Ardeth Bay, a man of mystery and serious intent, always appears when the going is rough - even in London. He is a proud member of the Medjai,

stalwart men who have never flinched from defending the righteous cause throughout the ages, no matter what the personal cost. Also a leading character in The Mummy, Ardeth Bay is the first major film character Oded Fehr has played.

He was recently seen in the comedy Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and has a cameo in Texas Rangers.

 Born in Tel Aviv to European parents, Fehr enlisted in the Israeli navy at age 18 for a three-year stint. He subsequently moved to Europe to pursue a business career but discovered acting along the way. After training at England's Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Fehr appeared as Don Juan in the stage play Don Juan Comes Back From The War at the Courtyard Theatre in London.

Fehr has also appeared in both The Knock and Killer Net for British television and Cleopatra for Hallmark television, as well as Arabian Nights.

 

 

ARNOLD VOSLOO (Imhotep)

 

Imhotep vividly remembers his life in the Egyptian royal court. He's had 3000 years to think about it. He has been reborn in 1933 with his ambition and anger intact, and his ardor or Anck-Su Namun more intense than ever.

Vosloo reprises the pivotal role of the ferocious Imhotep, first seen in 1999's -7he Mummy.

    

The South African actor has won many theater awards in his native country, and has appeared in such plays as Torch Song Trilogy, Don Juan and More Is In Lang Dag. Performing with South Africa's State Theatre, he played leading roles in Twelfth Night and Hamlet, among others. In the United States, Vosloo starred in Born In The R.S.A. at Chicago's Northlight Theatre and in Salome opposite Al Pacino at Circle in the Square. Most recently, Vosloo completed filming Terry Cunningham's Con Express, starring opposite Sean Patrick Flanery. His other film credits include Ridley Scott's 1492, John Woo's Hard Target, Darkman II and III and Zeus And Roxanne, directed by George Miller.

An actor who is best known to international audiences for his role as the gorgeous dead man with a grudge in the 1999 re-make of The Mummy, Arnold Vosloo has been active in film since he immigrated to the U.S. from his native South Africa in 1988. Born the son of actors in Pretoria on June 16, 1962, Vosloo spent much of his childhood travelling South Africa with his parents. After leaving school, he went into the army and then spent two years with the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal. Vosloo made a name for himself on the Pretoria stage, winning one of its most prestigious awards, the Dalro, and then set off for the U.S. Once there, he acted on the Chicago and New York stages, at one point performing alongside Al Pacino in the Circle in the Square's production of SalomT. Although Vosloo made his film debut in 1987, it was not until he starred in The Mummy that he gained any substantial measure of recognition. The film, which was one of 1999's summer hits, also starred Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and John Hannah. Vosloo and his fellow cast members reprised their roles two years later for the film's sequel, the aptly-titled The Mummy 2.

 

 

BRENDAN FRASER (Rick O'Connell)

 

As a Legionnaire, Rick O'Connell was appropriately fearless and ready for  anything: big bugs, angry mummies, even the occasional damsel in distress.  Eight years later, fatherhood may have tempered his reckless nature, but

not his courage, or his left hook. And with his family's fate and the civilized world at stake, O'Connell will not shrink from a challenge.

     

In addition to creating an unforgettable character with Rick O'Connell in The Mummy, Fraser has built an impressive screen career with a diverse selection of roles. Most recently, he starred opposite Elizabeth Hurley and Frances O'Connor in Bedazzled, playing a lonely computer dweeb who sells his soul to Satan to win the girl of his dreams, and in Monkeybone as an illustrator who becomes possessed of his own cartoon alter ego. He appeared in a classic Mountie Crimson Tunic alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Alfred Molina in Dudley Do-Right, and opposite Alicia Silverstone in Blast From the Past. Fraser also played the dumb-luck hero title character in the hit comedy George of the Jungle. Fraser received critical acclaim for his subtle and intense performance alongside Sir Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave in Bill Condon's Academy Award' winning Gods and Monsters, and was named Best Actor at the 1997 Seattle Film Festival for his performance in Still Breathing.

Fraser's credits also include the films Mrs. Winterbourne, Encino Man and School Ties, and television productions of Jonathan Tolin's play The Twilight of the Golds and Steven Soderberg's The Professional Man. Onstage, Fraser starred in John Patrick Shanley's Four Dogs and a Bone at the Geffen Playhouse under the direction of Lawrence Kasdan.

Born in Indianapolis and raised in Europe and Canada, Fraser began studying acting at the age of 12. He received a B.F.A. in acting from the Actor's Conservatory, Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Fraser is currently filming The Quiet American, starring Sir Michael Caine and directed by Phillip Noyce, in Vietnam and Australia. The film is based on Graham Greene's novel.

 

 

RACHEL WEISZ (Evelyn/Nefertiri)

 

Evelyn has come a long way since her days as a Cairo librarian. She still flexes her skills as an Egyptologist, but these days her appetite for adventure is almost as strong as her thirst for knowledge. And she is absolutely fierce when anyone she loves is threatened. Lately, though, she's been troubled by some very unusual dreams.

     

Weisz's latest screen appearances include starring roles in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Enemy at the Gates opposite Joseph Fiennes and Jude Law, and Beautiful Creatures, a gritty drama set in Glasgow. Last year, she starred

opposite Ralph Fiennes in Sunshine, which received the Best Picture Award at the Genie awards in Canada. Weisz also starred in David Leland's Land Girls and in the Beeban Kidron drama Swept from the Sea with Vincent Perez. She was also featured in Going All the Way, Stealing Beauty and Chain Reaction opposite Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman. On the London stage, Weisz earned the 1994 London Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Newcomer for her performance in Noel Coward's Design For Living. While studying theatre at England's Cambridge University, the actress founded the award-winning theatre company Talking Tongues, which has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 

FREDDIE BOATH (Alex) Alex O'Connell

 

Is eight-years-old, but he faces trouble with grown-up aplomb. He's also a kid who knows how to drive adults crazy when it counts. Boath, an energetic nine-year-old newcomer, was picked to play adventure-loving Alex over hundreds of other hopefuls.

His fearless personality convinced Stephen Sommers that he was right for the part after only a few meetings, and the film's cast and crew agreed that he is much like the brave, action-minded Alex in real life. The son of a banker father and producer mother, Boath attends a Catholic boys' school in London. Although he has taken weekly drama classes for several years with his older brother Jack and his little sister Millie, Boath's only  experience before auditioning for The Mummy Returns had been lip-synching the John Travolta role in a class production of Grease.

 

 

PATRICIA VELASQUEZ (Meela/Anck-Su-Namun)

 

Meela is a woman with an agenda, just as her ancient self, the royal Anck-Su-Namun had been. And like her once and future lover Imhotep, she  will go to any lengths to get back the life she once had. Velasquez  appeared as Anck-Su-Namun in The Mummy and now reprises that character, and also plays her modern reincarnation, Meela, in The Mummy Returns.

     

A South American Wayu Indian from the Venezuelan border, Velasquez spent the first four years of her life in Paris, when her father worked for UNESCO. After Paris, the family relocated to Mexico for a few years and then returned to Venezuela. Her parents were both trained as teachers, so  she and her five siblings received an excellent education. At 17, Velasquez was discovered by a modeling agent visiting from Italy. She soon landed in Milan, where she began modeling. Soon, her work was sending her to Spain, Japan and France and she was making enough money to help her

mother back home. After working for all the top designers in Europe,

Velasquez became one of New York's only Hispanic supermodels. In 1997, she stopped modeling to study acting in Los Angeles and New York. Now fluent in English, French and Italian as well as her native Spanish, Velasquez has appeared in films including Le Jaguar, Eruption, Beowulf, No Vacancy, Facade, Committed, Turn It Up and San Bernardo, and will next be seen in the television movie Fidel.

 

 

 JOHN HANNAH (Jonathan)

 

Jonathan, it seems, will always be Jonathan. Talking a good game, but usually not a reliable member of the team. Looking for love, losing all his money, not too fussy about how he gets more of either. But don't mess with his nephew because he'll go to the ends of the earth to protect him.

     

Before taking on the rigors of the action-adventure genre in The Mummy, Hannah distinguished himself in the critically acclaimed drama Sliding Doors opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and in the international hit Four Weddings and a Funeral, which won him the Scottish BAFTA Award as Best Actor. He recently starred in the thriller Circus with Famke Janssen, and has also appeared in The Hurricane, Pandemonium, The James Gang and Resurrection Man. He played the title role in two British TV series, McCallum and Rebus. Winner of the Best Actor Award at the Stockholm Film Festival for

his performance in Madagascar Skin, Hannah studied for three years at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He has performed with Britain's

leading repertory theater companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company. Before his acting career took off, Hannah worked as an electrician in Scotland

 

ADEWALE (Lock-Nah)

 

The body count is always high whenever Lock-Nah, an architect of the scheme to reincarnate Imhotep, and his red-turbaned henchmen appear. A  cold-blooded killer, he is eager for the day he can finally dispose of the

troublesome child Alex.

 

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje received a Masters at the University of London. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Milan where he became an internationally known model. His success led him to move to Los Angeles where he quickly landed television roles in such shows as Cracker and New York Undercover.

He is best known for his four seasons as "Simon Adebisi" on the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Oz. He was also featured in HBO's Deadly Voyage.

His feature film credits include Delta of Venus, Congo, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Legionnaires. He can next be seen in The Bourne Identity,

directed by Doug Liman.

 

 

STEPHEN SOMMERS (Writer/Director)

 

He attended St. Johns University and The University of Seville in Spain. Following that, he spent four years performing in theater groups and managing rock bands throughout Europe.

Relocating to Los Angeles, he attended the USC School of Cinema-Television, earning a Masters Degree. During this time, he wrote and directed an award-winning short film entitled Perfect Alibi. Sommers wrote and directed The Mummy as well as The Mummy Returns. He wrote and directed The Adventures of Huck Finn, starring Elijah Wood and Jason Robards, The Jungle Book with Jason Scott Lee, Cary Elwes, Sam Neill and ohn Cleese, and Deep Rising, starring Treat Williams and Famke Janssen.

Sommers wrote and executive produced Disney's Tom And Huck with Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro. For television, he wrote and executive produced Oliver Twist, again working with Wood as well as Richard Dreyfuss. Sommers resides in Los Angeles with his wife Jana and their two daughters.