Trivia: A uniquely gifted and versatile actor possessing the distinct ability to immerse himself in a role so convincingly that he becomes almost unrecognizable -- from a quality obsessed restaurateur (Big Night, 1996) to a master criminal bent on world domination (Spy Kids, 2001) -- one can always count on Tony Shalhoub to deliver a memorable performance no matter how small his role may be.Well-known to television audiences for his extended stint as a self-deprecating cabbie on the long-running series Wings, Shalhoub made the often-painful transition from television to film with a grace seldom seen. Born on October 9th, 1953 in Green Bay, WI, Shalhoub developed his passion for theater at the youthful age of six when he volunteered via his sister to play an extra in a high-school production of The King and I. Shalhoub was hooked. After earning his master's degree from the Yale Drama School and spending four seasons at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, Shalhoub packed his bags for New York where he began a luminous career on Broadway. Broadway brought Shalhoub success not only in his career, but in his personal life as well: he was nominated for a Tony for his role in Conversations With My Father and he met his future wife, actress Brooke Adams, while acting in The Heidi Chronicles. It was not long after his Broadway success that Shalhoub made his feature debut, as a doctor in the 1990 AIDS drama Longtime Companion.Shalhoub's film career has been a testament to his range and a compliment to his abilities. Though prone to comedy, his dramatic roles have gained him just as much, if not more, recognition than his comedic roles. Winning the Best Supporting Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics for his well-researched role in Big Night (1996), Shalhoub expanded his dramatic film repertoire with roles in A Civil Action and The Siege (both 1998), while always maintaining his knack for humor (1997's Men in Black). Shalhoub's role as the ultra-mellow "anti-Scottie" in the Star Trek send-up Galaxy Quest (1999) proved that his comic persona was indeed still as sharp as ever. Sticking in the sci-fi/fantasy mold for his roles in Imposter and Spy Kids (both 2001), Shalhoub once again proved that he could do 180-degree character turnarounds with ease.Though Shalhoub would stay in sci-fi mode for his role in Men in Black 2, he would return to solid ground with his role as an obsessive-compulsive detective in the well-received television pilot Monk (2002). Directed by Galaxy Quest helmer Dean Parisot, the pilot for Monk successfully paved the way for the curiously innovative USA series to follow and found the actor warmly re-embracing the medium that had propelled him to stardom. As Monk's popularity continued to grow, Shaloub found success on the big screen in the role of a gifted psychologist for The Great New Wonderful (2005), and voiced the lovable Luigi in Cars (2006) and Cars 2 (2011). In 2007, he worked alongside John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson for the supernatural horror film 1408.

Trivia: Appeared in TV commercials while still in high school. Traylor is her mother's maiden name. Worked at a greeting-card company after graduating from college. Made her sitcom debut in 1996 on Boston Common. Replaced Bitty Schram on Monk in 2005, playing the detective's peppy sidekick, Natalie.

Trivia: Striking terror deep in the hearts and subconsciousness of filmgoers worldwide with his chilling portrayal of aspiring transsexual serial killer James "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in director Jonathan Demme's acclaimed thriller The Silence of the Lambs, Steppenwolf Theater alumnus Ted Levine may not have received the star status some may have expected would follow the role, but he can consistently be counted on to turn in a lively performance, no matter how small his part may be.Born in Cleveland, OH, Levine received his M.F.A. in acting from the University of Chicago before making frequent appearances in such 1980s made-for-television efforts as Michael Mann's Crime Story (1986) and his feature debut in 1987's Ironweed. Taking small roles in such features as Betrayed (1988) and Next of Kin (1989) before his big break in Silence, Levine, curiously, stuck mostly to television following his portrayal of Buffalo Bill, not taking another featured role until his turn as a cop on the trail of a carnivorous industrial speed iron in The Mangler (1995). Appearing in Georgia and Michael Mann's acclaimed Heat the same year, Levine began to gain more prominent roles in the following years before taking to the seas with Patrick Stewart in Moby Dick (1998). Though he received critical acclaim for his role in the controversial television series Wonderland (2000), the show aired a meager two episodes (though four were produced) before being pulled due to outcry over its portrayal of the mental health system and its inhabitants. Bouncing back to the big screen, fans found that Levine could still be counted on to turn in absorbing performances in such features as Evolution and The Fast and the Furious (both 2001). Over the next several years, Levine would remain extremely active, appearing in films like The Manchuriuan Candidate, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Hills Have Eyes, and Shutter Island, as well as on TV series like Monk and Luck.

Trivia: Initially aspired to become a basketball player but opted to pursue acting instead. Did a great deal of voice work at the start of his career, including playing Donatello for the animated series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. Auditioned for a guest spot in the Monk pilot but was cast in the regular role of Lieutenant Randy Disher instead. Sang backup vocals on Russell Crowe's album Gaslight after costarring with him in 1999's Mystery, Alaska and 2001's A Beautiful Mind.

Trivia: Spent her early childhood in Houston and England (where she attended the American School in England). Won a 2004 Young Artist Award (Supporting Actress) for her first professional role, a girl orphaned by a terrorist attack in Italy, in the HBO film My House in Umbria. Has studied ballet and enjoys sailing on Long Island Sound.

Trivia: An offbeat character actor whose stark features lent him to effective portrayals of villains and seedy figures, Stanley Kamel grew up in New Jersey and attended Boston University, where he received formalized dramatic training under the aegis of noted instructor Sanford Meisner. Kamel began his acting career with roles in off-Broadway productions during the early '70s, and quickly landed his first major on-camera role, as Eric Peters, on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. His subsequent work over the following three decades consisted largely of recurring roles and guest parts in prime-time series including Cagney & Lacey, Hunter, Melrose Place, and -- most visibly -- the Tony Shalhoub sitcom Monk, as the lead character's shrink, Dr. Charles Kroger.

Trivia: While he rose to fame as a talk show sidekick, Andy Richter has since developed a reputation as a talented and likable comic actor with roles on a number of feature films and television series. Born in Grand Rapids, MI, in 1966, Andy Richter spent most of his childhood in Yorkville, IL. After graduating from high school (where he was voted Prom King in his senior year), Richter attended the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign; he later studied film and video production at Columbia College. Richter began pursuing a career as a performer in Chicago, where he studied improvisational theater with Del Close and worked with a number of improv comedy groups, including the Annoyance Theater, ImprovOlympia, and Comedy Underground. Richter's first notable success as a performer came in 1992 when he landed the role of Mike Brady in the off-Broadway stage success The Real Live Brady Bunch, a stage adaptation of the perennially popular TV sitcom; Richter was a member of the original New York cast, and moved with the show to Los Angeles later that year. While in L.A., Richter scored his first film role, a small but showy part in the Chris Elliott-vehicle Cabin Boy, but his biggest stroke of luck came when he was hired as a writer for a new talk show being hosted by former Simpsons and Late Night With David Letterman writer Conan O'Brien. Richter and O'Brien soon discovered they had a natural comic rapport, and by the time Late Night With Conan O'Brien debuted in the fall of 1993, Richter had become O'Brien's on-air sidekick, exchanging banter with the host and participating in a variety of comic sketches. The show's five-airings-a-week schedule kept Richter busy, but also allowed him to develop a strong fan following of his own, and he occasionally found time for outside projects, including appearing in an off-Broadway play written by David Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, Incident at Cobbler's Knob. In the summer of 1999, Richter announced he would be leaving Late Night in May of 2000 to devote himself to other projects, and he soon began appearing in a variety of film roles, among them one of Richard Gere's hunting buddies in Dr. T and the Women, Eugene in Dr. Dolittle 2, and Father Harris in Scary Movie 2; he also made occasional guest spots on television series, including Just Shoot Me. In 2002, he headlined the quirky cult sitcom Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which was prematurely axed. Two years later, he went on to helm another unsuccessful sitcom, Quintuplets, which also ended after failing to gain an audience. He then stuck to being a guest star on established shows like Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle, Monk, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. He also kept busy on the silver screen by taking small roles in a number of offbeat comedies including Elf (2003), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), and Semi-Pro (2008). Another attempt to headline a sitcom, Andy Barker, P.I., managed to charm critics but didn't have staying power and lasted only seven episodes in 2007. He maintained career momentum with guest starring TV roles and a number of small parts in movies. He also did well behind the scenes, voicing a character in the animated features Madagascar (2005)and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), which led to more voice work in the Nickelodeon animated series Penguins of Madagascar and Mighty B. In 2009, he returned to Conan O'Brien's side when The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien launched on NBC. The gig ended when NBC infamously returned The Tonight Show to Jay Leno, and Richter quickly joined O'Brien's subsequent Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television stand-up tour.In his private life, Richter married actress Sarah Thyre -- who played Marcia alongside Richter in The Real Live Brady Bunch -- in 1994; the couple has one son. Richter also has the distinction of being one of the highest-scoring celebrity contestants in the history of the popular game show Jeopardy, winning over 29,000 dollars for charity.

Trivia: Best known as Steve, the boyishly charming nice-guy bartender (and the perfect complement to his onscreen romantic partner, snappish Miranda Hobbes) in HBO's blockbuster original series Sex and the City, the slightly diminutive, raven-haired American character actor David Eigenberg was born in Manhasset, NY, on May 17, 1964. As the only boy in a family of six children, Eigenberg moved with his parents and sisters at age four to Naperville, IL, a farming community just outside of the Windy City -- where he remained through the end of adolescence. Eigenberg reportedly struggled as a student, barely scraping by; a handful of run-ins with the law and minor recreational drug abuse allegedly ensued. Eigenberg did graduate from Naperville High School in 1982, however, and was promptly accepted to the University of Iowa, where he planned to study social work. For better or worse, this was not to be, for the Chicagoan ripped his dormitory apart during the first semester and was promptly booted out of the university after five weeks.A stint in the Marines and various construction jobs followed, instilling in Eigenberg healthy amounts of much-needed self-discipline and a sharply honed work ethic. These skills paved the way for Eigenberg's true calling: acting. A love of the dramatic arts had already taken root for the thespian when -- at age 12 -- he had signed on to play a key role in a local production of Kurt Vonnegut's Happy Birthday, Wanda June, and received an outstanding review from a local critic. These fond memories doubtless came flooding back when an adult Eigenberg auditioned -- and was selected for -- a large part in the Dennis Rosa-directed Chicago stage musical One Shining Moment, opposite Megan Mullally and Alan Ruck. Dissatisfied with a mere taste of the theatrical arts and eager to extend acting into a full-time passion, Eigenberg subsequently moved to New York and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, working odd jobs on the side (construction et al.) to put himself through school.Scattered roles followed, including a guest appearance on The Cosby Show and a bit part in the awful 1989 generation-gap comedy Rude Awakening (co-starring Cheech Marin and Eric Roberts), but Sex and the City (which Eigenberg auditioned for out of innumerable hopefuls) represented the actor's first huge break. He reportedly auditioned for a small part, and though the show's producers did not deem him right for the characterization, they felt so impressed by Eigenberg's presence that they created the character of Steve Brady especially for him, as an extension of his own personality; the plan, again, was to create a sincere, committed, down-to-earth male paramour to offset Miranda's (Cynthia Nixon) cynicism.Though initially intended as a temporary part, the popularity of the character among viewers (and Eigenberg's onscreen chemistry with Nixon) led to Eigenberg's permanent inclusion on the show, as well as subsuquent movies.Circa 2002, Eigenberg expanded into film roles by playing the business partner of Richard Gere in Mark Pellington's underrated supernatural thriller The Mothman Prophecies. When Eigenberg's Sex and the City run ended with the wrap-up of that series (at the end of the 2003-2004 season), he continued his cinematic work, first voicing Nermal the Cat in the FX-extravaganza Garfield: The Movie, then playing Reggie, the lover of Alicia Goranson's Myra, in Adrienne Weiss' quirky indie romantic comedy Love, Ludlow. Eigenberg returned to the same genre amid a cast of unknowns with the 2007 film The Trouble with Romance, directed by Gene Rhee. He reprised his role in the Sex and the City movie in 2008 and the sequel in 2010. In 2012, he joined the cast of NBC's Chicago Fire, playing a firefighter in the Windy City.

Trivia: Supporting actress Bitty Schram had the small but memorable role of Evelyn, the baseball-playing single mother who makes the mistake of crying in front of manager Tom Hanks during a baseball game in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992). A native of New Jersey and a graduate of the University of Maryland, Schram would appear in numerous feature films over the years, but is perhaps best known for the role of handler Sharona Fleming on the TV series Monk.