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- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed writer-director Christopher Nolan was born on July 30, 1970, in London, England. Over the course of 15 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made.
At 7 years old, Nolan began making short movies with his father's Super-8 camera. While studying English Literature at University College London, he shot 16-millimeter films at U.C.L.'s film society, where he learned the guerrilla techniques he would later use to make his first feature, Following (1998), on a budget of around $6,000. The noir thriller was recognized at a number of international film festivals prior to its theatrical release and gained Nolan enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for his next film.
Nolan's second film was Memento (2000), which he directed from his own screenplay based on a short story by his brother Jonathan. Starring Guy Pearce, the film brought Nolan numerous honors, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Nolan went on to direct the critically acclaimed psychological thriller, Insomnia (2002), starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.
The turning point in Nolan's career occurred when he was awarded the chance to revive the Batman franchise in 2005. In Batman Begins (2005), Nolan brought a level of gravitas back to the iconic hero, and his gritty, modern interpretation was greeted with praise from fans and critics alike. Before moving on to a Batman sequel, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced the mystery thriller The Prestige (2006), starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as magicians whose obsessive rivalry leads to tragedy and murder.
In 2008, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced The Dark Knight (2008) which went on to gross more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Nolan was nominated for a Directors Guild of America (D.G.A.) Award, Writers Guild of America (W.G.A.) Award and Producers Guild of America (P.G.A.) Award, and the film also received eight Academy Award nominations.
In 2010, Nolan captivated audiences with the sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), which he directed and produced from his own original screenplay. The thought-provoking drama was a worldwide blockbuster, earning more than $800,000,000 and becoming one of the most discussed and debated films of the year. Among its many honors, Inception received four Academy Awards and eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Nolan was recognized by his peers with D.G.A. and P.G.A. Award nominations, as well as a W.G.A. Award for his work on the film.
One of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing movies of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) concluded Nolan's Batman trilogy. Due to his success rebooting the Batman character, Warner Bros. enlisted Nolan to produce their revamped Superman movie Man of Steel (2013), which opened in the summer of 2013. In 2014, Nolan directed, wrote, and produced the science-fiction epic Interstellar (2014), starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. released the film on November 5, 2014, to positive reviews and strong box-office results, grossing over $670 million dollars worldwide.
Nolan resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and their children. Nolan and Thomas also have their own production company, Syncopy.- Actress
- Producer
Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to
Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing
manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her
mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn
Heights, just across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, except for the
four years her parents spent in Woodstock, New York. Back in Brooklyn
Heights, she attended St. Ann's school. A close friend of the family
was an advertising executive. When Jennifer was ten, he suggested that
her parents take her to a modeling audition. She began appearing in
newspaper and magazine ads (among them "Seventeen" magazine), and soon
moved on to television commercials. A casting director saw her and
introduced her to Sergio Leone, who
was seeking a young girl to dance in his gangster epic
Once Upon a Time in America (1984).
Although having little screen time, the few minutes she was on-screen
were enough to reveal her talent. Her next role after that was an
episode of the British horror anthology TV series
Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
in 1984.
After Leone's movie, horror master
Dario Argento signed her to play her first
starring role in his thriller
Phenomena (1985). The film made a lot
of money in Europe but, unfortunately, was heavily cut for American
distribution. Around the same time, she appeared in the rock video "I
Drove All Night," a Roy Orbison song,
co-starring Jason Priestley. She
released a single called "Monologue of Love" in Japan in the mid-1980s,
in which she sings in Japanese a charming little song with
semi-classical instruments arrangement. On the B-side is "Message Of
Love," which is an interview with music in background. She also
appeared in television commercials in Japan.
She enrolled at Yale, and then transferred two years later to Stanford.
She trained in classical theater and improvisation, studying with the
late drama coach Roy London,
Howard Fine, and
Harold Guskin.
The late 1980s saw her starring in a hit and three lesser seen films.
Amongst the latter was her roles in
Ballet (1989), as a ballerina and in
Some Girls (1988), where she played a
self-absorbed college freshman. The hit was
Labyrinth (1986), released in 1986.
Jennifer got the job after a nationwide talent search for the lead in
this fantasy directed by Jim Henson
and produced by George Lucas. Her
career entered in a calm phase after those films, until
Dennis Hopper, who was impressed after
having seen her in "Some Girls", cast Jennifer as an ingénue small-town
girl in The Hot Spot (1990), based
upon the 1950s crime novel "Hell Hath No Fury". It received mixed
critical reviews, but it was not a box office success.
The Rocketeer (1991), an ambitious
Touchstone super-production, came to the rescue. The film was an
old-fashioned adventure flick about a man capable of flying with
rockets on his back. Critics saw in "Rocketeer" a top-quality movie, a
homage to those old films of the 1930s in which the likes of
Errol Flynn starred. After
"Rocketeer," Jennifer made
Career Opportunities (1991),
The Heart of Justice (1992),
Mulholland Falls (1996), her first collaboration with Nick Nolte and
Inventing the Abbotts (1997).
In 1998, she was invited by director
Alex Proyas to make
Dark City (1998), a strange, visually
stunning science-fiction extravaganza. In this movie, Jennifer played
the main character's wife, and she delivered an acclaimed performance.
The film itself didn't break any box-office record but received
positive reviews. This led Jennifer to a contract with Fox for the
television series
The $treet (2000), a main part in
the memorable and dramatic love-story
Waking the Dead (2000) and, more
important, a breakthrough part in the polemic and applauded independent
Requiem for a Dream (2000), a
tale about the haunting lives of drug addicts and the subsequent
process of decadence and destruction. In "Requiem for a Dream,"
Jennifer had her career's most courageous, difficult part, a
performance that earned her a Spirit Award Nomination. She followed
this role with Pollock (2000), in which
she played Pollock's mistress, Ruth Klingman. In 2001,
Ron Howard chose her to co-star with
Russell Crowe in
A Beautiful Mind (2001), the
film that tells the true story of
John Nash, a man who suffered from
mental illness but eventually beats this and wins the Nobel Prize in
1994. Jennifer played Nash's wife and won a Golden Globe, BAFTA, AFI
and Oscar as Best Supporting Actress.
Connelly continued her career with films including Hulk (2003), her second collaboration with Nick Nolte, Dark Water (2005), Blood Diamond (2006), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), He's Just Not That Into You (2009) and Noah (2014), where she did her second collaboration with both Darren Aronofsky and Russell Crowe and made her third collaboration with Nick Nolte in that same film.
Jennifer lives in New York. She is 5'7", and speaks fluent Italian and
French. She enjoys physical activities such as swimming, gymnastics,
and bike riding. She is also an outdoors person -- camping, hiking and
walking, and is interested in quantum physics and philosophy. She likes
horses, Pearl Jam, SoundGarden,
Jesus Jones, and occasionally wears a small
picture of the The Dalai Lama on a
necklace. Her favorite colors are cobalt blue, forest green, and "very
pale green/gray -- sort of like the color of the sea". She likes to
draw.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother, Kyle, a sculptor. His father was of English and Scottish descent, and his mother is of Finnish and Swedish ancestry. The family lived in Newton until his parents divorced in 1973, when Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge. He grew up in a stable community, and was raised near actor Ben Affleck.
Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and he performed in a number of theater productions during his time there. He attended Harvard University as an English major. While in Harvard, he kept on skipping classes to pursue acting projects, which included the TNT original film, Rising Son (1990), and prep-school drama, School Ties (1992). It was until his film, Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), was expected to be a big success that he decided to drop out of university completely. Arriving in Hollywood, Matt managed to get his first break with a part in the romantic comedy, Mystic Pizza (1988). However, the film did not do too well and his film career failed to take off. Not letting failure discourage him from acting, he went for another audition, and managed to get a starring role in School Ties (1992). Up next for Matt was a role as a soldier who had problems with drug-addiction in the movie, Courage Under Fire (1996). Matt had, in fact, lost forty pounds for his role which resulted in health problems.
The following year, he garnered accolades for Good Will Hunting (1997), a screenplay he had originally written for an English class at Harvard University. Good Will Hunting (1997) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, one of which, Matt won for Best Original Screenplay along with Ben Affleck. In the year 1998, Matt played the title role in Steven Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan (1998), which was one of the most acclaimed films in that year. Matt had the opportunity of working with Tom Hanks and Vin Diesel while filming that movie. That same year, he starred as an earnest law student and reformed poker player in Rounders (1998), starring opposite Edward Norton and John Malkovich. The next year, Matt rejoined his childhood friend, Ben Affleck and fellow comedian, Chris Rock, in the comedy Dogma (1999).
Towards the end of 1999, Matt played "Tom Ripley", a working-class young man who tastes the good life and will do anything to live it. Both Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow also starred in the movie. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) earned mixed reviews from critics, but even so, Matt earned praise for his performance. Matt lent his voice to the animated movie, Titan A.E. (2000) in the year 2000, which also earned mixed reviews from the public. He also starred in two other movies, All the Pretty Horses (2000) and the golf comedy-drama, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), starring alongside Will Smith. In the year 2003, he signed on to star in The Informant! (2009) by Steven Soderbergh and the Farrelly Brothers' Stuck on You (2003). He also starred in Gerry (2002), a film he co-wrote with his friends, Gus Van Sant and Casey Affleck. One of Matt's most recognizable work to date is his role in the "Bourne" movie franchise. He plays an amnesiac assassin, "Jason Bourne", in The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Another praised role is that as "Linus Caldwell" in the "Ocean's" movie franchise. He had the opportunity to star opposite George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven (2001). The successful crime comedy-drama eventually had two other sequels, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). Among other highly acclaimed movies that Matt has been a part of are Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm (2005), George Clooney's Syriana (2005), Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) and Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006).
In his personal life, Matt is now happily married to Argentine-born Luciana Barroso, whom he met in Miami, where she was working as a bartender. They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The couple have four daughters Alexia, Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship, as well as Isabella, Gia and Stella. Matt is a big fan of the Boston Red Sox and he tries to attend their games whenever possible. He has also formed great friendships with his Ocean's co-stars, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, whom he works on charity projects with. He and actor Ben Affleck have remained lifelong friends and collaborators.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Benedict Wong is a British actor. He is known for his roles as Kublai Khan in Netflix's Marco Polo (2014-2016), Bruce Ng in The Martian (2015), and Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Doctor Strange (2016). Wong was born on 3 July 1971 in Eccles, Greater Manchester, the son of Hong Kong immigrant parents who had traveled through Ireland before settling in England. He was brought up in Eccles, and attended Salford City College (then called De La Salle Sixth Form College) in the surrounding area of Salford. He then took a two-year performing arts course at Salford City College.- Actress
- Producer
- Stunts
Admittedly, the brand of the sultry, All-American bombshell has served Julie Michaels well in her acting career. Fans will agree that Julie's performance opposite Patrick Swayze in Road House (1989) was iconic and impossible to forget. Her incredibly graphic fight scene with Keanu Reeves in Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break (1991) inspired the New York Times to dub her "The babe who nuked Keanu". Undeniably, Julie is as beautiful as she is talented and tenacious, though the multi-nominee and Emmy Award winner broke well past the stigma of "seductress" to branch out into other positions in the entertainment industry, effortlessly traversing between acting, stunt coordinating and producing. While often wearing several hats at the same time.
Julie Michaels killed "Jason" in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), tangled with Dwayne Johnson in The Scorpion King (2002), and fought the "Ultimate Fighter" in John Herzfeld's 15 Minutes (2001). Roles which relied not only on her training as an actress but as a stunt woman. Additionally, she has been paired opposite Dean Cain, was frozen by "The Governator" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Batman & Robin (1997), and made several recent appearances on television shows such as How To Get Away With Murder, Jane The Virgin, Nashville, Southland, Seal Team, and on the soon to be released Chick Fight, opposite Malin Ackerman, also starring Alec Baldwin. Julie Michaels was awarded Best Actress for her role in the short film Last Writes on which she executive produced. She also co-executive produced After Forever, the acclaimed series which (in 2019) won several Daytime Emmy Awards. This "Golden Girl" seems to have the Midas touch and continues to break barriers in her own career as well as tear down walls for fellow women in the industry.
In 2016 Julie Michaels was nominated for a Prime-Time Emmy Award for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Comedy or Variety Show (the first woman ever to be nominated for that category) and earned herself an Action Icon Award in 2017. Additionally, between 2017-2019, Julie co-stunt coordinated the show Seal Team alongside her equally accomplished husband Peewee Piemonte, where the duo proudly sought and succeeded in hiring several hundreds of Veteran performers over their pilot and 44 episode run (the efforts of which garnered them an Emmy Nomination). The power couple has coordinated several top award-winning network shows together over the years (How To Get Away With Murder, Jane The Virgin, and Nashville to name a few fan favorites). Despite her dedication and commitment to creating action for television and film, Julie Michaels continues to find her way back in front of the camera. Exactly where loyal fans want her!- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).
Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).
He is also the co-writer on the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
In 2015, Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Writing, Original Screenplay category.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Julie Bowen was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the middle daughter of Suzanne and John Luetkemeyer Jr., a real estate developer. Her early education was at Calvert School in Baltimore, and Garrison Forest School, Maryland. She moved on to St. George's School, Rhode Island and then attended Brown University, graduating with a BA in Renaissance Studies.
During college, Bowen acted in stage productions such as "Guys and Dolls" and "Stage Door". After graduation, she relocated to New York and studied at the legendary Actors Studio. Success followed with a series of TV roles, and in 1996 she appeared as the love interest in Happy Gilmore (1996). Other supporting film roles followed. However, it was on television that she was destined to make the biggest impact, with strong turns in ER (1994), Ed (2000) and Boston Legal (2004), among others. From 2009 she has starred as Claire Dunphy in the hit series Modern Family (2009), for which she has won Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards.
Julie was previously married to Scott Phillips, a real-estate investor, and they have three sons: Oliver, and twins Gus and John.- Writer
- Actress
- Producer
Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in 1970 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just
west of Philadelphia, to Xenobia "Jeanne" (Xenakes), a brokerage
employee, and Donald Henry Fey, who wrote grant proposals for universities.
Her mother is Greek, born in Piraeus, while her father had German, Northern Irish, and English ancestry. Going by the name of Tina, Fey considered herself a "supernerd" during
her high school and college years. She studied drama at the University
of Virginia, and after graduating in 1992, she headed to Chicago, the
ancestral home of American comedy. While working at a YMCA to support
herself, she started Second City's first set of courses. After about
nine months, a teacher told her to just skip ahead and audition for the
more selective Second City Training Center. She failed but about eight
weeks later, she re-auditioned and got into the year-long program. She
ended up spending many years at The Second City in Chicago where many
SNL cast members first started out. Then in 1995,
Saturday Night Live (1975)
came to The Second City's cast, including Fey's friend,
Adam McKay, as a writer, searching
for new talent. What they found was Tina Fey. When Adam was made Head
writer, he suggested Fey should send a submission packet over the
summer with six sketches, 10 pages each. Tina took the advice and sent
them. After Lorne Michaels met her and
saw her work she was offered a job a week later. She admitted that she
was extremely nervous working in the legendary Studio 8H; being a foot
shorter than everyone else, younger, and being one of the only female
writers at the time. After a few years, Tina made history by becoming
the first female head writer in the show's history. Tina also made her
screen debut as a featured player during the 25th season by
co-anchoring Weekend Update with
Jimmy Fallon. Since Tina and Jimmy have
taken over Weekend Update it has been considered the best ever. This
year she made it to full fledged star by becoming a regular cast
member, though she is hardly on the show, besides Update. And during
the past two summers, Tina and
Rachel Dratch performed their two-woman
show to critical acclaim in both Chicago (1999) and New York (2000) and
made their Aspen Comedy Festival Debut. Tina is married to
Jeff Richmond, a Second City
director and lives in New York City.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. Rachel has a sister, Minnie, a curator and photographer.
Rachel started modeling when she was 14, and began acting during her studies at Cambridge University. While there, she formed a theater company named "Talking Tongues", which won the Guardian Award, at the Edinburgh Festival, for its take on Neville Southall's "Washbag". Rachel went on to star on stage in the lauded Sean Mathias revival of Noël Coward's "Design For Living". It was a role that won her a vote for Most Promising Newcomer by the London Critics' Circle.
She has starred in many movies, including The Mummy (1999), Enemy at the Gates (2001) and Stealing Beauty (1996). Rachel can also be seen in the movies The Shape of Things (2003), About a Boy (2002), Constantine (2005) and The Constant Gardener (2005), for which she won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Rachel has a son with her former partner, director Darren Aronofsky. In June 2011, she married "James Bond" actor Daniel Craig in a private ceremony in New York.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Ethan Green Hawke was born on November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas, to Leslie Carole (Green), a charity worker, and James Steven Hawke, an insurance actuary. His parents were students at the University of Texas at the time but divorced when Ethan was 5 years old. His mother raised him alone for the next five years, moving around the country, until she remarried in 1981 and the family settled in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.
He attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School and then transferred to the Hun School of Princeton and it was while he was there that he began taking acting classes at the McCarter Theatre on the Princeton campus. His early ambition had been to be a writer, but as a result of the acting lessons and appearances in student productions he persuaded his mother to allow him to attend an audition for a role in a sci-fi adolescent adventure, Explorers (1985). He got the role (along with River Phoenix) but although the movie was favourably reviewed, it met with little commercial success which discouraged Hawke from pursuing further movie roles for several years.
He was admitted to the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University to study theatre but his studies were interrupted when he won his break-through role opposite Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (1989) and he did not complete his degree. He then appeared in numerous films before taking a role in the Generation X drama Reality Bites (1994) for which he received critical praise. He starred in the romantic drama Before Sunrise (1995), and its later sequels Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013).
His subsequent acting career was a mix of theatre work (earning a number of awards and nominations, including a Tony Award nomination for his role in "The Coast of Utopia" at the Lincoln Center in New York), and a mix of serious and more commercial movies, notably Gattaca (1997) (where he met his first wife, Uma Thurman) and Training Day (2001). His role as the father in the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014) earned him multiple award nominations, including the Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Meanwhile, he also wrote two novels: "The Hottest State" (1996) and "Ash Wednesday" (2002).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Melissa McCarthy was born in Plainfield, Illinois, to Sandra and Michael McCarthy, and was raised on her family's corn and soybean farm. She began her performing career as a stand-up comedian in New York where she appeared at the famous clubs, Stand Up New York and The Improv. She worked on her acting skills at The Actors Studio and appeared in many stage productions in the city before moving to Los Angeles in the late-1990s. She made a number of TV and movie appearances before making her big breakthrough as Sookie in Gilmore Girls (2000). A steady stream of comedy performances followed, leading to her starring role in the sitcom Mike & Molly (2010).
In the 2010s, McCarthy became known for her starring roles in the films Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), St. Vincent (2014), Spy (2015), Ghostbusters (2016), and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018).- Actor
- Additional Crew
Rick Hoffman was born on 12 June 1970 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Suits (2011), Billions (2016) and Thanksgiving (2023).- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Minnie Driver was born January 31, 1970 in London and raised in Barbados until she was seven. Her mother, Gaynor Churchward, was a designer and former couture model. Her father, Charles Ronald "Ronnie" Driver, was a businessman. Minnie's mother was her father's mistress while he was still married to his wife. Minnie's sister, Kate Driver, is a manager and producer.
Her breakout role was in the 1995 film Circle of Friends. Minnie then appeared briefly in the James Bond picture Goldeneye. Since then, she has focused on working in a wide tonal range of films. These include several cult classics: Grosse Point Blank, Big Night, and Owning Mahowny; the painted romance of Good Will Hunting (earning an Oscar nomination for best actress in a supporting role); musicals like The Phantom of the Opera; period comedies like the Oscar Wilde classic An Ideal Husband; and Princess Mononoke, the seminal animated Japanese film by Hayao Miyazaki. Minnie has also starred in several family films such as Tarzan, Ella Enchanted, and the 2021 live action Cinderella.
Minnie has a wide-range of television work in place from FX's dark comedy classic The Riches, in which she co-starred with Eddie Izzard, to starring in two network sitcoms including NBC's About A Boy adaptation as well as ABC's Speechless. Both of which ran for several seasons. Minnie also pops up in key guest-starring roles such as her turn as Lorraine Finster on Will & Grace which lasted almost fifteen years and as Cath on the current BBC / HBO comedy Starstruck. Minnie is also starring in the Amazon anthology Modern Love which is on air now (2021).
On September 5, 2008, she gave birth to a boy named Henry Story Driver. She is in a long-term relationship with Addison O'Dea.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Her father is Tariq Anwar and her mother is
Shireen Anwar. Anwar attended Laleham Church of England Primary and
Middle School from 1975 to 1982. Trinian's sketch in the school concert
of 1982 gave an early indication of her theatrical leanings. She
studied at the London drama and dance school, "Italia Conti". She
appeared in many British television productions before making her film
debut in Manifesto (1988).
Her first American movie was
If Looks Could Kill (1991),
in which she played the daughter of a murdered British Agent (played by
Roger Daltrey). In 1992, she made a guest
appearance on
Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990)
as "Tricia Kinney". She followed that with the films,
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991)
(inspired by "A Girl and Five Brave Horses"),
Scent of a Woman (1992),
Body Snatchers (1993),
For Love or Money (1993) and
The Three Musketeers (1993).
In 1994, People magazine named her one of the 50 most beautiful people
in the world. One of her most memorable moments on screen came in
1992's Scent of a Woman (1992),
when she danced a tango with Al Pacino, whose
character was blind.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Vincent Anthony Vaughn was born on March 28, 1970, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and was raised in Lake Forest, Illinois. His parents, Vernon Vaughn (a salesman and character actor), and Sharon Vaughn, née Sharon Eileen DePalmo (a real-estate agent and stockbroker) divorced in 1991. He has two older sisters, Victoria Vaughn and Valeri Vaughn. His recent ancestry includes Lebanese (from his paternal grandmother), Italian (from his maternal grandfather), English, Irish, German, and Scottish. His mother was born in Brantford, Ontario.
Vince was interested in theater early on and grabbed a spot in a Chevy commercial. In 1988 he moved to Hollywood. He managed to hit a few spots on television, but his real goal was to make it to the big screen. He made his first credited role in the film Rudy (1993) where he met his friend Jon Favreau, who was writing a script detailing his life as an out-of-work actor. Vince was written into Swingers (1996) by Jon to play the character of "Trent". He signed on just as a favor to his buddy, not
realizing it would be a career changing role. Though not a commercial success, it was a critical success in which Steven Spielberg saw him and cast him in the big budget sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). This role gave Vince the exposure he needed to become a movie star and, for the first time, choose the roles he wanted to take. A Cool, Dry Place (1998) put him as a loving father, Return to Paradise (1998) cast him as a man having to make a life or death decision to save a friend, and Clay Pigeons (1998) cast him as an interesting serial killer. Since then his roles have been primarily in comedies such as Old School (2003), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), Wedding Crashers (2005), and Couples Retreat (2009).- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
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 and Keanu Reeves in The Replacements, and played the infamous Nikki in Doug Liman's Swingers. Langton also produced and starred in the period piece Beautiful Dreamer.- Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Often considered hip-hop's first lady, the woman behind the moniker Queen Latifah was born Dana Elaine Owens on March 18, 1970, in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita (Bray), a teacher, and Lancelot Owens Sr. She came from a police family-both her father and her older brother were cops-which would later influence her rhyming style and life philosophy. Her brother died in a motorcycle accident in 1992. Owens witnessed both sides of black urban life in the USA while growing up. After a brief stint as a Burger King employee, she soon found herself making waves in the hip-hop music scene.
After working as the human beatbox alongside Ladies Fresh, she was just 18 years old when she broke through in the late 1980s with a style that picked selectively from jazz, reggae, and soul traditions, from beats produced by D.J. Mark the 45 King. Her debut single, "Wrath of My Madness," was released in 1988. A year later, her debut long-player, "All Hail the Queen," enjoyed favored reviews: an old, wise head was evident on the top of her young shoulders. The former Burger King employee maintained her early commitment to answering the misogynist armory of some of her male counterparts and, at the same time, imparted musical good times to all genders. Her name means "delicate and sensitive" in Arabic, but she has often been anything but in her rhymes and the messages she sends out through them. One of the most prominent female hip-hop artists on the scene for over a decade, Queen Latifah has also made tremendous inroads in movies, television, and artist management, with her management company, Flavor Unit, alongside her business partner Shakim Compere. A role model who takes the responsibility to heart, Latifah has carefully constructed a fine career for herself-one that is constantly moving upward.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Anderson was
born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation
of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a
V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of
titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their
teeth making 8 mm films, Anderson cut his teeth shooting films on
video and editing them from V.C.R. to V.C.R.
Part of Anderson's artistic D.N.A. comes from his father, who hosted a
late night horror show in Cleveland. His father knew a number of
oddball celebrities such as
Robert Ridgely, an actor who often
appeared in Mel Brooks' films and
would later play "The Colonel" in Anderson's
Boogie Nights (1997). Anderson was
also very much shaped by growing up in "The Valley", specifically the
suburban San Fernando Valley of greater Los Angeles. The Valley may
have been immortalized in the 1980s for its mall-hopping "Valley
Girls", but for Anderson it was a slightly seedy part of suburban
America. You were close to Hollywood, yet you weren't there. Would-bes
and burn-outs populated the area. Anderson's experiences growing up in
"The Valley" have no doubt shaped his artistic self, especially since
three of his four theatrical features are set in the Valley.
Anderson got into film-making at a young age. His most significant
amateur film was
The Dirk Diggler Story (1988),
a sort of mock-documentary a la
This Is Spinal Tap (1984),
about a once-great pornography star named Dirk Diggler. After enrolling
in N.Y.U.'s film program for two days, Anderson got his tuition back
and made his own short film,
Cigarettes & Coffee (1993).
He also worked as a production assistant on numerous commercials and
music videos before he got the chance to make his first feature,
something he liked to call Sydney,
but would later become known to the public as Hard Eight (1996). The film
was developed and financed through The Sundance Lab, not unlike
Quentin Tarantino's
Reservoir Dogs (1992). Anderson
cast three actors whom he would continue working with in the future:
Altman veteran Philip Baker Hall, the
husky and lovable John C. Reilly
and, in a small part,
Philip Seymour Hoffman, who so
far has been featured in all four of Anderson's films. The film deals
with a guardian angel type (played by Hall) who takes down-on-his-luck
Reilly under his wing. The deliberately paced film featured a number of
Anderson trademarks: wonderful use of source light, long takes and
top-notch acting. Yet the film was reedited (and retitled) by Rysher
Entertainment against Anderson's wishes. It was admired by critics, but
didn't catch on at the box office. Still, it was enough for Anderson to
eventually get his next movie financed. "Boogie Nights" was, in a
sense, a remake of "The Dirk Diggler Story", but Anderson threw away
the satirical approach and instead painted a broad canvas about a
makeshift family of pornographers. The film was often joyous in its
look at the 1970s and the days when pornography was still shot on film,
still shown in theatres, and its actors could at least delude
themselves into believing that they were movie stars. Yet "Boogie
Nights" did not flinch at the dark side, showing a murder and suicide,
literally in one (almost) uninterrupted shot, and also showing the
lives of these people deteriorate, while also showing how their lives
recovered.
Anderson not only worked with Hall, Reilly and Hoffman again, he also
worked with Julianne Moore,
Melora Walters,
William H. Macy and
Luis Guzmán. Collectively, Anderson
had something that was rare in U.S. cinema: a stock company of
top-notch actors. Aside from the above mentioned, Anderson also drew
terrific performances from
Burt Reynolds and
Mark Wahlberg, two actors whose
careers were not exactly going full-blast at the time of "Boogie
Nights", but who found themselves to be that much more employable
afterwards.
The success of "Boogie Nights" gave Anderson the chance to really go
for broke in Magnolia (1999), a massive
mosaic that could dwarf Altman's
Nashville (1975) in its number of
characters.
Anderson was awarded a "Best Director" award at Cannes for Punch-Drunk Love (2002).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jason Gray-Stanford was born on 19 May 1970 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is an actor, known for Monk (2002), A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Flags of Our Fathers (2006). He was previously married to Jes Macallan.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Born in Puducherry, India, and raised in the posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M. Night Shyamalan is a film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor, known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots.
He is the son of Jayalakshmi, a Tamil obstetrician and gynecologist, and Nelliate C. Shyamalan, a Malayali doctor. His passion for filmmaking began when he was given a Super-8 camera at age eight, and even at that young age began to model his career on that of his idol, Steven Spielberg. His first film, Praying with Anger (1992), was based somewhat on his own trip back to visit the India of his birth. He raised all the funds for this project, in addition to directing, producing and starring in it. Wide Awake (1998), his second film, he wrote and directed, and shot it in the Philadelphia-area Catholic school he once attended--even though his family was of a different religion, they sent him to that school because of its strict discipline.
Shyamalan gained international recognition when he wrote and directed 1999's The Sixth Sense (1999), which was a commercial success and later nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Shyamalan team up again with Bruce Willis in the film Unbreakable (2000), released in 2000, which he also wrote and directed.
His major films include the science fiction thriller Signs (2002), the psychological thriller The Village (2004), the fantasy thriller Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010), After Earth (2013), and the horror films The Visit (2015) and Split (2016).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Uma Karuna Thurman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a highly
unorthodox and internationally-minded family. She is the daughter of
Nena Thurman (née Birgitte Caroline von
Schlebrügge), a fashion model and socialite who now runs a mountain
retreat, and of Robert Thurman
(Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman), a professor and academic who is one
of the nation's foremost Buddhist scholars. Uma's mother was born in
Mexico City, Mexico, to a German father and a Swedish mother (who
herself was of Swedish, Danish, and German descent). Uma's father, a
New Yorker, has English, Scots-Irish, Scottish, and German ancestry.
Uma grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, where her father worked at
Amherst College.
She and her siblings all have names deriving from Buddhist mythology;
and Middle American behavior was little understood, much less pursued.
And so it was that the young Thurman confronted childhood with an odd
name and eccentric home life -- and nature seemingly conspired against
her as well. She is six feet tall, and from an early age towered over
everyone else in class. Her famously large feet would soon sprout to
size 11 -- and even beyond that -- and although they would eventually
be lovingly filmed by director
Quentin Tarantino, as a child she
generally wore the biggest shoes in class, which only provided another
subject of ridicule. Even her long nose moved one of her mother's
friends to helpfully suggest rhinoplasty -- to the ten-year-old
Thurman. To make matters worse yet, the family constantly relocated,
making the gangly, socially inept Thurman perpetually the new kid in
class. The result was an exceptionally awkward, self-conscious, lonely
and alienated childhood.
Unsurprisingly, the young Thurman enjoyed making believe she was
someone other than herself, and so thrived at acting in school plays --
her sole successful extracurricular activity. This interest, and her
lanky frame, perfect for modeling, led the 15-year-old Thurman to New
York City for high school and modeling work (including a layout in
Glamour Magazine) as she sought acting roles. The roles soon came,
starting with a few formulaic and forgettable Hollywood products, but
immediately followed by Terry Gilliam's
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
and Stephen Frears'
Dangerous Liaisons (1988),
both of which brought much attention to her unorthodox sensuality and
performances that intriguingly combined innocence and worldliness. The
weird, gangly girl became a sex symbol virtually overnight.
Thurman continued to be offered good roles in Hollywood pictures into
the early
'90s, the least commercially successful but probably best-known of which was her smoldering, astonishingly-adult performance as June, Henry Miller's
wife, in Henry & June (1990), the
first movie to actually receive the dreaded NC-17 rating in the USA.
After a celebrated start, Thurman's career stalled in the early '90s
with movies such as the mediocre
Mad Dog and Glory (1993).
Worse, her first starring role was in
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993),
which had endured a tortured journey from cult-favorite book to
big-budget movie, and was a critical and financial debacle.
Fortunately, Uma bounced back with a brilliant performance as Mia
Wallace, that most unorthodox of all gangster's molls, in Tarantino's
lauded, hugely successful
Pulp Fiction (1994), a role for
which Thurman received an Academy Award nomination.
Since then, Thurman has had periods of flirting with roles in arty
independents such as
A Month by the Lake (1995),
and supporting roles in which she has lent some glamorous presence to a
mixed batch of movies, such as
Beautiful Girls (1996) and
The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996).
Thurman returned to smaller films after playing the villainess Poison
Ivy in the reviled Joel Schumacher
effort Batman & Robin (1997) and
Emma Peel in a remake of
The Avengers (1998). She worked with
Woody Allen and
Sean Penn on
Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and
starred in Richard Linklater's drama
Tape (2001) opposite Hawke. Thurman also won
a Golden Globe award for her turn in the made-for-television film
Hysterical Blindness (2002),
directed by Mira Nair.
A return to the mainstream spotlight came when Thurman re-teamed with
Quentin Tarantino for
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), a
revenge flick the two had dreamed up on the set of
Pulp Fiction (1994). She also turned
up in the John Woo cautioner
Paycheck (2003) that same year. The
renewed attention was not altogether welcome because Thurman was
dealing with the break-up of her marriage with Hawke at about this
time. Thurman handled the situation with grace, however, and took her
surging popularity in stride. She garnered critical acclaim for her
work in
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) and
was hailed as Tarantino's muse. Thurman reunited with
Pulp Fiction (1994) dance partner
John Travolta for the
Get Shorty (1995) sequel
Be Cool (2005) and played Ulla in
The Producers (2005).
Thurman had been briefly married to
Gary Oldman, from 1990 to 1992. In 1998, she
married Ethan Hawke, her co-star in the
offbeat futuristic thriller
Gattaca (1997). The couple had two
children, Levon and Maya. Hawke and Thurman filed for divorce in 2004.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
She has show biz in her blood. Martha Plimpton was born November 16,
1970, in New York City to two actors: Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton. Martha began
her career at age 8, when her mom had a friend of hers, composer
Elizabeth Swados, enroll her in an actors' workshop. At age 10, she got a small
part in Rollover (1981), and also made a series of Calvin Klein commercials.
Her first substantial film role was as a tomboy in The River Rat (1984); the
following year, Steven Spielberg cast her in The Goonies (1985). Martha met River Phoenix while
they were both filming The Mosquito Coast (1986), but since she was only 15 at the time,
she did not go out with him. Even though she had a small part in the
movie, it established her as a serious actress. Martha appeared in
movies such as the screwball comedy Stars and Bars (1988) and, that same year, she
was paired again with Phoenix in Running on Empty (1988). They dated for a while and
then broke up. For a while, she was engaged to actor Jon Patrick Walker.
As if making movies didn't keep her busy enough, Martha frequently
worked at theaters and made her Chicago debut with the Steppenwolf
Theatre Company Ensemble in "The Libertine" in 1996. As a member of
that ensemble, she received a National Medal of Arts award in the
autumn of 1998. As for movies, Colin Fitz Lives! (1997) and Eye of God (1997) in which she plays
the starring role, have been run at the Sundance Film Festival.
Although some recent movies have had low box office (Pecker (1998) $2.1
million, and 200 Cigarettes (1999) $6.8 million), Martha's performances shine and she
often rises above her material.
Perhaps recalling how important acting lessons were to her as a child,
she donates her time and efforts to the "52nd Street Project" which is
a not-for-profit organization dedicated to matching the inner-city
children with professional theater artists to create original theater,
by writing, directing and performing their own plays. Perhaps one of
the inner-city kids she is coaching will be the next famous actress in
Hollywood.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Matthew Lillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, to Paula and Jeffrey
Lillard. He lived with his family in Tustin, California, from first
grade to high school graduation. The summer after high school, he was
hired as an extra for
Ghoulies Go to College (1990).
Matthew was the MC of the Nickelodeon program
SK8 TV (1990) in 1989. He attended the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasedena, California. Along with a
friend, Matthew started the Mean Street Ensemble theater company that
functioned until 1991, when Matthew moved to New York to attend the
theater school Circle in the Square.
Manager Bill Treusch got Matthew auditions for
Serial Mom (1994). Matthew was cast as
Chip and began another theater company called the Summoners.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Heather Joan Graham was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Joan
(Bransfield), a schoolteacher and children's book author, and James
Graham, an FBI agent. She and her sister, actress
Aimee Graham, were raised by their
strictly Catholic parents. They relocated often, as a result of their
father's occupation, and Heather became increasingly shy. Surprisingly,
she had a passion for acting from an early age and despite being
labeled a 'theater geek' by her peers, she was voted Most Talented by
her high school senior class. Unfortunately, her love of acting created
a tension between Heather and her family although her mother obligingly
drove her to auditions in Hollywood throughout her adolescence.
After high school Heather moved to Los Angeles and received small roles
in a variety of films including
Drugstore Cowboy (1989). When
her career did not take off as quickly as was hoped, Heather enrolled
in the University of California at Los Angeles to get her degree in
drama. It was at UCLA that she was noticed by actor
James Woods and received a
subsequent part in a film Woods starred in,
Diggstown (1992). Heather dropped out
of UCLA after two years to pursue her acting career on a full time
basis. Aside from gaining a modeling contract with Emanuel Ungaro
Liberte, Heather has risen to star in such films as
Swingers (1996), a role she received
after being taken out swing dancing by
Jon Favreau, to blockbusters like
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999),
and Boogie Nights (1997).- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Nick Offerman was born in Joliet, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Parks and Recreation (2009), The Founder (2016), 21 Jump Street (2012), 22 Jump Street (2014), We Are The Millers (2013), and Fargo (2014). He has been married to Megan Mullally since September 20, 2003.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress and singer. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001). She played a prostitute in Hustle & Flow (2005), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination; and a single mother of a disabled child in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), for which she received Academy Award, SAG Award and Critics Choice Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In 2010, she appeared in the action comedy Date Night, and co-starred in the remake of The Karate Kid.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
New Yorker through and through, Michael Rapaport was born on March 20, 1970, in
Manhattan, to June Brody, a radio personality, and David Rapaport, a
radio program manager. He is of Polish Jewish and Russian Jewish
descent.
Rapaport moved to Los Angeles to try stand-up comedy following
high school graduation (which came after a series of expulsions), but
he never lost, forgot or deserted his New York roots. It's embedded in
his work and is a major part of his low-keyed charm and ongoing appeal.
His early idols were also New Yorkers
(Robert De Niro,
Christopher Walken, etc.).
Within a short amount of time Michael moved from
the live comedy stage to working in front of a camera. The two
developed an immediate rapport. A guest spot on the TV series
China Beach (1988) led to a
starring role in the quirky interracial indie
Zebrahead (1992), which clinched it for
him. This, in turn, led to a string of standout parts in films, such as
Christian Slater's pal in
True Romance (1993), an edgy
collegiate-turned-skinhead in
Higher Learning (1995) and a
sympathetic none-too-bright boxer in
Woody Allen's
Mighty Aphrodite (1995), all
enabling him to build up a higher profile.
In later years, Michael managed to
show his ease at offbeat comedy, demonstrating a kid-like, goofy charm
as Lisa Kudrow's cop boyfriend for a few
episodes on Friends (1994) and as
teacher Danny Hanson on
Boston Public (2000).
He later formed his own production company, Release Entertainment, in search of that one big breakout role that could nab top stardom for him. In later years, his offbeat character leads included an inducted mafioso in Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999); a hit man in the action comedy A Good Night to Die (2003); a comic book fanatic in the sci-fi comedy Special (2006); a trouble-making buddy in crime drama Inside Out (2011); a man helping out his former gangster neighbor in the dramedy Once Upon a Time in Queens (2013); and a married guy trying to get his mojo back in the comedy My Man Is a Loser (2014). For the most part, however, he served extremely well in support of other prominent stars with weird-to-bizarre featured roles for Woody Allen in his crime comedy Small Time Crooks (2000); for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the futuristic actioneer The 6th Day (2000); for Will Smith in the romantic /comedy Hitch (2005); for Ray Romano and Kevin James in the comedy crimer Grilled (2006); for Billy Bob Thornton in the action comedy The Baytown Outlaws (2012); for Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in the crime comedy The Heat (2013); and for Tom Hanks in the biopic Sully (2016).
Rapaport married writer Nicole Beatty in 2000 and divorced seven years later after having two children. In 2016, he married actress Kebe Dunn.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
English actor Warwick Davis was born in Epsom, Surrey, England, the son of Susan J. (Pain) and Ashley Davis, an insurance broker. Davis was born with the condition spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenital (SED), which caused his dwarfism. He was educated at City of London Freemen's School. When he was 11 years old, his grandmother heard a radio appeal for people under four feet tall to appear in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). A huge Star Wars fan, Davis auditioned successfully and was cast as an extra, playing an Ewok. Kenny Baker was cast as lead Ewok Wicket, but fell ill so George Lucas chose Davis to replace him. The film was a smash hit, and Davis went on to reprise his role as Wicket in further TV projects - The Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985).
Davis next big role came with a part specifically written for him, as the titular hero in Willow (1988). Other successes followed with roles in such projects as Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989) and two distinctly different film series - the 'Harry Potter' and 'Leprechaun' film series. In 2006, he appeared in a cameo role in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's hit sitcom Extras (2005), which led to the pair writing a series specifically for Davis, the comic mockumentary Life's Too Short (2011).
Davis, along with his father-in-law Peter Burroughs, is also the director of an acting agency for very short and tall actors called Willow Management. He is married to Samantha Davis and they have a son and a daughter.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
David Benioff was born on 25 September 1970 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Game of Thrones (2011), The Kite Runner (2007) and 25th Hour (2002). He has been married to Amanda Peet since 30 September 2006. They have three children.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
English actor, writer, and comedian Simon Pegg was born Simon John
Beckingham in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, to Gillian Rosemary (Smith),
a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician. His parents
divorced when he was seven. He later took his stepfather's surname "Pegg."
He was educated at Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School in
Gloucestershire and went on to Stratford-upon-Avon College to study
English literature and performance studies. He then attended the University
of Bristol, and earned a bachelor's degree in drama. In the early 2000s, Pegg
moved to London and began forging a successful career in stand-up comedy.
Television opportunities followed including roles in
Six Pairs of Pants (1995),
Asylum (1996), and
We Know Where You Live (1997).
In 1999, Pegg and Jessica Hynes teamed up
to write and star in cult sitcom
Spaced (1999), directed by
Edgar Wright. The series also featured
Pegg's best friend Nick Frost.
Pegg's breakthrough in film came with the zom-rom-com
Shaun of the Dead (2004), which
he also co-wrote with director Edgar Wright. Again, the film featured
Nick Frost. The trio also scored a hit with police comedy
Hot Fuzz (2007). Further film successes
followed for Pegg, notably in the iconic role of Montgomery "Scotty"
Scott in Star Trek (2009) and alongside
Tom Cruise in
Mission: Impossible III (2006)
and
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor, producer and screenwriter. He graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre in Copenhagen in 1993. Coster-Waldau's breakthrough performance in Denmark was his role in the film Nightwatch (1994). Since then he has appeared in numerous films in his native Scandinavia and Europe in general, including Headhunters (2011) and A Thousand Times Good Night (2013).
In the United States, his debut film role was in the war film Black Hawk Down (2001), playing Medal of Honor recipient Gary Gordon. He then played Detective John Amsterdam in the short-lived Fox television series New Amsterdam (2008), as well as appearing as Frank Pike in the 2009 Fox television film Virtuality, originally intended as a pilot. He became widely known for his role as Jaime Lannister in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2018. He is a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, drawing attention to critical issues such as gender equality and climate change.
Coster-Waldau was born in Rudkøbing, Denmark, the son of Hanne Søborg Coster, a librarian, and Jørgen Oscar Fritzer Waldau (died 1998). He has spoken in interviews about his father's problems with alcohol, as well as his parents' divorce. He has two older sisters, and was raised mainly by his mother. He grew up in Tybjerg, a small village between Ringsted and Næstved in southern Zealand. Coster-Waldau was the youngest actor to enter the Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance (Danish: Statens Teaterskole), where he was educated from 1989 to 1993.
In 2001, he began his U.S. career in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down as Medal of Honor recipient Gary Gordon. Coster-Waldau says "My first U.S. movie was Black Hawk Down and a friend helped me put myself on tape up on the attic over my apartment in Copenhagen. We shipped it out and I got lucky."
Since April 2011, Coster-Waldau has played Jaime Lannister in the HBO hit series Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novel series. He commented about the character "What's not to like about Jaime? As an actor I couldn't ask for a better role". For his role as Jaime Lannister he has received several accolades, including Primetime Emmy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Television Award, Saturn Award and People's Choice Award nominations.
In 2011, he also starred alongside Sam Shepard in Mateo Gil's feature Blackthorn, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Later the same year he starred in Morten Tyldum's Headhunters. The film went on to be the highest-grossing Norwegian film of all-time and received very positive reviews including a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. Coster-Waldau starred in the 2013 horror film Mama alongside Jessica Chastain, which debuted at number one in the US box office and grossed over $140 million worldwide. He went on to play Sykes, a military weapons expert in the science fiction action thriller film Oblivion. The same year he co-starred with Juliette Binoche in Erik Poppe's drama A Thousand Times Good Night. In 2014, he starred in Susanne Bier's Danish thriller A Second Chance as Andreas, a police officer forced to make a difficult choice. In 2016, Coster-Waldau appeared in the action-fantasy film Gods of Egypt as Horus.
In early 2017, he starred in E.L. Katz's dark comedy Small Crimes which premiered at South by Southwest film festival on 11 March 2017, to positive reviews. Coster-Waldau then appeared in the Danish film 3 Things, a thriller about a prime suspect of a bank robbery who negotiates the terms of his witness protection deal. He starred in Roman Waugh's prison film Shot Caller, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on 16 June 2017. Since January 2018 he has been the L'Oréal Paris global spokesperson for the company's Men Expert line of products. In May 2017, it was announced that he is attached to star in Domino, a film directed by Brian De Palma. He is also set to star in The Silencing, a thriller directed by Anders Engstom.
Although Coster-Waldau is not religious, like the vast majority of Danes, he was baptized and confirmed as a Lutheran in the Danish National Church during his youth and viewed his confirmation as a big moment in his life when he first identified as becoming an adult. He married Nukâka, a Greenlandic actress and singer, in 1998, and they live in Kongens Lyngby with their two daughters as well as two dogs. Their daughter Filippa has starred in a Danish short film, The Girl and the Dogs, which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. His father-in-law is Josef Motzfeldt, a member of the Parliament of Greenland and former leader of the Community of the People party. He is a supporter of English football club Leeds United and he is a member of the Leeds United Supporters' Trust.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Nicola Jane Walker is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programs from the 1990s onward, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks from 2003 to 2011 and DCI Cassie Stuart in Unforgotten from 2015 to 2021. She has also worked in theatre, radio and film. She won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and has twice been nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for the BBC drama Last Tango in Halifax.- Actress
- Producer
Elizabeth Mitchell was born in Los Angeles in 1970. Shortly after her
birth, her parents moved to Dallas, Texas. She was graduated from
Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts located in the
Arts District of downtown Dallas. Later, she earned a BFA degree in
acting from Stephens College and also studied at the British American
Drama Academy. Additionally, she spent six years at the respected
Dallas Theatre Center and one year with that theater's Encore Company.
Before her big screen debut, she started her acting career from
theaters. Her theatrical stage credits include productions of "As You
Like It", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", "Measure
for Measure", "Baby" and "Chicago", among many others.
Her breakthrough performance was opposite Angelina Jolie in Michael Cristofer's
acclaimed HBO telefilm Gia (1998) endearing her to audiences and critics,
alike. Following with the sci-fi time-travel adventure, Frequency (2000) with
Dennis Quaid and Neil LaBute's highly anticipated Nurse Betty (2000) opposite Renée Zellweger,
Elizabeth showed her charismatic acting skills. With numerous credits
from theaters, TV series and movies, Elizabeth Mitchell continues to
give her best in the acting field.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Aisha Tyler is an award-winning director, actor, comedian, New York Times bestselling author, podcaster and activist. She is an Emmy-winning television host and multiple award-winning voice actor for Archer (2009).
Aisha's feature directorial debut, Axis (2017), was shot in just seven days on location in Los Angeles in 2015 on a crowdfunded budget. It won Outstanding Achievement in Feature Filmmaking at the 2017 Newport Beach Film Festival and was chosen "Best of the Fest" at the Sarasota Film Festival. Scene Magazine said of AXIS, "the directorial debut of Aisha Tyler is a revelation... brilliant in every way." And Paste Magazine wrote: "to make a film this experimental, this compelling, your first time out as a director is just extraordinary." AXIS was released wide in 2018 and is available everywhere on multiple VOD platforms.
Aisha has directed several episodes of television, including Fear the Walking Dead (2015), Roswell, New Mexico (2019), and Criminal Minds (2005), where she made her television directing debut. She has also directed several short films as well as multiple music videos for rock artists Minke, Clutch, and Silversun Pickups. Aisha voices superspy Lana Kane on F/X's Emmy-winning hit Archer (2009). In 2013 Aisha took over for Drew Carey as host of the rebooted improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway? (2013) for the CW.
Ms. Tyler is the founder of Courage+Stone, a line of premium ready-to-drink cocktails. Debuting in January 2020, the company donated a significant portion of its online to bar and restaurant workers put out of work during the coronavirus lockdown. She is one of just a handful of women of color founders in the spirits category.
Ms. Tyler's second book of comedic essays, Self-Inflicted Wounds, named for the popular segment of her podcast Girl on Guy, debuted on The New York Times bestseller list in 2013. She is also the author of Swerve: Reckless Observations of a Postmodern Girl
Ms. Tyler is a supporter of many charitable organizations, including The International Rescue Committee, Family Violence Prevention Fund, The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, the LA Mission and Doctors Without Borders.
A San Francisco native, Ms. Tyler graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Government and Environmental Policy. An avid gamer and passionate advocate of inclusion in the gaming community, Aisha's voice can be heard in the video games Halo:Reach; Gears of War 3, and Watch Dogs. Aisha is a whiskey lover, a hard rock fan, a snowboarder and sci-fi obsessive, and confounding to all who know her.- Actor
- Soundtrack
River Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom in Madras, Oregon. His mother,
Arlyn (Dunetz), a Bronx-born secretary, and his father, John
Bottom, a carpenter, met in California in 1968. They worked as itinerant fruit pickers, and later joined the Children
of God religious group (John was originally Catholic, while Arlyn was
born Jewish). By the time River was two, they were living in South
America, where John was the sect's Archbishop of Venezuela. They later left the group and, in 1977, moved back to the United States, changing their last name to "Phoenix". They lived with River's maternal grandparents in Florida, and later moved to Los Angeles. His
parents encouraged all of their children to get into movies and, by age
ten, River was acting professionally on TV. His film debut was in
Explorers (1985), followed rapidly by
box-office successes with
Stand by Me (1986) and
The Mosquito Coast (1986), and
as young Indiana in
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
His role as Danny Pope in
Running on Empty (1988) earned
him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. His best role
was probably Mike, the hustler in
My Own Private Idaho (1991).
A dedicated animal-rights activist and environmentalist, River was a
strict vegetarian and a member of PeTA (People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals). River was a talented musician as well as an
actor, and he played guitar, sang, and wrote songs for his band,
Aleka's Attic, which also included his sister
Rain Phoenix, while living in Gainsville,
Florida. Although the band never released its own album, their song
"Across the Way" can be found on PeTA's "Tame Yourself" album, used to
fight animal abuse. River was in the middle of filming
Dark Blood (2012), playing the
character Boy when he died. The film couldn't be finished due to too
many unfilmed crucial scenes. His mother was later sued.
River died of acute multiple drug intoxication involving lethal levels
of cocaine and morphine at age 23 outside the Viper Room,
Johnny Depp's Los Angeles club.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Born and raised in Sparks, Nevada, Mädchen Amick was encouraged by her parents to follow her own creative instincts where she learned the skill of playing the piano, bass, violin and guitar as well as being able to do tap, ballet, jazz and modern dancing. In 1987 at the age of 16, she traveled to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
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
- Soundtrack
Kari Matchett, a Canadian actress, skillfully embodies the character of Linda in "Fargo" Season 5. Her versatile acting prowess brings a profound depth to Linda, enhancing the show's narrative.
Kari Matchett grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta. She attended Lethbridge Collegiate Institute and later pursued her passion for acting at the National Theatre School in Montreal and the Moscow Theatre School. Matchett's exposure to diverse acting methodologies has significantly shaped her dynamic acting style.
Kari Matchett's career spans a range of notable roles in both television and film. She first rose to prominence in Canada with her performance in "Power Play" and subsequently in "The Rez."- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
In both career and in real life, Bobby Cannavale tends to choose the unconventional way of doing things. In the beginning, his decisions may have cost the dark, swarthily good-looking actor some acting roles and/or good-paying parts but, in the end, his strong work ethic and sense of self, despite a lack of formal training, allowed him to take a successful path off the crowded acting trail. From character goofball and cut-up, he has broken into the leading man ranks with his recent starring role as a reincarnated matchmaker in the TV series Cupid (2009).
Born Roberto M. Cannavale on May 3, 1971, in Union City, New Jersey, to an Italian-American father, Sal, and a Cuban mother, Isabel, he was involved in various activities at his Union City Catholic school, St. Michaels, while growing up. An altar boy, choir boy and lector, he also appeared in the church school's various musicals including his very first, "Guys and Dolls", in which he showed up as one of the gangsters, and "The Music Man", appearing as the lisping, scene-stealing tyke, "Winthrop".
Bobby's parents divorced when he was five years old and his mother moved the family to Puerto Rico for a couple of years. Eventually, they returned to the States and settled in Coconut Creek, Florida, where he attended high school. Restless and uncomfortable in any sort of regimented setting, he often got suspended for playing the class clown. Graduating in the late 1980s, and bitten by the acting bug, Bobby chose to return to the New York/New Jersey area in order to jump start an acting career. Working in bars to support himself, he again avoided the confines of an acting school and, instead, gained experience as a "reader" on occasion with the Naked Angels theatre company. During this time (1994), he met and married Jenny Lumet, the actress-daughter of director Sidney Lumet. They had son, Jake, the following year. The couple divorced in 2003.
Spotted by playwright Lanford Wilson while performing in an East Village production of Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart", Bobby was invited to join Wilson's prestigious Circle Repertory Theatre. As a "reader" for the company, he eventually earned stage parts in "Chilean Holidays" (1996) and in Wilson's "Virgil Is Still the Frog Boy." He also went on to serve as understudy to Mark Linn-Baker in a 1998 production of "A Flea in Her Ear" and later replaced him. A noticeable role in the company's play, "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told" by Paul Rudnick led to Bobby's being cast in the recurring role of a tugboat operator in the TV series Trinity (1998). Having only appeared in bit parts thus far in such movies as Night Falls on Manhattan (1996), directed by Lumet, and I'm Not Rappaport (1996), it was "Trinity" creator John Wells who caught Bobby's stage performance and handed him this career-making break on camera.
Bobby's "nice-guy" aura and blue-collar charm proved invaluable, if a bit restrictive. Once the "Trinity" series ended, Wells cast the 6'3" lug with the trademark caterpillar brows and crooked smile as lovelorn paramedic "Bobby Caffey" in his series Third Watch (1999). The character became quite popular but Bobby, again feeling restricted and wishing to broaden his horizon as an actor, asked to be released from the show -- but "in a big way". Creator Wells obliged and had the paramedic fatally shot in the chest and then experience a "beyond the grave" union with his character's deceased, ne'er-do-well dad.
Bobby next joined the cast of father-in-law Sidney Lumet's acclaimed TV courtroom drama 100 Centre Street (2001), starring Alan Arkin, cast against type as a brazenly opportunistic prosecutor. He subsequently earned recurring roles on Ally McBeal (1997) (in 2002) and Six Feet Under (2001) (in 2004). As for films, Bobby was featured in Gloria (1999), The Bone Collector (1999), Washington Heights (2002) and The Guru (2002) by the time he scored as the gregarious food truck driver in the critically-hailed indie film The Station Agent (2003), which paired him intriguingly opposite the diminutive actor Peter Dinklage.
Unwilling to shirk away from more controversial roles such as his gay drug dealer who has the hots for a fellow prisoner in the acclaimed series Oz (1997) or his closeted dancing neophyte in the film comedy Shall We Dance (2004) starring Richard Gere, Bobby continued to elevate his status seesawing between film (Shortcut to Happiness (2003), Happy Endings (2005), Romance & Cigarettes (2005)) and TV assignments (the miniseries Kingpin (2003)). He earned big viewer points and an Emmy Award for his recurring portrayal of Will's dour cop/boyfriend on the hit sitcom Will & Grace (1998) in 2004. Elsewhere, on stage, he merited attention in such productions as "Hurlyburly" and earned a Tony Award nomination for his 2007 Broadway debut in "Mauritius."
After five consecutive failed pilots, Bobby has come front-and-center with his quirky starring role in the ABC series Cupid (2009), plus recurring roles in Cold Case (2003) and Nurse Jackie (2009), and his second Emmy-winning part in Boardwalk Empire (2010). He continues to rake up credits on the big screen with (The Merry Gentleman (2008), Diminished Capacity (2008), The Take (2007), 100 Feet (2008), Roadie (2011), Blue Jasmine (2013), link=tt2883512], Ant-Man (2015), I, Tonya (2017), Boundaries (2018) and The Irishman (2019), and with fascinating continuing/regular roles on such TV series as Cupid (2009), Cold Case (2003), Boardwalk Empire (2010), Nurse Jackie (2009), Vinyl (2016), Mr. Robot (2015) and Homecoming (2018), this dark, brutish character has plenty of staying power in both comedy and drama.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Lara Flynn Boyle was born in Davenport, Iowa on March 24, 1970 to 21-year old Sally Boyle. For Sally and young Lara, money was not plentiful so Sally was required to work three jobs in addition to raising baby Lara by herself. Since Lara was mostly around Sally, they developed a bond that still binds Lara and Sally today. Until recently, Sally lived with Lara. Now they only live 10 minutes away from each other. Growing up, Lara had many struggles including dyslexia and a learning disability. Still, she could not let that get to her and she knew she had to be strong. She finally graduated, and, the day after doing so, she and her mother, Sally, moved. They drove on what would be "the road to fame". She soon landed roles in movies like Poltergeist III (1988) and Wayne's World (1992). Since then, she has become a prolific actress on both the small screen and the big screen.- Actress
- Producer
- Editor
Leah Marie Remini was born on June 15,1970 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York & was raised in Los Angeles, California. Leah was born to Vicki Julia Marshall, & George Anthony Remini, who owned an asbestos removal company. She has an older sister named Nicole and 4 half-sisters named Christine, Stephanie (died of cancer in 2013), Elizabeth & Shannon. She starred as Carrie Heffernan on the long-running CBS comedy series The King of Queens (1998-2007) and later co-hosted The Talk in 2010-11. Since 2016 she has created, hosted and executive produced co-produced the Emmy Award-winning A&E documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. Since 2020 Remini is producing and co-hosting the iHeart radio podcast Scientology: Fair Game
She was baptized Roman Catholic. When she was 8 years old, her mother joined the Church of Scientology, and Remini was thereafter raised as a Scientologist. Remini and sister Nicole were then taken to join Scientology's Paramilitary organization called the Sea Organization, where they were forced to sign billion-year contracts and work for their room and board. Sea Org children do not live with their parents and children of the Sea Org are treated as adults and work around the clock. Remini's mother decided to take her children out of the Sea Org and return to civilian Scientology life when Remini was thirteen years old. Remini moved to Los Angeles, California, with her mother and sisters, where she spent the remainder of her teenage years working to pay off their debt to Scientology called a Freeloader's Debt. Remini and family worked regular jobs to pay for Scientology services.
Remini and husband Angelo Pagán, baptized their daughter Sofia as a Catholic.
Remini left the organization in 2013. Two years later, Remini released her book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, her memoir became number one on The New York Times Best Sellers List. In 2016, she followed up her memoir with the two-time Emmy Award-winning documentary television series on the A&E network, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, where she created a platform for victims and survivors of Scientology. The Documentary Series received many awards in its three seasons; two Emmy Awards, 2019 Critics' Choice Real TV Impact Award, 2017 Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming, 2018 Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television, 2018 NATPE Unscripted Breakthrough Awards for Best Innovation, 2019 IDA Truth to Power Award, CHILD USA 2019 Barbara Blaine Trailblazer Award, The Gracie Awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for On-Air Talent - Lifestyle and Entertainment and another Gracie Award for Non-Fiction Entertainment.
Remini reunited with her co-star Kevin James in CBS's Kevin Can Wait, as Vanessa Cellucci.
One of Remini's early television roles was on Who's the Boss? as Charlie Briscoe, which led to a spin-off series entitled Living Dolls, in which Remini starred with Halle Berry. The show premiered in late 1989 and ran for 12 episodes.
In 1991, Remini had a supporting role on the short-lived ABC comedy The Man in the Family. She then had recurring roles on Saved by the Bell, where she played Stacey Carosi, and on Evening Shade as Daisy, the girlfriend of Taylor Newton (Jay R. Ferguson). Remini then appeared in two more short-lived series, First Time Out (1995) and Fired Up (1997-98). In 1993, she appeared on Cheers as Serafina, the daughter of Carla and Nick Tortelli (Rhea Perlman and Dan Hedaya). In 1994, Remini auditioned for the role of Monica Geller on Friends, but the role went to Courteney Cox. Remini later appeared in the 1995 Friends episode "The One with the Birth" in which she played a pregnant woman. In 1998, Remini landed the role of Carrie Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens. The series was successful, and ran for nine seasons from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.
Remini had a supporting role in the comedy film Old School (2003). Remini also starred in her own reality show, Inside Out: Leah Remini, which was a documentary that aired on VH1 about Remini's wedding. Following the success of the wedding special, VH-1 documented the next phase of their lives with the birth of her daughter Sofia Bella. Remini has starred in nine-episode webisodes of In the Motherhood, along with Chelsea Handler and Jenny McCarthy.
In October 2011, Remini signed a talent development deal at ABC and ABC Studios that required the network and the studio to develop a comedy project for Remini to star in and produce.
Remini competed on season 17 of Dancing with the Stars, in which she was partnered with professional dancer Tony Dovolani. The couple made it to the 10th week of competition and reached 5th place. Remini later returned in season 19 as a guest co-host on week 6. She returned as guest co-host on season 21 during weeks 6 and 7.
In 2013, Remini joined the cast of the TV Land comedy The Exes, filling a recurring role starting in season three.
Remini created, produced, and starred in a reality television series titled Leah Remini: It's All Relative. The show focuses on Remini's family life. It premiered on TLC on July 10, 2014.
In August 2013, it was disclosed that Remini had filed a missing person report with the Los Angeles Police Department concerning Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, who had not been seen in public since 2007. After the report was filed, the Los Angeles Police Department investigated the matter, met, and spoke with her before closing the investigation and stating Remini's report was "unfounded". The Church said in a statement that the whole affair was simply harassment and a publicity stunt for Remini.
In 2020 Remini & her production company, "No, Seriously Productions" signed a production deal with Critical Content and continues to create content that is both entertaining and continuing to speak truth to power.
Remini released her memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology on November 3, 2015. In a 2015 interview with People magazine, Remini stated that she was embracing Catholicism and found comfort in the religion's practices, contrasting her experiences with Scientology.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Sharon Lorencia Horgan is an Irish actress, writer, director, comedian and producer. She is best known for the comedy series Pulling (2006-2009) and Catastrophe (2015-2019), both of which she starred in and co-wrote. She also created the HBO comedy series Divorce (2016-2019).
Horgan won the 2008 British Comedy Award for Best TV Actress for Pulling, while the show's 2009 hour-long final episode won the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Drama. A seven-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won the 2016 BAFTA TV Award for Best Comedy Writer for Catastrophe (with Rob Delaney). Catastrophe was also nominated for Scripted Comedy in the 2020 BAFTA TV Awards and for the 2016 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. She has also won five Irish Film and Television Awards in both acting and writing for her work on Catastrophe. Horgan also won the 2021 Irish Film and Television Award in the category of Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Dating Amber (2020).
Horgan has appeared in the films Valiant (2005), Imagine Me & You (2005), Man Up (2015), and Game Night (2018), Military Wives (2019), Dating Amber (2020), and BBC Two film Together (2021).- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Esther Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and its film adaptation, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, and as Amelia Vanek in The Babadook. Other major works include a recurring role as Lady Crane in season six of the television series Game of Thrones, Sister Iphigenia in Lambs of God, and the role of Ellen Kelly in Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Emmy-nominated actor and director Malcolm-Jamal Warner was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was named after Malcolm X and legendary
jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal.
Warner
first rose to national prominence by starring on the celebrated and
long-running classic television series "The Cosby Show." His work on
the show garnered him a Primetime Emmy Nomination for Outstanding
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
As a seasoned director, Warner has worked on a host of television
series, including being a regular director [and producer] on the comedy
series "Malcolm & Eddie," and also having directed several episodes of
"The Cosby Show," "All That," "Keenan & Kel," "The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air," "Sesame Street," and the AIDS awareness video "Timeout: The
Truth about HIV, AIDS, and You' [which starred Magic Johnson and
Arsenio Hall, and earned Warner the NAACP Key of Life Image Award. His
short film, "This Old Man," received critical acclaim on the theater
festival circuit.
In addition to his television credits, Warner made his feature film
debut in Paramount Pictures' "Drop Zone," and was also seen in Warner
Bros' Pictures "Fools Gold" opposite Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson,
and Donald Sutherland. He also co-starred in the independent films
"Restaurant" with Adrien Brody, "A Fare to Remember," and "The List"
with Wayne Brady.
On stage, Warner has starred in the off-Broadway plays "Three Ways
Home," "Cryin' Shame," for which he received the NAACP Theater Award
for Best Supporting Actor, "Freefall" at the Victory Garden Theatre in
Chicago, and in "A Midsummer Nights' Dream," at the La Jolla Playhouse
in California. Warner received critical acclaim for his West Coast
debut of his one-man theatrical production of "Love and Other Social
Issues." He will return to the stage in September 2014, reprising
Sidney Poitier's role as Dr. John Prentice in "Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner," opening in Boston at The Huntington Theatre. Warner has held
this role before, previously performing in the play at Washington
D.C.'s esteemed Arena Theater.
In 2014, Warner can be seen recurring on two hit series: TNT's "Major
Crimes," and FX's "Sons of Anarchy." He was most recently seen on NBC's
critically acclaimed series "Community," and recently guest starred on
"The Michael J. Fox Show," TNT's "Hawthorne", AMC's "The Cleaner," and
Showtime's "Dexter." In 2011, Warner produced, directed, and starred in
the BET original series "Reed Between the Lines" opposite Tracee Ellis
Ross.
Warner's voice may be as well known as his likeness, for four seasons
he was heard as the voice of the "Producer" on PBS' "The Magic School
Bus." Currently, he can be heard on the audio book version of "The
Marvelous Effect" published by Berkley Trade, as well as in Simon &
Schuster's "Fatherhood" by Bill Cosby. When not acting and directing,
Warner is a poet and a bass player. His jazz-funk band Miles Long has
performed in several major jazz festivals, including the Playboy Jazz
Festival, and has opened for high profile artists including Earl Klugh
and the late Luther Vandross, and he recently performed at the historic
Apollo Theater. Both of Warner's independently distributed CD's, "The
Miles Long Mix Tape" and "Love and Other Social Issues". Warner is set to release
brand new music, fall 2014.
Warner currently lives in Los Angeles, California.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Christopher Eugene O'Donnell was born on June 26th, 1970 in Winnetka,
Illinois, to Julie Ann (Rohs) and William Charles O'Donnell, Sr., who
managed a CBS radio station, WBBM-AM. He is the youngest child in his
family, with four sisters and two brothers. His father had Irish
ancestry and his mother's lineage includes German, English, and Swiss.
O'Donnell first started modeling at the age of thirteen and continued
until the age of sixteen, when he appeared in commercials. When he was
seventeen, he was preparing to stop acting and modeling, but was asked
to audition for what would be his first film,
Men Don't Leave (1990). He didn't
want to go to the audition, but his mother bribed him by saying she
would buy him a new car if he went and he duly got the role.
Ever since that moment in his life, Chris has appeared in some major
motion pictures including
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991),
Scent of a Woman (1992),
Mad Love (1995) and
Vertical Limit (2000). He played a
part in Kinsey (2004), which appeared in
theaters in the year 2004.
Chris took time off from acting to spend time with his wife, Caroline,
son, Chris Jr., and his daughter Lilly. He also spent two months in New
York performing in Arthur Miller's
"The Man Who Had All the Luck".- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Damon Herriman was born on 31 March 1970 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. He is an actor and writer, known for Justified (2010), Mindhunter (2017) and Judy & Punch (2019).- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Sarah Silverman was most recently the host of the two-time Emmy-nominated weekly topical series, I Love You America, which streamed on Hulu and also received a Writers Guild Awards nomination.
Silverman is currently working on a musical adaptation of her 2010 memoir and New York Times Bestseller called The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee. The musical, The Bedwetter, will premiere Off Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre Company in April 2020.
On-stage, Silverman continues to cement her status as a force in stand-up comedy. In May 2017, she released her latest standup special A Speck of Dust on Netflix, which culminated in two Emmy Award nominations and a Grammy Award nomination. In 2013, she debuted her hour-long HBO standup special Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles, which earned her the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special." The special received an additional Primetime Emmy Awards nomination that year for "Outstanding Variety Special" in addition to a Writers Guild Awards nomination. In September 2014, Silverman released the special as an audio album through Sub Pop Records, which went on to receive a 2015 Grammy Awards nomination for "Best Comedy Album." Previously, Silverman made an impressive splash with her concert-meets-comedy film Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, which garnered major attention at the Toronto Film Festival.
In the film world, Silverman was most recently seen opposite Emma Stone and Steve Carell in the critically-acclaimed film Battle of the Sexes, which was based on the true story of the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. She also starred in I Smile Back, the film adaptation of the Amy Koppelman novel. The drama premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was later released in theaters by Broad Green Pictures. Silverman received much praise for her role as "Laney Brooks," culminating in a 2016 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for "Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role." Her additional film credits include The Book of Henry, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Ashby, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Take This Waltz, Gravy, Peep World, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, The School of Rock, There's Something About Mary, The Way of The Gun. Silverman also lent her voice as "Vanellope" in the Oscar-nominated smash hit Wreck It Ralph and Golden Globe nominated Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Silverman was nominated for a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series" for her portrayal of a fictionalized version of herself in her Comedy Central series The Sarah Silverman Program. This marked Comedy Central's first ever Emmy nomination in a scripted acting category. Silverman also received a Writers Guild Award nomination for her work on the show. In 2008, Silverman won a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics" for her musical collaboration with Matt Damon. Additionally, she was honored with a Webby Award for "Best Actress" for her online video "The Great Schlep," in which she persuaded young kids to encourage their grandparents in Florida to vote for President Obama prior to the 2008 Presidential Election.
Silverman has made memorable guest appearances on a number of acclaimed and notable television shows, including Monk, which earned her a 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series." Silverman also lends her voice to Emmy Award-winning FOX animated series Bob's Burgers. Her additional television work includes buzzed-about roles on HBO's Crashing, Masters of Sex, The Good Wife, The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld, and Mr. Show with Bob and David. Silverman has hosted a number of major awards shows, including the 2007 MTV Movie Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards.
Silverman grew up in New Hampshire and attended one year of New York University. In 1993 she joined Saturday Night Live as a writer and feature performer and has not stopped working since.
She currently lives in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Producer
Shemar Franklin Moore (born April 20, 1970) is an American actor and former fashion model. His notable roles are that of Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless from 1994 to 2005, Derek Morgan on CBS's Criminal Minds from 2005 to 2016, and as the third permanent host of Soul Train from 1999 to 2003.- Actress
- Executive
- Soundtrack
Samantha Mathis was born in 1970 in New York, to Donald Mathis and
Austrian-born Bibi Besch, an aspiring actress
at the time. Her maternal grandmother was actress
Gusti Huber. Her first acting job was in a
commercial for baby products with her mother. Since her parents
divorced when she was only three years old, Samantha was very exposed
to the acting industry from a very young age, which made her almost
destined to become an actress. Samantha's first feature film was
Pump Up the Volume (1990)
opposite her on- and off-screen love at the time,
Christian Slater.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in Santa Ana, California in 1970, Jason Lee is an American film photographer, actor, producer, and director. Well known for having been a professional skateboarder during skateboarding's very pivotal late 80s and early 90s, Lee would go on to pursue acting in 1993, working in film, television, and voiceover, and with such directors as Kevin Smith, Cameron Crowe, Lawrence Kasdan, and Brad Bird.
Retiring from skateboarding in 1995, Lee has maintained solid ties to the industry, most notably through his partnership with longtime friend and fellow ex-professional skateboarder, Chris Pastras, and their now 25-year-old skate brand, Stereo Skateboards, which Lee co-manages with Pastras.
In 2002, Lee developed a passion for film photography and has been an active photographer and film advocate ever since, having had his work both published and exhibited throughout the years. In October 2016, Lee published a selection of small and large format Polaroid and Fuji instant film photographs spanning a decade as a special limited hardbound issue of Fort Worth-based Refueled Magazine. Just 500 sold-out signed and numbered copies were produced, with three of those copies now living in the libraries of the SFMOMA, Amon Carter, and Philbrook museums. Lee's next publication, to be released in 2017, will be a book comprised of large format color film photographs made throughout Texas.
Lee is also the subject of a 2018 documentary from director Greg Hunt that will take the viewer on the road with him as he exposes his remaining boxes of now-expired 8x10 Polaroid film, a favorite medium of Lee's and one that is no longer being produced. An accompanying book of the large format Polaroids will be published, with the originals being exhibited. Additionally in 2018, Lee will be publishing and exhibiting selections of B&W film photographs from the past 10 years, with the collection's focus primarily on the West Coast and Southwest.
Lee has also produced and directed music videos for Beck and the band Midlake, a short documentary and live concert film featuring Midlake, two Stereo Skateboards films, and a previously unreleased 2006 short film starring Giovanni Ribisi and Beth Riesgraf, which will have its online debut in 2017.
'Acting has been a lot of fun, and I've liked that I've been able to bounce around a bit, and that I was able to make some movies for my kids, do some dramas, play 'Earl,' work with Pixar... It's a fun gig. And I enjoy being a part of that bigger process. But just as with skateboarding, photography is much more uniquely personal, and more of an independent endeavor. Very fulfilling. I look forward to continuing to work as an actor, as I do maintaining my ties to skateboarding and having Stereo as the outlet that it's been for me for over two decades now, and perhaps directing more projects, but photography will remain my primary creative focus as it has been for the past 15 years.'
Lee can be followed on Instagram at @jasonlee, @stereoskateboards, and @filmphotographic, an Instagram film community gallery and resource page founded by Lee in 2015.