Trivia: After supporting roles in a handful of small films and a short stint on the soap opera All My Children, New York-born Melissa Leo gained prominence on the critically-acclaimed Barry Levinson-produced television drama Homicide: Life on the Streets. After leaving the show in 1997, Leo continued to appear in a range of features, including 1999's 24 Hour Woman. But it was her role as Benicio Del Toro's wife in 2003's 21 Grams that gave Leo her first exposure to a wide moviegoing audience. The performance also won her recognition from the L.A. Film Critics Association, who named Leo the runner-up for the Best Supporting Actress honor.Leo continued to work steadily in a series of independent films including American Gun, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and Stephanie Daley. In 2008 she landed the lead role in Courtney Hunt's debut feature Frozen River. As a financially strapped woman who turns to human-trafficking in order to earn a living, Leo earned thunderous critical praise as well as Best Actress nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.Frozen River led her to steady work un a variety of projects, but it was as the matriarch of the boxing brothers in The Fighter that Leo had the biggest success of her career capturing numerous year-end critics awards as well as the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. In the years after that she appeared in works as diverse as the remake of Mildred Pierce for HBO, and Kevin Smith's Red State.

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: Actor Charlie McDermott got an early start to his career, snagging his first film role in 2004's thriller The Village when he was just 14. The Pennsylvania native would continue to work consistently over the next few years, appearing in the vignette comedy The Ten, as well as the Christmas drama Frozen River. In the years to come, McDermott would enjoy success in movies like Hot Tub Time Machine, and on the hit series The Middle.

Trivia: Burly and heavyset character actor Mark Boone Jr. specialized in portrayals of thuggish rednecks and imposing blue-collar types, occasionally those with a slightly shady undercurrent. Boone first stepped in front of the camera in the early '80s, and grew more prolific over time; he was memorable in films such as the 1990 Die Hard 2 (as a terrorist), the 1995 Seven (as a greasy FBI agent), and the 2003 2 Fast 2 Furious (as a detective). His onscreen activity crescendoed circa 2005, with performances in four of that year's features, including Batman Begins. The following year, Boone signed for one of the key supporting roles in David Slade's supernatural horror opus 30 Days of Night (2007).

Trivia: Actor Michael O'Keefe was educated at NYU and trained for a theatrical career at AADA. O'Keefe made his first off-Broadway appearance in 1974's Killdeer, his Broadway debut in Fifth of July, and in 1975 made his TV bow in the small-screen remake of Friendly Persuasion. Within a year of his 1978 film debut, he was Oscar-nominated for his portrayal of Ben Meechum (author Pat Conroy's alter ego) in The Great Santini (1979). He followed that up by starring opposite comedy heavyweights Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield as the caddy Danny Noonan in Caddyshack.While his subsequent stage credits were consistently praiseworthy -- he won a 1982 Theatre World Award for Mass Appeal, and was a co-founder of the Collanade Theatre Lab -- his screen efforts of the 1980s alternated between brilliant (Ironweed) and lamentable (The Slugger's Wife). On television, O'Keefe was briefly seen as Jackie's (Laurie Metcalf) husband Fred on Roseanne (1988), gonzo attorney Simon MacHeath in Against the Law (1990), suburbanite Ron Steffey in Middle Ages (1992), and also as basketball coach/househusband Kevin Hunter in Life's Work (1996).O'Keefe continued to work steadily in film and television, in movies like The Hot Chick (2002) and Michael Clayton (2007) and with guest appearances on shows like The West Wing, House, The Closer, Criminal Minds, and Brothers & Sisters. In 2014, he had a recurring role on Homeland's fourth season. O'Keefe was married to singer Bonnie Raitt from 1991 to 1999, with whom he has co-written two songs, one of them the Grammy-nominated "Longing in Their Hearts".