Christina Ricci

The youngest of four children born to a therapist father and a real estate agent mother, Christina Ricci was born Feb. 12, 1980, in Santa Monica, Calif. Her family soon relocated to Montclair, N.J.

Ricci was spotted by a talent scout while performing in her elementary school pageant and was subsequently cast in her first film, Mermaids (1990), opposite Cher and Winona Ryder. After a string of family films including Casper, That Darn Cat and two Addams Family movies (playing the morbid daughter Wednesday), Ricci broke into more mature roles in 1997 with The Ice Storm (directed by Ang Lee), Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66 and The Opposite of Sex.

Ricci has starred opposite Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sleepy Hollow (directed by Tim Burton) and The Man Who Cried. In 2003, Ricci co-starred with Charlize Theron in the acclaimed serial-killer drama Monster.

Desert Blue

1998 R

When the FBI quarantines a seemingly nondescript town that boasts a random roadside attraction -- the world's largest ice cream cone -- visiting starlet Skye (Kate Hudson) and her father (John Heard) encounter an assemblage of memorable locals they won't soon forget. Christina Ricci, Casey Affleck, Sara Gilbert, Peter Sarsgaard and Brendan Sexton III co-star in writer-director Morgan J. Freeman's idiosyncratic dramedy.