Julia Louis-Dreyfus

The quick-witted Louis-Dreyfus sharpened her comedic chops while at Northwestern University, where she performed as the only female member of an improvisational comedy troupe under the direction of Brad Hall, who later became her husband as well as her Saturday Night Live costar. After her three-year stint on SNL---during which she played a memorably loopy female televangelist, among other colorful characters---Louis-Dreyfus appeared in a handful of features before landing her breakout role on the lauded sitcom Seinfeld. Her eight-year run as Jerry Seinfeld's neurotic buddy, Elaine Benes, earned her seven Emmy nods and one statuette. After the series ended, the actress attempted to headline her own show, Watching Ellie. But the sitcom went bust, despite being specifically created for her by Hall. She fared much better in her second star outing, The New Adventures of Old Christine. Her effective turn as daffy divorced mom Christine Campbell awarded her no less than three Emmy nominations and her second career Emmy in 2006. This effectively broke the so-called "Seinfeld curse," coined when Seinfeld stars flopped in their various follow-up projects. Curse or no curse, the comedienne reunited with her Seinfeld colleagues in 2009 when they appeared together in Season 7 episodes of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. In 2010, she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but the honor didn't come without a stumble: Officials misspelled her name, imprinting it "Julia Luis Dreyfus." True to her strong sense of humor, she laughed off the typo.