Lindsay Lohan

Born: July 2 1986
Where: New York, USA

The former child model attracted critical acclaim for the hit comedies Freaky Friday and Mean Girls.

However, her ascendant career has risked being overshadowed by her tangled private life and family problems.

Media attention focussed on her weight loss, which was attributed to the break up of her parents and her father's conviction for attempted assault and drink-driving.

It's a far cry from her beginnings as a three-year old Ford model and child veteran of more than 60 adverts, including ones for Gap and Pizza Hut.

She made her acting debut in 1996 in the American TV drama Another World before writer Nancy Mayers handpicked her for the role of dual sisters in The Parent Trap.

The daughter of a former Radio City Rockette and a Wall Street analyst, she went on to appear in TV movies, including Disney's Life Size.

However, it was her role as Jamie Lee Curtis' daughter in the witty remake of Freaky Friday that raised her celebrity profile.

The movie £120m worldwide and Curtis went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination.

Lohan continued her upward trajectory in Sara Sugarman's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and also starred in the well above average comedy-drama Mean Girls.

However, she began making headlines for all the wrong reasons following accusations she accused singer Ashlee Simpson of stealing her boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama.

Things got worse when her father Michael was convicted in 2005 of drink driving and trying to attack the brother of his estranged wife with a shoe.

Lohan - who was was publicising her starring role in Herbie: Fully Loaded - blamed her dramatic weight loss on stress caused by her parents' split.