Trivia: Raven-haired Julianna Margulies may have become an award-winning TV star on NBC's phenomenally successful ER in the 1990s, but she was ready to exit the series to pursue movies and theater full time by decade's end. Born in Spring Valley, NY, Margulies spent part of her childhood living abroad before settling back in her hometown for a bohemian life with her free-spirit mother. Though she earned a B.A. in art history from Sarah Lawrence College, Margulies performed in college plays and decided to pursue an acting career. Margulies landed her first movie role in 1991, playing a prostitute in the Steven Seagal flick Out for Justice. With no more movie roles forthcoming, Margulies made a living with theater work and TV guest star stints on Law and Order and Homicide in the early '90s. Margulies subsequently landed a role in the pilot for Michael Crichton's new hospital drama ER in 1994, but her character was slated for death after that single episode. Due to a positive audience response, however, Margulies' compassionate Nurse Hathaway survived the pilot. During her six seasons on the most popular TV drama of the 1990s, Margulies won the Emmy and the SAG Award and became a perennial nominee. Buoyed by her TV fame, Margulies returned to films during her hiatuses, starring as the would-be victim of Bill Paxton's Irish con in Traveler (1996), a POW alongside Glenn Close and Cate Blanchett in the ensemble drama Paradise Road (1997), and as Matthew McConaughey's girlfriend in Richard Linklater's Western-esque bank robber saga The Newton Boys (1998). Continuing to avoid glossy big budget Hollywood fare in favor of a more independent sensibility, Margulies also appeared in Boaz Yakin's A Price Above Rubies (1998) and Gurinder Chadha's multiethnic Thanksgiving tale What's Cooking? (2000). Margulies finally took on a blockbuster of sorts when she voiced one of the pre-historic reptiles in the animated Dinosaur (2000). Despite an offer that would have made her one of the highest paid actresses on TV, Margulies announced in 2000 that six years of ER was enough. While Hathaway departed to a future with George Clooney's Dr. Ross, Margulies moved back to New York to hit the off-Broadway stage with Donald Sutherland in Ten Unknowns (2001). Margulies returned to the small-screen for the female-centric version of the King Arthur legend The Mists of Avalon, before appearing in The Man from Elysian Fields, and opposite Pierce Brosnan in the drama Evelyn. After an appearance in the horror film Ghost Ship, Margulies would not appear in another widely released motion picture until she landed one of the main parts in the 2006 summer phenomenon known simply as Snakes on a Plane. Three years later, the veteran actress was back on the small screen as the lead in The Good Wife -- a popular CBS series about a former litigator who returns to work following a public scandal involving her state attorney husband. Though her performance in the series earned Margulies a Best Lead Actress Emmy in 2010, the award that year went to Kyra Sedgwick for The Closer instead. But fans of the actress had good reason to hold out hope that she'd be a strong contender the next year as well, and indeed when the 2001 Emmy winners were announced Margulies emerged the victor.

Trivia: A veteran of film and television, Chris Noth is probably best known for his work on Law and Order and HBO's Sex and the City, the latter of which featured him as the charming but terminally untrustworthy Mr. Big, erstwhile boyfriend/bad habit of the series' heroine, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker). Hailing from Madison, WI, where he was born November 13, 1954, Noth moved around a lot throughout his childhood, living in England, Yugoslavia, and Spain. Returning to the States, he studied with the storied acting coach Stanford Meisner before being accepted into the prestigious Yale School of Drama.Noth got his start on the stage and in television performing at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, CT, and appearing in productions with theater companies across the country, including the Manhattan Theater Club and Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum. Working in television beginning in 1982, he did a number of shows before breaking into film with small parts in Off Beat (1986) and the Diane Keaton comedy Baby Boom (1987). Noth's big break came in 1989, when he was chosen to play Det. Mike Logan on Law and Order. Noth portrayed the young policeman for five seasons, winning both critical nods and fans, many of whom were saddened when his Law and Order contract was not renewed in 1995. Noth continued to work on television and did minor work in films such as Naked in New York (1994) before getting his next big break in the form of Sex and the City (1998). As Big, he was one of the few male characters who could hold his own in the presence of the series' strong female protagonists, played by Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, and Kristin Davis. The show proved to be an enormous critical and commercial hit, in the process winning Noth more fans. He would reprise the role for subsuquent big screen adaptations of the show, in addition to other films like My One and Only and Lovelace. Noth would also enoy successful turns on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Good Wife, and Titanic: Blood and Steel.

Trivia: Designer label-clad force of nature, neurotic diva, and the owner of one of the most expansive mouths in the free world, Christine Baranski is one of the more distinctive actresses working on the stage and screen today. Known to television audiences for her portrayal of Cybill Shepard's brassy and unapologetically arrogant best friend on the sitcom Cybill, Baranski has also made a name for herself on the New York stage, where she has won a number of awards, and has worked as a character actress on a variety of films.Born in Buffalo, New York, on May 2, 1952, Baranski was influenced from a young age by her Polish grandparents, who were both actors. After studying acting at Julliard, she began working on the New York stage and on various TV shows, and made her film debut in 1982. The stage proved to be a particularly good medium for Baranski's talents; a staple of many New York productions, the actress earned Tony Awards and a number of other honors for her work in the Broadway productions of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and Neil Simon's Rumors. Usually cast as a supporting player onscreen, Baranski has done particularly notable work in Jeffrey (1995), in which she played a New York socialite; The Birdcage (1996), which featured her as the brassy mother of Robin Williams' grown son; and Cruel Intentions (1999), in which she did another hilarious turn as a New York socialite. In one of her rare excursions as a lead, Baranski gave a memorable performance as a struggling actress in Bowfinger (1999), sharing the screen with the likes of Steve Martin, Heather Graham, and Eddie Murphy.In 2002 Baranski appeared in the Best Picture Oscar winner Chicago, and she continued to work steadily on TV, in movies, and on stage appearing in projects as diverse as Eloise at the Plaza, Welcome to Mooseport, and the smash hit adaptation of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia! In 2009 she began work on the well-respected CBS drama series The Good Wife opposite Julianna Margulies.

Trivia: Endowed with the kind of dark, puppy-eyed, lanky looks that have often gotten him cast as sensitive, shy young men, actor Josh Charles first became known to audiences as sensitive, shy prep school boy Knox Overstreet in Dead Poets Society (1989). A native of Baltimore, where he was born September 15, 1971, Charles made his entrance into acting through stand-up comedy, which he began performing at the age of eight. He made his film debut in fellow-native son John Waters' Hairspray (1988), and following the success of Dead Poets Society the next year, earned a reputation as a member of the '90s version of the Brat Pack.Charles' subsequent film appearances were sporadic and in projects of wildly varying quality; ranking among his better-known work are Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), Threesome (1994), and the made-for-television Norma Jean and Marilyn (1996). In 1998, Charles was cast as one of the leads in the highly acclaimed TV show Sports Night, a sitcom revolving around the goings-on of a late night cable sports news program. Though Sports Night did indeed gain positive critical notice and a loyal fanbase for its smart writing and multi-dimensional characters, it was unfortunately cancelled before it really had a chance to fully develope. Hollywood did however take notice of Charles' talents as an actor, and the quality and substance of the roles he was being offered slowly began to rise. Following a pair of low-key roles in such indie dramas as Meeting Daddy (2000) and Our America (2002), Charles was cast in the high-profile action thriller S.W.A.T. Over the next several years, Charles would remain active on screen, appearing on TV series like In Treatment and The Good Wife and films like The Ex and Weakness.

Trivia: Grew up in Johnson City, TN. In 1998, he won the Mr. College of Charleston pageant. Captain of his college tennis team. Made his TV debut in a 2000 episode of Freaks and Geeks. Dated Kate Bosworth for two years. Appeared in People Magazine's 2011 Sexiest Man Alive issue. Says his last name is pronounced "Z-O-O-K-RIE."

Trivia: Raven-haired actress Archie Panjabi claimed a unique, exotic, and alluring look that spoke to her Indian ancestry -- and that opened up a myriad of doors in Hollywood productions, usually in a supporting capacity. Raised in Britain, Panjabi first broke through to international acclaim as tomboy Meenah in the Damien O'Donnell-directed Miramax comedy East Is East (1998), then graced the cast of one of the preeminent sleeper hits of 2002, the soccer comedy Bend It Like Beckham. Additional assignments included a small supporting turn in Fernando Meirelles' political thriller The Constant Gardener (2005), a portrayal of Gemma in the Russell Crowe/Marion Cotillard-headlined, Ridley Scott-directed romantic comedy drama A Good Year (2006), and a role in the grueling docudrama A Mighty Heart (2007) as Asra Nomani, a journalist and friend of the Pearl family, who helped in the investigation of his disappearance and murder. In 2006, Panjabi signed with the BBC to portray Maya Roy in the sci-fi-tinged police drama series Life on Mars. In 2008, she appeared opposite Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce in the summer thriller Traitor. She was cast in the CBS drama The Good Wife, in the part of Kalinda Sharma, and that well-reviewed award-winning show kept her busy for a few years.

Trivia: Made his stage debut in a production of Annie, when he was still in kindergarten. Has sung with the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Appeared on Broadway in the musicals 13 and A Christmas Carol. First major big-screen appearance was in the 2007 comedy Evan Almighty. Landed his first series-regular role in 2009, playing the son of Julianna Margulies' character on CBS drama The Good Wife.

Trivia: Is half Colombian. Made her big-screen debut in the Nicolas Cage dramedy The Family Man (2000), for which she won a Young Artist Award. Has landed series-regular roles on ABC sitcom the Geena Davis Show and CBS drama The Good Wife.

Trivia: Trained as an opera singer at Northwestern University. Performed with the Metropolitan and New York City Opera Companies. Appeared on Broadway in such shows as Nine, Sunday in the Park With George and The King and I, for which she received a Tony nomination. In 1971, originated the role of Alma in the stage production of Summer and Smoke, based on a Tennessee Williams play. A 1982 TV production of the work also featured her in the same role; the New York Times called her TV work "superb." Has appeared in the TV series Dawson's Creek and The Good Wife. In 2010, performed in the stage production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The following year, was in the stage cast of Follies. She took on that role while also filming her scenes for The Good Wife.

Trivia: Scottish, versatile, and for a long time underappreciated, Alan Cumming is chameleon-like in both his choice of roles and his ability to inhabit them convincingly. Born January 27, 1965, in Perthshire, Scotland, Cumming studied drama at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before embarking on a career that would have its roots on the stage. For years, Cumming worked steadily in the theater as a member of repertory companies, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1992 he had his film debut in the largely unheard of Prague, which was essentially a historical overview of the city. In 1994 American audiences were introduced to the sound of Cumming's voice thanks to his role as the narrator of Black Beauty, but it wasn't until 1995 (Cumming's other 1994 film, Second Best notwithstanding) that they actually saw him, this time via his small but memorable role as a Russian computer programmer in Goldeneye.Wider exposure followed, thanks to two successful films. The first, Circle of Friends (1995), featured Cumming as Minnie Driver's slimy, unwelcome suitor, and the second, 1996's Emma, saw Cumming playing yet another unwelcome suitor, this time to Gwyneth Paltrow. More sympathetic roles followed in For My Baby, Buddy, and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (in which he played a sweetly awkward nerd with a crush on Lisa Kudrow), all released in 1997. Work in Spice World came next in 1998, as did the stage role that was to give Cumming critical acclaim, a host of awards, and the wider respect he deserved. That role was Cabaret's Emcee, and Cumming managed to make the character -- previously the sole territory of Joel Grey -- all his own, giving a wickedly delicious performance that was unabashedly dark, sly, androgynous, and altogether terrifying. His performance won him all three New York theater awards: a Tony, a Drama Desk, and an Outer Critics Circle. This triumph resulted in a new range of opportunities for the actor, one of which was the chance to be a part of what was to be Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Although Cumming's role as a hotel desk clerk was a small one, the actor turned in a sly and insinuating performance that reflected his ability to make the most out of even the most limited opportunities.Cumming was subsequently given almost unlimited opportunities to showcase his flamboyance in Julie Taymor's Titus, her 1999 adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. In his role as the queen's (Jessica Lange) debauched lover, he gave a performance that was as over-the-top and rococo as the film itself, leading some critics to say his portrayal had a little too much in common with a Christmas ham.Fortunately, Cumming surprised critics and audiences alike when he directed, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Anniversary Party (2001), a marital comedy-drama that starred him and Leigh as a husband and wife whose anniversary party exposes the many flaws of their fragile marriage. Featuring a cast that included Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Gwyneth Paltrow, John C. Reilly, and Jennifer Beals, the film, which was shot on digital video, earned a fairly warm reception from critics, many of whom praised Cumming for his work both behind and in front of the camera.Cumming took the part of the bad guy in the first Spy Kids movie, a role he would repeat in the film's first two sequels. He also played the evil corporate manipulator in Josie and the Pussycats. He appeared in the musical remake of Reefer Madness in 2004, and that same year voiced a cat in the live action Garfield the movie. He worked steadily in a variety of projects including Gray Matters, Eloise: Eloise in Hollywood, and Dare, but found his biggest critical success on the small screen as part of the cast in the highly-respected CBS drama The Good Wife which began its run in 2009.

Trivia: Equipped with classical training as a stage actor, American thespian Dallas Roberts cut his chops on and off Broadway during the 1990s and early 2000s before transitioning to film -- a shift that represented a broad stylistic and technical leap for the dramatist. Born and raised in the Houston area, Roberts first attended a Lone Star community college with an unclear idea of how he wanted to spend his professional life. Had he never discovered Juilliard, his life might very well have forked off in another direction; instead, Roberts -- directed toward acting at the behest of a collegiate drama professor -- applied to the hallowed New York conservatory and gained acceptance. Involvement in numerous theatrical productions on the Great White Way ensued, such as the 2002 Burn This (with Edward Norton and Catherine Keener) and Adam Rapp's Nocturne, for which Roberts received a Drama Desk Award nomination.Though a couple of unremarkable independent films preceded it, the Michael Mayer-directed, Michael Cunningham-scripted 2004 picture A Home at the End of the World (an adaptation of Cunningham's beloved novel) marked Roberts' first noteworthy cinematic achievement. The picture also shot Roberts instantly to third billing -- not an unpromising start for a cinematic newcomer. It concerns the relationship triangle that develops between Jonathan (Roberts), a thirtysomething gay man desperate to act as a father to his roommate's baby; the eccentric roommate Clare (Robin Wright Penn); and Jonathan's lifelong, heterosexual best friend, Bobby (Colin Farrell), who move to a house together in rural, upstate New York. Roberts, who reportedly felt a bit thrown by the lack of advance character preparation and dramatic adjustment in film (compared to theater) nonetheless delivered a bravura performance; the film itself received mixed reviews.Over the next several years, Roberts would enjoy a sustained level of fame and respect as an actor, appearing memorably in movies like Walk the Line (2005) , 3:10 to Yuma, and on TV series like The Walking Dead, Rubicon, The Good Wife, and Unforgettable.

Trivia: Born Susan Williams Antonia Stockard Channing Schmidt on February 13, 1944, Channing is the daughter of a wealthy shipping executive, and became interested in the dramatic arts while attending college at Radcliffe. After graduating in the mid-sixties, Channing joined Boston's experimental Theater Company. Several unsuccessful Broadway auditions later, she landed a lead role in a Los Angeles production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. Eventually, Channing made it to Broadway, and won a Tony for her performance in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.In the early '70s, Channing appeared in several small television roles, and made her big screen debut in 1971's The Hospital. In 1973, the actress starred in the Joan Rivers-penned black comedy The Girl Most Likely To..., a TV movie about an overweight college girl who loses weight, gets cosmetic surgery, and sets off in hopes of getting even. Channing's first major film role came two years later, when she starred in Mike Nichols' The Fortune with Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. It wasn't until 1978, however, that Channing would win her most memorable role to date -- tough gal Rizzo in the retro-musical Grease. Interestingly enough, although she was cast as a teenager, the actress was in her early thirties when she was chosen for the film. Around the same time, Channing starred in two similar and short-lived sitcoms: Stockard Channing in Just Friends and The Stockard Channing Show. By 1980, Channing's film career was idling in neutral, so she focused her energies on the theater, though she began showing up in various supporting film roles in the mid to late eighties. In 1993, she was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for playing the formidable Upper East Side matron of Six Degrees of Separation; the role had also earned her a Tony nomination when she performed it in the film's stage version. Channing subsequently made steady appearances in both film and television, and co-starred as a witch in Practical Magic with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, as well as The First Wives Club, Moll Flanders, Edie & Pen, and An Unexpected Family. In 2000, Channing would play one of the more eccentric residents of a small Oklahoma town in Where the Heart Is. After filming Other Voices in 2001, which was screened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, Channing would receive a solid amount of critical success for her role in The Business of Strangers (2001), in which she starred as a high-level corporate player who saves her own job only to find out her boss is a rapist. In between filming a variety of television and documentary appearances - namely, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (2002), A Girl Thing (2001), Out of the Closet, Off the Screen: The William Haines Story (2001), and New York Firefighters: The Brotherhood of 9/11 (2002) -- Channing joined up with Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie in Stephen Herek's Life or Something Like It. In 2003, Channing made a cameo appearance in Bright Young Things, and went on to co-star in Le Divorce with Kate Hudson, Glenn Close, and Matthew Modine during the same year. The actress also signed on with the legendary Woody Allen in Anything Else, in which she played a middle-aged mother determined to land a role in a cabaret production. She would find particular success on the small screen over the coming years, with a starring role as first lady Abbey Bartlet on The West Wing.

Trivia: Husky American actor Bruce McGill made his film debut in Citizen's Band (1978), but it was his next film role, frat-brat "D Day" in National Lampoon's Animal House, that gained him a following. McGill repeated his D-Day characterization in the spin-off TV series Delta House (1979), then co-starred with David Hasselhoff in the 1980 weekly-TV version of the 1977 theatrical football comedy Semi-Tough. He went on to play a string of brusque authority types in films (Cliffhangers) and television (MacGiver, Live Shot). Fans of the fantasy series Quantum Leap (1989-93) may recall McGill's occasional guest shots, which ranged from mildly eccentric to truly weird. In 1987, Bruce McGill enjoyed one of his few feature-film leading roles in Waiting for the Moon. But it wasn't until the 1990s that casting directors really began to utilize McGill's unique range, and though he never won any awards, he shifted between film (A Perfect World, Timecop, The Insider) and television (Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager) with the skill of a seasoned pro. Any genre was fair game, and all were tackled with equal aplomb. At the dawn of the 2000s McGill seemed to shift his focus toward feature films, with roles in Ali, The Sum of All Fears, and Collateral helping to make him both a Michael Mann regular, and one of those welcomed faces that seems to turn up everywhere. Still TV just seemed to be in McGill's blood and after lending his voice to both Family Guy and The Cleveland Show he could be seen as a regular on the TNT detective series Rizzoli and Isles.

Trivia: After majoring in history at Columbia University, brawny Brian Dennehy (born July 9, 1938) took a string of odd jobs to pay his way through Yale Drama School, and to afford private acting lessons. His first professional break came with the Broadway production Streamers. In films and TV from 1977, Dennehy is a most versatile actor, at home playing Western baddies (Silverado), ulcerated big-city cops (F/X), serial killers (John Wayne Gacy in the made-for-TV To Catch a Killer), by-the-book military types (General Groves in Day One, another TV movie), and vacillating politicos (Presumed Innocent). One of his most rewarding film assignments was as dying architectural genius Stourley Kracklite in Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect (1987).In addition to his many TV-movie roles (one of which, good-old-boy Chuck Munson in 1993's Foreign Affairs, won him a Cable Ace Award), Dennehy has starred in the weekly series Big Shamus, Little Shamus (1977), Star of the Family (1981), and Birdland (1994), as well as the sporadically produced Jack Reed feature-length mysteries. It was in one of the last-mentioned projects, Jack Reed: A Search for Justice (1994), that Dennehy made his directorial debut. Aside from his work in film and television, Dennehy has also had considerable success on the stage, particularly with his Tony-winning portrayal of Willy Loman in the 1998 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman.The actor continued to show his range in the 1995 comedy Tommy Boy (starring David Spade and the late comedian Chris Farley), in which he became well known for his role as Big Tom Callahan, and for a voice role in Ratatouille (2007) as Django, the father of rat and aspiring chef Remy.Dennehy joined Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in Righteous Kill, a 2008 police drama, and worked alongisde Russell Crowe in the 2010 suspense film The Next Three Days. In 2011, Dennehy played the pivotal role of Clarence Darrow in Alleged, a romantic drama set during the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial.

Trivia: A versatile actress who has displayed a talent for both comedy and drama, Bebe Neuwirth is also a gifted dancer and vocalist who has won acclaim for her work on the musical stage, though she's still best known to television viewers as Lilith Sternin, Frazier Crane's tightly wound girlfriend (and later wife) on the popular comedy Cheers. Born Beatrice Neuwirth on New Year's Eve, 1958, she was raised in Princeton, NJ, where her father, Lee Neuwirth, was a mathematician and her mother, Sydney Anne Neuwirth, was an artist. Bebe began taking dance lessons at the age of five, and, while a student at Princeton High School, she began appearing in local ballet productions and community theater productions. After high school, Neuwirth studied dance at New York's prestigious Juilliard School, and in 1980 she made her professional debut as Shelia, a once-famous dancer looking to make a comeback, in a touring production of the long-running musical A Chorus Line. In 1982, Neuwirth hit Broadway in two different shows, Dancin', directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, and Little Me. In 1986, Neuwirth won the starring role in another Fosse musical, a revival of Sweet Charity, which later earned her a Tony award and cemented her reputation on Broadway. That year also marked Neuwirth's television debut (not counting a brief appearance as a member of the Whitney Dance Theater on the daytime drama The Edge of Night in 1981) with her first appearance as Lilith Sternin on Cheers; Lilith soon became a regular fixture on Cheers and Neuwirth won two Emmy awards for her work until Lilith was written out of the show (at Neuwirth's request) in 1992, to allow Neuwirth to pursue film and stage work. Lilith, however, occasionally made return visits to Cheers, and later on Kelsey Grammer's spin-off series, Frasier. Neuwirth made her feature-film debut in 1989 with a small role as a guidance counselor in Say Anything..., and while a steady stream of supporting roles followed in such films as Bugsy, Green Card, and Jumanji, she had a hard time finding screen roles which suited her edgy charm. She continued to have better luck on-stage, and in 1997 her performance in the Broadway revival of Chicago won her the Tony and Drama Desk awards. After scoring meatier roles in the films Summer of Sam and Liberty Heights, Neuwirth returned to episodic television in the well-reviewed but short-lived drama series Deadline, in which she worked alongside Oliver Platt, Lili Taylor, and Tom Conti. In 2002, Neuwirth finally scored a film role that truly suited her talents as Diane, a sexy fourtysomething woman who seduces her best friend's teenage son in the independent comedy Tadpole. She had a small part in the romantic comedy How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and in 2005 she landed a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2009 she played one of the teachers at a high school for the performing arts in the remake of Fame.

Trivia: An actor whom you've probably seen in more films than you realize, Zach Grenier possesses the rare ability to take the smallest of roles and transform them into memorable appearances that stick with audiences long after the credits have finished -- even if his frequently unsympathetic characters have often met an unpleasant demise. It was this ability and skill that found Grenier steadily building a career with appearances in such blockbusters as Cliffhanger (1993), Donnie Brasco (1997), Shaft (2000), and Swordfish (2001). Born in February 1954, Grenier's family lived a somewhat nomadic existence in his early years, moving 18 times before the worldly teen graduated from high school, where, in his junior year, the young man discovered his love of the stage while performing in a production of Shakespeare's Henry V. Continuing to hone his acting skills and frequently appearing on-stage following graduation, Grenier appeared in such other plays as Talk Radio and A Question of Mercy, and made his film debut in the 1987 drama The Kid Brother (aka Kenny). Soon appearing in such films as Working Girl and Talk Radio in 1988, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil the following year. The actor's parts may have been small, but his talent was growing and appearances memorable; his roles continued to expand throughout the '90s, and viewers saw the rising star in Twister and Maximum Risk (both 1996), among several other movies. A turn as Joseph Goebbels in that year's Mother Night gave him a chance to prove his dramatic skills in front of the camera, and a subsequent role in David Fincher's cult hit Fight Club (1999) found him holding his own well against the film's talented leads. Alternating between television and movies in subsequent work, Grenier starred in the little-seen thriller Chasing Sleep (2000) and joined the cast of the popular weekly suspense series 24 in 2001.

Trivia: British actor Marc Warren got a taste for performing while involved with the National Youth Theatre, though he didn't begin a professional career until he was 20, when he landed the starring role in a production of the musical Godspell in 1988. He subsequently began taking on work in odd areas of show business, providing voice-over work for TV commercials, and acting as a storyboard stand-in for Ewan McGregor for Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace. As the actor eventually started to land recurring roles on TV productions like The Vice, Band of Brothers, and Highlander: The Series, he slowly but surely became a recognizable face to all audiences. Warren found no shortage of memorable roles as he rounded out the first decade of the new millennium, playing casino operator Tony Crane on the acclaimed U.K. series Life on Mars, and starring as the Messiah in the series Messiah V: The Rapture.

Trivia: Actor Yul Vázquez fit the bill for Hispanic or generalized ethnic roles in Hollywood productions, but worked to some degree against the grain by seeking out some of the more atypical and offbeat assignments within this type. He debuted in the Arne Glimcher-directed period musical drama The Mambo Kings (1992) -- as a member of the 1950s band at the center of the story -- then followed it up with bit parts and supporting roles in big-screen productions including Fresh (1994), Nick of Time (1995), Bad Boys II (2003), and War of the Worlds (2005), as well as occasional guest appearances on such series programs as Seinfeld and Law & Order. In 2007, Vázquez joined the cast of Ridley Scott's period crime melodrama American Gangster, alongside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.