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Nikki Blonsky

Plucked from obscurity, high school senior Nikki Blonsky went from scooping ice cream to starring opposite John Travolta in the blockbuster Hollywood musical "Hairspray" (2007) in the blink of an eye. Cameras from "Entertainment Tonight" were there to record the moment when the full-figured teenager from rural New York received the news that she landed the career-making lead role. But friends and family knew that her success was not a lucky lottery win - she had been singing and dancing since early childhood, and was a mainstay in musicals and theater in high school. The fact that a "Hairspray" movie was in the works was well known to Blonsky. A fan of the Broadway show since she was 15, she not only auditioned for a role in the play, she regularly kept tabs of the film over the Internet. The moment she learned casting was starting for the big screen version, Blonsky put together an audition tape that eventually won the hearts of filmmakers and studio executives.