Career: Grant started out as a member of comedy troupe The Jockeys of Norfolk. He appeared in his first film, Privileged, in 1982. Other early projects include The Detective, A Very Peculiar Practice, The Demon Lover and Ladies in Charge. He had higher profile roles in Maurice, The Lair of the White Worm and The Remains of the Day. His big break came when he was cast in Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. Big-screen productions since include An Awfully Big Adventure, Sense and Sensibility, Notting Hill, Mickey Blue Eyes, About a Boy, Love Actually and two Bridget Jones films. He could recently be heard in animated film The Pirates!

Career: After attending Georgia State University, Julia moved to New York to begin her career. She also did some modelling. Her first role was in Blood Red, alongside her brother, in 1986, although it wasn't released for three years. Mystic Pizza was her first notable project in 1988, and a year later she received her first Oscar nomination for Steel Magnolias. Pretty Woman made her a massive star. Hits since then include Flatliners, Sleeping with the Enemy, My Best Friend's Wedding, Notting Hill and Ocean's Eleven. She won an Oscar for Erin Brockovich, becoming Hollywood's highest paid actress in the process.

Career: Ifans spent 18 months at the National Theatre and has also appeared at Manchester's Royal Exchange theatre. His first TV appearances were in Welsh-language programmes for S4C. In 1995, he made his movie debut in Streetlife. Two years later he appeared on the small screen in The Sin Eater and Trial and Retribution, and starred in the film Twin Town with his brother. Notting Hill made him a star in 1999. Since then he's featured in Kevin and Perry Go Large, Little Nicky, The 51st State, The Shipping News and Vanity Fair. His recent work includes Enduring Love, Hannibal Rising, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Boat That Rocked, Greenberg, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, and The Amazing Spider-Man.

Career: Chambers appeared in all 24 editions of The Vicar of Dibley and her last appearance was a Comic Relief Special in 2007. Her other TV credits include How Do You Want Me? and Take a Girl Like You. In 1999, she starred in the film Notting Hill.

Career: Dreyfus made his TV debut in Love Hurts in 1993, appeared in two episodes of Absolutely Fabulous in 1995, and was in the movies Richard III and Thin Ice before his big break came in sitcom The Thin Blue Line. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme followed, while Notting Hill introduced him to US casting directors who gave him a lucrative salary to appear in Bette Midler's sitcom, Bette. Unfortunately, it was axed after just one series. He's also appeared in several stage plays, Hell's Kitchen and Midsomer Murders. More recently, he has been playing the Reverend Roger in Sky1 drama Mount Pleasant.

Career: At 17, McKee auditioned but was turned down by drama school. At first, she thought she wouldn't make it in showbusiness, but continued auditioning anyway. She appeared on TV in such programmes as An Actor's Life for Me, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Inspector Morse, and The Lenny Henry Show. McKee also made a handful of movies, most notably Mike Leigh's Naked, before hitting the big time with miniseries Our Friends in the North in 1996, for which she won a Bafta. Since then, she's appeared in such acclaimed projects as Notting Hill, Croupier, The Forsyte Saga, The Lost Prince and The Borgias.

Career: Following a spell on stage, Bonneville made his TV debut in teen sitcom Dodgem. He spent the next few years dividing his time between theatre, TV and film work, having small parts in such projects as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Cadfael, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Tomorrow Never Dies, Bugs, and Mosley. He had a regular role in sitcom Holding the Baby, but finally became a recognisable face thanks to the movie Notting Hill in 1999. Since then he's appeared in The Cazalets, Madame Bovary, The Gathering Storm, Tipping the Velvet, Doctor Zhivago, Twenty Twelve, and Love Again. He won rave reviews for his role in the TV comedy Freezing and Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story. However, he's become a TV superstar on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years thanks to his starring role in period drama Downton Abbey. Recent projects have included W1A and The Monuments Men.

Career: After several well-received theatre roles he was cast as Lord Percy in Blackadder and has been linked to the comedy masterpiece ever since. Subsequent hits include Wetherby (1985), Erik the Viking (1989), a film production of Shakespeare's Richard III (1995), FairyTale: A True Story (1997), Notting Hill (1999), 102 Dalmatians (2000), The Emperor's New Clothes (2001), and Severance (2006). TV hits include Spooks and Trial and Retribution. He also played Dr Frank-N-Furter in the 1990 West End production of The Rocky Horror Show.

Career: In 1993, Moran won the So You Think You're Funny award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He went on to become the youngest person to win the Perrier Comedy Award in 1996 at the Edinburgh Festival when he was 24. In 2000, he starred in Black Books, a Channel 4 sitcom about a miserable, unsociable, drunken, chain-smoking, and disorganized book shop owner called Bernard Black. Based on Moran's original idea, the series was brought to life by co-writer and fellow Irishman Graham Linehan. Two more series followed, and his stand-up tours and DVDs remain best-sellers, while his movie career continues to blossom. On the big screen, he has appeared in Shaun of the Dead, A Cock and Bull Story, and Run, Fatboy, Run.