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Keanu Charles Reeves, whose first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, was born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Patric Reeves, a showgirl and costume designer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. Keanu's father was born in Hawaii, of British, Portuguese, Native Hawaiian, and Chinese ancestry, and Keanu's mother is originally from Essex England. After his parents' marriage dissolved, Keanu moved with his mother and younger sister, Kim Reeves, to New York City, then Toronto. Stepfather #1 was Paul Aaron, a stage and film director - he and Patricia divorced within a year, after which she went on to marry (and divorce) rock promoter Robert Miller. Reeves never reconnected with his biological father. In high school, Reeves was lukewarm toward academics but took a keen interest in ice hockey (as team goalie, he earned the nickname "The Wall") and drama. He eventually dropped out of school to pursue an acting career.
After a few stage gigs and a handful of made-for-TV movies, he scored a supporting role in the Rob Lowe hockey flick Youngblood (1986), which was filmed in Canada. Shortly after the production wrapped, Reeves packed his bags and headed for Hollywood. Reeves popped up on critics' radar with his performance in the dark adolescent drama, River's Edge (1986), and landed a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated Dangerous Liaisons (1988) with director Stephen Frears.
His first popular success was the role of totally rad dude Ted "Theodore" Logan in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989). The wacky time-travel movie became something of a cultural phenomenon, and audiences would forever confuse Reeves's real-life persona with that of his doofy on-screen counterpart. He then joined the casts of Ron Howard's comedy, Parenthood (1989) and Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You to Death (1990).
Over the next few years, Reeves tried to shake the Ted stigma with a series of highbrow projects. He played a slumming rich boy opposite River Phoenix's narcoleptic male hustler in My Own Private Idaho (1991), an unlucky lawyer who stumbles into the vampire's lair in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and Shakespearean party-pooper Don John in Much Ado About Nothing (1993).
In 1994, the understated actor became a big-budget action star with the release of Speed (1994). Its success heralded an era of five years in which Reeves would alternate between small films, like Feeling Minnesota (1996) and The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), and big films like A Walk in the Clouds (1995) and The Devil's Advocate (1997). (There were a couple misfires, too: Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and Chain Reaction (1996).) After all this, Reeves did the unthinkable and passed on the Speed sequel, but he struck box-office gold again a few years later with the Wachowski siblings' cyberadventure, The Matrix (1999).
Now a bonafide box-office star, Keanu would appear in a string of smaller films -- among them The Replacements (2000), The Watcher (2000), The Gift (2000), Sweet November (2001), and Hardball (2001) - before The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) were both released in 2003.
Since the end of The Matrix trilogy, Keanu has divided his time between mainstream and indie fare, landing hits with Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Lake House (2006), and Street Kings (2008). He's kept Matrix fans satiated with films such as Constantine (2005), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008). And he's waded back into art-house territory with Ellie Parker (2005), Thumbsucker (2005), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), and Henry's Crime (2010).
Most recently, as post-production on the samurai epic 47 Ronin (2013) waged on, Keanu appeared in front of the camera in Side by Side (2012), a documentary on celluloid and digital filmmaking, which he also produced. He also directed another Asian-influenced project, Man of Tai Chi (2013).
In 2014, Keanu played the title role in the action revenge film John Wick (2014), which became popular with critics and audiences alike. He reprised the role in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), taking the now-iconic character to a better opening weekend and even more enthusiastic reviews than the first go-around.- Actor
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Archie Madekwe was born on 10 February 1995 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Gran Turismo (2023), Midsommar (2019) and Saltburn (2023).- Actor
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The "Supernatural" kid isn't so supernatural. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he soon aspired to the career of acting at the age of 4, where he first got his modeling job in Atlanta, Georgia. He broke into feature films at the age of 5 where he played as Clinton Jr, in "Sweet Home Alabama". He made more films after that, acting in movies "When Harry met Lloyd:Dumb and Dumber, Moved, and The Work and The Glory. Soon after he did a photo shoot with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie portraying his son. In that same year he got a guest starring role in "Smallville". He made a couple more films before landing his first leading role in "Dog Days of Summer" as Jackson Patch. He took a year off of acting to get his studies done but soon after got back into his acting. He plays young Sam Winchester in "Supernatural" and is coming up with a Playhouse Disney show called, "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" playing Jake.- Music Artist
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The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops re-inventing herself, Madonna has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide. Her film career, however, is another story. Her performances have consistently drawn scathing or laughable reviews from film critics, and the films have usually had tepid, if any, success at the box office. Born Madonna Louise Ciccone in August 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York in 1978 and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey, joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called Breakfast Club and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums, and her musical and fashion influence on young women was felt around the globe. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (1979) and Vision Quest (1985). However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. Madonna's next effort with then husband Sean Penn, Shanghai Surprise (1986), was savaged by critics, although the resilient star managed to somewhat improve her standing with her next two films, the offbeat Who's That Girl (1987) (although she did receive decidedly mixed reviews, they weren't as negative as those of her previous effort) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989). The big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (1990) had her playing bad girl "Breathless Mahoney" flirting with Warren Beatty, but the epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the sexy whodunit Body of Evidence (1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón in Evita (1996), a fairly well received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the movie cameras for several years, returning to co-star in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002). If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (2002). After finally admitting that her acting days were over, Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the barely remembered Filth and Wisdom (2008) and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple, was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "Masterpiece".- Actor
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Ryan Douglas Hurst (born June 19, 1976) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Gerry Bertier in Disney's Remember the Titans, Tom Clark in Taken, Opie Winston in the FX network drama series Sons of Anarchy, as Sergeant Ernie Savage in We Were Soldiers, and as Chick in Bates Motel.
Hurst was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Candace Kaniecki, an acting coach, and Rick Hurst, an actor. He attended Santa Monica High School.
Growing up in a Hollywood family, Hurst made a very early start in show business, with a recurring role in the NBC teen situation comedy series Saved by the Bell: The New Class. In the 1998 epic war drama film Saving Private Ryan, Hurst portrayed Mandelsohn, a paratrooper who, because of temporary hearing loss, cannot understand Captain Miller's (Tom Hanks) questions about sighting Private Ryan, which forces Miller to ask the questions in writing. Additionally, he appeared in the 2002 war film We Were Soldiers as Sgt. Ernie Savage, played the football player Lump Hudson in the black comedy thriller film The Ladykillers (2004), and starred in the TNT police drama series Wanted (2005). From 2005 to 2007, Hurst gained recognition for portraying the recurring role of Allison DuBois' half-brother, Michael Benoit, in NBC's supernatural procedural drama series Medium.
Hurst's big break came when he was cast as Opie Winston in the FX crime drama series Sons of Anarchy. Originally a recurring cast member in the first season, he was promoted to main cast member for the following season and went on to become a fan favorite. His character, newly released from a five-year prison stint and "living right", but not making ends meet, goes back to Samcro to provide for his family, despite his wife's objections and his knowing the risks. Hurst's portrayal of Opie earned him the 2011 Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Also in 2011, Hurst voiced Jedidiah in the animated box office hit Rango. Also stars in the series, Outsiders. It was announced in August 2018 that he will star as Beta on The Walking Dead.
In 1994, Hurst met Molly Cookson and the couple married in May 2005. Together, they founded the production company Fast Shoes. In April 2013, Hurst purchased a 3,400 square-foot home in Woodland Hills, California for $1.71 million.- Lucas York Black was born on November 29, 1982 in Decatur, Alabama to Jan (Keenum), an office worker, and Larry Black, a museum worker. With no formal acting lessons, Lucas made his film debut with a small part in the Kevin Costner film The War (1994) at age 11. This small role helped him land his next job in the series American Gothic (1995). When the series went to North Carolina to cast its primary roles, the casting people in Wilmington remembered Lucas, and suggested him for the role of "Caleb Temple." Although the series didn't last long, Lucas's film career did. He was next seen in the sleeper hit Sling Blade (1996), then in another dark film, Ghosts of Mississippi (1996).
A bit of Calvin Klein modeling and mainly school and sports occupied the rest of his spare time. He scored another summer hit with The X Files (1998) and finally got a lead role in the independent film Crazy in Alabama (1999). Selective about his film roles, Lucas turned down an opportunity to star in the movie adaptation of The Horse Whisperer (1998) due to the request of having his accent altered. In 2000 he was seen with Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses (2000).
Lucas graduated from Speake High School in 2001; he had been a good student and also played football, basketball, and a little bit of golf. An avid bass fisherman, he plans to study fish biology. After a small break, he will next be seen alongside Hollywood stars Jude Law and Natalie Portman in the drama Cold Mountain (2003). - Actor
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James David Van Der Beek was born on March 8, 1977 in Cheshire, Connecticut, as the oldest of three children of Melinda (Weber), a gymnastics studio owner and Broadway dancer, and Jim Van Der Beek, a cell phone company executive. He has a brother named Jared who was born in 1979, and a sister named Juliana who was born in 1981. James started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year on doctor's orders. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of "Grease." After that, the acting bug sank in and the next three years he spent time doing local theater. Around 16, he and his mother went to New York City to find an agent and possible auditions. A year later, he was cast in an off-Broadway play called "Finding the Sun." After doing another play called "Shenandoah" in 1994, James received an academic scholarship to Drew University in NJ, where he was working towards obtaining a major in English with a minor in sociology and also at that time he won the role of Rick Sanford in the movie Angus (1995). In 1996, he won a very small supporting role in I Love You, I Love You Not (1996) which starred Claire Danes. After that film his acting career was at a dead end and he decided to continue with his schooling and eventually made the Dean's list. The college experience soon became old for James, so he took some time off to travel and when he returned he auditioned for a role in Dawson's Creek (1998). He won the lead in the show, and his life changed forever. Though James has taken a hiatus from his college studies to shoot the series, he still plans to finish his degree. He has starred in several hit films over the past couple of years, like Varsity Blues (1999) andTexas Rangers (2001).- Actress
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Kristin Lee Davis was born on February 23, 1965 in Boulder, Colorado. An only child, her parents divorced when she was a baby. She was adopted by her stepfather, psychology professor Keith Davis, after he married her mother, Dorothy, a university data analyst, in 1968. Early in her childhood, Kristin and her parents moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where her stepfather was transferred to a university. She lived in South Carolina until she graduated high school in 1983. She then moved to New Jersey, where she attended Rutgers University. After graduation, she moved to New York and waited tables before opening a yoga studio with a friend. In 1995, she got her big break when she landed the role of Brooke Armstrong Campbell on Melrose Place (1992). She left the show after one year when producers found that audience members hated her bitchy character. In 1998, Kristin was cast as Charlotte York in Sex and the City (1998), of which she remained an integral cast member until the series ended in 2004. Kristin Davis resides in Los Angeles.- Actor
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Thomas Ian Nicholas joined the Producers Guild of America while producing and acting in his most recent film, ADVERSE, a drama/thriller with a large ensemble cast that includes Mickey Rourke, Sean Astin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Penelope Ann Miller, Matt Ryan and more. In 2018, he produced and starred in, LIVING AMONG US opposite William Saddler and the late John Heard which was released by Vision Films, Sony Pictures (US) and FOX (Asia).
Thomas began his acting career on Who's the Boss? playing a young Tony Danza. At age 12, Nicholas embarked on a series of feature films that would shape his young adult career, including Rookie of the Year, A Kid in King Arthur's Court. By 18 he had recurring roles on hit TV shows like Party of Five and the role of "Kevin Myers" in the extremely successful "American Pie" franchise.
Nicholas began to focus on dramatic roles including the Roger Avary-directed The Rules of Attraction with Faye Dunaway, Jessica Biel and Stealing Sinatra, opposite William H. Macy.
In 2009, he landed other exciting roles as a rookie cop in the drama Life is Hot in Cracktown with Lara Flynn Boyle. He portrayed Abbie Hoffman in the film entitled The Chicago 8. And as the role of Eugene in Nicole Holofcener's Please Give, opposite Rebecca Hall and Catherine Keener, in which he and the cast won the 2011 Indie Spirit Robert Altman Award.
Recent releases include Walt Before Mickey, where Nicholas portrays a young Walt Disney during the struggles of his early life and career. He was also a series regular on Steven Spielberg's TV drama series entitled, Red Band Society.- Actress
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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 (1970). Chris Sarandon, who had studied to be an actor, was passed over. His wife Susan got a major role.
That role was as Susan Compton, the daughter of ad executive Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick). In the movie Dad Bill kills Susan's drug dealer boyfriend and next befriends Joe (Peter Boyle)-- a bigot who works on an assembly line and who collects guns.
Five years later, Sarandon made the film where fans of cult classics have come to know her as Janet, who gets entangled with transvestite Dr. Frank n Furter in The The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). More than 15 years after beginning her career Sarandon at last actively campaigned for a great role, Annie in Bull Durham (1988), flying at her own expense from Rome to Los Angeles. "It was such a wonderful script ... and did away with a lot of myths and challenged the American definition of success", she said. "When I got there, I spent some time with Kevin Costner, kissed some ass at the studio and got back on a plane". Her romance with the Bull Durham (1988)) supporting actor, Tim Robbins, had produced two sons by 1992 and put Sarandon in the position of leaving her domestic paradise only to accept roles that really challenged her. The result was four Academy Award nominations in the 1990s and best actress for Dead Man Walking (1995). Her first Academy Award nomination was for Louis Malle's Atlantic City (1980).- Actress
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Connie Britton began playing country music fading sensation Rayna Jaymes in Nashville (2012) after having wrapped production for the five season long Friday Night Lights (2006) alongside Kyle Chandler. She previously appeared in Universal's Friday Night Lights (2004) -the movie- directed by Peter Berg and also starring Billy Bob Thornton; and Edward Burns' independent feature Looking for Kitty (2004).
Britton was born Constance Elaine Womack in Boston, Massachusetts, to Linda Jane (Cochran) and Edgar Allen Womack, Jr., a physicist and energy company executive. She is of Irish, German, and English descent.
Britton received accolades for her starring roles in Edward Burns' acclaimed independent films The Brothers McMullen (1995) and No Looking Back (1998). In the former, she captivated moviegoers with her portrayal of "Molly", the luminous wife of a cheating husband. This popular low-budget film went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. After nearly canceling her audition with director Edward Burns, this last meeting of the day turned into the role that would launch her career. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Britton moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, at the age of seven with her family, including her fraternal twin sister. She went on to attend Dartmouth College, where she majored in Asian studies and spent a term in Beijing, China. Upon graduation, she moved to New York, where she spent two years at the Neighborhood Playhouse studying with Sanford Meisner, and an additional two years performing in regional theater and off-Broadway productions. She moved to Los Angeles after the success of The Brothers McMullen (1995).
She starred in ABC's Lost at Home (2003) opposite Mitch Rouse and Gregory Hines. Her other television credits include The Fighting Fitzgeralds (2001) opposite Brian Dennehy, a recurring role in the highly-acclaimed drama The West Wing (1999) and a starring role in the award-winning comedy Spin City (1996) opposite Michael J. Fox. Additionally, Britton starred in the recent feature films The Next Big Thing (2001) and One Eyed King (2001).
In her free time, Britton, who resides in both New York and Los Angeles, enjoys hiking, yoga, and doing volunteer work.- Actor
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Darren Barnet was born on 27 April 1991 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Anyone But You (2023), Love Hard (2021) and Gran Turismo (2023).- Actor
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Jason Sudeikis was born on September 18, 1975 in Fairfax, Virginia as Daniel Jason Sudeikis. His father is Daniel Joseph Sudeikis, a Vice President of a business development and his mother is Kathryn (née Wendt), a travel agent at Brennco and President of the American Society of Travel Agents. He is of Lithuanian, Irish and German ancestry. He has two younger sisters, Lindsay, a high school teacher and basketball coach, and, Kristen Sudeikis, an actress and dancer in New York City. His maternal uncle is actor George Wendt.
Sudeikis grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, where he attended Brookridge Elementary School, before transferring to Holy Cross Catholic School. In 1990, he attended Jesuit Rockhurst High School, later transferring to Shawnee Mission West High School. He attended Fort Scott Community College on a basketball scholarship, but left before finishing. He began performing improvisational comedy at ComedySportz (now called Comedy City) in Kansas City.
Sudeikis moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he studied at the Annoyance Theatre and ImprovOlympic, and was one of the founding members of the long-form team, J.T.S. Brown (1998). He performed with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was later cast in The Second City's National Touring Company. In the early 2000s, he became a founding member of The Second City Las Vegas.
In 2003, Sudeikis was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live (1975) and would occasionally make bit appearances as audience members or extras. In May 2005, he became a featured player and was upgraded to repertory status in 2006. In July 2013, Sudeikis announced that he was leaving SNL, but still occasionally makes appearances.
Sudeikis is known for starring in the films, Horrible Bosses (2011), Hall Pass (2011), We're the Millers (2013), Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), Sleeping with Other People (2015), Mother's Day (2016), Masterminds (2015), The Book of Love (2016), Colossal (2016) and voicing the character of Red in the animated-comedy, The Angry Birds Movie (2016).
From November 2011 until November 2020, Sudeikis was in a relationship with Olivia Wilde. They have two children, Otis Alexander Sudeikis (born April 20, 2014) and Daisy Josephine Sudeikis (born October 11, 2016).
Recently, Sudeikis has starred in the films, Downsizing (2017), Kodachrome (2017), Driven (2018) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019).- Actress
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Hayden Lesley Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989 in Palisades, New York, to actress Lesley Vogel and fire department captain Skip Panettiere. Her younger brother was actor Jansen Panettiere (1994-2023). Her parents are both of half Italian descent, along with German and English. Her mother got her started in the business by doing commercials when she was just 11 months old. Then, at only 4 1/2, she was cast on the soap opera One Life to Live (1968), where she remained until 1997. Since then, she has gone on to appear in many feature films and TV movies. But she is probably best known in the United States for her role as "Claire" on the hit TV show, Heroes (2006).
As for movies, Hayden starred in Remember the Titans (2000) with Denzel Washington and Joe Somebody (2001) with Tim Allen. When Hayden isn't working, she enjoys singing, dancing, horseback riding, gymnastics, taking piano lessons, and swimming.
She has been involved with many animated movies, beginning with A Bug's Life (1998) as "Dot", later to follow was Dinosaur (2000), the video game Kingdom Hearts (2002), and The Mark of Kri (2002). Her next movie is Racing Stripes (2005), a partly animated film, but Hayden will star in the human role; other cast members include the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Dustin Hoffman, Joshua Jackson and Mandy Moore.
In 2003, she joined the likes of Jessica Lange, Tom Wilkinson and Clancy Brown in Jane Anderson's Normal (2003), a film about a Midwestern husband and father who announces his plans to have a sex-change operation. In July of the same year, Hayden appeared in a John Guare play, "Landscape of the Body", for the Williamstown theater festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.- Quincy Isaiah is known for Grassland (2024), Corporate Coffee (2018) and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (2022).
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Tim McGraw has sold more than 90 million records worldwide and dominated the charts with 46 worldwide No. 1 singles and 19 worldwide No. 1 albums. He's won 3 Grammy Awards, 21 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards. His iconic career achievements include being named BDS Radio's Most Played Artist of the Decade for all music genres and having the Most Played Song of the Decade for all music genres. He is the most played country artist at radio since his debut in 1992, with two singles spending 10 weeks or more at No. 1. Known for his high energy concerts, he is one of the top touring artists of all time including the record-setting "Soul2Soul" tours with his wife, Faith Hill. An acclaimed actor, McGraw starred in and narrated the hit movie "The Shack" and co-wrote and performed the closing credit song for the Oscar winning documentary "Free Solo." His other movie credits include blockbuster hits "Friday Night Lights" and "The Blind Side. McGraw starred beside Sam Elliott and his wife Faith Hill in the Yellowstone prequel and three-time Emmy nominated 1883. McGraw has co-authored two New York Times Best Selling books, Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest and the Music that Made a Nation with Jon Meacham and fitness book Grit & Grace: Train the Mind, Train the Body, Own Your Life. As part of the host committee, McGraw welcomed the largest outdoor crowd in Nashville history to his performance at the 2019 NFL Draft. He also appeared in the NFL Tailgate Party for Super Bowl LII and the College Football Playoffs 2020. His newest single, "Standing Room Only," just launched with the most first-week streams of any track in McGraw's career.- Actor
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Randy Houser was born on 18 December 1975 in Lake, Mississippi, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Crank: High Voltage (2009), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and The X-Files (1993). He has been married to Tatiana Starzynski Houser since 4 May 2016. They have two children. He was previously married to Jessica Lee Yantz.- Actor
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Raúl Castillo was born in McAllen, Texas, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Cassandro (2023), We the Animals (2018) and Army of the Dead (2021).- Actor
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Jeremy Allen White (born 1991) is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his long-running role as Phillip "Lip" Gallagher on the Showtime dreamed series Shameless (2011-2021). He has also appeared in the first season of the thriller series Homecoming (2018) and in several films including Afterschool, Twelve, After Everything, and The Rental.- Actor
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James Lafferty is an actor, director, writer and producer. Best known for his work on the popular television series One Tree Hill, Lafferty's other television credits include Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, NBC's Crisis and WGN's Underground. In the feature world, Lafferty supported in Blumhouse Productions' Oculus. He would go on to act in three consecutive, but very different films written and directed by the Nelms Brothers: Lost on Purpose, Waffle Street and Small Town Crime.
Lafferty has also directed several episodes of One Tree Hill and The Royals for E! Networks. In conjunction with his directing work, he continues to develop projects as a writer and producer. He is currently (2019) in production on his latest project, the independent television series Everyone is Doing Great.- Producer
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Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair in Alameda County, California, along with his fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent. He was raised by his astrologer/psychologist mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair), and adoptive father, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theatre manager, in an artists' housing project in New York City's Greenwich Village. He never knew his biological father. His mother is white (with English, German, Scottish, and Irish ancestry), and his adoptive father is African-American; referring to his biological father's background, Diesel has said that he himself is "definitely a person of colour".
His first break in acting happened by chance, when at the age of seven he and his friends broke into a theatre to vandalize it. A woman stopped them and offered them each a script and $20, on the condition that they would attend everyday after school. From there, Vin's fledgling career progressed from the New York repertory company run by his father, to the Off-Off-Broadway circuit. At age seventeen and already sporting a well-honed physique, he became a bouncer at some of New York's hippest clubs to earn himself some extra cash. It was at this time that he changed his name to Vin Diesel.
Following high school, Vin enrolled as an English major at Hunter College, but dropped out after three years to go to Hollywood to further his acting career. Being an experienced theatre actor did not make any impression in Hollywood and after a year of struggling to make his mark, he returned to New York. His mother then gave him a book called "Feature Films at used Car Prices" by Rick Schmidt. The book showed him that he could take control of his career and make his own movies. He wrote a short film based on his own experiences as an actor, called Multi-Facial (1995), which was shot in less than three days at a cost of $3,000. Multi-Facial (1995) was eventually accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival where it got a tumultuous reception.
Afterwards, Vin returned to Los Angeles and raised almost $50,000 through telemarketing to fund the making of his first feature, Strays (1997). Six months after shooting, the film was accepted for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and although it received a good reception, it did not sell as well as hoped. Yet again Vin returned disappointed to New York only to receive a dream phone call. Steven Spielberg was impressed by Multi-Facial (1995) and wanted to meet Vin, leading him to be cast in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Multi-Facial (1995) earned Vin more work, when the director of The Iron Giant (1999) saw it and decided to cast Vin in the title role. From there, Vin's career steadily grew, with him securing his first lead role, as Richard B. Riddick in the sci-fi film Pitch Black (2000). The role has earned him a legion of devoted fans and the public recognition he deserves.
Since then, he has headlined a series of blockbusters, often but not only centered on fast-driving motor vehicles: The Fast and the Furious (2001), xXx (2002), The Pacifier (2005), Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Furious 7 (2015). He also voiced Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and starred in the lower-budgeted courtroom drama Find Me Guilty (2006), the latter directed by Sidney Lumet.- Writer
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Rob McElhenney was born on 14 April 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005), Mythic Quest (2020) and Latter Days (2003). He has been married to Kaitlin Olson since 27 September 2008. They have two children.- Actor
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William Zabka was born on 20 October 1965 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Karate Kid (1984), Back to School (1986) and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). He has been married to Stacie Lynn Doss since 2008. They have two children.- Actor
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After starring in the hugely successful blockbuster The Hunger Games (2012) (for which he received two awards), Alexander has gone on to work in films such as Lone Survivor (2013), The Final Girls (2015), and Bad Boys for Life (2020), and received critical acclaim for his performance as Bjorn Ironside in the global hit television series Vikings (2013).
Alexander Richard Ludwig was born in Vancouver, Canada, on May 7, 1992. He has three siblings: Nicholas, Natalie and Sophia, and a cat named Puss in Boots. His mother, Sharlene Martin, is a former actress and assists in managing his career. His father, Harald Ludwig, is a board member of Lions Gate Entertainment and president of Macluan Capital Corporation. As one of the stars of History Channel's top rated show "Vikings", Alexander's Bjorn Ironside is the eldest son to the king and the successor to the crown. Completing its third season, Vikings has been experiencing overwhelming success: "New York, NY - February 24, 2015 -The season three premiere of History's hit scripted series Vikings raided 4.6 million total viewers, 2.4 million Adults 25-54 and 2.3 million Adults 18-49 in Live +3 delivery, ranking it as the #1 show on cable in Live +3 in all key demos and total viewers on Thursday, February 19." Additionally, Alexander co-starred in Sony's dark comedy The Final Girls (2015) co-starring Malin Akerman, Nina Dobrev, Taissa Farmiga and Adam Devine. This film premiered at SXSW on Friday, March 13, 2015 at 10 pm and received rave reviews. Alexander just completed filming the independent picture "Go With Me", co-starring Anthony Hopkins, Julia Stiles and Ray Liotta. The producers of this film are anticipating a 2015 release date. Alexander is an ambassador to the Bvlgari Brand, as well as being an independent fashion consultant to the sport line RYU.
He is a passionate musician, an undeniable adrenaline junkie and a gifted spokesman. Those who work with him speak of his dedication to his craft, coupled with his humility and charm and his work on Vikings (2013) has made him one of the most promising and sought after stars of his generation. When he isn't acting, Alexander can be found writing for film and television as well as surfing, extreme skiing, skydiving, traveling the world, and working with a variety of philanthropic organizations.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Dwayne Douglas Johnson, also known as The Rock, was born on May 2, 1972 in Hayward, California. He is the son of Ata Johnson (born Feagaimaleata Fitisemanu) and professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles). His father, from Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, is black (of Black Nova Scotian descent), and his mother is of Samoan background (her own father was Peter Fanene Maivia, also a professional wrestler). While growing up, Dwayne traveled around a lot with his parents and watched his father perform in the ring. During his high school years, Dwayne began playing football and he soon received a full scholarship from the University of Miami, where he had tremendous success as a football player. In 1995, Dwayne suffered a back injury which cost him a place in the NFL. He then signed a three-year deal with the Canadian League but left after a year to pursue a career in wrestling.
He made his wrestling debut in the USWA under the name Flex Kavanah where he won the tag team championship with Brett Sawyer. In 1996, Dwayne joined the WWE and became Rocky Maivia where he joined a group known as "The Nation of Domination" and turned heel. Rocky eventually took over leadership of the "Nation" and began taking the persona of The Rock. After the "Nation" split, The Rock joined another elite group of wrestlers known as the "Corporation" and began a memorable feud with Steve Austin. Soon the Rock was kicked out of the "Corporation". He turned face and became known as "The Peoples Champion". In 2000, the Rock took time off from WWE to film his appearance in The Mummy Returns (2001). He returned in 2001 during the WCW/ECW invasion where he joined a team of WWE wrestlers at The Scorpion King (2002), a prequel to The Mummy Returns (2001).
Dwayne has a daughter, Simone Alexandra Johnson, born in 2001, with his ex-wife Dany Garcia, and daughters, Jasmine, born in 2015, and Tiana Gia, born in 2018, with his wife, singer and songwriter Lauren Hashian.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Zachary Michael Gilford is an American actor, known for his role as Matt Saracen on the NBC sports drama series Friday Night Lights. In 2021, he starred in the Netflix horror limited series Midnight Mass. He is also set to appear in the horror series The Midnight Club in 2022. Gilford was born in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Anne and Steve Gilford. His mother is Lutheran, and his father is Jewish. He graduated from Evanston Township High School and Northwestern University. He worked as a trip leader for Adventures Cross-Country and has led wilderness and adventure trips for teenagers to Alaska, British Columbia, California, Hawaii, and the South Pacific. Gilford also worked as a staff member for YMCA Camp Echo in Fremont, Michigan.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Joseph Sikora was born and raised in the city of Chicago on the far northwest side. He studied acting at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanton, Illinois and also at Columbia College, Chicago where he received his B.A. degree in Theatre. He has been nominated for a Joseph Jefferson award for theatre in Chicago and received an Ovation award for theatre in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Chris Messina was born on 11 August 1974 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Argo (2012), Away We Go (2009) and Devil (2010). He is married to Jennifer Todd. They have two children. He was previously married to Rosemarie DeWitt.- Actor
- Producer
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Daniel Brühl was born in Barcelona, Spain. His father was German TV director Hanno Brühl (1937-2010), who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. His Spanish mother was a teacher. He also has a brother and a sister, Oliver and Miriam. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Cologne, Germany, where he grew up and attended the Dreikönigsgymnasium. Brought up in a fully multilingual home, he speaks fluent German, English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Catalan.- Josha started his acting career in 2006 with musical theater productions like 'Kuifje: De Zonnetempel', 'Ciske de Rat' and 'The Sound of Music'. He studied at the Lucia Marthas Performance Academy and at CodArts. His screen debut was with a lead in the youth series 'Naranjina en de Kadekapers', followed by 'Spangas' and appearances in the shows 'Dokter Tinus' and 'Verborgen Verhalen'. Josha has graduated in 2018 from the AHK Theatre School in Amsterdam with a Bachelor in acting.
He played in shows like 'Gender' and 'Bromance' by Theater group Oostpool and director Timothy de Gilde and in 'Oedipus' by Ivo van Hove's International Theater Amsterdam and director Robert Icke. He also starred in a few shorts and the television film 'Just Friends', which won many international awards. In 2018 he was selected as a shooting star for the Subtitle Film Festival.
In 2020 he starred as fighter pilot Rutger in the international series High Flyers. Last year, after two years of filming The Wheel of Time premiered season 1 on Amazone Prime Video. In the show he stars opposite Rosamund Pike as Rand Al'Thor. The show is a hit and he just finished shooting the 2nd season and season 3 has already been green-lit. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Kola Bokinni is well-known for his role as Richmond Team Captain Isaac McAdoo in the Emmy and SAG Award winning Apple TV+ series "Ted Lasso." Bokinni also appeared in "Top Boy" on Netflix, where he played the role of Leyton in this critically acclaimed series, produced by rapper and entrepreneur Drake. He has also recently appeared on "Black Mirror" on Netflix.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Born and raised in Los Angeles, DeVaughn Nixon has been working in the industry for over twenty years. He began with roles in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "The Bodyguard" and over the years was featured in several TV series including "JAG," "The Unit," "The Game" and more. His father is former NBA player Norm Nixon and step-mother is dancer/choreographer Debbie Allen.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Zachary David Alexander Efron was born October 18, 1987 in San Luis Obispo, California, to Starla Baskett, a secretary, and David Efron, an electrical engineer. He has a younger brother, Dylan. The surname "Efron", which is Hebrew and a Biblical place name, comes from Zac's Polish Jewish paternal grandfather.
Zac was raised in Arroyo Grande, CA. He took his first step toward acting at the age of eleven, after his parents noticed his singing ability. Singing and acting lessons soon led to an appearance in a production of "Gypsy" that ran 90 performances, and he was hooked. After appearing on-stage in "Peter Pan", "Auntie Mame", "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Music Man", guest parts quickly followed on television series, including Firefly (2002), ER (1994), CSI: Miami (2002), NCIS (2003), and The Guardian (2001). After guest-starring in several episodes of Summerland (2004), Zac joined the regular cast as girl-crazy Cameron Bale. He also starred in several pilots, such as The Big Wide World of Carl Laemke (2003) and Triple Play (2004), and played an autistic child in the television film Miracle Run (2004), alongside Mary-Louise Parker and Aidan Quinn. He graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in June 2006.
Efron came to fame for starring in the Disney Channel original film High School Musical (2006), for which he won the Teen Choice Award for Breakout Star. He returned to the role of Troy Bolton in High School Musical 2 (2007), which broke cable TV records with 17.5 million viewers.
He had the lead roles in the fantasy romance Charlie St. Cloud (2010) and the comedy 17 Again (2009), both from director Burr Steers, and as the lovable Link Larkin in 2007's smash hit musical Hairspray (2007), directed by Adam Shankman. As part of the all-star cast, he shared a Critics Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble and the 2007 Hollywood Film Festival Award for Ensemble of the Year, and was honored with a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast. In addition, he won an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance.
Efron then starred in Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles (2008), an adaptation of the novel by Robert Kaplow, which premiered to rave reviews at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. That same year, he led Kenny Ortega's High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008), which set a box office record for the highest grossing opening weekend for a musical. In 2012, Efron took the lead in The Lucky One (2012), a film adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, playing a marine who returns to North Carolina after serving in Iraq in search for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war. He also lent his voice to the animated feature Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012), and co-starred in Lee Daniels' thriller The Paperboy (2012), alongside Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey and Scott Glenn, as well as Josh Radnor's Liberal Arts (2012), which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Another indie film he co-starred in, At Any Price (2012), was released in 2013.
Most recently, Zac starred with Seth Rogen in the hit comedy film Neighbors (2014), headlined the 2015 drama We Are Your Friends (2015), carried three 2016 comedies, Dirty Grandpa (2016), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), and starred opposite Hugh Jackman and Zendaya in the musical drama The Greatest Showman (2017), about showman P. T. Barnum. The latter title was a sleeper hit in the winter of 2017, becoming Zac's highest-grossing live action film in the U.S.
Zac's 2019 roles include a supporting part in Harmony Korine's The Beach Bum (2019), and playing serial killer Ted Bundy in Joe Berlinger's biographical drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019).
Efron's favorite sports include golf, skiing, rock climbing, and snowboarding. He added surfing after spending days on the beach for "Summerland." He played the piano at home. He has also fixed up two cars in his spare time, a Delorean and '65 Mustang convertible, both treasured hand-me-downs from his even-more-treasured grandfather.- Actor
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Harris Dickinson is an actor, writer and director living in London. His passion for performing started at a young age attending Raw Academy. In March 2014, Harris performed Pauline McLynn's 'Angels' at the National Theatre, Southbank. After being funded to write and direct his first short film at a young age, his portfolio continues to grow. In 2017, he played a young man coming of age in Brooklyn in the drama Beach Rats (2017), receiving significant critical acclaim.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
On the viewing horizon since the late 1980s, actress Maura Tierney has been a steady product of independent features, some hits and some misses, for close to a decade and a half. An odd and compelling beauty, she came from an upscale Bostonian family and was raised in the Hyde Park district.
Born February 3, 1965, the eldest child of three of Pat, a real estate agent, and Joseph M. Tierney, a prosperous politician and city councilman, Maura Lynn Tierney initially studied at New York University. She left school prior to graduation when she hooked up with the Circle-in-the-Square theater school. Following some stage plays including "Baby with the Bathwater" and "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," she moved to the West Coast in the late 1980s finding minor roles here and there in TV-movies and making the rounds on episodic shows such as Growing Pains (1985), Family Ties (1982) and Law & Order (1990). She met actor/husband Billy Morrissette after both were fired from the set of an eventually-scrapped Ralph Macchio series.
After a few other failed pilots and a short-lived TV series, Maura made a minor film debut with The Linguini Incident (1991) and progressed to leading lady status in the B-movie spoof Dead Women in Lingerie (1991), which didn't go over well. She finally hit paydirt on TV when she won a female co-lead as smart but insecure newswriter Lisa Miller on the comedy series NewsRadio (1995). The show sailed along for a number of seasons due to the fine comedy instincts of David Foley, Andy Dick and the late Saturday Night Live (1975) player Phil Hartman. The show lost its oomph, however, as well as its audience after Hartman's tragic 1998 gunshot slaying, despite an assured replacement in fellow Saturday Night Live (1975) alumni Jon Lovitz. The show couldn't escape its bad aura, and it was gone the following year.
Maura's work on the TV sitcom thrust her into the film comedy limelight with prominent roles in such films as the Jim Carrey vehicle Liar Liar (1997). She also showed up as sly, darker-edged femmes in the thriller Primal Fear (1996), Primary Colors (1998) and Instinct (1999).
Into the millennium, Maura received one of her best art-house roles as a heavy in her husband's feature Scotland, Pa. (2001) which he wrote and directed. Following that came a mixture of offbeat parts in such films as the mystery thriller Insomnia (2002) starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams; the romantic comedy Welcome to Mooseport (2004) with Gene Hackman and Ray Romano; the Paul Rudd dramedy Diggers (2006); the sports comedy Semi-Pro (2008) with Will Ferrell and Steve Guttenberg; the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler slapstick comedy Baby Mama (2008); and, more recently, Nature Calls (2012), Anything (2017) and Beautiful Boy (2018) opposite Steve Carell.
She also found steady TV work with the role of Abby, who was first a nurse and then a doctor, in the long-established and critically-acclaimed medical drama series ER (1994), where she remained on the staff until the show left the air in 2009. She also found recurring roles on Rescue Me (2004), The Good Wife (2009) and The Affair (2014), and co-starred in the short-lived legal drama The Whole Truth (2010) with Rob Morrow.- Stunts
- Actor
Brady Pierce is known for The Iron Claw (2023), Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) and Megalopolis (2024).- Actor
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- Director
Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University, intent on a career in journalism. However, he caught the acting bug while appearing in student drama productions and, upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater. He left A.C.T. after only one year to seek work as an actor. His first paid acting role was in a summer stock theater stage production in St. Mary's City, Maryland. The play was "Wings of the Morning", which is about the founding of the colony of Maryland (now the state of Maryland) and the early days of the Maryland colonial assembly (a legislative body). He played the part of a real historical character, Mathias Da Sousa, although much of the dialogue was created. Afterwards he began to pursue screen roles in earnest. With his acting versatility and powerful presence, he had no difficulty finding work in numerous television productions.
He made his first big screen appearance in Carbon Copy (1981) with George Segal. Through the 1980s, he worked in both movies and television and was chosen for the plum role of Dr. Philip Chandler in NBC's hit medical series St. Elsewhere (1982), a role that he would play for six years. In 1989, his film career began to take precedence when he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Tripp, the runaway slave in Edward Zwick's powerful historical masterpiece Glory (1989).
Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1990s, including his portrayals of real-life figures such as South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in The Hurricane (1999), football coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000), poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters (2007), and drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007). Malcolm X and The Hurricane garnered him Oscar nominations for Best Actor, before he finally won that statuette in 2002 for his lead role in Training Day (2001).
Through the 1990s, Denzel also co-starred in such big budget productions as The Pelican Brief (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), The Preacher's Wife (1996), and Courage Under Fire (1996), a role for which he was paid $10 million. He continued to define his onscreen persona as the tough, no-nonsense hero through the 2000s in films like Out of Time (2003), Man on Fire (2004), Inside Man (2006), and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009). Cerebral and meticulous in his film work, he made his debut as a director with Antwone Fisher (2002); he also directed The Great Debaters (2007) and Fences (2016).
In 2010, Washington headlined The Book of Eli (2010), a post-Apocalyptic drama. Later that year, he starred as a veteran railroad engineer in the action film Unstoppable (2010), about an unmanned, half-mile-long runaway freight train carrying dangerous cargo. The film was his fifth and final collaboration with director Tony Scott, following Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006) and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. He has also been a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and has been a frequent collaborator of director Spike Lee.
In 2012, Washington starred in Flight (2012), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He co-starred with Ryan Reynolds in Safe House (2012), and prepared for his role by subjecting himself to a torture session that included waterboarding. In 2013, Washington starred in 2 Guns (2013), alongside Mark Wahlberg. In 2014, he starred in The Equalizer (2014), an action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk, based on the television series of same name starring Edward Woodward. During this time period, he also took on the role of producer for some of his films, including The Book of Eli and Safe House.
In 2016, he was selected as the recipient for the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.
He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Pauletta Washington, and their four children.- Actor
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Kyle M. Chandler is an Emmy-winning American actor who was born in Buffalo, New York in 1965. He resides in the United States with his wife, Kathryn Chandler, and their two children, Sawyer and Sydney. Some of his most notable credits include "Friday Night Lights" (Friday Night Lights (2006)), "Bloodline" (Bloodline (2015)), The Wolf of Wall Street (The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)), Argo (Argo (2012)) and Zero Dark Thirty (Zero Dark Thirty (2012)), to name a few.- Producer
- Actress
- Music Department
Sandra Annette Bullock was born in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Her mother, Helga Bullock (née Helga Mathilde Meyer), was a German opera singer. Her father, John W. Bullock, was an American voice teacher, who was born in Alabama, of German descent. Sandra grew up on the road with her parents and younger sister, chef Gesine Bullock-Prado, and spent much of her childhood in Nuremberg, Germany. She often performed in the children's chorus of whatever production her mother was in. That singing talent later came in handy for her role as an aspiring country singer in The Thing Called Love (1993). Her family moved back to the Washington area when she was adolescent. She later enrolled in East Carolina University in North Carolina, where she studied acting. Shortly afterward she moved to New York to pursue a career on the stage. This led to acting in television programs and then feature films. She gave memorable performances in Demolition Man (1993) and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993), but did not achieve the stardom that seemed inevitable for her until her work in the smash hit Speed (1994). She now ranks as one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood. For her role in The Blind Side (2009) she won the Oscar, and her blockbusters The Proposal (2009), The Heat (2013) and Gravity (2013) made her a bankable star. With $56,000,000, she was listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the highest-paid actress in the world.- Actor
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In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history.
Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, Tom wanted to become a priest but pretty soon he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.
With handsome movie star looks and a charismatic smile, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top-grossing films of the 1980s including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s he was one of the highest-paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996), for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. Tom Cruise's biggest franchise, Mission Impossible, has also earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Tom Cruise has also shown lots of interest in producing, with his biggest producer credits being the Mission Impossible franchise.
In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth to become one of the biggest movie stars ever.- Actor
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Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Copeland Bloom was born on January 13, 1977 in Canterbury, Kent, England. His mother, Sonia Constance Josephine Bloom (née Copeland), was born in Kolkata, India, to an English family then-resident there. The man he first knew as his father, Harry Bloom, was a legendary political activist who fought for civil rights in South Africa. But Harry died of a stroke when Orlando was only four years old. After that, Orlando and his older sister, Samantha Bloom, were raised by their mother and family friend, Colin Stone. When Orlando was 13, Sonia revealed to him that Colin is actually the biological father of Orlando and his sister; the two were conceived after an agreement by his parents, since Harry, who suffered a stroke in 1975, was unable to have children.
Orlando attended St. Edmund's School in Canterbury but struggled in many courses because of dyslexia. He did embrace the arts, however, and enjoyed pottery, photography and sculpturing. He also participated in school plays and was active at his local theater. As a teen, Orlando landed his first job: he was a clay trapper at a pigeon shooting range. Encouraged by his mother, he and his sister began studying poetry and prose, eventually giving readings at Kent Festival. Orlando and Samantha won many poetry and Bible reciting competitions. Then Orlando, who always idolized larger-than-life characters, gravitated towards serious acting. At the age of 16, he moved to London and joined the National Youth Theatre, spending two seasons there and gaining a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy. Like many young actors, he also auditioned for a number of television roles to further his career, landing bit parts in British television shows Casualty (1986), Midsomer Murders (1997) and Smack the Pony (1999). He also appeared in the critically acclaimed movie Wilde (1997).
He then attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It was there, in 1998, that Orlando fell three stories from a rooftop terrace and broke his back. Despite fears that he would be permanently paralyzed, he quickly recovered and returned to the stage. As fate would have it, seated in the audience one night in 1999 was a director named Peter Jackson. After the show, he met with Orlando and asked him to audition for his new set of movies. After graduating from Guildhall, Orlando began work on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, spending 18 months in New Zealand bringing to life "Legolas", a part which made him a household name. Today, he is one of the busiest and most sought-after actors in the industry.- Actor
- Stunts
Duke Davis Roberts is a Los Angeles native that has been acting since High School. He has been involved in many projects but most notably his recurring role in the final season of Justified, as well as his lead role in the film Undrafted. He is theatrically trained, but works mostly on camera for Television and Film.- Actor
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Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, to Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His parents worked for the Pacifica Radio station KPFK-FM and his maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, had been a well-known movie director. Joseph first became well known for his starring role on NBC's award-winning comedy series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996). During his six seasons on the show, he won two YoungStar Awards and also shared in three Screen Actors Guild Award® nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Comedy Series Ensemble.
Prior to his success on television, Joseph had already worked steadily in feature films. Early in his career, he won a Young Artist Award for his first major role, in Robert Redford's drama A River Runs Through It (1992). During the 1990s, he also co-starred in the films Angels in the Outfield (1994), The Juror (1996), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), a well-reviewed slasher sequel, and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), opposite Heath Ledger, which has become a teen comedy classic.
Following his work on 3rd Rock, Joseph took time off from acting to attend Columbia University. In the early 2000s, he broke from the mold of his television and film comedy supporting roles by appearing in a string of intense dramatic parts, mostly in smaller, independent films, such as Manic (2001), with Don Cheadle; Mysterious Skin (2004), for writer/director Gregg Araki; Rian Johnson's award-winning debut, dramatic thriller Brick (2005) (2005); Lee Daniels' Shadowboxer (2005); the crime drama The Lookout (2007), which marked Scott Frank's directorial debut; John Madden's Killshot (2008), with Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke; Spike Lee's World War II film Miracle at St. Anna (2008); and the controversial drama Stop-Loss (2008), in which he starred with Ryan Phillippe, under the direction of Kimberly Peirce. By 2009, Joseph was officially established as one a new generation of leading men with his Golden Globe-nominated role in Marc Webb's comedy-drama 500 Days of Summer (2009), also starring Zooey Deschanel , for which he received Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award and People's Choice Award nominations. He also adapted the Elmore Leonard short story Sparks (2009) into a 24-minute short film that he directed, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Beginning the new decade, he headlined the indie drama Hesher (2010) and established himself as an action star in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), also starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard and Elliot Page. Balancing both independent and Hollywood film, Joseph scored another Golden Globe nod for the cancer drama 50/50 (2011), directed by Jonathan Levine and also starring Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, and Bryce Dallas Howard. He worked again with director Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the third and final installment in the director's Batman series, for which he received a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite Movie Actor; and snagged leading roles in both Premium Rush (2012), directed by David Koepp, and Looper (2012), reuniting with his Brick director, Rian Johnson, opposite Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. Rounding out the year, he played Abraham Lincoln's son Robert in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated Lincoln (2012), with Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.
In 2013, Gordon-Levitt starred in his critically-acclaimed feature film directorial debut, Don Jon (2013), from a script he wrote, opposite Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for "Best First Screenplay" for the film. He also provided the voice of Jiro Horikoshi in the 2014 English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award-nominated animated feature The Wind Rises (2013), and appeared in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), in which he played Johnny, a character Miller created for the film. In 2015, he starred in The Walk (2015), directed by Robert Zemeckis, and in which he portrayed Philippe Pettit, and in 2016 headlined Oliver Stone's Snowden (2016).
Joseph has completed production on Project Power (2020), Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman sci-fi film for Netflix, in which he stars opposite Jamie Foxx, and on the independent thriller, 7500 (2019), written and directed by Patrick Vollarth. Among his other projects, he will play attorney Richard Schultz in Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and is in development on a variety of feature films including Fraggle Rock.
Joseph has also founded and directs hitRECord, an open collaborative production. hitRECord creates and develops art and media collectively using their website where anyone with an internet connection can upload their records, download and remix others' records, and work on projects together. When the results of these RECords are produced and make a profit, hitRECord splits the profits 50/50 with everybody who contributed to the final production. hitRECord has published books, put out records, gone on tour and has screened their work at major festivals including Sundance and TIFF. The half-hour variety program, "Hit Record on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt," which includes short films, live performances, music, animation, conversation and more, earned an Emmy Award for Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - Social TV Experience. hitRECord's project, "Band Together with Logic," is a one-hour YouTube Originals special that sees Grammy-nominated rapper Logic open up his creative process like never before, inviting the world to collaborate with him on an original song and music video.
In 2016, the ACLU honored Gordon-Levitt with their annual Bill of Rights Award for furthering diversity efforts, promoting free speech, empowering women and otherwise supporting civil rights and liberties for all Americans.- Irish character actress Brenda Fricker was born in Dublin, and gained experience in Irish theatre and with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Court Theatre Company in Great Britain. Brenda received great acclaim for her Oscar-winning supporting performance as the determined mother of a son afflicted with cerebral palsy in My Left Foot (1989). Venturing to Hollywood in the 1990s, she played a homeless woman befriended by kid-on-the-loose Macaulay Culkin in the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and followed up with a more zany mother role in the little-seen So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993). Having acted on English TV on the BBC series Casualty (1986), Fricker began conquering US TV with roles in the American Playhouse (1980) presentation Lethal Innocence (1991) and the miniseries Alexander Graham Bell: The Sound and the Silence (1991). Fricker offered memorable support as Albert Finney's exasperated sister in A Man of No Importance (1994) (1994) and appeared in support of Robin Wright in Pen Densham's Moll Flanders (1996) and as Matthew McConaughey's secretary in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill (1996) (both 1996).
- Kim Zimmer was born on 2 February 1955 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. She is an actress, known for Body Heat (1981), Guiding Light (1952) and MacGyver (1985). She has been married to A.C. Weary since 29 August 1981. They have three children.
- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
David A.R. White has been a working actor, director and producer in Los Angeles for over twenty years. He was raised in a small Mennonite farming community outside of Dodge City, Kansas.
At the age of 19, David moved to LA, and only six months after moving, landed a recurring role on the hit top 10, TV CBS sitcom, Evening Shade for close to four years. He played the best friend of Burt Reynolds's son. David then went on to guest appearances on such shows as: Coach, Saved by the Bell, Sisters, Melrose Place, Martial Law and many others.
In 1999, produced and starred in his first feature length film, The Moment After. The following year, he produced and starred in the groundbreaking faith based theatrical film, Mercy Streets opposite Eric Roberts, Stacy Keach and Cynthia Watros. David was nominated for a movie guide's "best actor" award for his dual roles in the film. Sony picked up both films for distribution. David kept producing and starring in films throughout the next several years.
In late 2005, David became a founding partner in the film distribution/production entity Pure Flix.
Today, Pure Flix maintains its position as the number one Faith based studio, producing and distributing more films in this genre than any other studio. David also maintains his position as one of the most prolific actors/filmmakers in the faith based arena, as he writes, directs, produces and stars in many of the films.
David has starred in over 20 films. Some of his film credits include: SIX...the Mark Unleashed, The Moment After 1,2, In the Blink of an Eye, Hidden Secrets, Holyman Undercover, Run On, Marriage Retreat, Me Again, Jerusalem Countdown (based on the best selling book that sold over 2 million units and the Revelation Road movies.
In 2012, David created, produced and starred in the UP original film, Brother White. He co-starred with Reginald Vel Johnson, Jackee, Victoria Jackson, academy award nominee Bruce Davison and Ray Wise. At the TCA's that year, David got rave reviews and became a darling, charming the critics with his real life Mennonite stories.
For his performance in Brother White, David was named a finalist in 5th Annual Cable FAX Program Awards in the category of Best Actor - Family Friendly
In 2014, David produced and Co Starred in the #1 live action independent movie of the year, God's Not Dead. He starred with Kevin Sorbo and Dean Cain in God's Not Dead. God's Not Dead maintains it's position as the 6th most profitable movie in cinema history based on it's ROI.
Also in 2014, David helped produced a new Sony Film, Mom's Night Out.
In 2015, David starred in the new action/comedy dog movie Dancer and the Dame. He starred opposite Billy Gardell. (Mike on Mike & Molly). David continues to be at the helm of Pure Flix shooting and releasing 4 theatricals films a year, and building and creating content such as Malibu Dan, the God's Not Dead franchise and David's latest, Beckman for Pureflix.com- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Crystal Hunt was born on 5 February 1985 in Clearwater, Florida, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Hilton Head Island (2017), Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Sydney White (2007).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Nadia Bjorlin was born the fifth out of six children. Her parents were Ulf Björlin (a Swedish conductor and composer, known to be the world's most active opera composer during the 20th century) and Fary Bjorlin. Her siblings are Katja, Kaj, Kamilla, Ulf Jr and Jean Paul. (Each sibling have a history of artistic or creative work in their background. A very stunning and talented family indeed). Nadia was born in Newport, Rhode Island (USA), but her family soon moved to Sweden. This was only for a few short years before moving back to the USA again.
Nadia worked the opera scene before becoming an actress. It was a fast lane change by a sudden contract with NBC who needed an opera singing girl for a permanent part in a television series. Nadia has since then appeared in both movies and TV series. She has played lead characters in big screen productions and she has been a guest star in shows like CSI, Two an a half men, Two Broke Girls, as well as other comedy shows. Her talent is strong in comedy as well as in drama. She is also quite the dancer, which can be seen in Ricky Martin's music video "Shake Your Bon Bon". She was second runner up placing in Miss Teen Florida. Her voice won a sought after first place in a world proclaimed a opera competition in Italy.
Nadia is fluent in Swedish, English and Farsi. Because of her education in opera, she is schooled in several more languages like Italian and French. Nadia was a child prodigy who excelled in her studies at school as well as voice, theater, dance, and music. She started her professional career at six years old and won several awards while attending the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
She currently (2014) lives in California. Her school years were mostly in Palm Beach, Florida and New York. Her most beloved father died of leukemia in 1993. This has inspired Nadia to become a spokesperson and represent The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for many years now.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Joseph Matthew Alwyn is an English actor and songwriter. Born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, and raised in North London, Alwyn developed interest in acting during his teens and joined the National Youth Theatre in 2009. He began by acting in two student productions at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and graduated with BA degrees in English literature/drama and acting from the University of Bristol (2012) and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (2015), respectively.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Ralph George Macchio was born on November 4, 1961 in Huntington, Long Island, New York. He started out in various TV commercials in the late 1970s before appearing in the puerile comedy movie Up the Academy (1980), then a regular role in 1980 on the television series Eight Is Enough (1977) followed by a decent performance as teenager Johhny Cade in the The Outsiders (1983) based on the popular S.E. Hinton novel about troubled youth.
In 1984, Macchio scored the lead role in The Karate Kid (1984) directed by Rocky (1976) director John G. Avildsen. The film was a phenomenal success, being highly popular with adults and children alike. The movie spawned two equally popular sequels The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid Part III (1989), both again starring Macchio and Pat Morita, and both directed by Avildsen.
Macchio also starred in the blues road movie Crossroads (1986), featured alongside Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny (1992) and, looking to toughen up his image, Macchio played a hit man in A Good Night to Die (2003). Arguably, movie audiences still identify Macchio very strongly with his Karate Kid role, but as his features have gained a more weathered, adult edge, he has found opportunities and positive reviews from appearances in stage productions showcasing his acting talent. It would be great to see this versatile actor score some broader and more challenging film roles.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tanner Buchanan is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Leo Kirkman in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor and Robby Keene in the Netflix series Cobra Kai. He is also known for his role in the Nickelodeon television series Game Shakers as Mason Kendall.- Actor
- Producer
Xolo Maridueña was born on June 9, 2001 and raised in Los Angeles, California and started acting professionally in 2011. His natural talent helped him quickly secure an agent, and he landed dozens of roles within his first year. Those included several television commercials, a recurring role on "Parenthood" which has become a series regular role. He has also appeared in Showtime's Twin Peaks, and the TV dram Major Crimes. Maridueña stars as Miguel in the Netflix original Cobra Kai, the continuation of the Karate Kid franchise.
Maridueña's unique look is a gift of his multicultural background (he is of Mexican, Cuban and Ecuadorian heritage), and his unique name means "Dog Star" in the indigenous Nahuatl language.- London Brown stars as 'Marvin' in the STARZ Original series "Power Book III: Raising Kanan." Brown is a trained actor and stand-up comedian. He was a series regular in the HBO show "Ballers" playing Dwayne Johnson's main antagonist 'Reggie'. Previously he was the lead in the Fuse Network show "The Hustle," which was created and produced by Prentice Penny. He recently wrapped shooting Tales From The Hood 3, and an episode of "American Soul" (BET) playing Bootsy Collins. He tours around the country doing stand-up and has shared the stage with Chris Tucker.
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Dulé Hill can currently be seen starring as the patriarch Bill Williams in ABC's re-imagining of "The Wonder Years". Inspired by the beloved award-winning series of the same name, the Peabody Award winning, "The Wonder Years" is a coming-of-age story set in the late 1960s that takes a nostalgic look at a black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama.
Dulé was most recently seen in the Netflix film "Hypnotic" and opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway in the HBO Max heist film "Locked Down". Previously, Dulé portrayed the role of Alex Williams in the USA Network drama "Suits," recurred in the second of the SHOWTIME series "Black Monday" with Don Cheadle and Regina Hall, appeared in the HBO series "Ballers" with Dwayne Johnson and starred in J.D. Dillard's drama "Sleight"
Theatrically, Dulé starred in the People's Light production of "Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole" by Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor. Hill reprised his role of Nat "King" Cole in the West Coast premiere production at the Geffen Playhouse. For eight seasons Dulé portrayed the role of Burton 'Gus' Guster in the USA Network comedy "Psych" and served as a producer of the series. He received seven NAACP Image Award nominations for "Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series." Dulé revived his role with the original co-stars in the films "Psych: The Movie," "Psych 2: Lassie Come Home" and the third comedy feature "Psych 3: This Is Gus," which premiered on PEACOCK.
Dulé first came to prominence as The Kid opposite Savion Glover and Jeffrey Wright in "Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk" (Public Theatre, Broadway), directed by George C. Wolfe. He also appeared in the Tony nominated musical "After Midnight" and co-starred in the Alicia Keys produced play "Stick Fly" on Broadway. His other stage credits include "Black and Blue" (Broadway), "Shenandoah" (Paper Mill Playhouse), "The Little Rascals" (Goodspeed Opera House) and Amiri Baraka's Obie award winning play "Dutchman" (Cherry Lane Theatre).
Dulé began attending dance school at the Marie Wildey School of Dance in East Orange, New Jersey when he was three and received his first break years later as the understudy to Savion Glover in "The Tap Dance Kid" on Broadway. He went on to perform the lead role in the musical's national tour alongside Harold Nicholas of the legendary Nicholas Brothers.
In 1999, Dulé joined the cast of NBC's acclaimed series "The West Wing," as Charlie Young, personal aide to the President (Martin Sheen) and subsequently, deputy special assistant to the chief of staff (Allison Janney). During his seven seasons on the series, Hill garnered an Emmy Award nomination and four Image Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, as well as receiving two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the ensemble in a drama series.
Some of Dule's previous film credits include David Mamet's "Edmond," opposite William H. Macy, "The Guardian," "Sugar Hill," "She's All That" and the 2003 Disney release "Holes," an adaptation of the award-winning children's novel by Louis Sachar in which he appeared as Sam the Onion Man alongside co-stars Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf and Patricia Arquette.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Troy Garity is an actor known for his diverse body of work. Though his breakout film performance came when he starred opposite Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett and Billy Bob Thorton in Barry Levinson's "Bandits", he is perhaps best known for his role as Isaac in the "Barbershop" film franchise. A role he will reprise for the upcoming 2016 film.
Garity earned both a Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance in the Showtime original film "Soldier's Girl". The film also garnered Garity a Peabody Award and the AFI award for excellence in film.
Born in Santa Monica California, as a member of the Fonda family, acting was indeed in his blood. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and went on to study at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. After graduation, Troy spent a year performing as a member of the Academy's famed repertory company.
Some of Garity's other notable credits include the Danny Boyle sci-fi thriller "Sunshine," "Gangster Squad" directed by Ruben Fleischer, and the critically acclaimed television series "Boss" directed by Gus Van Sant.
Troy can been seen playing NFL agent Jason Antolotti in HBO's hit comedy series "Ballers."- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Luke Perry was an American actor, primarily remembered as a teen idol throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. Perry was born in Mansfield, Ohio in 1966. Mansfield was known at the time as a center for the home appliances and stove manufacturing industries. The city's largest employer used to be the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
Perry's parents were the steelworker Coy Luther Perry Jr. (1944-1980) and his wife Ann. Perry's parents divorced in 1972, when he was 6-years-old. Ann gained custody over her children, and later married construction worker Steve Bennett. Luke was mostly raised by his mother and stepfather, and did not have a close relationship with his biological father. Coy Perry suffered a heart attack in 1980 and died, when Luke was 14-years-old. Luke attended his funeral.
Perry was mostly raised in the village of Fredericktown, Ohio, and attended the Fredericktown High School. In his high school years, Perry served in the role of the school mascot, the "Freddie Bird".
In 1984, the 18-year-old Perry moved to Los Angeles, with the intention of becoming a professional actor. For several years, Perry kept auditioning for various roles without ever being hired. He supported himself financially by working at odd jobs, and serving as an extra for music videos. His most notable role in this period was in the 1986 music video for the song "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" (1985) by the heavy metal band "Twisted Sister".
Perry's first successful audition landed him the role of a recurring character in the soap opera Loving (1983) (1983-1995). From 1987 to 1988, he played the character of Ned Bates. In Perry's own words: "Ned was a dirt-poor mechanic from Tennessee who always got taken advantage of".
Perry next received a recurring role in another soap opera, Another World (1964) (1964-1999). From 1988 to 1989, he played the character of Kenny, the manager of aspiring model and actress Josie Watt (played by Alexandra Wilson).
In 1990, Perry landed the most significant role of his career, depicting the character of Dylan McKay in the teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) (1990-2000). He played the character for a total of 199 episodes. Dylan was the teenage rebel son of business tycoon Jack McKay and hippie ex-wife Iris McKay. He started the series as a loner, but he offered help to nerdy schoolmate Scott Scanlon (played by Douglas Emerson) against the local bullies. This act of bravery gained him new friends and the romantic attention of Brenda Walsh (played by Shannen Doherty).
Perry's success in his new role gained him a huge following among teenage girls, and guaranteed that he would receive more job offers. His first starring role in a film was the drama Terminal Bliss (1990) (1992), where he played the self-destructive rich kid John Hunter. The film was a box-office flop.
Perry had a more memorable role in the horror comedy film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), as the character Oliver Pike. Pike was a hard-drinking slacker youth in Los Angeles, and had a hostile relationship with high school girl Buffy Summers (played by Kristy Swanson). After Pike's best friend gets turned into a vampire, Pike assists Buffy in her battles with the vampire lord Lothos (played by Rutger Hauer) and his subordinate vampires. Pike is Buffy's sidekick and main love interest in the film, and has appeared in various adaptations, though not in the spin-off television series.
Perry had his first voice acting role in the episode, Krusty Gets Kancelled (1993) of the animated sitcom The Simpsons (1989). He played a parody version of himself as a sidekick of the character Krusty the Clown in a show-within-the-show. Perry had more voice acting roles in other animated television series of this era. He played the Detroit-based crime lord Napoleon Brie in Biker Mice from Mars (1993) (1993-1996), the master ninja Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (1995) (1996), Bruce Banner's best friend and sidekick Rick Jones in The Incredible Hulk (1996) (1996-1997), and Nicky Little's boyfriend Stewart Waldinger in Pepper Ann (1997) (1997-2000).
In live-action films, Perry played the starring role of professional bull-rider Lane Frost (1963-1989) in the biographical drama 8 Seconds (1994). He played a version of himself in the Italian comedy film Vacanze di Natale '95 (1995) ("Christmas Vacation '95", 1995), where he is the love interest of infatuated teenager Marta Colombo (played by Cristiana Capotondi). Perry played the police officer and bank robber Chris Anderson in the crime drama Normal Life (1996), while his wife and partner-in-crime Pam Anderson was played by Ashley Judd. He played the suicidal character Johnny in the comedy-drama American Strays (1996), which features the character hiring a professional hit-man to provide him with an assisted suicide.
In 1997, Perry played a small role in the science fiction film The Fifth Element (1997). In a scene set in 1914, Perry plays the assistant archaeologist Billy Masterson. Masterson sees his mentor being knocked out by Mondoshawan aliens, and reacts by shooting one of the aliens. Masterson's fate is left uncertain in the film, though the novelization features him as the victim of a poisoning plot.
In the late 1990s, Perry appeared frequently in television films and various direct-to-video films. He had guest roles in several television series, but mostly playing one-shot characters. Following the end of Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) in 2000, his first major role was the recurring character Jeremiah Cloutier in the crime-drama Oz (1997) (1997-2003). Introduced in 2001 episodes of the series, Jeremiah was an Evangelical preacher who was imprisoned for embezzling funds from his church. He used his charisma and preaching skills to convert fellow prisoners to Evangelical Christianity, He was eventually assassinated by his own convert Timmy Kirk (Sean Dugan) and several of Kirk's friends, after Jeremiah denounced Kirk using Christianity as an excuse to murder people.
Perry next gained a starring role in the post-apocalyptic series Jeremiah (2002) (2002-2004). The series is set c. 2021, 15 years after a plague killed nearly everyone over the age of thirteen. Most of the adult characters of the show were children at that time, and survived the event. Now they are troubled adults, trying to survive in a harsh world. Perry's character Jeremiah is a wanderer who finds himself recruited into a Colorado-based secretive organization. He fights a war against a West Virginia-based organization which seeks to either conquer or wipe out all remaining outposts of humanity. The series lasted two seasons. A third season was planned, but plans for it were aborted due to disagreements between the production companies co-financing the series.
Perry returned to playing mostly guest star roles in television. In 2006, he was cast as one of the main characters in the short-lived drama series Windfall (2006). Only 13 episodes were produced, as the series failed to find an audience and one of the show's co-creators had left before the season's completion.
In 2007, Perry played businessman Linc Stark in the surf-themed series John from Cincinnati (2007). Despite relatively high ratings, the series only lasted for one season.
In the late 2000s, Perry played guest roles in police procedural a series: the rapist Noah Sibert in Trials (2008) and the cult leader Benjamin Cyrus in Minimal Loss (2008).
For much of the 2010s, Perry continued mostly appearing in guest roles and relatively obscure films. In 2015, a colonoscopy test revealed pre-cancerous growths in Perry's body, that could have developed into colorectal cancer. Perry received medical treatment, and became a spokesperson for campaigns requiring early testing for cancer.
In 2017, Perry returned to prominence in a live-action adaptation of a comic book series, Riverdale (2017) (2017-2019). It was an adaptation of Archie Comics' characters, but in a mystery series instead of their traditional comedy setting. Perry played Frederick "Fred" Andrews, Archie Andrews's father, depicted here as the owner of a successful construction company. Fred is depicted as a single father, as his wife Mary Andrews abandoned him and moved to Chicago. The series also depicts Fred as the ex-boyfriend of Hermione Gomez-Lodge (Veronica Lodge's mother).
On February 27, 2019, Perry suffered a massive ischemic stroke within his home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. He was hospitalized, but suffered a second stroke days later. He died on March 4, 2019, having never recovered from the two strokes. He was only 52 years old. His body was buried near his home in Vanleer, Tennessee, where he had bought a farm and the associated house in 1995, and spent time living there when not working on film or television projects.
Perry's will reportedly left his son Jack Perry (b. 1997) and daughter Sophie Perry (b. 2000) as the only heirs to his estate. The press noted that the will excludes Perry's mother, his stepfather, his siblings, his ex-wife, and his last fiancée from having inheritance claims, and there was some speculation on Perry's motivation for this decision. His net worth was estimated at over $10 million.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Cynthia Geary was born on 21 March 1965 in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Northern Exposure (1990), 8 Seconds (1994) and The Awakening (1995). She was previously married to Robert Coron.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Djimon Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Benin, in west Africa to Albertine and Pierre Hounsou, a cook. He moved to Lyon, France, when he was 13. Hounsou has graced the catwalks of Paris and London as a popular male model. He has since left his modeling career and has worked on Gladiator (2000) by Ridley Scott and Amistad (1997) by Steven Spielberg.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Multi-talented, multi-award-winning actress Kathleen (Doyle) Bates was born on June 28, 1948, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the youngest of three girls born to Bertye Kathleen (Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her grandfather was author Finis L. Bates. Kathy has English, as well as Irish, Scottish, and German, ancestry, and one of her ancestors, an Irish emigrant to New Orleans, once served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor.
Kathy discovered acting appearing in high school plays and studied drama at Southern Methodist University, graduating in 1969. With her mind firmly set, she moved to New York City in 1970 and paid her dues by working everything from a cash register to taking lunch orders. Things started moving quickly up the ladder after giving a tour-de-force performance alongside Christopher Walken at Buffalo's Studio Arena Theatre in Lanford Wilson's world premiere of "Lemon Sky" in 1970, but she also had a foreshadowing of the heartbreak to come after the successful show relocated to New York's off-Broadway Playhouse Theatre without her and Walken wound up winning a Drama Desk award.
By the mid-to-late 1970s, Kathy was treading the boards frequently as a rising young actress of the New York and regional theater scene. She appeared in "Casserole" and "A Quality of Mercy" (both 1975) before earning exceptional reviews for her role of Joanne in "Vanities". She took her first Broadway curtain call in 1980's "Goodbye Fidel," which lasted only six performances. She then went directly into replacement mode when she joined the cast of the already-established and highly successful "Fifth of July" in 1981.
Kathy made a false start in films with Taking Off (1971), in which she was billed as "Bobo Bates". She didn't film again until Straight Time (1978), starring Dustin Hoffman, and that part was not substantial enough to cause a stir. Things turned hopeful, however, when Kathy and the rest of the female ensemble were given the chance to play their respective Broadway parts in the film version of Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). It was a juicy role for Kathy and film audiences finally started noticing the now 34-year-old.
Still and all, it was the New York stage that continued to earn Kathy awards and acclaim. She was pure textbook to any actor studying how to disappear into a role. Her characters ranged from free and life-affirming to downright pitiable. Despite winning a Tony Award nomination and Outer Critic's Circle Award for her stark, touchingly sad portrait of a suicidal daughter in 1983's "'night, Mother" and the Obie and Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for her powerhouse job as a romantic misfit in "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune," Kathy had no box-office pull, however, and was never a strong consideration when the roles transferred to the screen. Her award-winning stage went to established film stars. First Sissy Spacek took over her potent role as the suicidal Jessie Cates in 'night, Mother (1986), then Michelle Pfeiffer seized the moment to play her dumpy lover character in Frankie and Johnny (1991). It would take Oscar glory to finally rectify the injustice.
It was Kathy's fanatical turn as the drab, chunky, porcine-looking psychopath Annie Wilkes, who kidnaps her favorite author (James Caan) and subjects him to a series of horrific tortures, that finally turned the tide for her in Hollywood. With the 1990 shocker Misery (1990), based on the popular Stephen King novel, Bates and Caan were box office magic. Moreover, Kathy captured the "Best Actress" Oscar and Golden Globe award, a first in that genre (horror) for that category. To add to her happiness she married Tony Campisi, also an actor, in 1991.
Quality film scripts now started coming her way and the 1990s proved to be a rich and rewarding time for her. First, she and another older "overnight" film star, fellow Oscar winner Jessica Tandy, starred together in the modern portion of the beautifully nuanced, flashback period piece Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). She then outdid herself as the detached and depressed housekeeper accused of murdering her abusive husband (David Strathairn) in Dolores Claiborne (1995). Surprisingly, she was left out of the Oscar race for these two excellent performances. Not so, however, for her flashy political advisor Libby Holden in the movie Primary Colors (1998), receiving praise and a "Best Supporting Actress" nomination.
Kathy has continued to work prolifically on TV as a 14-time Emmy winner or nominee thus far. She has also taken to directing a couple of TV-movies on the sly. As most actors, she has been in hit and miss TV shows. On the hit side, she has earned a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Jay Leno's manager playing tough politics in The Late Shift (1996) and played to the hilt the cruel-minded orphanage operator, Miss Hannigan, in Annie (1999) for which she also earned an Emmy nom. She has done some eye-catching, offbeat turns on regular series such as Six Feet Under (2001) (for which she also earned a DGA award for helming an episode), The Office (2005), Harry's Law (2011) and especially American Horror Story (2011) for which she won an Emmy as Ethel Darling. She also won an Emmy for a guest episode on the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003).
Interesting millennium filming have included a Catholic school's Mother Superior in the comic drama Bruno (2000); Jesse James' mother in American Outlaws (2001); a quirky, liberal mom in About Schmidt (2002) for which she earned another "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination; a brief but potent turn as Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011); Queen Victoria in the adventurous remake of Around the World in 80 Days (2004); wacky parent types in the comedies Failure to Launch (2006) and Relative Strangers (2006); Mother Claus in the seasonal farce Fred Claus (2007); an over-gushy foster mother in the dramedy The Great Gilly Hopkins (2015); and a wrenching performance as the mother of a suspected terrorist in Richard Jewell (2019) for which she earned her third "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination.
Divorced from husband Campisi since 1997, Kathy has been the Executive Committee Chair of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Ryan Dinning was born on 6 May 1988 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He is an actor, known for The Hill (2023), They Cloned Tyrone (2023) and Just Mercy (2019).- Actress
- Soundtrack
The native New Yorker was born Bonnie Bedelia Culkin on March 25, 1948, the daughter of Phillip Harley Culkin, a journalist, and Marian Ethel Wagner Culkin, a writer and editor. Trained in ballet, her parents guided all of the children at one time or another into acting (which included Kit Culkin, Terry Culkin and Candace Culkin). Bonnie herself attended Quintano School for Young Professionals in New York at one point and Bonnie and Kit went on to appear on the local stage and TV. Brother Kit would later be known more for siring a handful of talented child actors and/or stars (Macaulay Culkin, Kieran Culkin, and the rest).
It was Bonnie who was first spotted among the other acting siblings by a talent scout who happened to catch her in a school production of "Tom Sawyer", and encouraged her. She made her professional debut at age 9 in a 1957 North Jersey Playhouse production of "Dr. Praetorius" and then was handed a full scholarship to study at George Balanchine's New York City Ballet. But the acting bug had bitten and after dancing in only four productions (including playing the role of Clara in "The Nutcracker"), she decided to hang up her ballet slippers. She proceeded to study at both the HB Studio and Actors Studio in New York.
Bonnie nabbed a five-year role as young teen "Sandy Porter" in the New York-based daytime soap Love of Life (1951) starting in 1961. During that time, she took her first Broadway bow in "Isle of Children", a show that lasted but a week in March of 1962. She was also a replacement in the established hit comedy "Enter Laughing", a year later. After appearing in the stage play "The Playroom" in 1965, she earned strong reviews for her touching performance in "My Sweet Charlie", for which she won the 1967 Theatre World Award for "promising new artist". In it, she played a pregnant young Southern girl on the lam with a black lawyer. Patty Duke recreated the role a few years later on TV and captured an Emmy.
Films beckoned at this point and Bonnie made her debut lending topnotch support in The Gypsy Moths (1969) which reunited From Here to Eternity (1953) stars Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. She earned even better marks in her next two films, one performance simply haunting and the other one hilarious. Once again playing pregnant and once again delivering a touching pathos, she played the dirt-poor marathon dancer who pitches songs for pennies and the almost-mother of Bruce Dern's child in the superb, award-winning, Depression-era drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). On the other end of the acting spectrum, she played the lovable bride-to-be in the side-splitting comedy classic Lovers and Other Strangers (1970).
By this time, Bonnie had started concentrating on family values. She married scriptwriter Ken Luber on April 24, 1969, and bore him a son, Yuri, the following year. The time off to focus on motherhood (she had second son, Jonah Luber, in 1976) proved detrimental to her rising star. The remaining decade was uneventful at best, despite some fine showings in a splattering of TV-movies. Her big comeback came again on the movie trail in the early 1980s when she absolutely nailed the role of race car driver Shirley Muldowney in Heart Like a Wheel (1983). She was surprisingly overlooked at Oscar time, however, despite the praise she received. Despite respected work in subsequent movies such as Violets Are Blue... (1986), The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988), Presumed Innocent (1990) and a running role as Bruce Willis's put-upon wife in Die Hard (1988) and its sequel, she found better and more frequent parts on TV. She found her niche in TV-movies with social themes and tugged at more hearts in Switched at Birth (1991), A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story (1992), Any Mother's Son (1997) and To Live Again (1998).
In a change of pace, Bonnie joined the ensemble cast of the low-budget cult comedy Sordid Lives (2000), as "Latrelle", a homophobic woman dealing with her mother's death, the imprisonment of her gay brother and her own son's "coming out". The movie evolved into the TV series Sordid Lives: The Series (2008) which reunited her with original cast members Leslie Jordan and Olivia Newton-John. She repeated her role again in still another film -- A Very Sordid Wedding (2017).
More recent independent movie credits include Berkeley (2005), Her Secret Sessions (2016), The Scent of Rain & Lightning (2017), A Stone in the Water (2019). She also managed a few regular TV series roles: The Division (2001) as a police captain, and Parenthood (2010) as a family matriarch opposite Craig T. Nelson.
Divorced from the father of her two children, she is presently married to third husband (or fourth, depending on your source of reference) actor Michael MacRae, whom she married in 1995.- Actress
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As a child, Geena dreamed of being an actress. While in high school, she felt left out and had low self-esteem because, at 6 feet, she was the tallest girl in school. After high school graduation, Geena entered New England College in New Hampshire and then transferred the next year to Boston University, where she majored in drama. In 1977, she left BU and moved to New York to start her career. Her career consisted of sales clerk and waitress. She worked at Ann Taylor, where she eventually rose to Saturday window mannequin while trying to get a job with a modeling agency. Eventually signed by the Zoli Agency, she wound up as a model in the Victoria Secret's Catalogue. Ever vigilant, Sydney Pollack was looking for new talent in the catalog when he spotted Geena and cast her in Tootsie (1982). With good reviews, Geena moved to Los Angeles where she was cast as Wendy in the short-lived but critically acclaimed television series Buffalo Bill (1983) with Dabney Coleman. A starter marriage to restaurant manager Richard Emmolo dissolved around this time. Her next appearance on television was in her own series Sara (1985), which was also good, but soon canceled. Geena then returned to the big screen in the below-average Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) followed by the successful Chevy Chase movie Fletch (1985). From there on, she was on a roll with second husband Jeff Goldblum in the horror remake The Fly (1986). More successful were Tim Burton's dark comedy Beetlejuice (1988) and The Accidental Tourist (1988). For the last film, she was the surprise winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. More fun movies followed with the flying-saucer-in-the-pool Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) and everyone-loves-a-clown Quick Change (1990) with Bill Murray. The very successful Thelma & Louise (1991), directed by Ridley Scott, again garnered nominations for the Academy Award and Golden Globe. A League of Their Own (1992), with Tom Hanks and directed by Penny Marshall, was the turning point as her next film, Hero (1992), was only average. Then she married director Renny Harlin and they set up a production and development company called "The Forge". Their first film was Speechless (1994), which flopped at the box office. Undeterred, Renny decided to film the big-budget Cutthroat Island (1995), starring Geena as pirate leader Morgan, which also flopped. Geena has since starred in the thriller The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and played Eleanor Little in Stuart Little (1999) and Stuart Little 2 (2002). She's also returned to TV, headlining The Geena Davis Show (2000) and Commander in Chief (2005). Both shows were canceled after one season, but she won a Golden Globe for the latter. In 2008, after being missed from the big screen for some years, Geena ventured to Sydney, Australia, playing the foul-mouthed mother of Harry Cook and Harrison Gilbertson to shoot the dark comedy Accidents Happen (2009).- Tyler Johnson was born on 13 August 1986 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is an actor, known for Men in Black³ (2012), What Goes On (2007) and Across the Room (2020).
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Yavor Vesselinov is a filmmaker, actor and a theater director, born on the 5th of March, 1976 in Bulgaria. His feature debut "Adultery" and the short "The Bridge" were screened at numerous international film festivals. He is also known for his work on the documentaries "Liv Ullmann. The House Of Memories", "Sofia: 100 Years Capital of Bulgarian Cinema", "Kusturica. Balkan's Bad Boy", "Abba, P.S.", and "David Lachapelle: Provocateur" among others. He lives in the USA.- Actor
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Luke Hemsworth is an Australian actor who is known for his roles as Nathan Tyson in the TV series Neighbours, and as Ashley Stubbs in the HBO sci-fi series Westworld. Hemsworth was born in Melbourne, the eldest son of Leonie (née van Os), an English teacher, and Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counselor. His younger brothers are actors Chris and Liam Hemsworth. His maternal grandfather is a Dutch immigrant, and his other ancestry is English, Irish, Scottish, and German. He has been married to Samantha Hemsworth since 2007, and they have three daughters.- Actress
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Having been named one of Variety's 10 Actors to Watch, Kaitlyn Dever has become one of Hollywood's top emerging young actresses.
Dever has showcased her versatility, appearing in movies such as Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (2011), James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now (2013), Destin Daniel Cretton's Short Term 12 (2008), and Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children (2014), and was one of the female leads in Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit (2017).
She truly shone in the dark drama Short Term 12 (2013) alongside Brie Larson, LaKeith Stanfield, John Gallagher Jr., and Rami Malek. The film premiered at SXSW 2013, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative as well as the Audience Award. Kaitlyn was named Summer 2013's indie "It" girl and was highlighted as a SXSW breakout.
In addition to her film career, she recently wrapped her memorable four-season-long arc playing Loretta McCready on the FX drama Justified (2010), for which she received critical acclaim. She also played a role in the award-winning video game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016), voicing Cassie Drake, daughter of the game's lead, Nathan Drake.- Actor
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Will Arnett is a Canadian-American actor, voice actor, and comedian. He is most famous for playing George Oscar "Gob" Bluth II in the Fox series Arrested Development (2003). He also appeared in films such as The Lego Movie (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016), and The Lego Batman Movie (2017). Arnett also voices the title character of Netflix's original animated series BoJack Horseman (2014). He has been the voice heard in the GMC commercials since 1998.- Actress
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Barbara Alyn Woods was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Barbara Alyn is an actor, known for One Tree Hill (2003), Striptease (1996) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Barbara Alyn has been married to John Lind since 1999. They have three children.- Actress
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Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe is an American actress and model. She made her screen debut with a leading role in the critically acclaimed independent film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995) and went on to appear in Boogie Nights (1997), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Parker has starred in a number of movies, including Blue Streak (1999), Remember the Titans (2000), Brown Sugar (2002), Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008), Black Dynamite (2009), and Almost Christmas (2016). On television, Parker starred in the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around (2004-05) and the ABC drama Time After Time (2017). In 2017, she joined the cast of Fox's prime-time soap opera Empire playing Giselle Barker. She appears as a recurring character in Chicago P.D. as Deputy Superintendent Samantha Miller and in And Just Like That... as Lisa Todd Wexley.- Ann Cusack is an American actress. She had minor roles in Multiplicity (1996), A League of Their Own (1992), and The Informant! (2009). Additionally, she has made guest appearances in a number of television series, including Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, One Tree Hill, Charmed, Ghost Whisperer, The Unit, Boston Legal, Bones, Frasier, Ally McBeal, Criminal Minds, Private Practice, Fargo, Better Call Saul, The Boys and The Good Doctor.
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Austin Nichols was raised in Austin, Texas until the age of eighteen, when he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 2002 with a degree in creative writing. His role in Six Feet Under led to films like The Day After Tomorrow, Wimbledon, and Glory Road. Then after playing Morgan Earp on Deadwood, David Milch asked Austin to play the title role in his new series, John From Cincinnati. Nichols has been on a string of hit cable shows. Ray Donovan, Bates Motel and The Walking Dead.- Actor
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Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the youngest of four children. His father, James Chester Reynolds, was a food wholesaler, and his mother, Tamara Lee "Tammy" (Stewart), worked as a retail-store saleswoman. He has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Between 1991-93, Ryan appeared in Fifteen (1990), a Nickelodeon series taped in Florida with many other Canadian actors. After the series ended, he returned to Vancouver where he played in a series of forgettable television movies. He did small roles in Glenn Close's Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995) and CBS's update of In Cold Blood (1996). However, his run of luck had led him to decide to quit acting.
One night, he ran into fellow Vancouver actor and native Chris William Martin. Martin found Ryan rather despondent and told him to pack everything: they were going to head to Los Angeles, California. The two stayed in a cheap Los Angeles motel. On the first night of their stay, Reynolds' jeep was rolled downhill and stripped. For the next four months, Ryan drove it without doors. In 1997, he landed the role of Berg in Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998). Initially, the show was reviled by critics and seemed desperate for any type of ratings success. However, it was renewed for a second season but with a provision for a makeover by former Roseanne (1988) writer Kevin Abbott. The show became a minor success and has led to additional film roles for Ryan, most notably in the last-ever MGM film, a remake of The Amityville Horror (2005). Ryan was engaged to Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, another Nickelodeon veteran, between 2004-2006.
He has been married to Blake Lively since September 9, 2012. They have three daughters. He was previously married to Scarlett Johansson.- Actor
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Finn Wittrock was born in Lenox, Massachusetts. Finn grew up near the stage of Shakespeare and Company, where his father worked. He moved to Los Angeles at 12 years old and attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). After high school he took a year off and pounded the pavement as an actor, appearing in "ER," "Cold Case," "CSI: Miami" and the unforgettable "Halloweentown High." He then got out of town and attended the Juilliard School, where no one saw him for 4 years. After resurfacing on the daytime soap opera "All My Children" he appeared in Tony Kushners "The Illusion" off Broadway at the Signature Theatre. Mike Nichols attended the play and asked him to audition for the role of Happy in "Death of a Salesman on Broadway." He got the job and thereby made his Broadway debut. Mike Nichols. He returned to Broadway in 2017 with "The Glass Menagerie" starring Sally Field and directed by Sam Gold, after playing Cassio in Sam's production of Othello at New York Theatre Workshop with Daniel Craig and David Oyellowo. He has also appeared at the Goodman Theatre opposite Diane Lane in Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth", directed by David Cromer. Recent films include "Judy," "Semper Fi," "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," "If Beale Street Could Talk," and "The Big Short." He has been nominated for two Emmy Awards: for American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace" as well as " American Horror Story: Freakshow." He has also appeared in the AHS seasons "Hotel," "Roanoke" and "1984." Other films included Winter's Tale (2014), Noah (2014), and Unbroken (2014). He appeared in Masters of Sex (2013) on Showtime as well as The Normal Heart (2014) on HBO. Wittrock originated the role of Damon on All My Children (1970), and has made appearances on shows such as Criminal Minds (2005), Harry's Law (2011), CSI: Miami (2002), Cold Case (2003), and ER (1994). His screenplay The Submarine Kid (2015), which he wrote with lifelong friend Eric Bilitch, has been turned into a film.- Film and stage actor Derek Phillips was born in Miami, Florida on April 18, 1976, and attended Baylor University where he received a BFA in acting. Upon graduation Derek moved to New York and began acting professionally in both television and regional theatre performing throughout the country in numerous plays including "The Winter's Tale" (Baltimore Center Stage), "Of Mice and Men" (Dallas Theater Center), "The Glass Menagerie" (Virginia Stage Company), and "King o' The Moon" (Capital Repertory Theatre). After years of regional theatre and recurring roles on "The Guiding Light", "As the World Turns", and "All My Children" Derek finally got his break playing the emotionally charged role of Billy Riggins on the critically acclaimed NBC television show "Friday Night Lights." Derek is also an associate producer, assistant director and resident actor for the award-winning, ensemble based theatre company Second Thought Theatre, where he has performed as an actor in the regional premiere of Eric Bogosian's "Humpty Dumpty", Douglas Post's "Earth and Sky", and the world premiere of Steven Walters "Pluck the Day."
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Gaius Charles was born in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Salt (2010), Friday Night Lights (2006) and The Messenger (2009).- Music Artist
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Carrie Underwood was born on 10 March 1983 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. She is a music artist and actress, known for Soul Surfer (2011), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) and How I Met Your Mother (2005). She has been married to Mike Fisher since 10 July 2010. They have two children.- Actor
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British actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was born in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of Daniella (Weiser), a movement instructor, and Gerald Baron Cohen, a clothing store owner. His father, born in England and raised in Wales, was of Eastern European Jewish descent, while his mother was born in Israel, to German Jewish parents. He was educated at a private school, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hertfordshire, and went on to read History at Christ's College, Cambridge. Baron Cohen had an interest in performing from an early age, forming a breakdancing group as a teenager and acting in amateur plays with a Jewish youth group. While at university he joined the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, and took part in such plays as "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Fiddler on the Roof".
Upon leaving University, Baron Cohen briefly worked as a model, before moving on to work as a host on a satellite TV station. In 1995, Channel 4 put out an open call for new presenters, and Baron Cohen sent in a tape featuring himself in character as an Albania TV reporter (an early prototype for Borat). He was hired and worked on various 'youth TV' projects before, in 1998, appearing in The 11 O'Clock Show (1998) which became a cult hit thanks to his character, Ali G. Ali G proved so popular that a spin-off show Da Ali G Show (2000) and film Ali G Indahouse (2002) where produced.
America soon beckoned with a stateside version of Da Ali G Show. Feature film work followed with Baron Cohen providing the voice of Julien in Madagascar (2005) and appearing as Jean Girard alongside Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006). He followed this with the smash-hit Borat (2006), for which he won a Golden Globe and was nominated for a writing Oscar. His other film work includes supporting roles in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Hugo (2011), and starring in the title roles of Brüno (2009), The Dictator (2012), and The Brothers Grimsby (2016).- Actress
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Jacqueline Samantha Titone was born in 1974 in Coral Springs, Florida, to Lila Titone and Joseph Titone. She began modeling during high school and eventually became known nationally and internationally for modeling clothing for big name companies. Jackie was later introduced to the acting world, by Rob Schneider in the 1999 hit movie Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), as "Sally".
With the success of this movie, Rob Schneider put in a good word for Jackie to his good-friend, Adam Sandler, who offered a part to Jackie in the movie Big Daddy (1999) in 1999. She played the waitress and was also a music assistant. In 2000, she played a part in the movie, Little Nicky (2000), alongside Adam Sandler, Reese Witherspoon, Patricia Arquette, and Quentin Tarantino. A year later, Adam Sandler and Jackie came together in a relationship.
Two years later, Jackie was given a main part in the animated movie, Eight Crazy Nights (2002) as the voice of "Jennifer", making this her first major role in a movie alongside a big star. In 2003, Danny DeVito offered a part to Jackie as the bartender in the movie, Duplex (2003).
On June 22, 2003, Adam and Jackie were married.
In 50 First Dates (2004), a 2004 hit comedy/romance movie, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore were offered parts in sharing the screen together. Drew and Adam had co-starred in major movies previously, but, this time, Adam demanded that his wife Jackie be given a part in this movie. The director, Peter Segal, didn't want to lose Adam as the main co-star and gave the part of the dentist to Jackie. Because Adam only starred in this movie, he wasn't able to offer a bigger part or a co-star part to his wife.
In the year of 2004, Jackie starred as herself on the TV episode Celebrity Weddings, just one day before her one-year wedding anniversary with Adam.
Raised a Christian, she converted to Judaism when marrying Adam.- Actor
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Isaiah Mustafa was born on 11 February 1974 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is an actor and director, known for It Chapter Two (2019), Boy Kills World (2023) and Cross (2024). He has been married to Lisa Mitchell since 26 May 2018.- Actress
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"Want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." If you have not heard of Brooke Shields before, this tagline from her Calvin Klein Jeans ad had to grab your attention. Not that she has not had a previously noteworthy resume. She was born on May 31, 1965 in New York City, to Teri (Schmon) and Frank Shields. At age 12, she starred as a child prostitute in Pretty Baby (1978). Could this movie even be made today? It was considered risky and controversial in 1978. It was followed by another blockbuster, the romance adventure drama The Blue Lagoon (1980). Brooke has proved herself to be so much more than her early films. Her broad range of work as an adult would be quite an achievement for anyone, especially given how difficult transitioning from child actor to adult often is.
She has never stopped working, whether it be a Bob Hope Christmas special, her own sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996) or as an author. She also managed to work on a degree from Princeton University. She has received a number of awards during her career, most notably The People's Choice award for 1981 through 1984 in the category of Favorite Young Performer. In 1997, she was honored again with The People's Choice award for Favorite Female Performer in a New Television Series in 1997 for her work in Suddenly Susan (1996). In her personal life, she was married in 1997 to tennis player Andre Agassi and was devastated when they divorced two years later. She married for the second time in 2001 to Chris Henchy. She has been open about using fertility treatments to become pregnant with their daughter, Rowan, born in 2003.
When suffering debilitating depression after the birth of her daughter, she made the decision to put her feelings down on paper. Her book, "Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression," takes a hard, honest look at what she and many other women experience after childbirth. She still lives in New York City, and is still sought after for work in movies, television, and on stage. Pretty nice list of achievements for the once Calvin Klein jeans girl.- Actor
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Taylor Daniel Lautner was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Deborah, a software company worker, and Daniel Lautner, a pilot for Midwest Airlines. He and his younger sister Makena were raised in a well-mannered, Roman Catholic household in Hudsonville, Michigan. He is of English, German, Dutch, and Scottish descent. At the age of six, Taylor began studying martial arts at Fabiano's Karate School and he, along with his family, quickly noticed his unique and natural talent for the sport. He was soon invited to train with seven-time world karate champion Michael Chaturantabut (aka Mike Chat) and, at the age of eight, he was asked to represent his country in the 12-years-and-under division in the World Karate Association, where he became the Junior World Forms and Weapons champion, winning three gold medals. In 2003, Taylor continued to flourish in the martial arts circuit where he ranked number one in the world for NASKA's Black Belt Open Forms, Musical Weapons, Traditional Weapons, and Traditional Forms and, at the age of 12, he became the three-time Junior World Champion.
However, in addition to his love for martial arts, Taylor quickly developed a love for acting at the age of seven years old when his martial arts instructor, who was involved in show business, encouraged him to audition for a small appearance in a Burger King commercial. Although he was unsuccessful, he enjoyed the experience so much that he told his parents that he wanted to pursue a career in acting. Soon, he and his family were traveling back and forth from their home in Michigan to California so Taylor could regularly audition for acting roles. When Taylor was 10, with the frequent traveling and air fares starting to become overwhelming, his family made the crucial decision to relocate to Los Angeles, where Taylor would have the advantage of being able to audition for films, television, and commercials full-time.
Once Taylor moved with his family to Los Angeles, he found himself landing more and more small acting roles. He booked many occurring roles on various television shows such as My Wife and Kids (2000), Summerland (2004), and The Bernie Mac Show (2001). Taylor also found himself becoming successful in films as well. In 2005, he landed the role of Sharkboy in the family blockbuster flick, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005), and the role of Eliot Murtaugh in Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005). However, it would be one single role that would ultimately change Taylor's life forever. In 2008, Taylor auditioned for the iconic role of werewolf hunk Jacob Black in the record-smashing, blockbuster hit Twilight (2008). With the sudden and unexpected success of the film, Taylor, along with fellow cast members Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, found himself being propelled into a world that would forever change his life and his career.
Taylor has continued to portray Jacob Black in the following film adaptations of The Twilight Saga as well as branch out into other roles and films, such as the star-studded romantic comedy Valentine's Day (2010) and the action-packed thriller Abduction (2011). Taylor Lautner has quickly become one of the most famous, talented, and successful young Hollywood actors thanks to the blockbuster success of the Twilight (2008) films. It has quickly been established by this young man's diverse and gifted talent that we will continue to be his audience for many years to come.- Actress
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"Fairuza!" ("Turquoise" in Farsi), her father exclaimed as he saw her blue eyes: Fairuza Alejandra Balk had just been born on May 21, 1974 in Point Reyes, California. Her father, Solomon Ben Feldthouse, was a traveling musician originally from Idaho, and her mother, Cathryn Balk, was a belly dancer. Her parents split up soon after. Fairuza grew up just north of San Francisco, California on a commune-type ranch. Her mother later found work in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was there that Fairuza began her career at age 9 on the ABC special The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1983). Two years later, she went to the United Kingdom where she attended the Royal Academy of Ballet, the Ramona Beauchamp Agency, and the Bush Davies Performing Arts School. Fairuza worked for the Walt Disney Company for a while; at 11, she was chosen from 1,200 girls to star as Dorothy in Return to Oz (1985). The next year she starred, prophetically enough, as The Worst Witch (1986) a harbinger of her breakout role in The Craft (1996) 10 years later.
Fairuza and her mother remained in London until 1988, then went to Paris where the 15-year-old starred in Valmont (1989). The next year they returned to Vancouver and Fairuza enrolled in high school, but ended up doing correspondence courses after proving shy in class. Back in Hollywood she starred in a string of movies, including Gas Food Lodging (1992), for which she received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress. Following further television and film work, she achieved cult status with her starring role as a teenage witch in her breakout film, The Craft (1996). That year she also appeared in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), in which she did some belly-dancing and attracted the attention of Lancashire, England-born co-star David Thewlis. They did another movie together, American Perfekt (1997).
Fairuza was also the love interest in the wildly-popular The Waterboy (1998) and had a major role in American History X (1998). With a half-dozen movies for 2000, Fairuza is much in demand. Her interests are writing poetry and stories, playing the guitar, singing (her main enjoyment), and dancing. She lives in Venice, California and has an apartment in New York City.- Actor
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Kevin James was born Kevin George Knipfing on April 26, 1965, in Mineola, Long Island, New York, to Janet (Klein), an office worker, and Joseph Valentine Knipfing, Jr., an insurance agency owner. He was raised in Stony Brook, and attended SUNY Cortland, where he played fullback on the football team while majoring in sports management. He realized after three years that this wasn't the path for him. After returning home, he decided to break up the monotony of the summer, and joined a community theater. During a play in which he had a comedic role, he so enjoyed the crowd reaction, that he joined his brother's (comedian Gary Valentine's) improv group. He began going to clubs with Gary and realized he, too, had the knack for comedy. He has performed stand-up up for about 11 years. It was on the comedy circuit that he met Ray Romano. While Ray was getting a big break with his own sitcom, Kevin was getting recognition on Star Search (1983). After appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992), his big break came at the 1996 "Just for Laughs" Montreal Comedy Festival. Afterward, he landed a recurring role on Ray's sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond (1996).
He starred in his own sitcom, The King of Queens (1998), as Doug Heffernan, from 1998 to 2007, and later began a career as a leading film actor, co-starring in Hitch (2005), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), Grown Ups (2010), and Grown Ups 2 (2013), and headlining Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009), Zookeeper (2011), Here Comes the Boom (2012), and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015).- Actor
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Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (1975), Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), The Hot Chick (2002), and Grown Ups (2010).- Actress
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After this feisty, highly offbeat actress from Chattanooga, Tennessee, broke into TV in the 1980s, she immediately set herself apart from the norm with a prime role as new owner Bud Cort's female friend in the bizarre mini-movie Bates Motel (1987). This rather inauspicious beginning would also set Lori Petty off on a career as a kinetic fighter and a misfit, types for which she would be best known.
Lori was born on October 14, 1963, and spent her childhood traveling the US with her father, a Pentecostal minister. Her keen talents first lent themselves toward being a graphic artist in Omaha, Nebraska, but an impulsive desire to act quickly took precedence and soon she was off to New York, where she took acting classes and pounded the pavement for jobs.
Going nowhere fast, she eventually headed for Los Angeles and finally found an "in". Following a number of mediocre TV roles, she won a bit of attention on the short-lived series Booker (1989) as a lippy secretary, then hit pay dirt in secondary roles as an outrageous Cyndi Lauper wannabe in Cadillac Man (1990) and as Patrick Swayze's ex-girlfriend/waitress who hooks up with Keanu Reeves in Point Break (1991).
It looked like mainstream stardom might happen for the tomboy actress, especially after getting cast as Geena Davis' bratty baseball-playing sister in the highly successful A League of Their Own (1992). However, while Lori proved to be an intriguing, kooky sort, she also proved more difficult to cast. Such disparate roles as a kind-hearted animal trainer in Free Willy (1993) and the sole female recruit in Pauly Shore's inane comedy In the Army Now (1994) only proved the point.
She seemed bent towards playing scrappy, hard-edged figures alongside the big action guys but started off on the wrong foot when she was replaced by Sandra Bullock in Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man (1993) due to "artistic differences". She did play a lone female cop in the thriller The Glass Shield (1994), then found her true calling as the bizarre cartoon heroine Tank Girl (1995), which was billed as "a post-apocalyptic comedy." Playing along the same hard lines, Lori portrayed an FBI agent who teams up with a Tokyo policewoman Yûki Amami in the crime thriller Countdown (1996); played a butch lesbian in the social comedy Relax... It's Just Sex (1998); and an aggressive, tough-talking stripper at odds with the Mafia in the potboiler The Arrangement (1999). She ended the decade on TV as Max, a motel clerk, in the crime drama fantasy series Brimstone (1998).
Into the millennium, the crop-haired, tough-as-nails actress continued to take it to the limit. Following roles in the action films Firetrap (2001) and Route 666 (2001), Lori co-starred alongside the similarly tough-styled Gina Gershon in Prey for Rock & Roll (2003) as members of a punk rock band. She later starred in the creature vs. human horror opus Cryptid (2006); had a small part (First Murderer) in a contemporary Hollywood updating of Shakespeare's Richard III (2007); a deputy in the cross-country sports movie Chasing 3000 (2010); a doctor in the horror thriller Dead Awake (2016); a starring role as a lady Marine in Fear, Love, and Agoraphobia (2018); and a campy role in the low-budget horror flick A Deadly Legend (2020).
On TV, Lori would be seen as a guest in such shows as "The Beast," "NYPD Blue," "CSI: NY," "Masters of Horror," "House," "Prison Break," "Hawaii Five-0," and, more notably, in the recurring and amusing role of loony, paranoiac Lolly in the women's prison series Orange Is the New Black (2013). On the other side of the camera, the still-single Lori wrote and directed the film The Poker House (2008) starring Jennifer Lawrence, a re-dramatization of Lori's teenage years in Iowa. The film earned awards at the Los Angeles Film Festival- Actor
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John Hawkes is an award-winning actor known for crafting memorable performances across a wide range of styles and genres. He will next be seen in the upcoming fourth season of HBO's "True Detective" with Jodie Foster. Previous projects include the indie film "Roving Woman," "The Peanut Butter Falcon" with Shia LaBouf, which won a number of critics' honors as well as being recognized by the National Board of Review and winning the audience award at SXSW, along with Nicholas Winding Refn's crime drama "Too Old to Die Young" which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and boasted an eclectic ensemble cast. Hawkes also reunited with other original cast members for the highly anticipated "Deadwood" reunion movie, reprising his role of 'Sol Star' from the critically lauded HBO series. Additional film credits include "End of Sentence" with Logan Lerman, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," which won the Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award along with the SAG Award for Best Ensemble; "Small Town Crime" opposite Octavia Spencer and "Unlovable" with Melissa Leo.
Hawkes delivered tour de force performances in a succession of films. For his outstanding portrayal of real-life poet, 'Mark O'Brien' in "The Sessions," Hawkes won Best Actor from the Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. In addition, the film won the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for the Ensemble Cast at Sundance. He received rave reviews for his portrayal of pianist 'Joe Albany' in the gritty indie drama, "Low Down." His critically acclaimed performance as 'Teardrop' in "Winter's Bone" earned him an Independent Spirit Award win and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, along with nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and several film critics groups.
Further film credits include "Everest," alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin and Jason Clarke, indie ensemble "Driftless Area" and the modern noir "Too Late" plus Elmore Leonard's "Life of Crime," Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," Steven Soderbergh's "Contagion" and the Sundance hit "Martha Marcy May Marlene," for which Hawkes received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He starred in "Me and You and Everyone We Know" which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival as well as starring in and co-producing the independent film, "Buttleman" for which he received a Breakout Performance Award at the 2004 Sedona Film Festival. Earlier movie credits are "American Gangster," "Miami Vice," "Identity," "The Perfect Storm," "Hardball," "Wristcutters: A Love Story," "The Amateurs," "From Dusk Till Dawn," and "A Slipping-Down Life."
Born and raised in rural Minnesota, Hawkes moved to Austin, Texas where he began his career as an actor and musician. He co-founded the Big State Productions theater company and appeared in the group's original play, "In the West" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He starred in the national touring company production of the play "Greater Tuna" including extended engagements in Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. Hawkes wrote and performed the solo play "Nimrod Soul" at the Theatre at the Improv and appeared on Broadway in the "24 Hour Plays" alongside Sam Rockwell. He co-starred with Tracie Thoms in the Manhattan Theater Club's off-Broadway play, "Lost Lake." In addition, he's co-written script and songs for workshop performances of a new rock and roll musical entitled "Where's Cherry?"
Hawkes has written and recorded several songs featured in films and television shows. Most recently he wrote an original song which he performs on-screen for "True Detective." Previously, he co-wrote a song with legendary producer T-Bone Burnett for "Peanut Butter Falcon." He also wrote and performed original songs for the film "Unlovable." His song 'Bred and Buttered' appears on the "Winter's Bone" soundtrack and he composed and performed 'Down with Mary' for "Too Late." With his former band, King Straggler, he performed at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW Music Festival and numerous clubs across the U.S. Hawkes continues to write, record and perform shows in numerous locations, including of late in Reykjavik.- Julian Griffith is an Identical twin that was born March 28, 1990, to Janita (School teacher) and Reginald (Truck Driver), in Chicago, IL. He and his brother began acting, and going on auditions, at the age of three years old when several people would come up to their mother telling her how they should be in movies. By five years of age, Julian had broken into the Modeling industry as he began Print Ad modeling in numerous Children's school books. At the age of seven, Julian found a new talent and began playing baseball in the Bellwood Park District.
In 2000, at the age of ten, Julian booked his first Principal role as "Jefferson Albert Tibbs" in the movie Hardball starring Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane. The film went on to gross over $40 million dollars and be #1 in the Box Office for a couple weeks. After the acclaimed success and recognition, Julian made a deal with his mother and decided to take a break from the Movie industry and focus on his education and baseball at the age of 13. Julian attended Seton Academy, a private high school in South Holland, IL, where he went on to be a member of the National Honors Society, a Four-Year Varsity baseball star, an All- Area and All-Conference player, and Top-recruited baseball player of the 2008 Graduating class.
Julian went on to play college baseball at St. Joseph's College (NCAA-D2) and Calumet College of St. Joseph (NAIA) , where he posted a .324 Batting Avg., was tied for first place in Stolen bases in his Senior season, and was awarded the Most Valuable Player award. While in school Julian began making his transition back into the film industry, after a season-ending injury led to him having to have UCL reconstruction surgery on his elbow, when he booked a Principal role in the TV Pilot "The In Crowd", but after two episodes the show ceased production. In 2013, Julian was the first Black man, in Calumet College history, to graduate from the Education program with an Elementary Education degree with a Science Endorsement for Secondary Education.
Shortly after college, Julian signed his first, of three, professional baseball contracts with the Fort Worth Cats of the United League where he posted a .324 Batting Average and played alongside "Batting title champion" Julio Franco in 2014. In 2015, Julian signed a contract to play for the Ellensburg Bulls of the Mt. Rainier League, prior to the league folding only weeks into the season. In 2016, Julian played in the Puerto Rico Winter league, where he was fourth in the league, posting a .488 batting avg. In 2016, Julian signed his third contract with the Eastside Diamond Hoppers of the United Shores Professional Baseball league but was later released. Julian decided to end his pursuit of Professional baseball and now owns Juiced Up Athletics, a Traveling Sports training company that travels around training the youth in Baseball, Softball, and other areas of fitness. Julian uses his experiences to do Public speaking and mentoring around the Chicagoland area and has now transitioned back into acting full-time and can be seen on various projects that include Chicago P.D. and Proven Innocent. - Actress
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Phylicia Rashad was born in Houston, Texas to African-American parents Vivian Elizabeth (Ayers), a poet and art director, and Andrew Arthur Allen, an orthodontist. As a child, Phylicia, her older brother Andrew (called Tex), and younger sister, dancer and actress Debbie Allen, lived in Mexico. She has another brother, Hugh Allen (a real-estate banker in North Carolina). Their mother decided to live in Mexico to give the Allen children a brief experience of not having to endure the chronic racism and segregation that was typical of Texas during the 1950s. Phylicia and Debbie are fluent in Spanish. Phylicia graduated from Howard University and later taught drama there.
With younger sister Debbie Allen, she has a production company, D.A.D., which stood for Doctor Allen's Daughters. Her Pulitzer-nominated mother is the artistic and free spirit that has influenced and encouraged the remarkable creativity that so marks Rashad as a performer.- Actress
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A veteran of Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade, Brooke Langton has been working in the film industry for 30 years. A series regular on many television shows (Extreme, Melrose Place, The Net, Life, Glenn Gordon Caron's series Fling), a recurring character on the acclaimed Friday Night Lights, and most recently on TNT's The Last Ship, she starred opposite Gene Hackman in The Replacements, and played the infamous Nikki in Doug Liman's Swingers. Langton also produced and starred in the period piece Beautiful Dreamer.- Troy Lee Winbush was born on March 12, 1970, in Harlem, New York. He attended Louis B. Brandeis High School and was known as the class clown. Troy idolized Eddie Murphy and enjoyed making his classmates laugh; however, making the class laugh and disrupting the class was not a good time for his jokes and he was constantly disciplined for his actions. At the age of 14 years old, Troy's mother enrolled him in Weist Barron acting school hoping this will allow Troy to express his humor in the proper environment and not get into trouble at school any more. That same year, Troy discovered his acting bug and booked his first movie "Who's That Girl" with Madonna; unfortunately, due to bad weather, production was moved to California and Troy was released from his first big break. A couple of months later, Troy booked the motion picture film, "The Principle". At the age of 15 years old, Troy got a recurring role on the most popular family comedy show of the 1980s, "The Cosby Show" as Denny, appearing on the series from 1987-1991. While spending the next few years working Bicoastal, Troy decided to officially move to Los Angeles in 1998.
Troy has had much success co-starring on feature films such as; John Q, The Replacement and National Treasure just to name a few. Troy has also been featured in numerous television shows; Law & Order, NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami, The Parkers, and Medical Investigation to today's hit shows including Scandal, Big Bang Theory and among other popular series. Troy has also taken his talent to the stage appearing in stage plays including (Joe Turners) "Come and Gone", Pearly Victorious, Gang on the Roof and countless others.
Today's Troy continues to successfully stay active in TV and film as well as inspiring others in his work. He spends his free time mentoring young teen boy's in group homes and encourages them to become a better man in society no matter what they've been though, they can be victorious in whatever they put their minds too. Troy also supports important causes, like breast cancer and cervical cancer. He enjoys spending time with his daughter whom he loves and supports unconditionally. On his off days you can find Troy working out in the gym or enjoying a ride on his motorcycle in the beautiful Southern California weather. - Actor
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Scott Caan is the son of tough guy actor James Caan. While it is obvious that he admires tough method actors like Marlon Brando and Sean Penn, Scott also has a strong egalitarian streak, evidenced by his reasoning for baring his body in films. He is quoted as saying that originally only the women in the scene were to be nude, but that he felt it really sexist, so he stripped too.
Scott was born on August 23, 1976 in Los Angeles, California. He spent his childhood being shuttled between his parents' homes. His mom is actress and model Sheila Ryan; the Caans divorced when Scott was a year old. He has an older half-sister, Tara, and three younger half-brothers: Alexander, Jacob, and James. His paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants.
Self-described as a bad kid who was always getting into trouble, Scott initially steered clear of acting, opting to play sports instead. Scott benefited from his father's hands-on approach to child rearing; the elder Caan reportedly took a five-year hiatus to coach all of his son's little league teams. He also pursued his love of hip-hop by forming a group with his friend The Alchemist; as The Whooliganz, the duo made inroads on the music scene and signed an ll-fated contract with Tommy Boy Records.
It did not take long for Scott to appear in front of the camera; in 1995, he took roles in a couple independent films, Star Struck (1996) and A Boy Called Hate (1995). Critical of his performances, Scott enrolled at Playhouse West in Los Angeles to study acting. Roles in more indies followed, including Bongwater (1998) and Gregg Araki's Nowhere (1997).
His first major film was also a hit; he had a supporting role in Enemy of the State (1998) for director Tony Scott. He then appeared (in the buff) in Varsity Blues (1999) as a wisecracking receiver. By now, Scott had built a reliable reputation for playing strong-minded characters with a sense of humor, exemplified by his work in movies such a Boiler Room (2000), Ready to Rumble (2000), and his second hit picture, Gone in 60 Seconds (2000).
Scott's star rose with a fun supporting turn in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001) remake. At this time he had more indie turns in the films American Outlaws (2001), Novocaine (2001), and Sonny (2002) - Nicolas Cage's directorial debut starring James Franco. Scott followed up with his own directorial outing, Dallas 362 (2003). Scott reprised his role as Turk Malloy in Ocean's Twelve (2004), then took a supporting roles in two very different pictures: the sexy, ocean-bound thriller Into the Blue (2005) and in Nicole Holofcener's indie comedy, Friends with Money (2006). 2006 marked Caan's return to the director¹s chair, with The Dog Problem (2006), and soon was back for Ocean's Thirteen (2007).
Over the past few years, Scott made memorable appearances as a recurring character on Entourage (2004). He has a starring role in the remake of the TV series Hawaii Five-0 (2010).
Scott has also established himself as a photographer, having been mentored in the medium by cinematographer Phil Parmet. In 2009, he published his book, Scott Caan Photographs, Vol. 1.- Actress
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Christine Taylor is an American actress from Allentown, Pennsylvania. She is known for acting in The Brady Bunch film series and for her collaborations with American filmmaker, actor and comedian Ben Stiller. She acted in Zoolander, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, Zoolander 2 and many more. She has two children with husband Ben Stiller.- Khris Davis is known for Detroit (2017), Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) and Big George Foreman (2023).
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Sullivan was born and raised in the San Francisco, Bay Area. In college, he played basketball and majored in Theater at Brown University, before transferring to the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. Sullivan's breakout came in the 2019 Off-Broadway production of "Slave Play" at New York Theater Workshop. Directed by Robert O'Hara and written by Jeremy O. Harris, "Slave Play" eventually transferred to Broadway and was nominated for 13 Tony awards. Since then, Sullivan has appeared in TV series for Netflix, Hulu, HBO, FX, Amazon and in feature films for A24 and Sony.- Matthew Glave was born on 19 August 1963 in Saginaw, Michigan, USA. He is an actor, known for The Wedding Singer (1998), Argo (2012) and Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (2014). He has been married to Anita Barone since 2000. They have two children.
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Tony Award-nominee Sam Trammell may be most widely recognized as "Sam Merlotte" in HBO's AFI award-winning series True Blood (2008), filmed in Trammell's native Louisiana. The Alan Ball-created fantasy drama set ratings records for the network over its seven year run. He co-starred in the feature film Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019). He starred opposite Chrissy Metz in Breakthrough (2019). He appeared in Netflix's dramatic series The Order (2019) and starred in Sony Television's Reckoning (2019). He appeared on Homeland (2011) as Vice-President Benjamin Hayes.
In 2014, Trammell co-starred in The Fault in Our Stars (2014), based on the best-selling novel, with Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern. He co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the indie film All Mistakes Buried (2015). His additional film credits include I Am Wrath (2016) with John Travolta, Imperium (2016) opposite Toni Collette, 3 Generations (2015), with Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon and Elle Fanning. He completed production on the indie films Hospitality (2018) opposite Emmanuelle Chriqui,and La Gran Promesa (2017) by Mexican filmmaker Jorge Ramírez Suárez. He was a series regular on Maximum Bob (1998), Trinity (1998) and Going to California (2001).
A theater veteran, he earned the Clarence Derwent and Theater World Awards, as well as a Tony nomination, for his role in Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" at Lincoln Center. His extensive on and off Broadway, as well as regional credits, include "Kit Marlowe" at The Public Theater, "Dealer's Choice" at the Manhattan Theater Club, "Ancestral Voices" at Lincoln Center, "My Night With Reg" with The New Group, "Rope" with The Drama Dept, "If Memory Serves" at the Promenade Theater, and "Our Town" at Williamstown.
A native of Louisiana and West Virginia, Trammell graduated from Brown University and the Sorbonne with a Bachelor of Arts in Semiotics. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his family. He is an advocate for clean oceans and beaches and works with the non-profit organization Oceana.