Trivia: A stand-up comic whose rock & roll sensibility and unwavering loyalty to his fan base have propelled him to become one of the most popular comedians of his generation, Dane Cook hit it big on the comedy circuit before breaking into feature films with bit parts in such movies as Buddy and Mystery Men in the late '90s. Born in Cambridge, MA, and raised in Arlington, Cook was an introverted child whose shy exterior betrayed a hyperactive and intensely creative imagination. By the time Cook was able to find his voice as a comic he was also able to recognize that his unique approach was an ideal blend of his mother's manic energy and his father's sarcastic swagger, and in 1990 it was time to take the stage for his debut stand-up performance. Having found enough success on stage to say goodbye to his day job just three short years later, Cook was finally prepared to make his bid for the big time. If his early screen roles weren't necessarily substantial enough to gain him notice on the big screen, it was his early short film Spiral that showed the promise needed for his career in front of the camera to continue gaining momentum. Back in the realm of stand-up comedy, Cook's debut release Harmful if Swallowed went certified gold after selling more than 450,000 copies in less than two years. It was around this time that the rising star first realized the career-boosting potential of the Internet, an epiphany that soon resulted in the creation of his popular personal website, danecook.com. Though the site did indeed provide the comic with a notable means to staying in touch with his rapidly growing fan base, it was Cook's subsequent MySpace page that would truly serve to show the humble comic's progressive mind for innovation. Appearances on such popular television comedy programs as The Man Show, Crank Yankers, and Jimmy Kimmel Live found success coming at a clip, and he was soon garnering roles in such features as Torque, Waiting, Employee of the Month, Dan in Real Life, My Best Friend's Girl, and Answers to Nothing. Cook would also continute to perform stand-up, releasing comedy albums and on his own stand up specials.

Trivia: From contemporary Christian starlet to mainstream MTV darling, singer-turned-actress Jessica Simpson, born July 10th, 1980, has seen her popularity spread like a firestorm following the success of her 1999 major-label debut, Sweet Kisses. In the years that followed, Simpson's fledgling career would continue to gain momentum with a series of television appearances including a recurring role in the popular sitcom That '70s Show. After starring alongside husband Nick Lachey in the popular MTV reality series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, it seemed that the stage diva might finally be setting her sights on Hollywood when it was announced that Simpson beat out teen-idol rival Britney Spears to land the coveted role of Daisy Duke in the eagerly anticipated feature-film version of The Dukes of Hazzard. Born and raised in Dallas, TX, the future superstar realized her calling early on in life, and after making a strong impression on her church choir, Simpson soon gathered the courage to audition for a featured role on The Mickey Mouse Club revival show MMC. Though Simpson was turned down for the role that was eventually filled by Spears and later Christina Aguilera, the determined songstress was discovered the following summer by the head of a Contemporary Christian music label and spent the next three years crafting her debut album. When the small label folded before Simpson's freshman effort was released, the young singer's grandmother showed faith in her granddaughter's talent by putting up the funding needed for a small pressing, and Simpson's popularity on the CCM scene boomed. Signing to Sony shortly thereafter, Simpson found strong crossover appeal with the release of her major label debut, Sweet Kisses in 1999. Released the same year as both Spears' and Aguilera's wildly successful debut albums, Sweet Kisses allowed Simpson to finally achieved pop superstardom alongside two of the biggest rising stars on the pop music scene.After Simpson married 98° singer Nick Lachey in the fall of 2002, her star continued to rise when the couple appeared in MTV's Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica the following year. Coming on the heels of a series of successful television guest appearances, Simpson's lovably ditzy onscreen persona and conventional beauty in Newlyweds showed remarkable potential for a successful career in film and television in addition to her already established role as a pop superstar. By the time Simpson was signed to appear in the big-screen adaptation of the popular 1980s television series The Dukes of Hazzard, audiences were already familiar with her likeable onscreen presence, and her winning combination of blonde beauty and playful innocence made her the perfect choice to fill the Daisy Dukes of the character whose name has since become synonymous with the popular cutoff jean shorts of that era. Subsequently cast as a bombshell cashier whose habit of only dating employees bestowed with the titular honor spraks a bitter competition between two male rivals in the 2006 comedy Employee of the Month. In the years to come, Simpson would continue to find success in various areas, including hosting the documentary series Jessica Simpson: The Price of Beauty.

Trivia: With a background in improvisational comedy and a reputation as a class clown, Dax Shepard seemed the obvious choice for the role of a Punk'd field agent -- and the opportunity to put one over on some of the biggest names in show business must have been impossible to resist. Though it wasn't his first onscreen role, Punk'd provided Shepard with the recognition needed to further his onscreen career, and just a year after debuting with Ashton Kutcher's merry band of pranksters, the up-and-coming comic actor was scheduled to appear in no less than three major film releases. A native of Milford, MI, Shepard studied improv with the famed Groundlings troupe before moving to Los Angeles to study anthropology at UCLA. A minor part as a partygoer who couldn't hold his liquor in the 1998 romantic comedy Hair Shirt offered Shepard his first film role, and though there would be a five-year gap between that role and a minor supporting role in the 2003 comedy Cheaper by the Dozen, the exposure that he would subsequently gain from Punk'd more than made up for any lost time before the cameras. In 2004, Shepard appeared opposite Seth Green and Matthew Lillard in the wide-release comedy Without a Paddle, with supporting roles in Sledge: The Untold Story and Mike Judge's long-delayed sci-fi comedy Idiocracy following soon thereafter. Small-screen work on My Name Is Earl and Robot Chicken served well to keep the bills paid as Shepard climbed into astronaut gear for Jon Favreau's enjoyable 2005 fantasy Zathura. As 2006 dawned, Shepard continued to stick with his genre roots for several screen comedies. The typically placid and low-key actor donned a sav-mart clerk's uniform and waged war on Dane Cook to vie for the affections of bombshell Jessica Simpson in the madcap comedy Employee of the Month, produced by The Cosby Show's Carsey-Werner Entertainment and released in November 2006. At about the same time, Shepard geared up for a quartet of roles throughout 2007 and 2008. He would appear in Let's Go to Prison!, a kind of scaled-down comic update of the 1940 Millionaires in Prison, about a career criminal (Shepard) and a rich man (Will Arnett) thrown into the same prison cell (Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk directs). He had a fine supporting turn in the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy Baby Mama, and in 2010 he became a regular on the television series Parenthood. Two years later he directed the action comedy Hit & Run, co-starring his then girlfriend Kristen Bell, who he married in 2013. He had supporting rolex in the ensemble dramedy This Is Where I Leave You and the drama The Judge in 2014, before wrapping up his run as Crosby Braverman on Parenthood.

Trivia: Efren Ramirez may not yet be a household name, but his visage is already etched in the minds of millions of moviegoers, thanks to one role. As Pedro, the diminutive, bumbling Latino sidekick who runs for student office in Jared Hess' quirky 2004 cult film Napoleon Dynamite, Ramirez does wonders with small-scale comic schtick. But Dynamite only marked the beginning; Ramirez refuses to be typed, continually testing his mettle and expanding his repertoire by branching out into a broad array of roles and character types. "Now I must tell you," he admitted to an interviewer, "[Dynamite] is only the beginning. Wait until you see my next films. I enjoy the exploration of characters...[and] I'm only getting started." Born in Los Angeles to a slightly itinerant family of mixed Salvadorian and Mexican descent, Ramirez attended parochial schools as a youngster, while his working-class parents sustained two jobs apiece to fund their children's private education. Mrs. Ramirez inadvertently sent Efren and his brothers to after-school drama classes in an effort to keep them out of trouble, but in Efren's case, the casual pastime blossomed into a passion. Mentored in drama by the famed actress Diane Venora (F/X, Bird, Heat), as well as thespians Laura Henry and Gloria E. Gifford, Ramirez expended blood, sweat, and tears to hone his acting ability to a fine point; he frequently landed supporting roles in such TV series as Judging Amy, The District, ER, and Boston Public. His official big screen debut, however, arrived in the form of Tom Musca's little-seen 1998 sociopolitical satire Race (aka Melting Pot), about a Chicano housepainter from East L.A. (Paul Rodriguez) who runs for city council office. Tertiary roles in Carl Schenkel's 2000 Hallmark Hall of Fame effort Missing Pieces and Ron Krauss' 2001 Rave followed, but Ramirez went little noticed in either film. Only in 2003, when director Jared Hess enlisted Ramirez to play Pedro in his debut feature Napoleon Dynamite did Ramirez's visibility shoot off like a rocket. He worked diligently to develop the Pedro characterization, and brushed up on his exposure to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, weaving influences from each screen comedian into his own voice and emerging with a thoroughly unique character. Dynamite, of course, became the success d'estime of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and a surprise runaway hit; it also made Ramirez' career. Innumerable offers and projects followed, which saw Ramirez gradually ascend to higher and higher billing. The most immediate efforts included key contributions to four well-profiled 2006 productions. Crank, an urban thriller from Lionsgate with Jason Statham and Amy Smart, in which Ramirez portrays the transvestite Kaylo; the same year's comedy All You've Got, co-starring Faizon Love and Clara Harris; and the 2006 Dane Cook/Jessica Simpson vehicle Employee of the Month, wherein Ramirez appears as Jorge.2006's Walk Out, from MTV Films, marked Ramirez's first lead performance. He starrred opposite Edward James Olmos, Michael Pena, and Alexa Vega, as Bobby Verdugo, an East L.A.-born Chicano student who fights for better educational conditions during the Chicano movement in 1968.

Trivia: Comedian Andy Dick triumphed over personal tragedy, drug and alcohol addiction, and bad press to become one of Hollywood's most unforgettable -- and unconventional -- jokesters. Born on December 21, 1965 in Charleston, SC, Dick is the adopted son of the late Allen and Sue Dick. His father, an officer on a nuclear submarine, carted the family with him all over the world: Dick and his brood lived in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and Yugoslavia before settling in Illinois. There, at Joliet West High School, Dick learned that the way to keep people's attention was to make them laugh. He began honing his comedic skills by giving a spontaneous standup routine during freshman orientation and eventually won the race for Homecoming King with the slogan, "Don't vote for a jock, vote for A. Dick." After graduation, Dick briefly attended a local college before abandoning school work for the Chicago comedy scene. He studied improv under Del Close and performed at Chicago's celebrated Second City and the ImprovOlympics while appearing in various commercials. By his early twenties, Dick was doing standup or improv every night of the week, but still worked various day jobs to support his then-wife, Ivonne, and their young son. Dick labored as a delivery guy, a waiter, and as a tour guide before leaving Chicago for Los Angeles in 1988. The move was not an immediate success: Dick's agent dropped him upon arrival, and the comedian could not find a new one. He and Ivonne divorced a year later. Dick continued to perform at coffee houses and open-mike nights when Ben Stiller (whom he met in Chicago) tapped him to appear in the short film Elvis Stories (1989). Three years later, Stiller gave Dick his big break on Fox's The Ben Stiller Show. Performing opposite the likes of Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, and Bob Odenkirk, Dick created the memorable characters Manson Lassie and Skank the sock puppet for the Emmy-winning, but short-lived, sketch comedy program. Dick went on to guest-host Talk Soup and appear on The Nanny, before making a cameo in Stiller's first feature film, Reality Bites (1994), and stealing the Pauly Shore vehicle In the Army Now (1994) from its star. In the meantime, Dick met and romanced artist Lena Sved, with whom he had a son and daughter. In 1995, Dick played the son of agents 86 and 99 on Fox's doomed remake of Get Smart. That same year he had much better luck as the naive, bewildered cub reporter Matthew Brock on NBC's NewsRadio. The sitcom was a critical smash, making Dick a tabloid favorite. During breaks from NewsRadio, he appeared in the independent Bongwater (1998) and opposite Stiller in Permanent Midnight (1998), as well as lent his voice to the villain Nuka in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998). Meanwhile, Dick instantly made headlines for his frequent drinking and marijuana use, as well as his unique living arrangement: Dick, Sved, and their two children shared a house with Dick's first wife, Ivonne, their son, and her boyfriend. For a time, this unconventional lifestyle appeared to work, more or less. But then, warning bells began to sound for Dick. It began when his Alcoholic Anonymous sponsor and friend since his Chicago days, comedian Chris Farley, died of a drug overdose in December 1997. Then, after a painful drugged-out phone call to The Howard Stern Show during which he discussed his narcotics addiction and disclosed his bisexuality, Dick checked himself into a rehab center. Shortly after his release, Dick's NewsRadio costar and surrogate father Phil Hartman was killed by his wife in a murder-suicide. A year later, Dick's mentor and friend Del Close also passed away. The next day, at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO, the obviously inebriated Dick shocked audiences during a reunion of The Ben Stiller Show by accosting Stiller and Garofalo. A couple of weeks later, he went bar hopping in Vegas with actor David Strickland, who tragically killed himself later the same night. NBC canceled NewsRadio, which could not recover from the death of Phil Hartman. On the heels of the show's last episode, Dick crashed his car into a Hollywood streetlight and then fled the scene, which was filled with drug paraphernalia. He spent the night in jail before being sentenced to weeks of rehab. Dick emerged later that year with an awe-inspiring comeback. He guest starred as David Spade's romantic rival on Just Shoot Me and appeared as himself in Being John Malkovich (1999). He toured with his rock opera, Andy Dick's Circus of Freaks, and recorded voices for the cartoons Hey Arnold!, Dilbert, and King of the Hill. Dick appeared in several independent pictures and filmed memorable cameos in Road Trip (2000), Loser (2000), and Dude, Where's My Car? (2000). He also reunited with NewsRadio alum Maura Tierney for Spade's prime-time animated series Sammy, before headlining the Family Channel Christmas movie Special Delivery (2000). Tierney then tapped him to appear in her husband Billy Morrissette's directorial debut, Scotland, PA (2001). Dick's biggest coup came in 2001, when MTV let him write, direct, and star in The Andy Dick Show. With such characters as Daphne Aguilera (Christina's mother's friend who lives on the same block) and Zitty McGee (an acne-infested supermodel wannabe), the series became one of the network's highest-rated shows and attracted scores of celebrity guest stars. Rolling Stone dubbed The Andy Dick Show "the funniest thing on TV" and gushed over the first installment of its 2002 season, which opened with an E! True Hollywood Story-like parody of Dick's life entitled, "The Little Angel Clown Who...That Cries." Never complacent, the drug-free, alcohol-free Dick followed up his show's success with roles opposite Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell in Old School (2003) and on television in Less Than Perfect. Dick contributed a monologue to The Aristocrats (2005), then voiced the character of Boingo in the late 2005 animated feature Hoodwinked, a kind of madcap, CG-animated reworking of the Little Red Riding Hood story. 2006 marked Dick's busiest year yet, as the seemingly inexhaustible actor immersed himself in three major productions. Employee of the Month, a fall 2006 frat-boy comedy starring Dane Cook and Dax Shepard as fellow clerks comically vying for the affections of a sensuous co-worker (Jessica Simpson), finds Dick in an unusually low-key turn (as Lon, one of Cook's buddies). That same year, Dick provided a voice for Queer Duck: The Movie, the feature version of a Showtime animated series about a gay mallard (Jim J. Bullock). In 2006, Dick also agreed to be interviewed for Fired, Annabelle Gurwitch's celebrity-studded documentary about what it means to be sacked in the American economy.Meanwhile, Dick voiced Mambo in director Paul J. Bolger's Happily N'Ever After (2007), an animated, revisionist satirical version of the Cinderella story; other stars in the cast include George Carlin, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr.. Dick was markedly less successful in the following years, largely due to his addiction to drugs and alcohol (he appeared in VH1's reality series Sober House in 2009). The same year he appeared as himself in the comedy drama Funny People, and in 2012 he joined Billy Burke and Crispin Glover for a supporting role in the crime comedy drama Freaky Deaky.

Trivia: Left his home in the Midwest to perform with The Young Americans when he was 17. His post-college jobs included performing as a Kid of the Kingdom at Disneyland; a page at Paramount Studios; butler at the Playboy Mansion; and assistant for Cathy Rigby. His one-man show, Happy Hour, a comedy about his family life, won the Jury Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 1999. Was a writer and performer with The Groundlings comedy group. Volunteers with Stars for Stripes, an organization that entertains U.S. troops in the Middle East.

Trivia: Supporting actor Marcello Thedford learned to act via experience with improvisational theater in New York and by studying at the Bronx's Third World Theater at Black Drama Productions. His early film credits include small roles in Crimson Tide and Dangerous Minds (both 1995).

Trivia: An unpredictable comic whose talents as an artist and writer of children's books frequently goes unnoticed in favor of such antics as appearing on the Late Show With David Letterman in peanut butter-covered boots, Harland Williams set the tone for his cinematic career as a urine-chugging state trooper in the Farrelly brothers' sophomoric smash Dumb and Dumber (1994).Born in Toronto, Ontario, the artistically inclined Williams aimed to refine his passion for drawing and painting at Canada's prestigious Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. Childlike curiosity combined with his love of art drove Williams to create a series of popular children's books in which a similarly curious young dinosaur named Lickety Split embarks on a series of amazing adventures and learns important life lessons in the process. Finding a creative outlet in poetry and painting while working as a forest ranger for five years after dropping out of Sheridan College, Williams set his goals to leave the forest as a standup comic and actor, soon moving to L.A. to pursue his newfound calling.After his memorable debut in Dumb and Dumber, Williams appeared briefly in the television series Simon before attempting a starring vehicle with Disney's Rocketman in 1997. Trashed by critics and largely ignored by audiences, Rocketman may not have launched Williams' career into the stratosphere, but it did result in a number of memorably comedic roles in such popular comedies as Half-Baked (1998) and There's Something About Mary (1998). The new millennium also proved to be a busy year for Williams in both his career as a standup and an actor: serving as host of Comedy Central's Premium Blend, appearing in the Geena Davis Show, The Whole Nine Yards, and as an abrasive tyrant television star who learns the true value of love in Becoming Dick. In 2001, Williams appeared as the compound-fractured friend of a spastic Tom Green in Freddy Got Fingered. The following year found Williams as a gender-bending college student alongside co-stars Barry Watson and Michael Rosenbaum in Sorority Boys.

Trivia: The youngest of four siblings. Was raised in Maryland. Studied in the same acting class with actor Casper Van Dien. In 1993, starred in the first Got Milk? commercial, directed by Michael Bay. Was head of the comedy department at the now-closed James Franco's film and acting school, Studio 4. Founder and teacher of NOTS Comedy School's comedy department.