Regina King

Born: January 15 1971
Where: Los Angeles, California, USA

The actress's breakthrough performance came as Cuba Gooding Jr's wife Marci in the box office hit Jerry Maguire in 1996.

She made her showbiz debut in 1985 at LA's Crossroads Theatre and was immediately spotted and snapped up for a regular role as Brenda Jenkins on the TV sitcom 227.

Her feature acting debut came in 1991 in Boyz N the Hood directed by John Singleton, with whom King worked again in Poetic Justice.

It was four years before she starred in a movie again, but Singleton picked her up again for Higher Learning which led to her breakthrough screen role as no-nonsense Marci in Jerry Maguire.

Other major roles came along in Mighty Joe Young; How Stella Got Her Groove Back and opposite Will Smith in the thriller Enemy of the State.

In 2000, King starred opposite Chris Rock in the comedy feature Down to Earth and went on to play a shrewd investment assistant in Final Breakdown.

King stuck to comedy playing with Daddy Day Care alongside Eddie Murphy and the sequel Legally Blonde II with Reese Witherspoon.

In 2004, she played Hilary Duff's loyal pal in A Cinderella Story and femme fatale Margie Hendricks in the biopic Ray with Jamie Foxx.

Recent work includes the role of Sandra Bullock's feisty colleague Sam Fuller in the sequel Miss Congeniality 2.