Jacinda Barrett

  Although it took three continents to turn this free-spirited beauty into an up-and-coming starlet, Barrett broke through in 2006 with a trio of plucky Hollywood big-screen roles: a single mom in the action flick Poseidon, a nerd's dream girl in the comedy School for Scoundrels and a jilted pregnant woman in the drama The Last Kiss. Born in Australia, she left her homeland at 17 to work as a model in Europe. She first came to prominence on the small screen on the London incarnation of Real World, charming viewers with her long legs and penchant for streaking, and snagging fellow MTV personality Chris Hardwick as her fiancé (although she ended up marrying actor Gabriel Macht in 2004). Unlike other reality stars who think exposure automatically leads to an acting career, Barrett went on to train at the British Academy of Dramatic Art and began landing acting roles in the late '90s. While her subsequent TV projects were short-lived (D.C., Citizen Baines), a small but pivotal role in the film The Human Stain, as a sweet Midwestern student whose boyfriend has a dark secret, earned her critical kudos and proved she could do more than just look good (although her full-frontal nude scene reconfirmed she could still do that, too).