Trivia: Seemingly every struggling standup comic dreams of landing their own television series, but few managed to do so with greater success than Jerry Seinfeld, whose career as a nightclub comedian led to him starring as himself on the show Seinfeld -- arguably the most successful situation comedy of the 1990s.Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, NY, on April 29, 1954, to Kalman Seinfeld, a signmaker, and his wife, Betty; Jerry was the second of the couple's two children. The Seinfeld family moved to Long Island when Jerry was a child, and he spent most of his youth there. After graduating from high school, Seinfeld went on to college, first attending the State University of New York at Oswego, and then moving on to Queens College of the City University of New York, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in 1976. Seinfeld developed a keen interest in performing while in college (his degree from Queens was in communications and theater), and after graduation he began working New York comedy clubs, often without pay, while holding down a number of odd jobs. Seinfeld's first big break came when his bright but understated observational humor caught the eye of standup legend Rodney Dangerfield, who featured Seinfeld on a special for HBO. The exposure helped establish Seinfeld on the comedy club circuit, and won him a recurring role on the situation comedy Benson. However, Seinfeld and the show's producers clashed over the character's direction, and he was fired after only four episodes.In 1981, Seinfeld appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Johnny Carson, and made a strong impression on both the audience and the host; he became a frequent guest on the Carson show, as well as David Letterman's late-night talk show. As Seinfeld's fame began to rise, he starred in several cable TV specials, and was approached to star in several TV series. However, remembering his experience on Benson, Seinfeld opted to avoid episodic television unless he was in a position of greater control (though he did do occasional guest spots on sitcoms and played a small role in Danny De Vito's TV movie The Ratings Game). In the meantime, Seinfeld and his good friend Larry David began working up an idea for a situation comedy to be called The Seinfeld Chronicles. In 1989, NBC took the bait, and a year later the show premiered under the streamlined name Seinfeld. Concerning standup comic Jerry Seinfeld and the often odd everyday occurrences of his circle of friends (many of whom were based on people Seinfeld and David knew in real life), Seinfeld got off to a slow start, but began to win a healthy audience in its second season, and in time became one of NBC's biggest hits, until Seinfeld and David opted to end the show at the peak of its popularity in 1998. Unlike most stars of top-rated television shows, Seinfeld displayed no interest in moving into films, and instead returned to standup comedy shortly after his show went off the air with a sold-out concert tour. In the Spring of 2002, however, Seinfeld did sign a deed to appear in a documentary about his return to the comedy circuit with a new act. In 2010 Seinfeld made a high-profile return to television on NBC's The Marriage Ref -- a show that found a rotating panel of celebrities attepting to settle petty disputes between squabbling spouses -- but the show went off the air after two seasons due to poor ratings. In his personal life, during the height of his fame, Seinfeld was romantically linked with several women (including comic and writer Carol Leifer, fashion designer Shoshanna Lonstein, and writer Jennifer Crittenden) before marrying Jessica Sklar, a publicist who met Seinfeld only a few weeks after her marriage to Eric Nederlander in 1998. Seinfeld and Sklar wed in December of 1999, and their first child, daughter Sascha, was born on November 7, 2000.

Trivia: Most everyone who went to high school in Livingston, NJ, with Newark-born Jason Alexander knew that the lad was destined to become a major actor. Though inclined to stoutness -- and baldness -- from age 16 onward, Alexander had such a commanding stage presence that he was invariably cast as the star in school plays, in roles ranging from romantic leads to elderly character parts. While attending Boston University, the 20-year-old Alexander was cast in the lead of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along, which might have made him an overnight star had it not closed almost as soon as it opened. Alexander's first film role was in 1981's The Burning; that same year he made his TV-movie bow in Senior Trip. By 1989, Alexander had two major industry awards to his credit: the Tony and Grammy, both for his participation in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. In 1990, he was cast as clueless loser George Costanza in the popular sitcom Seinfeld (the character was allegedly based on series co-creator Larry David). And in 1994, his voice could be heard each week on the USA cable network as the web-footed, sex-obsessed private eye hero of the animated cartoon series Duckman. Though still best-known for his portrayal of George Costanza, Alexander's feature film career picked up speed during the '90s as both a character actor in major comedies such as Dunston Checks In and a voice-over artist on such animated Disney features as Aladdin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In 1997, he played a more dramatic role as an AIDS-afflicted drag queen who finds romance in Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997). After a disappointing blink-and-you-miss-it comeback to the small screen as a self-help guru in Bob Patterson, Alexander leapt back to the big screen opposite Jack Black in the Farrelly brothers' Shallow Hal. He directed the sex comedy Just Looking in 1999. He had another small-screen misfire with Listen Up. But he continued to appear regularly in movies including the documentary The Aristocrats, the improvised poker movie The Grand, and Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror. He has lent his voice to a handful of animated projects over the years, and in 2012 he appeared in the family film A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up Timmy Turner.

Trivia: Like other Saturday Night Live alumni, Julia Louis-Dreyfus made the move to feature films, but she achieved true stardom on TV as Seinfeld's inimitable Elaine Benes. Born to an affluent family and raised in Washington, D.C., Louis-Dreyfus studied theater at Northwestern University. Along with working as a member of The Practical Theater Company, Louis-Dreyfus cut her sharp comic teeth as part of Chicago's Second City troupe. She soon followed in the footsteps of prior Second City-ers John Belushi and Bill Murray, joining the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985 (along with Northwestern classmate and eventual husband Brad Hall). Louis-Dreyfus bounced to films with appearances in Soul Man (1986), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), before returning to TV on the second episode of a low-rated NBC primetime sitcom starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld in 1990.As Jerry's ex-girlfriend-turned-pal Elaine, Louis-Dreyfus proved that she could hold her own as the sole female member of Seinfeld's do-nothing quartet of neurotic New Yorkers. With her "big wall of hair," signature shoes and penchant for over-enthusiastic exclamations, Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine was no mere foil, but rather a full participant in the show's increasingly popular, irony-laden comic shenanigans. Along with winning an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1996, Louis-Dreyfus won the Golden Globe in 1994 and the Screen Actor's Guild award in 1997 and 1998. During Seinfeld's phenomenally successful nine-year run, Louis-Dreyfus also played supporting roles in North (1994), Father's Day (1997), and as a libidinous sister in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997). After Seinfeld went off the air in 1998, Dreyfus took some time off from appearing in front of the camera to spend time with her husband and two sons, but she did the voice of Princess Atta in the Pixar animated blockbuster A Bug's Life (1998).Louis-Dreyfus subsequently returned to TV as the Blue Fairy in the TV movie musical Gepetto (2000) before attempting another sitcom. After two of her Seinfeld co-stars failed to make their own series fly in 2000 and 2001, Louis-Dreyfus opted for a non-traditional approach, playing a struggling lounge singer in the real time, laugh track free Watching Ellie in 2002. Louis-Dreyfus would continue to remain one of the most beloved comedic actresses in TV, starring on The New Adventures of Old Christine, and the political satire Veep.

Trivia: Mention the name of actor Michael Richards and it immediately conjures up images of Cosmo Kramer, the wild-haired, well-meaning neighbor-from-hell on the long-running NBC sitcom Seinfeld. But though Kramer is the role for which Richards is best known, it would be unfair to categorize him as a one-note actor, for he had already established a solid career as a comic character actor before landing the role in 1989. A native of Van Nuys, CA, Richards was raised by his mother Phyllis Richards, a medical records librarian. His father, William Richards, an electrical engineer, died when Richards was a toddler. His mother raised him in Culver City, one of L.A.'s centers for movie and television production. When Richards was in the eighth grade, he developed a passion for acting that blinded him to almost all other career options. After high school, he aspired to become a dramatic actor and enrolled in the theater program at Valley College in California. There, however, it quickly became apparent that Richards' genius lay not in drama, but in comedy (he credits his mother for his sense of humor). He did not graduate and was drafted by the Army. After serving two years in Germany, he returned to attend the California Institute of the Arts. He did not earn a degree, however, until he attended Washington State's alternative school, Evergreen State College. After graduating, he returned to Los Angeles and began performing in comedy clubs. In those days, he specialized in a blend of surrealist and zany comedy. He had worked the standup circuit for less than a year when he was tapped by the ABC network to appear in their new sketch series Fridays. Though derided as a direct rip-off of NBC's more successful Saturday Night Live, the show ran from 1980 to 1982. The year the show was cancelled is the year Richards made his feature film debut, in Garry Marshall's comedy Young Doctors in Love (1982). Though Richards subsequently never lacked for work in features and television, he remained relatively obscure until fellow Fridays castmate Larry David called to offer him a part in The Seinfeld Chronicles, a show he had recently developed with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. After a rocky start, the show was renamed Seinfeld and given a regular timeslot. Richard's character Kramer was based on one of David's friends. It took the actor a few episodes to develop his kooky alter ego, but once he did the results were dazzling, garnering Richards a trio of Emmys for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Playing Kramer was not always easy for him. In many ways a classic slapstick character, the role's physical demands often exhausted Richards, who also suffered the underlying stress of becoming typecast. Fortunately, the fame accorded him for his television work provided him the opportunity to stretch out on the big screen, as he did in Diane Keaton's Unstrung Heroes (1995). In 1997, Richards received top billing for the first time in Trial and Error, which co-starred Jeff Daniels. In November of 2006, a high profile, on stage meltdown at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles found Richards labeled a racist for repeatedly screaming "the 'N' word" at a pair of hecklers, and despite a quick apology on Late Night With David Letterman and discussions with leaders in the black community, it appeared Richards had irreparably damaged his reputation. In 2007 Richards retired from stand-up comedy, though his old friend David gave him a shot at a small screen comeback with a brief recurring role on his hit HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Trivia: American comic actor Larry Hankin was first seen on a major coast-to-coast basis in 1969. He was one of the members of a young, hip comedy troupe (including David Steinberg and Lily Tomlin) on an odd 45-minute TV variety series The Music Scene. Before this program, Hankin had a small part in the 1968 film domestic comedy How Sweet it Is (1968); after Music Scene, the actor had the misfortune to appear in the legendary all star fiasco The Phynx (1970), which never did get a general release. Hankin remained a supporting player, having a few moments here and there in such films as Thumb Tripping (1972), Ratboy (1986), She's Having a Baby (1988) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1991). TV fans could see Larry Hankin in the occasional guest role in series like All in the Family.

Trivia: Classically trained character actor Jeremy Piven shot to stardom as Ellen DeGeneres' unforgettable, sharp-witted cousin Spence on the ABC sitcom Ellen. Born in New York City on July 26, 1965, Piven is the son of actors Byrne and Joyce Piven. He grew up in Evanston, IL, where his parents founded the Piven Theater Workshop. He studied theater at his parents' school alongside Lili Taylor, Rosanna Arquette, and pal John Cusack. The longtime friends, who began by performing Chekhov at age eight, have collaborated on several films -- including One Crazy Summer (1986), Say Anything (1989), The Grifters (1990), Floundering (1994), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), and Serendipity (2001). They also co-founded the New Criminals Theater Company in 1989, which is now New Crime Productions, the company behind Grosse Pointe Blank and the Cusack vehicle High Fidelity (2002).A former member of the Second City National Touring Company, Piven made his small-screen debut on Carol Burnett's short-lived variety show Carol and Company in 1990. He went on to play a writer on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show and to appear on Seinfeld before starring as an unemployed father on the short-lived series Pride & Joy. Disney, who produced Pride & Joy, then created a role for him on Ellen. After the sitcom's cancellation in April 1998, Piven landed his own show, the offbeat ABC comedy-drama Cupid. Also starring Piven's real-life neighbor Paula Marshall, Cupid followed the infamous matchmaker after he had been thrown out of heaven for bad behavior and attempted to earn his reentry by uniting 100 couples in true love without using his otherworldly powers. The series won critical acclaim and earned Piven quite a following. Yet, as with many of the network's more innovative shows, ABC mishandled Cupid, shuffling it in and out of prime time until its inevitable cancellation. Undaunted, Piven returned to television a year later to guest star on Will & Grace.While Piven's film career has suffered the same ups and downs as his time on television, it is marked by numerous scene-stealing supporting performances. After making his feature-film debut in Lucas (1986), the actor appeared in Robert Altman's The Player (1992), Cameron Crowe's Singles (1992), and Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts (1992). He fell into a slump with failures like Judgment Night (1993) and Car 54, Where are You? (1994), but became a cult favorite for his portrayal of a campus misfit in P.C.U. (1994). Standout roles opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in Miami Rhapsody (1995), Robert De Niro in Heat (1995), Bill Murray in Larger Than Life (1996), and Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls (1997) quickly followed. He then proved to be the only good thing in Peter Berg's Very Bad Things (1998), before playing Nicolas Cage's best friend in The Family Man (2000). Piven took a respectable dramatic turn as a doomed helicopter pilot in Ridley Scott's award-winning Black Hawk Down, but returned to comedy for Old School (2003), a film by the makers of Road Trip (2000).Piven continued his work in entourage and took a starring role in Chappelle's Show director Neal Brennan's farcical comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard in 2009. 2011 found the actor playing the dreaded Timekeeper in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, he would portray another villain, this time in a voice role, for the children's adventure The Pirates! Band of Misfits in 2012.Then, in 2005, Piven scored the iconic role of Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage. The show turned out to be a massive success, and Piven's profile was raised considerably, making him more of a household name, and helping him to score more interesting roles outside the show, like washed-out magician Buddy Isreal in the 2006 over-the-top action blow-out Smokin' Aces, and Damon Schmidt in the 2007 political thriller The Kingdom. In 2008, he joined the cast of the Guy Ritchie London crime movie RocknRolla.

Trivia: Playing a succession of bespectacled, soft-spoken, yet vaguely superior characters, Bob Balaban carved himself a niche as a reliable character actor in the last quarter of the 20th century, while also getting the occasional opportunity to write and direct for the screen. The nephew and cousin of industry personages, Balaban got the acting bug at Colgate University and N.Y.U., inspiring him to study with Uta Hagen and Viola Spolin. After some exposure on and off-Broadway in the late 1960s, Balaban made his film debut in Midnight Cowboy (1969), playing the high school student who meets Jon Voight in the movie theater for a tryst. Working sporadically through the '70s, more in theater and TV than film, Balaban developed a more familiar face with such roles as the cartographer and French translator from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) and the attorney hired to help Richard Dreyfuss' quadriplegic choose to die in Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981). Balaban's major contribution to the industry in the 1980s was as a director, first of the disappointing Showtime movie The Brass Ring (1983) and then of the macabre weekly TV series Tales of the Darkside (1984) and Amazing Stories (1985). His big-screen directorial debut, the cannibal-themed black comedy Parents (1989), was considered either an objectionable failure by some or a devious cult classic by others; two later forays into directing (My Boyfriend's Back in 1993, The Last Good Time in 1994) were better received.In the 1990s, Balaban returned his focus to acting, especially as he caught on with more regular parts in the latter half of the decade. His most widely seen role was the NBC executive who accepts, then declines, then accepts again the pilot written by George and Jerry on the popular sitcom Seinfeld. His Russell Dalrymple appeared in only six episodes in the 1992-1993 season but was featured prominently in the season finale, lost at sea and presumed dead in his all-consuming quest to win Elaine's affections. It was this Seinfeld gig that netted Balaban the most regular and prominent work of his career in the years that followed. Although often still appearing in serious roles, Balaban indulged his talent for subtle comedy by linking up with actor/director Christopher Guest and appearing in two of his acclaimed faux documentaries, Waiting for Guffman (1996) and Best in Show (2000).Balaban scored a major art-house and critical successes producing and playing one of the main characters in Robert Altman's murder-mystery Gosford Park, and appearing as an ineffective father in Ghost World. That same year he appeared in important supporting roles in such big-budget fare as The Mexican and The Majestic. He maintained his carer in the independent world hooking up again with Christopher Guest for A Mighty Wind, and making a cameo appearance in the Oscar nominated Capote. Balaban appeared in and helped produce the animated Hollywood satire Hopeless Pictures, which ran on IFC in 2005. 2006 proved to be a very busy year for the multi-talented Balaban. In addition to another ollaboration with Guest, For Your Consideration, he played a film critic in M. Nght Shyamalan's The Lady in the Water. He also directed Ralph Finnes and Susan Sarandon in Doris and Bernard.Over the coming years, Balaban would continue to find outlets for his unique screen presence, appearing on the popular comedy series Web Therapy, and narrating the Wes Anderson comedy Moonrise Kingdom.

Trivia: An alumnus of State University of New York and the University of Massachusetts, American actor Bill Pullman excelled in both wacky comedy and intense drama during his stage years, working with such repertory companies as the Folger Theatre Groupe and the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Before college, he attended a technical institute and studied building construction (years later he used those skills to build his own house in California). In films, Pullman could be relied upon to almost invariably lose the girl, as witness his brace of 1993 films, Sleepless in Seattle and Somersby. He almost lost his screen wife Geena Davis to Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own (1992), but this gratuitous plot point was eliminated from the script. Only since 1994 has Pullman won the heroine's hand with any regularity. The summer of 1995 found Bill Pullman with back-to-back leading roles in two of the season's biggest box-office successes: While You Were Sleeping and Casper: The Movie. Pullman gained even more recognition for his heroic portrayal of the self-sacrificing U.S. president in the special effects blockbuster Independence Day. Up to this point, Pullman was pretty well typecast in "nice guy" roles. In David Lynch's Lost Highway (1996), he broke that mold by appearing as a deeply disturbed husband. In 1995, Pullman began a side career as a producer when he founded his own production company Big Town.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: The daughter of legendary sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay appears born to play the type of larger-than-life roles that would make her a Hollywood idol. Instead, from her breakthrough performance as a vulnerable single mother on ER to her starring turn as a somber detective on Law & Order: SVU, the talented actress has built her career by portraying real-life characters and keeping out of the spotlight. Raised in Los Angeles, Hargitay was a child of divorce before she celebrated her first birthday. In 1967, her mother died tragically when her car collided with a truck outside of New Orleans. Hargitay, then only three years old, was asleep in the backseat of the vehicle, but escaped uninjured. Days later, she moved in with her father and stepmother, Ellen Siano, a flight attendant. Hargitay participated in scores of activities throughout grade school, including cheerleading, student government, and athletics. She also developed a passion for performing: at 18, after being crowned 1982's Miss Beverly Hills, she enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles' prestigious undergraduate theater program. Hartigay began her professional acting career while she was still a student with a bit part in Bob Fosse's Dorothy Stratten biopic Star 80 (1983). In 1985, she appeared in the B-movie Ghoulies and agreed to portray a teenage parolee inCBS' short-lived series Downtown. Roles in the teen comedies Welcome to 18 (1986) and Jocks (1987) quickly followed. In 1988, the actress joined her dad in the biopic of his own career, Mr. Universe. That same year, Hargitay earned the recurring role of Carly Fixx on television's Falcon Crest. The next several years found Hargitay acting in B-movies, such as a martial arts film called The Perfect Weapon (1991), and a handful of television films, such as Blind Side (1993) and Gambler V: Playing for Keeps (1994). She earned a small role in Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and replaced Gabrielle Fitzpatrick as Dulcea in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), but her scenes were eventually re-shot with Fitzpatrick in the role. Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, Hargitay also appeared in numerous popular television shows -- In the Heat of the Night, Baywatch, Wiseguy, thirtysomething, Booker, Seinfeld, Ellen, The Single Guy -- and in quite a few failed series -- Tequila and Bonetti, Key West, Can't Hurry Love, Prince Street, and Cracker. In subsequent years, producer Dick Wolf tapped the actress for his Law & Order spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). As NYPD Detective Olivia Benson, Hargitay became a familiar and a celebrated face: She earned several award nominations for her performance on the show, as she stuck with the popular show for over ten years.In addition to working in film and television, Hargitay found time for the theater -- appearing on the Los Angeles stage in Salad Days, Women's Work, and Porno -- and read Rochelle Majer Krich's crime story Regrets Only on a mystery-themed audiobook. She also established her own charity, Spirit of the Dolphin, which gives abused children the chance to swim with dolphins in Hawaii. In 2007, Hargitay served as the National Ambassador for Lee National Denim Day to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. In terms of off-camera activity, Hargitay's successful pregnancy at the age of 42 (with her husband, SVU co-star Peter Hermann) made headlines as well.

Trivia: Al Ruscio played character roles since his film debut in Al Capone (1959). His best-known roles included crime boss Leo Cuneo in The Godfather: Part III (1990) and a recurring role on Life Goes On; he also appeared in the pilot episode of Seinfeld as the manager of Monk's Café. Ruscio worked as an acting teacher for years and regularly appeared in stage productions in Los Angeles. He passed away in 2013 at age 89.

Trivia: Salt-and-pepper-haired, frequently mustachioed African-American character player Richard Gant tackled supporting roles in a plethora of Hollywood A-list features during the 1980s and '90s. Among other efforts, his resumé from that period includes Suspect (1987), Rocky V (1990), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), and CB4: The Movie (1993). Gant continued his big-screen roles through the tail end of that decade and well into the 2000s, but also achieved substantial recognition and audience identification on the small screen, with a regular role as Sgt. Bill Dornan on Steven Bochco's hit cop drama NYPD Blue. Gant later appeared memorably as the livery stable owner Hostetler on the HBO Western drama Deadwood, and joined the cast of long-running soap opera General Hospital as Dr. Russell Ford in 2007.

Trivia: From his earliest days, character actor Erick Avari's family knew that he would eventually end up with a career in show business -- though given the fact that his grandparents on both sides of the family owned movie theaters throughout India and Asia (not to mention that his great-grandfather was a Victorian-era theater producer often credited with introducing women into Indian theater), they no doubt thought he would lean more towards the "business" side and less towards the "show." The majority of Avari's childhood was spent in Darjeeling, India. Though young Avari's primary language was English, he also mastered Nepali, Bengali, Hindi, and Gujarati over the course of his childhood. A steady diet of English-language films viewed at one of his father's two theaters no doubt aided the aspiring actor in bettering his English skills, and following a small role in Satyajit Ray's Kanchenjungha and a chance meeting with the Kendall family theater troupe, Avari's career was soon moving in the right direction. Following several years of college in India, Avari was awarded a scholarship to the College of Charleston, SC, where he studied acting before moving to New York to pursue a stage career. Roles in New York's Joseph Papp Public Theater and in the Broadway production of The King and I were quick to follow, and Avari made his feature debut with a role in the 1984 fantasy comedy Nothing Lasts Forever. Through the remainder of the '80s and the '90s, Avari carved a successful niche in film as the go-to guy for roles that called for mysterious men from the Far East, and roles in such wide-release films as Encino Man, For Love or Money, Stargate, and The Mummy kept him in the public eye. By the millennial turnover, audiences were no doubt familiar with Avari's face, with roles in Planet of the Apes, Mr. Deeds, The Master of Disguise, and Daredevil cementing his status as a talented character actor with impeccable comic timing.

Trivia: Speaks Spanish and Italian. He and his wife narrated a book together, An Unfinished Life, by Mark Spragg. Frequently works with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, including stints in Uncle Vanya and The Pillowman. Appeared in both The Mask of Zorro (1998) and the 2005 sequel The Legend of Zorro, but as different characters.