Paul Walker
Born: 12 September 1973
Where: Glendale, California
The former model has made a named for himself with supercharged roles in the box office car chase hits The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious.
The son of a building contractor and a former model, his paternal grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor and boxer while his maternal grandfather commanded tanks in Italy during WWII.
He was raised a Latterday Saint in a conservative Mormon household (although that did not prevent him getting into trouble with the police as a youngster).
As a child model turned TV actor (an early appearance as a toddler in a Pampers advert) he had guest roles in Highway to Heaven and sitcoms like Charles in Charge, Growing Pains and Throb.
In 1987, Walker made his feature debut in the TV movie Programmed to Kill but took time off for school and studied marine biology (he's a fan of French naturalist Jacques Couteau).
He returned to the small screen in 1993 with a recurring role on the soap The Young and the Restless.
In 1998 - the same year he made his big screen debut in Disney's comedy Meet the Deedles - he landed a featured role in Pleasantville as a basketball player.
Other credits include Rob Cohen's The Skulls, the football drama Varsity Blues, She's All That and Brokedown Palace with Clare Danes.
He also co-starred with Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski in the well-received thriller Road Kill, directed by John Dahl.
His first leading role came as disgraced cop Brian O'Connor in The Fast and the Furious, a role he reprised in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
He later starred in the hit-and-miss time-travel yarn Timeline, opposite Frances O'Connor and Billy Connolly, adapted from the novel by Michael Crichton.
In 2005, he starred in the lightweight ocean-set thriller Into The Blue with Jessica Alba.
Recent work includes the ultra-violent thriller Running Scared and the Disney movie Eight Below.
