Trivia: Australian actor Jesse Spencer launched his career with a long stint (from the mid- to late '90s) on the popular Aussie soap opera Neighbours, playing Billy Kennedy. He followed that up with a number of key supporting roles in acclaimed features, such as that of Marwood de Whichehalse in Mike Barker's R.D. Blackmore adaptation Lorna Doone (2001) before signing on for the lead in Russell Mulcahy's inspirational drama Swimming Upstream (2002). That picture -- about a young man destined to become a champion swimmer despite the setbacks thrown into his path by an abusive father (Geoffrey Rush) became a small-scale hit and earned favorable reviews. After a turn in the Brittany Murphy vehicle Uptown Girls (2003), Spencer landed one of his greatest achievements when he signed on to play Dr. Robert Chase on the Fox medical drama House, and the series quickly became a hit. Offscreen, Spencer made headlines for his romantic involvement with House co-star Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Allison Cameron). The two -- who reportedly met on the set of House -- became engaged during the 2006 holidays.

Trivia: Was a star volleyball player in high school and was named Section Two Volleyball Player of the Year in Pennsylvania. Studied business management in college. Big break came when he was cast as a regular on Fashion House in 2006. Appeared in Lady Gaga's 2011 music video "You and I." Played the recurring role of werewolf Mason Lockwood on The Vampire Diaries. Participated in the Chicago Polar Bear Plunge, which raises money for the Special Olympics, in 2015.

Trivia: Born in London to Grenadian parentage, distinguished actor Eamonn Walker acquired a deep-seated interest in drama at the age of 9, when he witnessed Sidney Poitier acting; the experience helped the young man perceive drama as a powerful tool to change individual lives. Walker began his professional life in repertory theater by touring across United Kingdom and tackling roles in smaller regional productions, then formally honed his craft in South London's Albany Empire. Thereafter, Walker unveiled an ability to seamlessly segue between portrayals of African Americans, West Indians, and Africans. He first bowed in front of the camera in the early '90s, but came into his own around the tail end of that decade as the deeply conflicted Muslim/black nationalist Kareem Said on all six seasons of HBO's harrowing prison drama Oz (1997-2003). That marked a watershed assignment that opened up the floodgates to many others, including a small contribution to M. Night Shyamalan's sci-fi thriller Unbreakable (2000), a turn as Baptiste Senior in director Andrew Niccol's political thriller Lord of War (2005), and an uncanny portrayal of blues legend Howlin' Wolf in the period ensembler Cadillac Records (2008). In 2006, Walker drew from his theatrical roots -- and made more than a few headlines -- with a Broadway performance opposite Denzel Washington in Julius Caesar.

Trivia: Began performing with the Sarasota Youth Opera and in various theater productions at age 7. Raised on a sailboat for most of his childhood. Was named on VH1's 2012 list of TV's Most Promising Eye Candy. Spent two weeks preparing for his role in Chicago Fire by going on ride-alongs with real firefighters and learning the ropes at a Chicago fire station.

Trivia: Best known as Steve, the boyishly charming nice-guy bartender (and the perfect complement to his onscreen romantic partner, snappish Miranda Hobbes) in HBO's blockbuster original series Sex and the City, the slightly diminutive, raven-haired American character actor David Eigenberg was born in Manhasset, NY, on May 17, 1964. As the only boy in a family of six children, Eigenberg moved with his parents and sisters at age four to Naperville, IL, a farming community just outside of the Windy City -- where he remained through the end of adolescence. Eigenberg reportedly struggled as a student, barely scraping by; a handful of run-ins with the law and minor recreational drug abuse allegedly ensued. Eigenberg did graduate from Naperville High School in 1982, however, and was promptly accepted to the University of Iowa, where he planned to study social work. For better or worse, this was not to be, for the Chicagoan ripped his dormitory apart during the first semester and was promptly booted out of the university after five weeks.A stint in the Marines and various construction jobs followed, instilling in Eigenberg healthy amounts of much-needed self-discipline and a sharply honed work ethic. These skills paved the way for Eigenberg's true calling: acting. A love of the dramatic arts had already taken root for the thespian when -- at age 12 -- he had signed on to play a key role in a local production of Kurt Vonnegut's Happy Birthday, Wanda June, and received an outstanding review from a local critic. These fond memories doubtless came flooding back when an adult Eigenberg auditioned -- and was selected for -- a large part in the Dennis Rosa-directed Chicago stage musical One Shining Moment, opposite Megan Mullally and Alan Ruck. Dissatisfied with a mere taste of the theatrical arts and eager to extend acting into a full-time passion, Eigenberg subsequently moved to New York and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, working odd jobs on the side (construction et al.) to put himself through school.Scattered roles followed, including a guest appearance on The Cosby Show and a bit part in the awful 1989 generation-gap comedy Rude Awakening (co-starring Cheech Marin and Eric Roberts), but Sex and the City (which Eigenberg auditioned for out of innumerable hopefuls) represented the actor's first huge break. He reportedly auditioned for a small part, and though the show's producers did not deem him right for the characterization, they felt so impressed by Eigenberg's presence that they created the character of Steve Brady especially for him, as an extension of his own personality; the plan, again, was to create a sincere, committed, down-to-earth male paramour to offset Miranda's (Cynthia Nixon) cynicism.Though initially intended as a temporary part, the popularity of the character among viewers (and Eigenberg's onscreen chemistry with Nixon) led to Eigenberg's permanent inclusion on the show, as well as subsuquent movies.Circa 2002, Eigenberg expanded into film roles by playing the business partner of Richard Gere in Mark Pellington's underrated supernatural thriller The Mothman Prophecies. When Eigenberg's Sex and the City run ended with the wrap-up of that series (at the end of the 2003-2004 season), he continued his cinematic work, first voicing Nermal the Cat in the FX-extravaganza Garfield: The Movie, then playing Reggie, the lover of Alicia Goranson's Myra, in Adrienne Weiss' quirky indie romantic comedy Love, Ludlow. Eigenberg returned to the same genre amid a cast of unknowns with the 2007 film The Trouble with Romance, directed by Gene Rhee. He reprised his role in the Sex and the City movie in 2008 and the sequel in 2010. In 2012, he joined the cast of NBC's Chicago Fire, playing a firefighter in the Windy City.

Trivia: Raven-haired Lauren German made her film debut with a small appearance in the 2000 comedy Down to You. She paid her dues over the following years with minor roles in A Walk to Remember, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hostel: Part II. A much more prominent part came in 2011, when German was cast in the role of Lori Weston on the TV remake of Hawaii Five-0.

Trivia: Actress Monica Raymund learned as much as she could about her craft before getting a serious start on her professional career, graduating from the Juilliard School in New York and participating in Ann Reinking's Broadway Theatre Project for three years. When she decided to pursue an on-screen career, Raymund had little trouble getting started, snagging the role of tough-talking Ria Torres on the crime drama Lie to Me. When Lie to Me ended its three-season run in 2011, Raymund made the seamless transition to the CBS drama The Good Wife, in which she played the character of Dana Lodge.

Trivia: Wanted to be an actress after seeing The Philadelphia Story (1940) as a young girl. Holds a first-degree blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Starred in Hulu's first original scripted show, Battleground, as KJ Jameson. Member of the Chalk Repertory Theatre in Los Angeles.

Trivia: After attending Franklin and Marshall College, Treat Williams acted with the prestigious Fulton Repertory troupe. Williams made his Broadway debut in Grease (1976) eventually taking over the leading role of Danny Zuko. His later Broadway credits included the musicals Over Here and Pirates of Penzance and the reader's-theatre exercise Love Letters. In films from 1976, he scored his first significant success as the draft-resistant protagonist of Milos Forman's Hair (1979). He went on to play the title role in The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper (1981), then gained positive critical notice for his work as reluctant interdepartmental police informant Daniel Ciello in Prince of the City (1981). His later film roles included mob-connected labor organizer Jimmy O'Donnell in Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and the seductive James Dean clone in Smooth Talk (1985). Famed for his willingness to tackle any sort of role, Williams' artistic ambitions are backed up by his versatility and astonishing vocal flexibility. On TV, Williams played Stanley Kowalski opposite Ann-Margret's Blanche Dubois in Streetcar Named Desire (1984) and was appropriately sharkish as superagent Mike Ovitz in The Late Shift (1996). He also starred in the weekly series Eddie Dodd (1991) and Good Advice (1995). Many of Treat Williams' recent film roles have exhibited a fondness for expansive, scenery-chewing villainy, notably megalomanic Xander Drax in The Phantom (1995).

Trivia: After limited stage experience, 19-year-old Kathleen Quinlan made her film debut in American Graffiti. The first stage of her movie career peaked with the starring role as a schizophrenic in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977). She then spent most of the 1980s in secondary roles. Kathleen Quinlan reentered the consciousness of the American filmgoing public with her Oscar-nominated performance as Mrs. James Lovell in Apollo 13 (1995), directed by her American Graffiti co-star Ron Howard. Over the coming decades, Quinlan would prove she'd cemented herself as a bankable force on screen, appearing in such films as A Civil Action, Breach, Poundcake, and Made of Honor. She would also star on the series Family Law and Prison Break.

Trivia: A boyishly handsome boxer-turned-actor who turned in his gloves for real after making his screen debut as a pugilist in the 1992 drama Gladiator, New York-born film and television star Jon Seda rose through the ranks in the '90s to make a name for himself as a bit player in such high-profile films as Carlito's Way and Twelve Monkeys -- though it wasn't until his 1997 debut on television's Homicide: Life on the Streets that audiences truly sat up and took notice. Those who had been following Seda's career since his early days had little doubt that the rising young star had what it took to make it as an actor, and following an Independent Spirit Award-winning role as a flawed but well-meaning husband and father in the 1994 drama I Like It Like That, major offers quickly began pouring in. An impressive run in the mid-'90s found Seda turning up in everything from such high-profile Hollywood fare as Primal Fear to such little-seen efforts as New York Cop and Michael Cimino's The Sunchaser -- the latter of which offered Seda in a particularly memorable role as a terminally-ill juvenile delinquent who kidnaps his doctor in hopes of finding a mythical healing lake. Following an impressive turn in the hit HBO prison series Oz, Seda hit his stride on the small screen with a turn as Detective Paul Falsone on Homicide: Life on the Street. By this time Seda was becoming a familiar face to audiences, and in 2000, he once again laced up his boxing gloves for a role opposite Jimmy Smits in the well-received feature Price of Glory. Despite his prominence and success in film and television, it still seemed as if Seda was awaiting the breakout role that would truly make him a household name. In 2002 he proved that he could carry a film when he took the lead in the street-gang drama King Rikki, with a role on the 2004 UPN series Kevin Hill, marking what fans hoped would be a successful return to the small screen.

Trivia: Though she qualifies as a direct descendant of Middle Eastern royalty -- the great-great-grandaughter, in fact, of a 19th century Persian shah -- Iranian-American Sarah Shahi lived out several offscreen roles exotic enough to rival anything in her lineage. During her adolescence, she enjoyed stints as a USO performer and Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and graduated from that experience to a successful Hollywood acting career at the behest of Robert Altman, who advised her in 2000 to make a beeline for the West Coast and audition for television pilots. Heeding this advice, Shahi gained national attention a short time later, as Jenny during the first season of the spy series Alias (opposite Jennifer Garner), and -- following guest appearances on Dawson's Creek -- debuted cinematically with a small but memorable role as a (very) willing classroom participant, in the Will Ferrell/Vince Vaughn frat boy comedy Old School (2003). Alongside fleeting appearances in such movies as Legally Blonde 2 (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006), Shahi also played the regular role of Carmen de la Pica Morales on Showtime's lesbian-themed drama The L Word during that program's second and third seasons. After her run on that series, she appeared in the short-lived sitcom Teachers (2006), and then found another regular role the next year on the cop drama Life, playing Dani Reese, partner of main character Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis). Shahi would continue to appear in several other projects, including films like I Don't Know How She Does It and the TV series Fairly Legal. In 2013, she had a guest stint on Person of Interest, which turned into a series regular role.

Trivia: Began acting as a toddler, when her parents took her to auditions in an attempt to get her to overcome her shyness. Put her acting career on hold to attend high school. While in high school, she was a cheerleader and worked as a hostess at a restaurant. The daughter of an Israeli mother, she has visited Israel often and feels very connected to her family there. Appeared in the 1994 pilot episode of NBC's ER as a patient, and played an intern for the final season of the long-running medical drama. Breakthrough role came when she landed the part of a high school student who befriends aliens on the WB sci-fi drama Roswell. Causes that are important to her include getting arts programs for children, promoting healthy lifestyles and stopping animal cruelty.

Trivia: Actress Nicole Forester made one of her most enduring marks on daytime soap operas. Raised in the area of Ann Arbor, MI, Forester took her first dramatic bow during her preteen years, in a regional production of The Sound of Music in the Great Lakes State, then honed her dramatic abilities at a number of institutions, including Western Michigan University (as a musical theater major), the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (as a performance major), the Goethe Institute, and UCLA. Beginning in November 2005, Forester signed for the role of Cassie Layne Winslow on CBS's long-running drama Guiding Light. The actress inherited the part from predecessor Laura Wright, and fans reportedly felt some initial skepticism about Forester's ability to hold her own and recapture Wright's popularity in the role; Forester quickly and permanently dispelled this fear from viewers' minds and even received Emmy attention for her portrayal. Prior to Light, Forester's resumé includes guest appearances on series including Monk, Will & Grace, and Beverly Hills 90210, in addition to a lead in director Michael Keller's low-budget black comedy Vampires Anonymous (2000).