Douglas Noel Adams was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG). Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy developed into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime. It was further developed into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.
Timothy Walter Burton is an American director, producer, writer, and animator. Known for pioneering goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his gothic horror and fantasy films. He has received numerous accolades including an Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three BAFTA Awards. He was honored with the Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2007 and was given the Order of the Arts and Letters by Culture Minister of France in 2010.
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, characters who also appeared in Smith's later films Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), and Clerks III (2022) which are set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. While not strictly sequential, the films have crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon known as the "View Askewniverse", named after Smith's production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.
Laila Amaria Ali is an American television personality and retired professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2007. During her career, from which she retired undefeated, she held the WBC, WIBA, IWBF and IBA female super middleweight titles, and the IWBF light heavyweight title. Ali is widely regarded by many within the sport as one of the greatest female professional boxers of all time. She is the daughter of boxer Muhammad Ali.
Benjamin Géza Affleck is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of many accolades including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi. He later appeared in the independent comedy Dazed and Confused (1993) and several Kevin Smith comedies, including Chasing Amy (1997).
James Broadbent is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He's received various accolades including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.
Stuart Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and producer. A highly regarded figure of Canadian cinema, he has starred in five films by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan and has been nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards, once for Best Actor for Elephant Song (2014) and twice for Best Supporting Actor for The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and Being Julia (2004). For his role as American president John F. Kennedy in Thirteen Days (2000), he won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. He also portrayed Captain Christopher Pike in J. J. Abrams's Star Trek reboot series (2009–2013) and Gerald Burlingame in Gerald's Game (2017). He has appeared in other supporting roles in such films as Double Jeopardy (1999), I, Robot (2004), Capote (2005), Déjà Vu (2006), I'm Not There (2007), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Flight (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), The Post (2017) and Doctor Sleep (2019).
Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Morgan Freeman in supporting roles. The film reboots the Batman film series, telling the origin story of Bruce Wayne from the death of his parents to his journey to become Batman and his fight to stop Ra's al Ghul and the Scarecrow from plunging Gotham City into chaos.
Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.
Thomas Patrick Lennon is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series Reno 911!
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn, by Penguin Random House. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy books, and formerly manga under its Del Rey Manga imprint.
Keith Szarabajka is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Mickey Kostmayer on The Equalizer, Daniel Holtz on Angel, Gerard Stephens in The Dark Knight and Adam Engell in Argo. He has also voiced Dr. Terrence Kyne in Dead Space, Joshua Graham in Fallout: New Vegas, Harbinger in Mass Effect 2, Herschel Biggs in L.A. Noire and the Didact in Halo 4.
Kimberly Brooks is an American voice actress. Brooks has voiced characters in video games since the mid-1990s. She has played Luna in the Scooby-Doo franchise as part of The Hex Girls, Ashley Williams in the Mass Effect series, Stormy in the Nickelodeon revival of Winx Club, Buena Girl from ¡Mucha Lucha!, Barbara Gordon in the Batman: Arkham video game series, Shinobu Jacobs in No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Princess Allura from Voltron: Legendary Defender, Mee Mee in Dexter's Laboratory, Jasper in Steven Universe, and Robin Ayou in Subnautica: Below Zero. Brooks won a BAFTA Award for Performer in a Supporting Role at the 18th British Academy Games Awards for her work in Psychonauts 2.
Rollin' with the Nines is a 2006 British film set mainly in South London, about a rap group turned drug dealers. The working film title was Proper Little Charlie. The film stars Vas Blackwood, Robbie Gee, Mark Smith (Gladiator), Simon Webbe and Billy Murray. Small appearances are made by Jason Flemyng, Dizzee Rascal, Rodney P, Kano and Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.
Chris Terrio is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the 2012 film Argo, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Terrio also won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay of 2012 and was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, a BAFTA, and the 2013 Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for this work.
Brian Grant is a British music video and television director and producer. In 1982 he co-founded MGMM Productions with Scott Millaney, Russell Mulcahy, and David Mallet. MGMM became the most successful UK production company of the 80's. He started his career as a cameraman and went on to become a noted music video director, he also shot many movies and television series. He is famous for directing episodes of British television series including As If, Hex, Doctor Who, Party Animals, Sinchronicity, Britannia High, Highlander: The Series, Queen of Swords, Clocking Off, New Tricks, Sinbad, The Worst Witch, Our Girl, Video Killed the Radio Star, Lennon's Last Weekend, No Room For Ravers. He has been BAFTA and Emmy nominated. He has also directed many commercials and notable music videos through the 1980s for Olivia Newton-John, Donna Summer, Peter Gabriel, Queen, The Human League, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Kim Wilde, Whitney Houston, Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran.
Victor Headley is a Jamaican-born British author. He is the author of the bestselling novel Yardie (1992), which gained cult status upon publication and "heralded a new wave of black British pulp fiction". Other books by Headley include Excess (1993) Yush (1994), Fetish (1995), Here Comes the Bride (1997), Off Duty (2001) and Seven Seals (2003).
Will Brooker is a writer and academic, professor of film and cultural studies at Kingston University and an author of several books of cultural studies dealing with elements of modern pop culture and fandom, specifically Batman, Star Wars and Alice in Wonderland.
American actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck began his career as a child, appearing in several television shows, including the PBS educational program The Voyage of the Mimi (1984). He played an antisemite in the sports film School Ties (1992) and featured as a regular on the television drama Against the Grain (1993). He gained attention for playing the supporting part of a high-school senior in Richard Linklater's cult film Dazed and Confused (1993), after which he had his first leading role in Rich Wilkes's comedy Glory Daze (1995). In 1997, Affleck played a comics artist in Smith's art-house success Chasing Amy. He co-wrote the script and starred with Matt Damon in Gus Van Sant's drama film Good Will Hunting, for which they won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Joseph Quinn is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Eddie Munson in the fourth season of the Netflix series Stranger Things (2022). His previous appearances were in the BBC One series Dickensian (2016), Howards End (2017), and Les Misérables (2018), and the Sky Atlantic series Catherine the Great (2019).
