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Claire Goose was born in Edinburgh and lived there 'til she was two and a half. She grew up in Norfolk. Her parents are mother, Joy, and father, David, who is a GP in Kings Lynn and has also looked after the Royals. Claire also has an elder sister, Caroline, a nursery nurse, and an elder brother, Duncan, who works in marketing. At the age of 16, she attended the Italia Conti Stage School. Before making it big in acting, she had previous jobs including a silver service waitress, a story-telling raccoon in a theme park, admin work for the NSPCC and has also done modelling. Claire enjoys clubbing, tarot cards, palm reading and playing poker, she has also been dancing since the age of three. Before her big break in Casualty (1986), she nearly got the role of Tiffany in EastEnders (1985), but was beaten by Martine McCutcheon, and she was also down to the last two for a part in Soldier Soldier (1991).- Actress
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Linda Fiorentino is an American actress. She has starred in the films Vision Quest (1985), Gotcha! (1985), After Hours (1985), Jade (1995), Men in Black (1997) and Dogma (1999). For her performance in The Last Seduction (1994), she won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actress of the Year, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.- Actress
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Paz de la Huerta has starred in many feature films working with some of the best directors in Hollywood. To name a few they include Damian Chapa, Abel Ferrara, Jim Jarmusch, Henry Miller, Adam Shankman, Penny Marshall, Ethan Hawke, Henry Jaglom, David Arquette, Lasse Hallstrom and Griffin Dunne.
Paz starred on the HBO hit series Boardwalk Empire for several seasons.
She was born and raised in New York City, to a Spanish-born father and an American born mother. She has been acting at a young age, having trained with some of the best private coaches in NYC.
Aside from acting, Paz is an artist, painter, poet, designer and writer who enjoys listening to punk rock, classical and Italian Opera. She has graced the fashion world working with the best designers including the late Vivienne Westwood, Zac Posen and Alberta Ferretti. She resides in New York City and Paris.- Actress
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The iconoclastic gifts of the highly striking and ferociously talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by art house crowds and international audiences alike. After her stunning Oscar-winning turn as a high-powered corporate attorney in the George Clooney starring and critically-lauded legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007), however, her androgynous looks and often bizarre appeal have been embraced by more mainstream crowds as well.
She was born Katherine Mathilda Swinton into a patrician Scottish military family on November 5, 1960, in London, England. Her mother, Judith Balfour, Lady Swinton (née Killen), was Australian, and her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton, an army officer, was English-born. Her ancestry is Scottish, Northern Irish, and English, including a long tapestry of prominent Scottish ancestors. Educated at an English and a Scottish boarding school, Tilda subsequently studied Social and Political Science at Cambridge University and graduated in 1983 with a degree in English Literature.
During her tenure as a student, she performed countless stage productions and proceeded to work for a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company where she appeared in such productions as "Measure for Measure." The rebel insider her, however, was strong and she left the company after a year as her approach and interests began to shift dramatically. With a pungent taste for the unique and seldom tried, Tilda found some gender-bending stage roles come her way. She portrayed Mozart in Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri", and as a working class woman impersonating her dead husband during World War II, in Manfred Karge's "Man to Man," a role she later committed to film (Man to Man (1992)).
In 1985, the tall, slender performer with alabaster skin and carrot-topped hair began a professional association with gay experimental director Derek Jarman. She continued to live and work with the groundbreaking writer/director/cinematographer for the next nine years, involving herself in seven of his often notorious films. This quirky, highly fascinating alliance would produce such stark and radical turns as the Berlin International Film Festival winners Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), The Garden (1990) and Edward II (1991) (playing Isabella, in which she won "Best Actress" at the Venice Film Festival) and Wittgenstein (1993), as well as the films Soursweet (1988) (a movie with no spoken dialogue) and the Stockholm Film Festival Award winner Blue (1993).
Jarman succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1994. His untimely demise left a devastating void in Tilda's life for quite some time. Her most notable performance of her Jarman period, however, came from a non-Jarman film. For the vivid title role in Orlando (1992), her nobleman character lives for 400 years while changing sex from man to woman. The film, which Swinton spent years helping writer/director Sally Potter develop and finance, continues to this day to have a worldwide devoted fan following.
Over the years, Tilda has preferred art to celebrity, opening herself to experimental projects with new and untried directors and mediums, delving into the worlds of installation art and cutting-edge fashion. Consistently off-centered roles in Female Perversions (1996), Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), Teknolust (2002), Young Adam (2003), Broken Flowers (2005) and Béla Tarr's The Man from London (2007) have added to her mystique. Back in 1995, she delved into a performance art piece in the Serpentine Gallery, London, where she was put on display to the public for a week, asleep (or apparently so), in a glass case.
Following the birth of her twins in 1997, Tilda would leave lean for a time towards Hollywood mainstream filming. The thriller The Deep End (2001), earned her a number of critic's awards and her first Golden Globe nomination. Other visible U.S. pictures included The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio, fantasy epic Constantine (2005) with Keanu Reeves, her Oscar-decorated performance in Michael Clayton (2007) and, of course, her iconic White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Into the millennium, Tilda continued to amaze starring in the crime drama Julia (2008) and in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). She learned Italian and Russian for Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love (2009), starred in the psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer (2013), and earned fine notice in Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem (2013). She also starred in the dark romantic fantasy drama Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) directed by Jim Jarmusch, had a small role in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), starred in Judd Apatow's comedy Trainwreck (2015), and played a rock star in Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash (2015).
Showing no signs of slowing up, Tilda continues to make creative, visual impressions in such films as the Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar! (2016) where she reunited with Clooney and had a dual role playing twin journalists, and as the wise Asian teacher of Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the Marvel Comics action film Doctor Strange (2016), while repeating the part of The Ancient One in Avengers: Endgame (2019). She gave another eccentric, unhinged performance in the action adventure message movie Okja (2017), played Betsy Trotwood in a contemporary telling of The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) and teamed up again with writer/director Jim Jarmusch in the thoroughly offbeat fantasy horror comedy The Dead Don't Die (2019).- Actress
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Romola Garai was born on 6th August 1982. She is an English actress-writer-director who has worked extensively on film, television and theatre. As an actress she is known for her performances in films such as Atonement (2007), Angel (2007), I Capture the Castle (2003) and (Suffragette). On television her work includes her BAFTA nominated performance in The Crimson Petal and the White (2011), The Hour (2012), Born to Kill (2017) and The Miniaturist (2017). As a director her work includes the Sundance Best International Short Film nominated Scrubber. her debut feature, the horror film Amulet, will premiere in the Midnight Madness section at Sundance 2020.- Lianne Sorsa is known for Awaydays (2009).
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French actress and model Eva Gaëlle Green was born on July 6, 1980, in Paris, France. Her father, Walter Green, is a dentist who appeared in the 1966 film Au hasard Balthazar (1966). Her mother, Marlène Jobert, is an actress turned children's book writer. Eva's mother was born in Algeria, of French, Spanish, and Sephardic Jewish heritage (during that time, Algeria was part of France), and Eva's father is of Swedish, French, and Breton descent. She has a fraternal twin sister, Joy. Eva left French school at 17. She switched to the American School in France for one year. She left the American School and studied acting at Saint Paul Drama School in Paris for three years, then had a 10-week polishing course at the Weber Douglas Academy of dramatic Art in London. She returned to Paris as an accomplished young actress, and played on stage in several theater productions: "La Jalousie en Trois Fax" and "Turcaret". There, she caught the eye of director Bernardo Bertolucci. Green followed a recommendation to work on her English. She studied for two months with an English coach before doing The Dreamers (2003) with Bernardo Bertolucci. During their work, Bertolucci described Green as being "so beautiful it's indecent".
Green won critical acclaim for her role in The Dreamers (2003). After "The Dreamers", Green played the love interest of cult French gentleman-thief, Arsène Lupin (2004), opposite Romain Duris. In 2005, she co-starred, opposite Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson, in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), produced and directed by Ridley Scott. The film brought her a wider international exposure. She turned down the femme fatale role in The Black Dahlia (2006), that went to Hilary Swank, because she didn't want to end up typecast after her role in "The Dreamers". Instead, Eva accepted the prestigious role of "Vesper Lynd", one of three Bond girls, opposite Daniel Craig, in Casino Royale (2006) and became the fifth French actress to play a James Bond girl, after Claudine Auger in Thunderball (1965), Corinne Cléry in Moonraker (1979), Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Sophie Marceau in The World Is Not Enough (1999). She achieved international recognition for the film, one of the highest-grossing Bond movies ever.
Since then, Green has starred in the films Dark Shadows (2012), 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016). She also starred as Vanessa Ives in Showtime's horror drama Penny Dreadful (2014). Her performance in the series earned her a nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.
Since her school years, Green has been a cosmopolitan multilingual and multicultural person. Yet, since her father always lived in France with them and her mother, she and her twin sister can't speak Swedish. She developed a wide scope of interests beyond her acting profession and became an aspiring art connoisseur and an avid museum visitor. Her other activities, outside of acting, include playing and composing music, cooking at home, walking her terrier, and collecting art. She shares time between her two residencies, one is in Paris, France, and one in London, England.- Sophia Jane Myles was born on March 18, 1980 in Hammersmith, London, England. She has a younger brother, Oliver. Her parents are Jane and Peter Myles, who is a vicar, a priest in the Anglican Church who is in charge of a parish and receives a salary, but not the tithes of the church. Her mother works in publishing. Sophia lived in Notting Hill until she was 11 and attended Fox Primary School. Her father was later relocated to Isleworth, a suburb west of London.
At 16, Sophia starred in a school production of "Teachers" written by Kevin Godber. Among those in attendance, Julian Fellowes, the Oscar winning writer of Gosford Park (2001). Sophia was subsequently cast in the BBC production of The Prince and the Pauper (1996). Julian Fellowes worked on the script. Two years after her role in The Prince and the Pauper (1996), Sophia was cast as young "Saffron" in the TV mini-series Big Women (1998). In 1999, after recently enrolling in Cambridge University to study philosophy, she got a small part in Mansfield Park (1999) playing "Susan Price". Before heading to school, Sophia was cast as "Agnes Fleming" in the TV series, Oliver Twist (1999). (The series also starred Keira Knightley). After which, she dropped out to pursue acting.
After that, Sophia got a number of small parts in movies and television shows. Most notably, she was cast as Johnny Depp's wife in From Hell (2001). She also starred in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001), The Abduction Club (2002), Heartbeat (1992) and Foyle's War (2002); the latter 2 of which are TV series.
In 2003, Sophia got a supporting role in Underworld (2003) opposite fellow British beauty, Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor (2001)). Up next, Sophia was cast in the thriller Out of Bounds (2003)) as "Louise Thompson", about an awkward young girl in an English boarding school who falls in love with her American art teacher, who is married to the headmistress.
Later that same year, Sophia was cast in the big screen version of the English cult hit, Thunderbirds (2004). Though the movie didn't perform as expected, she earned praise for her role as the iconic "Lady Penelope". Soon, Sophia began working on Art School Confidential (2006), directed by Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World (2001)) playing an American who is the muse of a student in art school. Afterwards, she returned to her television roots, starring in Colditz (2005) as "Lizzie Carter", who is the object of affection and desire for 2 brothers. She then appeared in Sleeping Murder (2006) as a young woman who discovers that, as a child, she witnessed a murder.
Sophia was cast in Tristan + Isolde (2006). She played "Isolde", the fiery young Irish princess who is promised to an evil man, that she does not love. In 2006, she returned to television starring "Madame de Pompadour" in Doctor Who (2005) as the Doctor's love interest. - Actress
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The acclaimed Cornish actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, to Deborah (Hurlbatt) and Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas. Her father was a pilot for the British Royal Navy and died in a flying accident in 1964. Her stepfather, Lt. Cdr Simon Idiens, was also a pilot, and died six years later under similar circumstances. Her childhood home was Dorset, England. She left at the age of 19 to work as an au pair in Paris. She was married to French doctor François Oliviennes, with whom she had three children; Hannah, Joseph, and George.- Actress
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Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique and followed an illustrious theatrical career, which includes Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country", Euripides' "Medea" (title role) etc. She made her movie debut in Le Prussien (1971) and soon became one of the top actresses of her generation, giving fine performances in important films, like Claude Goretta's The Lacemaker (1977), as a simple-minded girl who falls in love with - and is betrayed by - a student, Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man for Himself (1980), as a prostitute, and Maurice Pialat's Loulou (1980), as an upper-class woman who is physically attracted by a young vagabond. She made an inconsequential US debut in Otto Preminger's Rosebud (1975) before playing a brothel madam in Michael Cimino's disastrous Heaven's Gate (1980), but she fared better in Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window (1987) (as an adulteress who witnesses an attack). Huppert has an extremely productive collaboration with Claude Chabrol, who cast her in several movies, including Violette (1978), in which she played a woman who murders her parents, and Story of Women (1988), in which she gave an excellent performance as a shameless abortionist, the last woman to be executed in France. More recent good films include Patricia Mazuy's Saint-Cyr (2000) and Michael Haneke's controversial The Piano Teacher (2001), as a sexually repressed piano teacher.- Actress
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Molly Parker, the extremely talented and versatile Canadian actress is best known in the United States for playing the Western widow "Alma Garret" on the cable-TV series Deadwood (2004). Raised on a commune, she described as "a hippie farm" in Pitt Meadows, B.C., Parker got the acting bug when she was 16 years old, after 13 years of ballet training. Parker's uncle was an actor, and his agent took her on as a client, enabling her to launch her career in small roles on Canadian television. She enrolled at Vancouver's Gastown Actors' Studio after she graduated from high school, and continued to act on TV in series and TV-movies while learning her craft at acting school.
Parker began attracting attention when she appeared as the daughter of a lesbian military officer in the TV-movie Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995). She earned a Gemini nomination (the Canadian TV industry's equivalent of the Emmy) for her performance in the TV-movie Paris or Somewhere (1994). However, it was her debut in theatrical films that gave her her big breakthrough, playing a necrophiliac in Lynne Stopkewich's 1996 film Kissed (1996). It was "Kissed" that set Molly's career into overdrive.
A friend got her an audition for the low-budget independent feature film, and she hit if off with the director, who not only cast her, but became her friend. As the character "Sandra Larson", a poetic soul obsessed with death who engages in sexual congress with a corpse, Parker created a sympathetic character in a difficult role. The film garnered her rave revues and she won a Genie Award, the Canadian cinema's Academy Award, for her performance. She parlayed the accolades into a sustained career on film and in TV.
On TV, Parker was part of the cast of CBC-TV's six-part sitcom Twitch City (1998), playing the girlfriend of Don McKellar, which enabled her to showcase her comedic skills. Other memorable TV roles was the female rabbi on Home Box Office's series Six Feet Under (2001) and, of course, the regular role on HBO's Deadwood (2004). She has appeared in many ambitious films, including Jeremy Podeswa's The Five Senses (1999), István Szabó's Sunshine (1999) and Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland (1999). She also re-teamed with director Lynne Stopkewich for Suspicious River (2000).
Parker made waves with another provocative film with sex as its subject, director Wayne Wang's The Center of the World (2001). In the movie, Parker played a San Francisco lap dancer who becomes a paid escort to a Silicon Valley nerd. For her performance, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. In 2002, she was nominated twice as best supporting actress at the Genies for her roles in the British/Canadian co-production War Bride (2001) and Bruce Sweeney's Last Wedding (2001), winning for her appearance in the latter film.
Parker's reputation as an outstanding actress is based on her assaying of strong, yet flawed, definitely complex women in character-leads and supporting parts in challenging films. Not only does she convey intelligence, but there is an unconscious elegance to her, a true inner beauty that radiates on-screen. She will be gracing the screen, both large and small, with her unique presence for many years to come.- Actress
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Olivia began her career on the stage at the RSC and The National Theatre, breaking into TV with the Andrew Davies adaptation of Emma (1996).
From a damp basement in Camden Town she won the role of Abby in the $120 million blockbuster The Postman (1997) starring alongside Kevin Costner. In the following year, Olivia was cast as Rosemary Cross in Rushmore (1998), co-starring Bill Murray, from acclaimed filmmaker Wes Anderson and producer Barry Mendel.
Her association with Mendel brought her to the attention of M. Night Shyamalan and the role of Anna Crowe in The Sixth Sense (1999) which would become a defining moment in Olivia's career. The box office success of the M. Night Shyamalan film, starring Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, and Toni Collette, saw it become one of the highest grossing films of all time.
In the subsequent years Olivia starred in The Body (2001) with Antonio Banderas, in Below (2002) from Dimension Films, and in the $100 million big screen adaptation of Peter Pan (2003) from Universal Studios.
Shortly after, in The Heart of Me (2002), with Helena Bonham Carter and Paul Bettany, Olivia's performance won her Best Actress at the prestigious British Independent Film Awards.
Olivia then took on the challenge of playing Jane Austen in the BBC film, Miss Austen Regrets (2007), quickly followed by another lead role, as Miss Stubbs, in the Oscar-nominated An Education (2009).
Based on these performances, Joss Whedon cast Olivia as Adelle DeWitt in Dollhouse (2009), the cult television series from 20th Century Fox that ran for two seasons.
Olivia returned to cinema screens, playing Ruth Lang in The Ghost Writer (2010) with Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor. Olivia's performance earned her ALFS and NSFC awards for Best Supporting Actress.
Joe Wright cast Olivia in his next two films, Hanna (2011), alongside Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan, and in Anna Karenina (2012) with Jude Law and Keira Knightley.
In the same year, Olivia joined the ensemble cast of Bill Murray, Olivia Colman, and Laura Linney, in the hit film Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) from director Roger Michell.
In television, Olivia then landed lead roles in Case Sensitive (2011), and Manhattan (2014), both of which received critical acclaim.
During this period, Olivia was also cast in the features, The Last Days on Mars (2013), Seventh Son (2014) with Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, and Alicia Vikander, Maps to the Stars (2014) directed by David Cronenberg, and playing Lady Churchill in Victoria & Abdul (2017) directed by Stephen Frears.
Returning to television, Olivia starred as Lady Priscilla Hamilton in the period drama, The Halcyon (2017), and as Emily Burton Silk in both seasons of Counterpart (2017), with co-star J.K. Simmons.
Olivia has always had a deep passion for theatre. At the RSC, Olivia has performed in Misha's Party, Wallenstein, The Broken Heart, The Wives Excuse, and Peer Gynt. Olivia's expansive stage career at the National Theatre includes such shows as Waste from director Roger Michell, Love Labour's Lost directed by Trevor Nunn, Richard III including its US tour, Happy Now?, Tartuffe, and Mosquitoes directed by Rufus Norris. Along with these, Olivia also starred alongside Matthew Fox in the Neil LaBute play In A Forest Dark and Deep at the Garrick Theatre.
Olivia can next be seen as Lavinia Bidlow in the HBO show The Nevers (2021), created and directed by Joss Whedon, and as Catherine in The Father (2020), with Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman.- Actress
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Jodhi was born in 1975. She was born and brought up in London, England, UK. She went to Wadham College, Oxford University 1994-1997. She studied and received a Masters in English. During her time at Wadham she read a lot of literature. She has been acting since she was twelve.- Actress
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Keeley Hawes was born on 10 February 1976 at St Mary's Hospital, London, England as Clare Julia Hawes. She is an actress and producer, known for The Bank Job (2008), High-Rise (2015) and Death at a Funeral (2007). She has been married to Matthew Macfadyen since 8 October 2004. They have two children. She was previously married to Spencer McCallum, with whom she has an older child.- Actress
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Claire Forlani was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in London. Educated at Arts Educational School, she moved to the United States with her parents Pier Luigi and Barbara Forlani when she was 19 and began starring in films.
Claire has had leading roles in such films as Meet Joe Black (1998), Basquiat (1996), The Rock (1996), Mystery Men (1999), Mallrats (1995), Antitrust (2001), Boys and Girls (2000), The Medallion, Hallam Foe (2007), Flashbacks of a Fool (2008) and Green Street Hooligans (2005).
Claire is now starring in the Sky International show Domina, about ancient Rome .She appeared with Christopher Plummer in the television series Departure . Other television appearances include STARZ original series Camelot (2011) playing Queen Igraine, The Pentagon Papers (2003), Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006), and she has had recurring roles on NCIS: Los Angeles (2009) and CSI: NY (2004).
Claire has also appeared in campaigns for Dewars, L'Oréal, Banana Republic, Shiesido and Dior.
She is married to actor Dougray Scott in 2007 and welcomed their son Milo Thomas Scott born 12.27.14- Actress
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Gretchen Mol was born November 8, 1972, in Deep River, Connecticut, the daughter of a school principal, James Mol, and his artist wife, Janet. Deep River is a small community located on the Chester Bowles Highway (Rt. 9), nine miles northwest of Old Saybrook (home of the legendary Katharine Hepburn), within commuting distance of New York City. The young Gretchen was bit by the acting bug and participated in high school theatrics, then moved to the Big Apple as a teenager to study acting and musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and at the William Esper Studio.
Although only 5'6" tall--too short for a traditional modeling career--her unique beauty brought her modeling jobs as she pursued her dream of becoming a professional actress. She began appearing in magazines in 1994, meanwhile working at such time-honored Manhattan jobs as restaurant hat-check girl. It was while working that gig she was discovered by a talent agent. The agent landed her her first acting job, a TV commercial for Coca-Cola. She continued to hone her acting skills in summer stock, appearing in such productions as "Bus Stop," "No Exit," and "Godspell."
The 23-year-old Gretchen made her film debut in Spike Lee's Girl 6 (1996), a small role that came to her, as luck would have it, after she had gone for an audition for the soap opera Guiding Light (1952). Her career began to take off, and she appeared in small parts, mostly "girlfriend" roles, in such films as Rounders (1998) starring 'Matt Damon' (qav) and in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998), opposite Kenneth Branagh and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Gretchen was touted as the "Next Big Thing" after appearing on the cover of the September 1998 issue of "Vanity Fair." Her most memorable role up to that time was as a mobster's moll in the minor cult classic Donnie Brasco (1997), which was mostly remembered for cinematic turns by Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Anne Heche. Nonetheless, her beauty and presence led "Vanity Fair" to hype the beautiful blonde, heralding the arrival of a major new star. She seemed poised to move up to featured roles. but the announcement turned out to be premature. Brunette Angelina Jolie proved to be Hollywood's Next "It" girl.
During the seven years that followed the "Vanity Fair" cover story, Mol continued to appear in films and on the stage, including the part of Jennie in the London and New York productions of Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" in 2001 (she also appeared in the film version, The Shape of Things (2003)). The good reviews she got proved that she was not just another pretty face. In 2004 she displayed her singing and dancing chops by playing Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of "Chicago."
She worked steadily, appearing in another small role in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and eventually won the lead in David E. Kelley TV series Girls Club (2002). The series bombed, however, and was canceled after only two episodes. Nevertheless, the intervening period allowed her to develop as an actress. In 2004 the blonde beauty finally had the role that proved to be her acting breakthrough: brunette 1950s "stag queen" Bettie Page in The Notorious Bettie Page (2005). Many brunettes have gone blonde, but Mol--the blonde who went brunette--rocked the screen with her presence. Her embodiment of the legendary Page garnered excellent reviews and propelled the flick into art house hit status.
Mol married film director Tod Williams on June 1, 2004, and they became parents a little over three years later, when a son, Ptolemy John Williams, was born on October 10, 2007.- Actress
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Morena Baccarin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to actress Vera Setta and journalist Fernando Baccarin. Her uncle was actor Ivan Setta. She is of Italian as well as Lebanese and Portuguese/Brazilian descent. She moved to New York at the age of 10, when her father was transferred there. She attended the LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts and then the Juilliard School.
Staying in New York she worked in the theater, notably in the Central Park production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" where she was also Natalie Portman's understudy, and also appeared in several movies. After making Roger Dodger (2002), she moved to Los Angeles where she came to the attention of Joss Whedon, who cast her in his short-lived cult sci-fi show Firefly (2002). Since then she has rarely been off our TV screens.- Actress
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Emily Watson was born and raised in London, the daughter of Katharine (Venables), an English teacher, and Richard Watson, an architect. After a self-described sheltered upbringing, Watson attended university for three years in Bristol, studying English literature. She applied to drama school and was rejected on her first attempt.
After three years of working in clerical and waitress jobs she was finally accepted. In 1992, she took a position with the Royal Shakespeare Company where she met her future husband, Jack Waters. Continuing stage work, Watson landed her first screen role as Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves (1996) after Helena Bonham Carter pulled out of the role. For this initial foray into movies, Watson was nominated for an Academy Award. She continued to gain success in Britain in the leading roles in Metroland (1997) and The Mill on the Floss (1997), but her first popular film in the United States came in 1997 when she played Daniel Day-Lewis's long-suffering love interest in The Boxer (1997).
In the next two years she won critical acclaim for her portrayal of cellist Jacqueline du Pré in Hilary and Jackie (1998) and landed a small part in the ensemble cast of Tim Robbins's Cradle Will Rock (1999). Critical acclaim and North American success came together for Watson in 1999 with the release of Angela's Ashes (1999), the film adaptation of Frank McCourt's bestselling book of the same name. She achieved top billing as Angela McCourt, the hardworking mother of several children and wife of a drunken husband in depression-era Ireland. After less-celebrated roles in 2000's Trixie (2000) and The Luzhin Defence (2000), Watson again returned to an ensemble cast in Robert Altman's Gosford Park (2001).
Watson's status as a leading actress in major Hollywood productions was cemented in 2002 with her roles in Red Dragon (2002), the third installment of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lechter series; the futuristic Equilibrium (2002); and, most notably, in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love (2002), playing opposite Adam Sandler. While returning to the stage in 2002 and 2003 on both sides of the Atlantic, Watson has expressed interest in again working with Anderson. Emily Watson lives in London, England, UK, with her husband, Jack Waters.- Actress
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Samantha Morton has established herself as one of the finest actors of her generation, winning Oscar nominations for her turns in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and Jim Sheridan's In America (2002). She has the talent to become one of the major performers in the cinema of this young century.
Samantha Morton was born on May 13, 1977 in Nottingham, England to parents who divorced when she was three years old. Peter and Pamela Morton took other spouses and made Samantha part of a mixed family of 13; she has eight brothers and sisters. She turned to play-acting early in her life, while she was a school-girl.
At 13, she left regular school to train as an actress at the Central Junior Television Workshop, where she learned her craft for three years. It was at the end of her training then that she decided that a life as a professional actress was for her.
She honed her skills in television roles, working her way up from series television to TV-movies and prestigious mini-series, such as Emma (1996) and Jane Eyre (1997). Her first major film role, Under the Skin (1997), won her the Best Actress Award from the Boston Film Critics Society. Woody Allen cast her as Hattie, the "dumb" (unspeaking) lover of Sean Penn's caddish jazz guitarist in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), a beautiful performance in a role that could have flummoxed a less-talented performer. Penn was Oscar-nominated for his performance, but it was Morton's Hattie that was central to the success of the film, Allen's last unqualified success. She provided the moral and narrative center of the film. It was quite a remarkable performance for a 21-year old as she had to do all her acting with her face, having been shorn of her voice. The role of Hattie won Morton a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination.
Ironically, Morton had never seen a Woody Allen movie before. (She grew up watching the TV and listening to the radio.) She agreed to do the film after reading the script (as she says, well-written roles for women are hard to find), and the movie made her a hot commodity in Hollywood after she won the Oscar nomination. (She lost out to Angelina Jolie). Morton was offered many roles, but was very choosy as she was not in acting as a game with a payoff of stardom and money.
She had consolidated her reputation by following up the Allen film with work in indie features that showed that she was not only talented, but quite courageous as a performer. She played a heroin addict in the underrated Jesus' Son (1999) and gave a brilliant performance in Morvern Callar (2002), the story of a Scottish supermarket clerk coping with her boyfriend's suicide.
Steven Spielberg cast her, opposite superstar Tom Cruise, as the clairvoyant in Minority Report (2002), in which she more than held her own opposite Cruise and the special effects. (She took the role as Cruise and Steven Spielberg are favorites of hers). As good as she was, Morton was better served by Irish director Jim Sheridan, Sheridan cast her as a character modeled after his wife in an autobiographical picture more in line with persona and that made better use of her talents. Her performance as the young Irish mother coping with life in New York City in In America (2002) won her numerous critics' awards and another Oscar nod, this time as Best Actress.
At this point, one feels that the odds of her winning the Oscar are even or better. Samantha Morton continues to deliver fine work in provocative films such as Michael Winterbottom's Code 46 (2003), though she is branching out towards the mainstream, taking a role in the remake of that perennial family favorite, Lassie (2005).- Actress
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She was born in Viareggio (Tuscany, Italy) on June 5th, 1946. She won a beauty contest when she was just 15 years old, which led to her first role in "Il federale" together with the great Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi. She was then cast by Germi for the Italian comedy "Divorzio all'Italiana", working with Marcello Mastroianni, but she became well known a few years later performing in the movie "Sedotta e abbandonata". At 16 she had a relationship with the Italian musician Gino Paoli and in 1964 she gave birth to her first daughter Amanda. In the 70s she worked with directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Ettore Scola, Comencini and acted with Vittorio Gassman, Dustin Hoffman (Alfredo, Alfredo), Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu (Novecento). In the 80s she performed her sexiest role in "La chiave" by Tinto Brass, which made her an erotic icon for a whole generation of men, and participated in important Italian movies (for example Speriamo che sia femmina, with Catherine Deneuve and Liv Ullman). In the 90s she especially worked for tv series and became very popular as Gigi Proietti's fiancée in "Il Maresciallo Rocca". She worked a little less for the cinema industry, nevertheless she participated in Bertolucci's "Io ballo da sola" and in Muccino's "L'ultimo bacio", where she portrayed a woman in the deep of a midlife crises. On September 10th 2005 she received the Golden Lion at the 62th Venice Film Festival for her life achievements.
Stefania Sandrelli represents one of the few actresses who are able to age gracefully and still get interesting roles. She is still regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Italy and she is still able to charm the audience with her sweet smile and sparkling eyes.- Actress
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Mia is an Australian actress, born and raised in the country's capital, Canberra. She is the daughter of photographers Marzena Wasikowska and John Reid. Her mother is Polish and her father is an Australian of British ancestry. She has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai. At age eight, her family moved to Poland for a year.
At age nine, Mia took ballet classes with dreams of becoming a professional ballerina. However, an injury prevented this from happening and she quit at age fourteen. Mia turned to acting, having been excited by European and Australian cinema. She was attending Canberra High School, but left to pursue her career as an actor.
She had just turned 15 when she landed the role of Lilya in Suburban Mayhem (2006). Her breakthrough role came when she was cast as Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010).- Actress
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Lara was born and raised in Essex, UK. She studied drama with the NYMT and went on to gain a BA Honours degree in Theatre.
Lara's extensive theatre career led her to gain a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her portrayal of "Lucille Frank" in Rob Ashford's production of "Parade" at The Donmar Warehouse. She was invited to re-create the role at The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, opposite T.R. Knight (Grey's Anatomy (2005)), gaining much critical praise.
Lara made her screen debut in 2008, in the BBC prime-time show, Robin Hood (2006), playing "Isabella of Gisbourne". The show is a huge international success and is airing on BBC America, Saturday evening at 8/9c. She has just completed filming the new Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon (2008), The Queen (2006)) movie, The Special Relationship (2010), starring Michael Sheen and Dennis Quaid.- Actress
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Saoirse Una Ronan was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States, to Irish parents, Monica Ronan (née Brennan) and Paul Ronan, an actor. When Saoirse was three, the family moved back to Dublin, Ireland. Saoirse grew up in Dublin and briefly in Co. Carlow before moving back to Dublin with her parents.
Saoirse made her first TV appearance with a small role in a few episodes of the TV series, The Clinic (2003). Her first film appearance was in the 2007 movie, I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007). Saoirse received international fame after appearing in the movie, Atonement (2007), which was directed by Joe Wright. The movie co-starred Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. The film was successful, both critically and commercially, and in 2008, Saoirse earned an Oscar nomination for her role. She became one of the youngest actresses to be nominated for an Oscar. She continued to earn success and fame. Between 2008 to 2011, she starred in a number of successful movies, including City of Ember (2008), which earned her a nomination for Irish Film & Television Award, The Lovely Bones (2009), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award, and The Way Back (2010), for which she won Irish Film & Television Award for Actress in a Supporting Role. In 2016, Ronan was nominated for her second Oscar for Brooklyn (2015). She became the second youngest actress to receive two Oscar nominations at the age of 21. The youngest actress is Angela Lansbury. In 2018, Ronan was nominated for her third Oscar for Lady Bird (2017). She's the second youngest actress (first being Jennifer Lawrence) to receive three Oscar nominations before the age of 24.
Saoirse Ronan resides in London, United Kingdom.- Actress
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Gemma Christina Arterton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, where she was raised. She is the daughter of Sally-Anne (Heap), a cleaner, and Barry J. Arterton, a welder. Her mother's cousin is singer-songwriter Eric Goulden.
Her parents divorced when she was age five, and Gemma subsequently lived with her younger sister and her mother. Her parents encouraged their children to explore their creative abilities. Gemma's sister, Hannah, liked to sing, whereas Gemma chose acting. During her teenage years, she was part of the Masquerade and Miskin theater companies, appearing in productions of The Massacre of Civitella and Guiding Star. In 2004, she won an award for Best Supporting Actress, which helped her to win a grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Whilst studying at RADA, she landed her first professional role in Capturing Mary (2007), directed by Stephen Poliakoff and starring Maggie Smith. Gemma graduated from RADA in 2007 and won her first film role in St. Trinian's (2007). Her breakthrough role came in 2008, when she appeared in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008). In 2009, she was the winner of Empire's Best Newcomer Award.- Kerima was born on 10 February 1925 in Toulouse, France. She is an actress, known for The Quiet American (1958), The Devil Is a Woman (1953) and The Ship of Damned Women (1953).
- Serena Grandi was born on 23 March 1958 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for The Great Beauty (2013), Miranda (1985) and Donne sottotetto (Centro storico) (1992). She was previously married to Beppe Ercole.
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Meg Tilly was set on being a dancer, and at 17 connected to the Connecticut Ballet Company and later Throne Dance Theatre. It was in this capacity that she had her screen debut in Alan Parker's Fame (1980). Unfortunately, an injury to her back cut short her plans for a dance career, and a small appearance in the TV series Hill Street Blues (1981) turned her towards acting (her dancing skills were not all forgotten, as was evident in The Big Chill (1983) and Psycho II (1983)). She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Agnes of God (1985), and nobody doubted that she was on her way to stardom. One step on the road to that status was her being cast in Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984) as Constanza, but again her body interfered, and seven weeks into the production with her foot in a cast were more than the producers could accept, and she was replaced. Her "consolation", was a role in Forman's next project Valmont (1989), didn't do her career much good. Since then she has averaged a movie a year, and with the exception of Leaving Normal (1992), none have tapped the enormous reservoir of talent she has.- Actress
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Caitriona Balfe was born in Dublin, Ireland, and grew up in the village of Tydavnet, in County Monaghan. She started modeling at the age of 19 after she was scouted by an agent while she was collecting money for charity at a local mall. She has both walked the runway and been featured in advertising campaigns for many top fashion brands, including: Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, DKNY, Burberry, Dior, Louis Vuitton, H&M, Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Cacharel, Roberto Cavalli, Givenchy, Hugo Boss, Armani, Dries van Noten, Calvin Klein and Chanel.
She has also graced the covers of magazines such as Vogue and Elle. At the time she was scouted, Balfe was studying drama at the Dublin Institute of Technology, hoping to become an actress. She returned to her initial career choice in 2009.- Actress
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Born in London, England, Hayley Elizabeth Atwell has dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the United States. An only child, Hayley was named after actress Hayley Mills. Her parents, Alison (Cain) and Grant Atwell, both motivational speakers, met at a London workshop of Dale Carnegie's self-help bible "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Her mother is English (with Irish ancestry) and her father is American; he was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and is partly of Native-American descent (his Native American name is Star Touches Earth). Her parents divorced when she was age two. Her father returned to America and Hayley remained with her mother in London, but she spent her summers in Missouri with her father. Hayley's mother saw theater as an important communal experience, so she was introduced to theater from a young age. At age 11, she had memorable trip to see Ralph Fiennes playing Hamlet. She would later work with him on The Duchess (2008).
She went to Sion-Manning Roman Catholic Girl's School in West London where she excelled academically. She took her A-levels at the London Oratory School. She took two years out of her education, traveling with her father and working for a casting director. In 2005, she graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a degree in Acting. Hayley began her career with parts on a few BBC television productions. Her first big break came in the television miniseries, The Line of Beauty (2006). The following year, she got her first film role in How About You (2007). She followed this with Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (2007). Her breakthrough role came four years later as British agent Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).- Actress
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Lola Bessis is a French actress and filmmaker. At age 12, Lola was cast to play the lead in a short film. From that time, she knew she wanted to be on a film set when she grew up. Later, while attending some of the most prestigious international universities (University College London; La Sorbonne, Paris); The New School, NYU), she wrote and directed a dozen short films. At the same time, she trained as an actress, taking classes at Stella Adler (New York), Jack Waltzer (Paris), and Jordan Beswick (Paris). After making the award-winning short film Checkpoint, Lola wrote, directed and starred in her first feature film, Swim Little Fish Swim, at the age of only 21. Shot in New York outside the mainstream circuits, the film was singled out at over 100 festivals including SXSW, Rotterdam, and Sao Paulo, and enjoyed wide theatrical release in several countries. It later played on HBO and Netflix among other international networks. It received critical acclaim while bringing Lola a great deal of media attention. According to The Hollywood Reporter, «Bessis has a natural screen presence that should ensure future work in romantic comedies». In a 2016 interview the magazine featured Lola as one of the 15 Hollywood Most Wanted up and coming actors.
She then pursued her acting career both in France and in the US starring in prestigious movies and TV shows such as Mr and Mrs Adelman, Nighthawks and the indie US drama Thirst Street (Tribeca '17; Venice '17) which also starred Anjelica Huston.
In 2018 she played a lead in the Amazon mini-series Picnic At Hanging Rock alongside Game of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer and Orange is the New Black star Yael Stone.
On top of this, she has directed a short series for high fashion brand Chloé and is about to direct her second feature film. She lives in Paris and Los Angeles.- Actress
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Katharina Schüttler started acting for film and television when she was 11 years old. Her breakthrough in Germany was the International Emmy Award winning Mini-Series "Generation War" ("Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter") in which she portrayed singer Greta del Torres. She appeared in many films for cinema and television, such as Golden Globe winning production "Carlos" by Olivier Assayas, the youngest version of Hans Fallada's "Alone in Berlin" acting alongside Emma Thompson and Swedish Production "Simon and the Oaks" by Lisa Ohlin. She was in German Indie-hits "Oh Boy", "Zeit der Kannibalen" and recently portrayed Fräulein Rottenmeier in the remake of "Heidi" by Alain Gsponer. In "13 Minutes" ("Elser") by Oliver Hirschbiegel ("Der Untergang"), which premiered in the Berlinale Film Festival (out of competition), she performed Hitler assassin Georg Elser's lover Elsa and recently worked with German director Dani Levy in "Die Welt der Wunderlichs".She is best known to English-language audiences for her lead performances in the Channel 4 drama Mini-Series "The Promise" by Peter Kosminsky, alongside Claire Foy and "Run", by Jonathan Pearson, starring Olivia Colman and Katie Leung. In 2009 she received the Bavarian Film Award, the "Guenter Strack Nachwuchspreis" in 2006 and Best Actress at the Munich Film Festival in 2002. For her performance in "Generation War", which won the International Emmy Award, she received the German Television Award as well as the Bavarian TV Award with her co-actors Tom Schilling, Miriam Stein, Ludwig Trepte and Volker Bruch in 2013. In 2014 she was given the Günter-Rohrbach-Filmpreis for her performance in "Zeit der Kannibalen" together with Devid Striesow and Sebastian Blomberg. Besides her film works she is one of the leading young theatre actresses in Germany. In 2006 she received the German Theatre Award "Der Faust" as Best Actress and was voted "Actress of the Year" by the German Theatre Critics. She was the youngest actress ever to receive this honour. In 2010 she was awarded with the renowned "Ulrich Wildgruber Prize" for outstanding artistic performances.
In 2009 she won the "Bavarian Film Prize" as Best Young Actress for her performance in the terrorist-drama "The Day Will Come" ("Es kommt der Tag").
Besides her film works she is one of the leading young theatre actresses in Germany. Her works include "Hedda Gabler", "Penthesilea", "Blasted", "Joan of Arc", "Lolita" and many more.
She was awarded with the renowned "Ulrich Wildgruber Prize 2010".- Actress
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Cecile de France was born in Namur in Belgium in 1975 and discovered her vocation at the early age of six. As soon as she was seventeen, she was off to Paris with the ambition of beginning a career on the stage. She studied drama with Jean-Paul Denizon, actor and assistant to Peter Brook, before being admitted to the Ecole National Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre, where she complemented her preparatory training with classes in fencing, dance, singing and masque.
Hardly had she graduated than the cinema snapped her up. It was none other than Richard Berry himself who offered her her first important role in L'art (délicat) de la seduction. Theatre and film roles followed aplenty, leading up to L'Auberge Espagnole (Potluck or Spanish Apartment in English speaking countries), where her performance as the character Isabelle was a huge success with the public and earned her a prestigious César award for most promising young actress as well as the Prix Louis Lumière. Two years later the sequel, Les Poupées russes (The Russian Dolls), brought her a César for best supporting actress. The next Klapisch's movie, Casse-tête chinois (Chinese Puzzle), will be out on December 4, 2013 for France.
On film Cecile de France continued to give her all with Alexandre Aja's horror movie Haute Tension (High Tension or Switchblade Romance in English-speaking countries). This gave her the opportunity to bring genre cinema into her repertoire, as well as to win the hearts and minds of the most demanding film buffs.
Gilles Jacob invited her to host the legendary Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Cecile de France's unquenchable, vital passion for acting has found its truest expression when playing opposite such great performers as Gerard Depardieu (Quand j'étais chanteur; When I Was a Singer), Ulrich Tukur (Où est la main de l'homme sans tête?; Hand of the Headless Man), Kad Merad (Superstar) and Jean Dujardin (Möbius) or when working with such major figures of French film as Etienne Chatiliez, Daniele Thompson, Claude Miller, Cedric Klapisch, Claude Chabrol and the Dardenne brothers.
Her American career, which was launched in Around the World in 80 Days alongside Jackie Chan, recently entered a new phase in 2009 with Clint Eastwood's Hereafter.
Cecile is ready to live out all the forms of human passion and to embrace the most diverse forms of cinema, providing they are demanding, creative and stimulating. However, she has always maintained a special love for the theater, she will play in a new reading of Anna, a Serge Gainsbourg's musical at Lyon and Paris in few months.- Actress
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Katherine Jane Parkinson is an English actress. She appeared in Channel 4's The IT Crowd comedy series as Jen Barber, for which she received a British Comedy Best TV Actress Award in 2009 and 2014, and was nominated twice for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, winning in 2014. Parkinson studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and has appeared on stage in the plays The Seagull (2007), Cock (2009), and Home, I'm Darling (2018), for which she was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play.- Actress
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Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. After Kings Norton Girls School, Jones attended King Edward VI Handsworth School, to complete A Levels and went on to take a gap year (during which she appeared in the BBC series Servants (2003)). She took time off from acting to attend school during her formative years, and has worked steadily since she graduated with a 2:1 from Wadham College, Oxford in 2006, where she read English. While studying English, she appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the title role, and, in 2005, Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" for the OUDS summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.
On radio, she is known for playing the long-running role of Emma Grundy in The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden. Since 2006, Jones has appeared in numerous films, including Northanger Abbey (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Chéri (2009), and The Tempest (2010). She stars in Star Wars spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) as Jyn Erso. Her performance in the 2011 film Like Crazy (2011) was met with critical acclaim garnering her numerous awards, including a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, her performance as Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014) was also met with critical acclaim, garnering her nominations for the Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 2019, Jones founded her own production company, Piecrust Productions with her brother, Alex Jones.- Actress
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Evan Rachel Wood was born September 7, 1987, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a theatre actor, writer and director, and her mother, Sara Wood, is an actress and acting coach. She has two older brothers--Dana Wood, a musician, and Ira David Wood IV, who has also acted. Evan and her brothers sometimes performed at Theatre In The Park in Raleigh, which her father founded and where he serves as executive director.
At the age of five she screen-tested against Kirsten Dunst for the lead role in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) after a long auditioning process. She moved to Los Angeles with her mom and brother Ira in 1996 and has had success ever since, appearing in a TV series, TV movies and feature films. She has appeared in Practical Magic (1998), starred in the comedy S1m0ne (2002) as Al Pacino's daughter, and followed that with Thirteen (2003), with Holly Hunter. Her breakout role as Tracy in "Thirteen" garnered her a Golden Globes nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama and for a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. At the time of this SAG nomination, she was the youngest actress to be nominated in the Leading Role category. She received a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie" for her portrayal of Veda Pierce in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011).
She also earned acclaim for her powerful performance as Stephanie, Mickey Rourke's estranged daughter, in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler (2008).- Actress
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Jessica Brown Findlay is an English actress. She is known for Emelia Conan-Doyle in the British comedy-drama Albatross (2011), Winter's Tale (2014), This Beautiful Fantastic (2016) and Lady Sybil Crawley in ITV's Downton Abbey (2010). She also starred in the TV series Misfits (2009) and mini-series Labyrinth (2012). In 2011, she starred in the Black Mirror (2011) episode, Fifteen Million Merits (2011). "Albatross" was her film debut.
Jessica was born in Cookham, Berkshire, to Beverley, a teacher's aide and nurse, and Christopher Brown-Findlay, who works in finance. She is of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. Jessica trained with the National Youth Ballet and the Associates of the Royal Ballet. At age fifteen, she was invited to dance with the Kirov at the Royal Opera House for a summer season.- Actress
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Michaela was born on October 1st 1987 as Michaela Boakye-Collinson to Ghanaian parents and brought up in Tower Hamlets by her mother, a devout member of the Pentecostal church who instilled her religion into Michaela and her sister - something that she would later draw on for her play 'Chewing Gum Dreams. ' Already a poet and performance artist , releasing the album 'Fixing Barbie' in 2009, she obtained a 2.1 in English at university before enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she was awarded the Laurence Olivier bursary, graduating in 2012. In 2013 she made her stage debut at the Bush Theatre, where she would perform 'Chewing Gum Dreams', later in the year transferring to the National Theatre, where she would return in 2014 to appear in 'Medea' with Helen McCrory. In 2015 a sitcom based on 'Chewing Gum Dreams', its title shortened to 'Chewing Gum' began its run on Channel 4 television and in 2016 she was back on that channel in another comedy-drama 'The Aliens'.- Weruche Opia was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She is an actress, known for I May Destroy You (2020), Bad Education (2012) and Sliced (2019).
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Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on March 30, 1937. Her ancestry includes English and Scottish.
Shirley was the tallest in her ballet classes at the Washington School of Ballet. Just after she graduated from Washington-Lee High School, she packed her bags and headed for New York. While auditioning for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Me and Juliet", the producer kept mispronouncing her name. She then changed her name from Shirley MacLean Beaty to Shirley MacLaine. She later had a role in "The Pajama Game", as a member of the chorus and understudy to Carol Haney. A few months into the run, Shirley was going to leave the show for the lead role in "Can-Can" but ended up filling in for Haney, who had broken her ankle and could not perform. She would fill in for Carol, again, three months later, following another injury, the very night that movie producer Hal B. Wallis was in the audience. Wallis signed MacLaine to a five-year contract to Paramount Pictures. Three months later, she was off to shoot The Trouble with Harry (1955). She then took roles in Hot Spell (1958) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956), completed not too long before her daughter, Sachi Parker (born Stephanie), was born. With Shirley's career on track, she played one of her most challenging roles: "Ginny Moorhead" in Some Came Running (1958), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She went on to do The Sheepman (1958) and The Matchmaker (1958). In 1960, she got her second Academy Award nomination for The Apartment (1960). Three years later, she received a third nomination for Irma la Douce (1963). In 1969, she brought her friend Bob Fosse from Broadway to direct her in Sweet Charity (1969), from which she got her "signature" song, "If My Friends Could See Me Now". After a five-year hiatus, Shirley made a documentary on China called The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir (1975), for which she received an Oscar nomination for best documentary.
In 1977, she got her fourth Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Turning Point (1977). In 1979, she worked with Peter Sellers in Being There (1979), made shortly before his death. After 20 years in the film industry, she finally took home the Best Actress Oscar for Terms of Endearment (1983). After a five-year hiatus, Shirley made Madame Sousatzka (1988), a critical and financial hit that took top prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 1989, she starred with Dolly Parton, Sally Field and Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias (1989). She received rave reviews playing Meryl Streep's mother in Postcards from the Edge (1990) and for Guarding Tess (1994). In 1996, she reprised her role from "Terms of Endearment" as "Aurora Greenway" in The Evening Star (1996), which didn't repeat its predecessor's success at the box office. In mid-1998, she directed Bruno (2000), which starred Alex D. Linz. In February 2001, Shirley worked with close friends once again in These Old Broads (2001), and co-starred with Julia Stiles in Carolina (2003) and with Kirstie Alley in Salem Witch Trials (2002).
MacLaine as her own website which includes her own radio show and interviews, the Encounter Board, and Independent Expression, a members-only section of the site. In the past few years, Shirley starred in a CBS miniseries based on the life of cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash--Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay (2002), and wrote two more books, "The Camino" in 2001, and "Out On A Leash" in 2003. After taking a slight hiatus from motion pictures, Shirley returned with roles in the movies that were small, but wonderfully scene-stealing: Bewitched (2005) with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, In Her Shoes (2005) with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, in which Shirley was nominated for a Golden Globe in the best supporting actress category, and Rumor Has It... (2005) with Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner. Shirley completed filming of Closing the Ring (2007), directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, in 2007. Her latest book is entitled "Sage-ing While Ag-ing"; Shirley's latest film is Valentine's Day (2010), which debuted in theaters on February 12, 2010.- Marisa Abela was born on 7 December 1996 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Industry (2020), Cobra (2020) and Rogue Agent (2022).
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Vera Farmiga is an American actress who has received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Up in the Air (2009) and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Bates Motel (2013) and When They See Us (2019).
She was born Vera Ann Farmiga, the second of seven children, on August 6, 1973, in Clifton, New Jersey, USA, to Ukrainian parents. She did not speak English until the age of six, and was raised in the Ukrainian Catholic home of her mother, Luba (Spas), a schoolteacher, and her father, Michael Farmiga, a computer systems analyst. Her younger sister is actress Taissa Farmiga, who is 21 years her junior. Young Vera was a shy, nearsighted girl, who played piano and folk danced with a Ukrainian touring company in her teens.
In 1991, she graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. Farmiga initially dreamed of becoming an optometrist, but she later changed her mind and studied acting at Syracuse University's School of Performing Arts, graduating in 1995. The following year, she began her professional acting career, making her Broadway debut as an understudy in the play "Taking Sides". Her stage credits included performances in "The Tempest", "Good", "The Seagull", and in a well-reviewed off-Broadway production of "Second-Hand Smoke" (1997). That same year, she made her television debut as the female lead, opposite a then-unknown Heath Ledger, in Fox's adventure series Roar (1997).
In 1998, Farmiga made her big screen debut in the drama Return to Paradise (1998), then played the daughters of Christopher Walken in The Opportunists (1999) and Richard Gere in Autumn in New York (2000). She starred as a working-class mother struggling to keep her life and marriage together while hiding her drug addiction in Down to the Bone (2004), for which she was awarded Best Actress from the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Farmiga's acting talent shone in a range of characters, from her role as a senator's daughter in The Manchurian Candidate (2004), the wife of a mobster in Running Scared (2006), a humorous prostitute in Breaking and Entering (2006), and a police psychiatrist in The Departed (2006).
In 2010, Farmiga received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Up in the Air (2009). In 2011, she made her directorial debut with the drama Higher Ground (2011), in which she also appeared in the leading role. Although the film had a limited release, Farmiga's direction and performance received attention at several festivals. In 2013, she began starring in the drama thriller series Bates Motel (2013), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in the first season. In 2019, she received a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie category, for her role in the drama miniseries When They See Us (2019).
Farmiga was formerly married to actor Sebastian Roché, whom she met during production of Roar (1997). The two eloped to the Bahamas after the series ended in 1997. They separated and subsequently divorced in 2004. On September 13, 2008, she married musician Renn Hawkey, with whom she has two children, son Fynn McDonnell (b. 2009) and daughter Gytta Lubov Hawkey (b. 2010). Farmiga lives with her family in Hudson Valley, New York. Her other activities, outside her acting profession, include reading, playing piano, boxing, jujitsu, and spending time with her pet angora goats.- Actress
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Ella Hunt is an English actress and musician, know for her roles in Dickinson (2019-2021) and Anna and The Apocalypse (2018). Ella most recently wrapped on Kevin Costner's upcoming feature saga Horizon: An American Saga, opposite Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller and Sam Worthington. Recent feature credits include Mariama Diallo's Master with Regina Hall for Amazon Studios and 3000 Pictures' Lady Chatterley's Lover, directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre.
In 2022, Ella made her stage debut in the role of 'Alice' in Clare Lizzimore's production of Patrick Marber's Closer at the Lyric Hammersmith to celebrate the play's 25th Anniversary for which she garnered rave reviews.
Ella also starred in Apple's critically-acclaimed Dickinson opposite Hailee Steinfeld, Mike Bullen's award-winning comedic-drama Cold Feet, as well as in Joe Cross' feature debut Summer Night. She was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA for her role in Blazing Griffin's and Parkhouse Pictures zombie-musical, Anna and The Apocalypse.
Previously, Ella has been seen opposite Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson in Jon Wright's feature Robot Overlords, starred in the feature Kat And The Band, and also had roles in the Clive Owen horror Intruders and the film adaptation of Les Miserables.
Ella has a brilliant music career that she balances with her acting.- Alice Orr-Ewing was born on 7 July 1989 in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Theory of Everything (2014), The Courier (2020) and Atonement (2007).
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Claire Skinner was born in October 1964 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Life Is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993) and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). She was previously married to Charlie Palmer.- Actress
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Elegant Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas.
Kidman is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist and clinical psychologist. She is of English, Irish, and Scottish descent. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer, and then, three years later, made the pilgrimage back to her parents' native Sydney in Australia, where Nicole was raised. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well (her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant). In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge -- as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft. She worked regularly at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion (then a film student). Kidman eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into movies at age 16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas (1983). That appearance touched off a flurry of film and television offers, including a lead in BMX Bandits (1983) and a turn as a schoolgirl-turned-protester in the miniseries Vietnam (1987) (for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award). With the help of an American agent, she eventually made her US debut opposite Sam Neill in the at-sea thriller Dead Calm (1989).
Kidman's next casting coup scored her more than exposure. While starring as Tom Cruise's doctor/love interest in the racetrack romance Days of Thunder (1990), she won over the Hollywood hunk hook, line and sinker. After a whirlwind courtship (and decent box office returns), the couple wed on December 24, 1990. Determined not to let her new marital status overshadow her fledgling career, the actress pressed on. She appeared as a catty high school senior in the Australian film Flirting (1991), then as Dustin Hoffman's moll in the gangster flick Billy Bathgate (1991). She reunited with Cruise for Far and Away (1992), the story of young Irish lovers who flee to America in the late 1800s, and starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger My Life (1993). Despite her steady employment, critics and moviegoers still had not quite warmed to Kidman as a leading lady. She tried to spice up her image by seducing Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995), but achieved her real breakthrough with Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995). As a fame-crazed housewife determined to eliminate any obstacle in her path, Kidman proved that she had an impressive range and deadly comic timing. She took home a Golden Globe and several critics' awards for the performance. In 1996, Kidman stepped into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion, on the adaptation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1996). A few months later, she tore across the screen as a nuclear weapons expert in The Peacemaker (1997), adding "action star" to her professional repertoire.
She and Cruise then disappeared into a notoriously long, secretive shoot for Stanley Kubrick's sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The couple's on-screen shenanigans prompted an increase in public speculation about their sex life (rumors had long been circulating that their marriage was a cover-up for Cruise's rumored homosexuality); tired of denying tabloid attacks, they successfully sued The Star for a story alleging that they needed a sex therapist to coach them through love scenes. Family life has always been a priority for Kidman. Born to social activists (mother was a feminist; father, a labor advocate), Nicole and her little sister, Antonia Kidman, discussed current events around the dinner table and participated in their parents' campaigns by passing out pamphlets on street corners. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, 17-year-old Nicole stopped working and took a massage course so that she could provide physical therapy (her mother eventually beat the cancer). She and Cruise adopted two children: Isabella Jane (born 1993) and Connor Antony (born 1995). Despite their rock-solid image, the couple announced in early 2001 that they were separating due to career conflicts. Her marriage to Cruise ended mid-summer of 2001.- Carroll Baker was born on May 28, 1931 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a traveling salesman, William W. Baker. She attended community college for a year and then worked as a dancer and magician's assistant. After a brief marriage, she had a small part in Easy to Love (1953), did TV commercials, and had a bit part on Broadway. She studied at the Actors Studio and was married to director Jack Garfein (one daughter, Blanche Baker). Warner Brothers, sensing a future Marilyn Monroe, cast her in Giant (1956), Baby Doll (1956) (Oscar nomination for her thumb-sucking role), The Carpetbaggers (1964) and Harlow (1965) (title role). Moving to Italy, she made films there and in England, Germany, Mexico and Spain . After returning to American films, she married Donald Burton in 1982 and resided in Hampstead, London in the 1980s. They remained together until Burton's death from emphysema in their home in Cathedral City, California in 2007.
- Isabelle McNally was born on 2 March 1989 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Frances Ha (2012), Before I Disappear (2014) and Bates Motel (2013).
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Sophie Willan was born on 21 October 1987 in Bolton, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Alma's Not Normal (2020), Time (2021) and Animal TV (2018).- Actress
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Lorraine Ashbourne was born on 7 January 1961 in Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress, known for King Kong (2005), Child 44 (2015) and Breathe (2017). She has been married to Andy Serkis since 22 July 2002. They have three children.- Actress
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Odessa Young is an Australian actress. She is known for her roles in the 2015 feature films Looking for Grace and The Daughter, the latter of which earned her an Aacta Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She won further accolades for her performance in the web series High Life in 2017. In 2018, she starred in the films Assassination Nation and A Million Little Pieces. That year, she also made her off-Broadway debut in Days of Rage. In 2020, she starred as Frannie in the post-apocalypse miniseries The Stand, based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Stephen King, and opposite Elisabeth Moss in Shirley (2020), a film about the novelist Shirley Jackson.- Actress
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Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa on December 12, 1909, Karen Morley was adopted by a well-to-do family who moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1920s. She enrolled at Hollywood High School and studied for a career in medicine at UCLA, but a class in theater changed her career ambitions.
After studying at Pasadena Playhouse, she was signed by Fox Studios and her big chance came when producer Howard Hughes selected her to play the blond moll in the 1932 crime epic, Scarface (1932), Morley was put on a contract by MGM and starred in such early 1930s movies as Mata Hari (1931) (with Greta Garbo), Arsène Lupin (1932) (with John Barrymore), Dinner at Eight (1933) (with Jean Harlow), as well as films with Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery and Boris Karloff. In 1934, Morley left MGM after arguments about her roles and her private life, including her intention to start a family and her marriage to director Charles Vidor. She continued working as a freelance performer, appearing in King Vidor's Our Daily Bread (1934), Michael Curtiz' Black Fury (1935) and Pride and Prejudice (1940).
In 1947, her screen career came to a halt when she testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and refused to answer questions about her possible enrollment in the Communist Party. Afterward, she continued promoting left-wing causes and married actor Lloyd Gough. In 1954, she ran unsuccessfully as a New York lieutenant governor candidate for the American Labor Party. Morley died March 8, 2003 at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills.- Orla was born in Zambia to Irish parents and at the age of 5 moved back to Ireland where her mother made sure she did every conceivable activity from studying three instruments to ballet and gymnastics.
At 13 she discovered drama school and at 16 performed in her first professional theatre performance 'Adult Child/ Dead Child'.
After school, extensive traveling and minor acting roles Orla undertook a degree in film & broadcasting. During her studies she gained her first regular role as Sinead Kelly in the award winning television show 'The Clinic'. Shortly after she worked on ITVs 'Malice Aforethought' for director David Blair and her first Irish feature film 'The Front Line' for director David Gleeson.
Soon after graduating she worked on British medical drama 'Casualty' and Daniel Barbers 'Harry Brown', with Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer and Charlie Creed-Miles. Her most recent work includes 'Case Histories' for BBC 1 with Jason Isaacs and HBO/SKYs 'Strike Back II' with Liam Cunningham.
Orla believes that versatility is a necessity for an actor. 'You can train all you want but experience in different areas of work and life keeps your mind educated and active. It provides you with the necessary life resources to dip into. An actor can have a lot of spare time to kill ...so use it' - Actress
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British actress Emilia Clarke was born in London and grew up in Oxfordshire, England. Her father was a theatre sound engineer and her mother is a businesswoman. Her father was working on a theatre production of "Show Boat" and her mother took her along to the performance. This is when, at the age of 3, her passion for acting began. From 2000 to 2005, she attended St. Edward's School of Oxford, where she appeared in two school plays. She went on to study acting at the prestigious Drama Centre London, where she took part in 10 plays. During this time, Emilia first appeared on television with a guest role in the BBC soap opera Doctors (2000).
In 2010, after graduating from the Drama Centre London, Emilia got her first film role in the television movie Triassic Attack (2010). In 2011, her breakthrough role came in when she replaced fellow newcomer Tamzin Merchant on Game of Thrones (2011) after the filming of the original pilot episode. From March to April 2013, she played Holly Golightly in a Broadway production of "Breakfast at Tiffany's". She played Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys (2015), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney and Jason Clarke. She played the lead role of Louisa Clark in the romantic comedy blockbuster Me Before You (2016) and went on to star in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) as Qi'ra.
Since her rise to prominence, Emilia has contributed to various charitable organisations. In 2018, she was named as the ambassador to the Royal College of Nursing because of her efforts in raising awareness about the working condition of the nurses in the UK. In 2019, she was named as the first ambassador for the global Nursing Now campaign. In 2019, in a personal essay published in The New Yorker, Emilia revealed that she had suffered from two life threatening brain aneurysms in 2011 and 2013. She launched her own charity SameYou in 2019, which aims to broaden neurorehabilitation access for young people after a brain injury or stroke.- Actress
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Born in 1998 and raised in London, Daisy trained with the National Youth Theatre before landing her first professional job at 17, playing the regular role of Olivia in the returning British series Cold Feet alongside James Nesbitt and Hermione Norris for ITV. Daisy has since gone on to build a varied screen career as well as working on stage in London.- Actress
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Kat Stewart was born on 30 November 1972 in Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia. She is an actress and producer, known for Underbelly (2008), Offspring (2010) and Mr & Mrs Murder (2013). She has been married to David Whiteley since February 2008. They have two children.- Actress
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Sydney Sweeney (born September 12, 1997) is an American actress best known for her roles as Haley Caren on In the Vault (2017) and Emaline Addario on the Netflix series Everything Sucks! (2018). Sweeney is set to star in recurring roles in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects (2018) starring Amy Adams and the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale (2017) with Elisabeth Moss.
Sweeney has guest starred in TV shows such as Pretty Little Liars (2010), Criminal Minds (2005), Grey's Anatomy (2005), 90210 (2008), and the series In the Vault (2017) as Haley Caren. Sweeney most recently starred as Emaline Addario on the Netflix series Everything Sucks! (2018), which revolved around two groups of students in high school in 1996 in Oregon.
Sweeney is set to star in the second season of the Hulu original series The Handmaid's Tale (2017) as Eden, a pious and obedient girl, as well as Alice in the upcoming HBO miniseries Sharp Objects (2018) starring Amy Adams. She will also star in the upcoming psychological thriller Clementine (2019) and the alongside Andrew Garfield in the thriller Under the Silver Lake (2018). Sweeney also starred in the horror film Along Came the Devil (2018).- Actress
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Sarah is originally from Cork and trained in Dublin where she graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2006.
Sarah played Helen McCormick (Slippy Helen) opposite Daniel Radcliffe as Billy Claven in Martin McDonaghs's The Cripple of Inishmaan, directed by Michael Grandage at the Cort Theatre on Broadway,NYC. Sarah was nominated for a TONY award (Best Actress in a Featured Role) 2014 for her performance in this show, one for which she was already nominated for an Olivier Award in 2013 during it's West End run and for which she was awarded the 2014 World Theater Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut.
Other theatre includes Rough Magic's production of PEER GYNT for Dublin Theatre Festival 2011 her acclaimed performance as Alice in thisispopbaby's and the Abbey Theatre's hugely successful production ALICE INFUNDERLAND in 2012. She also appeared in ELLEMENOPE JONES both directed by Wayne Jordan at The Project Arts Centre, Dublin in 2011. Sarah appeared as Sorcha in Paul Howard's play BETWEEN FOXROCK AND A HARDPLACE at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin and Cork Opera House. She played Ismene in Rough Magic's production of PHAEDRA by Hilary Fannin, directed by Lynne Parker as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Sarah appeared as Amber in Guna Nua's award winning and highly acclaimed production of LITTLE GEM which won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and led to a remounting of the production in New York as well as tours across the UK and Ireland. Other previous productions have included: Danti Dan for Galloglass, The Death of Harry Leon for Ouroboros, The Year of the Hiker and The Playboy of The Western World, The Empress of India, and most recently Big Maggie, all with Druid Theatre Company and directed by Garry Hynes.
Sarah stars as Christina Noble alongside Deirdre O'Kane, Liam Cunnigham and Brendan Coyle in Stephen Bradley's feature NOBLE and has already won awards Jury and Audience awards at the Boston Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Newport Beach Festival, Nashville and Dallas Festivals.
In 2014, Sarah was cast alongside Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller in The Weinstein's 'Untitled John Wells Project' and joined the cast of Showtime's Penny Dreadful playing Hecate Poole.
Other film and television includes: RAW RTE/Ecosse Films, EDEN/Samson Films, SPEED DATING/RTE, BACHELOR'S WALK/Samson Films/RTE. She played the leading role of Cathleen in the Canadian/Irish feature LOVE AND SAVAGERY directed by John N. Smith. MY BROTHERS (Treasure Films) and THE GUARD (Element) opposite Brendan Gleeson. She most recently appeared as Judith in three episodes of VIKINGS (History Channel/MGM).- Actress
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Piper Perabo is a Golden Globe nominated film, stage and TV actor. Born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in New Jersey, she graduated summa cum Laude from Ohio University. In 2000 she was cast in a breakout role in Coyote Ugly. Since then she has been seen in such films as Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige" with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, "Because I Said So" with Diane Keaton and "First Snow", with Guy Pearce, "Cheaper by the Dozen" films with Steve Martin, "Imagine Me & You" with Lena Heady and Matthew Goode and the crime drama "10th & Wolf" with an ensemble cast that included James Marsden and Dennis Hopper. She starred alongside Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels in Rian Johnson's sci-fi action film, "Looper.".
In television Perabo starred as Annie Walker in all 5 seasons of USA Network's spy drama, "Covert Affairs." Following that she co-starred in ABC's 2016 legal drama "Notorious."And can next be seen on Netflix in "Turn Up Charlie" with Idris Elba.
She made her Broadway debut in Neil LaBute's controversial play "Reasons to be Pretty", which was nominated for the Tony for Best Play.
Outside of her work on screen and stage, Perabo is also an activist. She is a Voice for the International Rescue Committee to raise awareness about the world's refugee crisis and help those displaced by conflict, religious persecution and political oppression around the globe.
Piper lives in Los Angeles and New York City.- Actress
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Thandiwe Newton was born in London. She is the daughter of Zimbabwean mother Nyasha, a health-care worker from the Shona tribe, and British father Nick Newton, who worked as a lab technician. She lived in Zambia until political unrest caused her family to move back to the UK, where she lived in Cornwall (in southwest Britain) until she was 11 and enrolled in London's Art Educational School to study modern dance until a back injury forced her to quit dancing. This led to her auditioning for films. Her first role was in John Duigan's Flirting (1991). She then moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting. When her British accent limited the amount of work she was getting, she returned to Britain, studied at Cambridge University, and earned a degree in anthropology. Between semesters she continued acting and became noticed in in- demand for future film roles.- Liah O'Prey was born in Barcelona, Spain to an Irish father and a French mother. She speaks English, French, Catalan and Spanish natively. Her first acting experiences were for various TV commercials in Italy, Spain and France. She naturally made the crossover into film with a few small roles which lead to her feature debut in Juan Carlos Medina's Insensibles. Following this, she was cast in Jake Paltrow's Young Ones as Anna. She now resides in France where she is continuing to film for TV and cinema.
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A native of Bournemouth in the UK, Janet Montgomery moved to London when she received a scholarship at a dance school. One of her first acting jobs was a guest star role on the critically-acclaimed UK teen drama series, Skins (2007), as Nicholas Hoult's love interest.
Upon moving to Los Angeles, Montgomery was quickly cast in the Dark Castle film, The Hills Run Red (2009). In addition to guest-starring on FX's The League (2009), she recurred on the HBO series, Entourage (2004) as E's assistant and Drama's girlfriend. She was also a series regular on the Fox series, Human Target (2010), with Mark Valley and Jackie Earle Haley. More recently, Montgomery was the lead of CBS's Made in Jersey (2012).
Montgomery played one of the dancers, opposite Natalie Portman, in Darren Aronofsky's Oscar-nominated psychological thriller, Black Swan (2010). She also starred in Jesse Peretz's Our Idiot Brother (2011), opposite Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks.
Other recent projects include Dancing on the Edge (2013), with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew Goode, as well as Spies of Warsaw (2013), opposite David Tennant. She just completed shooting the lead of the independent film, If You See Her (2014), and is about to start shooting the female lead in Salem (2014), the first original series for WGN.- Actress
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Maggie Siff (born June 21, 1974) is an American actress. Her television roles have included department store heiress Rachel Menken Katz on the AMC drama Mad Men, Tara Knowles on the FX drama Sons of Anarchy, and psychiatrist Wendy Rhoades on the Showtime series Billions. She has had roles in the films Push (2009) as Teresa Stowe and Leaves of Grass (2010) as Rabbi Renannah Zimmerman. She stars in indie film A Woman, a Part (2016) as well as having a minor role in drama film One Percent More Humid (2017).
Siff was born in The Bronx, New York City. Her father is Jewish (from a family from Russia), and her mother is of Irish and Swedish descent; she has said that she feels "culturally Jewish". She is an alumna of The Bronx High School of Science and of Bryn Mawr College, where she majored in English and graduated in 1996. She later completed an M.F.A. in acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program. Shortly after graduating, Siff also worked as a temp at a hedge fund, an experience she drew on for her role in Billions.
Siff worked extensively in regional theater before acting in television. She won a Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theater in 1998 for her work in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts at Lantern Theater Company.
Siff started appearing in television series in 2004. She appeared as an Alcoholics Anonymous speaker during an episode of Rescue Me in Season 2. She also had roles on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Grey's Anatomy, and Law & Order.
She played Rachel Menken Katz on the series Mad Men from 2007 to 2008, which earned her a nomination, along with the rest of the cast, for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She also appeared in Nip/Tuck during that time, before being cast as Dr. Tara Knowles on Sons of Anarchy in 2008.
She has appeared in such films as Then She Found Me (2007) as Lily, Push as a psychic surgeon (called a Stitch) named Teresa Stowe, sent to help Nick (played by Chris Evans), Funny People (2009) as Rachel, Leaves of Grass (2010) as Rabbi Renannah Zimmerman, and Concussion (2013) as Sam Bennet. She appears in the 2016 Showtime series Billions. She starred in an independent indie film called A Woman, A Part (2016) as well as One Percent More Humid (2017).- Actress
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Amanda Peet was born and raised in New York City. She is the daughter of Penny (Levy), a social worker, and Charles Peet, a lawyer, and has an older sister. Her father was of mostly English and German ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish family (from Germany, Russia, and Hungary). Peet's great-grandfathers were politician Samuel Levy and showbiz impresario S.L. Rothafel.
Peet made an unconventional stage debut at the age of three, when she jumped onto the stage during a play. Yet, despite this early start, she later studied acting more as a hobby than anything else. She studied history at Columbia University, where a drama professor convinced her to audition for acting teacher Uta Hagen, with whom she later went on to study for a four-year period. During this time, she participated in the off-Broadway revival of Clifford Odets's "Awake and Sing." She supported herself during the audition phase of her career by working as a waitress and with the residual checks she received from a Skittles candy commercial. Perseverance and hard work paid off, and, in 1995, she was cast in a guest-starring role on the hit series Law & Order (1990).
Her feature film debut came in 1995 with the movie Animal Room (1995). For a while afterward, Amanda continued to find steady work but also found herself appearing in a depressingly large number of indie films that were never picked up for distribution. She did, however, meet her boyfriend Brian Van Holt on the set of indie movie Whipped (2000). Her turn as the ditzy hit-woman with the heart of gold in the hit comedy The Whole Nine Yards (2000), opposite Bruce Willis, took her from supporting role status to leading lady. That same year she was voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by "People" Magazine.- Actress
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Annet Mahendru is an Afghan-American actress of Indian-Russian origin. She was born in Kabul to an Indian father (a journalist and professor) and a Russian mother (a businesswoman and artist). Annet spent her early years learning six languages while living in Afghanistan, Russia, and Europe. She put her curious mind to use playing competitive chess and earning a brown belt in Karate, sweeping a free sparring championship. At age 11, Annet choreographed a performance that gained her an appearance on German TV as a graceful Russian snow maiden that turns into a playful Indian dancer. Sad that her parents never signed her up for ballet classes as a little girl, she joined a local Rock 'n' Roll dance group, and later, began to study classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam.
Annet finished high school in New York and received a Bachelor of Arts in English at St. John's University. After school, drawn by her passion for acting, she took classes at the HB studio, performed in plays, and Indie films. But it was in the course of pursuing a Master's degree in Global Affairs at NYU that Annet reached a crossroad in her life. She decided to drop out of NYU and escaped to the West Coast in search for yet another degree that would enable her to affect the kind of change she really wished for. This one was in Storytelling. Always being a big fan of Improvisation, she began studies at the Groundlings School and took on several comedy projects thereafter. Annet has also studied at the Imagined Life in Hollywood because she finds trans-formative experience and expression of the empathetic imagination to be the foundation of her work.
Everything, from growing up among a big Indian family on a healthy diet of Bollywood films to experiencing St. Petersburg's famous ballet, art and theatre scene, prepared Annet for her life as an ambassador of change through storytelling. Becoming an actress synthesized her many curiosities with her passion and mission.
Annet is best known for her starring role in the 2013 TV series The Americans, where she plays the role "Nina," the beautiful and mysterious spy opposite FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich). "Annet Mahendru has been a revelation as Nina, bringing the character to life with a rich and subtle depth that keeps you guessing as to what's really percolating under the surface," said Executive Producers Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields. Other credits include 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, Big Time Rush, The Blacklist, The X Files and feature films Escape From Tomorrow and Love Gloria.- Ania Sowinski was born on 18 December 1979 in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Men in Black: International (2019), Eddie the Eagle (2015) and Holby Blue (2007).