Trivia: Gen Y-ers will doubtless remember Tia Mowry as Tia Landry, one of the long-estranged, suddenly reunited titular siblings on ABC's Friday night "TGIF" sitcom Sister, Sister -- a role Tia played opposite her identical twin, Tamera, from 1994-1995, and carried over into an extended run on the then-fledgling WB network from 1995-1999. Though this hardly constituted the actress' premier role (she had already essayed a sequence of guest appearances on various U.S. series during her early teenage years), it did generate substantial audience attention and paved the way for additional onscreen work. Whereas many other multiple-birth actresses and actors (for instance, the Olsen Twins and the Sprouse Twins) first tackled projects that called for twin roles, then forked off into divergent paths, the Mowrys cut back and forth between joint casting and separate casting. They co-headlined the family-oriented comedy Seventeen Again (2000), the teen movie The Hot Chick (2002), and the 2005 Disney Channel telemovie Twitches (a kind of rehash of the Sister, Sister premise, with an occult twist), but essayed individual roles from time to time. Tia provided one of the main voices for the 2005 animated musical Bratz: Rock Angelz (and the accompanying Bratz TV series); she also signed for the lead in the sitcom The Game (2006), as Melanie Barnett, a med student who transfers from John Hopkins to a small San Diego college to be near her professional football player boyfriend. A spin-off of the CW hit Girlfriends, The Game was still going strong in 2012.

Trivia: African-American actor Pooch Hall began his career on a noble and dignified note, by landing one of his first significant acting assignments in the critically acclaimed miniseries Miracle's Boys -- under the aegis of revered directors Spike Lee, Ernest Dickerson, LeVar Burton, Bill Duke, and Neema Barnette. In Boys, Hall starred as the eldest of three orphaned brothers, Ty'ree, who sacrifices an MIT scholarship in order to look after his siblings, remaining in Harlem and working in a publishing-house mail room. The work received positive notices and scored favorable ratings for Hall when it premiered on The N network in 2005, and marked an auspicious beginning for the actor. He then opted to portray football hero Derwin Davis (the boyfriend of med student Melanie Barnett [Tia Mowry] in the weekly series The Game) and, also in 2006, signed for a supporting role in the blood-soaked comic fright-fest Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror. The next year, Hall contributed a minor role to the romantic comedy Blind Dating. In 2011 he joined the cast of the comedy drama Jumping the Broom.

Trivia: A tall, tough, muscle-bound Hollywood actor of mixed ethnicity (which doubtless increased his perceived versatility among casting agents), Coby Bell first gained audience recognition during the late '90s, via scattered appearances on such hit series as ER and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A short time later, Bell began to find more prominent TV roles, starting with a recurring part as Patrick Owen on L.A. Doctors (1998-1999). After moving on from that series, he scored his first major role, playing Officer Tyrone "Ty" Davis Jr. throughout all six seasons of the emergency-services drama Third Watch (1999-2005). Not long after that series folded, Bell was back on prime-time television with the football-themed comedy drama The Game. On that show, Bell played Jason Pitts, an African-American NFL player and the resolutely unfaithful husband of a white "trophy wife" (Brittany Daniel). He also parlayed his television success into one of the main roles (and co-production status) on director Amy Glazer's indie feature drama Drifting Elegant (2006), in which he portrayed Renny, an African-American man investing in a gated community for middle-class blacks.

Trivia: Hailing from Montgomery, AL, Hosea Chanchez started working in television consistently at the age of 18 with a recurring role on For Your Love. He then moved on to play Travis Holms on Robbery Homicide Division and a rapist on What Should You Do? After a series of one-off appearances on programs such as Jack & Bobby, Over There, and The Shield, Chanchez portrayed Malik Wright on The Game, a show about women married to professional athletes.

Trivia: Actor, dancer, and choreographer Wendy Raquel Robinson is best known for her role on The Steve Harvey Show, but her career in fact spans far outside television and onto both the big screen and the stage. She appeared in several plays such as The Vagina Monologues, Black Woman's Blues, Agnes of God, A Midsummer's Night Dream, The Colored Museum, and Vanities, all of them receiving rave reviews, and she was also a co-founder of the Amazing Grace Conservatory in South Central Los Angeles, a theatrical training institute for teens. She appeared in movies such as A Thin Line Between Love and Hate and Rebound, and in 2007, she joined the cast of the series The Game.

Trivia: Along with twin sister Cynthia, blonde beauty Brittany Daniel got her break through her role in the high school TV comedy drama Sweet Valley High. As snobbish cheerleader Jessica Wakefield, Brittany proved to be the show's breakout star, a turn which lead to being cast in such popular series as Dawson's Creek and her feature debut in The Basketball Diaries (1995). Born March 17, 1976 in Gainesville, FL, she and her sister began modeling in high school. As with many actors, modeling jobs lead to commercial work and, before Daniel knew it, guests spots on television shows. Following her role as the love interest of David Spade in the comedy Joe Dirt (2001), she returned to television with the short-lived That 80s Show. (She had previously made an appearance in That 70s Show as Penny [aka "Eric's Hot Cousin"].) Undaunted by the failure of That 80s Show, Daniel soldiered on in 2003 in the Broken Lizard troupe's parody of '80s slasher and resort films, Club Dread.

Trivia: If there's one word that can best describe Brandy, it's synergy. Dominating pop charts wasn't enough for the young R&B singer, so she followed in the footsteps of Madonna, Charo, and many a one-named diva and began to take more acting and modeling gigs. Brandy was born in McComb, MS, on February 11, 1979, but grew up in Carson, CA, with her parents and younger brother Ray-J, another aspiring musician. She declared precociously at age four that she would sing professionally and drew attention performing with youth groups in her middle-class neighborhood.Brandy made her acting debut in 1993 with a supporting role on ABC's short-lived television series Thea. Shortly after Thea's demise in 1994, the 15-year-old released her self-titled first album, which went triple-platinum and featured hit singles like "I Wanna Be Down" and "Baby."But interestingly enough, music sat on the back burner while Brandy pursued her acting career. She won the title role in UPN's family drama Moesha in 1996 and starred a year later as Cinderella in ABC's star-studded TV-movie version of the fairy tale. During breaks from these and other projects, she recorded Never S-A-Y Never, the eagerly awaited follow-up to her first album. Powered by "The Boy Is Mine," her duet with fellow teen star Monica, the 1998 album sold extraordinarily well and also produced the hits "Have You Ever" and "Almost Doesn't Count." 1998 and 1999 were busy years for her. In addition to Moesha, she starred in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer with Jennifer Love Hewitt and starred and executive produced Double Platinum, a TV-movie feature with Diana Ross. Brandy also spent time touring in support of her album, performed on VH1's Divas Live, and became a spokesmodel for Cover Girl cosmetics. It's a wonder she had time to go to the prom with future basketball star and good friend Kobe Bryant.But it was all due to catch up to her. In November 1999, amid rumors that she was addicted to diet pills and squabbling with producers on her TV show, Brandy collapsed and was hospitalized three days for dehydration. Moesha ended its run in 2001 and Brandy focused her energies on attending classes at Pepperdine University.In 2006, she served as a judge on America's Got Talent for one season, and had a recurring role on One on One. She appeared on her brother's reality show, For the Love of Ray J, before the two had their own show together, Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business. She also competed on season 11 of Dancing with the Stars in 2010. She joined BET sitcom The Game in 2012 as a recurring character before being bumped up to a series regular.

Trivia: NeNe Leakes is best known to audiences as a cast member on the Bravo reality series The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and has competed on the competetive reality show Celebrity Apprentice. She divorced husband Gregg Leakes in 2011, but the two remarried in 2013, using their wedding for the basis of the reality show I Dream of Nene: The Wedding. Leakes is the founder of an organization called the Twisted Hearts Foundation, a nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence.

Trivia: Actor Kel Mitchell swept up a widespread and loyal fan base in the mid-'90s as a teen comic. Mitchell initially joined the cast of the mid-'90s Nickelodeon sketch comedy show All That (1995) -- an unofficial variant of Saturday Night Live, retooled for the preteen set -- and soon became professionally attached to another up-and-comer on the program, Kenan Thompson. The two paired off as the comedy duo "Kenan and Kel," and the meteoric increase in their popularity among viewers prompted Nickelodeon to offer Thompson and Mitchell their own 1996 sitcom, aptly titled Kenan & Kel, which in turn spawned its own 1997 movie, also starring the boys and based on one of their recurring All That sketches. As directed by All That progenitor Brian Robbins (C.H.U.D. 2), the 1997 Good Burger follows the nutty adventures of a couple of short-order cooks, as a corporate fast-food giant sweeps in and threatens to close down their establishment. For several years thereafter, Mitchell chalked up a resumé of contributions to family-friendly productions, including Mystery Men (1999), The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), and Two Heads Are Better Than None (2000), but he also achieved prominence in the music realm for his goofy music-video parodies of popular songs. Mitchell unveiled even greater ambition by scripting, executive producing, and essaying the lead role in the showbiz comedy Ganked (2005); he stars as Ricky, a young man who wins a songwriting contest but falls prey to the exploitation of a record company. (Astute viewers will also note Mitchell's presence, amid heavy makeup, as Ricky's uncle.) Mitchell tackled one of his most earnest roles two years later, with a supporting contribution to John Sayles' period musical drama Honeydripper (2007).

Trivia: Grew up in foster care after her biological mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and began attending Laugh Factory Comedy Camp at the age of 15 at the recommendation of her social worker. Developed Chuckles Not Knuckles, a comedy-show program that promotes nonviolence to inner-city students. Performed on a USO Comedy Tour in Japan for U.S. troops. In 2011, was cast in David E. Talbert's national tour of What My Husband Doesn't Know. Performed in Jenny McCarthy's stand-up comedy tour Dirty, Sexy, Funny in 2014.