Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play.

Most early sources in the West that examine the art of acting (Greek: ὑπόκρισις, hypokrisis) discuss it as part of rhetoric.

One of the first actors is believed to be an ancient Greek called Thespis of Icaria. An apocryphal story says that Thespis stepped out of the dithyrambic chorus and spoke to them as a separate character. Before Thespis, the chorus narrated (for example, "Dionysus did this, Dionysus said that"). When Thespis stepped out from the chorus, he spoke as if he was the character (for example, "I am Dionysus. I did this"). From Thespis' name derives the word thespian.

Acting requires a wide range of skills, including vocal projection, clarity of speech, physical expressivity, emotional facility, a well-developed imagination, and the ability to interpret drama. Acting also often demands an ability to employ dialects, accents and body language, improvisation, observation and emulation, mime, and stage combat. Many actors train at length in special programs or colleges to develop these skills, and today the vast majority of professional actors have undergone extensive training. Even though one actor may have years of training, they always strive for more lessons; the cinematic and theatrical world is always changing and because of this, the actor must stay as up to date as possible. Actors and actresses will often have many instructors and teachers for a full range of training involving, but not limited to, singing, scene-work, monologue techniques, audition techniques and partner work.

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks is known for his roles in Philadelphia and as the title character in Forrest Gump, roles which won him two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. Hanks is also known for his Oscar nominated roles in Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.

Hanks' other acting roles include Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, The Green Mile as Paul Edgecomb, Toy Story as Woody and Charlie Wilson's War as Charlie Wilson.

Hanks was born in Concord, California. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California, on March 9, 1924 – died in Alameda, California, on January 31, 1992), was an itinerant cook. His mother, Janet Marylyn (née Frager; born in Alameda County, California, on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker. Hanks' mother is of Portuguese ancestry, while two of his paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Britain. Hanks's parents divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer)^{[citation needed]}, Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, PhD, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California.^{[citation needed]}

Anna Kay Faris ( /ˈɑːnə ˈfærɨs/; born November 29, 1976) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her starring role in the Scary Movie film series, as well as roles in The Hot Chick (2002), Lost in Translation (2003), Just Friends (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Smiley Face (2007), The House Bunny (2008), Take Me Home Tonight (2011),What's Your Number? (2011) and The Dictator (2012). She provided voice acting in the animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and was a recurring character on the television sitcom Friends.

Anna Faris was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Her mother, Karen, was a special education teacher at Seaview Elementary School in Edmonds, Washington, where Faris was raised. Her father, Jack Faris, is a sociologist who worked at the University of Washington as a vice president of internal communications and later headed the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association. She has a brother, Robert, who is also a sociologist and a professor at the University of California, Davis. At age 6, Faris moved with her family to Edmonds, Washington. Her parents encouraged her to pursue acting when she was young, and she gave her first professional acting performance at age 9, in a three-month run of Arthur Miller's one-act play Danger: Memory! at the Seattle Repertory Theater. She went on to play Scout in a production of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Issaquah, Washington, Village Theatre, and played title character in Heidi and Rebecca in Our Town. At 14, while attending Edmonds-Woodway High School, she appeared in a frozen-yogurt TV commercial. After graduating from high school in 1994, Faris attended the University of Washington and earned a degree in English literature.