Career: Early roles came in Dallas, Growing Pains, Head Of The Class and several TV movies. Pitt's big break was playing young stud JD in Thelma And Louise. Hits include True Romance, Se7en, Interview With The Vampire, Snatch, Fight Club, Ocean's Eleven and Spy Game. Keen to stretch himself, he turned down a role in Apollo 13 to make Twelve Monkeys, for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Since then his films include Mr & Mrs Smith, two sequels to Ocean's Eleven, Babel, Burn After Reading and The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. He received an Oscar nomination for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button in 2008. His recent work includes Inglourious Basterds, Moneyball, World War Z, 12 Years a Slave and Fury.

Career: Laurent forged out a career as an actress, appearing in a succession of French movies, including I'm Fine, Don't Worry (2006), which earned her a Cesar Award for Most Promising Actress. She reached international audiences in 2009 when she starred in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Since then, she has starred in Beginners (2011), Night Train to Lisbon (2013) and Now You See Me (2013).

Career: Fassbender's first TV role was in the mini-series Band of Brothers. Roles followed in Hearts and Bones, Holby City, William and Mary, Murphy's Law, Hex and Agatha Christie's Poirot. He made his movie debut in 300. Since then, he has established himself as a bona fide film star. His big-screen credits include Eden Lake, Inglourious Basterds, X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method, Prometheus, Frank and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Fassbender also has a strong working relationship with director Steve McQueen, with whom he's worked on the acclaimed projects Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave - Fassbender received an Oscar nomination for his work on the latter.

Career: For 30 years, Waltz made a steady living as an actor on German TV but struggled to find English-speaking roles. His big break came when he met Quentin Tarantino and played Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009). It catapulted him to international recognition and he won a number of awards for his performance, including an Academy Award. Since then, Waltz has been a bona fide Hollywood star and appeared in The Green Hornet (2011), Water for Elephants (2011), The Three Musketeers (2011) and Carnage (2011). In 2012 he teamed up with Tarantino again for the critically acclaimed Django Unchained, for which Waltz won his second Academy Award. He now has a number of Hollywood films in the pipeline.

Career: Bruhl first came to prominence to global audiences in Good Bye Lenin! (2003). He made his English-speaking debut alongside Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in Ladies in Lavender (2004). Since then, Bruhl has starred in The Edukators (2004), Salvador (2006), 2 Days in Paris (2007), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Inglourious Basterds (2009). More recently, he has appeared in 2 Days in New York (2011), Rush (2013), Burnt (2015) and Captain America: Civil War (2016). He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as Niki Lauda in Rush.

Career: In 1990, Tarantino sold the script for True Romance for $50,000 and he was going to use most of this money to make a low-budget version of his screenplay for Reservoir Dogs. However, a friend of a friend showed a copy to Harvey Keitel, who raised the extra money needed to increase the budget to $1.5million. The film was released in 1992 to critical acclaim. Tarantino's second film as a director, Pulp Fiction, was a huge commercial success, winning the Palme D'Or at the Cannes film festival and an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Projects since then include From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackie Brown, the Kill Bill movies, Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained. He has also directed work for TV, notably earning an Emmy nomination for directing an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.