburgen, was a freight-train conductor. Her surname comes from distant Dutch ancestry, and has roots also include English, Scottish, and Welsh...

Actress, August Rush

Keri's breakthrough role came in 1998 where she played "Felicity Porter" in the WB's popular series Felicity. In 1999, Keri won her first Golden Globe award for her role in Felicity in which she continued until the show ended in 2002. Keri pursued a movie career starring alongside Mel Gibson in We Were Soldiers and Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger...

Actress, Summer Kind of Wonderful

Blake Lively was born in a showbiz family in California and quickly followed her parents' and siblings' steps. Her first role was "Trixie, the Tooth Fairy" in the 1998 movie Sandman, directed by her dad, Ernie Lively. Her big break came along a few years later, though. Blake was up to finish high school when she got the co-starring role of "Bridget" in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005...

Actress, Bridesmaids

Maya Rudolph was born in Gainesville, Florida, on July 27th, 1972, to Dick Rudolph, a music producer, and soul singer Minnie Riperton. In 1973, Maya, her parents, and her older brother, Marc Rudolph, moved to California to further Minnie's music career. Here Minnie recorded "Lovin' You", her most famous single...

Actress, Bewitched

Kristin Chenoweth is an American stage, screen and television actress. Though, depending on who you ask, Cheno fans may disagree on what her most famous roles are. Since Chenoweth began her career, she has been credited with roles in musicals and plays on and off-Broadway, on various television shows and can be seen in movies on television and the big screen...

Actress, The Hunger Games

Jennifer Lawrence was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She has 2 older brothers, Ben and Blaine, sister-in-law Meredith, and her parents are Gary and Karen Lawrence. Jennifer, known to her friends and family as "Jen", was discovered in New York City at the age of 14. Before Jennifer became an actor, she was involved in cheer-leading...

Actress, Natural Born Killers

Juliette Lewis has been recognized as one of Hollywood's most talented and versatile actors of her generation since she first stunned audiences and critics alike with her Oscar-nominated performance as "Danielle Bowden" in Cape Fear. To date, she has worked with some of the most revered directors in the industry...

Actress, The Illusionist

Jessica Biel, with her striking good looks and wide range of talent, has become one of Hollywood's most sought-out actresses. Her television series acting debut on the WB's #1-rated show, 7th Heaven, has helped her emerge as a breakout star. As a child Jessica initially pursued a career as a vocalist...

Producer, Bringing Down the House

Hip-hop's first lady (though some would attribute that to Roxanne Shanté), the woman behind the moniker is Dana Owens, who was born on March 18th, 1970, in East Orange, New Jersey. She came from a police family--both her father and older brother were cops, which would later influence her rhyming style and life philosophy...

Actress, Transformers

Megan Denise Fox was born May 16, 1986 in Rockwood, Tennessee. Megan began her training in drama and dance at age 5 and, at age 10, moved to St. Petersburg, Florida where she continued her training and finished school. Megan began acting and modeling at age 13 after winning several awards at the 1999 American Modeling and Talent Convention in Hilton Head...

Actress, Man of Steel

Diane Lane was born on January 22, 1965, in New York. Her parents are acting coach Burt Lane and nightclub singer/centerfold Colleen Farrington. Diane was acting from a very young age and made her stage debut at the age of six. Her work in such acclaimed theater productions as "The Cherry Orchard" and "Medea" led to her being called to Hollywood...

Actress, Confessions of a Shopaholic

Krysten Ritter is well-known for her turn as "Jane Margolis" on AMC's hit series, Breaking Bad, and as the titular character, "Chloe", in Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, for ABC. Ritter began her career as a model with Elite Model Management. She will next appear in Assistance for NBC, from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's "Gary Sanchez Productions"...

Actress, Frozen

Actress, John Q

Actress, Bad Teacher

Lucy Punch grew up in London and was a member of the National Youth Theatre in her late teens before going to University College London to read History. While she was there she auditioned for TV roles and eventually dropped out to concentrate on acting. She learned a lot, she says, from working on...