Drew Barrymore

Born: 22 February 1975 Where: Culver City, California

Barrymore is the archetypal Hollywood child star who seduced audiences at the age of 6, went into drug rehab at 16 and at 26 was back in the limelight.

As a baby she acted in TV adverts and her TV-movie debut came at the age of five when she played Leslie Bogart as a child in Bogie.

It was as Gertie in Steven Spielberg's 1982 blockbuster ET: Extra-Terrestrial that the six-year-old to the attention of moviegoers worldwide...but the price was a high one.

She started drinking - some even say she was involved with alcohol at nine years old - and cannabis was added to her list of vices after some mediocre film roles.

Her alcohol and drug abuse lasted through her teens and finally in 1989 she was institutionalised in a rehab centre/mental institution following a failed suicide attempt.

After her treatment, Barrymore lived with musician and recovering addict David Crosby and his wife Jan for almost a year.

At the age of 15, she filed papers to become legally emancipated from her parents in order to work the same hours as 18-year-olds.

In 1991 Barrymore moved in with film director Tamra Davis and her husband briefly and was offered her first starring role in a feature film soon after.

Poison Ivy was the story of two rebellious teens and their sexual awakening.

Barrymore's cameo appearance in Scream in 1996 led to her being cast in the role of Edward Norton's fiancée in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You.

The Wedding Singer and Never Been Kissed followed before she hit the big time being cast opposite Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu in the big screen version of Charlie's Angels.

Cult-hit Donnie Darko was followed by the lamentable Freddie Got Fingered and the overlong Riding In Cars With Boys.

However, she recovered her eye for a good role with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and returned in Charlie's Angels 2 - Full Throttle.

Subsequent work included the comedies Our House, with Ben Stiller, and 50 First Dates opposite Adam Sandler.

Displaying a penchant for the romantic comedy genre, in 2005 she teamed up with Jimmy Fallon in The Perfect Catch, the American re-shaping of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch.

In 2006 she provided voice work for Curious George and the following year she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the pleasing rom-com Life and Lyrics.

Recent work includes the role of Billie Offer in the gambling yarn Lucky You alongside Eric Bana.