Trivia: Full-blooded Cherokee actor Wes Studi didn't discover his true calling until much later in life than most actors. Stricken by his vocational teacher's early advice that he should be realistic and settle for life as a low-paid and under-appreciated worker, Studi admits that the advice cast a shadow under which he lived for years, uninspired to seek his fortune in the face of overwhelming adversity and slim odds of finding true success.Born in Nofire Hollow, OK, in 1946 (or maybe 1947), Studi laughingly admits that there is some uncertainty to the actual date), the soft-spoken actor was the eldest of four sons and spent the majority of his childhood in Northeastern Oklahoma. The son of a ranch hand, Studi received his early education at Chilocco Indian School before graduating high school and being drafted into the army. Soon after being drafted Studi served 18 months in Vietnam.Returning disillusioned by the horrors of war and the sometimes hostile reception that veterans received, Studi drifted for a couple of years, spending much of his time traveling and visiting his old Vietnam buddies. Seeking further sustenance, Studi entered Tulsa Junior College on the G.I. Bill. After Tulsa, Studi became inspired to make a difference in peoples lives, soon joining the American Indian Movement. Later attending Tahlequah University, Studi made further attempts at positive influence in his work with the Cherokee Nation. Though he had been married previously, the relationship had failed and Studi remarried in 1974. Working for the Tulsa Indian Times while his wife worked as a teacher, the couple had two children while living in their Tulsa ranch before his second marriage suffered the same unfortunate fate as his first. It was the breakup of this marriage that found Studi discovering his true calling as an actor. Studi found success appearing in theater as well as in productions for Nebraska Public Television in the summer of 1985. It was after Studi's role in the 1988 PBS production The Trial of Standing Bear that he fully realized his passion for acting. Soon deciding to make the fateful move to Los Angeles, Studi found work in such films as Dances With Wolves (1990) and Last of the Mohicans (1992) before taking a starring role in 1993's Geronimo: An American Legend. Making memorable appearances in such films as Heat (1995), Crazy Horse (1996), and Deep Rising (1998), Studi flourished in his new calling, finding frequent work with his expressive features and warm sense of humor.

Trivia: Adam Beach began his screen career by rowing the canoe that held the stars of the television adaptation of Farley Mowat's Lost in the Barrens (1990). A little over a decade later, the hardworking Native American actor -- who used to run home from school to watch Johnny Depp on 21 Jump Street -- had a coveted spot in Vanity Fair's notorious Hollywood Issue and was one of E! Entertainment Network's Sizzling Sixteen.A member of the Saulteaux Tribe, Beach was born on the Dog Creek Reserve, located north of Lake Winnipeg in Canada. He was only seven years old when a drunk driver killed his mother, who was eight months pregnant. Beach's father drowned only two months later. The tragic deaths of their parents forced Beach and his brothers to move south to live with relatives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. There, he attended Gordon Bell High School, where he became interested in music and theater. He formed a short-lived garage band called Lethic (which covered heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath) and took drama classes. He soon earned roles in local theater productions and eventually dropped out of school for a lead role in Red River Valley at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.Shortly afterward, Beach was cast as an extra in Lost in the Barrens, starring Graham Greene and Evan Adams. The next few years saw him playing the title role in Disney's family film Squanto: A Warrior's Tale (1994) and earning a Best Actor Award from First Americans in the Arts for his performance in the television film My Indian Summer (1995). He also frequently appeared on both Canadian and U.S. television, in shows such as Walker, Texas Ranger, Legend, Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years, Touched By an Angel, Dead Man's Gun, First Wave, The Rex, and Madison.By 1998, Beach had a recognizable face and well-refined talent. He landed a starring role in Sherman Alexie's Smoke Signals (1998) after only his second reading. The film, which achieved international acclaim, earned both the Filmmaker's Trophy Award and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as re-teamed Beach with Lost in the Barrens star Evan Adams. He went on to play a small role in the Russell Crowe vehicle Mystery, Alaska (1999), which basically required that he play his favorite sport, ice hockey, for three months. After starring in the thriller The Last Stop (2000), Beach showed off his comedic skills as David Spade's sidekick, Kicking Wing, in 2001's Joe Dirt. That same year, he played the romantic lead in Helen Lee's comedy The Art of Woo and appeared in the independent film Now & Forever.Beach was living in Canada when producers asked him to fly to Los Angeles to audition for the lead part in John Woo's big-budget action film Windtalkers. Only days later, he was introduced to Woo and cast as Ben Yahzee, a Navajo codetalker charged with deciphering crucial U.S. military dispatches during World War II. The star-studded production includes Nicolas Cage, Mark Ruffalo, and Christian Slater, and required that Beach, who speaks Saulteaux, learn Navajo for the part. The hype surrounding the film influenced Beach to make the permanent move to Los Angeles. He was cast in the TV series Bliss in 2002, and continued to appear on the big screen in a variety of projects, scoring one of his most high-profile gigs when he portrayed Ira Hayes in Clint Eastwood's World War II drama Flags of Our Fathers. Other highlights in his career include Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Comanche Moon, Cowboys & Aliens, Warrior's Heart, and a small role on the HBO drama series Big Love.Beach uses his present fame to visit Canadian schools and serve as an inspirational speaker to Native American children.

Trivia: An actress based in and around Seattle, WA, for many years, screen performer Misty Upham drew heavily from her Native American ancestral background in selecting roles, which often reflected an ethnic angle; the majority of her early film projects also dealt explicitly with Native American issues. Upham first bowed onscreen in the early 2000s, in two projects helmed by the celebrated Chris Eyre (Smoke Signals): Skins and Skinwalkers (both 2002). Upham essayed one of her first leads in the 2008 Frozen River, as a Mohawk Indian who sustains herself economically by smuggling illegal immigrants over the border. She appeared in 2012's Django Unchained and had a major supporting role in August: Osage County (2013). On October 5, 2014, Upham was last seen leaving her sister's apartment on the Muckleshoot Reservation (near Auburn, WA) and was not seen again; her father reported her as missing the next day. On October 16, 2014, her body was found in the woods in Auburn, WA.

Trivia: Is Plains Cree, his mother is from the Sweetgrass First Nation, and his father is from the Muskeg Lake First Nation. Apprenticed with The National Ballet of Canada after graduating from there and later joined the company as a Corps de Ballet member in 1987.Acting career began when he was cast as Juh in the 1993 TV movie Geronimo.Directed and choreographed the first Cree language opera, Pimooteewin a.k.a. The Journey, with music by Melissa Hui and libretto by Tomson Highway for Soundstreams Canada in 2008.Founded the company Signal Theatre, which explores intercultural and transdisciplinary live performance, in 2010.

Trivia: Is of Mayan, Yaqui, Jewish, and Latino descent.First credited role was in the 1989 TV movie Billy the Kid starring Val Kilmer, where he played a henchman.Wrote the standalone comic book Tribal Force, the first comic to feature a team of American Indian superheroes, which published in 1996.First independent short film Dude Vision, which he wrote, directed and starred in, won Best Comedy at the Arizona International Film Festival and Best Short Subject at the Native Voice Film Festival, in 2005.Wrote and directed his first feature film So Close to Perfect, which was released in 2009.

Trivia: The large-framed and ponytailed filmmaker Chris Eyre is a member of the Cheyenne/Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma. After receiving his M.A. from N.Y.U., he was inspired by the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. Using much of the material from the chapter "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," Alexie adapted his novel into the screenplay for Eyre's feature-film debut, Smoke Signals. A road movie about two young men from the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation, Smoke Signals premiered at Sundance and earned much festival acclaim. After working as a producer and directing the music video "Things We Do" for the blues-rock band Indigenous, Eyre got to work on his second feature film, Skins. Based on the debut novel by poet Adrian C. Louis, Skins is a story about the Ogala Sioux reservation at the site of the infamous Wounded Knee. Starring Graham Greene, the film was highly regarded on the festival circuit and received a limited theatrical release in the U.S. Switching over to television, Eyre directed the mystery Skinwalkers, based on the book by Tony Hillerman and broadcast as part of the PBS anthology series American Mystery. In addition to sitting on the board of the Native American Producers Alliance, Eyre's next television projects included A Thief of Time and Edge of America.