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Rhonda Smith
Biography
Smith was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her family moved to Montreal when she was a child. She and her three siblings were encouraged to play music and she began playing baritone horn, keyboards, guitar, and eventually electric bass. In addition to taking private classical training on upright bass, Smith attended McGill University in Montreal studying jazz performance. After gaining some experience in the local rock scene, she moved on to work with Canadian artists Claude Dubois, Daniel Lavoie, Robert Charlebois and James Blovin. She won a Juno award for "Best Contemporary Jazz Album", for her work with Jim Hillman and The Merlin Factor.
While attending a music convention in Germany, Smith met Sheila E. and gave her a press kit after learning Prince was putting a new band together. Two months later, Prince called and Smith went to Paisley Park to record on the Emancipation album. Smith recorded and toured with Prince for almost 10 years. Other musicians she has worked with include Chaka Khan, Beyoncé, T.I., Erykah Badu, Lee Ritenour, Jeff Beck, and Terri Lyne Carrington.
In 2000, she released her first solo record, Intellipop.
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Helene Joy
Biography
Hélène Joy (born October 21, 1978) is an Australian–Canadian television actress. Her credits include roles in the television series MVP, Durham County, The Secret World of Og, An American in Canada, ReGenesis, Pearlie, and Murdoch Mysteries. Joy was born and raised in Australia, studying at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth. She subsequently joined the Bell Shakespeare Company in Sydney and the Melbourne Theatre Company, and had minor roles in Australian television series such as Water Rats, Big Sky and Snowy River: The McGregor Saga, before moving to Vancouver.
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Jon Brion
Biography
Jon Brion (born December 11, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He performed with the Excerpts, the Bats, 'Til Tuesday and the Grays before becoming an established producer and film score composer.
Brion has produced music for artists and bands including Of Montreal, Aimee Mann, Love Jones, Eels, Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Robyn Hitchcock, Rhett Miller, The Crystal Method, Kanye West, Sky Ferreira and Mac Miller. According to Stereogum, Brion's work on Mann's first solo albums "lay the groundwork for a sound that became synonymous with a strain of notable alternative acts at the turn of the century".
Brion's film scores include Hard Eight (1996), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I Heart Huckabees (both 2004), Synecdoche, New York (2008), ParaNorman (2012), Lady Bird (2017), and Christopher Robin (2018). He released his debut solo album, Meaningless, in 2001.
Brion was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey on December 11, 1963. He comes from a musical family; his mother, LaRue, was an administrative assistant and singer, and his father, Keith Brion, was a band director at Yale. His brother and sister became a composer/arranger and a violinist, respectively. Brion grew up in Connecticut, where he dropped out of Hamden High School at the age of 17, opting instead to play music professionally. From 1980–85 Jon was part of the band The Excerpts, along with Stephen Harris, Dean Falcone, Jim Balga, Bobby Butcher & Spike Priggen.
In the early 1980s, Brion and musician/producer Bill Murphy began a writing collaboration in New Haven, Connecticut. They eventually enlisted bassist Don "Riff" Fertman and together formed the Bats (not to be confused with the New Zealand group or South African group of the same name). The Bats released a single, "Popgun", and one album, How Pop Can You Get?, on Gustav Records in 1982. The recordings had much critical acclaim, but little commercial success, and the trio eventually disbanded.
In 1987, Brion moved to Boston, where he played solo gigs, formed the short-lived band World's Fair and became a member of the last touring version of Aimee Mann's new wave band 'Til Tuesday. He contributed guitar work to Jellyfish's 1993 album Spilt Milk, and in 1994, joined Dan McCarroll, Buddy Judge and ex-Jellyfish guitarist Jason Falkner in the short-lived pop band the Grays. He also played guitar on the Wallflowers' hit song "One Headlight", using a screwdriver that was sitting atop a nearby amp as a slide. Brion played numerous instruments on Sam Phillips' 1996 release Omnipop. Brion is featured as keyboardist and drummer on Marianne Faithfull's 2003 album, Kissin Time, and co-wrote a song, "City of Quartz", for her next work, 2005's Before the Poison.
After being recognized as an accomplished session player, Brion branched out into production on then-girlfriend Mann's 1993 solo debut, Whatever, and its follow-up, I'm With Stupid. He has also produced albums by Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, Eleni Mandell, Rhett Miller, Robyn Hitchcock, Brad Mehldau and Evan Dando, and co-produced Kanye West's Late Registration in 2005. ...
Source: Article "Jon Brion" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0."
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Yûharu Atsuta
Biography
Yuharu Atsuta (January 1, 1905 - December 7, 1992) was a Japanese film cameraman. He is known as a famous cameraman of Yasujiro Ozu's group.
Born in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, he grew up in Toranomon, Tokyo. In 1928, he worked as an assistant cinematographer on Yasujiro Ozu's second film, “Dreams of Youth,” and later became a close friend of Ozu's while working as an assistant on many of his films. After 15 years as an assistant, he became a cinematographer during the shooting of “What Ladies Forget” in 1937 and worked as a cinematographer for all of Ozu's films distributed by Shochiku until 1962.
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Naomi Campbell
Biography
Naomi Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world. As the most famous black model of her time, Campbell has been outspoken throughout her career against the racial bias that exists in the fashion industry. Her personal life is widely reported, particularly her affairs with famous men—including boxer Mike Tyson and actor Robert De Niro—and several high-profile assault convictions.
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Ghassan Massoud
Biography
Ghassan Massoud (Arabic: غسّان مسعود / Ghassān Masʻūd; born September 20, 1958) is a Syrian actor and filmmaker born on September 20, 1958, in Damascus, Syria. He achieved global recognition for his roles in both Arabic and worldwide films. Massoud has been active in the industry for several decades, earning a distinguished reputation as one of the most highly regarded actors in the Middle East.
Massoud is known for writing and directing the theater play "Diplomasiyyoun," as well as his appearances in many Syrian-made films. He has appeared in the Syrian television series "The Chant of Rain," but most recently, he starred as Abu Bakr in MBC's series "Omar." He's most well-known internationally for his role as Saladin in Ridley Scott's 2005 film "Kingdom of Heaven," alongside playing Ammand the Corsair in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Throughout his career, Massoud has been recognized for the commitment he has to his craft. He continues to be an influential figure in the world of Arab cinema, teaching drama at both the Damascus Music and Drama School and the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts.
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Rachel Stevens
Biography
Rachel Stevens (born 9 April 1978 in London) is an English singer, actress, television presenter and model. She is best known as a member of S Club 7. Rachel started drama school at the age of 5. At age 15, she was picked from 5000 people to win a modelling competition organised by "Just 17" magazine. She did some modelling work and she then went to the London School of Fashion to study the fashion business. She got a diploma and then moved into fashion PR. Then, at age 21, she joined the pop group, S Club 7.
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John Gottowt
Biography
John Gottowt (born Isidor Gesang; 15 June 1881 – 29 August 1942) was an Austrian actor, stage director and film director for theatres and silent movies.
Gottowt was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. After his education in Vienna, he joined the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1905, working for Max Reinhardt as an actor and director. Gottowt was mainly active in different theatres in Berlin as a character actor and director.
His first silent film appearance was in Paul Wegener’s Der Student von Prag ("The Student of Prague") (1913). In 1920 he appeared in Robert Wiene's Genuine and took the main role in the early science fiction film Algol. In 1921 he played Professor Bulwer (Abraham van Helsing) in the classic silent film Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau.
Gottowt made also several films with his brother-in-law Henrik Galeen but, as a Jew, was banned in 1933 from working as a professional actor. After a few years in Denmark he moved to Kraków in Poland. He was murdered in 1942 by an SS officer while in hiding in Wieliczka, disguised as a Roman Catholic priest.
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Hervé de Luze
Biography
Hervé de Luze (born 1949) is a French film editor with about fifty feature film credits.
de Luze had a long collaboration with the director Claude Berri, for whom he edited eight films between 1981 and 1999. de Luze has been director Roman Polanski's principal editor since Pirates (1986), including the much honored 2002 film The Pianist. de Luze has also edited several films with Alain Resnais, including On connaît la chanson, for which he won a César Award.
de Luze was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for The Pianist. de Luze has also won three César Awards (the "French Academy Award") for On connaît la chanson (1997), for Ne le dis à personne (2006), and for The Ghost Writer (2010); he has been nominated for the César for five other films as well.
Source: Article "Hervé de Luze" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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Nora Kirkpatrick
Biography
Nora Kirkpatrick is an American actress, writer and director. She is a graduate from UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television. She is probably best known for her role as Katherine, the stern president of Panhellenic, on the ABC Family TV series Greek, or for her recurring role on the ninth season of The Office as Esther Bruegger, a neighboring farmer's daughter who becomes Dwight's girlfriend. Kirkpatrick starred in the 2015 film Pink Grapefruit, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Award. She has played many other roles in film and TV, including Men at Work, Jennifer Falls, Don't Trust the B, and Chasing Life. She was one of the leads of the popular mockumentary web series Dorm Life, in which she played Courtney Cloverlock.
in 2016, Kirkpatrick created a TV show for Comedy Central entitled Best-Seller, which she wrote with Saturday Night Live alum Dennis McNicholas. The show was produced by Olivia Wilde, Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay from Gloria Sanchez Productions.
In 2017, Kirkpatrick created, wrote and directed Virtually Mike and Nora, the first virtual reality comedy series for Hulu, with collaborator Mike O'Brien. The first two episodes of the series played at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. In a 2017 Forbes article, Kirkpatrick mentions virtual reality's ability to cause "spatial un-comfortability," and her aim to make the viewer the lead character of the story. Kirkpatrick studies and performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in Los Angeles.
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