Holly Madison Biography

Birth Name : Holly Cullen 

Date of Birth : 23 December 1979, Astoria, Oregon, USA 

Height : 5' 7" (1.70 m) 

Profession: Reality cast member; model

Born on December 23, 1979, in Astoria, Oregon, Holly Madison moved at a young age to Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. It was there that she developed her love for nature, spending endless hours observing animals and playing in the woods. However, the move wasn't permanent and Holly and her family returned to Oregon during her early teens. Reflecting upon those awkward years, Holly recalls, "I look back on my middle/high school days and see an Alaskan fish out of water who wasn't good at socializing or fitting in."

Fortunately, this "Alaskan fish" survived her formative years, and upon graduation, Holly enrolled at Portland State University, where she chose to study theater and psychology. Holly stayed there for two years before bolting for the sunnier climes of L.A.'s Loyola Marymount University.

Was working as a "Hawaiian Tropic" model when one of Hugh M. Hefner's friends saw her and put her on the Mansion's party list. The Midsummer Night's Dream party was her first Mansion experience. She saw lots of celebrities and centerfolds and was most excited to meet Hef, Seth Green from the "Austin Powers" movies and Heather Kozar, one of her favorite Playmates. Feeling overwhelmed, she and her girlfriends left early (but not after feeding the squirrel monkeys). After about a year of coming to the Mansion parties, She finally got a chance to really talk to the elusive Mr. Hefner. She knew they would have a lot in common and hit it off immediately. He invited her out with him on a Wednesday, and she moved in that Friday.

Holly Hunter Biography

Birth Name : Holly P. Hunter 

Date of Birth : 20 March 1958, Conyers, Georgia, USA 

Height : 5' 2" (1.57 m) 

Occupation : Actress / Producer

Holly Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia on March 20th, 1958, the daughter of Charles Edwin Hunter, a part-time sporting goods manufacturer's representative and part-time farmer with 250 acres, and Opal Marguerite Catledge, a homemaker. The youngest of seven children, Holly was encouraged by her parents to pursue her acting talent at an early age, and she landed her first gig as Helen Keller in a fifth-grade play. 

In 1976 she went to Pittsburgh to pursue a degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1980, she went to New York City, where she met playwright Beth Henley in a stalled elevator. Hunter went on to get roles in a number of Henley's southern gothic plays, including Crimes of the Heart and The Miss Firecracker Contest. In 1982 the actress went to Los Angeles. She landed her first starring role in the movies in the Coen brothers' Raising Arizona (1987), a part that is said to have been written with her in mind. She gained stardom in 1987 when she played the driven TV news producer Jane Craig in James L. Brooks' Broadcast News (1987). In 1993 she earned an Academy Award and worldwide acclaim with her performance as a mute bride to a New Zealand planter in The Piano (1993).

One word: Crash. In his controversial 1996 film, David Cronenberg cast Holly as a doctor for people who view automobile accidents as an erotic stimulant. If you can separate the situational weirdness -- and no, most people can't -- from the raw sexual energy she lets loose in that film, you know just how hot it can get around the Holly bush.

Hilary Swank Biography

Name: Hilary Swank

Born: 30 July 1974 (Age: 37)

Where: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Height: 5' 7"

Occupation: Actress, producer

Awards: Won 2 Oscars, 2 Golden Globes, nominated for 1 BAFTA

Hilary Ann Swank was born on the 30th of July, 1974 in . . . well, therein lies a question. Reports have been severely confused by the audition process for Boys Don't Cry. In order to win the confidence of director Kimberly Peirce, Swank told her that, like the real Teena Brandon, she was 21 and had been born in Lincoln, Nebraska. In fact, she claimed, she'd be born in the same hospital. Later, Peirce would discover that Swank had lied and confronted her, with Swank cheekily (and quite correctly) replying that that's exactly what Brandon would have done. The part was hers, but the lies caused problems for biographers. Swank was certainly not 21, she was 24. As for her birthplace, her management maintained that she was indeed born in Lincoln. Swank herself would often refer to herself as a mid-Western girl, and state that one of her grandfathers was born and raised in Iowa, just two hours drive from Falls City, Nebraska, the small town where Teena Brandon disastrously went to start a new life.

Hilary Swank has twice won the Academy Award as best actress: for playing a boxer in Clint Eastwood's 2004 drama Million Dollar Baby, and for her gender-bending turn in Boys Don't Cry (1999, with Chloë Sevigny). Swank got her start in the early 1990s with small roles in movies and TV shows. Her first big break came with the movie The Next Karate Kid (1994), in a leading role that made good use of her background in swimming and gymnastics. In Boys Don't Cry she gave a stunning performance as a young woman who lived as a young man; Swank's Oscar for best actress led to bigger roles and bigger paychecks. (She reportedly was paid a mere $3,000 -- $75 per day -- for Boys Don't Cry.) Even so, what followed was less than impressive: small roles in The Gift (2000, with Keanu Reeves) and Insomnia (2002, starring Al Pacino), and a part in the big-budget flop The Core (2003). For Million Dollar Baby, Swank trained rigorously, put 20 extra pounds on her lean frame and turned in a performance that earned her a second Oscar.

Hilary Rhoda Biography

Name : Hilary Rhoda

Date of Birth: April 6, 1987

Birth Place: Chevy Chase, Maryland

Occupation : American model

Born and raised in Maryland, Hilary Rhoda harbored dreams of working as a model since she was just a little girl even though she was also known as a bit of a tomboy in her youth. Adept at lacrosse and swimming, Hilary’s adolescence was about as normal as one could imagine. It wasn’t until she hit her teen years that she began to seriously pursue a career as a model. Following her graduation from high school. 

Although she always aspired to be a model, she also had a huge interest in participating in various team sports. Her passions were field hockey, lacrosse and swimming. While still in high school, she entered into a model convention, signed with an agency and modeled part time.

Her very first job was for a clothing company working with none other than world-renowned photographer, Bruce Weber. After completing school, she moved to New York to pursue a full time modeling career.

In January 2007, Rhoda signed an exclusive contract with Estée Lauder as their newest face. In July of that same year, earning at an estimated total of $2 million in the past 12 months, Forbes named her twelfth in their list of The World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels. She is the current face of St. John Knits, ERES Beachwear, and the Neiman Marcus spring/summer 2009 campaigns. 2009 also marks Rhoda's debut in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

Helena Christensen Biography

Name : Helena Christensen 

Date of Birth : 25 December 1968, Copenhagen, Denmark 

Height : 5' 10" (1.78 m) 

Occupation : Model  

Helena Christensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 25 1968 to a Danish father and Peruvian mother. She grew up in Denmark, where her childhood interests included music and photography.

Model Helena Christiansen is probably still best known for playing the mysterious lover on the sand in the 1991 Chris Isaak music video "Wicked Game." Christiansen's modeling career took off in the 1990s, when she appeared on catwalks and magazine covers around the world -- a leggy, slender brunette with distant ice-blue eyes. She has made many appearances for Victoria's Secret, both in their catalog and as one of the "angels" in their television ads.

As a child Helena Christensen was more interested in becoming a musician, but as fate would have it began modeling at the age of 9. After leaving school, she moved to Paris, France to model for the french magazine 'Elle', and in 1986 she competed in the Miss Universe contest as Miss Denmark, but unfortunately did not receive a placing. Her big break came in June of 1989 when she was discovered by photographer Friedemann Hauss, who instinctively knew that Helena was a 'natural' in terms of modeling ability. Since then her career has taken off, and she is now one of the top international catwalk queens. Helena has since taken on the movie industry, starring in a British TV movie Inferno (1980) and following it up with a cameo role in Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter (1994).

Helena Bonham Carter Biography

Name: Helena Bonham Carter

Born: 26 May 1966 (Age: 45)

Where: London, England

Height: 5' 3"

Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar, 2 BAFTAs, 4 Golden Globes

Occupation : Actress, voice actress, singer

She may not be royalty but, born in Golders Green, north London, on May 26th, 1966, Helena does come from classy stock. Her great-grandfather was Lord Asquith, liberal Prime Minister between 1908 and 1916. Her grandmother was Violet Bonham Carter, a renowned politician, orator and member of the House Of Lords (an excellent female role model), while her grand-uncle was Anthony Asquith, legendary English director of such classics as Carrington VC and The Importance Of Being Earnest. Yet, despite this exceptionally English bloodline, Helena's corpuscles are a heady mix, her father, Raymond Bonham Carter, a merchant banker by trade, having married Elena, predominantly French and Spanish - with a smattering of Jewish, Russian and Viennese for good measure.

Though typecast as aristocratic heroines in solemn period films in the early part of her career, London-born actress Helena Bonham Carter struggled to prove her range and break free of her corseted mold. She gained notoriety as the leading ingénue in a few Merchant-Ivory productions, including "A Room with a View" (1986) and "Howards End" (1992), and quickly developed into the quintessential Edwardian heroine. Wanting to avoid being pigeonholed, Bonham Carter began appearing in more mainstream work, hooking up with commercially viable, but artistically respected filmmakers like Tim Burton and Woody Allen. Far from a Victorian prude off-screen, Bonham Carter made headlines for her tumultuous personal life after being romantically linked with Kenneth Branagh, Rufus Sewell and Steve Martin. She finally settled down and became involved with Burton, whom she met while working on "Planet of the Apes" (2001), enjoying a relationship that helped ground her both personally and professionally. From there, she appeared in several of Burton's films, including "Big Fish" (2003), "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) and "Sweeny Todd" (2007), while outside the Burton universe she played the mad witch Bellatrix in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007), a role she reprised in the final two installments of the popular film franchise. Whether performing in period dramas or special effects driven fantasy, Bonham Carter always elevated any project in which she appeared.

Heidi Range Biography

Birth Name : Heidi India Range 

Date of Birth : 23 May 1983, Walton, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK 

Height : 5' 2" (1.57 m)

Occupations : Singer-songwriter

Heidi India Range (born May 23, 1983) is a British singer-songwriter and the longest-serving current member of girl group Sugababes which she joined in August 2001. Prior to becoming a Sugababe, Range was a member of the original line-up of now-defunct girl group, Atomic Kitten.

In August 2001, Range replaced Siobhán Donaghy of the Sugababes, who left the band in 2001. Her first album with the group, Angels With Dirty Faces, peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart, achieving triple platinum status, and is the group's to date highest selling album. The album produced UK chart-toppers “Freak Like Me” and “Round Round”, both certified silver by the BPI. Three, the Sugababes' third album, was released in October 2003. It reached number three in the UK and produced four singles, all of which reached the top ten. The group's fourth album Taller in More Ways was released in October 2005. The album reached reached number one and went double platinum in the UK. Shortly following the album's release, Buena left the group due to personal reasons, and was replaced by Amelle Berrabah. The group's fifth album Change was released in October 2007. The album, composed of pop and dance songs, reached number one and went platinum in the UK. Change produced three top twenty singles, including "Change", "Denial", and the UK number one "About You Now", signalling the second occasion in which the band were simultaneously number one on the UK album, single, download and airplay charts. The groups' sixth studio album, Catfights and Spotlights was released in 2008, charting in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart, despite becoming a commercial failure, and producing only two singles, "Girls" and "No Can Do", the former peaking at number three on the UK Singles Charts. The album also features a version of "She's Like a Star", with Taio Cruz, which was released prior to the album and charted inside the top twenty in the UK.