Halle Berry

Born: 14 August 1968
Where: Cleveland, Ohio

The former Miss Teen All-American put her prom queen origins firmly behind her when she became the first black star to win a best actress Oscar for Monster's Ball.

However, subsequent roles - as a psychiatrist in Gothika and the part of Catwoman - have seen a dip in her cinematic fortunes.

Berry was born to an African-American father, Jerome Berry, and Caucasian mother Judith, who divorced when she was four years old.

At school she was a cheerleader, editor of the school paper, and an all-round star pupil.

Halle first came into the spotlight at 17 when she won the Miss Teen All-American competition, representing the state of Ohio in 1985 and, a year later, becoming the first runner-up for the Miss USA title.

Her modelling led to her first weekly TV series, Living Dolls, in 1989, in which she appropriately played a teenage model.

Halle then played a crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, which provided her big screen breakthrough.

Roles followed in Bulworth with Warren Beatty, Executive Decision opposite Kurt Russell, The Flintstones.

However, her private life faltered in 1996 with the collapse of her marriage to David Justice and a car crash for which she was charged with leaving the scene of the accident.

She was fined $9,000, put on probation for three years and given 200 hours of community service.

Her fortunes changed with the role of Storm in the hit sci-fi thriller X-Men with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

Halle controversially stripped off for high-octane thriller Swordfish, although she denies being paid an extra $500,000 to go topless.

In 2002 she became the first black actress ever to win an Oscar for a lead role, taking the best actress award for Monster's Ball.

Next she played the feisty Bond girl Jinx opposite Piece Brosnan in Die Another Day and reprised her role of Storm in X-Men 2.

Halle appeared alongside Penelope Cruz and Robert Downey Jr in the 'thriller' Gothika and played Catwoman in the stunningly awful big screen version of the comic book story.

X-Men 3 allowed her more acting time than the previous instalments, and she also voices Robots, an animated adventure featuring the vocal talents of Mel Brooks and Ewan McGregor.

Her latest thriller, Perfect Stranger, finds Halle in detective mode as she works out who killed her friend, with suspicion fixed firmly on Bruce Willis' sly corporate exec.