Career: Encouraged by a girlfriend, he made his stage debut as a stand-up comic in 1989. Foxx changed his name to something androgynous after learning that women were first on the bill at open-mic nights in comedy clubs. By 1991 he was a star in the US thanks to TV show In Living Color. His first film was 1992's Toys. Since then he's had his own, self-titled show, and featured in movies The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Any Given Sunday, Ali and Collateral. His leading role in Ray Charles biopic Ray propelled him onto Hollywood's A-list. He's also released several albums, and collaborated with Kanye West on hit single Gold Digger.

Career: By 1999, Fey became SNL's first female head writer and a year later, she began performing regular in sketches. She began to co-anchor SNL's Weekend Update segment with Jimmy Fallon. She remained with SNL while she developed a sitcom pilot that would later become 30 Rock. She left SNL in 2006 to develop 30 Rock. Despite attracting low audience ratings, 30 Rock went on to win a number of awards during its seven-season run. She first tasted film success as the writer and co-star of popular teen comedy Mean Girls (2004). Since then, she has starred in Baby Mama (2008), The Invention of Lying (2009), Date Night (2010), Admission (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014). She also voiced a character in animated movie Megamind (2010).

Career: Following stints as a receptionist and photo researcher, Angela began looking for acting work in New York and one of her first appearances came in 1985 when she appeared in JE Franklin's Black Girl at Second Stage Theatre. In the same year, she made her TV debut as a prostitute in Doubletake and then gained recognition for her role in Boyz n the Hood. This was followed by starring roles in The Jacksons: An American Dream and What's Love Got to Do with It, for which she won a Golden Globe. She has worked steadily ever since, including roles in Alias and ER. More recently, she has appeared in Green Lantern, This Means War and Olympus Has Fallen.

Career: Started as a stand-up comedian, presented short-lived game show Carnal Knowledge and appeared on Father Ted. Got his big break in 1997 presenting The Jack Docherty Show while the regular host was on holiday. Norton won Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards, beating Docherty who had been nominated for the same plaudit. In 1998, he landed his own chat show, So Graham Norton, and started the production company, So Television. He signed a multi-million-dollar contract to host an American version of his chat show, The Graham Norton Effect, before moving to the BBC in 2004, presenting programmes including Strictly Dance Fever and The Bigger Picture. Since then, his star has gone into orbit, fronting endless musical reality shows, resurrecting his chat show, and recently taking over as the voice of Eurovision.

Career: Ayoade's breakthrough came when he and Matthew Holness created fictional horror author Garth Merenghi; a stage show featuring the character won the Perrier Award, which was followed by the Channel 4 series Garth Merenghi's Darkplace. Ayoade went on to appear in The Mighty Boosh, Nathan Barley, Bunny and the Bull, and The IT Crowd. He made his big-screen directorial debut with the acclaimed Submarine (which he also wrote, adapting it from the novel by Joe Dunthorne), and has since directed The Double as well as numerous music videos for acts such as the Arctic Monkeys, Super Furry Animals, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kasabian. He's was a team captain on Channel 4 panel show Was It Something I Said? and took over as host of Gadget Man from Stephen Fry.