Amy Smart

Born: March 26 1976
Where: Topanga Canyon, California, USA

The former model is emerging as a major player with headlining roles in the likes of Just Friends and Crank.

The daughter of a salesman and housewife, she started modeling at 13 and moved into acting after landing a role in MTV's 1994 Rock The Vote campaign in which she played a strung-out supermodel.

Smart made her feature debut in Stephen T Kay's The Last Time I Committed Suicide alongside Keanu Reeves and was briefly seen in Paul Verhoeven's big-budget 1997 sci-fi actioner Starship Troopers.

However, she first gained notice for her supporting roles in the 1999 hit teen films Varsity Blues and Outside Providence.

In 2000, she had a featured role in Road Trip and followed that as one of three hippes who offer encouragement to a slacker fast food restaurateur in Scotland, Pa.

Subsequent appearances included Rat Race, the TV series Scrubs and the romantic drama The Battle of Shaker Heights.

In 2004, she starred opposite Ashton Kutcher in the paranormal thriller The Butterfly Effect and the comedy Win A Date with Tad Hamilton.

Director Tod Phillips cast her in the Hollywood remake of Starsky & Hutch and she landed a starring role in the rom-coms The Best Man and Just Friends.

In 2006, she starred opposite Jason Statham in the thriller Crank.