Trivia: Actor Lee Pace was born in Oklahoma, but spent some of his childhood living overseas with his family. While studying back in the states, he got involved in regional theater and was accepted to the Juilliard School. His early stage credits include Romeo and Juliet, King Richard III, and Julius Caesar. After receiving his BFA, he made his professional stage debut in the off-Broadway play The Credeux Canvas. His striking television debut came the next year in the Showtime original movie A Soldier's Girl, based on a true story. He received recognition at the Golden Globes, Gotham Awards, and the Independent Spirit Awards for his portrayal of transgendered nightclub singer Calpernia Addams. The same year, Pace could also be seen in the Los Angeles regional theater production of Blackout.Riding high on the buzz from A Soldier's Girl, in 2004 Pace landed a role on the Fox dramedy Wonderfalls. While the show gained a cult-following, it only lasted half a season, but Pace's rise continued with roles in such well-received features as Infamous and The Good Shepherd. The coming years would find particular success for Pace in movies like A Single Man, Marmaduke, and When in Rome, not to mention franchise films like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Trivia: During the early 2000s, actor Scoot McNairy quickly came to specialize in portrayals of colorful and individualistic young men with a slightly rebellious edge. McNairy began during the early to mid-2000s, with bit parts in films including Wonderland (2003), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), and Art School Confidential (2006). He took his first bow as a producer with 2007's In Search of a Midnight Kiss, in which he also starred. That indie romantic comedy concerns a young man (McNairy) all washed up on New Year's Eve -- until an impulsive ad on Craigslist leads him to the great love of his life (Sara Simmonds) and an extraordinary night on the town.

Trivia: Briefly worked as a model in college. The first film she acted in was Breathe In. Did gender studies in university and is an outspoken feminist. Audited online classes at MIT to learn the Python programming language in preparation for her role as computer hacker Cameron Howe on Halt and Catch Fire. Her hobby is making bone sculptures from mouse skeletons she retrieves from owl pellets.

Trivia: With an astonishing resumé that incorporates everything from Seinfeld to Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, character actor Toby Huss qualifies as a staple of American pop culture. Born December 12, 1966 in Marshalltown, IA (the birthplace of many an actor or actress), Huss grew up in the American heartland, then briefly attended the University of Iowa after high school before dropping out and heading to Tinseltown. The elusiveness of Huss' name recognition is tied inextricably to his versatility -- most viewers will remember such inimitable creations as Cotton Hill (on Mike Judge's King of the Hill); Artie -- The Strongest Man in the World (on The Adventures of Pete & Pete); and The Wiz ("Nobody beats me, cause I'm the Wiz!"), a nutty appliance salesman who dates Elaine, on Seinfeld -- but only the most incisive of viewers could tie them to the same person. Huss also portrayed Felix "Stumpy" Dreifuss on the HBO period drama Carnivàle (2003-2005) and Big Mike on the irreverent Comedy Central series Reno 911! (2003-2007). In addition to his television work, Huss has graced nearly 40 feature films with his presence, and nearly all are laugh-fests that take full advantage of the actor's comic flair. These include: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Harold Ramis' Bedazzled (2000), and The Country Bears (2002). As Beavis and Bears demonstrate, Huss is particularly adept at voice work.

Trivia: Independent film star Aleksa Palladino began her career in a starring role, at the age of 15, in Lisa Krueger's debut feature Manny & Lo (1996). Palladino played Lo, the pregnant runaway sister of Manny (Scarlett Johansson). For the next couple of years, she continued getting starring roles in small indie films including Red Dirt, Wrestling With Alligators, and The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. Making a brief move to made-for-TV movies, she starred in the USA Network original movie The Huntress as a 19-year-old girl avenging her father's death. Eventually, she accepted a couple of supporting roles for two downbeat dramas in 2001, Todd Solondz's Storytelling and Tanya Wexler's Ball in the House. Over the coming years, Palladino would find particular success with the period series Boardwalk Empire.

Trivia: Made her off-Broadway debut in the Irish Repertory Theatre's 2006 production of The Hairy Ape; subsequently played the title role in the Alan Rickman-directed My Name Is Rachel Corrie. Made the jump to Broadway in 2007, portraying Clara in a Roundabout Theatre production of Pygmalion. Worked with Zach Braff on Night Life, an unaired 2008 drama pilot directed by the Scrubs star. Joined the cast of Scrubs the following year, taking over Braff's narration duties.

Trivia: Woefully underappreciated American actress Annette O'Toole combined intelligence, wit, and delicate, often teasing allure with a girl-next-door magnetism that served her impeccably, both during her ingenue years and well into adulthood. Born in 1953, the scarlet-haired Houston native followed the lead of her dance studio owner mother by practicing her footwork with stunning determination. Annette's family moved to the City of Angels before her 14th birthday, where she shifted gears from dancing to acting, enrolled in drama courses, and landed guest roles in such series as The Partridge Family and Hawaii Five-O. In 1974, O'Toole tackled her first major feature role -- that of sweet-hearted beauty pageant contestant Doria Houston (otherwise known as Miss Anaheim) in Michael Ritchie's legendary satire Smile (1975). She did stellar work opposite Robby Benson in the romantic comedy One on One (1977), which premiered to favorable critical reviews, but a similar effort with Gary Busey a few years later, called Foolin' Around (1980), failed to display like chemistry. For better or worse, O'Toole's big break arrived in 1982, when she was cast opposite Christopher Reeve as Lana Lang in Superman 3; the film, of course, clocked in as an enormous stinker, overbloated to the point of absurdity, with O'Toole providing its only saving grace. That film imparted bittersweet undercurrents to O'Toole's life; it brought her the greatest character identification of her career, to be certain, but (along with an ill-advised appearance in Paul Schrader's awful 1982 movie Cat People), may have contributed to keeping her offscreen for several years. She rebounded with force in Armyan Bernstein's outstanding sex comedy Cross My Heart, as one of two romantic leads opposite Martin Short. The late 1987 release displayed the wit, charisma, and intelligence of both of its stars (and incorporated a hilarious nod to Superman 3, suggesting that Bernstein and Gail Parent may have written the role specifically for O'Toole), but for some unascertainable reason, failed to connect with an audience. O'Toole then signed for roles in the Alan Rudolph comedy-mystery Love at Large (1989) and the horrific Stephen King telemovie It (1990), which found the actress, along with John Ritter, Richard Thomas, and others, squaring off against homicidal clown Pennywise (Tim Curry). Her next major feat came in the late '90s, when she played Lisa, the spunky ex-wife of the police detective title character (Don Johnson) on the series Nash Bridges (1996-2001). She then achieved recognition by playing a different Superman role than the one previously essayed -- that of Clark Kent's mother, Martha -- on the popular prime-time series Smallville (2001). At about the same time, O'Toole made headlines by marrying her second husband, comedian and actor Michael McKean (Laverne & Shirley, This Is Spinal Tap), in 1999. The two co-authored a song for the Christopher Guest mockumentary A Mighty Wind (2003), entitled "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," in which McKean co-starred sans O'Toole. In a particularly memorable bit, the couple performed that number together on-stage at the 2004 Academy Awards ceremony.

Trivia: Long-time character actor James Cromwell has spent much of his career on stage and television, only occasionally appearing in feature films until the early '90s, when his film work began to flourish. The tall, spare actor first became known to an international audience with his role as the taciturn but kindly Farmer Hoggett, the owner of a piglet that wants to be a sheepdog, in the smash hit Babe (1995). His work in the film earned Cromwell an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as well as numerous opportunities for steady work in Hollywood.The son of noted director John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson, he originally aspired to become a mechanical engineer, attending both Vermont's Middlebury College and the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). But after a summer spent on a movie set with his father, the acting bug bit, and Cromwell decided to become an actor. He started out in regional theater, acting and directing in a variety productions for ten years, and he was a regular performer at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Cromwell made his television debut in the recurring role of "Stretch" Cunningham on All in the Family in 1974, and he subsequently spent the rest of the decade and much of the 1980s on television, as a regular on such shows as Hot L Baltimore and The Last Precinct. Cromwell also appeared in such miniseries as NBC's Once an Eagle and in such made-for-television movies as A Christmas Without Snow (1980). Cromwell made his feature film debut in the comedy Murder By Death (1976). His film work was largely undistinguished until Babe; following the film's success, he began appearing in more substantial roles in a number of popular films, including The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996), in which he played Charles Keating; Star Trek: First Contact (1996), which cast him as the reluctant scientist responsible for Earth's first contact with alien life forms; and L.A. Confidential (1997), in which he gave a marvelously loathsome performance as a crooked police captain. Adept at playing nice guys and bottom-dwelling scum alike, Cromwell next earned strong notices for his portrayal of a penitentiary warden in The Green Mile (1999).The respected character actor continued strongly into the next decade with appearances in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys as well as the live-on-TV production of Fail Safe in 2000. He enjoyed a recurring role on E.R. in 2001. He played the president in the 2002 Jack Ryan movie The Sum of All Fears. In 2003 he took on a recurring role in the respected HBO drama Six Feet Under, and also appeared in the award-winning HBO adaptation of Angels in America. In 2006 he acted opposite Helen Mirren playing Prince Philip in The Queen, and played another head of state for Oliver Stone when he portrayed George Herbert Walker Bush in the biopic W. In 2011 he was the loyal butler to the main character in the Best Picture Oscar winner for that year, The Artist.