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Solomon Burke

Biography

Solomon Burke (March 21, 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American recording artist and vocalist, who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s and a "key transitional figure in the development of soul music from rhythm and blues" (Irwin Stambler 1974). He had a string of hits including "Cry to Me", "If You Need Me", "Got to Get You Off My Mind", "Down in the Valley" and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love". Burke was referred to as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", "Bishop of Soul" and the "Muhammad Ali of soul". Due to Burke's minimal chart success in comparison to other soul music greats such as James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding, Burke is often described as the genre's "most unfairly overlooked singer" of its golden age. Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler once referred to Burke as "the greatest male soul singer of all time". Burke's most famous recordings, which spanned five years in the early 1960s, bridged the gap between mainstream R&B and grittier R&B. Burke was "a singer whose smooth, powerful articulation and mingling of sacred and profane themes helped define soul music in the early 1960s." He drew from his roots - gospel, jazz, country and blues - as well as developing his own style at a time when R&B, and rock were both still in their infancy. Described as both "Rabelaisian" and also as a "spiritual enigma," "perhaps more than any other artist, the ample figure of Solomon Burke symbolized the ways that spirituality and commerce, ecstasy and entertainment, sex and salvation, individualism and brotherhood, could blend in the world of 1960s soul music." During the 55 years that he performed professionally, Burke released 38 studio albums on at least 17 record labels and had 35 singles that charted in the US, including 26 singles that made the Billboard R&B charts. In 2001, Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a performer. His album Don't Give Up on Me won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003. By 2005 Burke was credited with selling 17 million albums. Rolling Stone ranked Burke as #89 on its 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time."
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Graciela Iturbide

Biography

Graciela Iturbide is a Mexican photographer born in 1942 in Mexico City. In 1969, at the age of 27, she enrolled at the film school Centro de Estudios Cinematográficos of the Universidad Nacional Autónama de México to become a film director. However, she was soon drawn to the art of still photography as practiced by the Mexican modernist master Manuel Alvarez Bravo who was teaching at the University. From 1970-71, she worked as Bravo’s assistant accompanying him on his various photographic journeys throughout Mexico. In 1978, Iturbide was commissioned by the Ethnographic Archive of the National Indigenous Institute of Mexico to photograph Mexico’s indigenous population, and decided to document and record the way of life of the Seri Indians. In 1979, she was invited by the artist Francisco Toledo to photograph the Juchitán people. Between 1980 and 2000, Iturbide was variously invited to work in Cuba, East Germany, India, Madagascar, Hungary, Paris and the US, producing a number of important bodies of work. She continues to live and work in Mexico City.
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Sean Connery

Biography

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer. He won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000). Connery was polled in a 2004 The Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. He received a lifetime achievement award in the United States with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama. On October 31, 2020, Connery died at the age of 90.
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Peter Heppelthwaite

Biography

Peter trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1991. Upon leaving drama school Peter secured his first TV role in Two Point Four Children but is probably best known for creating and playing the role of "Jed" in the BBC1 spin off of only Fools and Horses, The Green Green Grass. As Founding Member of Limitless, Peter is delighted to be in a position to now be able to share the knowledge and joy of his career. Being a father of three, he is massively aware of the huge benefits and fun children gain from opportunities and experiences such as Limitless can offer.
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Lecrae

Biography

Lecrae Devaughn Moore (born October 9, 1979) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record and film producer, record executive, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the president, co-owner and co-founder of the independent record label Reach Records, was the co-founder and president of the now-defunct non-profit organization ReachLife Ministries, is an investor and co-owner of the audio production software MXD, and is a co-founder of the film production studio 3 Strand Films. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lecrae, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Charles Soule

Biography

Charles Soule is a New York-based comic book writer, novelist, musician, and attorney. He is best known for writing Daredevil, She-Hulk, Death of Wolverine, and various Star Wars books and comic series from Del Rey Books and Marvel Comics, and his creator-owned series Letter 44, Curse Words, and Undiscovered Country, which he co-wrote with Scott Snyder. His debut novel, The Oracle Year was released by Harper Perennial on April 3, 2018. His follow-up novel, Anyone was released on December 3, 2019, also by Harper Perennial. His third novel, Light of the Jedi was released by Del Rey Books on January 6, 2021, debuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
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Shams El-Barudy

Biography

Egyptian actress of Syrian origins, born in 1945, she studied at the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts for only two and a half years, then began her artistic career in the early sixties, and at that time she was still using her real name (Shams al-Muluk), but soon she changed her nickname To be (Shams Al-Baroudi) after her family name. After that, she had many roles in the cinema, which made her an icon of temptation in the history of Egyptian cinema, and among the films in which she participated: (The Malatilian Bath, Pleasure and Agony, El Amusement Street) Shams Al-Baroudi has also been a mainstay in the films directed by her husband, actor Hassan Youssef, including (Cowardly and Love, Fat Cats, Two On the Road). Shams Al-Baroudi decided in the mid-eighties to retire and wear the hijab after the trip that she made with her father to perform the Umrah rituals, and she disavowed all the works that she participated in.
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Hong Sang-soo

Biography

Hong Sang-soo (born October 25, 1960) is a South Korean writer-director. He has directed 33 films as of 2025. Certain elements are commonly found in Hong's films. A typical Hong film highlights a theme of domestic realism with many of the scenes set on residential streets, cafes, hotels, schools, and in the stairwells of apartment buildings. Characters are seen walking around the city, drinking soju, and having sex. The main characters are often movie directors or actors, and scenes typically consist of a single shot, often beginning and ending with a camera zoom. The budgets for his movies average about $100,000. Hong is often spontaneous when shooting, delivering the day's scene on the morning of the shoot and frequently changing stories while on set. He rarely prepares scripts in advance. Hong's style has been compared to Eric Rohmer's, and it has even been argued that allusions to Rohmer's films appear in some films directed by Hong.
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Afsaneh Dehrouyeh

Biography

Afsaneh Dehrouyeh is an award-winning British Iranian actress, best known for starring as Laili in the BAFTA-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted Yellow, Samira in Our Kind of Love, and the key role of Mahdiya Kattan in Season 3 of Fox 21's Tyrant, from Homeland creator Gideon Raff. She was nominated for Best Actress by Underwire Film Festival for her performance in Our Kind of Love, along with making the BAFTA long list, dominating festivals including Aesthetica and LSFF, and has over 3 million views on Omeleto. She can also be seen alongside Mark Rylance in Phantom of the Open.
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Kerli

Biography

Kerli Kõiv (Estonian: [ˈkerli ˈkɤ.iʋ]; born February 7, 1987), better known mononymously as Kerli, is an Estonian singer and songwriter. Born in Elva, Kerli entered multiple singing competitions before being signed to Island Records in 2006 by LA Reid. In 2007, she released her debut self-titled extended play and in 2008, released her debut studio album, Love Is Dead, which charted on the Billboard 200. The lead single from the album, "Walking on Air," charted in many countries and was also featured as the iTunes Store's Single of the Week where it was downloaded over 500,000 times, a record at that time. In the years following, Kerli was featured on Almost Alice with the song "Tea Party" and she began to abandon her alternative rock sound and started to adopt a more electronic and dance-influenced sound, as can be heard in her 2010 single "Army of Love". Following the release of Love Is Dead, Kerli began production on a second studio album which became her second extended play Utopia, released in early 2013, where it became Kerli's second release to chart on the Billboard 200. Two promotional singles from the EP, "Army of Love" and "Zero Gravity", were released prior to the release of the album's first official single, "The Lucky Ones". All three songs entered the top ten of Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart; two of them peaking at number one. Two songs which were co-written by Kerli for Utopia — "Skyscraper" and "I Feel Immortal" — were later recorded by artists Demi Lovato and Tarja Turunen, respectively. Kerli's version of "I Feel Immortal" was later released on Frankenweenie Unleashed!. In 2013, Kerli performed twice on Dancing with the Stars; Vibe called the performances a "major milestone in the EDM world." In November 2013, Kerli left Island Records and signed a record deal with Ultra Music. In 2019, Kerli's second studio album Shadow Works was released.
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