Trivia: Handsome actor Ryan Reynolds may be best known to television viewers for his role in the popular Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, though if it weren't for his close friend Chris Martin, Reynolds' star may have not risen quite as smoothly as it did. Born in 1976, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to a food wholesaler father and a retail store saleswoman, Reynolds harbored an affection for acting from his early youth, and was undeterred after failing a drama class at the age of twelve. Making his television debut two years later on the Nickelodeon show Fifteen, the aspiring youngster crossed the border and relocated to Florida for the taping of the show, moving back to Vancouver soon after production ceased in 1991. Turning up in numerous television series such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch and made-for-TV movies in the following years, Reynolds soon grew despondent that his career was not moving along as smoothly as he wished. Recognizing his friend's frustrations, fellow actor Martin suggested that the two pick up and head for the Hollywood hills. Crashing in a cheap hotel and having his jeep stripped and rolled down a hill did little to raise Reynolds' spirits, though the determined actor carried on, landing his role on Two Guys in 1997. The only actor to read for the role of Berg, Reynolds won the favor of the producers and was soon on his way to success in the States. Following with roles in the teen horror comedy Boltneck (1998) and later Dick (1999) and Finder's Fee (2000), Reynolds soon began assuming his position among the hot young actors of the early millennium, taking the lead in 2001 for Van Wilder.Prominent roles in more high-profile films followed, including the part of Hannibal King in 2004's Blade Trinity, and the lead role of George Lutz in the 2005 remake of the classic horror movie The Amityville Horror. He soon followed this up with starring roles in two comedies: 2005's Waiting and Just Friends. With his career on a meteoric path upward, he continued to branch, snagging starring roles in films like the supernatural thriller The Nines, and the romantic comedy Definitely Maybe, eventually signing on to play the character of Deadpool in the next installment in the X-Men franchise X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as well as starring alongside Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy The Proposal. Officially having made the transition into Leading Man Actor, Reynolds took a few unexpected roles in smaller films, playing supporting characters in 2009's Adventureland and making a quirky comedic turn in 2010's Paper Man. By 2011, however, Reynolds was ready to get back in the game, taking the lead in the super hero movie Green Lantern. The next year he appeared alongside Denzel Washington in the action thriller Safe House. He made cameo appearances in two Seth MacFarlane films, Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West, and voiced a character in the animated film The Croods.

Trivia: As one of the stars of the 1999 summer smash American Pie, Tara Reid experienced an almost meteoric ascent into overnight celebrity. Possessing the kind of buxom blond good looks that ensure future employment and Internet shrines, Reid was best-known for her role as The Big Lebowski's trophy wife, Bunny Lebowski, before being cast in Pie. A native of Wyckoff, New Jersey, where she was born on November 8, 1975, Reid broke into acting at the age of six, when she was a contestant on the CBS children's game show, Child's Play. She went on to study at New York's Professional Children's School, where her classmates included Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jerry O'Connell, and Macaulay Culkin. After appearing in commercials for such products as Jell-O and Crayola, Reid landed a role on the sitcom Saved by the Bell: the New Class in 1994 and then had a recurring role on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives the following year. She got her first substantial film roles in 1998, appearing in the Ed Wood-scripted I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, The Big Lebowski, the independent film Around the Fire, and Urban Legend, the latest in a long line of teen slasher flicks. Reid won some amount of recognition for the last film, which featured a Who's-Who line-up of post-pubescent stars and cast her as a campus radio talk show host. The following year, Reid earned a form of screen immortality with her role as the girlfriend of one of four high school guys who make a pact to lose their virginity in American Pie. She also appeared in more low-profile roles in the independent film Girl and in Cruel Intentions, which featured her as one of Ryan Phillippe's more unfortunate conquests. Later that year, she had a starring role in Body Shots, playing one of a group of twenty-something friends on the prowl for love and/or sex in Los Angeles.Edging ever closer to leading woman status, Reid's star continued to rise as the vibrant young actress took on roles in such high profile efforts as Dr. T and the Women (2000), Josie and the Pussycats (2001) and, of course, American Pie 2 (also 2001). After taming the savage party animal in the lowbrow comedy Van Wilder, Reid gave screen heartthrob Ashton Kutcher the runaround in the romantic comedy My Boss's Daughter. Sadly, Reid's star dwindled throughout the 2000s with a series of critical and commerical flops that failed in comparison to her highly publicized personal troubles. Reid was able to find some success when she rejoined the original cast of American Pie for American Reunion in 2012.

Trivia: As a child actor, Tim Matheson was billed under his fuller family name of Matthieson. His first weekly TV co-starring assignment was opposite Robert Young in the 1961 "dramedy" Window on Main Street. The young actor's voice became familiar to a generation of cartoon fans via his "role" as the title character in Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest. The handsome Matheson appeared on-screen during his maturation years on such western series as The Virginian, Bonanza, and The Quest. He remained busy in films during this period, scoring his biggest 1970s success as party animal Otter in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). Matheson also kept his hand in the voiceover business, providing the truculent mutterings of "Blood" the dog in Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog (1975) and recording the narration for the 1985 revival of Disney's Fantasia. His adult TV appearances have included weekly stints on the TV series Tucker's Witch (1982), Just in Time, (1988) and Charlie Hoover (1991). Turning to directing in 1985, Matheson has been active in episodic television, music videos and direct-to-cassette movies. In 1989, he became CEO of the National Lampoon Company, though he still manages to find time for the occasional acting assignment, appearing in everything from the theatrical feature Drop Dead Fred to the live-action prologue for one of the "thrill rides" at Disneyworld.

Trivia: Kal Penn qualifies as one of the very few Indian-American actors of Gujarati heritage working in Hollywood. He was born Kalpen Suresh Modi on April 23, 1977, in Montclair, NJ, to an engineer father and a mother employed as a fragrance sampler for a perfume manufacturer. Modi bravely and intelligently cut against the grain of social expectations as a child, rejecting the prompting of his peers to join the soccer team, and instead joining the school drama team. Though allegedly mocked by classmates for his decision, Penn changed everyone's mind with his performance in a school production of The Wiz, and received a standing ovation for his work in that production -- no mean accomplishment for a beginner. During elementary school and junior high, Modi felt struck, again and again, by the crass Indian stereotypes perpetuated in Hollywood films, specifically in movies such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and 1986's Short Circuit, in which Caucasian actor Fisher Stevens plays the Indian-American Ben Jabituya for comic relief. Quietly vowing to work against this trend, Modi actually spent years attaining the box-office clout to make it happen. After his secondary school education (first at New Jersey's Howell High, then at Freehold Township High), Modi trained intensely as a dramatist on the Manhattan theatrical circuit, then attended UCLA as a drama major in the mid-'90s, and simultaneously started to land television parts right and left, in such series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and Spin City. At about that time, he took the advice of friends and family, and -- though initially reluctant to do so -- anglicized his name, changing it to Kal Penn. As a result, he later reported, job offers escalated by 50 percent.Penn made his feature debut coming in the 1999 culture-clash drama Freshmen. A supporting role in the independent romantic comedy American Desi (2001) quickly followed -- ironically, an exploration of race and identity, about an Indian-American boy, Krishna (Deep Katdare), who moves away from home and changes his name to Kris to disguise his ethnicity, but finds himself saddled with several roommates of like heritage. Penn plays Ajay, an Indian student who has immersed himself in black ("Afrocentric") behavior. The film received extremely limited U.S. theatrical bookings in the spring of 2001 and fair reviews from the critics who saw it. Penn then jointed the cast of the Animal House-cloned gross-out farce National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), about a seventh-year senior (Ryan Reynolds) threatened by his father's (Tim Matheson) decision to cut off his seemingly unlimited allowance. Widely drubbed as unfunny, the picture did embarrassing box office and opened and closed in one month, but its A-list issue nonetheless gave Penn (who plays Van's Indian friend, Taj Mahal Badalandabad) with his highest-profile exposure to date. Penn's onscreen activity escalated meteorically from 2003 through 2006, with the young actor averaging around seven or eight first-run features per year, and ascending to higher and higher credit billings. Most notably, he co-starred as Kumar (alongside fellow Gen-Xer John Cho) in 2004's stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, a surprise sleeper hit (and recipient of many enthusiastic notices) about two buddies, an Asian-American banker and an Indian-American medical student, whose unstoppable quest to find some White Castle hamburgers gives way to an epic road trip. Penn also delivered a brief supporting turn as Stanford, a henchman of Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) in 2006's Superman Returns. Meanwhile, Penn made an indelible impression on the small screen as well, as Harrison in the 2004 NBC 9/11 NBC drama Homeland Security. Penn was less effective in the ill-advised 2006 sequel National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, an installment that -- per its title -- finds Penn's Taj Mahal Badalandabad carrying Van's off-the-wall hijinks to Camden University in England. Penn subsequently signed on for an additional sequel, 2007's Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which finds the boys of the title mistaken for terrorists when they attempt to slip a bong aboard a flight to Amsterdam. That same year, Penn would headline Epic Movie, a massively scaled attempt to "send up" the Hollywood fantasy epic, Airplane! style,and join the cast of Fox's hit series thriller 24, during its sixth season. A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas followed in 2011, with concurrent roles in television's How I Met Your Mother and House guaranteeing continued small screen exposure between big screen outings.

Trivia: Best remembered as the Real World housemate with the laid-back attitude, Teck Holmes became known to American TV audiences during his stint on the MTV reality series The Real World: Hawaii. Holmes would later parlay his notoriety into an acting career, making appearances in movies like Van Wilder and First Daughter.

Trivia: Connecticut native Daniel Cosgrove showed a propensity for soap operas when he began his acting career in 1996, with a prominent role on the long-running soap All My Children. Being cast in the series meant relocating to New York, but two years later he made an even bigger move when he headed to L.A. for a part in another drama, this time a night-time soap: Beverly Hills 90210. He stayed with the show for two years before moving on to pursue a variety of film roles, including the villainous Richard Bagg in National Lampoon's Van Wilder, but soon Cosgrove went back to his roots with a role on another popular daytime soap, Guiding Light. He played Harlan Billy Lewis III on the series from 2002 to 2007, when he left the show for the ABC prime-time drama Dirty Sexy Money, playing the recurring role of Freddy Mason, pro-golfer and financé of divorcée Karen Darling (Natalie Zea).

Trivia: The millions of Gen-X television devotees who attached themselves to The Cosby Show will have no difficulty recalling actor Deon Richmond -- he was Kenny, the frank and hip friend of the youngest Huxtable charge, Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam), though she and the other characters in the clan insisted on referring to him as Bud. Richmond joined the series in 1986, two years into its eight-year run, and remained with it until it wrapped in 1992. Richmond subsequently took several years off to concentrate on his education, until the early 2000s, when he appeared predominantly in teen-oriented films -- both sex comedies (Not Another Teen Movie [2001], National Lampoon's Van Wilder [2002]) and slasher pictures (Scream 3 [2000], Hatchet [2006]). In Hatchet, Richmond received his highest billing to date, playing one of two happy-go-lucky Mardi Gras partiers who take a haunted swamp tour and wind up playing cat-and-mouse with a deformed, homicidal maniac.

Trivia: Great-great-grandfather Levi P. Morton was vice president of the U.S. under President Benjamin Harrison and was governor of New York; he also drove the ceremonial first rivet into the Statue of Liberty and was the first American to climb it. Great grandfather Frank L. Polk was acting secretary of state under President Woodrow Wilson. Drawn to acting as a child after watching her dad perform in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Screen debut was in the 1999 short film Loves Me Loves Me Not. Films include National Lampoon's Van Wilder and Elizabethtown. Volunteers for Reading Is Fundamental. Enjoys sailing and cooking.

Trivia: Wiry character actor Paul Gleason attended Florida State University before making his first off-Broadway appearance in a 1973 revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Gleason's inaugural movie role was Long Tom in Doc Savage (1975), after which he worked extensively in Roger Corman productions. He is best known for his scowling, obstreperous portrayals of minor authority figures: the principal in The Breakfast Club (1985), the police chief in Die Hard (1988), and so on. He was at his most abrasive--and his funniest--as FBI agent Clarence Beeks in Trading Places (1982). A familiar TV presence since his days as David Thornton on the ABC serial All My Children, Paul Gleason has had recurring roles on such nighttimers as Spooner, Supercarrier and One West Waikiki. Throughout the '90s Gleason continued to work steadily as a character actor appearing in films as diverse as National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, Running Cool, Maniac Cop 3, and Nothing to Lose. Like his Breakfast Club co-star Molly Ringwald, Gleason willingly spoofed his most iconic performance in the 2001 comedy Not Another Teen Movie. In May of 2006, at the age of 67, Gleason perished from mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer often suffered by people exposed to asbestos.

Trivia: American character actor Curtis Armstrong is best known in films for playing Dudley "Booger" Dawson in the Revenge of the Nerds series of feature films and TV movies. On television he is best remembered for playing Herbert Viola in the ABC series Moonlighting (1985-1989). When he was just starting out, Armstrong founded his own theater company in Michigan. He continued working in theater until 1983 when he made his film debut playing opposite Tom Cruise in Risky Business. He appeared in Revenge of the Nerds the following year. In addition to playing Booger, Armstrong appeared in other features, including The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) and The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993). He would remain extremely active for decades to come, appearing in movies like Southland Tales and Beer for My Horses, and on shows like Boston Legal, The Closer, and Dan Vs.

Trivia: Though initially typecast in comedic roles -- including a small turn in Old School (2003), a contribution to Tracey Ullman in The Trailer Tales (2003), and work on MADtv -- American character actor Simon Helberg quickly branched out into diverse genres. He appeared as a CBS page in George Clooney's revered Edward R. Murrow biopic Good Night, and Good Luck., as a junior agent in Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration (2006), and in a recurring role on the Aaron Sorkin comedy drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In 2007, Helberg was cast in the regular role of Howard Wolowitz on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, about a couple of nerdy physicists (Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons) who struggle with women, and everything else outside the lab. In 2007, Helberg also made appearances in the comedies Mama's Boy and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. He played a young rabbi in the Coen brothers film A Serious Man (2009), and continued to make guest appearances on TV shows such as Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil and Drunk History, while maintaining his regular status on The Big Bang Theory.

Trivia: Many know actor Aaron Paul for his role as Jesse Pinkman on the series Breaking Bad. The Idaho native began his career in the early 2000s, with a long list of appearances on shows like Suddenly Susan, The X-Files, CSI: Miami, Judging Amy, Criminal Minds, and Veronica Mars. In 2008, he took on a steady gig, joining the cast of Breaking Bad as a small-time drug dealer who joins up with Bryan Cranston to form the world's most unlikely meth manufacturing team. The following year he also began making recurring appearances on the HBO series Big Love, as well as taking on feature film work with roles in Last House on the Left and Wreckage. In 2009, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Breaking Bad in the acclaimed drama's second season, and the next year he would the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a drama series.

Trivia: Coached by Jerry DeGregorio in high school (in Connecticut), college (at Rhode Island) and the NBA (with the Clippers). Named Parade magazine's 1997 National Prep Player of the Year. Sank a buzzer-beating three-pointer to beat Temple for the 1999 Atlantic 10 tournament title. Odom played one season at Rhode Island after a controversial recruitment at UNLV. Joined the L.A. Lakers from the Miami Heat as part of the 2004 Shaquille O'Neal trade. Won two NBA championships (2009, 2010) with the Lakers, who traded Odom to Dallas in December 2011. Won an Olympic bronze medal with the U.S. in 2004. Established Cathy's Kids Foundation (named for his mother) in 2004, benefiting underprivileged children. Founded Rich Soil record label and clothing line. Appeared in the film Van Wilder and on episodes of Arli$$ and Entourage before venturing into reality TV with Khloe Kardashian on Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Khloe & Lamar.

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

Trivia: Thomas Howard was a special effects photographer for Alexander Korda's production studio and worked on many British films, most notably Quo Vadis (1951). Before coming to film, Howard worked as a theater projectionist. He earned Oscars for two of his films, Blithe Spirit and Tom Thumb.

Trivia: Like a lot of girls born into the upper-middle-class suburb of Pasadena, CA, Sophia Bush caught a whiff of the Hollywood air just down the road and took an interest in acting at an early age. After getting her feet wet in school plays at the Westridge School for Girls, she graduated in 2000 and enrolled at the University of Southern California, where she majored in journalism and minored in theater. It was that minor interest that proved to be her greatest passion, however, and in 2002, at the age of 20, she scored her first movie gig with a small role in National Lampoon's Van Wilder.Another onscreen role would follow in 2003, and a much more substantial one. Bush was cast as sassy cheerleader Brooke Davis in the WB series One Tree Hill. She left school to work full-time on the series, which paid off when One Tree Hill proved to be a huge hit. In addition to the professional success that the show brought her, the program also featured Bush's onscreen romance with co-star Chad Michael Murray -- which soon turned into a real-life love affair. The two were wed in 2005, but unfortunately, the union was not to last. After just five months, the two separated and eventually divorced, though they remained co-stars on the series. Bush took the personal hit in stride, continuing to act in additional projects such as Supercross: The Movie and the popular 2006 comedy John Tucker Must Die. Bush also proved to have a knack for tense and scary subject matter, from a recurring part on the series Nip/Tuck to a starring role in the 2006 horror flick Stay Alive. In 2007, she appeared in an even bigger horror movie as the female lead in a remake of The Hitcher, starring opposite veteran actor Sean Bean. While building up her impressive acting resumé, Bush still didn't lose the interest in journalism that she pursued in college, working as an assignment editor for Annenberg TV News when she wasn't on-set.Bush returned to TV in the short-lived sitcom Partners before playing the recurring role of detective Erin Lindsay on Chicago Fire. Her character was part of the planned 2014 spin-off, Chicago P.D.

Trivia: Short, pleasantly plump, and endowed with an endearingly resonant voice, American actress Edie McClurg is still best remembered as the perky school secretary in Ferris Beuler's Day Off. McClurg has been a favorite supporting performer since her 1976 film debut in Carrie, and much of her TV work has been as a comedy sketch performer, notably on Tony Orlando and Dawn (1976), The David Letterman Show (a 1980 daytimer), The Big Show (1980) and No Soap, Radio (1982). Ms. McClurg has also played many a nosy neighbor/in-law/secretary on such TV sitcoms as Harper Valley PTA (1982), Small Wonder (1985) and The Hogan Family (1988). McClurg received larger roles in the TV series The Kallikaks (1977), in which she was the wife of series star David Huddleston. In the years to come, McClurg would continue to keep up a prolific career, most memorably staring on the series Life with Louie and 7th Heaven, as well as in movies like Flubber, Van Wilder, and Fired Up!.

Trivia: America's most recognizable pop psychologist, columnist, author, lecturer, business consultant, and radio personality, Dr. Joyce Brothers has created a fun side-career making cameo appearances in feature films and television shows. Brothers first appeared on television in 1955 on The $64,000 Question, becoming only the second person to win the game show. She used her new celebrity to launch a career, first appearing in guest spots as a commentator before getting her own show, The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show. In addition to hosting her own show, she continued to appear as a guest on both talk shows and game shows, and often appeared on sitcoms as herself, maintaining a presence onscreen for more than five decades. Brothers died in 2013 at the age of 85.