PAUL DANO
AGE 23

BROKE OUT IN... Little Miss Sunshine (2006), proving that silence can be golden as a willfully mute loner.

WHY HIM Dano didn't stay quiet for long. He raised his voice — and his profile — with an electrifying performance as a fire-and-brimstone preacher in the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood (2007).

WHAT'S NEXT He voices a monster named Alexander in Spike Jonze's upcoming adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.