People Who Deserve a Disney Legends Award.
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- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Nora Lum, known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress and rapper. She has played supporting roles in the comedy films Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and her leading role in the comedy-drama The Farewell (2019) earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress nomination.
She has released two albums, Yellow Ranger (2014) and In Fina We Trust (2018). She has also ventured into comedy and hosting, making television appearances in Girl Code, Future Man, and Saturday Night Live.
Lum was born in New York City to painter and South Korean immigrant Tia, who died when she was four, and Chinese-American father Wally. She grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, raised by her father and his grandparents; she became especially close to her grandmother. One of her paternal great-grandfathers was a Chinese immigrant in the 1940s; he opened the Cantonese restaurant Lum's in Flushing, Queens that was one of that neighborhood's first Chinese restaurants.
Lum attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts where she played the trumpet and was trained in classical music and jazz. At age 16, she adopted the stage name Awkwafina, "definitely a person I repressed" and an alter ego to her "quiet and more passive" personality during her college years. Lum majored in journalism and women's studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. From 2006 to 2008, Lum attended Beijing Language and Culture University in China, where she studied Mandarin.
Lum states that Charles Bukowski, Anaïs Nin, Joan Didion, Tom Waits, and Chet Baker were early influences. Prior to her career in entertainment, she was an intern at local New York publications Gotham Gazette and the Times Union newspaper in Albany, and was a publicity assistant for publishing house Rodale.Film.- Writer
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Ross Andru was born on 15 June 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was a writer, known for Metal Men, The Punisher (2017) and Galaxian (1979). He was married to Nathalie Smithline. He died on 9 November 1993 in Queens, New York, USA.- Actor
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- Soundtrack
Kenny Baker was born on 24 August 1934 in Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), Time Bandits (1981) and The Elephant Man (1980). He was married to Eileen Baker. He died on 13 August 2016 in Preston, Lancashire, England, UK.Film- Actor
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Bill Barretta was born on 19 June 1964 in Yardley, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Muppets (2011), Muppet Treasure Island (1996) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014). He is married to Cristina Campbell. They have one child.Film & Television- Actress
- Producer
- Sound Department
Mary Kay Bergman did not have a face known to many - her voice was recognized more than anything else in the world. Although she was a big voiceover star in the 1990s, her true claim to fame was Trey Parker and Matt Stone's critically acclaimed adult animated television series, South Park (1997), in which she voiced almost all of the female characters. Sharon Marsh, Shelly Marsh, Sheila Brofloski, Wendy Testaberger, and Carol McCormick were only a few of the thousands of voices she performed. She helped Parker and Stone pave the waves of fame for "South Park" in the late 1990s, until her surprising gunshot suicide on Veteran's Day of 1999.Animation—Voice- Additional Crew
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- Animation Department
Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor, known for both animated and live-action films. Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in the propane business, and his grandfather, Francis Wesley "Frank" Bird, who was born in County Sligo, Ireland, was a president and chief executive of the Montana Power Company. On a tour of the Walt Disney Studios at age 11, he announced that someday he would become part of its animation team, and soon afterward began work on his own 15-minute animated short. Within two years, Bird had completed his animation, which impressed the cartoon company. By age 14, barely in high school, Bird was mentored by the animator Milt Kahl, one of Disney's legendary Nine Old Men. Bird recalls Kahl's criticisms as ideal: Kahl would point out shortcomings by gently delivering thoughts on where Bird could improve. After graduating from Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Oregon in 1975, Bird took a three-year break. He was then awarded a scholarship by Disney to attend California Institute of the Arts, where he met and befriended another future animator, Pixar co-founder and director John Lasseter.- Actor
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Billy Bletcher, standing 5' 2", was known as the little guy with the big voice, who, ironically, started his film career during the silent era.
Billy's show business career began in 1913 at the age of 19 in vaudeville, and within a year, he went to work for Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn where he both acted and directed. Two years later, he met his wife, Arline Harriett Roberts with whom he would stay married until the day he died in 1979.
In 1917, he took his wife westward to Hollywood where he started with smaller production companies, such as the Christie Film Company, writing and acting in shorts, and then moved on to larger and larger companies, such as the Fox Film Corporation where he did a few cowboy movies, one with Tom Mix, playing the comedic element. Then onto larger companies, such as Warner Brothers, RKO, Columbia, and Paramount where he had mostly bit parts, but got experience working with the likes of The Three Stooges and The Marx Brothers. But it was in Mack Sennett's comedy troupe where he started getting recognition doing two-reelers, and his biggest break came when Hal Roach studios pared him with Billy Gilbert and his career took off. Because pictures now had sound, directors and studios everywhere were clamoring for his deep, rich voice.
Mack Sennett and Hal Roach put Bletcher in shorts with W.C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy and he even played Spanky's father in the Little Rascals series, but it was Disney who made Bletcher a star.
Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy and Pluto, told Bletcher that Disney needed a big, blustering voice to "huff and puff and blow your house in," so he tried out, got the job, and within a very short time, Disney had him doing a session a week in the sound booth, sometimes doing two and three voices. His voice got so famous that when he auditioned to do the voice of one of the seven dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Walt Disney took him aside and told him, "Billy, your voice is heard so much in all of these singles that I make, I don't think I'd want to use you as one of the Seven Dwarfs." Bletcher admits that because his voice was so low and resonant, the characters he got to play were usually the "heavies" (bad guys). And as a heavy his voice became too recognizable for him to get a role in a feature length Disney production, with one exception: he did get a minor role in Dumbo as the voice of one of the clowns.
As a voice actor, he could go anywhere and soon found himself working for Leon Schlesinger at Warner Brothers, but never got credit for his work since Mel Blanc had it in his contract that he'd be the sole credit for voice characterizations. And at that time there were only a dozen or so actors doing voicework that the jobs were plentiful. He worked for Disney, Warner, and at MGM he did the voice of the Captain in the Captain and the Kids cartoons.
In the fifties, he did several characters on the Lone Ranger radio program, but before that he did what's known in the business as ADR (automated dialogue replacement) work, with his old pal Pinto Colvig. In The Wizard of Oz (1939), their voices were substituted for a few of the munchkins.
All in all, Bletcher worked on just over 450 films spanning nearly 60 years, his last film being a made-for-TV version of Li'l Abner (1971) in which he played Pappy Yokum. He passed away 13 years later at the age of 84.Animation—Voice- Animation Department
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Don Bluth was one of the chief animators at Disney to come to the mantle after the great one's death. He eventually became the animation director for such films as The Rescuers (1977) and Pete's Dragon (1977). Unfortunately, the quality of animation that Disney was producing at this point was not up to par with the great works of Disney, and there was rumor that the production unit at Disney might be shut down indefinitely. In retaliation, Bluth and several other animators led a walkout, and went off to form their own independent animation firm. Bluth's first animated feature may still be his best. The Secret of NIMH (1982) was an animated film based on the children's book "Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of Nimh". The film dealt with a widowed field mouse named Mrs. Brisbee and her plight to move her house before the farmer plants his field. The rats of Nimh, an organization of super intelligent rats, band together to help her. "The Secret of NIMH" was a visually ravishing film that hearkened back to the glory days of Disney. While animation buffs raved, the film did little business at the box office. (The growing number of VCR's in America would help the film reach a cult status on home video). Undaunted, Bluth persevered. He created the video games Dragon's Lair (1983) and Space Ace (1983), both of which allowed the player to control an actual cartoon. He later teamed up with Steven Spielberg for the films An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988). While Bluth's ambition to restore animation to its previous glory was being realized, the Disney studio, whose recent films had failed to match Bluth's at the box office, was finally ready to return to true quality. With the release of The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991), Bluth had to compete with a Goliath. After his next film, All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), received mixed opinions and failed to be more than a minor box office success, Bluth fell into a failing streak of films that were comparatively mediocre when placed alongside his previous work, including Rock-A-Doodle (1991), and Thumbelina (1994). Bluth later joined forces with 20th Century Fox where he made his first commercial hit in some time, Anastasia (1997). He followed up with the ambitious but hollow science fiction fantasy Titan A.E. (2000). While Bluth has yet to reach the glory of his earlier work, he nonetheless deserves credit as a champion of animation, and for surviving as an independent film maker.Animation.- Animation Department
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Chris Buck is an animation film director from Wichita, Kansas. He directed the Disney animated films Tarzan, Frozen, Frozen Fever and Frozen II and Sony Pictures Animation's Surf's Up. He was a supervising animator for Percy, Grandmother Willow and Wiggins for Pocahontas. He won Best Animated Feature for Frozen. He had three children with Shelley Rae Hinton.- Actor
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- Director
Corey Burton is an American voice actor with Asperger's. He is known for voicing Mole in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo's Return, Captain Hook in Return to Neverland and Kingdom Hearts, Count Dooku in various Star Wars media whenever Christopher Lee is unavailable, Hugo Strange in Batman: Arkham City, Judge Claude Frollo in Kingdom Hearts 3D, Nicolai in Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Doctor Nefarious Tropy and N.Gin in Crash Bandicoot, Volteer in The Legend of Spyro and Zeus in the God of War video game series. He is one of the most prolific autistic voice actors alongside Billy West.Animation—Voice- Producer
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- Director
Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was especially fond of films with Vincent Price). When he was in the ninth grade, his artistic talent was recognized by a local garbage company, when he won a prize for an anti-litter poster he designed. The company placed this poster on all of their garbage trucks for a year. After graduating from high school, he attended California Institute of the Arts. Like so many others who graduated from that school, Burton's first job was as an animator for Disney.
His early film career was fueled by almost unbelievable good luck, but it's his talent and originality that have kept him at the top of the Hollywood tree. He worked on such films as The Fox and the Hound (1981) and The Black Cauldron (1985), but had some creative differences with his colleagues. Nevertheless, Disney recognized his talent, and gave him the green light to make Vincent (1982), an animated short about a boy who wanted to be just like Vincent Price. Narrated by Price himself, the short was a critical success and won several awards. Burton made a few other short films, including his first live-action film, Frankenweenie (1984). A half-hour long twist on the tale of Frankenstein, it was deemed inappropriate for children and wasn't released. But actor Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) saw Frankenweenie (1984), and believed that Burton would be the right man to direct him in his first full-length feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985). The film was a surprise success, and Burton instantly became popular. However, many of the scripts that were offered to him after this were essentially just spin-offs of the film, and Burton wanted to do something new.
For three years, he made no more films, until he was presented with the script for Beetlejuice (1988). The script was wild and wasn't really about anything, but was filled with such artistic and quirky opportunities, Burton couldn't say no. Beetlejuice (1988) was another big hit, and Burton's name in Hollywood was solidified. It was also his first film with actor Michael Keaton. Warner Bros. then entrusted him with Batman (1989), a film based on the immensely popular comic book series of the same name. Starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, the film was the most financially successful film of the year and Burton's biggest box-office hit to date. Due to the fantastic success of his first three films, he was given the green light to make his next film, any kind of film he wanted. That film was Edward Scissorhands (1990), one of his most emotional, esteemed and artistic films to date. Edward Scissorhands (1990) was also Burton's first film with actor Johnny Depp. Burton's next film was Batman Returns (1992), and was darker and quirkier than the first one, and, while by no means a financial flop, many people felt somewhat disappointed by it. While working on Batman Returns (1992), he also produced the popular The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), directed by former fellow Disney Animator Henry Selick. Burton reunited with Johnny Depp on the film Ed Wood (1994), a film showered with critical acclaim, Martin Landau won an academy award for his performance in it, and it is very popular now, but flopped during its initial release. Burton's subsequent film, Mars Attacks! (1996), had much more vibrant colors than his other films. Despite being directed by Burton and featuring all-star actors including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan and Michael J. Fox, it received mediocre reviews and wasn't immensely popular at the box office, either.
Burton returned to his darker and more artistic form with the film Sleepy Hollow (1999), starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci and Casper Van Dien. The film was praised for its art direction and was financially successful, redeeming Burton of the disappointment many had felt by Mars Attacks! (1996). His next film was Planet of the Apes (2001), a remake of the classic of the same name. The film was panned by many critics but was still financially successful. While on the set of Planet of the Apes (2001), Burton met Helena Bonham Carter, with whom he has two children. Burton directed the film Big Fish (2003) - a much more conventional film than most of his others, it received a good deal of critical praise, although it disappointed some of his long-time fans who preferred the quirkiness of his other, earlier films. Despite the fluctuations in his career, Burton proved himself to be one of the most popular directors of the late 20th century. He directed Johnny Depp once again in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), a film as quirky anything he's ever done.Film.- Actor
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The son of a circuit-riding Methodist preacher in rural Alabama, Pat Buttram became one of America's best-known comic entertainers. He left Alabama a month before his 18th birthday to attend the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. An announcer from radio station WLS was on hand to interview members of the crowd and settled on Pat as a typical visitor from the South. The interview that followed was anything but typical. Pat made a hit with his hilarious observations on the fair and was immediately offered a job with the station. This led to a long and happy association with the popular "National Barn Dance" radio program. During those years Pat met Gene Autry, who took a liking to the young comic and later brought him to Hollywood to replace Smiley Burnette, who had found other work while Gene served in WWII. Together Pat and Gene made many western films and a television series, The Gene Autry Show (1950), which aired from 1950 until 1956. They remained close friends until Pat's death in 1994.
In 1952 Pat married actress Sheila Ryan, whom he had met on the set of Mule Train (1950). Over the next 40 years Pat prospered in radio, films and television, making stand-up appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") and lending his vocal talents to many animated television shows and films, including several Walt Disney features. In the early 1960s he revealed a flair for dramatic acting when Alfred Hitchcock tapped him for roles in two The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) episodes. His big television break came in 1965 with the role of "Mr. Haney" in the long-running CBS comedy Green Acres (1965). Throughout his career Pat was in constant demand as a toastmaster and after-dinner speaker, where his agile and sophisticated wit belied his "countrified" appearance. In 1982 Pat founded the Golden Boot Awards to honor actors, directors, stunt people and other industry professionals who have made significant contributions to the western film genre. Proceeds from the annual event are donated to the Motion Picture Health and Welfare Fund.Animation—Voice- Actor
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Kevin Clash was born on 17 September 1960 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Sesame Street (1969), Muppet Treasure Island (1996) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). He was previously married to Genia Loving.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Hans Conried was born in Baltimore and raised both there and in New York City. He studied acting at Columbia University, and played many major classical roles onstage. After having been a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Company, he was heard as Prof. Kropotkin on the radio show "My Friend Irma" and had various roles on the "Edgar Bergen - Charlie McCarthy Show". He was in the original cast of Cole Porter's 1953 Broadway hit "Can-Can" and stayed with the show for more than a year. Known for his sharp wit, Conried was in demand as an actor, panelist and narrator, appearing frequently in television series and movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s.- Writer
- Director
- Animation Department
Ron Clements is an American animated film director who collaborates with John Musker. They directed various Disney animated films including The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog and Moana. The Little Mermaid and Aladdin are seminal films he co-directed because they brought back life to Disney animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.- Actor
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Born James Jonah Cummings on November 3, 1952, he grew up in Youngstown, Ohio.
Sooner or later, he moved to New Orleans. There, he designed Mardi Gras floats, was a singer, door-to-door salesman, and a Louisiana riverboat deckhand.
Then Cummings moved to Anaheim, California, where he started his career playing Lionel from the program Dumbo's Circus (1985).Animation—Voice- Animation Department
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Eric Goldberg is an animator, director and voice actor from Pennsylvania who is known for his work on Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Pocahontas, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog, Fat Albert, Fantasia 2000, Moana, Winnie the Pooh and Hercules. He voiced Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird and Speedy Gonzales in Looney Tunes media. He is married to Susan.Animation- Actor
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Richard Hunt did not have a face known to many -- his voice was known more than anything else. He was a major stronghold behind Jim Henson's "Muppets". 'Scooter', 'Janice', 'Sweetums' and a few others, were some of the "Muppets" that Richard was a performer and puppeteer of. He helped pave the way for Jim Henson and his company from the 1970s through the early 90s, until his surprising death in 1992 of AIDS.Film & Television- Actress
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Emmy-nominated actress, podcast network owner, content creator, host, and Millenial Disney icon Christy Carlson Romano has made an undeniable name for herself through her various entertainment projects and activism championing high-performing youth. Most recently, Christy, alongside husband and CEO Brendan Rooney, successfully launched the PodCo network. Through her recent venture and career overall, Christy continues to leave a positive and long-lasting legacy in media.
Best known for her roles in Disney's "Kim Possible," "Even Stevens," and "Cadet Kelly," Christy became the first person to star in three Disney Channel projects simultaneously*. Along with her vast career in television, animation, and film, she made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Parade, originating the role of 'Mary Phagan' at 14. Christy is also known for bringing Disney princess Belle' to life in the highly acclaimed Beauty and the Beast on Broadway and 'Kate Monster' in Avenue Q on Broadway. In recent years, Christy found herself ahead of the nostalgia wave with her popular YouTube series formats, Christy's Kitchen Throwback, and her intimate "Walk & Talk" videos, which amassed a significant social following while sharing authentic insight into her life.
Christy's highly publicized YouTube channel now boasts 50M views and counting. After five years of successful content production with husband and partner Brendan Rooney, the pair launched PodCo in 2023, which Business Insider quickly profiled as a company to watch. PodCo believes the future of podcasting lies in both the visual and audio mediums and incorporates a unique hybrid format via its Los Angeles studio. Current titles under the PodCo umbrella include chart-topping series' Ned's Declassified Podcast Survival Guide, Wizards of Waverly Pod, Vulnerable, Fuller House with Dave Coulier, and Big Name B*tches.
Romano has actively participated in countless charities, including the American Cancer Society, St. Jude's Hospital, The Center for Child Protection, and UNICEF. She designed and dedicated the proceeds of her 'Ready for Action' Mickey statue to the Children's Miracle Network and has fulfilled several wishes for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. In 2023, She was asked to join the SAG affiliate "Looking Ahead Program" advisory board benefiting young artists.
When Christy is not busy filming, hosting, creating content, or building out PodCo, she can be found spending quality time with her husband and daughters in their Austin, Texas home.- Actor
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A longtime puppet designer and performer, Goelz was picked up by Jim Henson and company to design Muppets for various television projects in the early 70's. By the time Jim Henson and Frank Oz were beginning work on "The Muppet Show", they managed to convince Dave to come work as a puppeteer. He soon began to perform and develop such memorable characters as the Great Gonzo and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. He has gone on to become a principal Muppeteer and one of the major talents of the Jim Henson Company.Film & Television.- Actor
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Steve Whitmire was born on 24 September 1959 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Fraggle Rock (1983), The Muppets (2011) and Muppet Treasure Island (1996). He has been married to Melissa Whitmire since June 1978.Film & Television- Actor
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- Music Department
Puppeteer, actor, musician, and master of voices, Jerry Nelson originally joined Henson & Company as a temporary replacement for Frank Oz, who had been drafted into the armed services in the 60's. He later re-joined the crew as a full-time performer in the 70's, and has since been heavily involved in almost every major Muppet project, including Sesame Street (1969), The Muppet Show (1976), Fraggle Rock (1983) and feature films. Memorable characters include "The Count", "Herry Monster", "Mumford the Magician", "Robin the Frog", "Crazy Harry" and "Gobo". Come the late 1990s, Nelson has begun to focus more on his musical career but continues his involvement in The Muppets.Film & Television.- Actor
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Jason will next be seen starring in MATLOCK for CBS opposite Kathy Bates, and he can mostly recently be seen in ACCUSED for FOX. He also starred in Netflix's RAISING DION and CANDY on Hulu. Previous television credits include starring in ABC's KEVIN SAVES THE WORLD as well as Comedy Central's ANOTHER PERIOD. OTher work includes a run as a recurring guest star on ABC's A MILLION LITTLE THINGS, GOLIATH, DRUNK HISTORY, GIRLS and PARENTHOOD, for which he received an Emmy nomination. Jason's film credits are the Emmy-nominated HBO film THE TALE opposite Laura Dern, BITCH, THE INTERVENTION directed by Clea Duvall, and THE MEDDLER opposite Rose Byrne and Susan Sarandon. Jason also voiced the lead role of "Dipper Pines" in Disney's GRAVITY FALLS and the supporting role of "Fox Dad" in SLUMBERKINS for Apple TV. Jason will next be heard voicing the lead role of "Jonathan Fall" in Netflix's animated series, CAPTAIN FALL.- Actress
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Kristen Schaal is an American actress, voice artist, writer, and comedian. She is best known for her roles as Mel on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, Louise Belcher on FOX animated comedy Bob's Burgers, and Mabel Pines on Gravity Falls. Other notable roles include her appearances as a commentator on The Daily Show, Amanda Simmons on The Hotwives of Orlando, Hazel Wassername on 30 Rock, Victoria Best on WordGirl, Trixie from the Toy Story franchise, and Anne on Wilfred. Since 2015, she has co-starred alongside Will Forte in the Fox comedy The Last Man on Earth, playing the role of Carol.- Actor
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Alex Hirsch is an animator, television writer, and voice actor from Piedmont, California. His primary claim to fame is serving as the show creator for the hit animated series "Gravity Falls" (2012-2016), a mystery comedy series where twin protagonists investigate the local mysteries of a strange town in Oregon. Hirsch also served as the voice actor for Grunkle Stan/Stan Pines, his sidekick Soos Ramirez, and the demon Bill Cipher.
In 1985, Hirsch and his twin sister Ariel were born in Piedmont, California. Piedmont is a small city, which had about 10,500 residents in 1980. It is completely surrounded by the neighboring city of Oakland. Piedmond has a reputation for racial segregation, and was formerly identified as a "sundown town" (an all-white municipality where "colored people" had to leave town by sundown).
Hirsch reportedly has Jewish descent on his father's side of the family, but he was raised to be agnostic. The family regularly celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah, without sharing in theistic beliefs. From 1994 to 1998, Hirsch and his sister Ariel spend their summer vacations living with their great-aunt Lois in a cabin in the woods. Hirsch has credited these summer vacations as an inspiration for "Gravity Falls".
Hirsch received his secondary education at Piedmont High School, a co-educational school established in 1922. The school was highlighted in news stories during the 1990s, when it was discovered that its social clubs and charity organizations were actually drinking clubs for students. In 2002, Hirsch won the school's annual Bird Calling Contest. Shortly after, he had a guest star appearance in "Late Show with David Letterman".
Hirsch received his college education at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts, 1961-), a private art university located in Santa Clarita, California. The university has a decades-long history of training aspiring animators. During his college years, Hirsch developed several animated short films. One of his films was chosen by Nicktoons Network for broadcast as part of their short-lived variety series "Shorts in a Bunch" (2007). In 2006, while still a college student, Hirsch was hired by the animation studio Laika to work in an upcoming animated feature. The film ended in development hell. Hirsch graduated from CalArts in 2007.
Shortly after his graduation, Hirsch was hired as a writer and storyboard artist for an animated series which was still in its development stages. It was "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" (2008-2010), which lasted for 3 seasons and 46 episodes. The series focused on an innocent young boy who finds a mentor in the person of the ill-tempered Captain K'nuckles, an Irish pirate who has semi-retired due to old age. The series was noted for its steampunk-like depictions of the 19th century, and for its moral ambiguity.
Hirsch was later credited with the development of the animated series "Fish Hooks" (2010-2014), which lasted for 3 seasons and 110 episodes. The series featured anthropomorphic fish in an high school setting. Part of the plot focused on the unrequited love of the character Oscar for his best friend Bea Goldfishberg, while she was oblivious to his affections for most of the series' duration. For this series, Hirsch voiced the recurring character Clamantha. She was the school's head cheerleader who had an unrequited love for Oscar. The series had an unusual visual style, a mix of 2D digital animation and photo collages. It won a BAFTA award, and was nominated for several other awards.
In 2012, Hirsch launched his own animated series, "Gravity Falls" (2012-2016). Hirsch reportedly based several of the characters on members of his family and past acquaintances. It featured twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines investigating paranormal incidents in a small town of Oregon. The series started with monster-of-the-week episodes, but had a series-wide story arc concerning a number of peculiar journals and their initially unnamed author. The series received critical acclaim and high ratings, winning two Emmy Awards, three Annie Awards, and a BAFTA Children's Award. The series lasted for 2 seasons and 40 episodes, with Hirsch not interested in further continuing its plots.
In 2018, Hirsch published a graphic novel based on "Gravity Falls". It became a New York Times Best Seller. Also in 2018, Hirsh served as a story contributor to the animated film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse". In 2020, Hirsch started voicing several characters in the animated series "The Owl House" (2020-). The series was created by animator Dana Terrace, who is Hirsch's longtime girlfriend.
In 2021, Hirsch started serving as an executive producer for the science fiction comedy series "Inside Job" (2021-). The series focuses on a shadow government organization which strives to keep secret a number of conspiracies. The series is largely inspired by real-life conspiracy theories. It features (among other things) reptilian shapeshifters, human-animal hybrids, and survivors from the hollow Earth. The series has received critical praise for both its satirical elements, and for its semi-realistic portrayal of real-life problems, such as "office politics, sexism, classism, jingoism".
As of 2022, Hirsch is 36-years-old, and has no interest in retiring. He remains popular among animation fans, and he has been noted for his vocal criticism of censorship in the medium.- Actor
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Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to English-born Diana Patricia (Servaes) and Scottish-born James Norman Hiddleston. His mother is a former stage manager, and his father, a scientist, was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company. He started off at the preparatory school, The Dragon School in Oxford, and by the time he was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. He continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics. He continued to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2005.
Whilst at University of Cambridge, he was seen by the Hamilton Hodell agency in the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" and was signed. Following this, he was cast in his first television role in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001). Hiddleston won his first film role as Oakley in Joanna Hogg's award-winning first feature, Unrelated (2007). His breakthrough role came when he portrayed the nemesis Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feature film Thor (2011). He reprised the character in The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). On television, he appeared on the BBC series The Hollow Crown (2012), in the adaptations of Shakespeare's "Henry IV" and "Henry V". In theatre, he has been in the productions of "Cymbeline" (2007) and "Ivanov" (2008). In December 2013, he starred as the title character in the Donmar Warehouse production of "Coriolanus" which played until February 2014. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in "Cymbeline" while also being nominated for the same award the same year for his role as Cassio in "Othello".- Actress
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Brie Larson has built an impressive career as an acclaimed television actress, rising feature film star and emerging recording artist. A native of Sacramento, Brie started studying drama at the early age of 6, as the youngest student ever to attend the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She starred in one of Disney Channel's most watched original movies, Right on Track (2003), as well as the WB's Raising Dad (2001) and MGM's teen comedy Sleepover (2004) - all before graduating from middle school.
Brie's work includes the coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009) and the dark comedy, Just Peck (2009), with Marcia Cross and Keir Gilchrist. She earned critical praise for her role in the independent feature, Remember the Daze (2007) (aka "The Beautiful Ordinary"), singled out by Variety as the "scene stealer" of the film, opposite Amber Heard and Leighton Meester.
Brie garnered considerable acclaim for her series regular role of "Kate", Toni Collette's sarcastic and rebellious daughter, in Showtime's breakout drama United States of Tara (2009), created by Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody and based on an original idea by Steven Spielberg.
She starred in The Trouble with Bliss (2011) opposite Michael C. Hall, playing a young girl out to seduce him while, in turn, teaching him more about his own life. She also starred in Universal's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg (2010). In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Brie played rock star "Envy Adams", former flame of Michael Cera, and in Greenberg (2010), she starred as a young temptress trying to flirt with Ben Stiller, a New Yorker traveling West to try to figure out his life.
In addition to her talents as an actress, Brie has simultaneously nurtured an ever-growing musical career. At 13, Brie landed her first record deal at Universal Records with Tommy Mottola, who signed her sight-unseen. Her first release in 2005 led to a nationwide tour.- Producer
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- Additional Crew
Jennifer Lee was born on 22 October 1971 in Barrington, Rhode Island, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Frozen (2013), Frozen II (2019) and Wreck-It Ralph (2012). She has been married to Alfred Molina since August 2021. She was previously married to Robert Joseph Monn.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Initially not a science fiction fan, theatre actor Anthony Daniels was persuaded by his agent to meet George Lucas for the casting of C-3PO in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). He went on to perform the character, both his voice and body in the suit, for all the episodic Star Wars films produced. Additionally, he performed the voice of the character for the radio serial based on the original trilogy and the animated series Star Wars: Droids (1985), Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), related series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and Star Wars: Rebels (2014).
For Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), he wore a blue Spandex suit, as the android is incomplete in the film and ultimately produced in CGI. In addition to playing the golden droid, he appeared in a live action cameo in the nightclub scene of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and opera scene in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). As C-3PO, he played a small role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and The Lego Movie (2014).- Actor
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Christopher Robert Evans is an American actor, film producer, and director. Evans began his acting career in typical fashion: performing in school productions and community theatre.
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Lisa (Capuano), who worked at the Concord Youth Theatre, and G. Robert Evans III, a dentist. His uncle is former U.S. Representative Mike Capuano. Chris's father is of half German and half Welsh/English/Scottish ancestry, while Chris's mother is of half Italian and half Irish descent. He has an older sister, Carly Evans, and two younger siblings, a brother named Scott Evans, who is also an actor, and a sister named Shana Evans. The family moved to suburban Sudbury when he was 11 years-old. Bitten by the acting bug in the first grade because his older sister, Carly, started performing, Evans followed suit and began appearing in school plays. While at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, his drama teacher cited his performance as "Leontes" in "The Winter's Tale" as exemplary of his skill. After more plays and regional theatre, he moved to New York and attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.
On the advice of friends, he landed an internship at a casting office and befriended a couple of the agents he regularly communicated with - one of whom later took him on as a client. The screen - not the stage - then became his focus; Evans soon began auditioning for feature films and television series. Evans made one of his first appearances on The Fugitive (2000) (CBS, 2000-2001), a remake of the 1960s series and feature film starring Harrison Ford. In the episode "Guilt", Evans played the son of a small-town sheriff who tries to exact revenge after Dr. Richard Kimble - incognito as a liquor store owner - refuses to sell him and his friends alcohol. After small roles in Cherry Falls (1999) and The Newcomers (2000) - two unknown low-budget features - Evans appeared in Boston Public (2000) (Fox, 2000-2004) as a murder suspect. He then appeared in his first major feature, Not Another Teen Movie (2001), a spoof on teen comedies wherein he played a jock who makes a bet that he can turn an unpopular and unkempt girl (Chyler Leigh) into prom queen.
After filming a couple of television pilots he was confident would be successful - Just Married (2003) and Eastwick (2002) - he appeared in another listless teen comedy, The Perfect Score (2004), playing an average, ho-hum student who takes part in a plot to steal the SAT test. Hijinks naturally ensue. Then, Evans broke through to the Big Time, grabbing the lead in the kidnapping thriller, Cellular (2004), a suspenseful B movie with a cheesy gimmick - a random wrong number on his cell phone forces him into a high-stakes race to save an unknown woman's life. Despite an unassuming performance from Evans and Kim Basinger as the damsel in distress, Cellular (2004) failed to break any box office records or please a wide majority of critics. Evans then prepared himself for super stardom when he signed on to play Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four (2005), 20th Century Fox's long-awaited adaptation of the Marvel comic. Although the film was wildly uneven and disappointing, Evans nearly stole the show with his energetic, unfettered performance. In that year itself, Chris was noticed by critics and made it into magazine and Internet countdowns, scoring himself a third position of the hot body countdown from Gay.com and #18 on E! Television's 2006 101 Sexiest Celebrity Bodies.
The year 2007 also proved to be one successful year for Chris, as he had two movies released around the world that same year, starting with the second installment of the Marvel franchise Fantastic Four. Chris received positive reviews for his performance. The Nanny Diaries (2007), where Evans played Harvard Hottie, showed his sensitive. The year 2008 saw Chris Evans' part of the movie Street Kings (2008), playing the character Detective Paul Diskant. The movie is about police officers trying to cover up their wrongdoings and audiences got to see a serious side of Chris. In the same year, Chris also worked on the movie The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008).- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Melanie Sloan is from a Jewish family from the Bronx and her father, Karsten Johansson is a Danish-born architect from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, a brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter Johansson, born three minutes after her, and a paternal half-brother, Christian. Her grandfather was writer Ejner Johansson.
Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions. She made her professional acting debut at the age of eight in the off-Broadway production of "Sophistry" with Ethan Hawke, at New York's Playwrights Horizons. She would audition for commercials but took rejection so hard her mother began limiting her to film tryouts. She made her film debut at the age of nine, as John Ritter's character's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). Following minor roles in Just Cause (1995), as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw's character, and If Lucy Fell (1996), she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo (1996). Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, and positive reviews, one noting, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson", while San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle commentated on her "peaceful aura", and wrote, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress."
After appearing in minor roles in Fall (1997) and Home Alone 3 (1997), Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford, where she played Grace MacLean, a teenager traumatized by a riding accident. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film. In 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the music video for Mandy Moore's single, "Candy". Although the film was not a box office success, she received praise for her breakout role in Ghost World (2001), credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age". She was also featured in the Coen Brothers' dark drama The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand. She appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002) with David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer.
In 2003, she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for drama (Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)) and one for comedy (Lost in Translation (2003)), her breakout role, starring opposite Bill Murray, and receiving rave reviews and a Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival. Her film roles include the critically acclaimed Weitz brothers' film In Good Company (2004), as well as starring opposite John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004), which garnered her a third Golden Globe Award nomination.
She dropped out of Mission: Impossible III (2006) due to scheduling conflicts. Her next film role was in The Island (2005) alongside Ewan McGregor which earned weak reviews from U.S. critics. After this, she appeared in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) and was nominated again for a Golden Globe Award. In May 2008, she released her album "Anywhere I Lay My Head", a collection of Tom Waits covers featuring one original song. Also that year, she starred in Frank Miller's The Spirit (2008), the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and played Mary Boleyn opposite Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).
Since then, she has appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), the action superhero film Iron Man 2 (2010), the comedy-drama We Bought a Zoo (2011) and starred as the original scream queen, Janet Leigh, in Hitchcock (2012). She then played her character, Black Widow, in the blockbuster action films The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Black Widow (2021), and also headlined the sci-fi action thriller Lucy (2014), a box office success. With more than a decade of work already under her belt, Scarlett has proven to be one of Hollywood's most talented young actresses. Her other starring roles are in the sci-fi action thriller Ghost in the Shell (2017) and the dark comedy Rough Night (2017).
Scarlett and Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds were engaged in May 2008 and married in September of that year. In 2010, the couple announced their separation, and subsequently divorced a year later. In 2013, she became engaged to French journalist Romain Dauriac, the couple married a year later. In January 2017, the couple announced their separation, and subsequently divorced in March of that year. They have a daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac (born 2014). The couple divorced in September 2017.
She married Colin Jost in October 2020. They have one child, a son.Film.- Actress
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Angelina Jolie is an Academy Award-winning actress who rose to fame after her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999), playing the title role in the "Lara Croft" blockbuster movies, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010) and Maleficent (2014). Off-screen, Jolie has become prominently involved in international charity projects, especially those involving refugees. She often appears on many "most beautiful women" lists, and she has a personal life that is avidly covered by the tabloid press.
Jolie was born Angelina Jolie Voight in Los Angeles, California. In her earliest years, Angelina began absorbing the acting craft from her actor parents, Jon Voight, an Oscar-winner, and Marcheline Bertrand, who had studied with Lee Strasberg. Her good looks may derive from her ancestry, which is German and Slovak on her father's side, and French-Canadian, Dutch, Polish, and remote Huron, on her mother's side. At age eleven, Angelina began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she was seen in several stage productions. She undertook some film studies at New York University and later joined the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. At age 16, she took up a career in modeling and appeared in some music videos.
In the mid-1990s, Jolie appeared in various small films where she got good notices, including Hackers (1995) and Foxfire (1996). Her critical acclaim increased when she played strong roles in the made-for-TV movies True Women (1997), and in George Wallace (1997) which won her a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination. Jolie's acclaim increased even further when she played the lead role in the HBO production Gia (1998). This was the true life story of supermodel Gia Carangi, a sensitive wild child who was both brazen and needy and who had a difficult time handling professional success and the deaths of people who were close to her. Carangi became involved with drugs and because of her needle-using habits she became, at the tender age of 26, one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS. Jolie's performance in Gia (1998) again garnered a Golden Globe Award and another Emmy nomination, and she additionally earned a SAG Award.
Angelina got a major break in 1999 when she won a leading role in the successful feature The Bone Collector (1999), starring alongside Denzel Washington. In that same year, Jolie gave a tour de force performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999) playing opposite Winona Ryder. The movie was a true story of women who spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Jolie's role was reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), the role which won Nicholson his first Oscar. Unlike "Cuckoo", "Girl" was a small film that received mixed reviews and barely made money at the box office. But when it came time to give out awards, Jolie won the triple crown -- "Girl" propelled her to win the Golden Globe Award, the SAG Award and the Academy Award for best leading actress in a supporting role.
With her newfound prominence, Jolie began to get in-depth attention from the press. Numerous aspects of her controversial personal life became news. At her wedding to her Hackers (1995) co-star Jonny Lee Miller, she had displayed her husband's name on the back of her shirt painted in her own blood. Jolie and Miller divorced, and in 2000, she married her Pushing Tin (1999) co-star Billy Bob Thornton. Jolie had become the fifth wife of a man twenty years her senior. During her marriage to Thornton, the spouses each wore a vial of the other's blood around their necks. That marriage came apart in 2002 and ended in divorce. In addition, Jolie was estranged from her famous father, Jon Voight.
In 2000, Jolie was asked to star in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). At first, she expressed disinterest, but then decided that the required training for the athletic role was intriguing. The eponymous character was drawn from a popular video game. Lara Croft was a female cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond. When the movie was released, critics were unimpressed with the final product, but critical acclaim wasn't the point of the movie. The public paid $275 million for theater tickets to see a buffed up Jolie portray the adventuresome Lara Croft. Jolie's father Jon Voight appeared in the movie, and during filming there was a brief rapprochement between father and daughter.
One of the Lara Croft movie's filming locations was Cambodia. While there, Jolie witnessed the natural beauty, culture and poverty of that country. She considered this an eye opening experience, and so began the humanitarian chapter of her life. Jolie began visiting refugee camps around the world and came to be formally appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some of her experiences were written and published in her popular book "Notes from My Travels" whose profits go to UNHCR.
Jolie has stated that she now plans to spend most of her time in humanitarian efforts, to be financed by her actress salary. She devotes one third of her income to savings, one third to living expenses and one third to charity. In 2002, Angelina adopted a Cambodian refugee boy named Maddox, and in 2005, adopted an Ethiopian refugee girl named Zahara. Jolie's dramatic feature film Beyond Borders (2003) parallels some of her real life humanitarian experiences although, despite the inclusion of a romance between two westerners, many of the movie's images were too depressingly realistic -- the movie was not popular among critics or at the box office.
In 2004, Jolie began filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) with co-star Brad Pitt. The movie became a major box office success. There were rumors that Pitt and Jolie had an affair while filming Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jolie insisted that because her mother had been hurt by adultery, she herself could never participate in an affair with a married man, therefore there had been no affair with Pitt at that time. Nonetheless, Pitt separated from his wife Jennifer Aniston in January 2005 and, in the months that followed, he was frequently seen in public with Jolie, apparently as a couple. Pitt's divorce was finalized later in 2005.
Jolie and Pitt announced in early 2006 that they would have a child together, and Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh that May. They also adopted a three-year-old Vietnamese boy named Pax. The couple, who married in 2014 and divorced in 2019, continue to pursue movie and humanitarian projects, and now have a total of six children. She was appointed Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George at the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to United Kingdom foreign policy and the campaign to end warzone sexual violence.Film.- Actress
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Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley is an English actress. She is best known for her breakthrough role as "Rey" in the 2015 film, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). Daisy was born in Westminster, London, on April 10, 1992. She is the daughter of Louise Fawkner-Corbett and Chris Ridley. Her great-uncle was Arnold Ridley, an English actor, playwright, and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), who was best known for his authorship of the play, "The Ghost Train", and his role as "Private Godfrey" in the British sitcom, Dad's Army (1968). Daisy attended the Tring Park School for Performing Arts, located in Hertfordshire, England, where she trained in musical theater and graduated in 2010, at the age of 18. Aside from acting, her talent repertoire includes ballet, jazz dancing, Latin American, and tap. Her vocal range is mezzo-soprano, where she is notably skilled in jazz and cabaret singing. Upon graduation, Daisy was hired in a number of roles in television, film, and music. She was cast to play "Jessie" in the British comedy-drama, Youngers (2013). In 2013, she played "Fran Bedingfield" in the BBC series, Casualty (1986), and as "Charlotte" in the British comedy, Toast of London (2012). In 2014, she played opposite to Jeremy Piven as "Roxy Starlet" in the second season of the ITV series, Mr Selfridge (2013), and as "Hannah Kennedy" in two episodes of the BBC crime drama, Silent Witness (1996). She further had roles in short films, including Scrawl, 100% Beef, and Crossed Wires. She was featured in Blue Season, which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge, and Lifesaver, which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in Wiley's British rap music video, Lights On. In April 2014, it was announced that Daisy was cast to play the heroine main protagonist, Rey, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first film in the new trilogy of the Star Wars franchise. Since its release in December 2015, the J.J. Abrams directed movie has received critical acclaim and became the fastest movie, ever, to reach $1 billion at the box office, worldwide. In August 2015, it was announced that she would play the lead role of Taeko in the English dub of the 1991 animated film, Only Yesterday, which was released in 2016. In December 2017, Daisy reprised her role as Rey in the eighth Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, as well as the Star Wars TV show, Forces of Destiny. Ridley then played Mary Debenham in the Murder on the Orient Express. She also starred in the titular role in Ophelia, alongside Naomi Watts and Clive Owen, which was filmed in 2017 and debuted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In February 2018, Daisy voiced Cottontail in the film adaptation of Beatrix Potter's children story. In 2019, Ridley co-stars with Tom Holland in the movie, Chaos Walking, playing Viola Eade in the film adaptation of the novel done by Patrick Ness, which is currently in post-production and set for release in 2020. Daisy further reprised her role as Rey in Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, which started filming in 2018 and wrapped up in early 2019. The movie was released in December 2019 and is Ridley's final cinematic role as Rey in the franchise. Daisy is currently connected to future projects, including Christy Hall's Daddio. She will star in The Lost Wife, which is based on the novel by Alyson Richman. She is reportedly also teaming up J.J. Abrams in a couple projects, including the remake of 2003's Israeli TV movie, Kolma, and the film adaptation of Sonia Purnell's, A Woman of No Importance.Film.- Actor
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Adam Douglas Driver was born in San Diego, California. His mother, Nancy (Needham) Wright, is a paralegal from Mishawaka, Indiana, and his father, Joe Douglas Driver, who has deep roots in the American South, is from Little Rock, Arkansas. His stepfather is a Baptist minister. His ancestry includes Dutch, English, German, Irish and Scottish. Driver was raised in Mishawaka after his parents' divorce, attending Mishawaka High School, where he appeared in plays. After 9/11, he enlisted in the Marines, serving for more than two years before being medically discharged after he suffered an injury, which prevented him from being deployed.
Driver attended the University of Indianapolis (for a year) and then transferred to study drama at Juilliard School in New York City, graduating in 2009. He began acting in plays, appearing on Broadway, before being cast in Lena Dunham's series Girls (2012), as her character's love interest, Adam Sackler. The role gained him attention, and he subsequently began a robust film career, appearing in small roles in J. Edgar (2011) and Lincoln (2012), supporting roles in Frances Ha (2012) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), and then to major mesmerizing roles like in the comedy-drama This Is Where I Leave You (2014), Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016) and as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars movie saga beginning with Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015).
Widely regarded as the one of greatest actors of his generation by now both in the United States and internationally as his superb qualities have been expressed further in a sublime range of excellent performances full of unique profoundness, subtlety, charisma and insights such as the ones included in brilliant films like Paterson (2016), Logan Lucky (2017), The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) and The Report (2019). His interpretations in BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Marriage Story (2019) were also nominated in the Academy Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role respectively.Film.- Actor
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David Ogden Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Margaret Elizabeth (Ogden) and Kenneth Truman Stiers. He moved with his family to Eugene, Oregon, where he graduated from North Eugene High School in 1960. At the age of twenty, he was offered $200 to join the company of the Santa Clara Shakespeare Festival for three months. He ended up staying for seven years, in due course playing both King Lear and Richard III. In 1969, he moved to New York to study drama at Juilliard where he also trained his voice as a dramatic baritone. He joined the Houseman City Center Acting Company at its outset, working on such productions as The Beggar's Opera, Measure for Measure, The Hostage and the hit Broadway musical The Magic Show for which he created the character 'Feldman the Magnificent'. He lent his voice to animated films, with Lilo & Stitch (2002) being his 25th theatrically-released Disney animated film. He was also an avid fan of classical music and conducted a number of orchestras, including the Yaquina Chamber Orchestra in Newport, Oregon, where was the principal guest conductor.
His other theatrical work included performances with the Committee Revue and Theatre, the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, The Old Globe Theatre Festival in San Diego and at the Pasadena Playhouse in Love Letters with Meredith Baxter. As a drama instructor, he worked at Santa Clara University and also taught improvisation at Harvard. In addition to his long-running role in M*A*S*H (1972), Stiers' work on television also included the excellent mini-series North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985), North & South: Book 2, Love & War (1986), The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1984) and roles in such productions as Anatomy of an Illness (1984), The Bad Seed (1985), J. Edgar Hoover (1987), The Final Days (1989), Father Damien: The Leper Priest (1980) and Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (1986). Among his screen credits were The Accidental Tourist (1988), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), Creator (1985), Harry's War (1981), Magic (1978) and Oh, God! (1977).
Above all, the prodigious talent that was David Ogden Stiers will be most fondly remembered as the pompous, ever-so articulate Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in M*A*S*H. He had found that taking on the role was -- from the beginning -- an easy choice. Stiers saw and loved the movie version. Moreover, he had a fond regard of fellow actor Harry Morgan (who played the character of Colonel Potter) as a kind of fatherly role model. In retrospect, Stiers viewed his experiences with the show as a career highlight, saying "No matter how much you read about the M*A*S*H company, the evolution of it, the quite beautiful human stance it takes, you will not know how much it means ". In his spare time on the set he often annoyed the security guards by skateboarding at 25 miles an hour and "cheerfully thumbing his nose at them".
David died of bladder cancer on March 3, 2018, in Newport, Oregon. He was 75.Film & Animation—Voice.- Writer
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- Animation Department
John Musker is an American animated film director who collaborates with Ron Clements. They directed various Disney animated films including The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog and Moana. The Little Mermaid and Aladdin are seminal films he co-directed because they brought back life to Disney animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Don Hall was born on 8 March 1969 in Glenwood, Iowa, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Meet the Robinsons (2007), Big Hero 6 (2014) and Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Brian, the son of Jim Henson, grew up with his parents who had created The Muppets, Playing with puppets alongside his brother and 3 sisters was natural to him. By the time he was 17 he had enough skill as a puppeteer to perform with his father in The Great Muppet Caper but he didn't think the muppet life was for him and wanted to do something different. He decided to go to college and either become an engineer or go into the aerospace industry. After a few months at the University of Colorado he found the pull of puppeteering stronger than he thought so he decided to take a year out and return to New York to re consider things. During that time he picked up one puppeteering credit after another including supervising the performers manipulating Audrey II, the man eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors and being chief puppeteer on The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles followed by directing Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories which were aired on the Disney Channel. He started directing under his father who had him directing background performers while he directed the foreground. He advanced further becoming co executive producer for the television series Dinosaurs and becoming president of Jim Henson Productions.Film & Television.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has called a "fractured" family. He moved around a great deal after his parents' divorce, living with a succession of step-families. No problems, no alcoholism - just a confused childhood. He has no acting experience in college and credits the fact that he could not get cast in a college play with actually starting his career. He went downtown, and auditioned for a community theater play, was invited by the director of that play to go to Cleveland, and there his acting career started.
Ron Howard was working on Splash (1983), a fantasy-comedy about a mermaid who falls in love with a business executive. Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character's wisecracking brother, which eventually went to John Candy. Instead, Hanks landed the lead role and the film went on to become a surprise box office success, grossing more than $69 million. After several flops and a moderate success with the comedy Dragnet (1987), Hanks' stature in the film industry rose. The broad success with the fantasy-comedy Big (1988) established him as a major Hollywood talent, both as a box office draw and within the film industry as an actor. For his performance in the film, Hanks earned his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor.
Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball legend turned manager in A League of Their Own (1992). Hanks has stated that his acting in earlier roles was not great, but that he subsequently improved. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hanks noted his "modern era of movie making ... because enough self-discovery has gone on ... My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top". This "modern era" began for Hanks, first with Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and then with Philadelphia (1993). The former was a blockbuster success about a widower who finds true love over the radio airwaves. Richard Schickel of Time magazine called his performance "charming", and most critics agreed that Hanks' portrayal ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.
In Philadelphia, he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination. Hanks lost 35 pounds and thinned his hair in order to appear sickly for the role. In a review for People, Leah Rozen stated, "Above all, credit for Philadelphia's success belongs to Hanks, who makes sure that he plays a character, not a saint. He is flat-out terrific, giving a deeply felt, carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia. During his acceptance speech, he revealed that his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and former classmate John Gilkerson, two people with whom he was close, were gay.
Hanks followed Philadelphia with the blockbuster Forrest Gump (1994) which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. Hanks remarked: "When I read the script for Gump, I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can go to and feel ... some hope for their lot and their position in life ... I got that from the movies a hundred million times when I was a kid. I still do." Hanks won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Forrest Gump, becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning consecutive Best Actor Oscars.
Hanks' next role - astronaut and commander Jim Lovell, in the docudrama Apollo 13 (1995) - reunited him with Ron Howard. Critics generally applauded the film and the performances of the entire cast, which included actors Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned nine Academy Award nominations, winning two. Later that year, Hanks starred in Disney/Pixar's computer-animated film Toy Story (1995), as the voice of Sheriff Woody. A year later, he made his directing debut with the musical comedy That Thing You Do! (1996) about the rise and fall of a 1960s pop group, also playing the role of a music producer.
As of 2022, Hanks is 66-years-old. He has never retired from acting, and has remained active in the film industry for more than four decades.- Actor
- Sound Department
- Music Department
Frank Welker was born in Colorado. He followed his dream to California, and started a voice acting career which has spanned over five decades and hundreds of credits. Frank has worked with fellow voice actors Casey Kasem, Nicole Jaffe, Don Messick, Heather North, and Stefanianna Christopherson on Hanna-Barbera's iconic Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969), voicing Fred Jones, among other Scooby credits over the years. He has also worked with Kurt Russell, Peter Cullen, and Michael Bay.Animation—Voice- Actor
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Christopher "Chris" Hemsworth was born on August 11, 1983 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to Leonie Hemsworth (née van Os), an English teacher & Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counselor. His brothers are actors, Liam Hemsworth & Luke Hemsworth; he is of Dutch (from his immigrant maternal grandfather), Irish, English, Scottish, and German ancestry. His uncle, by marriage, was Rod Ansell, the bushman who inspired the comedy film Crocodile Dundee (1986).
Chris saw quite a bit of the country in his youth, after his family moved to the Northern Territory before finally settling on Phillip Island, to the south of Melbourne. In 2004, he unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Robbie Hunter in the Australian soap opera Home and Away (1988) but was recalled for the role of Kim Hyde which he played until 2007. In 2006, he entered the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars (2004) and his popularity in the soap enabled him to hang on until show 7 (Episode #5.7 (2006)) when he became the fifth contestant to be eliminated.
His first Hollywood appearance was in the science fiction blockbuster Star Trek (2009), but it was his titular role in the superhero blockbuster Thor (2011) which propelled him to prominence worldwide. He reprised the character in the superhero blockbusters The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Chris's American representative, management company ROAR, also manages actress Elsa Pataky, and it was through them that the two met, marrying in 2010. The couple have a daughter and twin sons. He was appointed Member of the Order of Australia at the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to the performing arts and to charitable organisations.- Actress
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Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an American-born artist (from Cincinnati, Ohio), who also acts as Natalie's agent. Her parents are both of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Natalie's family left Israel for Washington, D.C., when she was still very young. After a few more moves, her family finally settled in New York, where she still lives to this day. She graduated with honors, and her academic achievements allowed her to attend Harvard University. She was discovered by an agent in a pizza parlor at the age of 11. She was pushed towards a career in modeling but she decided that she would rather pursue a career in acting. She was featured in many live performances, but she made her powerful film debut in the movie Léon: The Professional (1994) (aka "Léon"). Following this role Natalie won roles in such films as Heat (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996), and Mars Attacks! (1996).
It was not until 1999 that Natalie received worldwide fame as Queen Amidala in the highly anticipated US$431 million-grossing prequel Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). She then she starred in two critically acclaimed comedy dramas, Anywhere But Here (1999) and Where the Heart Is (2000), followed by Closer (2004), for which she received an Oscar nomination. She reprised her role as Padme Amidala in the last two episodes of the Star Wars prequel trilogy: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). She received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Black Swan (2010).
She received a second nomination for Best Actress, for playing Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie (2016).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bill Thompson was born on 8 July 1913 in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Lady and the Tramp (1955), Peter Pan (1953) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He was married to Mary Margaret McBride. He died on 15 July 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Animation—Voice- Actor
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Dwayne Douglas Johnson, also known as The Rock, was born on May 2, 1972 in Hayward, California. He is the son of Ata Johnson (born Feagaimaleata Fitisemanu) and professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles). His father, from Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, is black (of Black Nova Scotian descent), and his mother is of Samoan background (her own father was Peter Fanene Maivia, also a professional wrestler). While growing up, Dwayne traveled around a lot with his parents and watched his father perform in the ring. During his high school years, Dwayne began playing football and he soon received a full scholarship from the University of Miami, where he had tremendous success as a football player. In 1995, Dwayne suffered a back injury which cost him a place in the NFL. He then signed a three-year deal with the Canadian League but left after a year to pursue a career in wrestling.
He made his wrestling debut in the USWA under the name Flex Kavanah where he won the tag team championship with Brett Sawyer. In 1996, Dwayne joined the WWE and became Rocky Maivia where he joined a group known as "The Nation of Domination" and turned heel. Rocky eventually took over leadership of the "Nation" and began taking the persona of The Rock. After the "Nation" split, The Rock joined another elite group of wrestlers known as the "Corporation" and began a memorable feud with Steve Austin. Soon the Rock was kicked out of the "Corporation". He turned face and became known as "The Peoples Champion". In 2000, the Rock took time off from WWE to film his appearance in The Mummy Returns (2001). He returned in 2001 during the WCW/ECW invasion where he joined a team of WWE wrestlers at The Scorpion King (2002), a prequel to The Mummy Returns (2001).
Dwayne has a daughter, Simone Alexandra Johnson, born in 2001, with his ex-wife Dany Garcia, and daughters, Jasmine, born in 2015, and Tiana Gia, born in 2018, with his wife, singer and songwriter Lauren Hashian.- Actor
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Alan Young was born in Northern England in 1919, but his Scots father moved the family to Edinburgh, Scotland, when Young was a toddler and then to Canada when Young was about 6 years old. As a boy, he suffered from severe asthma, which kept him bedridden for long periods of time but encouraged his love of radio. By age 13, Young had become a radio performer, and by age 17, he was writing and performing in his own radio show for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The show was broadcast in the U.S. and led to an invitation to New York, initiating Young's career as an "All-American boy," despite his non-American origins and a vestigial Scots accent. He became popular on American radio from 1944 to 1949 with his "Alan Young Radio Show," but when radio began to lose its popularity and his show was canceled, Young decided to put together a comedy act and tour the U.S. theater circuit. After this experience, he wrote a television pilot for CBS in 1950, which resulted in The Alan Young Show (1950). The show was a well-received live revue that ran for 3 years, earned a couple of Emmy Awards, and garnered Young a star on the "Walk of Fame." However, the strain of writing and performing a weekly show got to Young, and the quality of the show declined, leading to his departure from the show and its cancellation. In the meantime, based on his popularity on radio and television, Young had established a film career, starting with his debut in Margie (1946) followed by Chicken Every Sunday (1949), Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), Androcles and the Lion (1952), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), Tom Thumb (1958), and The Time Machine (1960).
In the early 1960s, Young landed his best-known role, Wilbur Post, in the popular television series Mister Ed (1961), which ran for 5 years. Since then, Young has made a number of television and film appearances but is known primarily for his voice characterizations in cartoons, especially as Scrooge McDuck in DuckTales (1987).Animation—Voice- Producer
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Pete Docter is the Oscar®-winning director of "Monsters, Inc.," "Up," and "Inside Out," and Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios. He is currently directing Pixar's feature film "Soul" with producer Dana Murray, which is set to release June 19, 2020.
Starting at Pixar in 1990 as the studio's third animator, Docter collaborated and help develop the story and characters for "Toy Story," Pixar's first full-length animated feature film, for which he also was supervising animator. He served as a storyboard artist on "A Bug's Life," and wrote initial story treatments for both "Toy Story 2" and "WALL.E." Aside from directing his three films, Docter also executive produced "Monsters University" and the Academy Award®-winning "Brave."
Docter's interest in animation began at the age of eight when he created his first flipbook. He studied character animation at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia, California, where he produced a variety of short films, one of which won a Student Academy Award®. Those films have since been shown in animation festivals worldwide and are featured on the "Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2." Upon joining Pixar, he animated and directed several commercials, and has been nominated for eight Academy Awards® including Best Animated Feature-winners "Up" and "Inside Out" and nominee "Monsters, Inc.," and Best Original Screenplay for "Up," "Inside Out" and "WALL.E." In 2007, "Up" also was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.- Writer
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Chris Williams was born on 23 April 1968 in Missouri, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014) and The Sea Beast (2022). He has been married to Astrid Sealey since 10 July 2004. They have two children.- Actress
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Amanda Leigh Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on April 10, 1984, to Stacy (Friedman), a former news reporter, and Don Moore, an airline pilot. During her childhood, her family moved to Orlando, Florida, where she was raised. She has Russian Jewish (from her maternal grandfather), English, Scottish, and Irish, ancestry.
After seeing the musical "Oklahoma!", she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in singing. As a child, she performed the National Anthem at several athletic events around her hometown of Orlando, Florida, and became known as the "National Anthem girl". At the ripe age of fourteen, while she was recording in a studio in Orlando, a Fed-Ex worker who happened to be passing through heard her and was interested in her talent. He happened to know someone at Sony as well. Moore worked on cutting a demo and shortly thereafter signed a record deal with Sony 550 Music. At 15, her first record "So Real" was released. Her first tour was with the Backstreet Boys.
As her touring and recording schedule demanded more of her time, Moore withdrew from Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando and opted for a tutor/correspondence. She has stated that her education is important to her and says that the fact that she wants to go to college motivates her to continue with her schooling.
Though Moore's record sales were not up in the ranks of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, she has proved to be a formidable talent both in singing and in acting, and snagged an MTV Movie Award in June 2002 for her first feature film role in A Walk to Remember (2002). Her biggest dream, though, is to perform on Broadway someday.
Throughout the 2000s, Mandy headlined several films, ranging from the little-seen drama Try Seventeen (2002) to mid-level releases like How to Deal (2003), Chasing Liberty (2004), Racing Stripes (2005), and the more broadly comedic Because I Said So (2007) and License to Wed (2007). She also appeared in the odd-ball sci-fi film Southland Tales (2006), and voiced Rapunzel in the Disney blockbuster CGI animation Tangled (2010).
In the mid 2010s, she re-emerged as a star actress, headlining the show This Is Us (2016) and the hit thriller film 47 Meters Down (2017), with more film roles to come.- Actor
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Bob Peterson was born in Wooster, Ohio, USA, in 1961. He studied mechanical engineering at Ohio Northern University, where he took computer graphics courses and graduated in 1983. He continued his studies in mechanical engineering at Purdue University where he earned a master's degree in 1986. While a student, he wrote and drew a cartoon strip called "Loco Motives". Before joining Pixar in 1994, he worked at Wavefront Technologies, Inc. and Rez-n-8 Productions.- Actor
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John started the improvisational duo group, "Sal's Meat Market", in Bridgeport, Connecticut with fellow actor and friend Ray Hassett. He was later affiliated with the ensemble group, "The Downtown Cabaret". Coincidentally, he was a friend of Susan Ryan, the mother of Meg Ryan. A mutual friend, also associated with "The Downtown Cabaret", was the daughter-in-law of actress Mabel Albertson, the sister of actor Jack Albertson.- Writer
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Andrew Stanton has been a major creative force at Pixar Animation Studios since 1990, when he became the second animator and ninth employee to join the company's elite group of computer animation pioneers. As Vice President, Creative he currently oversees all shorts and feature projects at the studio. Stanton wrote and directed the Academy Award®-winning Disney and Pixar feature film "WALL.E," for which he also received a Best Original Screenplay Oscar®-nomination. In 2016 Stanton directed Disney and Pixar's "Finding Dory," which, upon release, became the highest-grossing domestic animated feature of all time and in 2019 Stanton served as screenwriter and executive producer of "Toy Story 4."
Stanton made his directorial debut with the record-shattering "Finding Nemo," an original story of his that he also co-wrote. The film garnered Stanton two Academy Award® nominations (Best Original Screenplay and Best Animated Film), and "Finding Nemo" was awarded an Oscar® for Best Animated Feature Film of 2003, the first such honor Pixar Animation Studios received for a full-length feature film.
One of the four screenwriters to receive an Oscar® nomination in 1996 for his contribution to "Toy Story," Stanton went on to receive credit as a screenwriter on every subsequent Pixar film - "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story 2," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo." Additionally, he served as co-director on "A Bug's Life," and was the executive producer of "Monsters, Inc.," and "Monsters University," and Academy Award®-winning films "Ratatouille" and "Brave."
In addition to his multi-award winning animation work, Stanton made his live-action writing and directorial debut with Disney's "John Carter," released in March 2012.
A native of Rockport, Massachusetts, Stanton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Character Animation from California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), where he completed two student films. In the 1980s, he launched his professional career in Los Angeles animating for Bill Kroyer's Kroyer Films studio, and writing for Ralph Bakshi's production of "Mighty Mouse, The New Adventures" (1987).- Actress
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Elizabeth Chase "Lizzie" Olsen (born February 16, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films Silent House (2011), Liberal Arts (2012), Godzilla (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Captain America: Civil War (2016). For her role in the critically-acclaimed Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), she was nominated for numerous awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She is the younger sister of actresses and fashion designers Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen.
Olsen was born in Sherman Oaks, California to Jarnette "Jarnie", a personal manager, and David "Dave" Olsen, a real estate developer and mortgage banker. She is the younger sister of twins Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, who became famous as TV and movie stars at an early age. Her oldest brother is named Trent Olsen, and she has two younger half-siblings. In 1996, Olsen's parents divorced. The Olsens have Norwegian and English ancestry.
As a child, Olsen received ballet and singing lessons. She began acting at age 4, and by 11 she'd had small roles in How the West Was Fun and the straight-to-video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley. Having appeared in her sisters' videos, when she was in the fourth grade, Olsen began to go on auditions for other projects, auditioning for the film Spy Kids. She almost quit acting in 2004 over the media frenzy surrounding Mary-Kate's eating disorder.
She attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California from kindergarten through grade 12. After graduation, she enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2009, Olsen spent a semester studying in Moscow, Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre School through the MATS program at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Olsen's breakout role came in 2011, when she appeared in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene. The film, along with Olsen's performance, received critical acclaim. Olsen was nominated for and won numerous critics awards for her portrayal of the titular character Martha, a girl suffering from delusions and paranoia after fleeing her life in a cult and returning to her family. She next appeared in the horror film remake Silent House, in which she played the role of Sarah. The film received mixed reviews, although Olsen's performance was once again praised. Olsen also appeared in the music video "The Queen" by Carlotta. Olsen filmed the movie Red Lights during mid-2011, and it was released in the U.S. on July 13, 2012. She starred in Josh Radnor's film Liberal Arts, which was released on January 22, 2012. She and Dakota Fanning starred in Very Good Girls, a 2013 release.
In January 2013, Olsen was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. She co-starred in the 2013 American remake of the 2003 South Korean film Oldboy; she played Marie, a young social worker who developed a relationship with the protagonist, played by Josh Brolin. She played Edie Parker, Jack Kerouac's first wife and the author of the Beat Generation memoir You'll Be Okay, in Kill Your Darlings.
In 2014, Olsen starred in Legendary's Godzilla a reboot, opposite Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Olsen joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe by playing the Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the 2015 Avengers sequel. She first appeared as the character in a mid-credits scene of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, again alongside her Godzilla co-star Taylor-Johnson, who portrayed her brother Quicksilver. She reprised this role as the Scarlet Witch in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron and the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War.
In September 2014, it was announced that Olsen would portray Audrey Williams, Hank Williams' wife, manager, and duet partner in the upcoming 2015 biopic I Saw the Light directed by Marc Abraham and starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams.
In January 2016, it was announced that Olsen would team up with her Avengers: Age of Ultron co-star Jeremy Renner in Taylor Sheridan's directorial feature film debut, Wind River.
Olsen attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company and graduated in March 2013 after six years of intermittent study. Her sisters' clothing line "Elizabeth and James" was named after her and her older brother.
Olsen started dating fellow actor Boyd Holbrook in September 2012 after meeting him on the film Very Good Girls. They became engaged in March 2014 but called it off in January 2015.- Actress
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Zoe Saldana was born on June 19, 1978 in Passaic, New Jersey, to Asalia Nazario and Aridio Saldaña. Her father was Dominican and her mother is Puerto Rican. She was raised in Queens, New York. When she was 10 years old, she and her family moved to the Dominican Republic, where they would live for the next seven years. While living there, Zoe discovered a keen interest in performance dance and began her training at the prestigious ECOS Espacio de Danza Dance Academy where she learned ballet as well as other dance forms. Not only did her training provide an excellent outlet for the enthusiastic and energetic youngster, it would also prove to be a fortunate precursor for the start of her professional acting career. At age 17, Zoe and her family moved back to the United States where her love for dance followed and an interest in theater performance became stronger.
She began performing with the Faces theater troupe which put on plays geared to provide positive messages for teens with themes dealing with issues such as substance abuse and sex. These performances not only gave her valuable experience but also a source of great pride knowing that she was making a difference in the lives of young people like herself. While performing with the Faces troupe and also the New York Youth Theater, Zoe was recruited for a talent agency and her dance training years before coupled with her acting experience greatly helped her land her first big screen role as Eva Rodriguez, the talented and headstrong ballet dancer in the film Center Stage (2000). Since her professional career began several years ago, Zoe's talent and determination have allowed her to be involved in blockbuster films and act with major actors, actresses and industry insiders at a pace that very few young professionals have experienced.
Zoe has not only held her own in major motion picture productions but gained the respect and praise from industry insiders such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Steven Spielberg and actors/actresses such as Tom Hanks, Bernie Mac, Keira Knightley, Ashton Kutcher, Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom. According to many of her co-stars, producers and directors, the sky is no limit for this young star who has incredible range, intense concentration, and a steely determination to be involved with projects that challenge her professionally with wide-ranging subject matters and characters. Just to ask practically anyone who she has worked for or with about her, glowing comments abound and earned friendships and respect are readily revealed. A star has been born, and growing every day.- Actor
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Christopher Michael "Chris" Pratt was born on June 21, 1979 in Virginia, Minnesota and raised in Lake Stevens, Washington, to Kathleen Louise (Indahl), who worked at a supermarket, and Daniel Clifton Pratt, who remodeled houses. He is of mostly Norwegian descent. He graduated from Lake Stevens High School in 1997, and has two older siblings, Cully and Angie.
Chris came to prominence for his small-screen roles, including Bright Abbott in Everwood (2002), Ché in The O.C. (2003), and Andy Dwyer and Parks and Recreation (2009), and notable film roles in Moneyball (2011), The Five-Year Engagement (2012), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Delivery Man (2013), and Her (2013). In 2014, he broke out as a leading man after headlining two of the year's biggest films: he voiced Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie (2014) & starred as Peter Quill/Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). In 2015, he headlined the sci-fi thriller Jurassic World (2015), the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise and his most financially successful film. In 2016, he co-starred in the remake The Magnificent Seven (2016), with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, and appeared with Jennifer Lawrence in the sci-fi drama Passengers (2016). In the near future, he returns as Star-Lord for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) not far behind.- Actor
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Thomas Stanley Holland was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, to Nicola Elizabeth (Frost), a photographer, and Dominic Holland (Dominic Anthony Holland), who is a comedian and author. His paternal grandparents were from the Isle of Man and Ireland, respectively. He lives with his parents and three younger brothers - Paddy and twins Sam and Harry. Tom attended Donhead Prep School. Then, after a successful eleven plus exam, he became a pupil at Wimbledon College. Having successfully completed his GCSEs, in September 2012 Tom started a two-year course in the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology notable for its numerous famous alumni.
Holland began dancing at a hip hop class at Nifty Feet Dance School in Wimbledon, London. His potential was spotted by choreographer Lynne Page (who was an Associate to Peter Darling, choreographer of Billy Elliot and Billy Elliot the Musical) when he performed with his dance school as part of the Richmond Dance Festival 2006. After eight auditions and subsequent two years of training, on 28 June 2008 Tom made his West End debut in Billy Elliot the Musical as Michael, Billy's best friend. He gave his first performance in the title role of Billy on 8 September 2008 getting rave reviews praising his versatile acting and dancing skills.
In September 2008 Tom (together with co-star Tanner Pflueger) appeared on the news programme on channel FIVE and gave his first TV interview. In 2009 Tom was featured on ITV1 show "The Feel Good Factor". At the launch show on 31 January he and two other Billy Elliots, Tanner Pflueger and Layton Williams, performed a specially choreographered version of Angry Dance from Billy Elliot the Musical, after which Tom was interviewed by host Myleene Klass. Then he became involved into training five ordinary British schoolboys learning to get fit and preparing their dance routine (fronted by Tom) for the final "The Feel Good Factor" show on 28 March 2009. On 11 March 2010, Tom, along with fellow Billy Elliots Dean-Charles Chapman and Fox Jackson-Keen appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV1.
On 8 March 2010, to mark the fifth anniversary of Billy Elliot the Musical, four current Billy Elliots, including Tom Holland, were invited to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was Tom Holland who was chosen to be a lead at the special fifth anniversary show on 31 March 2010. Elton John, Billy Elliot the Musical composer, who was at the audience, called Tom's performance "astonishing" and said that he was "blown away" by it. Holland had been appearing on a regular basis as Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical rotating with three other performers till 29 May 2010 when he finished his run in the musical.
In two months after leaving Billy Elliot the Musical, Holland successfully auditioned for a starring role in the film The Impossible (directed by Juan Antonio Bayona) alongside Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. The Impossible was based on a true story that took place during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2012, and was released in Europe in October 2012, and in North America in December 2012.
Tom has received universal praise for his performance, in particular: "What a debut, too, from Tom Holland as the eldest of their three lads" (The Telegraph); "Tom Holland, making one of the finest feature debuts in years" (HeyUGuys); "the excellent Tom Holland" (The Guardian); "The child performers are uncanny and there is an especially terrific performance from Tom Holland as the resourceful, levelheaded Lucas terrified but tenacious in the face of an unspeakable ordeal" (Screen Daily); "Young Holland in particular is astonishingly good as the terrified but courageous Lucas." (The Hollywood Reporter); "However, the real acting standout in The Impossible is the performance of Tom Holland as the eldest son Lucas. His portrayal is genuine, and at no moment does it feel melodramatic and forced. The majority of his scenes are separate from the lead actors and for the most part it feels like The Impossible is Holland's film" (Entertainment Maven); "Mr. Holland, meanwhile, matures before our eyes, navigating the passage from adolescent self-absorption to profound and terrible responsibility. He is a terrific young actor" (New York Times).
Tom has given a number of interviews about his role in The Impossible. In particular, he talked on video to Vanity Fair Senior West Coast editor Krista Smith and with IAMROGUE's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick. He has also given interviews to The Hollywood Reporter, to the MovieWeb, to Today Show on NBC and to other outlets. Tom's director and co-stars have also talked about him. Juan Antonio Bayona: "He had this extraordinary ability to get into the emotion and portray it in a very, very easy way. The best I'd ever seen in a kid." Ewan McGregor: "It was wonderful watching Tom who had never worked in front of a camera before, to see him really get it and grow as a film actor as he went along. He's really talented and polite to everyone. It's very easy for children to lose perspective but he's absolutely on the right road and a brilliant actor." Naomi Watts: "He has an incredible emotional instrument and an unbelievable sense of himself... Tom Holland and I had a couple of moments where we came together and I could just tell how wonderful he was and what a beautiful instrument he had. It was just easy to work with him, that was one of the greatest highlights for me: discovering a friendship with Tom off-screen and this beautiful relationship between mother and son on-screen. The intimacy that develops through the course of the film between Lucas and Maria, I just loved that relationship. I mean, Tom is a beyond gifted actor. He's just a raw, open talent that is just so easy to work with. And Tom, he's inspiring, he kind of lifts everyone's game around him because he can do nothing but tell the truth. He was great."
In his turn, Tom Holland has returned favours to Naomi Watts when he was asked to present Desert Palm Achievement Award to her at Palm Springs International Film Festival. According to HitFix: "One recurring theme of the night was how the introductions were often better than actual winner's speeches... The best intro, however, had to go to 16-year-old Tom Holland who intro'd his "Impossible" co-star Watts. Holland admitted of all of Watts' great performances his dad had only let him see "King Kong" and while they spent six weeks shooting in a water tank he didn't know it was "difficult" because he actually "loved it"... Most important, this was Holland's first film role and he sweetly noted, "From the moment I met you, you took my hand and you never let go." Cue the "awwww" from the audience." The presentation is available on video.
In 2011, Holland was cast in British version of the animation film Arrietty, produced by Japan's cult Studio Ghibli. He has provided voice over for the principal character Sho. In 2012 Tom Holland played the starring role of Isaac in the film "How I lived Now", (directed by Kevin Macdonald) alongside Saoirse Ronan. The film was released in 2013.
On 17 October 2012, Holland became a recipient of Hollywood Spotlight Award for his role in The Impossible. "We are very excited that we will be able to recognize acting talents that are on the road to discovery and stardom," said Carlos de Abreu, founder and executive director of the Hollywood Film Awards in a statement. On 6 December 2012 it was announced that Holland became a winner of the National Board of Review award in the "Breakthrough Actor" category. In the end of December 2012, Holland was voted a winner for the year's Best Youth Performance in Nevada Critics Awards.
In December 2012, Holland received a number of nominations for his role in The Impossible: for the 18th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards, in the "Best Young Acror/Acress" category; for Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2012 in the "Most Promising Performer" category; for the 27th Goya Awards in the "Best New Actor" category; for the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 2012 in the "Best Youth Performance" category; for the London Film Critics Circle Awards 2012 in the "Young British Performer of the Year" category.
Kristopher Tapley, Editor-at-Large of HitFix, reported on 27 August 2012 that Summit Entertainment, the company responsible for distribution of The Impossible in USA, would be campaigning Holland rather than McGregor as the lead, and strongly argued that Tom Holland deserved to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actor category. The fact of long-listing for an Academy Award was confirmed in the article in the Hollywood Reporter: "And though McGregor stars as his father in the film, Holland has been submitted as the lead actor for awards consideration. Regardless if he receives any nominations, his performance as the strong-willed and determined eldest son is garnering critical acclaim."
As one of the most promising young actors, Holland was featured in Screen International's "UK Stars of Tomorrow - 2012" and in Variety's "Youth Impact Report 2012". Holland has been signed up by William Morris Endeavor (WME) global talent agency and is represented by Curtis Brown literary and talent agency.
In 2015, Tom was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sony and Marvel's films. He has played the role in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).- Actor
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Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born and raised in London, England. His parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch), are both actors. He is a grandson of submarine commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, and a great-grandson of diplomat Henry Arnold Cumberbatch CMG. Cumberbatch attended Brambletye School and Harrow School. Whilst at Harrow, he had an arts scholarship and painted large oil canvases. It's also where he began acting. After he finished school, he took a year off to volunteer as an English teacher in a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling, India. On his return, he studied drama at Manchester University. He continued his training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art graduating with an M.A. in Classical Acting. By the time he had completed his studies, he already had an agent.
Cumberbatch has worked in theatre, television, film and radio. His breakthrough on the big screen came in 2004 when he portrayed Stephen Hawking in the television movie Hawking (2004). In 2010, he became a household name as Sherlock Holmes on the British television series Sherlock (2010). In 2011, he appeared in two Oscar-nominated films - War Horse (2011) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). He followed this with acclaimed roles in the science fiction film Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), the Oscar-winning drama 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Fifth Estate (2013) and August: Osage County (2013). In 2014, he portrayed Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) which earned him a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, British Academy of Film and Television Arts and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Cumberbatch was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2015 Birthday Honours for his services to the performing arts and to charity.
Cumberbatch's engagement to theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter, whom he has known for 17 years, was announced in the "Forthcoming Marriages" section of The Times newspaper on November 5, 2014. On February 14, 2015, the couple married at the 12th century Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on the Isle of Wight followed by a reception at Mottistone Manor. They have three sons, Christopher Carlton (born 2015), Hal Auden (born 2017), and Finn (born 2019).Film- Producer
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Anthony J. Russo is an American filmmaker and producer who works alongside his brother Joseph Russo. They have directed You, Me and Dupree, Cherry and the Marvel films Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Endgame is one of the highest grossing films of all time.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Joseph Vincent Russo is an American filmmaker and producer who works alongside his brother Anthony Russo. They have directed You, Me and Dupree, Cherry and the Marvel films Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Endgame is one of the highest grossing films of all time.- Additional Crew
- Editorial Department
- Editor
Lee Unkrich is an Academy Award-winning director at Pixar Animation Studios. He most recently directed Disney.Pixar's critically-acclaimed "Coco", which received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Best Song.
As the director of Disney.Pixar's "Toy Story 3," Lee was also awarded an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Lee joined Pixar in 1994, and has played a variety of key creative roles on nearly every animated feature film made at the studio. Before co-directing the Oscar-winning "Finding Nemo," he was co-director of "Monsters, Inc." and the Golden Globe-winning "Toy Story 2."
He began his Pixar career as a film editor on "Toy Story" and was supervising film editor on "A Bug's Life." Lee also contributed his editing skills to numerous Pixar films, including his role as supervising film editor on "Finding Nemo".
In 2009 Lee and his fellow directors at Pixar were honored at the 66th Venice International Film Festival with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Prior to joining Pixar, Lee worked in television as an editor and director. He graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema/Television in 1991.
He grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.- Director
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- Producer
Rob Marshall was born on 17 October 1960 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Chicago (2002) and Into the Woods (2014).- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Executive
Eight-time Academy Award®-nominated, Kathleen Kennedy is one of the most successful and respected producers and executives in the film industry today. As President of Lucasfilm, she oversees the company's three divisions: Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. In 1992, she co-founded the production company The Kennedy/Marshall Company with director/producer Frank Marshall, and in 1982 she co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Marshall and Steven Spielberg. Altogether, Kennedy has further produced or executive produced more than 70 feature films, which have collectively garnered 120 Academy Award nominations and 25 wins.
For much of the past 20 years, Kennedy served as a governor and officer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and serves on the board of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She also sits on the boards of numerous educational, arts, and philanthropic organizations.- Actor
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Paul Stephen Rudd was born in Passaic, New Jersey. His parents, Michael and Gloria, both from Jewish families, were born in the London area, U.K. He has one sister, who is three years younger than he is. Paul traveled with his family during his early years, because of his father's airline job at TWA. His family eventually settled in Overland Park, Kansas, where his mother worked as a sales manager for TV station KSMO-TV. Paul attended Broadmoor Junior High and Shawnee Mission West High School, from which he graduated in 1987, and where he was Student Body President. He then enrolled at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, majoring in theater. He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts-West in Los Angeles and participated in a three-month intensive workshop under the guidance of Michael Kahn at the British Drama Academy at Oxford University in Britain. Rudd helped to produce the Globe Theater's production of Howard Brenton's "Bloody Poetry," which starred Rudd as Percy Bysshe Shelley.Film- Actress
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For over three decades, Nancy Cartwright has given voice to a spikey-headed-10-year-old boy even though she's a grown woman; she's often been arrested for truancy and vandalism, yet she maintains a spotless criminal record; and finally, she's repeated the fourth-grade dozens of times in spite of earning her college degree. How has she managed to live this double life? Read on, man.
As the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy quite literally breathed life into one the most groundbreaking characters in entertainment history. But she is also responsible for an array of other characters on The Simpsons, making her a versatile performer who's proved invaluable to the longest-running scripted show of all time.
Not that her career begins and ends in Springfield-far from it. Nancy has lent her voice to a myriad of other animated touchstones, from Kim Possible to Rugrats, as well as live-action films, video games, radio and commercials.
Kettering, Ohio is the place where a young Nancy discovered her knack for voices and sound effects. In high school, she was a member of the theater department; played in the orchestra and marching band; and entered public speaking competitions. After winning the National District Tournament's "Humorous Interpretation" category-twice-the judges steered her towards cartoon voices.
By 1976, before attending Ohio University on a full scholarship, Nancy was already doing professional voice work for WING radio in her hometown. It really paid off in full when a rep from Warner Bros. Records visited the station and shared a list of animation industry contacts. She zeroed in on the superstar among them: Daws Butler, an industry legend who supplied the voices of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Elroy Jetson, and dozens of other beloved characters Nancy grew up watching.
Nancy left Ohio in 1978 and transferred to UCLA so she could be closer to her mentor and the animation industry. Each Sunday, she would catch the bus to Daws' home in Beverly Hills for lessons. They lasted all afternoon-a real dream-in-the-making.
Soon Butler brought her into the fold at Hanna-Barbera, where she met front-running voice actors and directors. Within a couple months, Nancy was cast as "Gloria" of the Richie Rich cartoon series. She the girlfriend of the show's titular character-a genuine Hollywood voice-acting job. No more bus rides for our Miss Nancy-now she was ridin' in style in a '68 Opel Kadette that looked like a smashed potato and appropriately named "Spud". It floored at 40 mph, but Nancy didn't care-she had her own wheels!
After that, she was on her way to becoming one of the most legendary voice actors of our generation... but she didn't know it, just yet.
Nancy signed with a talent agency, completed her theater degree, and promptly landed her first feature film role, in Joe Dante's Twilight Zone: The Movie. More voice acting parts followed: the cartoon series Pound Puppies, Popeye and Son and My Little Pony, plus voice-over background work in Silverado (1985), Sixteen Candles (1984) and The Color Purple (1985), to name a few. Even minor parts, like the shoe that got dipped in acid in the hybrid live-action/animated classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) represented opportunities to expand her range.
Meanwhile, an animator named Matt Groening was working on a series of shorts, slated to run as interstitials for The Tracey Ullman Show. His concept involved a dysfunctional family with three kids. Initially, Nancy planned to audition for the role of the classic middle child, Lisa, but felt unmoved by Groening's character description. She was drawn to the troublemaker son, Bart, and asked to audition for that role instead. The rest is history as she was cast on the spot.
It was a fine addition to her résumé. Then, two years after Groening's original shorts debuted on The Tracey Ullman Show, a breakthrough: Fox greenlit the sketches as a standalone half-hour animated sitcom. The Simpsons premiered on December 17, 1989. Early episodes centered around Bart, and he proved to be the show's breakout star. His slacker antics and catchphrases begged to be quoted-and licensed. Less than six months after the show's debut, The New York Times reported on "Bartmania," quoting exasperated retailers who couldn't get enough merchandise to meet demand. Bart-and, by proxy, Nancy-had officially been catapulted into the zeitgeist.
Cartwright is also the unique voice behind several other Simpsons' characters, including Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, Kearney, Database and Maggie. In keeping with her history of playing popular characters on such animated series as Snorks; Animaniacs; and Pinky and The Brain, Nancy also became a hit with the millennials as the voice of Chuckie in Rugrats and Rufus-the naked mole rat-in Kim Possible.
In the middle of all this animation, Nancy had immersed herself in a scene study class for theatrical/film productions. Her curiosity and drive to create memorable characters led her on an adventure to Italy to find legendary Italian director, Federico Fellini. His "La Strada" intrigued our young actress so much that upon her return, she developed her journey as a one-woman show, garnering a DramaLogue Award in 1996. Fast-forward to 2017 when In Search of Fellini, the film, went on to achieve official selections with 9 film festivals. The New York Times raved that ISOF is "a charming drama about the love of movies and youthful passion." The film won Best Director, Best Actress and Best Film in the Ferrara Film Festival 2017.
Some of her work on television series and movies includes Fame, Empty Nest, Cheers, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Twilight Zone-The Movie and Godzilla, as well as a lead in the TV movie Marian Rose White.
In 1992, Nancy won a Prime Time Emmy® for outstanding Voice-Over performance for The Simpsons. Three years later, she coveted The Annie Award for Voice Acting in the Field of Animation also for The Simpsons. In 2004, Nancy was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Kim Possible and again in 2020 for The Simpsons.
In 2001, Nancy co-created and produced The Kelly's-one of the first critically-acclaimed digital animated series in conjunction with Turner Broadcasting and NASCAR. At a top speed of 158.2 mph, Nancy is no spectator in the world of fast cars. Emboldened to continue writing and producing, Nancy penned her first episode of The Simpsons titled Girl's In the Band. It aired in the Spring of 2019 and was one of the highest-rated episodes of the season- Ay Caramba!
In 2004, Nancy's audiobook, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy, was nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. The release of the audiobook led to her one-woman show that premiered at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004 to SRO crowds for the entire run of the production. The new-and-improved edition of her audiobook, I'm Still a 10-Year-Old Boy will be available late 2021. In 2020 Nancy co-created a new production company in addition to Spotted Cow Entertainment. She called the new venture CRE84U, a production company dedicated to producing international content for television with long-time partner, Monica Gil-Rodriguez, and partners Carolina and Jaime Aymerich.
Always with the sincere compassion to give back, Nancy has been the honorary mayor of her community for the past 16 years. She is the recipient of the Fernando Award presented to those whose community support is above and beyond. She has supported many non-profit organizations that focus on helping children, such as Famous Fone Friends, The Way to Happiness Foundation and The Citizens Commission on Human Rights. She also received the prestigious Icon Award from The Make-A-Wish Foundation. An accomplished self-taught fine artist, Cartwright has created dozens of reverse-style paintings on Lucite. Although this reverse-painting technique dates back thousands of years, it was the The Simpsons that motivated her to duplicate this animation technique that was popularized in 1937 with Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Her work has been featured on over 300 billboards, bus wraps and bus shelter posters with the purpose of introducing parents and caretakers to the Know More About Drugs Alliance.
Since its inception in 2004, Nancy has been the proud co-founder of Happy House, a non-profit organization dedicated to "Building Better Families". Through extensive outreach and the help of countless volunteers, Happy House is implementing a character-building program, How to Make Good Choices, to hundreds of children across California. Nancy is equally committed to helping those in her hometown where she has established a perpetual scholarship for forensic students to attend Ohio University. In June 2012, Ohio University bestowed upon Nancy an Honorary Degree Citation - Doctor of Communication in recognition of achievement in her field as an actress, as a philanthropist and through her scholarship endowment established at Ohio University.
In 2020, Nancy became the first ever voice-actor to be featured on MasterClass-- a platform where members learn from the best across multiple disciplines. Joining the likes of "Masters" James Cameron, Ron Howard and Annie Leibovitz, Nancy's class introduces aspiring voice-actors to the voice-over medium.
Clearly, Nancy Cartwright's journey is inimitable. She's at once a cultural icon and a face in the crowd, a megastar who walks the streets without being mobbed...an anonymous celebrity. Not too shabby for a spunky kid from Kettering, Ohio.
So, don't have a cow, man!- Actor
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Daniel Louis Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and television writer. Castellaneta is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series The Simpsons (1989) (as well as other characters on the show such as Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Mel, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, and Hans Moleman). Castellaneta also had voice roles in several other programs, including Futurama (1999), Sibs (1991) and Darkwing Duck (1991), The Adventures of Dynamo Duck (1990), The Batman (2004), Back to the Future (1991), Aladdin (1994), Taz-Mania (1991) and Hey Arnold! (1996). He also occasionally guest starred on shows like Friends (1994) and How I Met Your Mother (2005).
In 1999, he appeared in the Christmas special Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999) and won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman. Castellaneta released a comedy album "I Am Not Homer", and wrote and starred in a one-person show titled "Where Did Vincent van Gogh?".- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Aulii Cravalho is an American actress and singer who made her acting debut as the voice of the titular character in the 2016 Disney 3D computer-animated musical feature film Moana. She went on to star in the NBC drama series Rise (2018), the Netflix drama film All Together Now (2020) and the Hulu romantic comedy Crush (2022).- Bret Iwan is an American voice actor from Pasadena, California who is known for providing the voice of Disney's Mickey Mouse after Wayne Allwine's death in 2009. He voiced Mickey Mouse in dozens of cartoons, promos and video games including Kingdom Hearts and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He also provided ADR for The Lego Batman Movie.Animation—Voice
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Hilary Erhard Duff was born on September 28, 1987 in Houston, Texas, to Susan Duff (née Cobb) and Robert Erhard Duff, a partner in convenience store chain. When Hilary was six, she had been traveling in the Cechetti Ballet with her sister Haylie Duff but decided she wanted to fulfill her dream of acting. Her first starring role was when she played the young witch "Wendy" in Casper Meets Wendy (1998).
Duff became a teen idol when she starred in the #1 hit Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire (2001).
She has also starred in the movies The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), Agent Cody Banks (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), A Cinderella Story (2004), Raise Your Voice (2004), The Perfect Man (2005) and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005).
Additionally, Duff stormed the music charts, with singles "So Yesterday" and "Come Clean" settling nicely into the top 40. Hilary's first album, "Metamorphosis", debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, and eventually ascended to #1 in the following weeks.
She starred in Material Girls (2006) with her sister Haylie Duff and released her fourth studio album, Dignity (2007), with Hollywood Records.
In 2015, she released her fifth studio album, Breathe In. Breathe Out. She stars as Kelsey Peters in Younger (2015).- Actor
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Born Paul Wilchinsky on December 21, 1922, the son of Sol and Clara Wilchinsky, Paul Winchell grew up to be the most beloved ventriloquist of American children. Ironically, as famous as Paul was, his dummy, Jerry Mahoney, was probably more famous. Not since Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in the previous two decades had a ventriloquist and his dummy known equal celebrity.
Entering the spotlight on the Edward Bowes "Original Amateur Hour" (1948), he began working soon after in a review show in which Major Bowes would showcase the winners of his radio program. He started his television career on the CBS program The Bigelow Show (1948) in 1948; The Paul Winchell Show (1950), originally called "The Spiedel Show," in 1950; and, finally, the best-known of his shows Winchell-Mahoney Time (1965). With a clubhouse premise, his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff--another of Paul's characters--as the clubhouse leaders, and the music of the bandleader Milton Delugg. A new innovation of Winchell's was to replace the dummy's hands with those of puppeteers who were hidden behind the dummies in a crate. Winch also played many serous dramatic roles on television without his dummy sidekicks.
What may be even more famous is that he created the voice of Tigger for the Walt Disney Company's "Winnie The Pooh" motion-picture series, based on the famous books by A.A. Milne. He played the role behind the scenes until 1999, when he was replaced by Jim Cummings, who also voiced Pooh from the time that Sterling Holloway died. He was also the voice of many other world-famous cartoon characters.
A little-known fact about Winchell is that he was one of the original inventors of an artificial heart--years before the first successful transplant with such of a device--an automobile that runs on battery power, a method for breeding tilapia, and many other inventions that are still around today.- Actor
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William Allen Friedle was born on August 11, 1976, in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up in Avon, Connecticut. He went to Avon High School. Will is a comedian, and he is probably best known for his starring role as the dim yet creative older brother Eric Matthews in ABC's hit TV show Boy Meets World (1993), which ran from September 1993 until May 2000. Will also plays animated characters such as Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond (1999) and Ron Stoppable in the Disney Channel hit animated show Kim Possible (2002). Also, in 2002, he got a staring role in the short-lived UPN series The Random Years (2002) in which he played Alex Barnes, one of the three roommates in college. Since UPN picked up that show, UPN did not let him join the cast of the WB show Off Centre (2001). Both shows ended up getting canceled after about two months on the air. In 2003, Will tried again to make it on TV, when he got a starring role in the pilot of the Fox show Jack's House (2003), which never aired. Will also does voices for video games such as Kingdom Hearts II (2005) and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (2005).- Actress
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Grew up doing theatre in NYC -Studied at Northwestern University. -Her career started in 1995, when she was cast on Mad TV (1995) for 6 seasons. Cast member of The King of Queens (1998) for 5 seasons, playing opposite Jerry Stiller. Enjoys working in TV. Recurs on ABC's Black-ish (2014) Sex Lives of College Kids, and Bob Hearts Abishola. Scrubs (2001) and Cougar Town (2009). Was a regular on many shows, including ABC's Talk to Me (2000) with Kyra Sedgwick; ABC's Hot Properties (2005) with Gail O'Grady; NBC's Raines (2007) with Jeff Goldbloom; Lifetime's Rita Rocks (2008); CBS's $#*! My Dad Says (2010) with William Shatner; and Wendell and Vinnie (2013) on Nickelodeon. Guest-starred on many shows, such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999); Monk (2002); My Boys (2006); CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000); Leverage (2008); Numb3rs (2005); The Game (2006); The Exes (2011); Whitney (2011); The Middle (2009) and, more recently, on Cougar Town (2009); Devious Maids (2013) and Black-ish (2014). Has been working in voice over animation for years. Family Guy (1999) for 15 years; Baby Blues (2000); Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000); Clone High (2002); Kim Possible (2002); Clone High (2002); The Secret Saturdays (2008); The Penguins of Madagascar (2008). Enjoyed talk show appearances Late Show with David Letterman (1993) 3 times; The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) 4 times;The Sharon Osbourne Show (2003); Dennis Miller (2004);Hollywood Squares (1998); The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005).- Writer
- Actor
- Animation Department
Born and raised in Colorado, Chris Sanders fell in love with animation at the age of ten after seeing Ward Kimball animated shorts on 'The Wonderful World of Disney'. He began drawing, and applied to CalArts after his grandmother told him about the animation program at the school. He majored in character animation, and graduated in 1984, moving on to work at Marvel Comics. He helped draw the characters for the show _Muppet Babies (1984)_. He then moved over to the Walt Disney Company in 1987, working in the visual development department. After doing some minor work on The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Sanders catapulted to the top of Disney animation through his work on Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994). He helped write the 1998 Disney animated hit Mulan (1998), which moved him into the position to write, direct, and voice Lilo & Stitch (2002). Sanders moved to Dreamworks where he co-wrote, co-directed and did character design for How to Train Your Dragon (2010). Regardless of which studio he works for, he has become a recognizable force as an animator in both cel- and CGI-based features.- Writer
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- Art Department
Dana Terrace is an American animator, director, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and voice actress. She is most known for creating Disney's The Owl House, as well as being a writer, storyboard artist, and doing additional voices in The Owl House. She's also known for working as a director on Disney's DuckTales. She's also been a storyboard artist on Gravity Falls, Camp Halohead, Tangled: The Series, and a storyboard revisionist on the TV movie, Tangled: Before Ever After.- Actor
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Eric Jacobson was born on 15 January 1971 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He is an actor and director, known for The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted (2014) and Sesame Street (1969). He is married to Mary Hardy. They have two children.- Actor
- Producer
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Peter Mayhew was born on May 19, 1944 in Barnes, London, England, to Constance Elizabeth (Yeates) and Walter Henry Mayhew. Later resident in Texas, this former resident of Yorkshire, England, was working as a hospital attendant at the King's College Hospital in London when film producer Charles H. Schneer saw his photo, literally standing above the crowd around him. Schneer cast him in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), Ray Harryhausen's special effects film.
A year later, he was offered another role. Mayhew was told it was for a big hairy beast. It was the role of Chewbacca, the faithful 200 year-old Wookiee in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and his life was changed forever. Following the original Star Wars trilogy, he made several television commercials in the Wookiee costume.
In 1997, the 20th-anniversary celebrations of Star Wars were announced with the release of the "Special Edition" and all the conventions started. He was active on the "Star Wars" convention circuit where he signed autographs. He wrote two books, "Growing Up Giant" and "My Favorite Giant", and founded a non-profit 501(c)3 charity organization called "The Peter Mayhew Foundation".Film- Additional Crew
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John Lovelady was born on 11 August 1931 in Oxford, Mississippi, USA. He is an actor, known for The Muppet Show (1976), The Muppet Movie (1979) and D.C. Follies (1987).- Writer
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Joe Simon was a comic book writer and artist. He is better known as the first editor of Timely Comics (later renamed to Marvel Comics) and the co-creator of Captain America.
In 1913, Simon was born to a Jewish-American family in Rochester, New York. His father was tailor Harry Simon was from the city of Leeds, England. Harry had immigrated to the United States in 1905. Simon's mother, Rose Kurland, was American.
Simon attended Benjamin Franklin High School. He was the art director for both the school newspaper and the yearbook. While still in school, he managed to sell some of his artwork to universities. Simon graduated in 1932, at the age of 19.
Shortly after his school graduation, Simon was hired as an assistant by Adolph Edler, the art director of the Hearst-owned newspaper "Rochester Journal-American ". His duties included the creation of editorial cartoons and sports illustrations. In 1934, Simon was hired as a regular artist by the "Syracuse Herald". In 1936, he left the newspaper for a higher-paid position as the art director of the "Syracuse Journal", but the newspaper temporarily ceased publication shortly after. At age 23, Simon was unemployed for the first time since his graduation. He moved to New York City in search of a job.
Simon started doing freelance work for Paramount Pictures, retouching the studio's publicity photos. He also worked as a freelance illustrator for various magazines. One of his bosses recommended Simon as a prospective comic book artist to Lloyd Jacquet, head of the comic book packager "Funnies, Inc.". The company produced comic book stories and artwork, and sold them to publishing companies of the time. Jacquet hired Simon, and assigned him to work on Western stories.
In 1940, Martin Goodman, the publisher of Timely Comics, ordered some new stories for his magazines. Taking the assignment, Simon created stories for new characters "Fiery Mask" and "Trojak The Tiger Man". Meanwhile, his freelance work included a new comic book star, called "Blue Bolt". Seeking a partner to help work on more Blue Bolt stories, Simon chose Jack Kirby. They would continue working together for decades.
Goodman soon hired Simon as the first editor of Timely Comics. Simon and Kirby introduced the hit character Captain America. The first issue of "Captain America" (with a cover date of March 1941) sold nearly a million copies. Simon and Kirby remained on the title only until its 10th issue. National Comics (a predecessor of DC Comics) then hired them with a promise of a better salary. The duo revamped Sandman, created a new version of Manhunter, and introduced new teams Boy Commandos and the Newsboy Legion.
Simon's comic book career was interrupted when he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard for the duration of World War II. During his service, Simon befriended sports columnist Milt Gross (1895-1953) who was also serving in the Coast Guard. The two would eventually use their Coast Guard experience to co-create the "True Comics" newspaper strip, which was syndicated nationally by "Parents" magazine.
Following his discharge from the Coast Guard, Simon married his girlfriend Harriet Feldman. Harriet was an employee of Harvey Comics. Simon reconnected with Jack Kirby, and the two co-created the Western series "Boys' Ranch" (1950-1951) for Harvey Comics, and the horror anthology "Black Magic" (1950-1961). Their most notable co-creation of the time was "Young Romance" (1947-1975), the first and most successful of the romance comics genre.
In late 1953 or early 1954, Simon and Kirby launched their own publishing company, Mainline Publications. It only published four ongoing titles, before shutting down in 1955 due to low sales. He and Kirby parted ways, as Simon worked primarily in advertising and commercial art for the next few years.
In 1959, Simon returned to comics, when hired by Archie Comics. He created a revamped version of their old the Shield, renamed to Private Strong. He and Kirby teamed up again to create a new superhero for Archie Comics, called "the Fly". Simon only worked in the first two issues of the new title, before resuming life as a commercial artist.
In the 1960s, Simon produced promotional comics for the advertising agency Burstein and Newman. He also served as one of the founders of the satirical magazine "Sick" (1960-1980), which at the time rivaled "Mad" Magazine in popularity. Late in the decade, Simon also freelanced as a comic book writer and artist. His most notable creation at the time was "Brother Power the Geek" for DC Comics. The character was a mannequin who gained life and sentience, and his stories concerned his introduction 1960s hippie culture. The series was liked by readers, but disliked by editor Mort Weisinger (1915-1978). Weisinger terminated the series prematurely.
In the 1970s, Simon became known for creating strange characters. His creations at the time included Prez (a teen-aged President of the United States), a new incarnation of the Sandman, "Green Team: Boy Millionaires", and the Outsiders (a group of freaks). None of them found long-term success.
Simon remained mostly in retirement for the next decades, though he marketed reproductions of his early comic book covers. He died in 2011, at the age of 98.- Actor
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Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand actor.
After training in drama under the New Zealand Special Performing Arts Training Scheme. One of his earliest starring roles was in the 1988 film Never Say Die, opposite Lisa Eilbacher. In 1994, he received attention for his role as the violent and abusive Maori husband Jake "The Muss" Heke in Once Were Warriors, a film adaptation of Alan Duff's novel of the same name. The film became the most successful local title released in New Zealand, and sold to many countries overseas. The role won him international acclaim and he received the award for best male performance in a dramatic role at the 1994 New Zealand Film and Television Awards. He reprised the role in the sequel, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, for which he received the Best Actor award from the New Zealand Film Awards. Despite the acclaim he received for his performance, Morrison said in 2010 that he felt typecast by the role, to the point that it was "a millstone round my neck".
In 1996, Morrison played opposite Marlon Brando in The Island Of Dr. Moreau. He has appeared in supporting roles in Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) and The Beautiful Country (2004). In 1988 he got to show some comic flair in the James Bond parody Never Say Die. In 2005, Morrison became the host of the talk show The Tem Show on New Zealand television.
In the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, Morrison was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to drama.
He started writing an autobiography in 2009, which he hoped would inspire others to "reach for the stars".
He released his debut album, Tem, through Sony Music Entertainment NZ in late November 2014. The album consists of covers of songs that his father, and uncle Sir Howard Morrison, used to perform at local venues when he was growing up.
Morrison has gained attention for his role as the bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). Part of the film's plot involves an army of clones created with Jango's DNA; Morrison also provided the voice acting for the clones.[7] He reappeared as a number of clones in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, and re-recorded the lines of the character Boba Fett (Jango's "son") and another clone in the 2004 DVD re-releases of the original Star Wars trilogy, replacing the voice of Jason Wingreen.
Most recently, he became known for voicing Chief Tui, the father of the title character in Disney's Moana (2016). Morrison is currently playing Aquaman's father in the Warner Bros. Feature Aquaman 1 & 2.Film & Television.- Writer
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Bill Everett was born on 18 May 1917 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer, known for Daredevil (2015), The Defenders (2017) and The Avengers: United They Stand (1999). He was married to Gwenn Randall. He died on 27 February 1973 in New York City, New York, USA.- Writer
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One of the most influential and prolific comic book writers, Leonard Norman Wein is best known as the co-creator of Marvel's premier female superhero Ororo Munroe (aka "Storm"), the claw-bearing X-Man James 'Logan' Howlett (aka "Wolverine") and the earth elemental known as 'Swamp Thing'. The iconic loner "Wolverine" was initially conceived at the request of Marvel's chief editor Roy Thomas as a Canadian superhero (with the objective of boosting comic book sales in Canada) and has been portrayed in several films by Hugh Jackman. Len penned stories for both the Marvel and DC franchises (as well as Disney), worked on comics ranging from Batman and Superman to Spiderman, Thor, Daredevil and the Justice League of America. In the 80s, he edited DC's seminal series 'The Watchmen'. During the preceding decade, he had been instrumental in reviving the popularity of the X-Men. He also authored several key issues of "Power Man", an African-American protagonist who would later become better known as Luke Cage. An avid young comic book enthusiast named Nicolas Coppola adopted part of Power Man's moniker and subsequently rose to movie stardom as Nicolas Cage.
Len was born in New York's Bronx, had a sickly early childhood and became infatuated with comics during a lengthy recuperation in hospital at the age of seven. He initially aspired to become an artist and graduated with a degree in arts from Farmingdale State College, Long Island. While his art work didn't quite make the grade, he was able to sell his stories to DC by 1968. Along with noted illustrator Bernie Wrightson, Len co-created the human/plant hybrid mutant "Swamp Thing" in 1971 (he apparently came up with the idea while riding a subway to Queens). The character eventually inspired an animated TV series in 1991 and two motion pictures in 1982 and 1989, respectively. In tandem with writer/artist Dave Cockrum and Marvel editor Roy Thomas, Len revamped the X-Men in 1975, further adding new characters to their ranks in the first issue of Giant Size X-Men. In addition to Storm and Wolverine, he co-created the teleporting Bavarian mutant Kurt Wagner (aka " Nightcrawler") and the Russian metal giant Pyotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin (aka "Colossus"). For DC Comics, he co-created the character of Barbara Ann Minerva (alias "Cheetah"), nemesis of Wonder Woman; the alien Galius Zed (affiliated with the "Green Lantern"); Amanda Waller (aka "Mockingbird"), affiliated with Justice League and Suicide Squad and variously played on screen (live action) by Pam Grier (Smallville (2001)), Angela Bassett (Green Lantern (2011)) and Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow (2012)). Another product of Len's fertile imagination (with writer John Calnan) was Wayne Enterprises (Batman's) business manager Lucius Fox, portrayed on screen by Morgan Freeman in The Dark Knight Trilogy. Ironically, Len did not have a hand in the creation of his two personal favourites: Batman and the Incredible Hulk.
Len suffered from long-standing heart ailments. He had a quintuple bypass in 2015 and sadly died two years later, on September 10 2017 in Los Angeles, at the age of 69. The Guardian newspaper quoted Dave Wielgosz (assistant editor at DC comic), eulogising Len by saying "You can't be hyperbolic when it comes to Len Wein's legacy. He created wrote and edited more great superhero stories than anyone."- Writer
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Roy Thomas was born on 22 November 1940 in Jackson, Missouri, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Conan the Destroyer (1984), Red Sonja and WandaVision (2021). He has been married to Dann Thomas since 3 May 1981. He was previously married to Jean Thomas.- Writer
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John Victor Romita Sr. was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating characters including Mary Jane Watson, the Punisher, and Wolverine. Romita was the father of John Romita Jr., also a comic book artist, and the husband of Virginia Romita, for many years Marvel's traffic manager.
His first comics work was in 1949 as a ghost artist for Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel, through which Romita met editor-in-chief Stan Lee. In 1951, Romita began drawing horror, war, and romance comics for Atlas Comics (previously Timely), and also drew his first superhero work, a 1950s revival of Captain America. He began working exclusively for DC Comics from 1958-1965 and was the artist for many of their romance comics. During these years, Romita further developed his ability to draw beautiful women, which he later became well-known for.
Romita joined Marvel in 1965, initially drawing Daredevil comics. In 1966, Spider-Man artist and co-creator Steve Ditko left Marvel, and Romita was chosen by writer Lee as the new artist for Amazing Spider-Man. Within a year of Romita becoming the Spider-Man artist, The Amazing Spider-Man rose from Marvel's second-best-selling title to the company's top-seller. Romita brought a new romance style to Spider-Man comics that soon became the new house style for the character. In June 1973, Romita was promoted to Marvel's art director and heavily influenced the look of Marvel comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002- Writer
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Gerry got his start as a writer of comic books at age fifteen. He created _The Punisher_ for Marvel Comics in 1972. In recent years, he's written for film and television, and has written and produced for Father Dowling Mysteries (1989) (ABC, 1990-91) and Under Suspicion (1994) (CBS, 1994-95).]- Writer
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Marv Wolfman was born on 13 May 1946 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Young Justice (2010), Blade II (2002) and Blade: Trinity (2004). He has been married to Noel Wolfman since 16 November 1991.- Actor
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Pedro Pascal is a Chilean-born actor. He is best known for portraying the roles of Oberyn Martell in the fourth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011), Javier Peña in the Netflix series Narcos (2015), the titular character in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019) and Joel Miller in the HBO series The Last of Us (2023).
He's long-time friends with Triple Frontier (2019) co-star Oscar Isaac.- Writer
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Todd McFarlane was born on 16 March 1961 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a writer and producer, known for Spawn (1997), Venom (2018) and Spawn (1997). He has been married to Wanda Kolomyjec since 27 July 1985. They have three children.- Writer
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Long-time comic book artist, perhaps best known for his work at Marvel. At that company, Gene drew a revival of the Sub-Mariner in the mid-1960s; took over from artist Don Heck on Iron Man; took over from John Romita Sr. on Daredevil; spent time drawing Captain America; and launched a successful Marvel adaptation of Dracula. Fans appreciate his use of shadow for dramatic effect and his ability to draw romantic and action scenes. In the 1980s, he was successful on DC's Batman titles.- Writer
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Jim Lee is a Korean American comic-book writer and artist. He started his professional career in 1987, as a new artist for Marvel Comics. By the early 1990s, he had become one of the most popular artists in the field. His work on the X-Men broke sales records, and the costumes he designed for various team members defined their looks for at least a decade. In 1992, Lee became a co-founder of Image Comics. From 1992 to 1998, Lee was the owner and publisher of WildStorm Productions. In 1998, Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics. WildStorm continued to exist as a DC imprint from 1998 to 2010, with Lee continuing to run the company. From 2010 to 2020, Lee served as a co-publisher of DC Comics, running the company alongside his then-partner Dan DiDio. In 2020, Lee became DC's sole publisher.
In 1964, Lee was born in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. His family soon moved to the United States, and Lee was primarily raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States c. 1976, when he was 12-years-old. He first learned the Korean language in early childhood, and learned English as a secondary language. He was raised in a typical middle-class family.
Lee attended the River Bend Elementary School, located in Chesterfield, Missouri. He received his secondary education at the Saint Louis Country Day School, an all-boys school located in Ladue, Missouri. The school had grades from junior kindergarten to grade 12. Lee's first artistic activity was drawing posters for school plays.
As a school student, Lee reportedly felt as an outsider. He was a middle-class student in an upper-class school with a "preppy" style. His feelings of being an outsider influenced his reading habits. He was interested in comic books about outsider characters. His favorite characters were the X-Men, an entire group of outcasts.
While Lee designed art as a hobby, he was not initially interested in a professional career as an artist. Following his high school graduation, he enrolled at Princeton University to study psychology. He graduated with a psychology degree, but felt reluctant to then attend medical school. He decided to try to become a professional comic book artist, although he lacked professional training at the time.
Lee submitted artwork to various publishers, but nobody was interested in hiring him. A number of professional comics artists advised him to contact editors in person. While attending a comics convention in New York, Lee was introduced to veteran comics writer Archie Goodwin (1937-1998). Goodwin at the time served as an editor for Marvel Comics, and helped Lee to get hired by Marvel.
Lee's first professional assignment was serving as an artist for the series "Alpha Flight", featuring a group of Canadian superheroes. He served as a regular artist for the team book (on-and-off) from issue #53 to issue #64 (December, 1987-November, 1988).. He continued serving as a cover artist for the series until 1990.
His second assignment was becoming an artist for the series "Punisher: War Journal", featuring the lethal vigilante Punisher/Frank Castle. He served as a regular artist from issue #4 to issue #19 (March, 1989-June, 1990). His artwork for the title showcased Lee's inspiration from the works of Frank Miller, Kevin Nowlan, Whilce Portacio, and David Ross. It was also influenced by Lee's affection for Japanese manga.
Lee first got to work in an X-Men title when asked to draw "Uncanny X-Men" #248 (September, 1989). Lee was filling-in for the series' regular artist at the time, Marc Silvestri (1958-). Lee was then asked to draw issues #256-258 (December, 1989-February, 1990), covering a multi-part story that was part of the crossover "Acts of Vengeance". The issues marked the return of the missing character Psylocke/ Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock. In the period since her disappearance, Psylocke had mysteriously lost her original body, acquired a new Asian body, and acquired new ninja skills. Lee got to essentially redesign the character in an entirely new form. He also designed two new costumes for her, including her classic ninja outfit.
Lee was eventually promoted to the position of main artist for "Uncanny X-Men" , at the time one of Marvel's high-profile titles. He served in this position from issue #267 to issue #277 (September, 1990-June, 1991) . He worked with writer Chris Claremont (1950-) and inker Scott Williams. During his run of the title, Lee co-created the Cajun thief Gambit/Remy LeBeau. Created as a new member of the X-Men's supporting cast, Gambit eventually joined the team, and became one of its most popular members.
Lee's art style was enthusiastically received by readers, and he was soon considered one of Marvel's most popular artists. In 1991, Marvel launched a second ongoing X-Men title, simply called "X-Men" vol. 2. Lee served as the title's co-writer and main artist from issue #1 to issue #11 (October, 1991-August, 1992). The fist issue had sales of over 8.1 million copies, becoming the new record holder for best-selling issues.
During his ran on "X-Men" vol. 2, Lee designed new uniforms for the team. This included popular and long-lasting costumes for Cyclops/Scott Summers, Phoenix/Jean Grey, Rogue/Anna Marie, and Storm/Ororo Munroe. These costume designs were later used for "X-Men: The Animated Series" (1992-1997).
Lee created relatively few new characters for the X-Men. Among his creations for the title were Anne Marie Cortez (in issue #1), Fabian Cortez (in issue #1), Chrome/Allen Marc Yuricic (in issue #1), Harry Delgado (in issue #1), Marco Delgado (in issue #1), Nance Winters (in issue #1), Omega Red/Arkady Rossovich (in issue #4), Maverick/Christoph Nord (in issue #5), Janice Hollenbeck (in issue #5), Arthur Barrington (in issue #6), Birdy (in issue #6), Meek (in issue #7), Belladonna/Bella Donna Boudreaux (in issue #8), and Julien Boudreaux (in issue #8).
In the early 1990s, there were tensions within Marvel Comics because of the company's work-for-hire policies. The company heavily merchandised the artwork of their most prominent artists, but compensated these artists with modest royalties. Disgruntled with their relatively meager earnings and their lack of copyright over characters and concepts which they created, a number of these artists eventually broke away from Marvel. Lee was among them. He co-founded Image Comics with his then-partners : Erik Larsen (1962-), Rob Liefeld (1967-), Todd McFarlane (1961-) , Whilce Portacio (1963-), Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino (1952-).
Image Comics devoted itself to publishing creator-owned titles. Each image partner (except Portacio) also established their own company, with each of the 6 companies publishing their titles under the Image banner. These companies were autonomous from any central editorial control, and did not operate as subsidiaries of Image. Lee initially named his company Aegis Entertainment, but quickly renamed it to WildStorm Productions.
WildStorm's initial title was "Wildcats" (sometimes rendered "WildCats" or "WildC.A.T.s"), featuring a team of eponymous superheroes. The characters involved were created by Lee himself and his friend Brandon Choi. The concept of the series involved a centuries-long war between two alien races which secretly lived on Earth, the Kherubim and Daemonites. The Wildcats were mostly composed of Kherubim-human hybrids. The Kherubim were humanoid in appearance, nearly immortal, and rendered nearly sterile over the centuries. Only one in 10,000 Kherubim females was capable of giving birth. Kherubim hybrids were seemingly more fertile than their ancestors. The Daemonites were reptilian in appearance, and they were a parasitic race. They survived by taking over host bodies from various species. They also had various powers, most prominently telepathy.
"Wildcats" was a commercially successful title, and WildStorm was then able to produce more titles. Lee created or co-created such characters as the super-powered soldier and mercenary Deathblow/Michael Cray, the teenage superhero team Gen¹³, and the United Nations-sponsored heroic team Stormwatch. They all starred in their own series.
In 1993, Lee negotiated a deal with Valiant Comics for a crossover series featuring characters from both companies. The result was the then-popular miniseries "Deathmate". As WildStorm expanded, Lee published creator-owned comics by several notable comics professionals.
From 1996 to 1997, Lee was involved with a new Marvel Comics project, called "Heroes Reborn". The concept involved the relaunch of previously defunct Marvel series, featuring classic characters with new origin stories and updated settings. Lee took over the Fantastic Four title as both writer and illustrator, and also served as the new writer for Iron Man/Tony Stark. Meanwhile, Rob Liefeld took over the titles of Captain America and the Avengers.
Lee's two titles proved commercially successful, while Liefeld's titles were controversial. Liefeld left the "Heroes Reborn" project earlier than expected, and Marvel assigned both Captain America and the Avengers to Lee's studio. The project concluded in 1997, though Marvel was initially willing to continue the Heroes Reborn lineup indefinitely. Marvel wanted Lee to personally draw at least one of the ongoing titles, but Lee was unwilling to make a long-term commitment to Marvel.
Following "Heroes Reborn" conclusion, Lee negotiated another deal with Marvel. He was scheduled to serve as a new editor for Marvel, handling relaunched versions of the Defenders, Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange, and Nick Fury. All three titles were scheduled for debuts in December 1997, but this agreement was canceled prematurely.
Returning to WildStorm, Lee published a number of new titles. The most successful among them were "The Authority" and "Planetary". The Authority featured the eponymous superhero team, which operated beyond the constrains of laws and politics. The series was initially handled by the creative team of Warren Ellis (1968-) and Bryan Hitch (1970-). "Planetary" featured alternate versions of characters from many companies and genres, interacting with each other in a shared reality. It was handled by the creative team of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday (1971-).
In this period WildStorm also launched the imprint "America's Best Comics" (ABC) under the control of veteran writer Alan Moore (1953-). The imprint published then-popular series, such as "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Promethea", "Tom Strong", "Tomorrow Stories", and "Top 10".
While Lee was prolific as a publisher in the late 1990s, his output as a writer and artist was rather limited. His most notable work in this period was the 12-issue series "Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday" (1997-1999), It featured Lee's new character, novice computer scientist Max Faraday. The concept of the series was that Faraday accidentally downloaded access codes to the Creation Wheel, a millennia-old device that can grant its users with the power of God. He then found himself targeted by people wanting this power for themselves.
In 1998, Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics. He continued to run the company as an imprint of DC Comics. Meanwhile, he returned to work as an artist. In the early 2000s his most notable work was the 12-issue story arc "Batman: Hush" (October 2002-September 2003). The story arc introduced new super-villain Hush/Thomas Elliot, involved several Batman villains in an elaborate scheme, and explored the romantic relationship of Batman/Bruce Wayne and Catwoman/Selina Kyle. The story arc received critical acclaim.
In 2003, Lee designed the super-villain Sin Tzu, introduced in the beat 'em up video game "Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu", The video game was a spin-off the animated television series "The New Batman Adventures" (1997-1999). It was the last video game based on the DC Animated Universe. Sin Tzu was depicted as an Asian warlord and master strategist. The character was later adapted into the mainstream Batman comics.
Lee's next high-profile comics work was the 12-issue story arc "For Tomorrow" (June 2004-May 2005), featuring Superman. In this story, Superman is puzzled by the mysterious disappearance of 1 million people. Among the victims was his wife Lois Lane, and Superman was struggling with feelings of personal loss and guilt over her fate. The story arc also featured a guest appearance by Wonder Woman/Diana of Themyscira, and the return of the prominent super-villain General Zod. Lee's artwork in this story arc was highly praised, though the script by Brian Azzarello was met with lukewarm reviews.
Lee next worked on the series "All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder", which lasted for 10 issues (September 2005-August 2008). The series was a new origin story for Robin/Dick Grayson, and also covered the early career of Batman/Bruce Wayne. The first issue of the series was the highest-selling comic book of 2005, and the series in general enjoyed high sales. Lee's artwork was among the series' main selling points, though the script by Frank Miller was poorly received. The series was plagued by schedule delays, as Lee was concurrently involved with designing content for the video game with designing content for the video game "DC Universe Online",
In 2006, Lee was involved with a relaunch of the "Wildcats" series. He provided the artwork for the first issue of "Wildcats" volume 4, which turned out to be the only one published. The series' intended writer Grant Morrison (1960-) was preoccupied with other projects, and never scripted more than one issue. The series was canceled after that.
In February 2010, Lee was appointed as the new co-publisher of DC Comics, sharing duties with Dan DiDio (1959-). In September 2010, the WildStorm imprint was shut down. Several of its characters were later reused by mainstream DC Comics publication.
Lee's first landmark publication as a publisher was "The New 52" event of 2011. DC Comics canceled all of its superhero titles, and then launched 52 new series with #1 issues. The event wiped out the continuity of the DC Universe, and introduced a new continuity. Lee was named as one of the main architects of the event, sharing duties with writer Geoff Johns (1973-).
In 2013, Lee redesigned the Mortal Kombat ninja character Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi. His version of the character was used in the video game "Injustice: Gods Among Us". Also in 2013, Lee became a member of the Advisory Board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit organization chartered to protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community.
In 2014, the company General Mills commissioned DC Comics to redesign its monster-themed cereals. Lee personally redesigned the character Boo Berry. He commented in an interview that he found "the task of designing a cartoon character" to be more difficult than drawing his typical detailed designs for comics.
Lee was one of the main artists for the miniseries "Batman: Europa", which lasted 4 issues (January-April, 2016). The series featured an adventure of Batman and the Joker entirely set in Europe, and was inspired by Lee's visit of Italy. It is one of the few stories to feature Batman and the Joker as allied to each other, as they team-up against a mysterious new enemy. Their common foe was eventually revealed to be Bane, who wanted to teach them a lesson, about how dependent on each other they were in his view.
Also in 2016, Lee was the main artist for the one-shot publication "Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fool's Special". Lee was the main artist of the ongoing series "Suicide Squad" vol. 5 from issue #1 to issue #8 (October 2016 to February 2017). His version of the team prominently featured the character Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel.
In June 2018, Geoff Johns stepped down from his position as Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of DC Comics. Lee was named as Johns' replacement in the role, while continuing to serve as a co-publisher. In February 2020, Dan DiDio resigned from his position as co-publisher. Lee became the sole publisher for DC Comics.
By 2021, Lee was 56-years-old. He has been active as a professional comics artist for 34 years. He continues to be a popular comics creator, and does not seem to be considering retirement yet.- Writer
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Herb Trimpe was born on 26 May 1939 in Peekskill, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Brazilian Wolverine (2009), Helstrom (2020) and Imagine the Dreams (2019). He was married to Patricia Velasquez, Linda Fite and Merril Travis. He died on 13 April 2015 in Hurley, New York, USA.- Actor
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Samuel L. Jackson is an American producer and highly prolific actor, having appeared in over 100 films, including Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Unbreakable (2000), Shaft (2000), Formula 51 (2001), Black Snake Moan (2006), Snakes on a Plane (2006), and the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005), as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., to Elizabeth (Montgomery) and Roy Henry Jackson. He was raised by his mother, a factory worker, and his grandparents. At Morehouse College, Jackson was active in the black student movement. In the seventies, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company (together with Morgan Freeman). In the eighties, he became well-known after three movies made by Spike Lee: Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990) and Jungle Fever (1991). He achieved prominence and critical acclaim in the early 1990s with films such as Patriot Games (1992), Amos & Andrew (1993), True Romance (1993), Jurassic Park (1993), and his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino, including Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), and later Django Unchained (2012). Going from supporting player to leading man, his performance in Pulp Fiction (1994) gave him an Oscar nomination for his character Jules Winnfield, and he received a Silver Berlin Bear for his part as Ordell Robbi in Jackie Brown (1997). Jackson usually played bad guys and drug addicts before becoming an action hero, co-starring with Bruce Willis in Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996).
With Jackson's permission, his likeness was used for the Ultimate version of the Marvel Comics character, Nick Fury. He later did a cameo as the character in a post-credits scene from Iron Man (2008), and went on to sign a nine-film commitment to reprise this role in future films, including major roles in Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and minor roles in Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). He has also portrayed the character in the second and final episodes of the first season of the TV show, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). He has provided his voice to several animated films, television series and video games, including the roles of Lucius Best / Frozone in Pixar's film The Incredibles (2004), Mace Windu in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), Afro Samurai in the anime television series Afro Samurai (2007), and Frank Tenpenny in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004).Film- Writer
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Rob Liefeld was born in the 1960s. From an early age finding a love for drawing, he soon found himself filling tests less and less with meaningful facts and more and more with doodles of superheroes. He knew he wanted to get into comics. Later on, during 1980's, his father became ill and he found himself with a new reason to get into comics: To support his family. At a comics convention, he showed his work to both DC and Marvel and found himself work on both The New Mutants and Hawk and Dove. After pumping new life into the New Mutants, the title was revamped was X-Force (joining the growing line of X titles that fill the comic book shops). Soon after seeing that creations of his own, such as Cable and Deadpool, were generating tons of money ), him and several fellow artists went off and founded Image Comics (via a distribution deal with Malibu Comics, founded by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg), a creator-owned venture into comics. With artwork that pushed the envelope, Rob and his fellow artists found themselves reaching superstar status. After years of working together at Image, Rob quit/Image fired him and he went off with Joseph Loeb III (writer of Commando and producer of Firestorm) and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg (developer of Men In Black, CEO Platinum Studios, 14 time New York Times Bestseller creator ) and founded Awesome Entertainment (now Awesome Comics). Now an independent success, Liefeld has several films in the works through his company: Avengelyne, Badrock, Prophet, and The Mark.- Writer
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Fabian Nicieza was born on 31 December 1961 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a writer and actor, known for God Woke (2016), Deadpool (2013) and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).- Writer
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Frank Miller was born in Olney, Maryland, to a nurse mother and a carpenter and electrician father, and was raised in Montpelier, Vermont. He is of Irish descent. Miller was a big comics writer/artist in the '70s and '80s. He wrote and penciled the Marvel series "Daredevil" for a long time. His friend, Klaus Janson, inked. He also wrote two spinoffs about the character "Electra" and did a miniseries about the "X-Men" character "Wolverine". His hit miniseries "Ronin" was published by DC in the mid-eighties. His greatest success came with DC's character "Batman". In 1980, he wrote the acclaimed "Batman" story "Wanted - Santa Claus - Dead or Alive!" for DC Comics. In 1986, his most notable comic-book work, the groundbreaking "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns", an alternate history story about Batman in a grim future, was published by DC. Miller wrote and penciled. In 1988, he wrote the acclaimed "Batman: Year One", about Batman's first year on the job, for DC. In 1996, he wrote "Spawn versus Batman", a one-shot issue published by DC and Image Comics. He wrote the major motion pictures RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993) and did the "Robocop" comic series for a little while.
Miller directed The Spirit (2008) and co-directed Sin City (2005) and Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)_.Publishing- Producer
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Taika Waititi, also known as Taika Cohen, hails from the Raukokore region of the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and is the son of Robin (Cohen), a teacher, and Taika Waititi, an artist and farmer. His father is Maori (Te-Whanau-a-Apanui), and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish, Irish, Scottish, and English descent. Taika has been involved in the film industry for several years, initially as an actor, and now focusing on writing and directing.
Two Cars, One Night is Taika's first professional film-making effort and since its completion in 2003 he has finished another short "Tama Tu" about a group of Maori Soldiers in Italy during World War 2. As a performer and comedian, Taika has been involved in some of the most innovative and successful original productions seen in New Zealand. He regularly does stand-up gigs in and around the country and in 2004 launched his solo production, "Taika's Incredible Show". In 2005 he staged the sequel, "Taika's Incrediblerer Show". As an actor, Taika has been critically acclaimed for both his Comedic and Dramatic abilities. In 2000 he was nominated for Best Actor at the Nokia Film Awards for his role in the Sarkies Brother's film "Scarfies".
Taika is also an experienced painter and photographer, having exhibited both mediums in Wellington and Berlin, and a fashion designer. He attended the Sundance Writers Lab with "Choice", a feature loosely based on "Two Cars, One Night".
Taika became a blockbuster director with his film Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and received critical acclaim, and a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, for his film Jojo Rabbit (2019).- Writer
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John Buscema was born on 11 December 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), WandaVision (2021) and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022). He died on 10 January 2002 in Port Jefferson, New York, USA.- Art Department
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Nelson Alexander Ross is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries Marvels, on which he collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek for Marvel Comics. He has since done a variety of projects for both Marvel and DC Comics, such as the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come, which Ross co-wrote. Since then he has done covers and character designs for Busiek's series Astro City, and various projects for Dynamite Entertainment. His feature film work includes concept and narrative art for Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, and DVD packaging art for the M. Night Shyamalan film Unbreakable. He has done covers for TV Guide, promotional artwork for the Academy Awards, posters and packaging design for video games, and his renditions of superheroes have been merchandised as action figures.- Actor
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Alan Tudyk was born in El Paso, Texas, but grew up in Plano, where he attended Plano Sr. High. In 1990, he went on to study drama at Lon Morris Jr. College. While there, he was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for Drama. He was also named Most Likely to Succeed and Sophomore Beau. During this time, Alan was also an active member of the Delta Psi Omega fraternity.
After leaving LMJC, Alan went on to study at the prestigious Juilliard conservatory but left in 1996 before earning a degree.
After a number of smaller stage productions and a small role in the movie Patch Adams (1998), Alan landed his first Broadway role in 1999 with "Epic Proportions." He quickly became a sought-after comedic actor, with roles in such films as 28 Days (2000) and A Knight's Tale (2001).
In 2002, Alan got the role of Wash, the wise-cracking pilot of Serenity on the short-lived series Firefly (2002). Although it lasted only eleven episodes, this may be Alan's most well-known and best-loved role. No other networks would buy the failed series, but Universal Pictures began courting creator Joss Whedon to produce a big-screen version of the series. While awaiting the final news of Firefly's fate, Alan played the beloved Steve the Pirate in the movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) and the voice of the robot Sonny in I, Robot (2004).
In 2005, Alan finally reprised the role of Wash in Serenity (2005), the feature-film version of the series Firefly. The same year, he went back to Broadway from June to November, taking over the role of Lancelot for Hank Azaria in the successful musical "Spamalot."
He lives in New York City but also has a place in Los Angeles, California- Actor
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James Albert Varney, Jr. was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nancy Louise (Howard) and James Albert Varney, Sr. He became interested in theater as a teenager, winning state titles in drama competitions while a student at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky. At age 15 he played Ebeneezer Scrooge in a local children's theater production of "A Christmas Carol", and by 17 was performing professionally in nightclubs and coffee houses. He chose Nashville rather than New York or Los Angeles as a place to pursue his acting career and, with advertising executive John R. Cherry III, turned "Ernest P. Worrell" into a cash cow, making commercials for clients ranging from soft drinks to food stores and, eventually, Disney. Even though Ernest's catchphrase "KnowhutImean?" became a national craze almost immediately, Jim worked in TV and film for more than a decade before his famous alter-ego hit the big screen in Ernest Goes to Camp (1987).- Art Department
- Additional Crew
Dick Ayers was born on 28 April 1924 in Ossining, New York, USA. He is known for Suspense (1949), With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2010) and Fantastic Forum (2007). He was married to Charlotte Lindy. He died on 4 May 2014 in White Plains, New York, USA.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Dan Slott was born on 3 July 1967 in Berkeley, California, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Jackpot and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (2010).