Trivia: As one of the most impressively talented members of the emerging New Hollywood of the early 21st century, Reese Witherspoon has proven that she can do far more than just pose winsomely for the camera. Born March 22, 1976, in Nashville, TN, Witherspoon was a child model and acted in television commercials from the age of seven. She had a part in the 1991 Lifetime cable movie Wildflower before making her 1991 film debut in the coming-of-age story The Man in the Moon (1991). The 14-year-old Witherspoon made an immediate impact on critics and audiences alike, netting widespread praise for her portrayal of a tomboy experiencing love for the first time.While still in high school, Witherspoon completed two more feature films, Jack the Bear (1993), starring Danny De Vito, and Disney's A Far Off Place (1993), which required the actress to spend several months living in the Kalahari Desert. Following a supporting role in the 1993 CBS miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove and a lead in the critically disembowelled S.F.W., Witherspoon temporarily set aside her career to study English literature at Stanford University. She then returned to film as the abused girlfriend of a psychotic Mark Wahlberg in the thriller Fear (1996). In the same year, she had to deal with yet another crazed male in Freeway, a satirical version of Little Red Riding Hood in which Witherspoon co-starred with Kiefer Sutherland, who took on the role of the aforementioned crazed male.Her career began to take off in 1998, with roles in two high-profile films. The first, Twilight, saw her sharing the screen with Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, and Paul Newman. The film received mixed reviews and lackluster box office, but Pleasantville, her other project that year, proved to be both a critical and financial hit. The actress won wide recognition for her leading role as Tobey Maguire's oversexed sister, and this recognition -- along with critical respect -- increased the following year with another leading role, in Alexander Payne's acclaimed satire Election. Starring opposite Matthew Broderick, Witherspoon won raves for her hilarious, high-strung portrayal of student-council presidential candidate Tracy Flick. The character stood in stark contrast to the one Witherspoon subsequently portrayed in Cruel Intentions, Roger Kumble's delightfully trashy all-teen update of Dangerous Liaisons. As the virginal Annette, Witherspoon was convincing as the object of Ryan Phillippe's reluctant affection, perhaps due in part to her real-life relationship with the actor, whom she married in June 1999.After turning up in an amusing minor role as serial killer Patrick Bateman's burnt-out yuppie girlfriend in American Psycho (2000), Witherspoon again pleased critics and audiences alike with her decidedly Clueless-esque role in 2001's Legally Blonde. Her star turn as a seemingly dimwitted sorority blonde-turned-Harvard law-school-prodigy unexpectedly shot the featherweight comedy to number one, despite such heavy summer contenders as Steven Spielberg's A.I. and the ominously cast heist thriller The Score. The 18-million-dollar film went on to gross nearly 100 million dollars, proving that Witherspoon had finally arrived as a box-office draw.Though she would test out her chops in the Oscar Wilde adaptation The Importance of Being Earnest, Witherspoon's proper follow-up to Legally Blonde came in the form of 2002's Sweet Home Alabama, a culture-clash romantic comedy as embraced by audiences as it was rejected by critics. As with Drew Barrymore before her, Witherspoon used her newfound standing among the Hollywood elite to start her own production company, Type A Films, as well as to up her asking price to the rarefied 15-million-dollar range for the sequel to Legally Blonde. Though Blonde 2 didn't perform quite as well as the first film, the power player/doting mother of two wasted no time in prepping other projects for the screen, taking the lead in 2004's elaborate costume drama Vanity Fair as Becky Sharp, a woman who strives to transcend class barriers in 19th century England. For all its lavish costumes and sets, Vanity Fair received mixed reviews, but Witherspoon's winning performance still garnered praise.The next year, she appeared in the heaven-can-wait romantic comedy Just Like Heaven with Mark Ruffalo, as well as James Mangold's biopic Walk the Line as June Carter Cash, wife of country music legend Johnny Cash. This role proved to be a pivotal one, earning Witherspoon both a Best Actress Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance, and cementing her as an actress whose abilities go far beyond her charm and pretty face.As with others before her, however, the Best Actress statue portended a breakup between her and her husband; in October, 2006, she and Phillippe began their divorce proceedings, shortly after his starring turn in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. Career-wise, however, she didn't miss a beat, continuing to appear in popular romantic comedies like Four Christmases and Just Like Heaven, before getting more serious for the 1930's period drama Water for Elephants in 2011. By the next year, Witherspoon was crossing genres, playing the femme fatale at the center of a love triangle between two deadly secret agents in the action comedy This Means War.She did strong work in a supporting role in Mud, and in 2014 she returned to the Oscar race, garnering a Best Actress nomination for her work in Wild, playing a recovering addict who takes a grueling hike through California and Oregon in order to purge herself of her problems.

Trivia: Received a Drama Desk nomination in 2004 for Intimate Apparel. Has been a guest star in episodes of numerous crime dramas, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami and the original Law & Order series. Cast in productions where numbers are titular, with roles in Numb3rs, The Nine and The Number 23. Worked for director Paul McGuigan in Lucky Number Slevin and Push. Appeared in a Broadway production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge with Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber. Landed a leading role on Law & Order: Los Angeles as Det. T.J. Jaruszalski in 2010.

Trivia: Taught and performed at Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Was a member of The Groundlings sketch comedy troupe. Her first onscreen gig was in Sweet Home Alabama in 2002, but her scenes were cut. Was a recurring guest-star on the NBC sitcom Go On before being upped to a series regular for the back half of the first season.

Trivia: Character actor Afemo Omilami built a career out of portraying gritty, urban types in Hollywood features, often with an aggressive edge, such as taxi drivers, longshoremen, barkeeps, drill sergeants, and angry spouses. Omilami debuted onscreen in the late '70s and evolved into an increasingly common screen presence as the years passed. The dozens of projects in which he appeared include the Tom Hanks-Shelley Long disaster comedy The Money Pit (1986), the Sydney Pollack-directed legal thriller The Firm (1993), Best Picture winner Forrest Gump (1994) (as a screaming drill sergeant), and the Ray Charles biopic Ray (2004). In 2007, Omilami joined the cast of director Deborah Kampmeier's rape-themed period drama Hounddog.

Trivia: First acting gig was in his senior year of high school in a production of Fiddler on the Roof, in which he was cast as the lead, Tevye. Studied sports medicine before changing his focus to acting. Won the Natalie Wood Acting Award at UCLA. Nearly left the acting profession when he was offered a lucrative job in financial services. Served as Georgia's representative on the National Board of the Screen Actors Guild from January 2002 to September 2004. Advocated for the merger of SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) prior to their 2012 merger as SAG-AFTRA. Has also served as the Atlanta Local First Vice-President of SAG-AFTRA. Has used acting principles and experience to launch a successful business as a career coach.

Trivia: Oklahoma native Thad Luckinbill's first big break came in 1999 when he was cast as J.T. Hellstrom on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. He would stay with the show for 10 years, also playing minor roles on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ghost Whisperer.

Trivia: Began singing in public at the age of 13 when she joined her church's choir. Was a cheerleader in high school. Made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985), in which she performed a solo rendition of "God Is Tryin' to Tell You Something." Entered college intending to become a doctor, majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry. Shortly after graduation, however, she decided to pursue a career in show business. Lived in Okinawa, Japan, from 1995 to 2001 with her then-husband, who was in the Marines. During their stay, she carved out a successful singing career in the area and appeared in two Japanese TV commercials. Performed at Atlanta's Sambuca Jazz Café every week from 2002 until it closed in December 2010. Volunteers with BookPALS, which promotes literacy to young children through storytelling activities.

Trivia: Native language is French; also speaks English and Spanish fluently. Moved 11 times before he was 15 years old; lived in 10 cities, 5 countries and 4 continents. Played American football and ice hockey in his teens; gave up sports when he was shot in the knee and couldn't walk for nearly two years. Began acting in his early twenties after taking a semester off from the University of Montreal where he studied international relations. In 2009, made his television debut in the drama Flashpoint. Founder, president and artistic director of Red Barlo Productions, a film and television production company. Voice and persona for Vaas Montenegro, a villain in Ubisoft's first-person shooter video game Far Cry 3; the role was specifically created for him after auditioning for another character.

Trivia: Thomas Dekker first appeared as a child actor in the mid-'90s, with a couple of television guest appearances, and then a small role in Star Trek Generations, playing Thomas Picard, the son of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in an alternate timeline. At the age of seven, he toke on a more elaborate part, playing one of the homicidal, otherworldly tykes in John Carpenter's sci-fi horror remake Village of the Damned (1995). After a couple of appearances that same year as Henry on Star Trek: Voyager, and assignments voicing anthropomorphic mouse Fievel in two direct-to-video American Tail sequels, Dekker played Nick, one of the Szalinski kids, on the TV series version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which ran for three seasons. He also portrayed the young pop star Donny Osmond in the 2001 telemovie Inside the Osmonds. In the ensuing years, Dekker continued to primarily work in television, in guest roles on such popular series as Boston Public and House. He also took on a recurring part in 2005 as Vincent on the long-running family drama 7th Heaven, but he didn't truly break through to major success until he was cast on the soon-to-be major hit show Heroes in 2006. Though Dekker only played the unlikely friend of indestructable cheerleader Claire Bennet, the exposure helped earn him one of his biggest roles yet, that of young hero-to-be John Connor on the heavily promoted sci-fi film-to-TV adaptation Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (premiering in 2008).Over the following years, Dekker would continue to act in movies like My Sister's Keeper and on shows like The Secret Circle.

Trivia: Like many of his Canadian contemporaries, actor Matt Craven broke into films by way of such adolescent sex comedies as Meatballs (1979) and Hog Wild (1980). Craven honed his acting skills on the off-Broadway stage, beginning with the 1984 production Blue Willows. He has since contributed supporting performances to films like Blue Steel (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), and Crimson Tide (1995). Matt Craven's TV-series roles include bartender Ritchie Massina in the Robby Benson starrer Tough Cookies (1986) and Bobby Kratz in the Alan Arkin vehicle Harry (1987). In 1998, Craven was part of an ensemble cast for the medical drama L.A. Doctors. In the 21st century he enjoyed a brief recurring role on the hit medical dram ER and appeared in moves such as Dragonfly and Timeline. He continued to work steadily on a wide variety of projects including The Life of David Gale, the TV series The Lyon's Den, the remake of Assault on Precinct 13, Disturbia, Public Enemies, and the superhero prequel X-Men: First Class.