JENNIFER LAWRENCE (Katniss): Jennifer Lawrence was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She has 2 older brothers, Ben and Blaine, sister-in-law Meredith, and her parents are Gary and Karen Lawrence. Jennifer, known to her friends and family as “Jen”, was discovered in New York City at the age of 14. Before Jennifer became an actor, she was involved in cheer-leading, field hockey, softball, and modeling, none of which she held a passion for. In the spring of 2004, she traveled to New York City and set up a few auditions with talent and modeling agencies. After conducting her first cold read, the agents told her mother that “it was the best cold read by a 14- year-old they had ever heard”, and tried to convince her mother that she needed to spend the summer in Manhattan. After leaving the agency, Jen was spotted by an agent in the midst of shooting an H&M ad and asked to take her picture. The next day, that agent followed up with her and invited her to the studio for a cold read audition. Again, the agents were highly impressed and strongly urged her mother to allow her to spend the summer in New York City.

Josh Hutcherson (Peeta): Joshua Ryan Hutcherson was born on October 12th, 1992 in Union, Kentucky to Michelle Fightmaster and Chris Hutcherson. He has one younger brother, Connor Hutcherson. From the age of four, Josh knew that he wanted to be an actor. In order to pursue his goal, Josh and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was nine-years-old. In 2002, Josh landed his first acting role in the TV film, House Blend (2002), with Amy Yasbeck, Dan Cortese and Sean Faris. The same year, Josh was cast in the pilot, Becoming Glen (2002), but Fox did not order it to series (though, several years later, it was reconfigured as the short-lived series, The Winner (2007), starring Rob Corddry, and co-written/produced by Seth MacFarlane). Toward the end of 2002, Josh appeared on an episode of ER (1994).

Sam Claflin (Finnick): English actor Sam Claflin is the son of a finance officer father and a classroom assistant mother. As a child he was football mad often going to see his local team Norwich City and he was a talented footballer, playing for Norwich schools at city level and Norfolk county level. However, he suffered 2 broken ankles and at 16 gave up thinking about a footballing career. He took up performing arts and a teacher from Costessey High School was impressed with his performance in a school play, and encouraged him to take up drama. He joined the local youth group at Norwich’s Theatre Royal and went on to gain entry to LAMDA drama school in 2006 graduating with a 3 year acting degree in 2009. He is the 3rd eldest of 4 boys, his older brothers Dan and Ben are not involved in drama but his younger brother Joe Claflin commenced at the same drama school in 2009 also doing a 3 year acting degree.

Liam Hemsworth (Gale): Born on January 13, 1990, in Melbourne, Australia, Hemsworth is the younger brother of actors Chris Hemsworth and Luke Hemsworth and the son of Leonie, an English teacher, and Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counselor; the Hemsworth family lived primarily on Phillip Island, a small island located south of Melbourne. Following in the footsteps of his older brothers, who went into acting in their teens, Liam scored his first audition at age 16 and appeared on the Australian TV series Home and Away (1988) and McLeod’s Daughters (2001) before taking on a recurring character role on the soap opera Neighbours (1985), in which his brother Luke had also appeared. Roles on TV shows The Elephant Princess (2008) and Satisfaction (2007) followed before Liam moved to the United States to pursue a big-screen career.

Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket): Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts near the New York border, on February 10, 1974. She describes herself as having been seen as a “goody two-shoes” in her youth who was nominated for the local Harvest Queen. Banks left home to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania–from which she graduated Magna cum Laude–and went on to attend the Advanced Training Program at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, from which she graduated in 1996. She then moved to New York and worked in the theater, and began getting small roles in films and on television. Seeking more screen work, she moved to Los Angeles and soon began snagging supporting roles. She also had to change her name, to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell, and thus changed her last name to Banks.
Her first breakthrough role was as Betty Brant, the secretary of the cantankerous newspaper tycoon in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002). She followed up this performance with small roles in other movies: Swept Away (2002), Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can (2002), Seabiscuit (2003) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). In 2003 she won the Exciting New Face Award at the Young Hollywood Awards.

Woody Harrelson (Haymitch): Academy Award-nominee Woody Harrelson was born on July 23, 1961 in Midland, Texas. He grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, and, after receiving degrees in theater arts and English from Hanover College, had a brief stint in New York theater. He was soon cast as Woody on TV series Cheers (1982), which wound up being one of the most-popular TV shows ever and also earned Harrelson an Emmy for his performance in 1989. While he dabbled in film during his time on Cheers (1982), that area of his career didn’t fully take off until towards the end of the show’s run. In 1991, Doc Hollywood (1991) gave him his first widely-seen movie role, and he followed that up with White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993) and Natural Born Killers (1994). Recently, Harrelson has been seen in No Country for Old Men (2007), Zombieland (2009), 2012 (2009), and Friends with Benefits (2011), along with the acclaimed HBO movie Game Change (2012).

Donald Sutherland (President Snow): The towering presence of this Canadian character actor is not often noticed, but his contributions are legendary. He has been in almost a 150 different shows and films. He is also the father of renowned actor Kiefer Sutherland. Born in New Brunswick, Sutherland worked several different jobs – he was a radio DJ in his youth – and was almost set on becoming an engineer after graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in engineering. However, he also graduated with a degree in drama, and he chose to abandon becoming an engineer in favour of an actor. Sutherland’s first roles were bit parts and consisted of such films as the horror film Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965) which starred Christopher Lee. He was also appearing in episodes of TV shows such as “The Saint” and “Court Martial”. Sutherland’s break would come soon, though, and it would come in the form of a war film in which he was barely cast.

Lenny Kravitz (Cinna): Four time Grammy Award Winner Leonard “Lenny” Albert Kravitz was born on May 26 1964 in New York, USA, the only child of actress Roxie Roker and Hollywood Producer Sy Kravitz. The family moved to California when Lenny was 10. He started playing the drums and guitar at the age of five, influenced by his parents’ love of R&B, jazz, classical, opera and blues. In Los Angeles, his mother encouraged him to join the California Boys Choir and Metropolitan Choir. He attended Beverly Hills High School, where he was a contemporary of Slash from Guns N’ Roses, graduating in 1982. In the late 1980s he returned to New York to pursue his musical career. Here he met and married Lisa Bonet, who played Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show (1984). They had one child together, a daughter Zoe, but would divorce in 1993.

Jena Malone (Johanna): Jena Malone is an up-and-coming actress who has numerous accomplishments despite her young years. She is growing into being a substantial presence in the movie industry.
Beginning as a child actress, and now stepping up to roles as a young adult, Malone’s career path has been compared to that of Jodie Foster, herself a former child actress and who has co-starred with Malone in two movies. Jena is often described as having a maturity beyond her years and, in her career thus far, she has often tackled roles that are difficult and are not standard fare for actors her age. Malone’s first claim to fame was in performing the title role in Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) for which she won the Young Artist Award, and which she filmed when she was merely ten years old. This movie dealt with issues of child abuse, violence and sex. Jena has said in later interviews that this movie and her participation in it continue to influence her life substantially.

Willow Shields (Primrose): Willow Shields was born on June 1, 2000 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has a twin sister, actress Autumn Shields and an older brother, actor River Shields. Willow got her first job in 2008, narrating the short film Las Vegas New Mexico 1875 (2008), the story of a dying gunfighter who returns home after 10 years to make peace with his wife and daughter. Her first television role was a guest appearance in the USA series In Plain Sight (2008), which was filmed in her hometown of Albuquerque, followed by an episode in the teen-oriented horror anthology series R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour (2010) and a supporting role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie Beyond the Blackboard (2011) opposite Emily VanCamp. On the strength of those appearances alone, Willow was cast as Primrose Everdeen, the younger sister of heroine Katniss Everdeen, in The Hunger Games (2012), and will appear in the same role in all the upcoming films adapted from the bestselling novels by Suzanne Collins. Willow has several pets including dogs and chickens; she is home schooled and loves history and reading. She spends her free time making art, and especially loves making artist trading cards.