Trivia: With her memorably statuesque figure and alluring countenance, African-American model-turned-actress Tracee Ellis Ross (the daughter of chanteuse Diana Ross and Robert Ellis Silberstein) plunged headfirst into print and fashion work with such enthusiasm and vigor that she became a frequent presence on the covers of such magazines as Essence, Jet, and Vibe Vixen, posing for such legends as Herb Ritts and Francesco Scavullo. Within this arena, Ross commandeered attention to rival any of her runway contemporaries. Ross segued into acting in the mid- to late '90s, with contributions such efforts as the low-key, ensemble-oriented psychological drama Far Harbor (1996, her cinematic debut) and Jim Yukich's romantic comedy A Fare to Remember (1999), and hosted the Lifetime talk program The Dish, before making her biggest splash as thirtysomething attorney-turned-restaurant proprietor Joan Clayton on the blockbuster UPN sitcom Girlfriends -- which enjoyed a lengthy run, maintained exemplary ratings, and netted more than a few industry awards for Ross. In 2007, the actress teamed up with writer/director Tyler Perry and actress Gabrielle Union for the big-screen romantic comedy Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls. A recurring role on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation followed in 2011, and that same year Ross starred opposite Cosby Show alumni Malcolm-Jamal Warner in the BET sitcom Reed Between the Lines, which followed a psychiatrist and a professor as they struggled to balance their careers with their roles as parents to three multi-racial children.

Trivia: The lithe and alluring African-American actress Golden Brooks began life in San Francisco in late 1970, and grew up in both the Bay Area and the City of Angels. As a young woman, she attended the University of California at Berkeley as a sociology major, later earning her master's degree from Sarah Lawrence College. Brooks first broke into films in the mid-'90s, with a small role in Spike Lee's phone sex-themed comedy drama Girl 6 (1996); the 2000 series Girlfriends, however, brought Brooks her first recognition in the American press. This rabidly popular sitcom -- which reeled in critical kudos and maintained a broad fan base -- constituted the pet project of Frasier star Kelsey Grammer and producer Mara Brock Akil. It told of four African-American female friends in the Los Angeles -- all white-collar women -- struggling to balance personal and professional demands. Brooks played an assistant at a legal firm and the only woman in the ensemble with a happy marriage and a growing family. After scattered roles in acclaimed features through the first several years of the new millennium, Brooks made the pivotal decision to join the cast of the Queen Latifah-starrer Beauty Shop, about the colorful proprietors and denizens of an Atlanta-based hair salon. The following year, she also starred in Sanaa Hamri's acclaimed dramedy Something New.

Trivia: Texas-born African-American actress and print model Jill Marie Jones (not to be confused with the musician/singer/songwriter Jill Jones, of Prince fame) first landed in the national spotlight for her regular role on the prime-time comedy drama Girlfriends, as Toni Childs, a slightly narcissistic and vociferous mother. Jones also starred in the 2007 black comedy Redrum, as a young woman who learns that she can pep up her flaccid marriage by committing cold-blooded murder. In terms of modeling, Jones maintained her highest profile gracing billboards and print ads for the Bailey's Irish Cream "Serve Chilled" campaign.

Trivia: While he's never achieved the mass-market pop-culture visibility of Dr. Dre or Puff Daddy, in the 1990s Master P quietly became the biggest underground mogul in hip-hop, winning a fervently loyal fan base and building a multimillion-dollar empire (in 1999, Fortune Magazine estimated his worth at 361 million dollars) based on a string of platinum-selling albums dealing with the gritty realities of street life in the Dirty South.Master P was born Percy Miller in New Orleans, LA, on April 29, 1970. Miller and his four siblings were raised in a housing project in one of the city's most crime-ridden neighborhoods, and after his parents divorced, Miller shuttled back and forth between New Orleans (where he attended high school and lived with his father) and Richmond, CA (where he spent summers with his mother). While Miller was tempted by the lure of the street hustling that was a part of life in inner-city New Orleans, he developed an entrepreneurial streak early on, as well as well as a passion for sports. Miller used his skills as a basketball player to earn a college scholarship to the University of Houston, where he studied business; in time, Miller left Houston and moved back to California, where he continued his studies at Merritt Junior College in Oakland. In the late 1980s, Miller inherited $10,000 from his grandfather, and used the money to start a record store in Oakland, No Limit Records. Running the store allowed Miller to closely monitor what was selling in the growing hip-hop market, and in 1991 he cut his first album, Get Away Clean, under the name Master P for the tiny In A Minute label. While the first two Master P albums sold negligibly at first, he was quickly learning the rudiments of both the record business and the hardcore rap market, and in 1994, Miller observed that while major labels were shunning hard-edged "gangsta rap" in a desire to avoid controversy, there was still a large and loyal market for street-level hip hop. That year, Master P dropped his third album, the more accomplished The Ghetto's Tryin' to Kill Me!, on his own No Limit Records label. Initially selling the album out of the trunk of his car, Master P avoided mainstream media outlets and instead promoted the album to independent record stores through word of mouth; The Ghetto's Tryin' to Kill Me! and its follow-up EP, 99 Ways to Die, together sold an impressive 250,000 copies without the benefit of national distribution. No Limit Records then signed a distribution deal with Priority Records, and in 1996, Master P's The Ice Cream Man debuted at number three on Billboard's R&B charts, despite receiving practically no mainstream radio or video play. Master P quickly expanded his label, first by releasing the top-selling hip-hop compilation West Coast Bad Boyz, and then by signing his brothers to No Limit, who recorded rough-and-tumble gangsta rap not unlike Master P's, under the names C-Murder and Silkk the Shocker. The three Millers also recorded together under the blanket name TRU, while rappers Mystikal and Mia-X also recorded platinum-plus releases for No Limit.After No Limit's almost identical sounding releases became mainstays on the hip-hop and R&B charts in the mid-'90s, Master P next set his sights on expanding into filmmaking. In 1997, he wrote a screenplay about New Orleans street life called I'm Bout It, but was unable to interest a studio in the project. Undaunted, Master P financed the project himself, serving as producer, director, and star. When Master P was unable to find a distributor for the feature, he released it himself on home video through No Limit; while reviews were less than enthusiastic, I'm Bout It shocked industry experts by topping the Billboard home video charts, selling over 300,000 copies in its first month of release. Master P's next film, 1998's I Got the Hook-Up (which he wrote, produced, and starred in, but did not direct) attracted the attention of several studios, and received a theatrical release through the Miramax-owned Dimension Films, earning a respectable $10 million gross on a $3.5 million budget. Master P and No Limit next began to take a two-tiered approach to film production, making lower-budgeted direct-to-video films tied into albums by No Limit artists, such as MP Da Last Don and Da Game of Life (the latter starring Snoop Dogg), while spending larger sums on more elaborate projects with at least a token theatrical release in mind, such as the action opus No Tomorrow and the comedy Foolish. Master P also began appearing in other people's screen projects, appearing on the HBO series Oz, playing the recurring role of "Patience" on the sitcom Moesha, and appearing in a supporting role in the film Gone in 60 Seconds. When not busy with his other projects, Master P remains a passionate sports fan, launching an athlete's management firm and playing professional basketball with the Continental Basketball Association's Fort Wayne Fury and the NBA's Toronto Raptors. He also markets and designs men's clothing.