Career: Black left university early to join Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang theatre group, where he met his musical partner Kyle Gass. Black's first film was Robbins' Bob Roberts in 1992. He then moved into TV, making numerous appearances in such shows as The Golden Palace, The X-Files and Touched By An Angel. Other early films include Waterworld, Dead Man Walking and Mars Attacks! His breakthrough role was in 2000's High Fidelity. He's also starred in Shallow Hal, Orange County, School of Rock, Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong and The Muppets. Lending his vocal talents to the animated Kung-Fu Panda movies cemented his star status.

Career: Cranston became active in local theatre but his parents had mixed feelings about their son entering the profession. In the 1980s, he began landing guest roles on a number of TV shows, including CHiPs, Loving, Airwolf, Hill Street Blues and Falcon Crest. His career continued to be built on a steady stream of guest roles until his first big break came in 2000 when he landed a recurring role as Hal in the hugely popular sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. It ran for seven seasons, clocking up 151 episodes. Two years after Malcom ended, Cranston secured what turned out to be a landmark role in AMC drama Breaking Bad as high school chemistry teacher Walter White. For his work on the series, Cranston won a Golden Globe and four Emmys. Since starring in Breaking Bad, Hollywood producers have been beating a path to his door. He has starred in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Drive (2011), Larry Crowne (2011), Contagion (2011), John Carter (2012), Rock of Ages (2012), Total Recall (2012), Argo (2012) and Godzilla (2014). In 2014, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Lyndon B Johnson in the play All the Way.

Career: Jolie's star began to rise following appearances in a number of small films in the mid-1990s, including Hackers (1995), Foxfire (1996), True Woman (1997) and George Wallace (1997), a TV movie that won her a Golden Globe. She secured another Golden Globe a year later for her role as supermodel Gia Carangi in Gia (1998). Her big break came in 1999 when she landed a leading role in The Bone Collector (1999). In the same year, she gave an acclaimed performance in Girl, Interrupted, a role that led to her third Golden Globe and an Academy Award. Since then, Jolie has appeared in a number of high-profile movies, including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Mr & Mrs Smith (2005), Changeling (2008), Salt (2010), The Tourist (2010) and Maleficent (2014).

Career: Hoffman spent 10 years trying to get decent roles, making ends meet by teaching and appearing in commercials and TV series. In 1967 he landed the lead role in The Graduate which made him a star and secured his first Oscar nomination. He gained further nods from the Academy for Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Tootsie and Wag the Dog, and has won twice for Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man. Other notable films include Straw Dogs, Little Big Man, Sleepers, Runaway Jury, Finding Neverland, I Heart Huckabees, Meet the Fockers and Stranger Than Fiction. More recent projects include Last Chance Harvey, Little Fockers, the short-lived TV series Luck and Esio Trot. He also directed the BBC-backed film Quartet.

Career: Stage roles followed with Captain Hook and Mr Darling, Peter Pan and a revival of Guys and Dolls. His film debut came in The Ref (1994). He made guest appearances in a number of TV shows before his big break in 1997 when he began playing Dr Emil Skoda in Law & Order. He also played a villain in six seasons of crime drama OZ. His movie credits include scene-stealing performances in The Gift (2000), The Mexican (2001) and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, where he played newspaper mogul J Jonah Jameson. He was a main character in TV crime drama The Closer, which ran from 2005 until 2012. His other movie credits include Juno (2007), Burn After Reading (2008), Up in the Air (2009) and I Love You, Man (2009). He has also voiced a number of characters in TV shows, films and video games.

Career: Chan had small roles in Bruce Lee movies Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon, and also did stunt work and directed projects. After Lee died, Chan decided he didn't want to imitate him, so he developed his own film-making style, a mixture of action and comedy inspired by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. By the 1980s, he was Asia's biggest star, and tried to break the US market by appearing in The Cannonball Run and its sequel. These days, Chan is a global superstar thanks to such movies as Rush Hour and Shanghai Knights and their sequels, and The Forbidden Kingdom, Kung Fu Panda, The Spy Next Door and the remake of The Karate Kid. In 2012 Chan announced he would be cutting down on the number of stunts he would perform in an attempt to take better care of himself.

Career: Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After Rogen received critical praise for that performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow's directorial feature films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen and his comedy partner Evan Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet. Rogen has done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul.

Career: After moving to Los Angeles, Liu worked as an aerobics instructor before gradually gaining roles. After short appearances in Beverly Hills 90210, ER, and The X Files, she won a regular part in sitcom Pearl. Various forgettable roles followed before she set pulses racing as a dominatrix in Mel Gibson's Maverick and landed a regular part in Ally McBeal, which made her a star. She's since appeared in Shanghai Noon, Charlie's Angels and its sequel, Chicago, Kill Bill, Lucky Number Slevin and Elementary.