February 23: Happy Birthday Emily Blunt and Josh Gad

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It’s Emily Blunt’s 35th birthday today.  A schoolteacher recommended that she start acting to help her overcome a stutter, which she clearly succeeded in doing.  She was 18 when she made her professional acting debut in a production of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s play The Royal Family.  She began working in British television in 2003, and a year later made her feature film debut starring in the lesbian romance My Summer of Love.

In the next few years, Blunt had supporting roles in high-profile films like The Devil Wears Prada, Dan in Real Life, and Charlie Wilson’s War.  She began moving into lead roles in films like Sunshine Cleaning (costarring with Amy Adams), and, in the title role, The Young Victoria.  For the latter role she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama.

In the past several years, Blunt has starred in the sci-fi thrillers The Adjustment Bureau, Looper, and Edge of Tomorrow and the action-fantasy The Huntsmen: Winter’s War.  She has received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and, as the Baker’s Wife, for Into the Woods.  She starred in the acclaimed crime thriller Sicario, was a BAFTA Award nominee for The Girl on the Train, and will star as the title character of this year’s Mary Poppins Returns.

Today’s trivia question—Emily Blunt is the seventh headliner in this series to have played Queen Victoria in film or on television.  Who are the other six?

Josh Gad is turning 37.  He has had a “little bit of everything” career so far.  Following his graduation from Carnegie Mellon University, he began working regularly in television in the mid-2000s.  He has had regular roles in short-lived series like Back to You and 1600 Penn (which he co-created), and was a correspondent on The Daily Show.  He made his Broadway debut in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and went on to receive a Tony nomination as Elder Cunningham in the original cast of The Book of Mormon.

Gad made his film debut in a low-profile feature titled Mary and Joe while still in college.  After several years of small film roles, in 2013 he played Steve Wozniak in Jobs and then had prominent roles in Wish I Was Here and The Wedding Ringer.  Last year he appeared as LeFou in Beauty and the Beast and Hector MacQueen in Murder on the Orient Express, and starred opposite Chadwick Boseman in Marshall.  His best known film role, though, is most likely as the voice of a snowman.

Australian actress Samara Weaving is celebrating her 26th.  She became known in her native country for a period as a regular on Home and Away, and in the past year has become a regular on Showtime’s SMILF and starred in Netflix’s The Babysitter; she also had a small part in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.  Another Australian celebrating today is Callan Mulvey, who is 43.  He has appeared in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Jack Rollins in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the DC Extended Universe, as Anatoli Knyazev in Batman v. Superman, and also starred in the Australian black comedy Kill Me Three Times.

Last year’s February 23 headliners were Robert Lopez and Kelly Macdonald.

Robert Lopez turns 43 today.  He and his wife, Kelly Anderson-Lopez, are currently nominees for their second Oscar in the Best Original Song category, for “Remember Me” from CocoKelly Macdonald is celebrating her 42nd.  Last year she returned to the role of Diane Coulston for T2 Trainspotting, and received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the British Independent Film Awards for Goodbye Christopher Robin.  She appears as Rose Hudson in the upcoming Holmes and Watson.

Aziz Ansari, who is 35, continues to star on and produce Master of None, and in the past year won an Emmy and a Golden Globe (as a writer and actor, respectively) for the series.  Dakota Fanning, currently a regular on TNT’s The Alienist and scheduled to appear in Ocean’s 8, is turning 24.  French-Canadian actress Marie-Josée Croze, who celebrates her 48th, will star in the upcoming French comedy MILF, and appear in the upcoming Amazon Video series Jack Ryan (which will star John Krasinski, the husband of today’s headliner Emily Blunt).  Niecy Nash, who turns 48, currently stars on TNT’s Claws as Desna Simms.  Peter Fonda, who is 78 today, appeared last year in The Most Hated Woman in America and The Ballad of Lefty Brown.  Novelist John Sandford, who celebrates his 74th, continues to publish the exploits of his fictional detectives Lucas Davenport (in last year’s Golden Prey) and Virgil Flowers (in Deep Freeze).

If today is your birthday, congratulations on sharing your big day with these notable names.  Birthday wishes to everyone celebrating a big day today.  Come back tomorrow for more celebrity birthdays.

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