Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell got his start with sketch comedy and improvisation, working with the Los Angeles-based company The Groundlings, before being invited to join the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1995. He stayed until 2002, playing a variety of characters including George W. Bush, Robert Houlet, Neil Diamond, a member of Blue Oyster Cult, and Steve Butabi.
He transitioned into a film career while a cast member of SNL, appearing in Austin Powers, A Night at the Roxbury, Superstar, The Ladies Man, Dick, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Zoolander. His breakthrough film role was in Old School, which he followed up with Elf in 2003. Next came Anchorman, Starsky and Hutch, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, Strangers with Candy.
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman's breakthrough performance was as Benjamin Braddock in Mike Nichols' The Graduate, and his character in Stranger than Fiction shares with Benjamin an affinity for the pool. After starting as a stage actor, Hoffman began appearing in films including Midnight Cowboy, Papillon, Marathon Man, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Hook, and Wag the Dog. He has won the Academy Award twice.
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is an actress and a screenwriter. After graduating from Cambridge, Thompson began acting to much acclaim. Her first Academy Award was for her role in Howards End in 1992. She was nominated again for The Remains of the Day and In the Name of the Father in the same year. Soon after, she adapted the screenplay for Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and starred in the lead role. For her writing, Thompson was awarded an Academy award. Other films include Love Actually, Wit, Stranger than Fiction, Nanny McPhee, Brave, and Beauty and the Beast.
Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah got her start as a rapper at the age of 19, releasing a record called All Hail the Queen. In the early 1990s, she acted on the sitcom Living Single, and in 1999 got her own talk show called The Queen Latifah Show. In 2002, after playing Matron Mama Morton in the film adaptation of Chicago (for which she was nominated for an Academy Award), Latifah achieved more mainstream success. Her other films include Bringing Down the House, Beauty Shop, Hairspray, Last Holiday, Joyful Noise, Girls Trip, and as Bessie Smith in the HBO film Bessie.
Maggie Gyllenhaal
The daughter of filmmakers, Gyllenhaal began working as a film actress when she was a teenager, starring alongside her brother Jake in the cult classic Donnie Darko in 2001. Her breakout role was as a sadomasochistic receptionist in the indie film Secretary, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Other films include Sherrybaby, The Dark Knight, Crazy Heart, Frank, Happy Endings, and Stranger than Fiction.
Tony Hale
Tony Hale is best known for playing Buster Bluth on Arrested Development and for his role on the hit television show Veep, for which he won an Emmy Award.
