Trivia: Matthew J. Morrison's first big break came in 2004, when he played a busboy in an episode of Sex and the City. Before that, he primarily worked on Broadway, originating the role of Link Larkin in Hairspray and earning a Tony nomination for his work in The Light in the Piazza. He'd go on to make a number of other guest appearances on shows like Law & Order and CSI: Miami, and even took on a recurring role, playing Adam Munson on As the World Turns for much of 2006. In 2009, Morrison took on a starring role, playing Will Scheuster in the series Glee. He gained massive exposure from the hugely popular show, and henceforth became a well known face, as well as voice, releasing studio albums as a signer and entertaining a career on Broadway. Surprisingly, he hasn't tried to parlay his success into movies, with only a supporting role in What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) under his belt since Glee premiered.

Trivia: Actress Jayma Mays began her big-screen career by focusing on somber material: she made a big impression on audiences as an assistant hotel manager forced to navigate her way through the night from hell in Wes Craven's 2005 thriller Red Eye, prompting one prominent critic to chalk the effort up as a "wonderful movie debut." Following a small role as a nurse in director Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima epic Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Mays discovered a flair for comedy (often filling the role of the straight man or the pretty romantic interest) in titles including Epic Movie (2007), Smiley Face (2007), and the Kevin James vehicle Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009). In 2009 she was cast as the love interest for the dutiful teacher in the hit FOX music series Glee, and in 2011 she could be seen as one of the humans in the big-screen version of The Smurfs.

Trivia: Amber Riley swears she began singing at age 2 and hasn't stopped since. She auditioned at 17 for American Idol but was rejected. Ironically, she landed at FOX as diva Mercedes Jones on Glee and belted out the National Anthem (again on FOX) before Game 3 of the 2009 World Series. The La Mirada, CA, native honed her craft appearing in numerous theater productions, including Alice in Wonderland, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Into the Woods, and Mystery on the Docks with the Los Angeles Opera. Riley first worked with Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy in 2002 when he cast her in his WB sitcom pilot St. Sass. Although the pilot wasn't picked up, the experience helped Riley land a part in the ensemble cast of Cedric the Entertainer Presents. She made her big-screen debut with the 2011 documentary Glee Live! In Concert!

Trivia: Texas native Kevin McHale is confined to a wheelchair as the guitar-playing Artie on Glee, but cast members agreed he was the best dancer of the group. He began dancing at age 3 and turned on to hip-hop dancing at 12. At 14, he joined the boy band NLT (Not Like Them) and opened for the Pussycat Dolls on tour. The group eventually split up in 2009. McHale moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to pursue an acting career and landed bit parts on The Office, Zoey 101, All That, and True Blood before being cast on Glee.

Trivia: Jenna Ushkowitz is a native of Seoul, South Korea, but grew up on Long Island, NY, after being adopted at 3 months of age. She began acting at age 3 and appeared in print ads and voiceovers throughout her childhood. At age 9 Ushkowitz made her Broadway debut as one of the royal children in the 1996 revival of The King and I, and in 2008 appeared opposite her future Glee costar Lea Michele in Spring Awakening on the Great White Way. The role led to a Glee audition (the casting associate for the show was the casting director for Spring Awakening) and she nailed the part of Tina. Ushkowitz attended a performing arts high school in New York, where she was involved in a show choir and received a BA in acting and theater performance from Marymount Manhattan College. She also found time to become a certified scuba diver. She made her big screen debut with the documentary Glee Live! In Concert!

Trivia: Lea Michele began her career on the stage, appearing in the Broadway productions of numerous shows, like Les Miserables and Spring Awakening, before transitioning to the screen. Her big break in TV came in 2009, with a starring role in the high school drama Glee. She became very well known thanks to her work on the series, eventually landing a role in the ensemble romantic comedy New Year's Eve, and naturally was central in the Glee Live concert film.

Trivia: Canadian-born Cory Monteith began his acting career in his home country, appearing in projects filmed in Vancouver, such as the series Stargate Atlantis. He eventually began snagging bigger roles, including the recurring character of Charlie on the series Kyle XY, and relocated to California. In 2009, Monteith was cast in a starring role on the Fox series Glee, a show about a down-and-out high school glee club. He became one of the breakout stars on the show and parlayed that into a supporting part in Monte Carlo, and of course appeared in the Glee 3D concert film. Tragically, Monteith died of a drug overdose in July of 2013. He was 31.

Trivia: Dianna Agron hails from Savannah, GA, but she grew up mostly in San Antonio and San Francisco, due to frequent moves associated with her dad's job in the hotel industry. She started dancing at age 3 and fell in love with musical theater as a girl, often performing in local and school productions (she was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in fifth grade). Her experience led her to Hollywood and supporting roles on various TV shows, such as Veronica Mars, Heroes, Numb3rs, Shark, CSI: NY, and the short-form MTV series It's a Mall World before nabbing the part of head cheerleader Quinn on Glee. In 2009, Agron branched out into writing and directing. The result is the short film A Fuchsia Elephant, about an 18-year-old girl played by Agron who creates an ideal birthday party. Agron is a vegetarian and a passionate animal rights advocate. Although she and Glee costar Lea Michele often tangled on the show, off-screen they were roommates.She scored a small part in the Cher vehicle Burlesque, and attempted to parlay Glee's success into a film career with projects such as I Am Number Four and The Hunters.

Trivia: Dallas native Mark Salling wrestled in high school and appeared on Walker, Texas Ranger and in the 1996 horror flick Children of the Corn: The Gathering. But music was his first love, so after high school he headed west to Los Angeles to embark on a music career. The gifted singer/songwriter/musician, who plays guitar, piano, bass, and drums, initially found it rough going and taught guitar lessons while attending the Los Angeles Music Academy in Pasadena. He recorded a solo album, Smoke Signals, in 2007 and released it under the pseudonym Jericho. That same year he appeared in the slasher film The Graveyard, but making a name in Hollywood wasn't working out. Just as he was about to abandon his dream and return to Texas, a manager signed him and sent him out on an audition for a new TV musical comedy. He cut his hair into a mohawk for the Glee tryouts to stand apart from everyone else. It worked; he was cast as self-centered football player Puck. He made his big-screen debut in the 2011 documentary Glee Live! In Concert!

Trivia: Montreal native Jessalyn Gilsig began her acting career at age 12 doing voice-over work, and went on to study acting at Harvard's American Repertory Theater. She appeared in several off-Broadway productions and landed bit parts in big movies, such as Jacknife with Robert De Niro and The Horse Whisperer with Robert Redford, but TV was where she found the most success. In the late 1990s, she appeared on Viper, Seven Days, and The Practice, where she met David E. Kelley. He then cast her as Paula Marshall's replacement on Snoops, but the show was cancelled before Gilsig's episodes aired. But that misfire led Kelley to create the role of social studies teacher Lauren Davis on Boston Public specifically for her. Later, Gilsig met another influential producer, Ryan Murphy, who cast her as sexaholic Gina Russo on Nip/Tuck, and later as conniving Terri Schuester on Glee. Her other notable TV appearances include recurring roles on NYPD Blue, Prison Break, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, and Vikings. When Gilsig isn't working, she enjoys painting; several of her artworks appeared in the 2003 indie film The Station Agent.

Trivia: Writer, actress, and comedian Jane Lynch is a slim six-feet-tall and usually wears her blonde hair cropped in a pixie cut. Born in Illinois, she went to a public university and got her M.F.A. in theater from Cornell. Her extensive theater background involved touring with the Second City comedy troupe and playing Carol Brady in The Real Live Brady Bunch. She also wrote and starred in the award-winning play Oh Sister, My Sister. Originally produced in 1998, the play kicked off the Lesbians in Theater program at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in 2004. Lynch's other stage credits include Tales of the Lost Formicans, Ennui, and Waiting for Iggy. She made her film debut in 1988 with a small role in the body-switching comedy Vice Versa. On television, she was in the Lifetime movie In the Best Interest of the Children and made numerous guest appearances on sitcoms. After some meager roles in Straight Talk, The Fugitive, and Fatal Instinct, she had the good fortune to join Christopher Guest's gang of improvisational comic actors. Her breakthrough role was butch Christy Cummings, the personal dog handler to trophy wife Sheri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) in the 2000 mockumentary Best in Show. Over the next two years, she played a government agent in the action movie Collateral Damage, a sarcastic nurse in the ABC medical comedy MDs, and a 1940s-style receptionist in the TNT movie The Big Time. In 2003, she reunited with the cast from Best in Show for the musical spoof A Mighty Wind. She performed her own music in the role of Laurie Bohner, the former porn star and member of the New Main Street Singers. In 2004, Lynch appeared in Sleepover, Little Black Boot, and The Californians. Over the course of the next few years, Lynch remained one of the comedy world's best kept secrets while getting steady work in film and television. But that secret wouldn't be kept for long, because in 2009, after essaying a recurring role on the hit Showtime series The L Word, Lynch made a major impression on television viewers as villainous cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on the hit musical series Glee -- a role for which she was awarded both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Trivia: Chris Colfer grew up performing in community theater in Clovis, CA, appearing in such classics as The Sound of Music and Oliver! A three-time speech and debate champion in high school, Colfer was president of the writer's club and combined his love for writing and musical theater together to pen and direct a musical spoof of Sweeny Todd called "Shirley Todd." Colfer embarked on a professional acting career after high school and auditioned for his idol, Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy, for the role of the guitar-playing, wheelchair-bound Artie on Glee. Murphy was so impressed he didn't give Colfer the part. Instead, Murphy created a role just for Colfer that Murphy based on his own early life, that of the fashion-conscious, gay Kurt Hummel. It was Colfer's first professional job. He was nominated for multiple acting awards for his work on the show. In 2010 he voiced one of the dogs in the live-action version of Marmaduke.In 2012 Colfer wrote and starred in an indie film, the blackly comic high-school-set Struck By Lightning, which played at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Trivia: Was named for a water goddess on the 1978-84 series Fantasy Island. Appeared in a Kmart commercial as a toddler. Made her series-regular debut at age 4 on CBS's 1991-92 Redd Foxx-Della Reese sitcom The Royal Family; appeared on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters and Baywatch before age 10. Appeared semi-regularly on The Bernie Mac Show after originally being cast for a single-episode appearance.

Trivia: Competed on So You Think You Can Dance in 2006. Was a backup dancer for Beyoncé in 2007 and 2008. Was initially hired by Glee as a dance instructor. Also worked with Glee choreographer Zach Woodlee in her debut theatrical film, the 2009 teen comedy Fired Up. Directed, cowrote and stars in a comedy short titled The Elevator; Glee cast mate Josh Sussman is a costar.

Trivia: A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, comedian-cum-actor Mike O'Malley discovered a passion for drama during his collegiate years. After completing university, O'Malley moved to Manhattan, did graduate studies in theater for two years, and toiled away at a lengthy series of menial jobs (one of which reportedly involved selling typewriters), meanwhile essaying scattered acting assignments on the side. Early work included a role as a spokesperson in television commercials (with some particularly high-profile spots for ESPN) and an emcee on children's programs including the Nickelodeon cable network's sports-themed series Guts. O'Malley's breakthrough arrived in late 1999, when NBC (doubtless encouraged by the success of Seinfeld and other standup-headlined sitcoms) signed him to executive produce, script, and star in his own eponymous television series, The Mike O'Malley Show; unfortunately, it bowed to horrendous reviews and ratings, and received almost immediate cancellation by the network.Not long after, O'Malley moved into feature film work, with supporting roles in films including the Sandra Bullock alcoholism-themed seriocomedy 28 Days (2000), the George Clooney/Renee Zellweger period screwball comedy Leatherheads (2008) and the Eddie Murphy-headlined sci-fi comedy Meet Dave (2008). O'Malley then returned to NBC -- albeit not in a starring vein -- as a supporting cast member of the series drama My Own Worst Enemy (2008). That program starred Christian Slater as a victim of multiple personality disorder. And though occasional high profile film roles in Eat Pray Love and Cedar Rapids proved he had what it took to impress on the silver screen, it was O'Malley's guest appearance as Kurt Hummel's father Burt on Glee that earned the actor his first Emmy nomination in 2010, and led to a recurring role on one of television's most popular shows.

Trivia: Born in Costa Rica to Chinese parents; moved to California at age 4. Took up dancing seriously after auditioning for his high-school dance team on a dare; was also a pole vaulter on the track team. Has been a backup dancer for Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys and Jessica Simpson. Was the only male dancer on BET's Comic View in 2002. Was one of the dancing silhouettes in the commercials for iPod. Choreographed part of the routine that the troupe the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers performed at the 2010 Academy Awards; he plays Elliot Hoo (a guy with magical shoes) in LXD's online series.

Trivia: His father, country singer-songwriter Paul Overstreet, was once married to Dolly Parton's sister Freida. The third of six children. Says he was named Chord because he's the third child in his family and "there are three notes in a chord, so my parents figured, why not?" Played mandolin onstage during one of his father's concerts at age 4. Brother Nash is the lead guitarist in the rock band Hot Chelle Rae. Modeled for Gap and Famous Footwear as a teen. Made movie debut in the 2009 Joe Dante thriller The Hole and TV debut in a 2009 episode of iCarly; also appeared in the Web series Private.

Trivia: Went to Fresno State University on a track scholarship and was an All-American shot-putter. Won 15 professional arm-wrestling titles; also competed in weightlifting and bodybuilding tournaments. After college, worked four and a half years as a counselor at a Fresno correctional facility for juvenile offenders; later played corrections officers on iCarly (2008) and Desperate Housewives ('09). Broke into TV in Knights and Warriors, an American Gladiators clone, in 1992 (Jones' nom de guerre: Lady Battleaxe). Was cast as Coach Shannon Beiste in Glee after running into executive producer Brad Falchuk in an L.A. supermarket and asking to be on the show. Jones had previously worked with Falchuk and Glee creator Ryan Murphy on Nip/Tuck and their failed pilot Pretty/Handsome.

Trivia: Mother is a native of the Philippines. Made professional stage debut at age 10 in a San Francisco production of Fanny. Played drums in his brother Chuck's rock band as a teenager; also plays violin, guitar and piano. Had the lead role (Harry Potter) in the send-up A Very Potter Musical, a theater production created by University of Michigan students that went viral on YouTube. Sang in L.A. cafés before making TV debut in the ABC series Eastwick in 2009. Billboard-chart accomplishments include first student musical ever to make a Top Cast Musical chart (Me and My D.) and first performance on Glee to debut at No. 1 on any chart (Katy Perry's Teenage Dream). Is a founding member of Team StarKid, the theater company (now based in Chicago) behind A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel. Older brother Chuck is a member of the New York-based rock group the Freelance Whales.

Trivia: Appeared in commercials for Clean and Clear, and Tampax. Played Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie in college. First song on Glee was "New York State of Mind" with Lea Michele. Was a recurring guest star on the fourth season of Glee before being promoted to a series regular for the fifth season. Nominated for a 2013 Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Breakout Star. Was the first person producers saw for the title role in Supergirl.

Trivia: Made her Broadway debut as an understudy/swing for Rock of Ages in 2009. Toured with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in 2011. Was a recurring character on the fourth season of Glee before being promoted to a series regular for the fifth season. Nominated for a 2013 Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Villain. Supports Bullyville, a website dedicated to sharing stories about bullying and supporting victims of bullying.

Trivia: Father taught martial arts. Has a black belt in karate. Finished third on the 2006 season of Australian Idol. He auditioned for the show with his own original song, "Nice to Meet You." Met fiancée Jillian Murray when they made Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown together.

Trivia: Began taking dance lessons at age 5. Auditioned for and was accepted into The Juilliard School during his senior year, but instead decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue professional acting after graduating from high school. Made his professional acting debut on a 2011 episode of the Nickelodeon comedy series Bucket and Skinner's Epic Adventures.

Trivia: Took classes online during his junior year of high school in order to graduate early. Moved to Los Angeles after graduation and took improv classes with The Groundlings. Won the second season of The Glee Project. After recurring on the fourth season of Glee, he was promoted to a series regular for the show's fifth season. Won a 2013 Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Breakout Star.

Trivia: Father died of cancer when they were 6 years old. Spent their high-school days performing in choirs as well as an improv club. Auditioned for the Oxygen network's reality show The Glee Project while they were still in high school. Was named the runner-up for The Glee Project. Their prize was a two-episode arc on the third season of Glee in the character of Wade Adams, a transgender student. Became a regular cast member in Glee's fourth season. Planned on attending Boston's Berklee College of Music after receiving a vocal-performance scholarship, but opted to pursue acting instead. Supports the American Cancer Society.

Trivia: Appeared as a contestant on Canadian Idol in 2007 and 2008.Modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch, Diesel, Hollister, Mattel, and M.A.C. Cosmetics.Notably played Spencer Porter on the sixth and final season of the musical-comedy series Glee.Wrote, produced and directed the official music video for "Six Months" by Life of Kai in 2019.