Trivia: Best known for portraying time traveler Dr. Sam Beckett in the popular sci-fi series Quantum Leap, Scott Bakula is also a noted Broadway actor and occasional movie star, though it is in the last venue that he has had the least amount of success. The son of a musician, Bakula is said to have started his own rock band when he was in the fourth grade. He also sang with the St. Louis Symphony before attending the University of Kansas. Bakula launched his acting career as a teen in regional theater and as a stage actor specializes in musical comedy. He made his Broadway debut in 1983 in Marilyn: An American Fable. He started showing up regularly on television as a guest star on such series as My Sister Sam and Designing Women during the 1980s. In 1986, Bakula starred in an unsuccessful television series, Gung Ho! Two years later he headlined another unsuccessful one, Eisenhower and Lutz. In 1988, Bakula was nominated for a Tony for his work in Romance, Romance. The following year, he was cast in Quantum Leap and has since gained a cult following; in 1992, he won a Golden Globe and was nominated four more times. Bakula was also nominated for a quartet of Emmys. Bakula made his feature-film debut starring opposite Kirstie Alley in Sibling Rivalry (1990). Other notable film appearances include L.A. Story (1991) and My Family/Mi Familia (1995). In 1993, Bakula had a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown as a love interest of Candice Bergen. He has also appeared in a number of television movies and in 1996, he had a stint in another short-lived series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.Though he worked steadily in movies, television turned out to be his next great success when, in 2001, he took the part of Capt. Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise, a program that lasted four seasons.In 2009 Bakula would star alongside Ray Romano and Andre Braugher in the well-respected comedy/drama series Men of a Certain Age, and landed in one of the best films of his career, Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!.

Trivia: Though he has proven to be a natural, allegedly Lucas Black's ambition is not to be an actor when he grows up. Born and raised in Alabama, Black became a professional actor when an open casting call landed him a bit part in Jon Avnet's The War (1994). After starring on TV's American Gothic (1995), Black definitively caught the audience's attention with his pivotal role in Billy Bob Thornton's award-winning drama Sling Blade (1996). Resisting child actor treacle, Black turned in a genuinely charming and moving performance as the young boy who befriends Thornton's mentally challenged ex-con. Despite the acclaim, however, Black opted to stay home in Alabama rather than go Hollywood. Black continued to act throughout his high school years, playing supporting roles in the racial drama Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) and the big-screen version of The X-Files (1998), and starring in the TV movie Flash (1997) and as the politically aware Peejoe in Crazy in Alabama (1999). In Thornton's second directorial effort All the Pretty Horses (2000), Black's performance as the young drifter who gets Matt Damon into trouble once again revealed his ability to hold his own against -- indeed outshine -- Hollywood's best. Black, however, has asserted that his ultimate goal is to become a professional fisherman. High profile roles as everything from a piano savant in Killer Diller to a high school football star in Friday Night LIghts and a fresh-faced Marine in Jarhead proved without question that Black had the acting range needed to craft and impressive and enduring career, and in 2006 Black put the peddle to the metal as a troubled teen whose trip to Tokyo finds him mastering the art of the drift in the adrenaline-charged sequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Trivia: Brooklyn, NY, native Vanessa Ferlito grew up amid somewhat challenging circumstances as an only child (the daughter of two Italian-American hair salon owners) whose father died before she reached the age of three. She developed acting aspirations early in life and broke into the entertainment business via television, with guest spots and recurring roles on crime-themed series programs including CSI: New York and The Sopranos -- where her unmistakably ethnic, weathered but voluptuous look lent her time and again to effective portrayals of molls, mistresses, and other gritty urban female types. She landed her most prominent early feature roles in Spider-Man 2 (as a co-star in Mary Jane's play) and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof segment of the 2007 two-episode omnibus Grindhouse (as one of the low-down women stalked and murdered by Kurt Russell's psychopath Stuntman Mike). After the Tarantino project, Ferlito joined co-stars Debra Messing and Alfred Molina for the gentle comedy Nothing Like the Holidays and worked with Tyler Perry on the farce Madea Goes to Jail (2009).

Trivia: Declared at age 6 that she would one day move to Hollywood to become an actress. First professional acting job was at 16 in a production of Beauty and the Beast at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. First TV role was on Nip/Tuck; she followed that up with appearances on NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, The Unit and Lost. Big break came when she was cast as Dalia Hassan on the final season of 24 in 2010. Shares the longest recorded screen kiss (3:24) with costar Traci Dinwiddie in the independent drama Elena Undone. Made her Broadway debut opposite Robin Williams in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo in 2011. Is fluent in English, German, Farsi and French. Is a cultural ambassador for the Levantine Center Organization in Los Angeles. Sings and plays guitar for the band Dogs With Wigs.

Trivia: Was part of the comedy troupe Commedus Interruptus in college. Co-founded the comedy troupe Summer of Tears with Todd Waldman in 2004. Won the U.S. Comedy Art Festival's jury prize for best sketch comedy in 2007 with Summer of Tears. Was a writer for ABC's Happy Endings.

Trivia: Was a member of '80s hip-hop group Groove B. Chill. Paralyzed from the waist down as the result of a November 2001 motorcycle accident in South Carolina. Has served as a spokesman for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Established the Daryl Mitchell Foundation, which was founded on the principles of awareness, education and advocacy for those impacted by spinal-cord injuries.

Trivia: Born in Guyana on December 25, 1952, actress CCH Pounder made her first film appearance as a nurse in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979). Pounder went on to play a small part in Prizzi's Honor before her first big role as truckstop owner Brenda in Bagdad Cafe. Her first TV-series assignment was as husband-murderer Dawn Murphy in the short-lived FOX sitcom Women in Prison. Many dramatic TV movies followed, including Leap of Faith, Third Degree Burn, Murder in Mississippi, and the two-part CBS miniseries Common Ground. On the big screen, she had supporting parts in Postcards From the Edge, Kurt Baker's version of The Importance of Being Earnest, and the romantic comedy Benny & Joon. After appearing in Sliver and Robocop 3, she returned to television for the role of Dr. Angela Hicks on ER, earning her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress. She left the show in 1997 and went on to countless TV movies (Final Justice, Netforce, A Touch of Hope, just to name a few), as well as a couple feature films (Face/Off, End of Days) and TV miniseries (House of Frankenstein, To Serve and Protect). In 2001, she narrated the PBS documentary series Race: The Power of an Illusion and played a judge in Allison Anders' independent drama Things Behind the Sun. In 2002, she was back on television as Detective Claudette Wynn on the FOX police drama The Shield.Pounder continued to work on The Shield until the series concluded in 2007, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her role as Detective Wynn. The actress appeared in 2009's psychological horror The Orphan, and voiced Mo'at, the spiritual leader of the Omaticaya clan, in James Cameron's mega-blockbuster Avatar the same year. 2009 would prove a rewarding year for Pounder, as her guest appearances on the BBC/HBO series No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency would earn her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

Trivia: Lead actress Chelsea Field first appeared onscreen in the late '80s.

Trivia: After one year in college as an art major Cassidy dropped out and got married, but the marriage didn't last. She moved to San Francisco and worked successfully as a model; she also appeared briefly in two films shot there, Bullitt (1968) and Fools (1970), then went four years without another screen role, meanwhile finding some work in TV commercials. Her first significant screen appearance was in a small role in the San Francisco police drama The Laughing Policeman (1974), which led to work in two more films that year; in the second of these, Bank Shot (1974), she got her first prominent billing. Cassidy had many unmemorable roles over the next few years, finally making an impression in a successful film with Blade Runner (1982); after that she got better roles in better films, but has yet to become a widely known screen actress.

Trivia: Richard Thomas was seven years old when he made his first Broadway appearance in Sunrise at Campobello (1958). The wide-eyed, mole-cheeked, sensitive-looking Thomas soon found himself very much in demand for television roles. He was seen in the distinguished company of Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer and Hume Cronyn in a 1959 TV presentation of Ibsen's A Doll's House, worked as a regular on the daytime soap operas As the World Turns and Flame in the Wind, and co-starred with Today Show announcer Jack Lescoulie in the captivating 1961 Sunday-afternoon "edutainment" series 1-2-3 Go. While attending Columbia University, Thomas made his theatrical-film debut in Downhill Racer, then settled into a series of unpleasant, psychologically disturbed characters in films like You'll Like My Mother (1971) and such TV series as Bracken's World. In 1971, Thomas was cast as John-Boy Walton in the Earl Hamner-scripted TV movie The Homecoming. Though there would be a number of cast changes before The Homecoming metamorphosed into the weekly series The Waltons in 1972, Thomas was retained as John-Boy, earning a 1973 Emmy for his performance and remaining in the role until only a few months before the series' cancellation in 1981. During the Waltons years, Thomas starred in several well-mounted TV movies, including the 1979 remake of All Quiet on the Western Front. Ever seeking opportunities to expand his range, Thomas has sunk his teeth into such roles as the self-destructive title character in Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story (1983) and the amusingly sanctimonious Rev. Bobby Joe in the satirical Glory! Glory!. In 1980, Thomas made his first Broadway appearance in over two decades as the paralyzed protagonist of Whose Life is It Anyway. Notable later roles have included a turn as Bill Denbrough in Stephen King's It (1990), an appearance in Curtis Hanson's 2000 drama Wonder Boys, and a bit part as a reverend in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock (2009). Working through his own Melpomene Productions, Thomas has continued seeking out creative challenges into the 1990s. Richard Thomas has also served as national chairman of the Better Hearing Institute.

Trivia: Was honored as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts by the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program during her senior year in high school. Wrote two articles that were published in The Juilliard Journal while in college. Made her New York stage debut in the Delacorte Theater's production of The Merchant of Venice in 2010. In 2013, made her Broadway debut in Christopher Durang's production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as Cassandra, a role that she originated. Is involved with an anti-racism organization, A People's Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Trivia: Actress Zoe McLellan got her first break in the movie Mr. Holland's Opus in 1995. Like a lot of new actresses, she struggled to pay the bills with appearances on TV shows and in commercials, eventually scoring a role in the 2000 movie Dungeons & Dragons. Then the next year, she was cast as P.O. Jennifer Coates on the hit series JAG. She stayed with the show until 2005, then in 2007 she took a role on another series, this time playing Lisa George, the wife of lead character Nick George (Peter Krause), on Dirty Sexy Money.

Trivia: Is half Filipino, half African-American. Caught an early break after attending the Actors, Models and Talent for Christ SHINE showcase. Spent several years as a model, appearing in print ads for Nike, Footlocker and Coors Light, among others. Earned SAG card after appearing in an episode of That's So Raven in 2005. Enjoys photography.