Trivia: The son of a prominent archaeologist/museum director, American actor Ted Danson grew up near the Navajo reservation in Arizona. He played basketball while at Kent School Connecticut, and then moved on to Stanford University. It was in the process of getting acquainted with an aspiring actress at Stanford that Danson found himself attending his first audition-- and by years' end had transferred to the drama department at Carnegie Tech. Marking time in non-speaking roles, Danson left the stage for the more lucrative world of TV commercials, some of which have been well-circulated on videotape since Danson has become famous. Danson's first steady TV work was as a slimy villain on the NBC soap opera Somerset. Shortly afterward, the actor attained his first film role, as a murdered cop, in The Onion Field (1978). After seeing Danson in the movie Body Heat (1981) and in an episode of the TV series Taxi, producer Glen Charles cast the actor as Sam Malone, ex-sports star and full-time barkeeper and womanizer, on the long-running, well-loved sitcom Cheers He won Emmys for the 1989-90 and 1992-93 seasons. Frequently making attempts at film stardom during the 11-season run of Cheers, Danson finally struck gold in Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its sequel Three Men and a Little Lady (1990). Danson's most recent work includes the 1996 starring role in the TV miniseries Gulliver's Travels and a co-starring role, opposite his new wife Mary Steenburgen, in the television sit-com Ink (also 1996). In 1998 Danson began a six-year run on another successful sitcom portraying the lead character on Becker, playing a caustic grump who couldn't have been further from Sam Malone's effortless charm. He continued to work steadily on the big screen as well scoring appearances in Saving Private Ryan and Mumford. He made sporadic appearances on Larry David's award-winning Curb Your Enthusiasm, and earned strong reviews for his dramatic work on the first season of the TV show Damages. He followed that up with a co-starring role on the HBO series Bored to Death, which lasted three seasons. In 2012 he could be seen in the inspirational animal movie Big Miracle.

Trivia: American actress Elisabeth Shue was first seen on a national basis as Jackie Sarnac, teenaged daughter of Air Force colonel Raynor Sarnac on the 1984 TV series Call to Glory. She spent the next few years concentrating on "best girl" film roles: girlfriend to Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid (1984), to Tom Cruise in Cocktail (1988), and to Michael J. Fox in the second and third Back to the Future flicks. She gave a marvelous interpretation of resourceful teenager Chris Parker in 1987's Adventures in Babysitting and was the daughter Sally Field never knew in Soapdish (1991). In 1996, Elisabeth Shue was nominated for an Academy award for her starring role opposite Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Shue shone again playing Woody Allen's much-younger girlfriend in Deconstructing Harry (1997). Shue is the sister of TV actor Andrew Shue, who played Billy on the popular Fox series Melrose Place.

Trivia: Dramatic actor Laurence Fishburne gained widespread acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his gripping performance as the Svengali-like Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It (1993) and went on to rack up an impressive string of credits playing leads and supporting roles on stage, screen, and television.Born in Augusta, GA, the sole child of a corrections officer and an educator, Fishburne was raised in Brooklyn following his parents' divorce. An unusually sensitive child with a natural gift for acting, he was taken to various New York stage auditions before landing his first professional role at the age of ten. Two years later, he made his feature film debut with a major role in Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975). A turning point in the young actor's career came when he lied about his age and won the role of a young Navy gunner in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. On location in the Philippines, the teenage actor effectively bade farewell to childhood as he endured the many legendary problems that befell Coppola's production over the next two years. In between shooting days, Fishburne hung out with the adult actors, often exposing himself to their offscreen drinking and drugging antics.Back in Hollywood by the late '70s, he continued playing small supporting roles in features and on television. Like many black actors, he was frequently relegated to playing thugs and young hoodlums. He would continue to appear in Coppola productions like Rumble Fish (1983) and The Cotton Club (1984) throughout the 1980s. Wanting a change from playing heavies, he accepted a recurring role as friendly Cowboy Curtis opposite Paul Reubens on the loopy CBS children's series Pee-Wee's Playhouse. By the early '90s, Fishburne had begun to escape the stereotypical roles of his early career. In 1990, he played a psychotic hit man opposite Christopher Walken in Abel Ferrara's King of New York and a chess-playing hustler in Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993). Following his great success in the Tina Turner biopic, he became one of Hollywood's most prolific actors, appearing in films such as John Singleton's Higher Learning (1995). Fishburne, who had known Singleton when the latter was a security guard on the Pee-Wee's Playhouse set, had previously appeared in the director's debut film Boyz 'N the Hood (1991). After Higher Learning came Othello (1995) and Always Outnumbered, which he also produced. Fishburne had previously produced Hoodlum (1997), in which he also starred. In 1999, he stepped into blockbuster territory with his starring role in the stylish sci-fi action film The Matrix. Increasingly geared towards action films, Fishburne could be seen in the fast and furious motorcycle flick Biker Boyz as fans prepared for the release of the upcoming Matrix sequels. Indeed, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) earned Fishburne further praise from both fans and critics. The same year, Fishburne co-starred with Tim Robbins and Sean Penn in the role of a homicide detective for the Academy Award-winning thriller Mystic River. The actor went on to star as a cop-killing mobster for the crime drama Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), and as a somber professor of English in the critically acclaimed urban drama Akeelah and the Bee (2006). He would co-star in the ensemble political docudrama chronicling the life and death of Robert F. Kennedy (also in 2006), and join the cast of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007. Fishburne found success again in director Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), and co-stars in the Superman reboot Man of Steel (2013) as the editor-and-chief of "The Daily Planet". In addition to his work in cinema, Fishburne has established a distinguished stage career, winning a Tony Award in 1992, for his role in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.

Trivia: Ever since his film debut in director Michael Mann's 1981 crime drama Thief, actor William L. Petersen (born February 21st, 1953) has carved a successful niche for himself in the realm of crime-oriented television and film. Audiences were quick to warm to the actor thanks to his everyman appearance and ability to elicit sympathy by portraying authority figures whose rank rarely surpassed their humanity, and in the following decades, Petersen would hone this persona to a fine point in such efforts as Mann's 1986 thriller Manhunter and, much later, the popular CBS crime series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It was while studying on a football scholarship at Idaho State University that the Evanston, IL, native first discovered his love for the stage, and though the popular jock initially signed up for drama classes as a means of boosting his grade point average, his love for the stage soon surpassed his grip on the gridiron. A post-graduate move to Spain found Petersen studying Shakespearean acting, with a subsequent return to the States leading the burgeoning actor to Chicago. In addition to an association with the famed Steppenwolf Theater, Petersen and several of his peers co-founded Chicago's Remains Theater Ensemble in 1980. The next year, a small supporting role in Mann's Thief marked Petersen's first foray into the celluloid universe, and it was also around this time that Petersen made his Broadway debut with a starring role in The Night of the Iguana. The actor remained a fixture on CSI until 2008, and went on to co-star in the films Detatchment (2011) and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2010).As the 1980s progressed, Petersen became an increasingly recognizable figure in the world of film, in particular thanks to solid performances in such efforts as To Live and Die in L.A., Manhunter, and Amazing Grace and Chuck, with his stature on the screen virtually cemented by the time he kicked off the 1990s with a turn as Pat Garrett in Young Guns II. Though roles in such films as Return to Lonesome Dove, Fear, and The Beast did indeed increase Petersen's recognition factor among the moviegoing and television-viewing masses, he more often than not seemed to be lost without Mann's direction and criminals to chase. Of course, all of this would be solved when the veteran actor stepped into the role of crime scene investigator for the 2000 television series CSI, and though feature work had certainly taken precedence over television thus far in his career, the transition seemed to benefit Petersen when the Emmy-nominated series soon shot to the top of the ratings.

Trivia: Best known for her television work, Marg Helgenberger started acting in college theatrical productions while studying speech at Northwestern University. A native of Omaha, NE, where she was born on November 16, 1958, Helgenberger moved to New York after graduating from college and landed a role as a tough young policewoman on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. During her four-year tenure on the show, she also maintained her ties with the theater through her involvement with TADA, the Children's Theater Company.Following a move to Southern California, Helgenberger began guest starring on such television series as Matlock, thirtysomething, and HBO's Tales From the Crypt. She co-starred on the short-lived series Shell Game (1987) before getting her big break with the role of K.C., a tough prostitute, on the distinguished drama China Beach in 1988. Helgenberger's role won her two Emmy nominations and one win in 1990. Following the series' demise in 1991, Helgenberger returned to television guest-star status on ER, where she had a four-episode-long recurring role, and in the miniseries The Tommyknockers.A presence on the big screen since 1989, when she made her feature-film debut in Steven Spielberg's romantic fantasy Always, Helgenberger has played a wide variety of roles in films ranging from Species (1995) to the moody The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997) to Steven Soderbergh's widely acclaimed Erin Brockovich (2000). Helgenberger would continue to appear in films like In Good Company and Mr. Brooks, and found particular success with the starring role of Catherine Willows on the long running proceedural CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Trivia: Best known for his role as Warrick Brown, the detective with a marked predilection for risk (and an ongoing gambling addiction), on CBS's blockbuster series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the easygoing, congenial, and memorably handsome African-American actor Gary Dourdan has built his life and his public image around uniqueness and originality. Six foot two inches tall, green-eyed, sporting bushy yet sculpted dreadlocks, and straddling the worlds of drama and avant-garde music, Dourdan commented to Ebony magazine, "I've always tried to be unconventional as much as I possibly could...one thing I'm trying to do with my career and with my craft is to blur the lines between what people think African-Americans should play and what I'm doing. I'm not much into fads and fashions and trying to follow things."Born December 11, 1966, in Philadelphia, PA, as the son of Robert and Sandy Durdin (his actual surname), the adolescent Dourdan attended "Freedom Theater," an inner-city program for aspiring actors, during adolescence. Success in this venue prompted him to travel to Manhattan on a weekly basis for musical training and dramatic auditions. Dourdan landed his "big break" as an actor in the early '90s, seemingly without even trying. While dating fashion model Roshumba Williams around 1991 and vacationing with her in France, Dourdan was spotted by powerhouse Debbie Allen, then the producer and director of A Different World; impressed by his looks and manner, she invited him to audition for the series. He played Shazza Zulu, the resident "con man" of Hillman College -- a role he sustained through the end of 1992 (for less than one season), before moving on to new endeavors. Dourdan debuted onscreen inauspiciously, with a bit part as the Second Cartel Man in Weekend at Bernie's II. Additional roles included that of a copy guy in Ron Howard's The Paper (1994), Christie in Alien Resurrection, and Yates in the Andy Wilson-directed medical thriller Playing God (1997). In 2000, Dourdan landed his biggest break with the CSI role, for executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer -- and (when the program instantly shot up to number one) continued the part as the series progressed. The same year that he signed with Bruckheimer and company, Dourdan played Malcolm X in the telemovie Muhammad Ali: King of the World. As mentioned, Dourdan is also a prolific alternative musician (with solo albums to his credit) and a record producer. He married African-American model Williams in 1992; the couple divorced two years later. He has two children, a son, Lyric, and a daughter, Nyla (the daughter of Jennifer Sutton, whom Dourdan dated from 1995 to 2000). He voiced the character of Detective Crispus Allen in 2008's Batman: Gotham Knight, and took on a supporting role as a chef in Jumping the Broom (2011).

Trivia: Whether scanning a homicide scene for evidence or blasting up a motorcycle ramp at 120 miles per hour as one of the world's greatest daredevils, it seems there's little that square-jawed CSI star George Eads can't accomplish on the small screen. However, the future wasn't always so sunny for the decidedly down-to-earth star; Eads has most certainly earned his rank among television's best, thanks to a solid work ethic and the kind of steadfast determination that's been known to move mountains. Born in Fort Worth, TX, and raised in nearby Belton, it didn't take the Texas Tech graduate long to realize his calling -- and despite the fact that chiseled Texans with big-time aspirations are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, Eads was determined to stand apart from the crowd. Of course, nothing comes easy in Hollywood, and after making the rounds to various auditions during the daytime, the eager up-and-comer would earn his keep as a weight adjuster at the local Gold's Gym in the off hours. Persistence eventually paid off in the form of a supporting role on the little-seen nighttime soap opera Savannah, and though the show barely lasted one season, it did provide an ideal training ground for the relatively inexperienced Eads. In the years that followed, Eads continued to hone his craft with a recurring role on the hit series ER as well as numerous supporting performances in such blink-and-you-miss-them made-for-television pictures as The Ultimate Lie and Crowned and Dangerous. Eads' persistence eventually paid off, and he was hired for the key role of forensic analyst Nick Stokes in the breakout television hit CSI. Cast as a former college baseball star with a hero complex, Eads charmed audiences by creating a character that was as believable as he was personable. The show proved an enormous success, but the young star nearly lost the role forever by making the simple mistake of oversleeping on the day of his salary negotiations (CBS at first thought Eads was attempting to strong-arm them for more money, but the situation soon blew over when Eads apologized for his actions). Now seated comfortably at the top of the television food chain, Eads continued to make a name for himself with roles in numerous made-for-television features including Just a Walk in the Park and Monte Walsh, though it was a role as his childhood hero Evel Knievel in a small-screen biography that truly brought Eads' career full circle. When he's not investigating some of the most grisly crimes ever witnessed on the small screen in CSI, Eads fulfills his duties as part owner of Hollywood's popular Cinespace restaurant -- a perfect place to take in dinner and a movie.

Trivia: The son of an actor of the same name, Paul Guilfoyle has appeared in several major film productions, portraying a wide variety of supporting characters. He is a member of the prestigious Actor's Studio, as well as being a longtime resident of New York. He also has numerous stage credits to his name. However, the actor is best known for his role in the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He joined the show in its first season in 2000 as L.V.P.D Captain James "Jim" Brass, and continued to work on the show throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.

Trivia: The lithe and attractive brunette American actress Jorja Fox entered the public eye in the late '90s and early 2000s, given her involvement as a recurrent cast member in three consecutive, top-ranked U.S. television series: ER (1994), The West Wing (1999), and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000). Fox is perhaps most familiar to fans of CSI, appearing in well over 150 episodes and numerous seasons.Born Jorja-An Fox on July 7, 1968, in New York, NY, but raised in Melbourne Beach, FL, Fox moved back to Manhattan in her teens and began a modeling career after winning a local modeling contest, then subsequently enrolled as a drama student at the Lee Strasberg Institute, where she studied acting under the aegis of legendary actor William Hickey (Prizzi's Honor, Forget Paris). Fox's early roles were minor and somewhat forgettable, though she debuted onscreen under the tutelage one of the finest American indie filmmakers -- Maggie Greenwald -- in that director's well-received film noir debut The Kill-Off (1991). She followed it up with an equally dark turn, as Fate 3 (alongside future West Wing co-star Allison Janney), in John Feldman's little-seen black comedy thriller Dead Funny (1995), and joined mentor Hickey and Alan Arkin for the best-forgotten Jerky Boys (1995) -- a loud, rude and obnoxious farce about a couple of prank phone callers. The film bombed with critics and the public, and disappeared instantly.Fox joined the cast of the blockbuster series ER in 1996, during its third season on the air. She played Maggie Doyle, a lesbian intern at County General Hospital who launches a sexual harassment suit against a seemingly invincible administrator. The role lasted for three seasons, wrapping in 1999; that same year, Fox signed for a supporting role on The West Wing, mega-producer Aaron Sorkin's blockbuster series drama about life in the Oval Office. Fox would spend the following years finding continued success on the small screen, most notably in the role of investigator Sara Sidle on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Trivia: Although bit parts in A-list features such as The Rules of Attraction (2002) and Little Athens (2005) highlight his resumé, the sandy-blonde-haired actor Eric Szmanda may find it difficult to supersede his own ties with the characterization of Greg Sanders on the top-tiered CBS series drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. As Sanders -- a DNA and trace expert analysis with a "nonconformist exterior" and an enduring taste for heavy metal (not to mention a deep-seated infatuation for Sarah Sidle [Jorja Fox]), Szmanda made an enduring impression among series fans, starting as a recurring character and working his way up to series regular; he stayed with the show for several years.

Trivia: After a scant few supporting roles in both Tinseltown duds (Here Come the Littles, 1985) and respected Hollywood A-listers (Michael Apted's Class Action, 1991), American actor Robert David Hall connected with his broadest fan base via his multi-season portrayal of Dr. Albert Robbins, the middle-aged coroner on the television phenomenon CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. With his portly figure, balding pate, and ever-present white beard, Hall lent a distinguished aura to his evocation of Robbins, a character with the most unusual of personal and professional histories. Off-camera, Hall is a double-leg amputee who has served for long periods as the national chairperson of the Performers With Disabilities committees of SAG and AFTRA. His career includes a long tenure as the daytime music and voice director of KNX-FM, Los Angeles. In addition to his acting role on CSI and occasional movie work, Hall made occasional guest appearances on such series as L.A. Law and The Practice.

Trivia: HBO enthusiasts will invariably remember character actor Wallace Langham for his winning multi-season portrayal of Phil, the conceited head writer of Larry Sanders' late-night talk show, on the Garry Shandling-headlined sitcom The Larry Sanders Show. Langham (who first received billing in projects as Wally Ward) grew up in Los Angeles; his parents divorced at an early age and his mother, Sunni, designed costumes for the musical variety series Donny and Marie. Langham was, by all accounts, drawn magnetically to showbusiness; he enrolled in acting classes, signed with an agent, and landed a string of television commercials beginning at age 16 (in 1981). After high school, Langham enrolled briefly in Cal State Northridge, but dropped out after snagging a bit part in John Hughes' teenage sci-fi comedy Weird Science (1985). Scattered appearances on such series as Murder, She Wrote and Star Trek: Voyager followed -- as well as the recurring role of Josh, smart-alecky assistant to lingerie proprietor Veronica on the Kirstie Alley sitcom Veronica's Closet. It was the Shandling turn, however, that put Langham on top of his game. He made occasional feature appearances in such pictures as the Nora Ephron comedy-fantasy Michael (1996) opposite John Travolta, the Eddie Murphy vehicle Daddy Day Care (2003), the ensemble comedy drama Little Miss Sunshine (2006), the award-winning The Social Network and 2012's Ruby Sparks but -- outside of Larry Sanders -- he is probably best known for his fine work on the series drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. On that program, Langham sustained a multi-season portrayal as lab technician David Hodges.

Trivia: North Carolina native Liz Vassey began acting on-stage when she was just nine years old, studying acting at a number of universities over the coming years before beginning her onscreen acting career. She appeared on the soap opera All My Children beginning in 1988 and would make guest appearances on numerous TV series, including Murphy Brown, Quantum Leap, and others. Soon, Vassey would be snagging staring roles on TV shows, playing roles like Captain Liberty on the cult favorite The Tick and Wendy Simms on the procedural drama CSI. Among her other credits are the supernatural series Tru Calling and the Elmore Leonard adaptation Maximum Bob.

Trivia: Initially known for her multi-telefilm portrayal of Christy Huddleston, the young woman who accepts a teaching position in rural Cutter Gap, NC, and begins educating the ignorant locals -- a role she inherited from Kellie Martin, the star of the mid-'90s TV series -- actress Lauren Lee Smith simultaneously defied any related attempts to pigeonhole her as a family-friendly actress by branching out into much grittier and edgier material. Role choices included that of a psychic mutant in the sci-fi series Mutant X (2001-2004), a nymphomaniac in the racy Lie With Me (2005), a lesbian cook on the Showtime drama series The L Word (2004-2006), a "beat" girl in Terry Zwigoff's misanthropic comedy drama Art School Confidential (2006), and a homicidal med student in the thriller Pathology (2008). In the years to come, Smith would remain active on screen, appearing on shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Good Dog, and The Listener.

Trivia: Detroit native Elisabeth Harnois relocated to California at a young age and was raised in Los Angeles. Living in such close proximity to the home of the film industry, she began appearing in film and TV at the age of six, with a role in the movie One Magic Christmas. She would go on to study at Wesleyan University, and graduated in 2001 with a degree in film studies. Getting back into the business after graduation, Harnois began appearing in films like the critically acclaimed Pretty Persuasion in 2005, Chaos Theory in 2007, and A Single Man in 2009. Branching into lighthearted fare in 2011, the actress would sign on to provide the voice of Ki in the animated film Mars Needs Moms. Later that same year, Harnois joined the cast of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Morgan Brody.

Trivia: Studied with Second City and Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Hired to work on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a researcher. Founded, with CSI co-star David Berman, Entertainment Research Consultants, a company that does research for forensic television shows. First appeared on-screen on CSI in season 5 as a recurring character; was promoted to a series regular in season 13. Suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal disease; works with the Foundation Fighting Blindness to promote the disease.

Trivia: Louise Lombard lived and breathed the fine arts from an early age, and projected extreme versatility in many arenas. A trained dancer and actress from early childhood, Lombard graduated to television commercials by age 14, and subsequently delved into dramatic roles. Lombard evinced a remarkable predilection for emotionally and psychologically challenging evocations, such as that of a heroin addict in a PSA directed by Jon Amiel (Copycat). After gracing the BBC series Casualty and Bergerac, the ITV show Capital City, and the ITV telemovies Catherine Cookson's A Black Velvet Gown, and Perfect Scoundrels: Sweeter Than Wine, Lombard broke through to national fame in 1991, with the lead role of Evangeline Eliott in the three-season House of Eliott series on the BBC. The story concerns two sisters who travel the road from extreme poverty to wealth as proprietors of the most successful dressmaking business in all of England.For the remainder of the 1990s, Lombard sought out a series of highly individualized and intelligent projects, including Elizabeth Gill's 1997 ensemble drama Gold in the Streets (as the girlfriend of an illegal Irish immigrant) and the ITV series Bodyguards (as one of the toughs of the title). After a brief tenure as a literature student at Cambridge University (as well as studying photography and print work at St. Martin's College), Lombard spent the first decade of the new millennium branching out into more internationally oriented roles, including insurance investigator Ellen Brachman in the Dutch movie Claim (2000), and the part of Kath in My Kingdom (2001), a highly modernized adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear. American viewers, however, will most closely associate Lombard with the romantic lead of Lady Anne Davenport in the Viggo Mortensen period adventure saga Hidalgo (2004), and the role of Dr. Harriet Fellows, a physician who assists crash survivor Alec Baldwin, in the TNT telemovie Second Nature (2003).

Trivia: Grew up in Alexandria, Virginia.Grew up with two younger sisters in a bilingual household, speaks English and Mandarin Chinese.Before becoming an actor, wanted to attend Law School and work in politics.Was homecoming king and student body president.Was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity in college.Married wife Xun Zhou on stage after a charity event in China.On October 2014, became the first male to appear on the cover of Vogue China.

Trivia: Screenwriter Ronald D. Moore is closely associated with the Star Trek franchise, its shows and feature films. He broke into the venerable sci-fi dynasty by successfully submitting two scripts as a freelance writer for Star Trek: The Next Generation. This led to a position on the writing staff that resulted in his writing or co-writing 27 episodes and a promotion to producer. When the series ended, he moved onward and upward, to become the supervising producer of the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Moore also co-wrote the scripts for the feature films Star Trek: Generations (1994) and Star Trek: First Contact (1996). He was awarded a story credit on the 2000 feature Mission: Impossible II before becoming one of the masterminds of the short-lived HBO series Carnivale. He bounced back from that show's sudden cancellation by joining the writing staff at the highly respected Sci-fi channel remake of Battlestar Galactica. He wrote 2009's Virtuality, and the 2010 Battlestar Galactica sequel Caprica.

Trivia: Michigan native Jaime Ray Newman explored her love of performing through many avenues over the years, singing with a jazz band and founding her own theater company in addition to regularly appearing in movies and on TV. Her onscreen career began in 2001, when she landed the role of Kristina Cassadine on the soap opera General Hospital. She stayed with the series until 2003, and subsequently began making guest appearances on numerous TV shows like Bones, Supernatural, Stargate Atlantis, and many more. She also regularly took on a recurring roles on multiple episodes of Veronica Mars, Nip/Tuck, Eureka, and Mental. In the years to come, Newman would find herself appearing on still more shows, like Drop Dead Diva, NCIS, Castle, and CSI: NY.

Trivia: Traveled around Great Britain with her parents' comedy troupe when she was 3 years old. First television role was in Pete & Pete alongside her mother. Made her film debut in Whatever, which premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Starred in the stage play Poof at Montgomery Theater during hiatus from Gilmore Girls in 2004.

Trivia: Sporting a clean-cut, all-American look, Los Angeles-born actor Michael Welch entered the limelight well before his teens and balanced feature and television work with about equal weight. Early small screen projects included guest appearances and recurring roles on series such as Frasier (as a young version of David Hyde Pierce's Niles), Veronica's Closet, and Touched by an Angel, while Welch's feature work invariably emphasized teen-oriented material and often found him cast as a young heartthrob. These big screen endeavors included the teen slasher movie All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), the gore-soaked shocker Day of the Dead (2007), the family-friendly political comedy Choose Connor (2007), and the gothic vampire outing Twilight (2008). Welch also starred as Luke Girardi on the offbeat fantasy series Joan of Arcadia (2003-5).

Trivia: A versatile entertainer who first shot to fame as redheaded housewife Peg Bundy on the long-running television sitcom Married with Children, Katey Sagal has since established herself as one of the small screen's most reliable and prolific actresses.It was at the tender age of five that the talented youngster first began to show promise as a singer, and after honing her talent with years of practice, Sagal went on to perform as a Harlette opposite future superstar Bette Midler. After performing as a backup singer for the likes of Etta James, Olivia Newton-John, and Tanya Tucker in the mid-'80s, Sagal made her television debut on the Mary Tyler Moore sitcom Mary. Though that particular show didn't make it past the one-season mark, it did open up a world of opportunity for the aspiring young actress, who would subsequently earn three Golden Globe nominations as gaudily attired suburbanite Peg Bundy on the raunchy Fox Television sitcom Married with Children. A stinging satire of suburban dysfunction, Married with Children's gleefully lowbrow humor earned it as many fans as detractors over the course of the show's impressive ten-year run. When the plug was finally pulled on Married with Children in 1998, Sagal teamed with former Three's Company star John Ritter in the made-for-television romance Chance of a Lifetime before making appearances on such series as That '70s Show and Disney's animated show Recess.While performances in a number of made-for-television movies hinted at dramatic abilities that had never been tapped during her extended stint on Married with Children, it was cartoon voice-over work that would soon prove the bread and butter of her career during the millennial crossover. Despite the fact that it never achieved the popularity of The Simpsons, Matt Groening's animated sci-fi comedy series Futurama did gain a fairly devoted fan base during its four-year run, with Sagal in particular getting a fair amount of laughs in her role as voluptuous one-eyed alien Leela. In 2002, Sagal partnered with former Chance of a Lifetime star Ritter for the Emmy Award-winning sitcom 8 Simple Rules...for Dating My Teenage Daughter, though the tragic and unexpected death of star Ritter -- who collapsed on-set at the beginning of the second season -- brought the show to an untimely end in 2005. A pair of appearances on the phenomenally successful small-screen thriller Lost followed in 2005, and in 2006 Sagal traded barbs with William Shatner and James Spader on Boston Legal. She was a member of the cast of Sons of Anarchy when that show debuted in 2008, and she returned to voicing Leela on Futurama when the show began production again after a multi-year layoff.

Trivia: American actor Cliff DeYoung began a stop-and-start film career with Pilgrimage in 1972; most of his work for the next several years was on stage and in television. DeYoung starred in the very brief 1975 TV series Sunshine, playing a widowed musician raising a young stepdaughter; the series was a spin-off of the 1973 TV movie of the same name, which also starred DeYoung. The actor also played the lead role of a blinded Vietnam vet in the Joseph Papp-produced CBS drama special Sticks and Bones (1973) which was blacked out by many affiliates due to its vitriolic antiwar stance. Three years later, DeYoung played Charles Lindbergh (to whom he bore a daunting resemblance) in the 1976 made-for-TV Lindbergh Kidnapping Case. After his attention-grabbing appearance in the 1983 horror film The Hunger, Cliff DeYoung concentrated on movie roles, with occasional returns to TV in such productions as the 1985 miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times.

Trivia: A performer who succinctly defines the term "character actor," Tom Noonan has appeared in over 20 feature films and numerous TV series and movies, and has also enjoyed a career as a playwright, director, and acting professor. A 1973 graduate of the esteemed Yale acting program, Noonan began his career as a guitarist and composer, working with such downtown theater troupes as Mabou Mines and The Wooster Group (which has included fellow actor Willem Dafoe among its ranks) until he found his niche in film and TV in the early '80s.Noonan began to find work as a premier villain in such films as Manhunter ([1986] the first film to feature the infamous Hannibal Lecter), The Monster Squad (1987), Robocop 2 (1990), and Last Action Hero (1993), the latter few representing Hollywood action-adventure pictures that helped subsidize smaller projects that the actor wished to take on. One of these projects was the 1994 Sundance Film Festival sleeper What Happened Was..., a startling examination of a truly awkward first date based on Noonan's play produced the previous year. The film, which Noonan wrote, directed, and starred in opposite Karen Sillas, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance that year, as well as the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. That same year, the film was released on the arthouse circuit and garnered accolades for Noonan, including several Ten Best citations from critics. What Happened Was... was featured in Scenario Magazine in the July 1995 issue as one of its featured screenplays.Noonan continued to appear in such mainstream fare as Michael Mann's cops-and-robbers epic Heat (1995) and more television offerings, including a memorable stint on the popular sci-fi show The X-Files. He then made a film called The Wife, based on his play Wifey, co-starring Wallace Shawn, Julie Hagerty, and Karen Young, all holdovers from the stage version, which premiered at his Paradise Theater, a small off-off-Broadway space in New York's East Village. This film was also accepted into the Sundance Film Festival and was (barely) released theatrically, not enjoying the same success as his 1994 play to film.Noonan is the author of several collections of fiction, as well as an unpublished novel titled Must Have. A former National Endowment of the Arts scholar, he has long used New York City as his home and professional base, and has taught classes in acting technique at the Paradise Theater, which for years has been host to original, quirky downtown theatre.

Trivia: Evan Rachel Wood was born in Raleigh, NC, where her father Ira David Wood ran a theater company. Along with her two brothers, she acted in her dad's stage productions before getting small roles in made-for-TV movies. In 1995, she made several guest appearances on the CBS drama American Gothic, as the daughter of Mrs. Russell (played by real-life mom Sara Lynn Moore). Her next regular role was Chloe on the NBC sci-fi police drama Profiler. She left the show to join the cast of the popular ABC family drama Once and Again as Rick's daughter Jessie. Along with child actor co-stars Julia Whelan and Meredith Deane, she won a Young Artist Award for her work on the show. Other TV appearances include Touched by an Angel, The West Wing, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In 1998, Wood made her first feature film in Timothy Hutton's directorial debut Digging to China. In the starring role of Harriet Frankovitz, she played a ten-year-old girl who befriends mentally challenged adult Ricky (Kevin Bacon). More movie appearances followed in Griffin Dunne's fantasy Practical Magic, Joey Travolta's crime movie Detour, and Andrew Niccol's sci-fi comedy Simone. Her next leading role was in the family-friendly drama Little Secrets as teenage concert violinist Emily Lindstrom. Her big breakthrough came in 2003 as the star of Catherine Hardwicke's directorial debut Thirteen, which was partially written by teenage co-star Nikki Reed. Launched into semi-stardom by the well-marketed movie, she was then offered a part in Ron Howard's Western The Missing, also starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. Projects for 2004 include the family drama The Upside of Anger and the teen comedy Pretty Persuasion.

Trivia: Actor, singer, and voice actor Keith David has spent much of his career on the stage, but also frequently works in feature films and on television. A native of New York City, David first performed as a child, singing in the All Borough Chorus and later attended the prestigious High School of Performing Arts. Shortly after graduating from Juilliard, where he studied voice and theater, David landed a role in a production of Coriolanus at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. He starred opposite Christopher Walken. David made his Broadway debut in Albee's The Lady From Dubuque (1980) and, two years later, had his first film role in John Carpenter's The Thing. He would not appear in another feature film until he played King in Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986). In between, David alternated between stage and television work. He appeared in five films in 1988, including Clint Eastwood's Bird, where he gave a memorable performance as jazz sax player Buster Franklin. In 1992, David showed his considerable skill as a singer and dancer and won a Tony nomination for starring in the musical Jelly's Last Jam, opposite Gregory Hines. David's film career really picked up in the mid-'90s, with roles ranging from a gunslinger in Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead to a New York cop in Spike Lee's Clockers to an amputee who owns a pool parlor in Dead Presidents (all 1995). In 1998, David had a brief but memorable role as Cameron Diaz's boisterous stepfather in the Farrelly brother's zany Something About Mary. In one of the film's funniest scenes, David tries to help Diaz's prom date, Ben Stiller, extricate himself from an embarrassingly sticky situation. He is also well known to animation fans for his voice work in, among other projects, Disney's Gargoyles, HBO's Spawn, and the English-dubbed version of the Japanese-animated film Princess Mononoke. In 2000 he appeared in Requiem for a Dream, Pitch Black, and Where the Heart Is, as well as providing the narration of Ken Burns documentary on the history of jazz. He continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including Barbershop, 29 Palms, Agent Cody Banks, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the 2005 Oscar winner for Best Picture, Crash. He also found work in Transporter 2, The Oh in Ohio, Meet Monica Velour, Lottery Ticket, and the 2010 remake of Death at a Funeral.

Trivia: In 1992, refurbished an old vaudeville house and transformed it into a performance hall called Arroyo Outback Theatre for various types of artists. Played the role of Gustin in Saturn Returns at South Coast Repertory in 2009. Is a member of the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema Grand Jury and Board of Advisors. Directed a stage production of The Odd Couple, the profits of which benefited the Idyllwild HELP Center. Was honored with the Joni Award from Idyllwild. Won a California Newspaper Publishers Award and a National Newspaper Publishers Award for his local column in a small-town newspaper. Founded and teaches at the Actors Refuge studio in Los Angeles.

Trivia: Born September 18th, 1970, actress, comedian, author, reality-show host, and occasional scriptwriter Aisha Tyler came of age in San Francisco and studied poly sci at Dartmouth College before mounting a (brief) career as an advertising executive in her hometown. Dissatisfied by this pursuit, and pining to launch herself as a full-time entertainer, Tyler "dropped out" of the corporate world and hit the road with a solo standup comedy act in the mid-'90s.Around 2001 -- after five years in Los Angeles with occasional standup bookings and concomitantly limited acclaim and recognition -- Tyler landed two huge breaks, first as the host of the irreverent Talk Soup during that program's final year (a position she inherited from Greg Kinnear, John Henson, and others), and then as the primary host of the dating series The 5th Wheel. Riding the crest of popularity generated by reality television during the first several years of the millennium, Wheel coupled the unscripted spontaneity of The Real World and Survivor with the format of the dating series Blind Date. Its premise involved setting two couples up on blind dates, having them "swap" partners, and adding an unforeseen fifth member (the "wheel" of the title) to stir things up and add provocation. The program placed a greater emphasis on erotic and suggestive content than Blind and -- perhaps as a result -- it unsurprisingly became a massive, runaway hit.The ever-ambitious Tyler, however, continued to expand her horizons. She maintained a short tenure with Wheel and quickly moved on to other endeavors, placing a particularly strong emphasis on television work. This included a stint as Charlie (the only recurring African-American cast member) in the final two seasons of the popular sitcom Friends, and a recurring role as covert terrorist Marianne Taylor on the weekly suspenser 24. Tyler also portrayed attorney Andrea Moreno (who dies in a car crash but is then "ushered" over to the other side by Jennifer Love Hewitt's psychic) in the first season (2005-2006) of the supernatural drama The Ghost Whisperer. After that, Tyler segued into feature-film work, with bit roles in such pictures as The Santa Clause 3 and .45.Six feet tall and one of the most physically breathtaking young actresses of her generation, Tyler frequently provides beauty tips in such magazines as Ebony and Glamour; she is also an outspoken proponent of physical fitness and a strenuous exerciser who pushes herself to an almost unimaginable degree. A February 2007 issue of In Style magazine reported, "In addition to scaling walls, Tyler runs, uses a rowing machine, lifts weights, snowboards and scuba dives. But for her, nothing beats the mental rush of rock climbing." In 2004, Tyler also authored and published the best-seller Swerve: Reckless Observations of a Postmodern Girl, a free-form, witty expostulation on such "hot" topics as men, bikini waxing, reality television, dating wars, sex, and body image.After filming several unremarkable movies throughout the mid-2000s, the actress found success on Archer, a television series that features Tyler as a dedicated but deadly agent for ISIS, a secret intelligence unit in New York City. While she continued work on Archer, she landed the job of co-host on The Talk, and later, host of the revamped Whose Line Is It Anyway? As if that weren't enough, Tyler also landed a recurring role on Criminal Minds in 2015.

Trivia: A veteran improv comedian, Eric Stonestreet honed his skills at the ImprovOlympic theater, but soon transitioned to the screen, making appearances on shows like ER and The West Wing during the early 2000s. He would go on to land roles in films like Ninja Cheerleaders and American Crude, but scored his biggest break when he was cast as Cameron in the sitcom Modern Family in 2009. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for that role in the acclaimed show's first season. The show remained popular, and Stonestreet ended up appearing in the big-screen comedy Bad Teacher.

Trivia: Bill Irwin certainly qualifies as one of the most unique figures in show business; attempts to compare him to other talent invariably conclude with the observation that there is no one else like Irwin, a testament to his overarching individuality. A native of Santa Monica, Irwin spent periods of his youth in Southern California and Oklahoma, then attended Oberlin College (as a theater arts major) and Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College in Florida, where lessons learned in slapstick, pantomime, comedic improvisation, and graceful balletic would continue to inform his art and style throughout his life. Following said education, he spent various periods of time in dramatic ensembles (such as the prestigious Kraken ensemble) and circuses (such as the Frisco-based Pickle Family Circus) and racked up a litany of theatrical accomplishments that included Broadway performances in Waiting for Godot (opposite Steve Martin and Robin Williams) and Accidental Death of an Anarchist (opposite Jonathan Pryce), a critically acclaimed turn in Fool Moon (with the Red City Ramblers), and many other highlights. Meanwhile, on television, Irwin built up a substantial audience of young people with his wordless portrayal of Mr. Noodle (opposite the late Michael Jeter) on the "Elmo's World" segments of Sesame Street. Irwin's feature appearances include A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), Igby Goes Down (2002), Lady in the Water (2007), and Rachel Getting Married (2008), and Higher Ground (2011).