Penelope Cruz - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Penelope Cruz Profile

Name: Penelope Cruz

Birth Name - Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Born - April 28, 1974, Madrid, Spain

Height - 5' 5½''

Nationality - Spanish

Profession - Actress, Model

Relationship - Matthew McConaughey (actor; November 4, 1969; dating since summer 2004, met while filming Sahara; broke up in May 2006), Tom Cruise (actor; dated 2001-January 2004)

Father - Eduardo Cruz (auto mechanic)

Mother - Encarna Cruz (hairdresser, manager)

Sister - Monica Cruz (professional flamenco dancer; TV star; born in 1977)

Brother - Eduardo Jr (born in 1985)

Claim to fame - As Alejandra in All the Pretty Horses (2000)

Penelope Cruz Biography

Penelope Cruz Sanchez (born April 28, 1974, in Madrid), better known as Penelope Cruz, is a Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominated Spanish actress. Originally a dancer, she soon moved into Spanish television, and since then she has appeared in a string of films in Spanish, English, French and Italian.

Cruz was born in San Sebastian de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain. Her parents are Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sanchez, a hairdresser. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to focus her energies on dance.

After studying classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory, she continued her training under a series of prominent dancers. At 15, however, she followed another calling after she bested more than 300 other girls at a talent agency audition.

She received three years of Spanish Ballet training with Angela Garrido. She also had jazz dance training with Raúl Caballero and she studied at Cristina Rota (mother of Juan Diego Botto) school in Madrid. She speaks Spanish, English, French, and Italian fluently.

Penelope Cruz - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Penelope Cruz Profile

Name: Penelope Cruz

Birth Name - Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Born - April 28, 1974, Madrid, Spain

Height - 5' 5½''

Nationality - Spanish

Profession - Actress, Model

Relationship - Matthew McConaughey (actor; November 4, 1969; dating since summer 2004, met while filming Sahara; broke up in May 2006), Tom Cruise (actor; dated 2001-January 2004)

Father - Eduardo Cruz (auto mechanic)

Mother - Encarna Cruz (hairdresser, manager)

Sister - Monica Cruz (professional flamenco dancer; TV star; born in 1977)

Brother - Eduardo Jr (born in 1985)

Claim to fame - As Alejandra in All the Pretty Horses (2000)

Penelope Cruz Biography

Penelope Cruz Sanchez (born April 28, 1974, in Madrid), better known as Penelope Cruz, is a Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominated Spanish actress. Originally a dancer, she soon moved into Spanish television, and since then she has appeared in a string of films in Spanish, English, French and Italian.

Cruz was born in San Sebastian de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain. Her parents are Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sanchez, a hairdresser. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to focus her energies on dance.

After studying classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory, she continued her training under a series of prominent dancers. At 15, however, she followed another calling after she bested more than 300 other girls at a talent agency audition.

She received three years of Spanish Ballet training with Angela Garrido. She also had jazz dance training with Raúl Caballero and she studied at Cristina Rota (mother of Juan Diego Botto) school in Madrid. She speaks Spanish, English, French, and Italian fluently.

Cameron Diaz - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Cameron Diaz Profile

Name: Cameron Diaz

Birth Name: Cameron Michelle Diaz

Height: 5' 9"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: August 30, 1972

Birth Place: San Diego, California, USA

Profession: actress, model

Education: Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California

Relationship: Justin Timberlake (musician; born January 31, 1981; dated since 2003; split January 11, 2007), Jared Leto (actor; born December 26, 1971; 1999-2003), Matt
Dillon (actor; born February 18, 1964; 1996-1998), Carlos De La Torre (producer; 1990-1995)

Father: Emilio Diaz (oil foreman)

Mother: Billie Early (exporting agent)

Sister: Chimene Diaz (older)

Claim to fame: as Tina Carlyle in The Mask (1994)

Cameron Diaz Biography

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is perhaps best known for her roles in blockbuster movies such as The Mask, There's Something About Mary, My Best Friend's Wedding, Charlie's Angels, Shrek, and Gangs of New York. Diaz was the second of three actresses (the others being Julia Roberts, and Reese Witherspoon) to join the coveted "$20 Million Club" after receiving this salary for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

Diaz was born in San Diego, California to Emilio Diaz who worked as a foreman for an oil company, and Billie, an import-export agent. Diaz's father is a second-generation Cuban-American and her mother has Native American, English and German ancestry. Diaz attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as rapper Snoop Dogg. During her school days, she was called Skeletor by her classmates because she was so thin.

Cameron Diaz - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Cameron Diaz Profile

Name: Cameron Diaz

Birth Name: Cameron Michelle Diaz

Height: 5' 9"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: August 30, 1972

Birth Place: San Diego, California, USA

Profession: actress, model

Education: Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California

Relationship: Justin Timberlake (musician; born January 31, 1981; dated since 2003; split January 11, 2007), Jared Leto (actor; born December 26, 1971; 1999-2003), Matt
Dillon (actor; born February 18, 1964; 1996-1998), Carlos De La Torre (producer; 1990-1995)

Father: Emilio Diaz (oil foreman)

Mother: Billie Early (exporting agent)

Sister: Chimene Diaz (older)

Claim to fame: as Tina Carlyle in The Mask (1994)

Cameron Diaz Biography

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is perhaps best known for her roles in blockbuster movies such as The Mask, There's Something About Mary, My Best Friend's Wedding, Charlie's Angels, Shrek, and Gangs of New York. Diaz was the second of three actresses (the others being Julia Roberts, and Reese Witherspoon) to join the coveted "$20 Million Club" after receiving this salary for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

Diaz was born in San Diego, California to Emilio Diaz who worked as a foreman for an oil company, and Billie, an import-export agent. Diaz's father is a second-generation Cuban-American and her mother has Native American, English and German ancestry. Diaz attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as rapper Snoop Dogg. During her school days, she was called Skeletor by her classmates because she was so thin.

Nicole Kidman - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Nicole Kidman Profile

Name: Nicole Kidman

Birth Name: Nicole Mary Kidman

Height: 5' 10½

Sex: F

Nationality: Australian

Birth Date: June 20, 1967

Birth Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Profession: actress, producer

Education: St Martin's Youth Theater in Melbourne, Australia
Australian Theater for Young People in Sydney, Australia
Philip Street Theater in Australia (majored in Voice, Production and Theater History)

Husband/Wife: Keith Urban (country musician; met in January 2005; engaged on May
17, 2006; married on June 25, 2006), Tom Cruise (actor; married on December 24, 1990;
separated since December 2000; filed for divorced on February 7, 2001; divorced on August 8, 2001)

Relationship: Stephen Bing (producer; reportedly dating in November 2004), Lenny Kravitz (musician; dated in 2003), Fabrizio Lombardo (Italian; producer)

Father: Dr. Anthony David Kidman (author; biochemist; clinical psychologist)

Mother: Janelle Ann Kidman (educator; nurse)

Sister: Antonia Kidman (an entertainment reporter; born in 1970)

Son: Connor Anthony Kidman Cruise (born on January 17, 1995; adopted)

Daughter: Isabella Jane Kidman Cruise (born on December 22, 1992; adopted)

Claim to fame: as Dr. Claire Lewicki in Tony Scott's Days of Thunder (1990)

Nicole Kidman Biography

Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Academy Award-winning Australian actress and occasional singer. In 2006, she became the highest paid actress in the film industry. In the same year, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour.

After making various appearances in film and television, Kidman received her breakthrough role in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Since then, Kidman's acting career has developed greatly. Her performances in several films, such as To Die For (1995), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and The Hours (2002), have won her not only critical acclaim but also many film awards. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California. Kidman is also a UNIFEM and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a singer and a successful recording artist.

She is also well-known for her former high-profile marriage to Tom Cruise, as well as her current marriage to singer Keith Urban. Because she was born to Australian parents in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship of Australia and the United States.

Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edits her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. Her father, Dr. Antony David Kidman, is a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, with an office in Lane Cove, Sydney. At the time of Nicole Kidman's birth, her father was a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four years old and Kidman's parents now reside in Sydney's North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman who is a journalist.

She started taking ballet lessons when she was four. She attended Lane Cove Public School in her primary years and later attended North Sydney Girls' High School. Kidman concentrated on her family responsibilities until her mother's recovery. She then trained at the Phillip Street Theatre. This led to studies at Sydney's Australian Theatre for Young People (of which she is now a patron).

Amy Adams - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Amy Adams Profile

Name: Amy Adams

Birth Name: Amy Lou Adams

Height: 5' 5"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: August 20, 1975

Birth Place: Vicenza, Italy

Profession: actress

Education: Alumna of the Chanhassen Dinner Theater in Minnesota

Claim to fame: won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for her performance as Ashley in Junebug (2005)

Amy Adams Biography

Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress and singer perhaps best known for her Oscar-nominated role as Ashley Johnsten in Junebug and her Golden Globe Award-nominated role as Giselle in Enchanted.

Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy, the daughter of American parents Kathryn and Richard Adams, who was a U.S. serviceman stationed in Italy. She grew up as one of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado and was raised in the Mormon religion, although her family left the church after Adams' parents divorced when she was 11 years old. Throughout her years at Douglas County High School, she sang in the school choir and trained as an apprentice at a local dance company with ambitions of becoming a ballerina. However, after graduating from high school, she decided that she was "never going to be that good [at ballet], no matter how hard [she] work[ed]" and entered musical theater, which she found was "much better suited to [her] personality".

To support her community theater habit, Adams worked at Gap as a greeter and at Hooters as a hostess and a waitress, a fact which has "become [her] entire press career a while". She began working professionally as a dancer at Boulder's Dinner Theatre and Country Dinner Playhouse, where she was spotted by a Minneapolis dinner-theater director. Along with her family, Adams moved to Chanhassen, Minnesota, where she continued to work in regional dinner theater. While she was off work nursing a pulled muscle, Adams auditioned for the satirical 1999 comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was being filmed in Minnesota, and was cast in her first film role. Persuaded by her Drop Dead Gorgeous co-star, Kirstie Alley, Adams moved to Los Angeles, California in 1998. Shortly after, she was cast in Fox Network's television series spin-off of Cruel Intentions, Manchester Prep, in the role of Kathryn Merteuil. The series did not live up to the network's expectations and following numerous script revisions and two production shutdowns, it was canceled. The filmed episodes were then re-edited to be released as the direct-to-video film, Cruel Intentions 2.

From 2000 to 2002, Adams appeared in a series of small films like Psycho Beach Party while guest-starring on television series such as Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and The West Wing. She then appeared in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can as Brenda Strong, a role which was "supposed to be [her] big break" but she "was unemployed for a year after that". Adams starred in The Last Run in 2004 as well as voicing characters on animated television series King of the Hill. In the same year, she was cast in the television series, Dr. Vegas, in the role of Alice Doherty before she was fired after a contract dispute.

Amy Adams - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Amy Adams Profile

Name: Amy Adams

Birth Name: Amy Lou Adams

Height: 5' 5"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: August 20, 1975

Birth Place: Vicenza, Italy

Profession: actress

Education: Alumna of the Chanhassen Dinner Theater in Minnesota

Claim to fame: won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for her performance as Ashley in Junebug (2005)

Amy Adams Biography

Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress and singer perhaps best known for her Oscar-nominated role as Ashley Johnsten in Junebug and her Golden Globe Award-nominated role as Giselle in Enchanted.

Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy, the daughter of American parents Kathryn and Richard Adams, who was a U.S. serviceman stationed in Italy. She grew up as one of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado and was raised in the Mormon religion, although her family left the church after Adams' parents divorced when she was 11 years old. Throughout her years at Douglas County High School, she sang in the school choir and trained as an apprentice at a local dance company with ambitions of becoming a ballerina. However, after graduating from high school, she decided that she was "never going to be that good [at ballet], no matter how hard [she] work[ed]" and entered musical theater, which she found was "much better suited to [her] personality".

To support her community theater habit, Adams worked at Gap as a greeter and at Hooters as a hostess and a waitress, a fact which has "become [her] entire press career a while". She began working professionally as a dancer at Boulder's Dinner Theatre and Country Dinner Playhouse, where she was spotted by a Minneapolis dinner-theater director. Along with her family, Adams moved to Chanhassen, Minnesota, where she continued to work in regional dinner theater. While she was off work nursing a pulled muscle, Adams auditioned for the satirical 1999 comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was being filmed in Minnesota, and was cast in her first film role. Persuaded by her Drop Dead Gorgeous co-star, Kirstie Alley, Adams moved to Los Angeles, California in 1998. Shortly after, she was cast in Fox Network's television series spin-off of Cruel Intentions, Manchester Prep, in the role of Kathryn Merteuil. The series did not live up to the network's expectations and following numerous script revisions and two production shutdowns, it was canceled. The filmed episodes were then re-edited to be released as the direct-to-video film, Cruel Intentions 2.

From 2000 to 2002, Adams appeared in a series of small films like Psycho Beach Party while guest-starring on television series such as Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and The West Wing. She then appeared in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can as Brenda Strong, a role which was "supposed to be [her] big break" but she "was unemployed for a year after that". Adams starred in The Last Run in 2004 as well as voicing characters on animated television series King of the Hill. In the same year, she was cast in the television series, Dr. Vegas, in the role of Alice Doherty before she was fired after a contract dispute.