Jessica Biel
The church-family daughter from 7th Heaven who shed her wholesome image and fought her way into 2000s movie stardom. Cast at fourteen as Mary Camden, she became one of The WB's defining faces—and by her early twenties she was headlining studio films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Blade: Trinity.
Jessica Biel was born March 3, 1982, and cast at fourteen as Mary Camden, the eldest daughter of the Camden family, on The WB's family drama 7th Heaven when the show premiered on August 26, 1996. She was a lead through the show's first six seasons, playing the character audiences trusted—the responsible, basketball-playing eldest daughter.
At seventeen, she posed for a risqué photo shoot that ran in the March 2000 issue of Gear magazine. The show's producers were outraged and took legal action against the magazine. Biel later said she regretted the decision and had been shown different pictures than the ones that were ultimately published. It was widely read as a bid to break free of her wholesome image. Her character Mary was famously shipped off to live with her grandparents in Buffalo during season five; Biel stayed a lead through season six, then stepped back to recurring and occasional guest appearances.
Alongside the show's later years she studied at Tufts University, from 2000 to 2002, before returning to acting full-time. Her 2000s film run included Summer Catch (2001), the lead role in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (2003), Blade: Trinity (2004), and The Illusionist (2006)—a deliberate transformation from teen-TV ingénue into a movie actress.
In January 2007, she began dating Justin Timberlake, and they married on October 19, 2012—the epilogue to her peak.
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7th Heaven
The WB's gentlest family drama: Reverend Eric Camden and his wife Annie raising seven kids in fictional Glen Oak, California. Every episode was a moral crossroads—dating, drugs, peer pressure, faith—and families watched it together. For a decade it was the show your parents approved of, and it made Jessica Biel a star.
Julia Stiles
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Josh Hartnett
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Freddie Prinze Jr.
Son of the 1970s sitcom legend Freddie Prinze, who died when Freddie Jr. was a baby. He grew up carrying one of television's most poignant legacies—and then became the face of the late-90s teen-movie boom. Dimpled, kind-eyed, and impossibly likable, he was THE heartthrob of an era that believed in nice guys.