Best actors and actresses I like
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Rebecca Liddiard was born on 8 January 1991 in London, Ontario, Canada. She is an actress and producer, known for Fargo (2014), Alias Grace (2017) and Frankie Drake Mysteries (2017).- Actress
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Sarah Gadon was born in a quiet residential area in Toronto, Ontario, to a teacher mother and a psychologist father. She grew up with the support and encouragement of her parents and older brother, James, and with this was inspired to go headlong into acting and dance alike. Sarah spent much of her adolescence training as a performer as a Junior Associate at the National Ballet School of Canada and as a student at the Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts. She also studied cinema at the prestigious University of Toronto.
She is known for her roles in the films A Dangerous Method (2011), Antiviral (2012), Enemy (2013), and Indignation (2016), and the mini-series 11.22.63 (2016).- Mandeep Dhillon is a British actress who has appeared in stage, television, film and radio productions, including the BBC Three comedy series Some Girls and Fried. She featured in the British romantic comedy Finding Fatimah in 2017, and as Constable Lizbyet Corwi in The City and the City in 2018. She also appears as Sandy in the Netflix Original dark-comedy After Life, having previously worked with Ricky Gervais in David Brent: Life on the Road. In 2021, she starred in the American crime television series CSI: Vegas.
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Michael was born in Philadelphia but raised in Lawrenceville, Georgia by parents Michael and Maureen Kelly. He has two sisters, Shannon and Casey, and one brother, Andrew. He went to college at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina with the original intention to study law, but changed his mind after taking an acting elective. In addition to acting, Michael is a musician and very athletic. He is a lifetime member of the Actor's Studio. He now lives and works out of New York.- Actress
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British actress Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer was born in Hammersmith, London, England, to writer and barrister Sir John Mortimer and his second wife, Penelope (née Gollop). She was educated at St Paul's Girls' School in West London, and it was whilst there she began acting. Mortimer moved on from school to Lincoln College, Oxford University, where she studied English Literature and Russian, and spent two terms at the Moscow Arts Theater Drama School, studying acting.
While appearing in an Oxford University student production, Mortimer was spotted by a TV producer who cast her in an adaptation of Catherine Cookson' s The Glass Virgin (1995). She made her feature film debut in 1996 alongside Val Kilmer in The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). Roles in various projects have followed, including Elizabeth (1998), Love's Labour's Lost (2000), Match Point (2005), Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Shutter Island (2010) and Hugo (2011).
During the making of Love's Labour's Lost (2000), Mortimer met her husband Alessandro Nivola. The couple have two children, Sam Nivola and May Nivola.- Actor
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Kevin Norwood Bacon was born on July 8, 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Ruth Hilda (Holmes), an elementary school teacher, and Edmund Norwood Bacon, a prominent architect who was on the cover of Time Magazine in November 1964.
Kevin's early training as an actor came from The Manning Street. His debut as the strict Chip Diller in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) almost seems like an inside joke, but he managed to escape almost unnoticed from that role. Diner (1982) became the turning point after a couple of television series and a number of less-than-memorable movie roles. In a cast of soon-to-be stars, he more than held his end up, and we saw a glimpse of the real lunatic image of The Bacon. He also starred in Footloose (1984), She's Having a Baby (1988), Tremors (1990) with Fred Ward, Flatliners (1990), and Apollo 13 (1995).
Bacon is married to actress Kyra Sedgwick, with whom he has 2 children.- Actor
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Born and raised Kanpur, India, Amit Sial discovered acting at the age of eight, and since then, has appeared in numerous stage productions across India, including in particular the lead role of Tim Supple's adapted version of Salman Rushdie's Haround and the Sea of Stories, directed by noted Mumbai-based experimental theatre director, Neeraj Kabi.
Sial also has directed two short adaptations of Shakespeare's MacBeth and Romeo & Juliet for the short play festival organized by the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai.
Sial studied at Delhi University (B.Com. with Honours) and Swinbourne University of Technology in Australia (International Business). Back in India, he has worked with several theatre directors, including the acclaimed Barry John.
Hope & a Little Sugar (2006) marks his feature film debut.- Monika Panwar was born on 4 December 1993 in Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India. She is an actress, known for Super 30 (2019), Mast Mein Rehne Ka (2023) and Class of '83 (2020).
- Actor
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Allu Arjun nicknamed Bunny was born on April 8, 1980. His father, Allu Aravind, is a famous producer and his uncle, Chiranjeevi is one of the top actors in the Telugu industry. Also, he is the grandson of late comedian Padmashree Allu Ramalingaiah. He is well-known as stylish star for his unique way of acting and dancing. He is also known for changing his hair and body for each movie that he does. He has starred in 5 movies so far and all of them are super hits. Besides being a illustrious actor though, Allu Arjun gives back to his community and shows to be a successful role-model. Every year on his birthday, April 8th, he donates blood and attends functions for physically and mentally challenged kids.- Actress
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Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years, she trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts, a part-time theatre school where she studied singing, dancing and acting. By the age of ten, she had performed and taken the lead in various Stagecoach productions and school plays.
In 1999, casting began for Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (2001), the film adaptation of British author J.K. Rowling's bestselling novel. Casting agents found Emma through her Oxford theatre teacher. After eight consistent auditions, producer David Heyman told Emma and fellow applicants, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, that they had been cast for the roles of the three leads, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. The release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) was Emma's cinematic screen debut. The film broke records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings and was the highest-grossing film of 2001. Critics praised the film and the performances of the three leading young actors. The highly distributed British newspaper, 'The Daily Telegraph', called her performance "admirable". Later, Emma was nominated for five awards for her performance in the film, winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film.
After the release of the first film of the highly successful franchise, Emma became one of the most well-known actresses in the world. She continued to play the role of Hermione Granger for nearly ten years, in all of the following Harry Potter films: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). Emma acquired two Critics' Choice Award nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for her work in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. The completion of the seventh and eight movies saw Emma receive nominations in 2011 for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award, and for Best Actress at the Jameson Empire Awards. The Harry Potter franchise won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in February 2011.
2011 saw Emma in Simon Curtis's My Week with Marilyn (2011), alongside a stellar cast of Oscar nominees including Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, in addition to Eddie Redmayne, Dame Judi Dench, Dougray Scott, Zoe Wanamaker, Toby Jones and Dominic Cooper. Chronicling a week in Marilyn Monroe's life, the film featured Emma in the supporting role of Lucy, a costume assistant to Colin Clark (Redmayne). The film was released by The Weinstein Company and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. In 2012 Emma was seen in Stephen Chbosky's adaptation of his coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), starring opposite Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller. This independent drama centered around Charlie (Lerman), an introverted freshman who is taken under the wings of two seniors (Watson and Miller) who welcome him to the real world. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and received rave reviews. The film won the People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Movie and Emma also picked up the People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Movie Actress. Emma was awarded a second time for this role with the Best Supporting Actress Award at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards where the film also won the Best Ensemble Performance Award.
In summer 2013, Emma starred in Sofia Coppola's American satirical black comedy crime film, The Bling Ring (2013), opposite Katie Chang and Israel Broussard. The film took inspiration from real events and followed a group of teenagers who, obsessed with fashion and fame, burgled the homes of celebrities in Los Angeles. The film opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Emma also appeared in a cameo role as herself in Seth Rogen's apocalypse comedy This Is The End (2013). The film tells the story about what happens to some of Hollywood's best loved celebrities when the apocalypse strikes during a party at James Franco's house.
In 2014, Emma was seen in Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014), opposite Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Douglas Booth, Logan Lerman, and Anthony Hopkins. The film told the epic, biblical tale of Noah and the ark. Emma plays the role of Ila, a young woman who develops a close relationship with Noah's son, Shem (Booth). Noah made an outstanding $300m since its release in March. In 2015, Emma starred in Regression (2015), written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar and Occultum Luciferus. Also headlined by Oscar-nominated Ethan Hawke, and set in Minnesota in 1990, Regression tells the story of Detective Bruce Kenner (Hawke), who investigates the case of young Angela, played by Emma, who accuses her father of sexual abuse.
In 2012, Emma was honored with the Calvin Klein Emerging Star Award at the ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards. In 2013, Emma was awarded the Trailblazer Award at the MTV Movie Awards in April and was honored with the GQ Woman of the Year Award at the GQ Awards in September. Further to her acting career, Emma is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Emma graduated from Brown University in May 2014.
In 2017, Emma starred in the live-action Disney fantasy Beauty and the Beast (2017), one of the biggest movies of all time in the U.S., and the dramatic thriller The Circle (2017).- 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.- Actress
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Taapsee Pannu was born on August 1, 1987 in Delhi, India. She made her acting debut with the 2010 Telugu film Jhummandi Naadam, directed by K. Raghavendra Rao. Since then, she has appeared in a number of critically acclaimed films such as Aadukalam, Vastadu Naa Raju and Mr. Perfect. Her Tamil film Aadukalam won six National Film Awards at the 58th National Film Awards. She has also worked in a Malayalam film and has been signed on for three Telugu films and several Hindi films. She was awarded Most Enthusiastic Performer-Female Award at the 2014 Edison Awards for her performance in the Tamil film Arrambam (2013). Taapsee went on to star in several commercially successful films including Pink (2016), Badla (2019) and Game Over (2019), and received critical acclaim for her performances in Naam Shabana (2017), Mulk (2018), Manmarziyaan (2018) and Saand Ki Aankh (2019).- 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.- Actor
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Saif is the son of Bollywood actress, Sharmila Tagore, and Indian cricketer, Mansoor Ali Khan.
Both his grandfather, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, and father were professional cricketers. His mother, Sharmila Tagore, an actress within her own rights. He has two sisters, Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan, and fashion designer Saba Ali Khan.
Saif studied in Himachal Pradesh's Lawrence School Sanawar, and then went on to continue his studies in Lockers Park School and Winchester College - both located in the United Kingdom.
He commenced his career in Bollywood movies during the year 1992 with Parampara (1993). He has been received several awards as well as numerous nominations. He continues to not only act in movies but has also started his very own production company 'Illuminati Films'.
Saif Ali Khan married Bollywood actress, Amrita Singh, during October 1991, and has two children, namely daughter Sara Ali Khan, and son Ibrahim Ali Khan. The marriage ended in a divorce during 2004, and both the children live with their mother.
His father tragically passed away on September 22, 2011 due to chronic lung infection at the age of 70.
He has participated in a number of international tours, including raising funds for the 2004 Tsunami.
He is fluent in Bengal, Hindi, and English.- Actress
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Helen Hunt began studying acting at the age of eight with her father, respected director and acting coach Gordon Hunt. A year later she made her professional debut and afterwards worked steadily in films, theatre and television.- Actress
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Naomi Ellen Watts was born on September 28, 1968 in Shoreham, England to Myfanwy Edwards "Miv" (Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume/set designer, and Peter Watts (Peter Anthony Watts), Pink Floyd's road manager. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh. Her father died when she was seven and she followed her mother and brother around England until she was 14 and they finally settled in Australia, homeland of her maternal grandmother. When they arrived, she coaxed her mother to let her take acting classes. After bit parts in commercials, she landed her first role in For Love Alone (1986). Naomi met her best friend Nicole Kidman when they both auditioned for a bikini commercial and shared a taxi ride home. In 1991, Naomi starred with Kidman in the sleeper hit Flirting (1991), directed by John Duigan. Naomi continued her career by starring in the Australian Brides of Christ (1991) co-starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Brenda Fricker.
In 1993, she worked with John Duigan again in Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) and director George Miller in Gross Misconduct (1993). Tank Girl (1995), in 1995, an adaptation of the comic book was a cult hit, starred Naomi as "Jet Girl", but it didn't do at the box-office or do much for her career. Watts continued to take insignificant parts in movies including the much forgotten film Children of the Corn: The Gathering (1996). It wasn't until David Lynch cast her in the critically acclaimed film Mulholland Drive (2001) that she began to become noticed. Her part as an aspiring actress showed her strong acting ability and wide range and earned her much respect, as much as to say by some that she was overlooked for a Oscar nomination that year. Stardom finally came to Naomi in the surprise hit The Ring (2002), which grossed over $100,000,000 at the box-office and starred Watts as an investigative reporter hunting down the truth behind several mysterious deaths seemingly caused by a video tape. While the movie did not fare well with the critics, it launched her into the spotlight. In 2003, she starred in Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams (2003) which earned her - what some say is a much overdue Oscar nomination and brought others to call her one of the best in her generation of actors. The same year, she was nominated for 21 Grams (2003), Naomi was chosen to play "Ann Darrow" in director Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) which took her to New Zealand for a five month shoot. Watts completed her first comedy in I Heart Huckabees (2004) for director David O. Russell, playing a superficial spokes model - a break from her usual intense and dramatic roles she is known for.
In 2005, she reprized her role as the protective-mother-reporter "Rachel Keller" in The Ring Two (2005). The movie, released in March, opened to $35,000,000 at the box office in the first weekend and established her as a box-office draw. Also in 2005, it was decided that her independent movie Ellie Parker (2001) would be re-released in late 2005 after its success at resurfacing at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which Naomi also produced, features her in the title role and is a bit biographical, but yet exaggerated take of the life of a struggling actress as she comes to Hollywood and encounters nightmares of the profession (it also features Watts' own beat-up Honda which she travels around in). In 2006, she starred with Edward Norton in The Painted Veil (2006). In July of 2007, Naomi gave birth to a boy, Alexander Pete (Sasha Schreiber) in Los Angeles with Liev Schreiber. Since then her career choices have gathered even more critical acclaim with starring roles roles in German director Michael Haneke's American remake of his thriller Funny Games (2007), David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (2007), and the action-thriller, The International (2009), released in February 2009. In mid-2008, Watts announced she was expecting her second child with Schreiber and gave birth to second son Samuel Kai Schreiber, in New York on December 13.- Actress
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It would seem that 2004, the year of her 18th birthday, will be remembered as pivotal for Emmy Rossum due to her appearance in two very different films, The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004). Emmy's performance in the latter film gained her a Golden Globe nomination.
Emmanuelle Grey Rossum was born in New York City, where she was raised by her single mother, Cheryl Rossum, a corporate photographer (she has only met her father a few times). Her mother is of Russian Jewish descent and her father has English and Dutch ancestry. After passing an audition at the Metropolitan Opera when she was 7 years old, Rossum performed in more than 20 operas in six different languages at Lincoln Center, alongside such figures as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. She was directed by Franco Zeffirelli in "Carmen." She left the opera when she entered her teenage years, as she had grown too tall to perform as a child. Emmy also appeared in a Carnegie Hall presentation of "The Damnation of Faust." She graduated from the Spence School, a private institution in Manhattan, in 1996 and then earned a high school diploma when 15 years old by taking online extension courses offered by Stanford University (Education Program for Gifted Youth). She later enrolled at Columbia University and studied art history and French.
In a change of venue, Emmy created the role of Abigail Williams in the daytime soap opera As the World Turns (1956) in 1997 and branched out in performances in the made-for-television movies Genius (1999) and The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000), in which she played the title character as a young teenager. Other television work included Snoops (1999), Law & Order (1990), and The Practice (1997).
Emmy made her theatrical feature debut in the indie film Songcatcher (2000), with her good friend Rhoda Griffis, which won the Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2000. Rossum received an Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance for her performance as an Appalachian orphan. She played an aspiring songwriter (the title character) in the romantic comedy Nola (2003). Cast as the ill-fated daughter of a small-business owner in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), she projected an aura of innocence that made her character's tragic death memorable and heartbreaking. This was her first major studio film.
After six months of filming her role as the fresh-faced but highly intelligent teenage damsel in distress The Day After Tomorrow (2004) in Montreal, she returned to New York and screen-tested for the role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (2004) in full costume and makeup, and was finally selected for the part by Andrew Lloyd Webber after singing for him at his home. Although she was surprised to be chosen ahead of many better-known and older actresses considered for the part, the combination of her vulnerable, fragile beauty and fine, classically trained singing voice ultimately proved that she was perfectly cast. In preparation for the role, she took ballet classes for two months and started polishing her singing. Emmy has commented that, in her approach to acting, she draws heavily upon her own experiences, so she visited locations in Paris and conjured up what she terms "past memories" to draw upon in making her performance emotionally realistic. She stood on the roof of the Opéra Garnier, where Christine sings "All I Ask of You," and went underneath the opera house, where there is actually a gloomy, dark lake. She studied Degas's paintings of ballerinas in the Musée d'Orsay to learn how to stand like one.
Her next project Poseidon (2006) was a mainstream effort, but since its release, she has been more true to advice she obtained from Sean Penn when making Mystic River (2003), that she should be picky and only accept roles that are fun to do, such as Dragonball Evolution (2009).- Actor
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A native of New Delhi, India, British character actor of theater and film Roshan Seth honed the skills he learned at London's Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in British repertory theater. His first break came in Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which toured in 1972. Seth entered feature films in Richard Lester's Juggernaut (1974), but because subsequent filmmakers only wanted Seth for ethnic roles, his career abruptly stalled. Discouraged, he abandoned acting and returned to India, where he worked as an editor and journalist until the early '80s, when Richard Attenborough asked Seth to play Pandit Nehru in Gandhi (1982). Shortly thereafter, Seth essayed Indian author Victor Mehta and toured the globe in playwright David Hare's biography A Map of the World. After the play's Broadway run, Seth's movie career took off, with roles in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and David Lean's A Passage to India (1984). Seth's subsequent film credits include Mississippi Masala (1992), Street Fighter (1994), The Journey (1997) and Such A Long Journey (1998).- Actor
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Ken Jeong is an American actor, comedian, and physician. He is known for his roles as Ben Chang on the critically acclaimed NBC/Yahoo! sitcom Community (2009) and gangster Leslie Chow in The Hangover (2009) Trilogy. He appeared in Michael Bay's Pain & Gain (2013), as Johnny Wu, a motivational speaker.
Ken was born in Detroit, to Korean parents. He completed his internal medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans while developing his stand-up comedy. He is a licensed physician in California.- Actor
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Ken Jeong is an American actor, comedian, and physician. He is known for his roles as Ben Chang on the critically acclaimed NBC/Yahoo! sitcom Community (2009) and gangster Leslie Chow in The Hangover (2009) Trilogy. He appeared in Michael Bay's Pain & Gain (2013), as Johnny Wu, a motivational speaker.
Ken was born in Detroit, to Korean parents. He completed his internal medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans while developing his stand-up comedy. He is a licensed physician in California.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
American actor and producer Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business. He is of Irish, Scottish, German, English, and Swedish descent. Matthew grew up in Longview, Texas, where he graduated from the local High School (1988). Showing little interest in his father's oil business, which his two brothers later joined, Matthew was longing for a change of scenery, and spent a year in Australia, washing dishes and shoveling chicken manure. Back to the States, he attended the University of Texas in Austin, originally wishing to be a lawyer. But, when he discovered an inspirational Og Mandino book "The Greatest Salesman in the World" before one of his final exams, he suddenly knew he had to change his major from law to film.
He began his acting career in 1991, appearing in student films and commercials in Texas and directed short films as Chicano Chariots (1992). Once, in his hotel bar in Austin, he met the casting director and producer Don Phillips, who introduced him to director Richard Linklater for his next project. At first, Linklater thought Matthew was too handsome to play the role of a guy chasing high school girls in his coming-of-age drama Dazed and Confused (1993), but cast him after Matthew grew out his hair and mustache. His character was initially in three scenes but the role grew to more than 300 lines as Linklater encouraged him to do some improvisations. In 1995, he starred in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994), playing a mad bloodthirsty sadistic killer, opposite Renée Zellweger.
Shortly thereafter, moving to L.A., Matthew became a sensation with his performances in two high-profile 1996 films Lone Star (1996), where he portrayed killing suspected sheriff and in the film adaptation of John Grisham's novel A Time to Kill (1996), where he played an idealistic young lawyer opposite Sandra Bullock and Kevin Spacey. The actor was soon being hailed as one of the industry's hottest young leading man inspiring comparisons to actor Paul Newman. His following performances were Robert Zemeckis' Contact (1997) with Jodie Foster (the film was finished just before the death of the great astronomer and popularizer of space science Carl Sagan) and Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997), a fact-based 1839 story about the rebellious African slaves. In 1998, he teamed again with Richard Linklater as one of the bank-robbing brothers in The Newton Boys (1998), set in Matthew's birthplace, Uvalde, Texas. During this time, he also wrote, directed and starred in the 20-minute short The Rebel (1998).
In 1999, he starred in the comedy Edtv (1999), about the rise of reality television, and in 2000, he headlined Jonathan Mostow's U-571 (2000), portraying officer Lt. Tyler, in a WW II story of the daring mission of American submariners trying to capture the Enigma cipher machine.
In the 2000s, he became known for starring in romantic comedies, such as The Wedding Planner (2001), opposite Jennifer Lopez, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), in which he co-starred with Kate Hudson. He played Denton Van Zan, an American warrior and dragons hunter in the futuristic thriller Reign of Fire (2002), where he co-starred with Christian Bale. In 2006, he starred in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch (2006), and later as head coach Jack Lengyel in We Are Marshall (2006), along with Matthew Fox. In 2008, he played treasure hunter Benjamin "Finn" Finnegan in Fool's Gold (2008), again with Kate Hudson. After playing Connor Mead in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), co-starring with Jennifer Garner, McConaughey took a two year hiatus to open different opportunities in his career. Since 2010, he has moved away from romantic comedies.
That change came in 2011, in his first movie after that pause, when he portrayed criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), that operates mostly from the back seat of his Lincoln car. After this performance that was considered one of his best until then, Matthew played other iconic characters as district attorney Danny Buck Davidson in Bernie (2011), the wild private detective "Killer" Joe Cooper in Killer Joe (2011), Mud in Mud (2012), reporter Ward Jensen in The Paperboy (2012), male stripper club owner Dallas in Magic Mike (2012), starring Channing Tatum. McConaughey's career certainly reached it's prime, when he played HIV carrier Ron Woodroof in the biographical drama Dallas Buyers Club (2013), shot in less than a month. For his portrayal of Ron, Matthew won the Best Actor in the 86th Academy Awards, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, among other awards and nominations. The same year, he also appeared in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). In 2014, he starred in HBO's True Detective (2014), as detective Rustin Cohle, whose job is to investigate with his partner Martin Hart, played by Woody Harrelson, a gruesome murder that happened in his little town in Louisiana. The series was highly acclaimed by critics winning 4 of the 7 categories it was nominated at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards; he also won a Critics' Choice Award for the role.
Also in 2014, Matthew starred in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film Interstellar (2014), playing Cooper, a former NASA pilot.- Actor
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- Script and Continuity Department
Despite his prominence in Hollywood as a character actor known for playing villains and criminals, Ben Mendelsohn has been a leading man in Australia since starting acting as a teenager.
Paul Benjamin Mendelsohn was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Carole Ann (Ferguson), a nurse, and Frederick Arthur Oscar Mendelsohn, a medical researcher. Getting his start in television, including The Henderson Kids (1985) and the long running soap opera Neighbours (1985), Mendelsohn broke out with his performance as an ill-fated juvenile delinquent in the acclaimed coming of age film The Year My Voice Broke (1987). Mendelsohn won the best supporting actor award from the Australian Film Institute, his first of eight nominations.
Mendelsohn went onto to become one of the most popular teen/young adult stars in Australia cinema, often rivaling other emerging talents of his generation, including Russell Crowe, Noah Taylor, and Guy Pearce, leading the Australian tabloid to nickname them "the Mouse Pack" in reference to the Rat Pack in America and Brit Pack in the UK, emerging at the same time. Among his peers, Mendelsohn seemed to corner the market on troubled, angry young men, thanks to his roles in Idiot Box (1996), Metal Skin (1994), and Nirvana Street Murder (1990). But Mendelsohn also proved he was capable of being a romantic lead, starring in the comedies The Big Steal (1990), Cosi (1996), and Amy (1997).
In the 1990s, Mendelsohn appeared in just one "Hollywood" film, the action film Vertical Limit (2000), as one of two daredevil climbers on a rescue mission, often providing the film's comic relief. The film failed to find an audience and Mendelsohn returned to Australia, where he primarily worked in theater and television, despite earning best actor nominations from the Australian Film Institute and Australian Film Critics Circle for the drama Mullet, as a prodigal son returning to his small town. He also took steps to work in more international films such as The New World (2005), Knowing (2009) and Australia (2008). Mendelsohn has acknowledged that there was a period of almost two years that he had so little work, he considered leaving the acting profession entirely.
In 2009, Mendelsohn experienced a bit of a comeback with the role in the independent Australian films Beautiful Kate (2009), as troubled man forced to reunite with his dying father and come to terms with the death of his twin sister, with whom he had a complicated relationship. He was nominated for Australian Film Institute and Australian Film Critics Circle Best Actor in 2009. A year later, he appeared as Pope in Animal Kingdom (2010), the most terrifying and violent member of a crime family. In 2010, he won Best Actor from the Australian Film Institute, Independent Film Award, and Australian Film Critics Circle.
Since 2010, Mendelsohn has become a major player in Hollywood as a character actor in both blockbuster films (The Dark Knight Rises (2012)) and critically acclaimed films such as Killing Them Softly (2012) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). In 2013 he appeared in the UK Starred Up (2013), which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Award from the British Independent Film Awards. He received high praise for his performance as gambling addict in 2015's Mississippi Grind (2015) (earning an independent spirit award nomination for best actor). The same year he began a two season run on Netflix's Bloodline (2015) as Danny Rayburn, the black sheep in a well respected family in the Florida Keys (he was considered a guest actor in the third and final season). In 2016 his career took another leap forward, appearing as the main villain in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), and winning the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He missed the ceremony, as he was filming Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One (2018).- Actress
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Mirrah Foulkes is known for Judy & Punch (2019), Animal Kingdom (2010) and Top of the Lake (2013). She is married to David Michôd.- Actress
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Rachel Brosnahan was born in in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1990 and is an American actress. She is best known for her role as 'Midge' Maisel in the Amazon Prime Video series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017) for which she has won two Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (2019, 2018), one Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (2018), and one Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series (2018).
She is also known for her previous roles in the film Beautiful Creatures (2013) as Genevieve Duchannes, in the Netflix original series House of Cards (2013) as Rachel Posner, and in the TV series Manhattan (2014) as Abby Isaacs.
Rachel is the daughter of Carol (Best) and Earl Brosnahan, who worked in children's publishing. Her mother is English. Her father is an American, of mostly Irish descent. From the age of four, she was raised in Highland Park, Illinois. She has a younger brother and sister. Rachel is the niece of the late handbag designer Kate Spade, who was her father's sister.
She attended Wayne Thomas Elementary School, and then Northwood Junior High School. She performed in musical theater during junior high school and high school. At Highland Park High School, she was on the wrestling team for two years and was a snowboarding instructor. When Brosnahan was 16, she took a class with Carole Dibo, the director of Wilmette's Actors' Training Center, and now Brosnahan's manager. She graduated in 2008, and graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2012.
Brosnahan was cast in her first movie role as Lisa in the Michael Bay-produced horror movie The Unborn (2009) while she was still in high school. During college, she performed in single episodes of TV series such as Gossip Girl (2007), The Good Wife (2009), Grey's Anatomy (2005), and In Treatment (2008). After college, she began landing recurring roles in series such as The Blacklist (2013), the short-lived Black Box (2014)), and "House of Cards" (2013-15), which brought her career prominence that included an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2015. Initially booked for two episodes and five lines, she caught Beau Willimon's eye; soon, she was developed into a major character. She also played Abby Isaacs for two seasons on the TV drama series "Manhattan."
She first appeared on stage in 2009 in "Up" at the Steppenwolf Theater, which was followed by her Broadway debut in "The Big Knife" with the Roundabout Theater Company in 2013. In 2016 she played Desdemona in "Othello" at New York Theater Workshop opposite David Oyelowo and Daniel Craig.
She was cast as the lead role and title character of the Amazon Video series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017), which premiered in 2017. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe and a Critics' Choice award for Best Actress in a Television Series--Musical or Comedy.- Actress
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Jodie Comer is a British actress from Liverpool, England. She is known for playing Rey's mother in Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Villanelle in Killing Eve, Marguerite de Carrouges in The Last Duel, Kate Parks from Doctor Foster, Millie Rusk in Free Guy and Chloe Gemell from My Mad Fat Diary.- Actress
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Anna Torv (born 7 June 1979) is an Australian actress known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox television series Fringe (2008-2013). Torv was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the daughter of Susan (née Carmichael) and Hans Torv, also grew up in Gold Coast, Queensland. Her father is of Estonian descent, but was born in Stirling, Scotland. Her mother is of Scottish descent.- Actress
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Kate Mara is an American actress. She starred in the Netflix political drama House of Cards (2013) as Zoe Barnes and appeared in the Fox TV series 24 (2001) as computer analyst Shari Rothenberg. She appeared in Brokeback Mountain (2005), We Are Marshall (2006), Shooter (2007), Transsiberian (2008), Stone of Destiny (2008), The Open Road (2009), Transcendence (2014), and Fantastic Four (2015) as the Invisible Woman. She also appeared in the FX horror mini-series American Horror Story (2011) as Hayden McClaine. Mara's film debut was in Random Hearts (1999), with Harrison Ford in 1999, directed by Sydney Pollack. In 2015, she also had a supporting role as astronaut "Beth Johanssen" in director Ridley Scott's film The Martian (2015). In the same year, she also starred as Ashley Smith in the movie Captive (2015).
Mara also starred in Morgan (2016), Megan Leavey (2017) and My Days of Mercy (2017).
Kate was born in Bedford, New York. She is one of four children of Kathleen McNulty (Rooney) and NFL football team New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara. Her younger sister is actress Rooney Mara.
Her grandfathers were Wellington Mara, co-owner of the Giants, and Timothy Rooney, owner of Yonkers Raceway, and her grand-uncle is Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the former US Ambassador to Ireland. She is the great-granddaughter of Art Rooney Sr., the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise. She often sings the national anthem at Giants home games. Her father has Irish, German, and French-Canadian ancestry, and her mother is of Irish and Italian descent.
Mara graduated from high school a year early. She was accepted at the prestigious NYU Tisch School of the Arts but deferred her admission for three consecutive years.- Holliday Clark Grainger also credited as Holly Grainger, is an English screen and stage actress. Some of her prominent roles are Kate Beckett in the BAFTA award-winning children's series Roger and the Rottentrolls, Lucrezia Borgia in the Showtime series The Borgias, Robin Ellacott in Strike, DI Rachel Carey in the BBC One crime drama The Capture and Estella in Mike Newell's adaptation of Great Expectations.
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Gillian Jacobs was born on October 19, 1982 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. Her father, William F. Jacobs Jr., was an investment banker and her mother, Martina Magenau Jacobs, was an alumni relations officer at Carnegie Mellon University.
Gillian is an alumnus of Mt. Lebanon High School, Pennsylvania, and Juilliard School, New York. She holds a bachelor's degree in fine arts and began acting at a young age by attending acting classes at the Pittsburgh Playhouse on weekends.
Jacobs made her acting debut portraying the role of Titania in Pittsburgh Public Theater's stage adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age of 16. Years later, she made her debut in a feature film with the Building Girl (2005) then, made her television debut with the role of Adele Congreve in three episodes of The Book of Daniel (2006).
In 2006, Gillian appeared in "Cagelove", an off-Broadway production. The play received negative reviews from all quarters yet, all reviews appreciated Gillian's acting talent.
Jacobs' performance as CJ in the Nonames (2010) remains the most memorable role in the pre-breakout of her career, which brought huge laurels for her acting as well as the Special Jury Award and Copper Wing Award in Phoenix Film Festival.
Her big break came in the form of Community (2009), wherein she played the role of Britta Perry for six seasons until curtains came down on the show. In 2015, she also appeared in the HBO series Girls (2012) with a recurring role as Mimi-Rose Howard.
In 2016, she joined the Love (2016) to play the role of Mickey Dobbs for three consecutive seasons on Netflix. Her other streaming platform collaboration for a TV series came in 2021 with Invincible (2021) on Amazon Prime where she plays the role of Atom Eve. She will feature as Chris Riley, wife of legendary basketball coach Pat Riley, in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (2022) and Maggie in Minx (2022) for a recurring role. Both shows will debut on HBO and HBO Max respectively in 2022.
Gillian's other prominent film appearances include Choke (2008), Gardens of the Night (2008), The Box (2009), Life Partners (2014), Walk of Shame (2014), Don't Think Twice (2016), Life of the Party (2018) and I Used to Go Here (2020) while her future projects are The Contractor (2022) and Any Other Night.
She also appeared on the back of the camera as well. In 2015, Gillian directed a short documentary titled The Queen of Code (2015) about Grace Hopper, a rear admiral in the US Navy and a computer scientist, who ushered in the digital era.
Later, she directed a short film Curated (2018) in the form of Shatterbox, a film series from TNT and Refinery29. Her latest as a director came with Higher, Further, Faster (2020) for Marvel 616 (2020).
In 2022, she will have her directing and acting credit together on a feature film with The Seven Faces of Jane (2022) for the first time.
In-person Jacobs is a teetotaler. She says she made a choice while young to never have an alcoholic beverage or do drugs. She says her father is an addict, and together with reading the cautionary tale in the young adult novel "Go Ask Alice", about a 15-year-old drug addict, made an impact on her life in this regard.
Another book that shaped Gillian's perspective of life is "No Turn Unstoned" by Diana Rigg, a collection of terrible reviews that undeniably great actors received over the years. It was given to her by an acting teacher after she received a very bad review in a local paper for her initial performance in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Thanks to this experience, she started to see these performances as an opportunity, a chance to improve instead of a burden.- Writer
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Johnny Knoxville was born on 11 March 1971 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). He has been married to Naomi Nelson since 24 September 2010. They have two children. He was previously married to Melanie Lynn Cates.- Actor
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Tahar Rahim was born on 4 July 1981 in Belfort, Territoire de Belfort, France. He is an actor, known for A Prophet (2009), The Past (2013) and The Mauritanian (2021). He has been married to Leïla Bekhti since 2010.- Actress
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Creativity goes beyond canvas, photos, film, and media. It also catalyzes charity, philanthropy, and activism.
Award-winning actress, history-making supermodel, staunch philanthropist, conscientious activist, author, and loving mom Patricia Velásquez applies an eternal creative spirit to everything she does-whether it be starring in blockbusters a la The Curse of La Llorona or launching the Wayúu Tayá Foundation and participating on the UNESCO Board. Regardless, she makes major strides by drawing on instinct and deliberately paving her own path.
"I look at my career as a long staircase," she says. "I took every single step up. It was amazing to do so, because there has been longevity. I just put my head down, moved one step at a time, and never stopped."
The metaphor directly resembles a formative experience. Born in Venezuela but raised in France and Mexico, she relocated to Venezuela after a handful of years. In South America, her parents worked in education and moved the family into a crowded apartment building with no water and inoperable elevators. In order to supply water for the unit, Patricia often carried heavy buckets up fifteen flights of stairs.
In between studying engineering and intense dance training, she endeavored to help the family however possible. Scouted to model in Milan, the multi talented artist's ascent to the top of the fashion world hinged on a promise to those she loved. She recalls, "When they asked me to go to Italy, I said, 'If can send thirty dollars a month back to Venezuela, it's worth it, because that will pay for the whole building's water'."
Patricia's success represented a turning point in fashion as she drew industry attention to South America for the first time. She experienced a big break upon becoming "the first model Karl Lagerfeld ever photographed" and going on to walk in shows, star in editorial spreads, and front ads for Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Chloe, Cover Girl, and Victoria's Secret, to name a few. Resonating around the globe, she appeared in Oprah and Ford Models' "Supermodel of the World" contest as well. Not to mention, she graced the covers of Vogue, Bazaar, Marie Claire, and many others. She artfully channeled her dance training during shoots.
She goes on, "I knew how to move the energy around the body without letting whoever looked at the photos later on know that I was actually dancing. It became a signature for me."
Simultaneously, she ignited an impressive acting career. Not only did she star in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, but she also appeared on The L Word, Arrested Development, CSI: Miami, Ugly Betty, and Rescue Me. In 2006, she made her stage debut by starring in School of the Americas-produced by Academy® Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman and written by José Rivera at New York's famed Public Theater. Patricia not only starred in Cenizas Eternas, but also served as executive producer. Her production experience continued as star and associate producer of Liz in September. In recognition of the latter, she garnered "Best Actress, Women's Feature" at the 2015 North Carolina Film Festival.
However, Patricia kicks off a bold new chapter in 2019 by starring in The Curse of La Llorona.
"The movie is really important to me," she goes on. "It's a timeless independent folk tale, and I was honored to be a part of it. I fell in love with the story and really got into the character."
Throughout her career, she capitalized on every opportunity to give back. In 2002, she founded the Wayúu Tayá Foundation. This non-profit preserves the culture of indigenous groups throughout Latin America by way of support and the drastic improvement of living conditions. UNESCO invited her to be a celebrity advocate, and the United Nations granted her the 2009 Women Together Award. Other honors include the 2010 Solidarity Award, the 2015 La Femme Film Festivals' Humanitarian Award, and the 2018 Visibility Award from The Human Rights Campaign. 2018 saw the Organization for American States (OAS) appoint her as Goodwill Ambassador for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in Washington, D.C. An outsider empathy continues to inform this myriad of charitable efforts.
"Going from France to Mexico to Venezuela and moving so much, I always felt like an outsider," she admits. "I could identify with indigenous communities because of this shared sensibility. One thing that kept bringing me back home and made me feel protected was knowing that I was indigenous. It keeps me grounded, so I do whatever I can to help."
As a published author, she penned a powerful and page-turning autobiography entitled, Straight Walk: A Supermodel's Journey to Finding her Truth. Released in 2015, it details her unbelievable career up that point..
In the end, Patricia's creativity always leaves a lasting impression.
"I've realized you can do the work you love, and the results can manifest on many different levels," she concludes. "You can take those things, turn them around, and create something environmentally friendly, sustainable, new, or beneficial to the world. Everything feeds off each other. It all comes from the same creative place."- Actress
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Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV drama series Downton Abbey (2010-2015), for which she has been nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. She made her professional stage debut in His Dark Materials in 2004. For her role as Eliza Doolittle in the 2007 London revival of Pygmalion, she was nominated for the Evening Standard Award.- Actor
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Allen Leech was born on 18 May 1981 in Killiney, County Dublin, Ireland. He is an actor and producer, known for The Imitation Game (2014), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Downton Abbey (2010). He has been married to Jessica Blair Herman since 5 January 2019.- 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.- Sarah Jones is an American actress, best known for her starring roles as NASA astronaut Tracy Stevens in the Apple TV+ original science fiction space drama series For All Mankind and as Detective Rebecca Madsen in the Fox TV drama series Alcatraz. Jones was born in Winter Springs, Florida, and graduated from Winter Springs High School in 2001. She "grew up dancing" with the expectation that it would become her career, but she turned to acting as "the next best thing" after her dancing ended because of injuries. She had gotten her first break working as a dancer for the MTV Movie Awards.
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Actor Jeff Daniels was born in Athens, Georgia, but was raised in Chelsea, Michigan. He is the son of Marjorie J. (Ferguson) and Robert Lee Daniels, who owned The Chelsea Lumber Company and was also mayor of Chelsea. Jeff attended Central Michigan University, but became involved in acting and dropped out to pursue a career as an actor. Daniels made his feature film debut in Milos Forman's Ragtime (1981).
Daniels went on to prove himself to be one of Hollywood's most reliable and versatile actors with roles in successes such as Terms of Endearment (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Something Wild (1986), Arachnophobia (1990), Dumb and Dumber (1994), Pleasantville (1998), The Hours (2002) and Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005), to name a few.
Alongside screen work, Daniels has many stage credits to his name and is the founder of The Purple Rose Theater Company in Chelsea, Michigan. He is also a musician and songwriter and has recorded two albums. Daniels is married to his childhood sweetheart, Kathleen Treado and they have three children.- Actress
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Kirti Kulhari is an Indian actor and model who predominantly works in Hindi-language films. She made her acting debut with the Bollywood film Khichdi: The Movie in 2010 immediately followed by Shaitan in June 2011. She then appeared in commercially successful and critically acclaimed films like Jal (2013), Pink (2016), Indu Sarkar (2017), Blackmail (2018), Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), Mission Mangal (2019), and Shaadisthan (2021). In the last three to four years Kirti Kulhari has emerged as one of the leading names on OTT platforms with back-to-back successes - Four More Shots Please! (Season 1 and Season 2) on Amazon Prime Video, Criminal Justice (Season 2), and Human on Disney+Hotstar.- Actress
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Margaret Qualley was born on 23 October 1994 in Kalispell, Montana, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019), Fosse/Verdon (2019) and Kenzo World (2016). She has been married to Jack Antonoff since 19 August 2023.- Lili Simmons is an American actress who was born in San Diego, California, USA as Lili Marie Simmons. At the age of fifteen she was discovered by a talent manager. She would begin her career as a Ford Model and continue her work for Bebe Stores, Roxy, J.C. Penny, and Saturn. In 2010 she began her acting career and starred in recurring roles in several television series including Hollywood Is Like High School with Money (2010), Banshee (2013), and Hawaii Five-0 (2015). Her film work includes a starring role in the movie Bone Tomahawk (2015).