Selma Blair

Born: June 23, 1972
Where: Southfield, Michigan, USA

Blair's breakthrough performance was as the bumbling Cecile in Cruel Intentions, the youthful retelling of Les Liaisons Dangereuse.

Having completed her English and fine arts degree at the University of Michigan, she moved to New York to pursue a career as a photographer.

However, she wound up at The Stella Adler Conservatory, where she began her acting career with a series of small roles on film and television.

In 1997 she appeared briefly in the features In & Out, with Kevin Klein, and Arresting Gena and had a larger role in the independent Strong Island Boys.

She went on to appear in the 1998 TV-movie No Laughing Matter before landing a role in the ensemble of the teen comedy feature Can't Hardly Wait in 1998.

Later that year, Blair had her first starring film role in the thriller Brown's Requiem.

She was also tapped for the role of shy Cecile in Cruel Intentions, opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe.

This contemporary reworking set in New York won her the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss, an honour she shared with co-star Gellar.

Blair then featured in the music-themed Girl and returned to the big screen in 2001 with a memorable supporting role as an uptight Harvard Law student in the hit comedy Legally Blonde.

Her stock rose with a part in Todd Solondz's bleak Storytelling but a role in the execrable Sweetest Thing opposite Cameron Diaz wasn't a wise choice.

In 2003, she appeared as the uptight bride-to-be opposite Jeff Green in the amiable A Guy Thing.

Her profile was further raised by a starring turn opposite Ron Perlman in the enjoyable superhero yarn Hellboy.

Recent work saw her donning massive prosthetic breast to play the nympho daughter of Tracey Ullman in John Waters' A Dirty Shame.