Formerly known as Jessica Stevenson (she officially changed her name in 2007 to her married name, despite having used her maiden name professionally for more than a decade), actress and screenwriter Jessica Hynes was born in Lewisham, England, but raised in Brighton. As a youth, Hynes gravitated to stage performance and enlisted in the National Youth Theatre ensemble when she was in her teens. Hynes broke i ...

Canadian-born actor Seth Rogen tapped into his skills as a comedian when he was only 13, signing up for comedy classes and honing his deadpan style. He tooled around as an amateur for a few years but eventually took his act down south, hoping to find success as an actor and standup comedian in the U.S. He was soon discovered by Judd Apatow and was cast in his short-lived series Freaks and Geeks. After its c ...

Actor. Born Zach Galifianakis on October 1, 1969, in Wilkesboro, North Carolina to parents Harry and Mary Galifianakis. As a child, Zach was raised in a Greek Orthodox home. In the late 1980s, Galifianakis attended North Carolina State University. He dropped out of college just one credit short of graduating, however, and moved to New York City. While in New York in 1995, Galifianakis met stand-up comedian ...

(born March 28, 1936, Arequipa, Peru) Peruvian writer whose commitment to social change is evident in his novels, plays, and essays. In 1990 he was an unsuccessful candidate for president of Peru. Vargas Llosa received his early education in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where his grandfather was the Peruvian consul. He later attended a series of schools in Peru before entering a military school, Leoncio Prado, in L ...

Bill Maher is a stand-up comedian and a self-made political savant on the TV shows Politically Incorrect and Real Time with Bill Maher. He grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Cornell University in 1978 and started his stand-up comedy career right out of college. During the 1980s he toured and appeared on TV, and in 1993 he started Politically Incorrect  on the cable channel Comedy Central. On the show Mah ...

Singer. She was born Gloria Fajardo on September 1, 1957, in Havana, Cuba. As a toddler Estefan fled Cuba with her family when Communist dictator Fidel Castro rose to power. Her father, Jos˜O Manuel Fajardo, had been a Cuban soldier and bodyguard of President Fulgencio Batista. After coming to the United States, Fajardo was recruited into the 2506 Brigade, a Central Intelligence Agency-funded band of Cuban ...

Actor, writer, producer. Born Martin Hayter Short on March 26, 1950, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Known for his wacky characters and dead-on impressions, Martin Short was a born entertainer, aspiring to have his own variety show at an early age. Up in his bedroom, Short would record a show of his own making, which featured songs and interviews. "I wanted to be Frank Sinatra; I thought being Frank was cool, ...

While ere associated with one particular role -- that of Winnie Cooper, Kevin Arnold's (Fred Savage) childhood sweetheart, on the seminal late-'80s seriocomedy The Wonder Years -- American actress Danica McKellar sported an impressive resumé that ultimately encompassed a variety of more challenging parts and extended far beyond the confines of acting in film and television. Born in San Diego, the photogenic ...

Actress, producer, writer, comedian. Francine Joy Drescher was born in Flushing, Queens, on September 30th, 1957, as the youngest of two children. Drescher's mother Sylvia was a bridal consultant and father, Mort, was a systems analyst for the U.S. Navy. While attending Parsons Junior High, Drescher realized she was interested in acting. At Hillcrest High School (where she shared several classes with comedi ...

New York-born and bred actress Rosario Dawson made her screen debut in Larry Clark's controversial Kids  (1995). Literally picked off the street to play Ruby, one of the film's titular teens, Dawson -- who is of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Black, Irish, and Native American heritage -- had never acted before being cast in the film. Following Kids, she next appeared in Spike Lee's He Got Game (1998) and that same ye ...