Felicity Huffman
Born: December 9 1962
Where: Bedford, New York, USA
The Emmy Award-winning "Desperate Housewife" landed acclaim for her portrayal of a transexual who discovers she has a son in Transamerica.
The youngest of seven children, she studied theatre at Michegan's Interlochen Arts Academy and once hoped to be a backing singer (her favourite artist is Tina Turner).
She went on to study at New York's Tisch School of the Arts and met her future husband - William H Macy - when she was one of his students at the Atlantic Theatre Company.
Director David Mamet cast her in first first feature role in the 1988 movie Things Change and she was also Madonna's understudy on Broadway in Speed The Plough.
In 1990, she appeared in the Claus Bulow thriller Reversal of Fortune opposite Jeremy Irons and went on to work extensively on TV.
She played Cynthia in Paul Thomas Anderson's critically-acclaimed ensemble drama Magnolia and went on to star in Raising Helen in 2004.
Huffman won a legion of fans as Lynette Scavo in the black American TV comedy Desperate Housewives alongside Teri Hatcher.
She also appeared in Christmas with the Kranks before being cast as Bree in writer/director Duncan Tucker's Transamerica.
After landing the role, Huffman admitted using her diagnosis of bulimia asa teenager to prepare for the part of a transexual.
