John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. After his father's death, Tolkien's son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings form a connected body of tales, poems,...

Barack Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms repres...

Al Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is well known for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy and Tony Montana in Scarface, and often appeared on the other side of the law—as a police officer, a detective and lawyer. Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 65th Academy Awards in 1992 for his performance as Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman. Prior to his win he had received seven Oscar nominations, including one that ...

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her multi-award-winning talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show which was the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she has been ranked the richest African-American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and is currently North America's ...

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once, and has been a finalist for the Governor General's Award several times, winning twice. She is also a co-founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-profit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada's writing community.

Bill Gates is an American business magnate, philanthropist, investor, computer programmer, and inventor. Gates is the former chief executive and chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen.During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4 percent of the common stock. He has also authored and co-authored several b...

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, better known by his stage name Eminem and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and actor. In addition to his solo career, Eminem is a member of the group D12, as well as one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, alongside Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the world's best-selling music artists and is the best-selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time b...

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe is an English actor. He rose to prominence as the title character in the Harry Potter film series. He made his acting debut at 10 years of age in BBC One's 1999 television movie David Copperfield, followed by his film debut in 2001's The Tailor of Panama. At age 11, he was cast as Harry Potter in the first Harry Potter film, and starred in the series for 10 years until the release of the eighth and final film in 2011. Radcliffe began to branch out to sta...

Johnny Depp is an American actor, film producer, and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. He rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol.Depp has been nominated for major acting awards, including three nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor. Depp won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and the S...

Selena Marie Gomez is an American actress and singer. Gomez first made her debut appearing as Gianna in Barney & Friends, lasting from 2002 to 2004. This preceeded many roles she would play in film and TV. In 2009, Gomez appeared in the films Princess Protection Program and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie before releasing her first studio album as Selena Gomez & the Scene, titled Kiss & Tell. The album was a commercial success, peaking inside the Top 10 of the Billboar...

Gordon Ramsay is a Scottish celebrity chef, restaurateur, and television personality. His restaurants have been awarded 15 Michelin stars in total and currently hold 14. His signature restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London has held 3 Michelin stars since 2001. Ramsay is known for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, along with the American versions of Hell's...

Seth MacFarlane is an American actor, animator, comedian, writer, producer, director, and singer. He is the creator of the TV show Family Guy (1999–2003, 2005–present) and co-creator of the shows American Dad! (2005–present) and The Cleveland Show (2009–2013). He also voices many of the shows' various characters. As an actor, he has made guest appearances on shows such as Gilmore Girls, The War at Home, and FlashForward. MacFarlane's interest in science fiction and fantasy has led ...