Johnny Knoxville

Born: 11 March 1971
Where: Knoxville, Tennessee

A genuine Knoxville native - the Jackass stalwart moved to Hollywood with aspirations of becoming a star but found himself slumming it on the commercial actor circuit instead.

Between casting calls, he freelanced as a journalist for a variety of magazines, including Big Brother Skateboarding Magazine.

It was here his talent for putting himself in harm's way was noticed and became a feature of the magazine.

He was soon flinging himself off, on or into any number of dangerous situations, including a bull, a car and a half-pipe.

The stunts spawned the TV series Jackass, which featured cringeworthy stunts and provoked a bidding war between MTV and Comedy Central.

At the same time Knoxville made his feature debut proper (an earlier outing was soft porn caper Desert Blue) in the movie Coyote Ugly.

Subsequent appearances included comedy romance Life Without Dick, Barry Sonnenfeld's Big Trouble with Rene Russo and the action drama Deuces Wild.

At the same time he starred in the big screen version of Jackass: The Movie with Steve-O and Bam Mragera.

His big breakthrough came as the mutating, two-headed Scrad in 2002'a Men in Black II and he went on to star in the bizarre Grand Theft Parsons.

Recent work includes the John Waters "sex comedy" A Dity Shame alongside Tracey Ullman and Chris Isaak.