The daughter of a California-based civil engineer and a Costa Rican émigré, Madeleine Stowe attended the University of Southern California, but cut classes to watch plays. Her life as a waitress came to an end when she was fired for being "too spacey," but she was anything but spacey when it came to pursuing an acting career on the California theater circuit. Stowe eventually attracted the attention of Rich ...

Rosanna Arquette is still best known for her early film roles in 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan (co-starring Madonna) and After Hours (directed by Martin Scorsese), even though she has appeared on screen regularly since her debut in the late 1970s. She frequently appears in independently made films and is known for offbeat characters and a distinctive overbite. Her notable film appearances include Baby, I ...

Edgy female comic Lisa Ann Walter may look like your wholesome, All-American former high-school prom queen, but don't be fooled by appearances -- she can work blue with the best of them. As a featured performer on the all-female standup special The Naughty Show, Walter brought down the house with her raucous stage presence. Of course, standup is only one of her many talents, and Walter has also appeared on ...

Saucer-eyed actress Illeana Douglas has been regularly appearing in major films since 1987, when she debuted in the Shelley Long comedy Hello Again. The granddaughter of actor Melvyn Douglas and actress-turned-Congresswoman Helen Gahagan, Douglas was born July 25, 1965, in Massachusetts. After her film debut, the actress worked for years in relative obscurity, at one point dubbing a chilling scream for The ...

From stage to screen to recording studios, Lonette McKee has worked as both an actress and vocalist. Although actors who also sing have been a dime a dozen since the earliest days of stage and cinema, McKee's groundbreaking performance as the first African-American actress to portray the character of Julie in a major American production of Show Boat would have earned her a place in entertainment history eve ...

Audrey Landers is an accomplished actress, singer, writer, composer, and producer She is best known to fans all over the world for her memorable role as “Afton Cooper” for eight years on Dallas, her controversial Playboy pictorial (with her clothes on), and hundreds of television gigs in the 1980s and 1990s. But Audrey Landers has been somewhat under the radar in the U.S. over the past few years, raising he ...

Actor, director, writer, producer. Born Mark Vincent on July 18, 1967, in New York City. Diesel managed to parley several self-produced, low-budget films into big-budget leading man status. Born to a theater director and a psychologist (and sometimes astrologer), in interviews, Diesel has been guarded about his ethnic background. He started acting at the age of 7 at the Theater for the New City and continue ...

Tenor, born on September 22, 1958 in Lajatico, Tuscany, NW Italy. Interested in music from an early age, he learned to play the piano, flute, and saxophone, and was often asked to sing at family gatherings. Visually impaired from birth, he became blind at the age of 12 following a soccer injury. Bocelli later studied law at the University of Pisa, spent a year working as a lawyer, then decided to try a sing ...

Screenwriter Katherine Fugate is probably best known as the writer of the hit film, "Valentine's Day," directed by Garry Marshall and starring an all-star cast.  Sold as an original pitch to New Line Cinema, "Valentine's Day" broke several box office records.  Katherine also wrote the follow-up film, "New Year's Eve," which is currently in production and will be released in theatres on December 9, 2011. Kat ...

Actor, writer, director, and producer. Born Patrick Hewes Stewart on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, England. Widely known for his work on the popular science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart is a versatile performer, equally at home playing comic book characters and legendary Shakespearean parts. He comes from a modest beginning. "I grew up...in a house that had one roo ...