Jake Gyllenhaal
Gyllenhaal not only acted in the movie; he played a major role in the production, participating in everything from casting to post-production and editing, proving the the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and inheriting his directorial skills from his father, Stephen. Performing since childhood, Gyllenhaal's break out role was in the 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko, and has spent much of his subsequent career in gritty, independent movies, making both Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain in 2005 - both high up on the list of that year's most controversial cinematic offerings. For his role as Lou Bloom, Gyllenhaal received widespread critical acclaim and also a clutch of nominations for awards, including a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors' Guild award and a BAFTA, all in the best leading actor in a dramatic role category.
Rene Russo
Mrs Dan Gilroy was chosen specially for the role of Nina which was actually created specifically for her by her husband, anxious to make the rather abrasive and unethical character of Nina a little softer and more appealing to movie audiences. A former model, Russo burst onto the movie scene in 1989 when she appeared in the comedy film Major League, which she followed up with a series of thrillers and action movies that included Lethal Weapon 3 & 4 and a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair in which she took on the role previously played by Faye Dunaway in the original. Russo won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in this film and was also nominated in the Supporting Actress category at the BAFTA Awards.
Bill Paxton
Paxton appeared in some of the most popular films of the 1980s, most notably The Terminator and the cult teen hit Weird Science. In fact, he seems to have made a career out of starring opposite various alien characters whose only goal is to threaten the future of humanity. However, it is for his role in the stormchaser movie Twister that he is best known and remembered; the weather watcher community even paid tribute to him after his death by spelling out his name using the storm alert system that they used to seek out storms and other wild weather phenomena. His last film before his untimely death in 2017 was The Circle, which he never got to see for himself; it was released two months after he passed away.
Riz Ahmed
If you are a fan of Pakistani rap music, you might better recognize Ahmed as Riz MC; however, as an actor, his young career has been much acclaimed, earning him an Emmy Award and nominations for Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and British Independent Film Awards, all of which occurred before his breakout role in Nightcrawler.
Pat Harvey
It's always gratifying for a public figure to play themselves in a fictional movie; it's validation, somehow, that they are recognizable enough for their appearance amongst a movie's fictional characters to mean something to the audience. Harvey is an award-winning broadcast journalist who has been co-anchoring for news station KCAL since 2010. She is the longest running anchor in Los Angeles. In 2012, Harvey was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists' Hall of Fame at the Newseum in Washington D.C.
