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Celebrate These Milestone Celebrity Birthdays in December

Marisa Tomei, Eddie Vedder, Denzel Washington, Bobby Flay, Gayle King and more toast another year


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Left to right: Denzel Washington, Ryan Seacrest, Sarah Paulson and Gayle King celebrate milestone birthdays in December.

Dec. 4: Marisa Tomei, 60

After breaking out on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns and the Cosby Show spinoff A Different World, Brooklyn-born actress Marisa Tomei proved her Hollywood star status when she won the best-supporting-actress Oscar for her hilarious turn in My Cousin Vinny. She went on to earn additional Academy Award nominations for In the Bedroom and The Wrestler, though younger audiences may know her best as Aunt May, opposite Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Last month, Tomei returned to the New York City stage with the off-Broadway play Babe, in which she stars as a legendary record producer facing shifting workplace gender politics.

Dec. 8: Teri Hatcher, 60

A former NFL cheerleader, Teri Hatcher struck TV gold twice, first in the ‘90s as Lois Lane on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and then in the 2000s as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, for which she won a Golden Globe. Following recent recurring turns on shows like The Odd Couple and Supergirl, she has become a fixture on TV holiday romances like A Kiss Before ChristmasChristmas at the Chalet and How to Fall in Love by Christmas. And on the darker end of the spectrum, she also starred this summer in Lifetime’s The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story, a scary true-crime tale about a woman in 1970s Wichita who’s being stalked.

Dec. 9: Judi Dench, 90

It’s been nearly seven decades since the future Dame Judi Dench made her stage debut with the Old Vic Company as Ophelia in Hamlet in 1957. Over the next two decades as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, she played every leading female role the Bard ever wrote. Despite her critical acclaim at home in England, it wasn’t until 1995, when she started playing M in the James Bond franchise, that American audiences began to take notice. Dench earned her first Oscar nod for playing Queen Victoria in 1997’s Mrs. Brown and took home the supporting-actress trophy the following year playing a different queen (Elizabeth I) in Shakespeare in Love— despite being on screen for only eight minutes. In the years since, she has received critical acclaim (and six more Oscar nominations) for performances in films like Notes on a Scandal and Belfast, and she has hinted that she may be retiring from acting due to vision loss from macular degeneration.

Dec. 10: Bobby Flay, 60

The Food Network mainstay got his start in the culinary world at a young age. After dropping out of high school, he toiled as a substitute busboy at a Manhattan restaurant, went to the French Culinary Institute, and worked his way up in the New York City restaurant scene. In 1991, he opened the Southwestern-tinged Mesa Grill, quickly winning the Rising Star Chef of the Year Award from the James Beard Foundation. His brash charisma made him a natural fit for the burgeoning world of food television. After making a name for himself on Iron Chef America, he has hosted cooking and competition shows, travelogues and his trademark series Beat Bobby Flay. In 2015, he became the first chef with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He’s not going anywhere, either: In November, he signed a new multiyear deal with Food Network.

Dec. 10: Meg White, 50

As one-half of the White Stripes, the Michigan-born drummer helped redefine the sound of indie rock in the early 2000s. She and vocalist-guitarist Jack White released their self-titled debut in 1999 and instantly became known for their unique style (always red, black and white outfits) and air of mystery: Though they claimed to be brother and sister, journalists later discovered that they were actually divorced, and Jack had taken her last name. While the band only notched three entries on the Billboard Hot 100 — peaking at 26 in May 2007 with “Icky Thump” —they picked up four Grammy wins, including Best Rock Song for the anthemic "Seven Nation Army," before breaking up in 2011. Always one to value her privacy, White hasn’t made a public appearance in 15 years.

Dec. 11: Brenda Lee, 80

Earning the nickname Little Miss Dynamite early in her career, the Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Famer signed her first record deal at the age of 11. She quickly racked up Top 10 hits like “I’m Sorry” and "I Want to Be Wanted." Over the decades, she recorded tunes across many genres, including rockabilly, pop, rock and especially country, and Rolling Stone recently ranked her No. 161 on its list of the best singers of all time. In 2023, she re-entered the pop-culture conversation when her holiday classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, 65 years after the song’s 1958 release. That made her the oldest woman to hit No. 1 — and marked the longest gap between an artist’s first and most recent chart-topping songs.

Dec. 17: Sarah Paulson, 50

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The Stewart of NY/Getty Images

Following breakout roles on the TV series American Gothic and Jack & Jill, Sarah Paulson enjoyed many years as a character actress and New York stage fixture. But that began to change when she started collaborating with Ryan Murphy: Her work in the American Horror Story franchise helped push her up to the A-list. In 2016, she won her first Emmy for playing real-life lawyer Marcia Clark in Murphy’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson before picking up another nomination for her role as Linda Tripp in the anthology series’ dramatization of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Earlier this year, she added her first Tony to her mantelpiece for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Southern family drama Appropriate.

Dec. 20: Sandra Cisneros, 70

It’s been 40 years since Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros released her breakthrough novel, The House on Mango Street, about a young girl growing up in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago. The book became a beloved work of 20th century fiction, selling more than seven million copies in 25-plus languages. Since then, she has released short stories, books of poems and collections of personal essays. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, last year Cisneros released her latest poetry collection, Woman Without Shame, which is filled with moving and often funny works about memory, desire, love and the search for home.

Dec. 23: Eddie Vedder, 60

A defining voice in the grunge music scene, Eddie Vedder joined Pearl Jam in 1990. Within a year, they were racing up the charts with their debut album Ten and hit singles like “Jeremy.” Despite 14 Grammy nominations, they’ve only taken home one trophy (best hard rock performance for “Spin the Black Circle”). Despite that, they’re widely seen as living legends, and Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. Outside of his work with the band, Vedder has left his mark on Hollywood with songs for films like Dead Man Walking and I Am Sam, and his first official solo studio album was the Golden Globe-winning soundtrack to Into the Wild. Throughout his career, he’s been an outspoken activist for causes like gun control, prison reform and marine conservation — after all, he is a big surfer.

Dec. 24: Ryan Seacrest, 50

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David Becker/Getty Images

Following a few random TV and radio hosting jobs in the 1990s, Ryan Seacrest became an immediate household name as the emcee of the juggernaut reality hit American Idol, earning 12 Emmy nominations for his work on the competition series. He’s set to return for the 25th season in 2025, but along the way, he’s diversified his resume in many ways, including producing Keeping Up with the Kardashians and becoming a syndicated radio mainstay. Seacrest has also emerged as a go-to successor for high-profile hosting gigs: He’s taken over for Casey Kasem (American Top 40), Dick Clark (Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve), Michael Strahan (Live with Kelly and Ryan) and, as of this year, Pat Sajak (Wheel of Fortune).

Dec. 25: Annie Lennox, 70

A Scottish singer known for her androgynous looks and otherworldly voice, Annie Lennox made up one half of the Eurythmics (along with Dave Stewart). Their hit singles include “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and “Here Comes the Rain Again.” The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. Lennox has won four Grammys, both with the band and solo, and sold more than 83 million records worldwide. In 2017, she was named the first female chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University. Next March, the feminist activist will perform a benefit concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with proceeds going to women and girls who face violence and injustice.

Dec. 28: Gayle King, 70

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Stephanie Augello/Getty Images

Many Americans first got to know Gayle King as Oprah’s best friend, but she’s had a robust career as a broadcast journalist for more than 40 years. King got her start in local TV news, eventually working as an anchor in Hartford, Connecticut, for 18 years, before she moved on to higher-profile national gigs. In 2011, she joined CBS News, where she co-hosts CBS Mornings. During her time at the network, she’s interviewed the likes of President Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand and Bruce Springsteen. Most recently, King co-hosted a CNN limited series called King Charles, alongside TNT basketball analyst and former NBA player Charles Barkley.

Dec. 28: Denzel Washington, 70

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Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images

In 2020, The New York Times ranked Denzel Washington the greatest actor of the 21st century, and it’s hard to argue with a resume as strong as his: A two-time Oscar winner (for Glory and Training Day), he’s played everyone from Malcolm X to anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko to Macbeth. He’s also earned Grammy and Emmy nods, and his stage credits include plays by William Shakespeare and Eugene O’Neill. As if to show off his range, Washington follows up his scene-stealing turn as the villainous Macrinus in Gladiator II with a return to Broadway, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, in a spring 2025 production of Othello.

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