Early-life: Born Thomas Jacob Black on August 28, 1969, in Santa Monica, California. He's the only child of divorced satellite engineer parents and he has five half-siblings. At school he was the class clown. He became interested in music thanks to his mother's journalist lodger and his older half-brother, who was a music engineer. He made his acting debut in The Wizard of Oz at school; his professional debut came in a TV advert for a computer game at age 13. Following a difficult period during his teens he studied theatre at UCLA.

Early-life: Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles on August 8, 1937, the son of a furniture salesman and an amateur actress. He was named after silent-movie star Dustin Farnham and has an older brother, Ronald. He trained to be a doctor and a pianist, but preferred studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He and classmate Gene Hackman were voted least likely to succeed. He shared an apartment with Hackman and later with Robert Duvall, and studied at the famous Actors Studio in New York.

Early-life: Angelina Jolie Voight was born in Los Angeles on June 4, 1975 to actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. Her brother is the actor James Haven. After her parents separated in 1976, Angelina and her brother lived with their mother. At a young age, Angelina knew she wanted to be an actress and at the age of 11, she enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years. She went on to appear in a number of music videos before she played her first leading role, in low-budget sci-fi action film Cyborg 2 (1993).

Early-life: Born Chan Kong-sang on April 7, 1954, in Hong Kong. He lived in Canberra, Australia, as a child while his parents worked at the American Embassy. At the age of six they sent him to the China Drama Academy, also known as the Opera School, where he was trained in music, dance, and traditional martial arts. A visiting film-maker offered him a tiny part in a movie, and soon afterwards Chan quit the school to concentrate on acting. He later returned to Australia, where he worked as a construction worker and gained the nickname Jackie, after a colleague.

Early-life: Ian David McShane was born on September 29, 1942, in Blackburn, Lancashire, but grew up in Urmston. He's the son of Scottish footballer Harry McShane, who was playing for Blackburn Rovers at the time, and his wife Irene. Despite considering a career in football, he knew he would never be as good as his dad, and turned to acting instead. He trained alongside Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art during the early 1960s.

Early-life: Lucy Alexis Liu was born on December 2, 1968, to Chinese immigrants in Queens, New York. Her mother is a biochemist and her father a civil engineer. She has a brother and a sister and speaks fluent Mandarin. After high school she attended New York University, hated it, moved to the University of Michigan and gained a degree in Asian languages and cultures. She also did dance and acting training and, after playing the lead in a stage version of Alice in Wonderland, decided to turn professional.

Early-life: Vancouver-born Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in TV series Freaks and Geeks. Shortly after Rogen moved to Los Angeles for his role, Freaks and Geeks was cancelled. After landing a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which Rogen and the other writers received an Emmy nomination, he was guided by film producer Judd Apatow toward a film career.

Early-life: Michael Clarke Duncan was born on December 10th, 1957. He was raised by his single mother on Chicago's South Side - a notorious community. He resisted drugs and alcohol, instead concentrating on school. He wanted to play football in high school, but his mother wouldn't let him, fearing he would get hurt - despite his enormous bulk. He then turned to acting, dreaming of becoming a Hollywood star. After graduating from high school and attending community college, he worked digging ditches at Peoples Gas Company in Chicago. When he quit his job and headed to Hollywood, he landed small roles while working as a bodyguard for the likes of Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J and the Notorious B.I.G. He let a friend take over for him the night Notorious B.I.G. was shot, which prompted him to quit that line of work.