Sanaa Lathan

Born: Spetember 19 1971

Where: New York, USA

Sanaa - "pronounced like Sinatra without the 'tra'," - first received acclaim for the romantic drama Love & Basketball.

She made her film debut in the action thriller Drive and followed that up with the above-average vampire thriller Blade with Wesley Snipes.

Roles followed in the late Ted Demme's hit comedy Life and Malcolm D Lee's The Best Man opposite Taye Diggs.

After L&B and The Smoker she co-starred again with Taye Diggs in the decent romantic comedy Brown Sugar.

Sanaa made an appearance in the Denzel Washington thriller, Out Of Time, before her role as the new Ripley-style character in Alien Vs Predator put her firmly on the map, despite the film somewhat lacking much credibility.