Anton Yelchin

Born: March 11, 1989
Where: St Petersburg, Russia

The young actor is probably best known for the titular role of the unofficial student psychiatrist in the movie Charlie Bartlett.

Other big screen outings have ranged from the Anthony Hopkins drama Hearts in Atlantis to the controversial crime drama Alpha Dog.

Born in what was Leningrad in the USSR to figure skaters Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, the family quit the Soviet Republic in 1989 when he was a baby.

The Communist authorities had earlier forbidden the Yelchins - where were Russian Jews - of participating in the 1972 Olympics despite them being internationally-acclaimed skaters.

Arriving in the US as refugees, they soon put their skills to good use, becoming skating choreographers and coaches.

At the aged of four the young Yelchin turned down the opportunity to take up skating and voiced his preference for acting.

After finishing school he attended acting classes in Los and, after being noticed by casting agents, made his screen debut aged ten in the 2000 weepie A Time For Dancing.

The same year he appeared in the medical soap ER and subsequently had minor roles in the features Delivering Milo and 15 Minutes.

In 2001, he starred in the Morgan Freeman thriller Along Came A Spider and he also snagged the key role aged 11 of Bobby Garfield opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hearts in Atlantis.

Switching to TV, he enjoyed recurring roles in Taken and The Practice and even landed a small part in the hit American comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm.

In 2004, he appeared in the David Duchovny comedy House of D and also starred alongside Bruce Willis in the drugs thriller Alpha Dog.

(he later admitted "feeling a little sick" after filming a near naked pool scene with two actresses for the movie)

Recent work includes the drama Charlie Bartlett alongside Robert Downey Jr and Hope Davis (who also played his mother in Hearts in Atlantis).