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: 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: DiCaprio made his film debut in direct-to-video comedy sci-fi horror Critters 3 in 1991. Shortly after, he had a recurring role on the sitcom Growing Pains. His big break came in 1992 when he beat 400 other young actors to play the lead role in the movie This Boy's Life (1993) alongside Ellen Barkin and Robert De Niro. DiCaprio achieved critical acclaim for his role as a mentally handicapped boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). Roles in a number of popular and acclaimed movies followed, including Romeo + Juliet (1996), Titanic (1997), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Blood Diamond (2006), Inception (2010), Shutter Island (2010), J Edgar (2011), Django Unchained (2012), The Great Gatsby (2013) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).

Career: Jackson's first film was Together for Days in 1972. He later spent two years as a stand-in on The Cosby Show, before starring in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. A series of walk-on parts in films and on TV followed. Spike Lee cast him as the crack-addicted Gator in Jungle Fever, which gained him international acclaim. His most notable films have included Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction (for which he was Oscar-nominated), Star Wars: Episodes One, Two and Three, Shaft, The 51st State, Unbreakable, Changing Lanes, Black Snake Moan, Django Unchained, Thor, The Avengers and many more. He is regarded as one of the most bankable assets in the movie business and always has a number of films in the pipeline.

Career: Goggins' first acting role was in a 1989 episode of In the Heat of the Night. That was closely followed by roles in TV film Murder in Mississippi, Beverly Hills 90210, Renegade and JAG. He's since appeared in Shanghai Noon, The Bourne Identity, and House of 1000 Corpses. Many people may recognise him from his part in The World's Fastest Indian, but it's for co-starring in gritty crime drama The Shield that he remains best known. He has starred in American drama Justified since 2010. His recent big-screen credits include Cowboys & Aliens, Straw Dogs, Lincoln, Django Unchained and GI Joe: Retaliation.

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.