Elijah Wood is widely regarded as one of the most gifted actors of his generation. After coming to attention in Paradise, he starred in Radio Flyer, Forever Young, Huck Finn, The Good Son, North, The War and Flipper. He also appeared in Internal Affairs, Avalon and Back to the Future Part II.

Most recently, Wood was seen in James Toback's Black and White, Robert Rodriguez's The Faculty, Ang Lee's The Ice Storm and the sci-fi thriller Deep Impact. He also lent his voice to the animated film The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina.

Official site: www.elijah-wood.com
Sir Ian McKellen has been thrilling audiences for 40 years on both stage and screen, and has won more than 40 major international acting awards. Recent films include X-Men, Gods and Monsters, Apt Pupil and Richard III. Other screen performances include Six Degrees of Separation, Cold Comfort Farm, Restoration, Swept from the Sea, The Keep, Bent, Scandal and many more.

McKellen also starred in the telefilms "Rasputin", "And the Band Played On", "Walter" and "David Copperfield" for BBC TV. He has acted in and produced classical and new plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre in London and on tour. His solo shows "Acting Shakespeare" and "A Knight Out" have been acclaimed throughout the world.

On Broadway, he played Salieri in "Amadeus", and the 2001 Broadway season opened with McKellen as Edgar in Strindberg's "Dance of Death".

Official site: www.mckellen.com

Liv Tyler made an auspicious film debut in Silent Fall, directed by Bruce Beresford. After another lead in Empire Records, Tyler portrayed a waitress in Heavy, a favorite at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Tyler went on to shine in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty, Inventing the Abbotts, Armageddon and Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune. She recently reunited with Altman for the critically acclaimed Dr. T and the Women.

Tyler's other recent work includes Onegin, Plunkett & Macleane and One Night at McCool's.


Since his screen debut in Peter Weir's Witness, Viggo Mortensen has appeared in such diverse projects as Portrait of a Lady, The Indian Runner, Carlito's Way, G.I. Jane, Crimson Tide, A Perfect Murder, La Pistola de mi Hermano and A Walk on the Moon.

Born in New York to a Danish father and an American mother, Mortensen's family spent several years living in Venezuela, Argentina, and Denmark. He began acting in New York, appearing in several plays and movies, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where his performance in "Bent" at the Coast Playhouse earned him a Drama-logue Critic's Award. Mortensen is also an accomplished poet, photographer, and painter.

Sean Astin made his professional debut with his mother, Patty Duke, in the television After School Special "Please Don't Hit Me Mom" and his feature film debut in The Goonies.

Other film credits include Rudy, Bulworth, Courage Under Fire, Memphis Belle, Encino Man, Like Father Like Son, Where the Day Takes You, Staying Together, War of the Roses, Safe Passage and Low Life. Astin has also been seen in the indie releases Deterrence, Kimberly, The Last Producer and Boy Meets Girl.

A promising director, Astin garnered an Academy Award nomination for his short film Kangaroo Court. A Directors Guild of America member, Astin also directed an episode of the HBO anthology series "Perversions of Science".

Official site: www.seanastin.com

Since graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, Blanchett has worked extensively in the theater. Her television credits include lead roles in "Bordertown" and "Heartland", both for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Film credits include Paradise Road, Thank God He Met Lizzie, and Oscar and Lucinda opposite Ralph Fiennes, as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth. In 1999, Blanchett appeared in Pushing Tin with John Cusack, An Ideal Husband and The Talented Mr. Ripley. She most recently starred in The Gift, Bandits and Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Blanchett will next be seen in the title role of Charlotte Gray, directed by Gillian Armstrong and based on Sebastian Faulks' novel. Other upcoming films include Heaven, directed by Tom Tykwer, The Shipping News, directed by Lasse Hallstrom from the 1994 Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Annie Proulx, and Chasing the Dragon: The Veronica Guerin Story.

Following extensive work in the theatre, John Rhys-Davies made his feature film debut in Don Siegel's The Black Windmill, starring Michael Caine, in which he was blown up before the title sequence.

His 80-plus film credits include Victor/Victoria, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Living Daylights and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. For television, he was nominated for an Emmy for his performance as Rodrigues in "Shogun", starred as Professor Arturo in "Sliders", and is remembered for performances in "I, Claudius" and "The Naked Civil Servant". He would like to spend more time piloting planes, playing with old cars and writing.

Glasgow-born Billy Boyd began his acting career in the Scottish television series "Taggart". Other UK television credits include "Coming Soon" and "Chapter and Verse". Boyd made his feature film debut in An Urban Ghost Story, followed by Julie and the Cadillacs and a film short entitled Soldiers Leap.

On the stage, Boyd has performed in various UK productions including "The Speculator", "An Experienced Woman Gives Advice", "Therese Racquin", "Britannia Rules", "Kill The Old, Torture Their Young", "The Chic Nerds", "Much Ado About Nothing", "Merchant of Venice", "Trainspotting", "Merlin the Magnificent" and "The Slab Boys". Most recently, Boyd starred in the Traverse production of "The Ballad of Crazy Paola", by Anne Sierens.

Boyd is also a skilled singer and musician who plays the bass, drums and guitar.

Official site: www.billyboyd.net

Dominic Monaghan is best known for the British television drama "Hetty Wainthrop Investigates". His other television credits include "This is Personal -The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper", and a leading role in "Monsignoir Renard", a new series starring John Thaw.

Monaghan's film debut was in Boomber with Rutger Hauer and Martin Shaw. On the stage, Monaghan has performed in the U.K. productions of "The Resurrectionists", "Whale" and "Annie and Fanny from Bolton to Rome".

Orlando Bloom makes his major feature film debut in The Fellowship of the Ring. He graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where he performed in the productions "Little Me", "A Month in the City", "Peer Gynt", "Mephisto", "Twelfth Night", "Trojan Women", "The Seagull", "Three Sisters", "Recruiting Officer", "Antigone", "Uncle Vanya", "A Night Out" and "Mystery Plays".

Bloom's screen debut was in the feature film Wilde. After graduating from Guildhall, Bloom performed in the television series "Midsomer Murders". Bloom will next be seen in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down.

London-born Christopher Lee has appeared in over 250 films and television productions, among them A Tale of Two Cities, Dracula, The Wicker Man, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Three and The Four Musketeers, The Man with the Golden Gun, 1941, Airport 77, Gremlins 2, Sleepy Hollow, Jinnah and the BBC production "Gormenghast". He will next be seen in Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones.

Lee has also appeared in theatre and operatic concert performances, and on television and radio. Lee has filmed in English, Russian, Italian, French, German, and Spanish, for directors including John Huston, George Marshall, Orson Welles, Nicholas Ray, Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton and George Lucas. He is an accomplished screen sword fighter, and an honorary member of three stuntmen's unions.

Lee is a Commander of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the world's oldest order, and was also made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2001 for his services to drama.

Hugo Weaving's many film credits include The Matrix, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Interview, Bedrooms and Hallways, Exile, Strange Planet and Proof.

For television, Weaving has appeared in "Halifax 3", "The Bite", "Lust", "Bangkok Hilton", "Dirtwater Dynasty" and the mini series "The Custodian", among others. A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Weaving has performed in numerous stage productions including many for the Sydney Theatre Company.

Sean Bean has appeared in such films as Essex Boys, Ronin, Anna Karenina, GoldenEye, When Saturday Comes, Black Beauty, Patriot Games, Caravaggio, Lorna Doone, The Field and Stormy Monday among others. Bean was most recently seen in Don't Say a Word, co-starring with Michael Douglas. He will next be seen in the sci-fi thriller Equilibrium, and has just wrapped production on Tom and Thomas for director Esme Lammes.

For television, Bean starred in Carlton Productions' "The Sharpe Series". His other television movies include "Bravo Two Zero", "Lady Chatterley", "Clarissa", "Prince", "Tell Me That You Love Me" and many more. Bean has also appeared in numerous stage productions for The Royal Court Theatre, Glasgow Citizen Theatre, and The Royal Shakespeare Company including "Romeo and Juliet", "Fair Maid of the West" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Ian Holm has earned respect and praise from theater, television and film critics alike. Some of his memorable film performances include Chariots of Fire, Another Woman, Hamlet, Frankenstein, Henry V, Naked Lunch, eXistenZ, and The Madness of King George.

Holm has also appeared in Greystoke, Kafka, Time Bandits, Brazil, Alien, Dance with a Stranger and Dreamchild. Recent credits include Big Night, Joe Gould's Secret, Night Falls on Manhattan, The Fifth Element, A Life Less Ordinary, Bless The Child, Beautiful Joe and The Sweet Hereafter. He was most recently seen in the Hughes Brothers' horror-thriller From Hell, and will next be seen in The Emperor's New Clothes.


Andy Serkis most recently appeared as the eccentric choreographer in Topsy Turvy and as the coked-up yuppie in Career Girls. He will soon be seen opposite Michael Caine in Shiner.


After earning top accolades for her Australian film and stage work, Miranda Otto has recently completed work on both sides of the Atlantic. She will be seen starring as the title character in Julie Walking Home (filmed in Canada and Poland) for acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland. The film premiered at the 2002 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Otto will also star in the forthcoming The Three Legged Fox, (filmed in Italy) directed by Sandro Dionisio, as well as Doctor Sleep (filmed in the UK), a thriller that also stars ER's Goran Visnjic.

Otto recently completed the Australian romantic comedy Danny and the Deckchair, in which she is re-teamed with Rhys Ifans. She was last seen on screen with Ifans alongside Tim Robbins and Patricia Arquette in Charlie Kaufman's first feature since Being John Malkovich, Human Nature. The dark comedy, directed by Michel Gondry, premiered at both the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and was released in April 2002.

Otto garnered rave reviews this Spring for her portrayal of Nora Helmer in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of the Henrik Ibsen classic "A Doll's House."

A graduate of the prestigious Australian theatrical school NIDA, which also boasts such alumnae as Mel Gibson, Judy Davis and Cate Blanchett, Otto has been honored with Australian Film Institute award nominations for her work in In The Winter Dark, The Well, Daydream Believer, and The Last Days of Chez Nous. She also earned an Australian Film Critics Circle Award nomination for her performance in Last Days of Chez Nous, as well as for Love Serenade, which won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Otto's other credits include Robert Zemekis's What Lies Beneath, with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer; Terence Malick's The Thin Red Line; Kin; Dead Letter Office; Doing Time for Patsy Cline; True Love and Chaos, and Jack Bull, opposite John Cusack, for HBO.





Bernard Hill has enjoyed a multifaceted acting career on both sides of the Atlantic, starring in top British (Mountains of the Moon, Shirley Valentine) and American (Titanic, True Crime, The Ghost and the Darkness) feature films as well as scores of television and stage productions.

Born in Manchester, England, he made his English television debut in 1973 in Mike Leigh's first film, Hard Labour. Balancing stage, film and television work, Hill starred in films such as Gandhi, The Bounty, No Surrender, Blessed Art Thou, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Going Off Big Time and The Criminal. He was most recently seen in The Scorpion King. He was also see in the award-winning television productions of I, Claudius, Henry VI trilogy and Richard III; Antigone; Boys From the Black Stuff; The Mill on the Floss; and Great Expectations.

He makes his debut in The Lord of the Rings trilogy in The Two Towers and will next be seen in The Return of the King.





Since making his motion picture debut in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a role which garnered him an Academy Award® nomination, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award, Brad Dourif has appeared in over fifty films. His film credits include Ragtime, Mississippi Burning, The Eyes of Laura Mars, Wise Blood, Blue Velvet, Dune, The Exorcist III, Hidden Agenda, Jungle Fever, Murder in the First, The Color of Night, Nightwatch, and Senseless, to name just a few. He received the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Body Parts, and a Genie Award Nomination for Best Actor for his role in Common Bonds. He has also appeared in the Jean Pierre Jeunet's Alien Resurrection, the independent films Soulkeeper, The Ghost and Brown's Requiem, and played the "Voice of Chucky" in all four Child's Play films.

For television, Dourif has guest-starred on such series as Millennium, The X-Files, and Tales From The Crypt, and was a series regular on ABC's The Secret Lives of Men. His movie-of-the-week and mini-series credits include Escape To Witch Mountain, Crusaders, Stamper's Rampage, Oliver Stone's Wild Palms, Steven Spielberg's Class of '61, and Rage of Angels.

Dourif's stage credits include the title role in the Off-Broadway production of When You Comin' Back Red Ryder. He was a founding member of New York's Circle Repertory Theater.





David Wenham is critically acclaimed in Australia for his diverse performances in film, theater and television. A five-time nominee for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, Wenham won the honor in 1997 for his role in the television drama series Simone De Beauvoir's Babies.

He is best known (and best-loved) in Australia as Diver Dan, the laconic fisherman in ABC TV's comedy-drama series Seachange, a role which earned Wenham one of his AFI nominations. He was again nominated for his menacing portrayal of criminal Brett Sprague in the feature film The Boys – a part he first played on stage in the Griffin Street Theatre Company production. Wenham, who also received a Film Critics' Circle of Australia Best Lead Actor nomination for The Boys, was associate producer on the film. He most recently starred in The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course.

Wenham makes his debut in The Lord of the Rings trilogy in The Two Towers.





Karl Urban launches into the second installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, starring in the dynamic role of Rohan warrior Eomer. Director/Writer/Producer Peter Jackson cast New Zealand actor Urban in The Lord of the Rings after viewing a rough cut of the critically acclaimed indie film The Price of Milk, which garnered Urban a Best Actor nomination at The New Zealand Film Awards.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Urban first appeared on television as a child. Throughout his school years he wrote, directed, and starred in many film and stage productions. As a young adult Urban postponed his university studies to further pursue his acting career, training and working throughout "Australasia" in theatre and film.

Urban landed his feature film debut in Miramax's Heaven, starring Martin Donovan and Richard Schiff, and garnered his first Best Actor nomination at the New Zealand Film Awards for his work in Via Satellite.

Urban will also be seen this year in the Warner Bros./Dark Castle production Ghost Ship, also starring Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies.





Bruce Hopkins makes his debut in the trilogy in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. A professional dancer for nine years in Australia and New Zealand, Hopkins was a member of several companies including Limbs Dance Co. and Black Grace Dance Co. He turned to performing arts after training as a teacher in physical education and has made numerous appearances in such series as Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Cleopatra 2525. Additionally, he has a recurring role in the New Zealand series Shortland Street.