Anna Paquin Biography

Anna Paquin, the young Canadian who grew up in New Zealand and whose only acting experience was as a skunk at a school play, stunned moviegoers from all over the world with her performance as Holly Hunter's angry young daughter in the acclaimed film The Piano (1993). Anna, who received an Oscar for her performance (the second youngest Academy Award winner ever), has proven that The Piano (1993) was only the beginning of a fabulous career.

She starred in Carroll Ballard's Fly Away Home (1996) and in Franco Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre (1996). After her parents' divorce, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister in order to pursue more actively a career in acting. Soon enough, she made the transition from child-actress to teenage actress with her performance in Hurlyburly (1998) alongside Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey and Meg Ryan and in A Walk on the Moon (1999) alongside Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen and Liev Schreiber. Paquin, who has become an expert at portraying troubled teenagers, then starred in the popular science fiction film X-Men (2000). The same year, she also appeared in films such as Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000) and Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester (2000). Anna, who was a student at Columbia University, moved to New York City and began a new career as a stage actress appearing both in New York and London.

Jennifer Lynn Lopez Biography

Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born in the Castle Hill section of the South Bronx on July 24, 1969. The middle of three musically-inclined sisters, Leslie Lopez, a homemaker and Linda López (aka Lynda Lopez), an entertainment consultant for New York's Channel 11, Jennifer always dreamed of being a multi-tasking superstar. Jennifer's parents, Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez, were both born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the second largest Puerto Rican city. The two were then brought to the United States in their childhoods and, eventually, met while living in New York City. While Jennifer is of Puerto Rican descent, her paternal grandmother's parents were Europeans who settled on the island of Puerto Rico. As a child, Jennifer enjoyed a variety of musical genres, mainly Afro-Caribbean rhythms like salsa, merengue and bachata, and mainstream music like pop, hip-hop and R&B. Although she loved music, the film industry also intrigued her. Her biggest influence was the Rita Moreno musical, West Side Story (1961). At age five, Jennifer began taking singing and dancing lessons. Aside from being a budding entertainer, Jennifer was also a Catholic schoolgirl, attending eight years at an all-girls catholic high school named "Holy Family", located in the Bronx, before graduating from Preston High School after a four-year stay. At school, Jennifer was an amazing athlete and participated in track and field and tennis. At age eighteen, Lopez moved out of her parent's home. During this time, Lopez worked at a law firm while she took dancing jobs at night. Her big break came when she was offered a job as a fly girl on Fox's hit comedy, "In Living Color" (1990). After a two-year stay at "In Living Color" (1990) where actress Rosie Perez served as choreographer, Lopez then went on to dance for famed singer-actress Janet Jackson. Her first major film was Gregory Nava's My Family (1995), and her career went into over-drive when she portrayed slain Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla Perez in Selena (1997).

Lindsay Lohan Biography

Lindsay Dee Lohan was born in New York City on 2 July 1986 to Dina Lohan and Michael Lohan. She began her career at age three as a model at the Eileen Ford Agency, and made appearances in over 60 television commercials, including spots for The Gap, Pizza Hut, Wendy's and Jell-O (opposite Bill Cosby). Lohan made her acting debut in 1996 as the third actress to play Ali Fowler in the television drama "Another World" (1964). Shortly afterward she was hand-picked by Oscar-nominated writer Nancy Meyers as estranged twin sisters in an adaptation by Walt Disney Pictures of a novel by Erich Kästner, which marked Meyers' directorial debut. Lohan's first feature film, The Parent Trap (1998), a remake of The Parent Trap (1961), was a modest commercial success, earning her widespread critical acclaim and a Young Artist award for Best Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film, as well as Blockbuster Entertainment and YoungStar award nominations.

Kate Winslet Biography

Kate Winslet Born into a family of thespians -- parents Roger Winslet and Sally Bridges-Winslet were both stage actors, maternal grandparents Oliver and Linda Bridges ran the Reading Repertory Theatre, and uncle Robert Bridges was a fixture in London's West End theatre district -- Kate came into her talent at an early age. She scored her first professional gig at 11, dancing opposite the Honey Monster in a commercial for a kids' cereal. She started acting lessons around the same time, which led to formal training at a performing arts high school. Over the next few years, she appeared on stage regularly and landed a few bit parts in sitcoms. Her first big break came at age 17, when she was cast as an obsessive adolescent in Heavenly Creatures (1994). The film, based on the true story of two fantasy-gripped girls who commit a brutal murder, received modest distribution but was roundly praised by critics.

Angelina Jolie Biography

Biography
Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning actress who has become popular by taking on the title role in the "Lara Croft" series of blockbuster movies. 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. In her earliest years, Angelina began absorbing the acting craft from her parents - her father is the Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and her mother is Marcheline Bertrand, who had studied with Lee Strasberg. At age 11, 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. Her good looks may derive from her ancestry, which is German and Slovak on her father's side, and French-Canadian, Dutch, German, and remote Huron, on her mother's side.

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) (TV), and in George Wallace (1997) (TV) 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) (TV). 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) (TV) again garnered a Golden Globe Award and another Emmy nomination, and she additionally earned a SAG Award.