Birthday's to share this week : 24th - 30th May 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Carey Mulligan does on 28th May - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 30, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 24th May

• Kristen Scott Thomas - Born 1960, turns 55 - Actress
• John C. Reilly - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Alfred Molina - Born 1953, turns 62 - Actor | Producer
• Jim Broadbent - Born 1949, turns 66 - Actor
• Roger Deakins - Born 1949, turns 66 - Cinematographer

Monday 25th May

• Cillian Murphy - Born 1976, turns 39 - Actor
• Ian McKellen - Born 1939, turns 76 - Actor | Writer
• Mike Meyers - Born 1963, turns 52 - Actor | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• Frank Oz - Born 1944, turns 71 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Anne Heche - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Director
• Jacki Weaver - Born 1947, turns 68 - Actress

Tuesday 26th May 

• Helena Bonham Carter - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actress
• Pam Grier - Born 1949, turns 66 - Actress
• Matt Stone - Born 1971, turns 44 - Writer | Producer | Actor
• Lenny Kravitz - Born 1964, turns 51 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor

Wednesday 27th May

• Paul Bettany - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Christopher Lee - Born 1922, turns 93 - Actor
• Joseph Fiennes - Born 1970, turns 45 - Actor
• Louis Gossett Jnr. - Born 1936, turns 79 - Actor | Producer | Director

Thursday 28th May

• Carey Mulligan - Born 1985, turns 30 - Actress
• Kylie Minogue - Born 1968, turns 47 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress | Writer
• Sondra Locke - Born 1944, turns 71 - Actress | Director

Friday 29th May

• Annette Benning - Born 1958, turns 57 - Actress
• Rupert Everett - Born 1959, turns 56 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Danny Elfman - Born 1953, turns 62 - Composer | Actor

Saturday 30th May

• Antoine Fuqua - Born 1965, turns 50 - Director | Producer
• Duncan Jones - Born 1971, turns 44 - Director | Producer
• Harry Enfield - Born 1961, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Director

Carey Hannah Mulligan was born in Westminster, London to mother Nano Booth, a university lecturer, and father Stephen, a hotel manager. At three years of age the family moved to Germany where the young Carey's father had transferred to manage a hotel there. While living in Germany Carey and her brother Owain, attended the International School of Dusseldorf. Five years later, aged eight, the family returned to England where as a teenager she was educated at Woldingham School.

From aged six her interest in acting was sparked by her brothers performance in a school production of 'The King & I'. While at Woldingham School she involved herself in theatre and was the student head of drama while herself performing in musicals, plays and actively supporting productions.

Her parents were disapproving of her desire to pursue an acting career, instead wanting to attend university like her brother. She applied to three London drama schools but failed to gain an offer. In her last year at school author/writer/Director and Politician Julian Fellowes gave a lecture on the production of 'Gosford Park'. She sought advice from Fellowes which led to a dinner invitation for aspiring young Actors to gain advice on their chosen career path. That dinner in turn led to an introduction with a casting assistant and an audition for 2005's 'Pride and Prejudice' which she eventually scored in the role of Kitty Bennett.

Working in a pub and as a errand runner at Ealing Studios she first trod the boards at 19 in 'Forty Winks' at London's Royal Court Theatre. In 2005 she auditioned too for the BBC adaptation of Dicken's 'Bleak House' for which she won the BAFTA Award in her television debut having starred with Judi Dench, Donald Sutherland and Keira Knightley. In 2006 she starred in several TV shows including 'The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard', 'Agatha Christie's Marple', 'Trial & Retribution X', 'Waking the Dead', 'Northanger Abbey', 'My Boy Jack' and 'Doctor Who', as well as the stage play 'The Seagull' with Kristen Scott Thomas and Chiwetel Ejiofor,

In 2009 at just 24 her first lead role hit our screens with 'An Education' by Lone Scherfig and written by Nick Hornby. Further to her breakout role she won a BAFTA Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the BAFTA Rising Star Award. That same year she starred in 'The Greatest' with Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon.







Next up was 'Never Let Me Go' with Keira Knightley in 2010, together with Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps'. The following year came a return to the stage with 'Through a Glass Darkly' which like many of her works to date was much praised and highly lauded. This led to 'Drive' for Director Nicholas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, and Oscar Isaac for which she was nominated for her second BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. Steve McQueen's 'Shame' with Michael Fassbender followed that same year and the two latter films debuting at the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals respectively.

In 2013 she starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' followed by Joel & Ethan Coen's 'Inside Llewyn Davis' with Oscar Isaac once again. Following this was the TV mini-series 'The Spolis of Babylon', the 'Skylight' with Bill Nighy and Directed by Stephen Daldry, with 'Far from the Madding Crowd' and 'Suffragette' with Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter both due later this year.

To date Mulligan has 24 acting credits to her name, and 43 awards wins including the BAFTA for 'An Education' and a further 49 nominations including Academy Award and the Golden Globe nods for 'An Education' and the BAFTA for 'Drive'.

In 2009 she participated in the 'Safe Project' to raise awareness of sex trafficking, she has been  an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society since 2012, and from 2014 for 'War Child' also. She married Marcus Mumford (of Mumford & Sons) in April 2012, and they are expecting their first child this year.

Carey Mulligan - so much talent from someone still so young; experienced in film, TV and theatre; determined and focused; grounded and humble; charmingly playboyish and beautiful too - Happy 30th Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-