Uma Thurman was already a teen model when she made her film debut in 1987's Kiss Daddy Goodnight. At first an ingenue in films like Dangerous Liasons (1988), she developed into a brainy, somewhat cynical leading lady whose wide-set eyes and sharp chin gave her an exotic beauty. She kept busy in the movies throughout the '90s, notably as a dangerous temptress in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994, with Ving Rhames and John Travolta) and as the villainess Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin (1997, with George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger). Sometimes a leading lady and sometimes a bit player, she also appeared in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999, starring Sean Penn), the Tarantino action flicks Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003, with Lucy Liu) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), the futuristic thriller Paycheck (2003, based on a story by Philip K. Dick), and the comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006).

Extra credit: Thurman married her Gattaca (1997) co-star Ethan Hawke in 1998. Their daughter Maya was born later the same year, and their son Levon was born in 2002. Thurman and Hawke divorced in 2004... Thurman's exotic appearance landed her a job as spokesmodel for Lancome, a French cosmetics company... Her father, Robert Thurman, is a noted expert on Tibetan Buddhism.