Career: Travolta eventually moved to Los Angeles to further his acting career. His big break came with sitcom Welcome Back Cotter; he also made an early movie appearance in Carrie. Saturday Night Fever and the film version of Grease proved he was a major force to be reckoned with. More big-screen outings followed but, despite the success of Look Who's Talking, a string of flops in the 1980s meant he fell out of favour until Quentin Tarantino cast him in Pulp Fiction in 1994. He's since made various hits, including Swordfish, Primary Colors and Get Shorty. Over the past few years he's appeared in Wild Hogs, Hairspray, From Paris with Love and The Taking of Pelham 123. He remains an A-list star.

Career: Pfeiffer gained regular parts in short-lived sitcom Delta House in 1979, and crime drama BAD Cats. Her first film was 1980's The Hollywood Knights. Landing the lead in Grease 2 should have boosted her career, but the film was a flop. Parts in Scarface, Ladyhawke, and Sweet Liberty followed, and The Witches of Eastwick made her star in 1987. Since then, she's received Oscar nominations for Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys, and Love Field. She also starred in Frankie and Johnny, Batman Returns, The Age of Innocence, One Fine Day, and I Am Sam. After some time away from the movies, she returned with a vengeance in star-studded fantasy Stardust and won rave reviews for her role as a courtesan in Cheri. More recently she's appeared in New Year's Eve, Dark Shadows and The Family, and claims she plans to work a lot now that her children are grown up.

Career: For the next few years, Walken appeared in musical productions. After 1966's Barefoot in Athens, small roles in The Anderson Tapes and Annie Hall followed. His big break came in 1978 when he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Deer Hunter. He's been in demand ever since. Other films include A View to a Kill, Batman Returns, True Romance, Pulp Fiction and Catch Me If You Can. He continues to be an in-demand character actor, excelling in both comedy and serious drama. Dancing in Fat Boy Slim video Weapon of Choice introduced him to a new generation of fans. More recent work includes Wedding Crashers, Man of the Year, Hairspray and Seven Psychopaths.

Career: Blonsky's big break came in 2007 when she portrayed Tracy Turnblad in the popular musical film Hairspray. In the same year, she began work on her debut album. Her first single, On a High, featured in her TV movie Queen Sized. Her TV credits include a guest appearance on Ugly Betty, a recurring role on MTV mystery series Valemont, the lead part in short-lived drama Huge and a recurring role in Smash.

Career: Marsden's first acting job was in the pilot episode of sitcom The Nanny in 1993. A year later, he starred in Canadian TV series Boogies Diner. His big break came in 1996 when he landed the lead role in ABC drama Second Noah. He went on to star in the films Disturbing Behaviour (1998) and Gossip (2000) and joined the cast of TV comedy drama Ally McBeal in its final season. Since then he has filled out his CV by playing Cyclops in three hugely popular X-Men movies and starring in Superman Returns (2006), Hairspray (2007), Enchanted (2007), 27 Dresses (2008), Death at a Funeral (2010), Bachelorette (2012) and 2 Guns (2013). He also had a recurring role in sitcom 30 Rock.

Career: Bynes made her film debut alongside Frankie Muniz in Big Fat Liar (2002). From 2002 to 2006, she starred with Jennie Garth in the sitcom What I Like About You. Other film credits include What a Girl Wants (2003), She's the Man (2006), Hairspray (2007) and Easy A (2010). Since 2012, Bynes has been more famous for her run-ins with police officers than for her acting.

Career: Her debut album, All Hail the Queen, was released in 1989 when she was 19. After she issued her fourth hip-hop album, Order in the Court, she began to sing soul music and jazz standards. She released her first soul/jazz album, The Dana Owens Album, in 2004. She returned to hip-hop in 2008 on the record All Hail the Queen II. Away from music, she began acting in the 1990s in American sitcom Living Single. She went on to have supporting roles in the films House Party 2 (1991), Jungle Fever (1991), Juice (1992), Set It Off (1996), Living Out Loud (1998) and The Bone Collector (1999) and had her own talk show from 1999 to 2001. She gained mainstream success in Chicago (2002), Bringing Down the House (2003) and Hairspray (2007). More recently, she returned to TV with The Queen Latifah Show.

Career: On Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward's advice, Janney enrolled at New York's Neighbourhood Playhouse, but she struggled to land decent roles. She made her big-screen debut in 1989's Who Shot Patakango? and also enjoyed a two-year stint in TV soap opera The Guiding Light. Small parts followed in Wolf (1994), The Ice Storm (1997), Primary Colors (1998) and American Beauty (1999). She won four Emmy awards for her role as CJ in The West Wing. She's since appeared in Hairspray (2007), Juno (2007), The Help (2011) and The Way Way Back (2013). Her recent TV credits include Mom and Masters of Sex.