After toiling for a decade in low-grade films and a host of TV shows, Teri Polo finally earned a helping of recognition, topped off with a dollop of critical appreciation, for her portrayal of Ben Stiller's would-be fiancée in Jay Roach's 2000 autumn blockbuster Meet the Parents. The casting of Polo as the daughter of über-WASP suburban gentry (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) capitalized on her Pepsident-blond, all-American looks, and the film's success effectively provided the actress with the exposure that would allow her to move beyond the confines of weeknight television spots. The daughter of a stereo systems designer and a homemaker, Polo was born in Dover, DE, and raised there in the company of two older brothers. A ballet student from the age of five, she spent most of her childhood and adolescence in a dance studio, but after being rejected by a performing arts school at 17, Polo re-evaluated what she wanted to do with her life; her subsequent win in a Seventeen magazine modeling contest led to her decision to drop out of school and pursue an acting career in New York. Roles on TV shows ranging from the ABC soap opera Loving to Northern Exposure followed, as did starring work as the object of Ethan Hawke's affections in the thankless comedy Mystery Date (1991). After moving to Los Angeles in 1995 to better pursue her career, Polo found more work on television, guest-starring on such shows as Felicity and Sports Night. With Meet the Parents in 2000, the actress' years of hard work seemed finally to have paid off, as she enjoyed mention in the national media and a crop of studio offers.

Thandie Newton was born in Zambia in 1972 to a Zimbabwean mother and British father who moved their family to London when Newton was four. She then lived in Cornwall on England's south coast until age 11. At that time she enrolled in London's Art Educational school where she studied modern dance. However, a back injury forced her out of dance. It was while school that the actress met Australian director John Duigan, who was casting his coming-of-age tale Flirting (1991). Newton won a leading role as the smart, worldly girlfriend of the film's protagonist and starred alongside a then relatively unknown Nicole Kidman. Her next film of any significance was 1994's Interview With the Vampire, in which she had a minor role which, ironically enough, called for her to be killed off by Kidman's husband, Tom Cruise. The same year Newton acted as part of an ensemble cast in Loaded, a fairly obscure film directed by Anna Campion, sister of The Piano's Jane. She was then reunited with Flirting director Duigan in 1995 for The Journey of August King, a little-seen feature in which she starred with Jason Patric. Greater recognition came in the form of the same year's Jefferson in Paris, a critically maligned but impressively cast film in which Newton played Sally Hemings, slave and lover of Nick Nolte's Thomas Jefferson. Acting alongside individuals such as Nolte, James Earl Jones, and Gwyneth Paltrow certainly did little to hurt Newton's reputation, and the next year she had yet another starring role, this time opposite Jon Bon Jovi in her third film with director Duigan, The Leading Man. Despite her leading status, Newton still hovered on the border of relative obscurity, something that finally began to change with three 1998 films in which she had major roles. The first was Vondie Curtis Hall's Gridlock'd, a film that won Newton raves for her turn as a heroine-addicted jazz singer opposite Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur. Newton's second film that year, Beloved, won her further recognition, both for her mere presence in the highly-anticipated adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel, and for her portrayal of the mysterious, ghostly girl who torments Oprah Winfrey's Sethe. Finally, it was with her third film of 1998, Besieged, that Newton graduated from relative obscurity to the rank of Hollywood Up and Comer. The film, which was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and co-starred David Thewlis, received stellar reviews, many of which singled out Newton's performance for particular praise. This, along with a coveted spot on the April 1999 cover of Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood Issue, further cemented the actress' well-deserved status as one of the industry's latest Forces to Be Reckoned With. In 2000, Newton further ascended the ranks of recognition when she starred opposite former Interview With the Vampire co-star Tom Cruise in John Woo's Mission: Impossible II; although the film received mixed reviews, Newton earned almost unanimous approval from critics who praised her strong, dynamic performance. Recently starred opposite Mark Walhburg in The Truth About Charlie.