Trivia: First gaining notoriety as Sookie on the hit sitcom Gilmore Girls, actress Melissa McCarthy began her onscreen career with a bit part on her cousin's The Jenny McCarthy Show. Minor film and TV roles followed before she landed the aforementioned part of Sookie St. James, a role she would play throughout Gilmore Girls seven-season run on The WB/CW. In 2007, McCarthy was cast in a supporting role alongside Christina Applegate on the ABC comedy Sam I Am.She found genuine success with the sitcom Molly and Me, playing one-half of a weight-challenged couple opposite Billy Gardel and earning an Emmy nod for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. However, it was her supporting turn in the R-rated comedy Bridesmaids that brought her a taste of mass adulation as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Trivia: Simply by growing old gracefully, actress Susan Sarandon has defied the rules of Hollywood stardom: Not only has her fame continued to increase as she enters middle age, but the quality of her films and her performances in them has improved as well. Ultimately, she has come to embody an all-too-rare movie type -- the strong and sexy older woman. Born Susan Tomalin on October 4, 1946, in Queens, NY, she was the oldest of nine children. Even while attending the Catholic University of America, she did not study acting, and in fact expressed no interest in performing until after marrying actor Chris Sarandon. While accompanying her husband on an audition, Sarandon landed a pivotal role in the controversial 1970 feature Joe, and suddenly her own career as an actress was well underway. She soon became a regular on the daytime soap opera A World Apart and in 1972 appeared in the feature Mortadella. Lovin' Molly and The Front Page followed in 1974 before Sarandon earned cult immortality as Janet Weiss in 1975's camp classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the quintessential midnight movie of its era. After starring with Robert Redford in 1975's The Great Waldo Pepper, Sarandon struggled during the mid-'70s in a number of little-seen projects, including 1976's The Great Smokey Roadblock and 1978's Checkered Flag or Crash. Upon beginning a relationship with the famed filmmaker Louis Malle, however, her career took a turn for the better as she starred in the provocative Pretty Baby, portraying the prostitute mother of a 12-year-old Brooke Shields. Sarandon and Malle next teamed for 1980's superb Atlantic City, for which she earned her first Oscar nomination. After appearing in Paul Mazursky's Tempest, she then starred in Tony Scott's controversial 1983 horror film The Hunger, playing a scientist seduced by a vampire portrayed by Catherine Deneuve. The black comedy Compromising Positions followed in 1985, as did the TV miniseries Mussolini and I. Women of Valor, another mini, premiered a year later. While Sarandon had enjoyed a prolific career virtually from the outset, stardom remained just beyond her grasp prior to the mid-'80s. First, a prominent appearance with Jack Nicholson, Cher, and Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1986 hit The Witches of Eastwick brought her considerable attention, and then in 1988 she delivered a breakthrough performance in Ron Shelton's hit baseball comedy Bull Durham, which finally made her a star, at the age of 40. More important, the film teamed her with co-star Tim Robbins, with whom she soon began a long-term offscreen relationship. After a starring role in the 1989 apartheid drama A Dry White Season, Sarandon teamed with Geena Davis for Thelma and Louise, a much-discussed distaff road movie which became among the year's biggest hits and won both actresses Oscar nominations. Sarandon was again nominated for 1992's Lorenzo's Oil and 1994's The Client before finally winning her first Academy Award for 1995's Dead Man Walking, a gut-wrenching examination of the death penalty, adapted and directed by Robbins. Now a fully established star, Sarandon had her choice of projects; she decided to lend her voice to Tim Burton's animated James and the Giant Peach (1996). Two years later, she was more visible with starring roles in the thriller Twilight (starring opposite Paul Newman and Gene Hackman) and Stepmom, a weepie co-starring Julia Roberts. The same year, she had a supporting role in the John Turturro film Illuminata. Sarandon continued to stay busy in 1999, starring in Anywhere But Here, which featured her as Natalie Portman's mother, and Cradle Will Rock, Robbins' first directorial effort since Dead Man Walking. On television, Sarandon starred with Stephen Dorff in an adaptation of Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions, and showed a keen sense of humor in her various appearances on SNL, Chappelle's Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. After starring alongside Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters, Sarandon could be seen in a variety of projects including Alfie (2004), Romance and Cigarettes (2005), and Elizabethtown (2006). In 2007, Sarandon joined Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones, director Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel of the same name. She continued her heavy work schedule into the 2010s- in 2012 alone, the actress took on the role of a long-suffering mother to two grown sons in various states of distress for Jeff, Who Lives at Home, appeared as an older version of a character played by her daughter, Eva Amurri Martino, in That's My Boy and played a variety of supporting roles in the Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas. The following year found her in the crime drama Snitch, the ensemble rom-com The Big Wedding and in the Errol Flynn biopic The Last of Robin Hood. In 2014, she played Melissa McCarthy's grandmother (despite the fact that the actresses are only 24 years apart in age) in Tammy. She made a cameo appearance, as herself, in Zoolander 2 (2016).

Trivia: Actress Kathy Bates has been involved in the arts in one way or another since graduating from Southern Methodist University. Among the Memphis native's earliest jobs were a stint as a singing waitress in a Catskill resort and a sojourn as a gift shop cashier in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Bates was type-cast in character roles early on, which assured her a lot more work than the thousands of faceless ingenues in the business. Her film debut occurred with 1971's Taking Off, and she made her off-Broadway debut five years later in Vanities.For a long while, Bates made her name on the stage, only to see her roles go to other actresses in the plays' subsequent film adaptations. In 1983, she was nominated for a Tony award for her stage appearance as a garrulous would-be suicide in 'Night, Mother, a role played on screen by Sissy Spacek. She also appeared as Lenny McGrath in Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Crimes of the Heart, a role played on screen by Diane Keaton. And in 1987, playwright Terrence McNally wrote a part specifically tailored to Bates' talents: the much-abused waitress Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, a role which won her an Obie award, and, following a familiar pattern, was played on screen by Michelle Pfeiffer.Bates finally got to star in a movie herself in 1990. And what a starring role it was: in Misery, she portrayed the psychotic "Number One Fan" of romance writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan), a searing performance which earned the actress an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Appropriately enough, Hollywood screenwriters subsequently began making more room for Bates in their scripts. She worked steadily throughout the rest of the decade in films of greatly varying quality. Particular highlights included Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), A Prelude to a Kiss (1992), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Titanic (1997), and Primary Colors (1998), the latter of which featured Bates giving an Oscar and Golden Globe nominated performance as a political muckraker. Following her firey, foul-mouthed performance in that thinly veilied political biopic, Bates added a new credential to her resume, that of director. Initially taking the helm for the made-for-cable feature Dash and Lilly, Bates would subsequently direct episodes of the quirky HBO drama series Six Feet Under, simultaniously taking minor film roles before returning to more substantial roles with the CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame entry My Sister's Keeper. Roles in Love Liza and Dragonfly (both 2002) were soon to follow, and with her turn as an extroverted mother who catches the attention of Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt Bates would recieve her third Oscar nomination.She directed a number of episodes of the HBO series Six Feet Under before joining the cast in season 3 as Bettina. The next year she portrayed Queen Victoria in the big-budget remake of Around the World in 80 Days. She directed he feature Ambulance Girl in 2005. She continued to act steadily in a variety of projects including Failure to Launch, P.S. I Love You, Fred Claus, Bee Movie, and Revolutionary Road. She provided expert support for Sandra Bulock as the younger actress was winning an Oscar in The Blind Side, and Bates joined the cast of The Office in 2009. She was part of the large ensemble in 2010'ss Valentine's Day, and in 2011 starred as Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen's Oscar winning Midnight in Paris. That same year she launched her own network Drama series Harry's Law.

Trivia: Louisiana native Mark Duplass paid his dues both behind and in front of the camera, writing, producing, directing, and starring in a number of films throughout the early 2000s, like The New Brad and This is John. Duplass' efforts began capturing wider attention with 2008's The Puffy Chair and 2009's Baghead, which garnered some critical buzz on the festival circuit. The filmmaker's star climbed even higher in 2010, when he received critical acclaim for his next project, an uncomfortable comedy called Cyrus, starring Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, and John C. Reilly. Simultaneously, Duplass made a successful six-episode run as an actor on the comedy series The League, as well as in fellow indie filmmaker Noah Baumbach's 2010 dramedy Greenberg.

Trivia: One of the most vibrant comic personalities of the 1970s and '80s, as well as a noted actor and screenwriter, Dan Aykroyd got his professional start in his native Canada. Before working as a standup comedian in various Canadian nightclubs, Aykroyd studied at a Catholic seminary from which he was later expelled. He then worked as a train brakeman, a surveyor, and studied Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, where he began writing and performing comedy sketches. His success as a comic in school led him to work with the Toronto branch of the famed Second City improvisational troupe. During this time -- while he was also managing the hot nightspot Club 505 on the side -- Aykroyd met comedian and writer John Belushi, who had come to Toronto to scout new talent for "The National Lampoon Radio Hour." In 1975, both Aykroyd and Belushi were chosen to appear in the first season of Canadian producer Lorne Michaels' innovative comedy television series Saturday Night Live. It was as part of the show that Aykroyd gained notoriety for his dead-on impersonations of presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. He also won fame for his other characters, such as Beldar, the patriarch of the Conehead clan of suburban aliens, and Elwood, the second half of the Blues Brothers (Jake Blues was played by Belushi). Aykroyd made his feature-film debut in 1977 in the Canadian comedy Love at First Sight, but neither it nor his subsequent film, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video, were successful. His first major Hollywood screen venture was as a co-lead in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). But Aykroyd still did not earn much recognition until 1980, when he and Belushi reprised their popular SNL characters in The Blues Brothers, a terrifically successful venture that managed to become both one of the most often-quoted films of the decade and a true cult classic. Aykroyd and Belushi went on to team up one more time for Neighbors (1981) before Belushi's death in 1982. Aykroyd's subsequent films in the '80s ranged from the forgettable to the wildly successful, with all-out comedies such as Ghostbusters (1984) and Dragnet (1987) falling into the latter category. Many of these films allowed him to collaborate with some of Hollywood's foremost comedians, including fellow SNL alumni Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Eddie Murphy, as well as Tom Hanks and the late John Candy. In such pairings, Aykroyd usually played the straight man -- typically an uptight intellectual or a latent psycho. He tried his hand at drama in 1989 as Jessica Tandy's son in Driving Miss Daisy and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. During the '90s, Aykroyd's career faltered just a bit as he appeared in one disappointment after another. Despite scattered successes like My Girl (1991), Chaplin (1992), Casper (1995), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), and Antz (1998), the all-out flops -- The Coneheads (1993), Exit to Eden (1994), Sgt. Bilko (1996) -- were plentiful. Likewise, the long-awaited Blues Brothers sequel, Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), proved a great disappointment. Aykroyd, however, continued to maintain a screen profile, starring as Kirk Douglas' son in the family drama Diamonds in 1999. During the next few years, he found greater success in supporting roles, with turns as a shifty businessman in the period drama The House of Mirth (2000), Woody Allen's boss in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), pop star Britney Spears' father in her screen debut, Crossroads (2002), and (in a particularly amusing turn) as Dr. Keats in the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore comedy 50 First Dates. Aykroyd also appeared in the 2005 Christmas with the Kranks, alongside Tim Allen and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry with Adam Sandler in 2006. He also provided the voice of Yogi Bear in the big screen adaptation of the titular cartoon -- but none of these projects did particularly well with fans. Aykroyd soon planned to revive the smashing success of the Ghostbusters franchise, collaborating with Harold Ramis to create a script and reunite the original four stars. However, ongoing hold-ups, including the public refusal of pivotal member Bill Murray to participate, continued to push the project back. In the meantime, Akroyd played a recurring role on TV shows like According to Jim, The Defenders, and Happily Divorced.Since 1983, Aykroyd has been married to the radiant Donna Dixon, a model who holds the twin titles of Miss Virginia 1976, and Miss District of Columbia 1977; the two co-starred in the 1983 Michael Pressman comedy Doctor Detroit. In Aykroyd's off time, he claims a varied number of interests, including UFOs and supernatural phenomena (his brother Peter works as a psychic researcher), blues music (he co-owns the House of Blues chain of nightclubs/restaurants), and police detective work.

Trivia: One of Canada's most respected actresses, Sandra Oh is one of her country's growing number of talented performers to make their presence felt in Hollywood. Oh, who is of Korean heritage, was born in Nepean, Ottawa, and began acting at the age of ten. Despite the disapproval of her traditionally-minded parents, she embarked on a professional acting career when she was barely out of her teens. After attending the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, Oh had her breakthrough in the 1993 CBC production of Runaway: The Diary of Evelyn Lau. Her portrayal of the title character, a 14-year-old runaway who endured hard times while living on the street, earned Oh a FIPA d'Or for Best Actress at Cannes.On the big screen, Oh first earned raves and recognition for her portrayal of a Chinese-Canadian woman struggling with both the demands of her conservative parents and those placed on her by society in response to her ethnic identity in Double Happiness. Her thoughtful, funny performance earned Oh her first Genie Award (Canada's equivalent of the Oscar), but unfortunately, further work was not immediately forthcoming. Things began to look up when Oh was cast on the popular HBO series Arli$$ in 1996, and in a bit part in the hit comedy Bean (1997).Oh found greater success as one of the stars of Don McKellar's Last Night (1998), a comedy-drama about the end of the world that cast the actress as a woman trying to get across town in time to make good on a suicide pact she has with her husband (David Cronenberg). An internationally praised film that enjoyed a particularly strong reception at the Toronto and Cannes Festivals, it received a number of awards, including a second Genie for Oh. The following year, Oh took part in another critical hit with Audrey Wells' Guinevere, in which she appeared alongside fellow Canadian Sarah Polley as one of a number of young women taken under the wing of a dubious mentor (Stephen Rea).Oh ushered in the new millenium with a role in the largely-improvised ensemble film Dancing at the Blue Iguana, and the ensuing years saw the actress primarily take on a variety of small character roles in such films as Big Fat Liar and Under the Tuscan Sun. In 2004, however, she garnered a number of positive responses playing the impulsive-but-tough Stephanie in then-husband Alexander Payne's dramedy Sideways. The role would be a breakthrough, even if Payne and Oh announced the end of their marriage shortly after the film was honored at the 2005 Academy Awards. Oh's professional life continued to improve landing a major role on the television series Gray's Anatomy. Her caustic, hilarious and often heartbreaking work in that series earned her strong reviews, as well as a Golden Globe Award and Emmy recognition. In 2006 she took time off from the show to appear opposite Robin Williams in the thriller The Night Listener. Oh would go on to appear in a number of feature films in the coming years, like Blindness, Defendor, and Ramona and Beezus.

Trivia: Whether following in the footsteps of the seemingly irreplaceable Robert Reed as the all-wise patriarch of the Brady clan or raising the ire of a nation of embittered office workers as the blissfully malevolent Lumbergh in Mike Judge's popular workplace comedy Office Space, longtime character actor Gary Cole can always be depended on to bring life to his varied and oddly endearing characters, despite their sometimes questionable motivations. Even in his earliest role as Snoopy in a high school production of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, the Park Ridge, IL, native knew his destiny lay on the stage; from that moment straight through Cole's higher education at Illinois State University, his dedication to the theater never wavered. So dedicated was Cole that, during his third year at I.S.U., the eager up-and-comer dropped out to help found the Remains Theater. Transferring over to Chicago's acclaimed Steppenwolf Theater in 1985, Cole quickly made a name for himself in such productions as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Balm in Gilead. Though Cole had essayed a handful of television roles in the early '80s, it wasn't until his breakthrough role as a suspected murderer in the 1984 made-for-television feature Fatal Vision that audiences truly began to take notice. Cole's role as the drug-addicted son of an alcoholic father in the 1986 made-for-TV drama Vital Signs showed that he undoubtedly had the chops to make it on the small screen. Despite an increase in television roles, the ambitious actor continued to impress on the stage as well. Cole's first taste of weekly series life came with his role as a former cop who finds redemption as a late-night radio talk show host in the 1989 series Midnight Caller. In the following decade, he would expand his career into feature film territory. Cole's silver-screen career began with a role as a Secret Service agent in the Clint Eastwood thriller In the Line of Fire (1993), and his natural skills onscreen lent a surprising amount of depth to the supporting role. A few supporting television performances were quick to follow, and in 1995, Cole cracked up audiences with his role as suburban philosopher Mike Brady in the hit comedy The Brady Bunch Movie. Cole would reprise the role in the following year's sequel A Very Brady Sequel, but not before returning to series work as the sheriff in the short-lived, but well-loved, oddity American Gothic. As his feature career gained momentum, Cole still remained loyal to the stage and small screen. In 1998, a role in the acclaimed HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon found him going as strong as ever, and on the heels of supporting roles in A Simple Plan and I'll Be Home for Christmas, Cole played what was perhaps his most widely recognized role to date in Office Space (1999). Cast as by-the-books corporate figurehead William "Bill" Lumbergh, Cole delivered a performance that was pure comic gold for anyone who has weathered the never-ending drone of life in cubicle-land. In 2001, Cole loaned his voice to the hit "Adult Swim" cartoon Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, playing several characters, including Birdman himself. The next year, Cole continued to dabble in animated television with his performance as the titular character's father in the hit series Kim Possible. Back on the big screen, he took the role of the villainous heavy in the Eddie Murphy/Owen Wilson comedy I Spy and returned to the role of Mike Brady in the made-for-television sequel, The Brady Bunch in the White House. In 2003, he was cast in the recurring role of new Vice President "Bingo Bob" Russell for the fifth season of the critically acclaimed dramatic series The West Wing. The popular character actor could also be seen in supporting capacity in the 2004 comedies Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.Cole maintained his status as a talented comic with a series of vocal performances on the animated television show The Family Guy, while showcasing his versatility by appearing in the sequel to the American version of The Ring. In 2006 he played opposite Will Ferrell in the NASCAR comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He appeared in the spy drama Breach, and lent a scary presence to the pot comedy Pineapple Express. He became a part of the HBO series Entourage for that show's final two seasons, and in 2011 he was in the hit family comedy Hop.

Trivia: One of the most compelling actors of her generation, Toni Collette has enjoyed a career that can only be described as unpredictable. Moon-faced, cat-eyed, and possessing a presence that conveys both dignity and eccentricity, Collette had her breakthrough in P.J. Hogan's hit 1994 comedy Muriel's Wedding. As the film's title character, an overweight, ABBA-loving woman who is obsessed with getting married, the Australian actor earned both critical raves and audience recognition across the globe. She also earned plenty of opportunities to be typecast into similar roles -- particularly as she had gained over 18 kilos to play the part of Muriel -- but managed to skillfully avoid this by appearing in a variety of films that had nothing to do with ABBA, matrimony, or weight issues.Born in Sydney, Australia, on November 1, 1972, Collette became interested in acting as a child. She made her stage debut at the age of 14 in a school production of Godspell, and went on to attend the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Quitting the prestigious school after less than two years in order to work with a talented stage director, she appeared in a number of plays and in 1991 made her screen debut in Spotswood, acting in the company of Anthony Hopkins and a then unheard-of Russell Crowe.Three years later, Collette had her big break with Muriel's Wedding, a sleeper hit in both Australia and the U.S. Following the hoopla surrounding the film's success, the actor appeared in a number of small films, including the 1996 comedy Cosi and Clockwatchers (1997), a poignant office comedy that featured Collette, Lisa Kudrow, Parker Posey, and Alanna Ubach as dissatisfied temps.Recognized by keen-eyed observers as Gwyneth Paltrow's shy friend Harriet in Douglas McGrath's 1996 adaptation of Emma, and as the Angie Bowie-esque wife of a glam rocker in Todd Haynes' much maligned Velvet Goldmined (1998), Collette found her biggest audience to date -- as well as some of her biggest raves -- in M. Night Shalyaman's The Sixth Sense (1999). Cast as the mother of a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who sees dead people, Collette earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance. Unfortunately, she followed the film with Shaft (2000), more or less wasting her talents in the role of a woman who the titular private dick has to save from the bad guys. Collette's talents were put to greater use in the made-for-TV movie Dinner With Friends (2001), which cast her as a woman who breaks up with her husband (Greg Kinnear) after 12 years of marriage. The movie, which also starred Andie MacDowell and Dennis Quaid, won warm reviews, particularly for the strong ensemble work of its four principle actors. Collette's subsequent workload reflected her growing popularity; in addition to Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2001), which she starred in alongside a cast that included Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Ed Harris, she also appeared opposite Hugh Grant in the 2002 adaptation of author Nick Hornby's About a Boy. Collette continued to take on small-scale projects like the Hollywood satire The Last Shot. She co-starred with Nia Vardelos in Connie & Carla, a film that came nowhere close to equaling the sleeper success of Vardelos' My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but did showcase Collette's fine singing voice. The next year Collette gave a strong performance opposite Cameron Diaz in the underappreciated In Her Shoes. 2006 found her stretching both her comedic and dramatic muscles by co-starring in the psychological thriller The Night Listener as well as the sleeper hit independent comedy Little Miss Sunshine opposite Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear.The actress would go on to contiunue her reputation, consistently appearing in critically acclaimed films like The Night Listener, Jesus Henry Christ, The Black Balloon, and Towelhead, in addition to finding a suitable outlet for her talents on the small screen, playing a mother with multiple personalities in the Diablo Cody penned HBO series United States of Tara.

Trivia: One of the most talented -- and often underappreciated -- character actresses of the late 1990s, Allison Janney first began courting critical attention with roles in such acclaimed films as Big Night (1996) and American Beauty (1998). Able to play characters ranging from a name-dropping Manhattan socialite to a withdrawn, abused wife, the 6'0" Janney infuses all of her portrayals with equal parts poignancy and unforced gusto.A product of Dayton, Ohio, where she was born November 19, 1959, Janney was raised as the daughter of a homemaker and the president of a real estate firm. She aspired to be a champion figure skater from a young age, but any hopes of pursuing a skating career were halted by a freak accident that badly damaged Janney's leg when she was in her mid-teens. As a student at Kenyon College, she became interested in acting, and got her first break when she successfully auditioned for a play being directed by Kenyon alum Paul Newman. After impressing Newman, a racing enthusiast, with both her acting skills and her love of fast cars, Janney went on to impress his wife, Joanne Woodward, who directed her in a number of off-off-Broadway plays during the early 1980s.Although she enjoyed early stage success, Janney had difficulty starting her career, something that was hindered by her height: one disparaging casting agent went so far as to tell her that the only roles she was suitable for were lesbians and aliens. Thankfully, the actress pressed on in the face of such idiocy, waitressing and scooping ice cream to support herself during dry spells. Her luck began to change for the better in the late 1990s, when she started garnering luminous reviews for her work both on Broadway -- where she earned a Tony nomination for her role in 1998's A View from the Bridge -- and onscreen in such films as Big Night (1996) and Mike Nichols' Primary Colors (1998). In the former film, she appeared as the quiet, capable love interest of Tony Shalhoub's struggling Italian chef, while the latter featured the actress in the minor but poignant role of a painfully-awkward schoolteacher who is seduced by John Travolta's libidinous Presidential candidate. Janney, who had been appearing on television and in films since the early '90s, went on to do reliably excellent work in a variety of films that ranged from The Object of My Affection (1998), in which she played the supercilious, name-dropping wife of a high-powered literary agent (Alan Alda); to Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), which featured her as a beehived, chain-smoking trailer park resident; to American Beauty (1999), in which she gave a quietly powerful portrayal of the abused wife of a tyrannical ex-Marine (Chris Cooper). Janney's talents have also been put on ample display on the small screen: in 1999, she joined the cast of the acclaimed NBC White House drama The West Wing, originating the role of tough press secretary C.J. Cregg.In addition to continuing her work on The West Wing, Janney played a supporting role in the award winning psychological drama The Hours (2002), and voiced Peach the Starfish in Pixar's wildly successful Finding Nemo (2003). The actress' would play the neighbor of protagonist Jim Winters (Anthony LaPaglia) in 2004's drama Winter Solstice, and continued to play small, yet meaty roles throughout the coming years (among them include On Our Very Own and Hairspray), she earned mainstream attention and critical praise for her role as the parent of a pregnant teen (Ellen Page) in Juno. Ironically, in light of her Juno success, Janney was also critically recognized for her performance as an emotionally detached mother in Sam Mendes' bittersweet comedy Away We Go (2009).

Trivia: Started a sketch-improv group called Bobby Peru while in college. Worked in the main company at the Groundlings improv theater in Los Angeles for nearly a decade. Pitched a variety of products in commercials for Swiffer Duster, Saturn, State Farm, Heineken, TiVo and Holiday Inn (for which he appeared with broadcaster Joe Buck in several spots). Considered his role as evil German Rolf in 2006's Beerfest as one of his favorites. Married Meaghan Gadd, daughter of well-known drummer Steve Gadd, whose tours are titled Mission From Gadd. Voiced characters on The Cleveland Show and American Dad! before landing a lead voice role on Allen Gregory in the fall of 2011. Cowrote (with Jim Rash) the adapted screenplay for The Descendants (2011), starring George Clooney.

Trivia: Participated in community theater throughout Southern Illinois. Scored paid gigs on camera as a youth, through his father's production company, PoleStar Productions. Performed annually in a sketch-comedy show on New Year's Eve in Springfield, Illinois, with his brother and father. Wrote songs for the animated series The Looney Tunes Show. Performs with the Groundlings improv troupe, where he met wife Melissa McCarthy.

Trivia: Taught and performed at Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Was a member of The Groundlings sketch comedy troupe. Her first onscreen gig was in Sweet Home Alabama in 2002, but her scenes were cut. Was a recurring guest-star on the NBC sitcom Go On before being upped to a series regular for the back half of the first season.

Trivia: Mark L. Young took his first onscreen bows in adolescence, with series guest roles on programs such as The O.C., Cold Case, ER, and CSI: Miami, then signed for a feature role opposite Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, and Michael Peña in the Iraqi war veteran drama The Lucky Ones.

Trivia: Has U.S. and U.K. citizenships.Took her first ballet lesson at age five.In 2000, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.Attended a musical theater program at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and the Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Camp.Also a musician who writes, sings and plays guitar.Daughter of rock musician Peter Frampton.