Born: March 30, 1975
Known for: Crash
The Jewish community in Persia dates back 2500 years to the Babylonian exile, and in those two and a half millennia, the Parsi contingent of our people has apparently devoted most of its energy to cranking out the world's finest Jewish ladies. The Persian Jews run thick out in SoCal - the very ground is littered with their cast-off last-year's-model BMWs - but they hadn't conquered the big screen until favorite daughter Bahar Soomekh appeared as a bright spot in the otherwise heavy-handed Crash. She followed that with roles in Syriana, Mission: Impossible III and Saw III (hey, nobody's perfect), but we love her because she's a better Jew than most of us: her husband converted; she, her husband and her son attend synagogue regularly; they celebrate the holidays; and they have dinner every Friday night with the extended family. Awwww.