Trivia: As the son of comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara Ben Stiller's decision to establish himself as a comic writer and actor surprised almost no one.Born in New York City on November 30, 1965, Stiller began to shoot his own comic films from the age of ten. After high-school graduation, Stiller attended UCLA and landed bit parts in several features, notably the Steven Spielberg-directed, Tom Stoppard and Menno Meyjes-scripted, late 1987 opus Empire of the Sun.Meanwhile, Stiller continued to turn out comedy shorts, including the 30-minute Elvis Stories (1989), a spoof of obsessive Elvis fans featuring an already-established John Cusack. One of Stiller's shorts, a Tom Cruise parody called The Hustler of Money, won him a spot as a writer and player on Saturday Night Live in 1989. His stint on the show was short-lived, but led to his own eponymous series, The Ben Stiller Show, first on MTV (1990) and later on Fox (1992-1993). The program failed to draw a substantial audience, and folded within a couple of months on each network, but Stiller netted an Emmy for comedy writing in 1993.The following year, Stiller debuted as a feature film director with the twentysomething angst romcom Reality Bites (1994), in which he also starred alongside Winona Ryder and a memorably grungy Ethan Hawke. The film was a relative critical and commercial success and scored with Gen-Xers; unfortunately, Stiller's next directorial effort, 1996's The Cable Guy failed to register with critics and audiences. After a small part as nursing-home orderly Hal in the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore (1996), Stiller rebounded with a starring role in David O. Russell's Flirting With Disaster (1996). The relatively positive reception afforded to that comedy helped to balance out the relative failure of Stiller's other film that year, If Lucy Fell. It was not until two years later, however, that Stiller truly stepped into the limelight. Thanks to starring roles in three wildly, wickedly different films, he emerged as an actor of versatility, equally adept at playing sensitive nice guys and malevolent hellraisers. In the smash gross-out comedy There's Something About Mary (1998), Stiller appeared as the former type, making comic history for outrageous sight gags that involved misplaced bodily fluids and mangled genitalia. That same summer, Stiller did time as a gleefully adulterous theatrical instructor in Neil LaBute's jet-black evisceration of contemporary sexual mores, Your Friends and Neighbors. Finally, Stiller starred in the intensely graphic and disturbing addiction drama Permanent Midnight, earning critical acclaim for his portrayal of writer-cum-heroin addict Jerry Stahl -- a personal friend of the Stiller family from Stahl's days scripting the TV series ALF. Now fully capable of holding his own in Hollywood, with the license to prove it, Stiller starred alongside William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Hank Azaria, and pal Janeane Garofalo in the fantasy comedy Mystery Men (1999) as the leader of a group of unconventional superheroes. Stiller also landed a supporting role in The Suburbans, a comedy about the former members of a defunct new wave band. The following year, Stiller starred as a rabbi smitten with the same woman as his best friend, a Catholic priest (Edward Norton), in the well-received romantic comedy Keeping the Faith (2000), which Norton also co-produced and directed. Stiller found his widest audience up to that point, however, with the Jay Roach-directed madcap comedy Meet the Parents. As the tale of a nutty father-in-law to be (Robert De Niro) who wreaks unchecked havoc on his daughter's intended (Stiller) via covert CIA operations and incessant interrogation, this disastrously humorous tale of electrical interference gone wild scored with ticket-buyers and qualified as the top box-office draw during the holiday season of 2000.In the autumn of 2001, Stiller brought one of his most popular MTV Video Music Awards incarnations to the big screen in the outrageously silly male-model comedy Zoolander, in which he successfully teamed with (real-life friend) Owen Wilson to carry stupidity to new heights.In 2001 Stiller once again teamed with Wes Anderson collaborator Wilson for the widely praised comedy drama The Royal Tenenbaums. Cast as the estranged son of eccentric parents who returns home, Stiller infused his unmistakable comic touch with an affecting sense of drama that found him holding his ground opposite such dramatic heavies as Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston. Though his work in 2002 offered little more than a few cameo performances and some vocal contributions to various animated children's shows, the busy comedic actor returned to the big screen for the 2003 comedy Duplex, directed by Danny DeVito. Though the film pairs Stiller and Hollywood bombshell Drew Barrymore as a couple willing to go to horrific extremes to land the much-desired eponymous living space, reviews were unkind and the comedy died a quick death at the box office. Stiller's next film -- the romantic comedy Along Came Polly -- fared considerably better on a fiscal level, but suffered from an implausible premise.Spring 2004 promised a rebound when the electrifying duo of Stiller and Owen Wilson returned to the big screen with director Todd Phillips' celluloid recycling job Starsky & Hutch. Though Stiller and Wilson seemed the ideal pair for such a conceptually rich re-imagining of 1970s television, and the film boasted wonderful villainous turns by rapper Snoop Dogg and Vince Vaughn, reviews were once again lackluster and the film struggled to find an audience. Yet Starsky & Hutch did actually reap a profit, which (in a business sense) placed it miles ahead of Stiller's next film. Released a mere two months after Starsky & Hutch, the Barry Levinson comedy Envy sports a wacky premise; it explores the comic rivalry that erupts between two longtime friends and neighbors when one invents a product that makes dog excrement disappear. It also boasts a marvelous cast, replete with Stiller, the maniacal Jack Black, and the brilliant Christopher Walken. But for whatever reason (speculated by some as the film's inability to exploit the invention at the story's center) the film's sense of humor failed to catch fire and Envy died a quick box-office death. Stiller fared better with the ribald, anarchic summer 2004 comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, starring himself, Vince Vaughn, and Rip Torn. For the following two years, Stiller once again contented himself largely with bit parts (2004's Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2006's Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny) until the Christmas 2006 release A Night at the Museum. In this effects-heavy fantasy, adapted from the popular children's book by Milan Trenc, Stiller plays Larry Daley, the new night watchman at New York City's Museum of Natural History, who discovers that the exhibits all spring to life after hours, from a giant skeletal Tyrannosaurus Rex to a waxen Teddy Roosevelt -- and seem content to hold Larry hostage. The effort split critical opinion, but shot up to become one of the top three box-office draws during the holiday season of 2006.Meanwhile, Stiller signed on to team with the Farrelly brothers for The Heartbreak Kid (2007), a remake of the 1972 Elaine May comedy of the same title; he also produced Blades of Glory, a comedy with Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as rival figure-skating champions vying with one another for Olympic gold. He wrote, directed and starred in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder (2008) as a moronic Hollywood actor toplining a war film, voiced Alex in the same year's animated picture Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and in 2009, reprised his Larry Daley role for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Stiller's emphasis on sequels then continued with 2010's Little Fockers and 2012's Madagascar 3. In 2013, Stiller picked up the role originally made famous by Danny Kaye, as the lead in the remake The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which Stiller also directed and produced. The following year, he appeared in the next film in the Night at the Museum series, Secret of the Tomb.

Trivia: Jennifer Aniston makes a good case for proving that acting talent can be absorbed by osmosis. From her father John Aniston's stardom on Days of Our Lives to her godfather Telly Savalas, the actress was surrounded by plenty of inspiration from an early age. As Aniston attended the Rudolph Steiner School as a child, she was interested in many forms of art and proved to be a talented painter, eventually having one of her pieces displayed at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Acting also appealed to her, and became her primary focus after graduating from New York's prestigious High School for the Performing Arts in 1987. She took roles in off-Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave before she began honing her skills in television acting with appearances on shows like Quantum Leap and Herman's Head. Before long, Aniston's film and television résumé had grown into a laundry list of one-time appearances, short-lived series, and B-level movies. By 1994, the handful of bit parts and failed shows on Aniston's résumé had established her as a working actress but created little foreshadowing about her future as a star. Her upcoming audition for the role of Monica Gellar in a pilot for a sitcom at that point titled "Friends Like These," however, would prove to be quite auspicious. The role in question would eventually be filled by Courteney Cox, as Aniston changed her mind and opted to try out for Rachel Green, a young suburbanite living on her own for the first time and working as a coffee-shop waitress in New York City. The rest, as they say, is history -- "Friends Like These" would become Friends, the hugest sitcom in years, quickly making Aniston America's sweetheart. Friends' obsessive following churned up a particular interest in Aniston's signature hairstyle. The shag cut known as "The Rachel" could be seen on heads all over the country. Even as the fad fell out of popularity in the salons, Aniston's star continued to rise. Still adored on one of the most popular television shows in history, she moved to the big screen in romantic comedies like She's the One (1996), Picture Perfect, 'Til There Was You (1997), and The Object of My Affection (1998). In the late '90s, she also began dating actor Brad Pitt. Talk of Pitt's recently ended engagement to actress Gwyneth Paltrow quickly dissipated as "Gwen and Brad" turned to "Jen and Brad." The two young stars became the ultimate Hollywood power couple and celebrated with a star-studded wedding in July of 2000. The new millennium found Aniston at the top of her game. Raking in a million dollars an episode for her role on the still popular Friends and married to one of the hottest men in Hollywood, she seemed to have it all. Secure in her A-List position, she took the opportunity to work on low-profile films and cult hits, such as 1999's Office Space, and 2000's Rock Star. Aniston's talent for dramatic roles was finally given a proper outlet when she played the lead in 2002's The Good Girl, which found critics surprised and impressed with her range. She made no attempt to shy away from comedy, however, starring alongside Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty, and Ben Stiller in 2004's Along Came Polly. In 2004, as Friends began what would be its final season, Aniston's immediate future was filled with tremendous turmoil and change. Only a week into 2005, she and husband Brad Pitt legally separated, surrounded by rumors that Pitt had sparked a serious romantic connection with his Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie. The media leapt onto the story, desperate to sate the public's curiosity about how such a seemingly perfect union could come to an end. Rumors swilled about the circumstances of their break-up, citing everything from disagreements over children to taste in interior decorating. Aniston's steady poise and willowy figure created a division in the public perception between herself and the more curvaceous and risqué Jolie.Media frenzy buzzed around the breakup long after she and Pitt officially filed for divorce in March. Vendors even started selling T-shirts reading "Team Aniston" and "Team Jolie," though most of the public seemed to side with the slighted Aniston. The actress plowed ahead, however, marking 2005 by starring with Clive Owen in the gritty thriller Derailed and with Shirley MacLaine and Kevin Costner in the comedy Rumor Has It.... 2006 brought the ensemble film Friends With Money, as well as another movie that would help put her divorce in the past...in more ways then one. While Pitt made headlines by becoming legal guardian of Jolie's adopted children and father to a baby Jolie gave birth to in Namibia, Aniston starred alongside comedy and character actor extraordinaire Vince Vaughn in The Break-Up. The comedy cast the two as an ex-couple going to war over which of them should keep their beloved condo, but the real life connection between the actors was quite the opposite. Though reluctant to speak about their relationship publicly, Aniston and Vaughn appeared quite clearly to have become a couple, bolstering the success of The Break-Up, and seeming to put Aniston's fans at ease regarding her personal life, even after she and Vaughan amicably split later that year. By 2007, Aniston's public image had left her divorce in the past, and was ready for new territory.Aniston found her next success in the 2008 tearjerking pet-comedy Marley & Me, opposite Owen Wilson. As the 2000's gave way to the 2010's, Aniston would all but completely cement her position as the number one actress in Hollywood when it comes to broadly appealing comedies, winning over audience after audience with He's Just Not That Into You, Love Happens, The Switch, Just Go With It, Horrible Bosses, and Wanderlust. She won rave reviews for her work in the film Cake in 2015, earning her a Golden Globe nomination.

Trivia: One of the most original, versatile, and steadily employed actors in Hollywood, Philip Seymour Hoffman made a name for himself playing some of the most dysfunctional characters in movie history. Although he had been acting for years, most audiences were first introduced to the actor in the award-winning Boogie Nights, where he played a nebbishy soundman with a jones for Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler. Imbuing his character with both humor and poignant complexity, Hoffman was one of the more memorable aspects of an unforgettable film.Born in Fairport, NY, in 1968, Hoffman trained at New York's Tisch School of Drama. Before breaking into film, he did a host of theater work, performing in New York, Chicago, and on a European tour. He made his film debut in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, a critically acclaimed picture starring Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell. Roles in a number of films of varying quality followed, including My New Gun (1992) and When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). The actor then nabbed a sizable role in Jan de Bont's 1996 tornado thriller Twister and the same year began an ongoing working relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson by appearing in his directorial debut Hard Eight. The crime drama, which also starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson, received positive critical attention, although it didn't create more than a minor blip at the box office. However, Hoffman's next feature and second collaboration with Anderson, Boogie Nights (1997), was both a critical and financial success, scoring a host of Academy Award nominations and simultaneously reviving the careers of some of its stars, such as Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, while providing a breakthrough for others, such as Heather Graham and Hoffman himself. He next appeared in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams (1998), and the same year starred in two critically acclaimed independent films, Todd Solondz's Happiness and Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland. The prolific actor added an appearance in The Big Lebowski (also 1998) to his already impressive resumé. In addition to his burgeoning acting career, Hoffman won favorable notices for his directing debut with the off-Broadway In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings. Hoffman came into his own with three notable performances in 1999. He reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson to play empathic hospice nurse Phil Parma, one of the emotional anchors in Magnolia. His portrayal of upper-crust snob Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley earned him strong notices from many critics. Hoffman's peers awarded him with a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his role as a cross dresser in Flawless opposite Robert De Niro. He returned to the Broadway stage with fellow Anderson regular John C. Reilly to play very different brothers in Sam Shepard's True West. They took a risk by switching the lead roles every three days. Their hard work earned critical raves, and each was nominated for a Tony award. In 2000, Cameron Crowe cast Hoffman as Crowe's childhood hero Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, and David Mamet tapped him to be part of the impressive ensemble in State and Main.Hoffman maintained his status as one of the most respected and hardest-working actors in the new decade by delivering an excellent supporting turn in Red Dragon as an unctuous tabloid reporter. That same year he co-starred in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, and played the bad guy for old collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson in the offbeat romantic comedy Punch-Drunk Love. 2002 also saw the release of Love Liza, a very low-budget film scripted by Hoffman's brother and directed by actor Todd Louiso that starred Phil as a grieving husband addicted to huffing gas fumes. The next year found Hoffman starring as a gambling addict in the small scale Canadian drama Owning Mahowny, and turning in a memorable supporting performance as an amoral preacher in the big screen adaptation of Cold Mountain. Hoffman was in theaters again at the beginning of 2004 as the best friend in the Ben Stiller comedy Along Came Polly. He was also part of yet another outstanding ensemble in the small screen adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer prize-winning novel Empire Falls.In 2005, Hoffman took the role of a lifetime when he assumed the title role in Bennett Miller's Capote. The film had critics in agreement that Hoffman's portrayal of complex and idiosyncratic real-life author Truman Capote was the stuff of Hollywood legend. Hoffman not only mastered the character's distinct body-language and speech but also hauntingly interpreted the subtle psychological and emotional self that made the character whole-leading many to declare that he very nearly made the film everything it was. The performance earned him the Oscar for Best Actor, as well as a Golden Globe and countless other accolades. The attention also provided a boost in profile for the actor who had for so long proved his worth in the background. After playing the bad guy in the third Mission Impossible movie opposite Tom Cruise, Hoffman had a remarkable 2007, a year that saw him play a central part in three well-regarded films. His conniving brother in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was a model of self-loathing fermenting into fatal action. In addition to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, his highly-educated, emotionally fractured brother to Laura Linney's neurotic sister in The Savages offered him the chance to play numerous subtle and sharply observed scenes with her, the first meeting of these two revered performers. But it was his turn as the intense CIA operative in Charlie Wilson's War that won Hoffman the most widespread praise including Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.Hoffman continued to solidify his status as one of his generation's finest actors in 2008 with two very different roles. By choosing to play the lead in Charlie Kaufmann's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, Hoffman again displayed his fearlessness, as well as his desire to work with the very best writers and directors he can find. That willfully difficult film never connected with mainstream audiences, but that was not true at all for Hoffman's other picture of 2008, Doubt. John Patrick Shanley's cinematic adaptation of his own award-winning play earned acting nominations for Hoffman and his three costars (Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis) from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.Over the following years, Hoffman would continue to appear in a variety of interesting films, like Pirate Radio, The Ides of March, and Moneyball. In 2012 he again collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson, playing a cult leader in the drama The Master opposite Joaquin Phoenix. For his work in that movie, Hoffman got a Best Supporting Actor nomination from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The following year, he appeared in the smash The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as rebel Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Sadly, personal problems cut his illustrious career short, as Hoffman was found dead in his apartment of an apparent drug overdose at age 46.

Trivia: A stunning, New York-born actress who shot to stardom with her role as the latter half of television's Will and Grace, Debra Messing's playful creativity beginning in her youth left her family with little doubt that the talented youngster would seek a career in some aspect of the entertainment industry.Raised in a small community outside Providence, RI, Messing's song and dance routines were the source of endless entertainment for her family throughout her youth, and the precocious youngster frequently attended performing arts camps in order to focus her skills as an actress. Later touring Canada, the U.S., and Mexico before planning her initial bid for stardom, Messing followed her mother's advice and enrolled in Massachusetts' Brandeis University, where she majored in theater arts. Traveling to London late in her schooling to study at the prestigious B.E.S.G.L. program, she was later accepted into New York University's Graduate Acting Program. Early roles such as a stint as sexpot Dana Abandando on television's NYPD Blue garnered much attention for the stunning starlet, and it wasn't long before Messing made her feature debut with A Walk in the Clouds (1995). Jumping back to the small screen for the short-lived Ned and Stacey the following year, she next turned up in the feature Prey (1997) and a subsequent television series based on the film. Launching her career into overdrive in 1998 with her role as Grace Elizabeth Adler in television's Will and Grace brought Messing critical and public praise, and her role as the interior designer living with a homosexual lawyer charmed audiences with its snappy writing and talented cast. With personal interests lending to involvement with such organizations as the Best Friend's Pet Sanctuary, Gay Men's Health Crisis, and AmFAR, the actress uses much of her personal time to encourage social awareness of HIV and AIDS-related issues and encourage people to adopt pets.The massive success of Will & Grace helped Messing gain a foothold in a film career. She tested the waters gingerly at first, taking small but key roles in films as diverse as the thriller The Mothman Prophecies and the Woody Allen comedy Hollywood Ending. She played Ben Stiller's newlywed wife in the hit comedy Along Came Polly in 2004. Although audiences ignored her romantic comedy The Wedding Date, Messing scored her most prestigious post-Will & Grace work yet landing a major role in Curtis Hanson's Lucky You in 2006, the same year as she lent her vocal talents to the animated film Open Season.Over the next several years, Messing would enjoy a number of projects, starring in movies like The Women, and series like The Starter Wife, Smash and The Mysteries of Laura.

Trivia: Equally at home playing leads and character roles, actor Alec Baldwin is known for his work in just about every genre, from action thrillers to comedies to dramas. Born April 3, 1958, in Massapequa, Long Island, he was the second of six children (brothers William, Daniel, and Stephen would also become actors). Baldwin was a political science major at George Washington University before he decided to become an actor; following his change in vocation, he studied drama at NYU and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Early in his career, Baldwin was a busy man, simultaneously playing a role on the TV daytime drama The Doctors and performing in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream on-stage in the evenings. A few years after making his 1980 Broadway debut, the actor moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a part in the television series Knots Landing. He made his film debut in 1987 with a starring role in Forever, Lulu, which led to work in a number of major films. From 1988 to 1989 alone, Baldwin appeared in no less than seven films, including Tim Burton's black comedy Beetlejuice, Mike Nichols' Working Girl, Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob, and Oliver Stone's Talk Radio. In 1990, Baldwin achieved big-budget success playing ace CIA agent Jack Ryan in the undersea thriller The Hunt for Red October. The film's popularity won him acclaim, so Baldwin surprised many by foregoing the opportunity to reprise his role in the sequel Patriot Games (he was replaced by Harrison Ford) in favor of returning to Broadway to star as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Although his decision paid off -- he received a Tony nomination for his performance -- it also marked the point at which Baldwin's star wattage began to flicker. His 1991 film, The Marrying Man proved to be an all-out flop (although it did provide him an introduction to co-star Kim Basinger, whom he would marry in 1993), and the critical success of his next two films, Prelude to a Kiss and Glengarry Glen Ross was overshadowed by a subsequent string of flops, including Malice (1993), The Getaway (1994), and The Juror (1996). The actor rebounded a bit with his role in Al Pacino's acclaimed documentary Looking for Richard (1996) but then had the unfortunate luck of starring in the 1998 Bruce Willis disaster Mercury Rising. However, the following year proved more fortuitous for Baldwin, as he starred in the coming-of-age comedy Outside Providence, as well as in the crime drama Thick As Thieves and the ethical drama The Confession, appearing alongside Amy Irving and Ben Kingsley. In addition, the actor made an uncredited appearance in Notting Hill, sending up his macho Hollywood persona as Julia Roberts' piggish actor boyfriend.Baldwin started off the 2000s by re-teaming with David Mamet on the Hollywood satire State and Main as a lecherous leading man with a weakness for underage girls. He provided narration for Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, and was one of the few people to escape unscathed from Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor. Although he continued to make headlines because of his politics, as well as his ongoing legal scuffles with now ex-wife Kim Basinger, Baldwin continued to do strong work in the comedies Along Came Polly (2004) and Fun with Dick and Jane (2005), and scored his first-ever Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor playing a menacing casino manager in 2003's The Cooler. He became a part of Martin Scorsese's stock company playing Juan Trippe in 2004's The Aviator, following it up as a federal agent in love with the Patriot Act in 2006's The Departed.Baldwin's longstanding association with the venerable sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (he has hosted over ten times) paid great dividends when he was hired to play the part of the boss on former SNL head writer Tina Fey's fall 2006 sitcom 30 Rock. He earned universal raves for his work on the show, and would earn a Golden Globe nomination every single year of the show's run, winning the award three times. He'd also pick up no less than five Emmy nods, winning that award twice as well. Baldwin was positively beloved on the series, but he would also continue to work in film as well, most notably in the 2009 romcom It's Complicated, which he starred in with Meryl Streep, and the 2012 Woody Allen ensemble film To Rome with Love.

Trivia: Rubber-faced comic actor and vocal artist extraordinaire Hank Azaria initially plied his trade on the stand-up circuit, then subsequently landed stage appearances and tackled bit parts on television. Azaria scored his breakthrough in 1989 when he began providing a multitude of voices for the Fox network's groundbreaking animated series The Simpsons, an assignment that imparted the performer with an enviable degree of cult stardom. In 1991, Azaria nabbed a major role in the Fox live-action sitcom Herman's Head, which ran until 1994 and gave audiences a glimpse of the man responsible for the vocal intonations of some of the most famous characters to ever corrupt an animator's storyboard.A native of Queens, NY, where he was born into a family of Sephardic Jews on April 25, 1964, Azaria commenced film roles in the late 1980s, coincident with his Simpsons stardom. Work on that program (which, after graduating from a series of crude sketches on The Tracey Ullmann Show to its own animated sitcom, quickly shot up to qualify as the Fox network's most popular enterprise) easily outstripped Azaria's screen work in popularity and visibility for many years. Recurring parts included Indian convenience store owner Apu, quack doctor Nick Riviera, dim-witted bartender Moe, and the idiotic, pig-nosed Springfield Chief of Police, Clancy Wiggum. Though his Simpsons work continued unabated over the years, beginning in the mid-1990s Azaria branched out somewhat, placing a heavier emphasis on live-action portrayals. Even in that venue, however, his work tonally mirrored his animated contributions; he specialized in adroitly handling goofy, over-the-top character parts, often with an ethnic bent. The performer attained visibility and memorability, for example, as the klutzy and scantily-dressed gay houseboy Agador in The Birdcage (1995), Hector, a goofy Hispanic paramour with a permanent effeminate lisp, in Joe Roth's underrated showbiz comedy America's Sweethearts (2001), and Claude, a Gallic beach bum with no qualms about taking off with other men's wives, in John Hamburg's gross-out romantic comedy Along Came Polly (2004).Azaria has also departed from the boundaries of screen comedy from time to time, doing memorable work across genre lines in such films as Great Expectations (1998) (which cast him as Gwyneth Paltrow's lackluster fiancé), Mystery Men (1999) (as the superhero Blue Raja), and Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock (1999), a historical drama about art and politics in 1930s New York that cast Azaria as leftist playwright Marc Blitzstein. In 2005, Azaria presided as one of the many off-color monologuists in Penn Jillette's stand-up comedy showcase film The Aristocrats; the performer subsequently provided at least seventeen voices (including his usual series roles) for The Simpsons Movie (2007) and voiced both Abbie Hoffmann and Allen Ginsberg in the animated sequences of Brett Morgen's offbeat documentary Chicago 10 (2007).He appeared in the pre-historic comedy Year One, and provided several voices in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. He played an ethically challenged doctor in Love and Other Drugs, and portrayed Gargamel, the bad guy in the big-screen hit The Smurfs. He was in family film Hop, and lent his prodigious vocal talents to Happy Feet Two. In 2012 he acted in the biopic Lovelace.In July 1999, Azaria married actress Helen Hunt, with whom he co-starred in several episodes of the sitcom Mad About You. The two divorced within eighteen months.

Trivia: With his rugged, everyman exterior and quick wit, Aussie actor Bryan Brown has made an undeniable mark in the world of cinema with unforgettable roles in such efforts as Bruce Beresford's Breaker Morant (1980), the innovative action thriller F/X, and the bottle slingin' bartender drama Cocktail (1988). Although public misconception may be that Brown abandoned the Land Down Under for a film career in Hollywood, the lifelong Australian resident remains true to his homeland despite his status as a popular international film star. A former insurance salesman who was bitten by the acting bug early on, the Sydney native soon found stage work in both his hometown as well as London. His film debut as a lovelorn, mentally ill man in The Love Letters From Teralba Road (1977) soon followed, and after gaining positive critical notice for his performance, Brown appeared in minor capacity in such films as Phillip Noyce's Newsfront and Bruce Beresford's Money Movers before his breakout turn as a supporting player in the searing war drama Breaker Morant. His star on the rise in the early '80s, Brown subsequently appeared in the prison drama Stir before turning up in the acclaimed miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983). The musical drama Give My Regards to Broad Street proved a surprising gem to Paul McCartney and Brown fans alike the following year, and with the release of F/X in 1986, Brown became a bankable international star. The film's innovative use of special effects as a means to drive the plot, combined with a smart script and Brown's natural charisma, resulted in a modest hit that spawned both a sequel and a television series (albeit without him). After taking the lead in Tai-Pan (1986) and returning to Australia for the relationship drama The Good Wife (1987), Brown took his biggest Hollywood role to date as a veteran bartender opposite Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Although Brown would have little chance to truly shine opposite the Hollywood heavy, he did manage to steal a few scenes and have fun with the role. Shifting gears entirely for Gorillas in the Mist that same year, Brown was once again offered the opportunity to shine in the role of a National Geographic photographer who falls for primate researcher Dian Fossey Sigourney Weaver. Despite the fact that Brown's '80s momentum may not have carried into the '90s as strongly as fans might have hoped, those who did seek out his films found him still very much at the top of his game. From Nicolas Roeg's existential drama Full Body Massage (1995) to the intensely personal Dead Heart (1996), his performances were consistently thought provoking. After expanding his resumé to include producer credits with the 1991 F/X sequel, Brown did his best to bring stories to the screen that he found personally compelling. His association both in front of and behind the scenes of Twisted Tales (a sort of Down Under Twilight Zone meets The X-Files) helped to maintain his high profile in Australia, and, in 1999, Brown appeared opposite hot-Aussie export Heath Ledger in the comedy drama Two Hands. After more starring roles that year, Brown appeared in the sleeper drama Risk and the nuclear drama On the Beach (both 2000). Having been a youngster in 1960 Australia, the retro-gangster comedy Dirty Deeds had special appeal to Brown, and his turn as a Sydney-based crime syndicate leader who draws the ire of a fearsome Chicago crime family offered a fun take of the gangster-chic trend. Although Brown would threaten to take a break from acting following Dirty Deeds, it wasn't long before he was back in front of the cameras for the Ben Stiller comedy Along Came Polly Captured (2004).

Trivia: Lead actor Nick Corri first appeared on screen in the late '80s.

Trivia: American actor Bob Dishy was trained in the demanding art of improvisational comedy. So certain of Dishy's skills were the producers of the 1968 TV adaptation of Arsenic and Old Lace that they allowed the actor--essaying the role of a cop with playwrighting aspirations--to "wing" most of his dialogue. Among Dishy's film credits are The Tiger Makes Out (1967), Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), First Family (1980), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986) and Critical Condition (1987). Bob Dishy also appeared as part of a comic repertory company (which included such notables as Peter Bonerz, Paul Sand, Hamilton Camp and Melinda Dillon) on the largely ad-libbed 1971 syndicated TV series Story Theatre.

Trivia: Born Andrea Kay Pyle in Houston, TX, a six-month-old Pyle was given the fateful nickname of "Little Missi," which would stick to her throughout her childhood and to the present day. Pyle was infatuated with acting by the age of 13, and attended Germantown High School in Tennessee, one of the top three performing-arts high schools in the United States. While there, Pyle was tapped as a lead singer in several musical productions, though her eventual goal remained a career in television and film. After graduation from Germantown High, Pyle was accepted to the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts and was cast as the female lead in a series of Shakespearean productions. During the summer, she crossed the Atlantic to attend the Oxford School of Drama in England, where she further honed her acting skills.By 1996, Pyle had made her film debut in The Cottonwood, which followed a group of wannabe actors hoping to use their lottery winnings to score big in Hollywood. Pyle's breakout role, however, wouldn't come until several years later, when she played a supporting role as a love-struck alien in Galaxy Quest alongside Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver. Though the early 2000s did little to bring Pyle much in the way of mainstream success, they nonetheless helped the actress develop a loyal fan base; her performances in The Wayne Brady Show, Ally McBeal, and Josie and the Pussycats (all 2001) were solid enough to grab the attention of several prominent casting directors. Surely enough, by 2003, Pyle had been chosen for a supporting role in Bringing Down the House with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah, as well as a small but indelible role in Tim Burton's big-budget fantasy comedy Big Fish (2003). In 2004, Pyle worked with Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly and lent her support to Soul Plane and 50 First Dates. Working with Stiller proved a lucky experience for Pyle, who accepted a larger supporting role in Stiller's Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), which also stars fellow Galaxy Quest alumni Justin Long. When she isn't filming, Pyle continues her work with the all-female sketch comedy group Bitches and Funny.

Trivia: In his public appearances, standup comedian Judah Friedlander usually wears big glasses and a trucker hat over his shaggy head of dark hair. He's one of those guys who has the decency to appear untainted by his own mediocre brand of stardom. In other words, he can play in Hollywood movies that show at major theaters, yet still maintain a safe comedic distance from slimy show business. This has mostly been accomplished by doing short scenes in smallish comedies, starting with Meet the Parents (starring Ben Stiller). Friedlander then did the walk-on role of no-good husband Ron in the hilarious spoof Wet Hot American Summer. (He was the guy with sideburns to trying to win back his wife [Molly Shannon].) Other bit parts came about in the mock documentary Endsville and the MTV movie Spring Break Lawyer. He worked with Stiller again in Zoolander and had a small part in the stoner comedy How High. In 2002, he had a brief speaking role in the terrible action comedy Showtime, starring Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro. Friedlander is perhaps best known for his unforgettable portrayal of Genuine Nerd Toby Radloff in American Splendor, the innovative documentary/biography about comic book author Harvey Pekar. The film was a festival success and earned Friedlander a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Independent Spirit Awards. Television audiences may remember him as the guy who gives out hugs in the popular Dave Matthews Band video for "Everyday." He's also made numerous appearances on late-night variety shows and various sitcoms. Projects for 2004 include Along Came Polly (starring Stiller again) and Palindromes (directed by Todd Solondz).In 2006 he began work on the award-winning sitcom 30 Rock playing Frank Rossitano, the ball-cap wearing, most vulgar member of the TGS writing staff. This was his most high-profile success to date, but he continued to land pars in big-screen projects like the Project Greenlight horror film Feast, The Wrestler, Meet Dave, and Beware the Gonzo.

Trivia: After cutting his teeth on the stand-up comedy circuit on the East Coast, comic Kevin Hart got his big break when he was cast in the Judd Apatow series Undeclared in 2000. The then 21 year old had grown up using his sense of humor to help his family cope with issues like his father's drug addiction and incarceration, and eventually learning to thrive in the stand-up scene helped give Hart the tenacity to make it on a national scale, both on stage and on screen. Hart would headline several successful national stand-up tours over the coming years, in addition to his successful movie career, which would find him appearing in a host of films like Soul Plane, Fool's Gold, The Five Year Engagement, This is the End. In 2014, he had a trio of hits, Ride Along, About Last Night and Think Like a Man Too. His success continued into the following years, headlining The Wedding Ringer and Get Hard in 2015, and Ride Along 2 and a stand-up film, What Now? in 2016.

Trivia: Emmy-nominated Heroes star Masi Oka got his start in the entertainment industry as a special-effects artist at Industrial Light and Magic before segueing into acting with appearances on Dharma & Greg, Gilmore Girls, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Though his behind-the-scenes work on such major motion pictures as the new Star Wars trilogy, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, War of the Worlds, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest found the Tokyo native helping to breathe life into some of the most ambitious fantasy films ever to hit the silver screen, it was Oka's role as the teleporting and time-traveling computer wiz Hiro Nakamura on the hit NBC series Heroes that ultimately brought him world-wide stardom among fantasy fans.A Brown University graduate who studied mathematics, computer science, and theater art, Oka got into acting right around the time he was hired as an effects artist at ILM, and he has performed improvisational comedy at such well-known venues as Second City and The Groundlings. Since Oka had lived in Los Angeles since the age of six, it seemed only natural that he would become involved in the entertainment industry in some capacity, though few would have anticipated the remarkable success he came to experience on both sides of the screen. By the time he appeared in his breakthrough role on Heroes, Oka had already racked up an impressive array of film and television credits that included a recurring role on Scrubs and bit parts in such features as Austin Powers in Goldmember, Along Came Polly, and House of the Dead 2. In 2007, Oka could be seen in the comedy features Balls of Fury and Quebec, with a role in the big-screen adaptation of Get Smart following in 2008. In 2011 he had a small part in the romantic comedy Friends With Benefits.

Trivia: Was born abroad because her parents were missionaries. Was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Started out as a teacher in Compton, CA, before becoming an actor. Owns a production company called Kwick Whit Productions. Regularly performs stand-up comedy in and around Los Angeles.

Trivia: A talented performer of stage and screen whose quick, on-the-fly wit made her the perfect candidate for a role on Seinfeld co-creator Larry David's popular HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, actress Cheryl Hines found her comic footing as a member of the famed Groundlings troupe before making the leap to the screen in the mid- to late '90s. Though the Florida native would study theater, radio, and television at Florida State University, a move to Los Angeles found her discovering a natural talent for improvisational theater. In the following years, Hines would refine her comic skills while gaining exposure on such popular television series as Suddenly Susan, The Wayans Bros., and Friends, though it would be her Emmy-nominated performance as hapless comic Larry David's wife on Curb Your Enthusiasm that truly made her a recognizable face on the small screen. Hines has also made numerous apperances in film as well, including movies like Along Came Polly, Labor Pains, and The Ugly Truth. In 2011, she returned to the small screen in ABC's quirky Suburgatory, playing glammed-up suburban wife Dallas Royce for three seasons.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's most steadily employed character actresses, Caroline Aaron has appeared in an impressive array of films for some of the industry's most esteemed directors. A native of Richmond, VA, where she was born August 7, 1952, Aaron made her film debut as a waitress in John Sayles' Baby, It's You (1982). Her subsequent film credits include Sayles' Brother From Another Planet (1984), Mike Nichols' Heartburn (1986), Working Girl (1988), and Primary Colors (1998); Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Alice (1990), Husbands and Wives (1992), and Deconstructing Harry (1997); Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and Wayne Wang's Anywhere but Here (1999). In 2000, she popped up in Nichols' alien comedy What Planet Are You From? and Don Roos' romantic drama Bounce, co-starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow.Aaron has also acted extensively on television and the stage. Within the former medium, she has guest starred on such popular series as Mad About You and Law & Order, while she has appeared on-stage in such acclaimed works as the Broadway production of The Iceman Cometh and the national tour of Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig.

Trivia: Made her feature film debut in Safe Men (1998), directed by her husband John Hamburg; the couple first met while attending Brown University. In 2006, made her Broadway debut in Well. Founding associate artist of The Civilians and an affiliate artist of Clubbed Thumb, two award-winning theater groups in New York City.

Trivia: Worked as a ticket taker at The Second City, Northwest before auditioning and joining the crew in Chicago and as part of their touring productions. Trained with Improv Olympic. Married his wife in the middle of Times Square. Formed his own theatre company, Moveable Feast. Started his own production company, Lazy Cougar.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: When standup comic-turned-television personality Jeffrey Ross emerged as a celebrity during the early 2000s, he specialized almost exclusively in aggressive insult humor, prompting at least one periodical to term him "The Meanest Man in Comedy." Throughout, he exhibited tremendous influence by Don Rickles and others of the same ilk. In fact, Ross soon began to headline celebrity-themed "roasts" in the Rickles vein. A native of New Jersey, Ross attended Boston University as a film and broadcasting major and political minor. He spent his first decade on camera doing guest appearances on series programs including Greg the Bunny, Six Feet Under, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and in films such as Jeffrey (1995) and Celtic Pride (1996).Ross (who joined the New York Friars' Club in 1995) commenced his roasts with a live set devoted to skewering comic Drew Carey, and it attained such popularity that it led to follow-up roasts for the likes of Hugh Hefner, Pamela Anderson, Donald Trump, William Shatner, and others. In the interim, Ross turned into something of a fixture on the Comedy Central network (particularly on its Man Show), and on MTV, where he and SNL vet Tracy Morgan briefly enjoyed lead billing on an edgy animated series called Where My Dogs At? (The program, which depicted two crass dogs wandering around Hollywood and insulting celebrities, so offended some viewers that the network promptly pulled it.)In 2005, Ross debuted as a director by helming, scripting, and starring in the comedy concert film Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie -- a filmed record of his standup tour of Iraq during the U.S. occupation. That same year, he also delivered a memorably colorful monologue in Penn Jillette's standup documentary The Aristocrats. In the years to follow, Ross broke into reality television as a judge on ABC's popular summer series The Next Best Thing, and participated as a contestant in season seven of ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Producers paired him up with professional dancer Edyta Sliwinska.He continued to maintain his status as "Roastmaster General" by appearing at a number of celebrity roasts, acted in the romantic comedy A Novel Romance, and helped write the Robert DeNiro/Kristen Wiig vehicle The Comedian.