Trivia: Despite spending the first 25 years of his life in Adelaide, Australia, Anthony LaPaglia is best known for playing street-savvy Italian New Yorkers. This was not, however, LaPaglia's original plan. Rather than testing the waters of show business, LaPaglia traveled to the United States intending to pursue a full-time teaching career. As luck would have it, however, one of LaPaglia's odd jobs was a small role in Cold Steel (1987), a low-budget detective drama. LaPaglia began pursuing theater and television in his spare time -- one of his more notable early performances was in 1988's Frank Nitti: The Enforcer -- and considered himself a full-time actor by 1989, when he made his feature-film debut in Slaves of New York. It was 1990, however, when the young actor earned critical recognition for his role as an exceedingly polite mobster in Betsy's Wedding.LaPaglia continued to build his résuméthroughout the early '90s, most of which he spent playing either kindly policemen or good-hearted mobsters, and was delighted to work alongside a variety of noted actors so early in his career. Among those actors were Alan Alda in Betsy's Wedding, Michael Keaton in One Good Cop (1991), and Nathan Lane, Sharon Stone, and Kevin Bacon in He Said, She Said (1992). Later in 1992, LaPaglia could be found playing his first leading role in George Gallo's gangster farce 29th Street. Though the film did not fare particularly well, audiences were nonetheless impressed with LaPaglia's intensity, and he played a more serious gangster with great success opposite Susan Sarandon in The Client (1994). The actor switched gears for his next handful of films; in Mixed Nuts (1994) he played a disillusioned Santa Claus, while Empire Records (1995) found him as a down-on-his-luck store manager, and the Australian-helmed Brilliant Lies (1996) featured him as the defendant in a sketchy sexual-harassment case.Despite a smattering of mediocre films between 1995 and the early 2000s, LaPaglia continued to earn critical acclaim for many of his endeavors, such as Steve Buscemi's directorial debut, Trees Lounge (1996), for which LaPaglia joined a star-studded supporting cast, as well as for his role as a detective in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999). Luckily for him, 2000 and 2001 proved excellent for his career, as it was during this period that he played a wealthy businessman in The House of Mirth and an adulterous police detective in Lantana. In addition to receiving international success, Lantana earned LaPaglia the prestigious Best Actor award from the Australian Film Institute, as well as a nomination from the Film Critics Circle. In the meantime, he was adding several major television credits to his résumé, including a starring role as the head of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad on CBS's Without a Trace, and a recurring role on the long-running sitcom Frasier, a performance for which he would receive an Emmy in 2002. Far removed from his fledgling days as a teacher, 2002 also found LaPaglia working with Val Kilmer for The Salton Sea; Sigourney Weaver for The Guys; Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal in Analyze That; and Eric Stoltz in Happy Hour. In 2003, after filming Manhood with Janeane Garofalo and the late John Ritter, LaPaglia agreed to star in director Josh Sternfeld's Winter Solstice (2004).Over the next several years, LaPaglia would appear in a number of big screen projects, like Balibo (2009), Overnight (2012) and A Good Marriage (2014).

Trivia: Harboring an awesome wellspring of determination, Australian émigré actress Poppy Montgomery moved from down under to Los Angeles in 1993 (at the tender age of 18) and, with no connections or leads to her name, bought a copy of a book called How to Make it in Hollywood. In that text, Montgomery read an anecdote about one of Julia Roberts' early managers, who had helped engineer some of the actress' early successes. Montgomery searched diligently until she found the manager's telephone number, then so plagued him with calls, one after another, that she ultimately wore down his resistance; he put Montgomery in touch with a manager who helped launch her career. The self-assurance evident in this "breakout strategy" had taken root early in Montgomery's life; born June 19, 1975, in Paddington, New South Wales, Australia (a suburb of Sydney), Montgomery realized as a young girl that she only wanted to spend her life acting. Once in Hollywood, she refused to be snubbed or overlooked. As an ingenue in Los Angeles, Montgomery sustained smaller turns for seven years, including a role on NYPD Blue and performances in the Eddie Murphy comedy Life and the Garry Marshall tearjerker The Other Sister, until late 2000, when she landed the highly coveted lead role of Marilyn Monroe in the autobiographical miniseries about the superstar, Blonde, adapted from the book by esteemed belletrist Joyce Carol Oates. Though critics felt the telemovie uneven, most singled out Montgomery and raved over her interpretation.This unique, inherent ability to reach down deep into a character and understand her on the most intuitive level shone through again and again in Montgomery's work, and doubtless enabled her to land a recurring role on the CBS drama Without a Trace, about the day-to-day searches of a missing-persons unit headed by Anthony LaPaglia. When she received the call about Without a Trace, Montgomery had contributed exemplary work to two otherwise unsuccessful series -- Elizabeth Waclawek in The Beat (2000) and Ellie Sparks in Glory Days (2002) -- and needed a boost. The program, of course, became a massive hit, thanks in no small part to Montgomery's fine work. In the series she portrays FBI agent Samantha Spade with marked believability. As one season of Without a Trace after another unfolded, Montgomery worked with equal emphasis in film and television. Her cinematic roles included Allison in the Gen-X indie comedy How to Lose Your Lover (2004) and Nadine Roberts in David Ocañas' metaphysical thriller Between (2004); in 2005, Montgomery played Generosa Rand, the issue-ridden (and possibly homicidal) wife of wealthy investment banker Ted Ammon, in the made-for-television true crime saga Murder in the Hamptons. TV would prove a good fit for Montgomery, and she would find additional success with series like Without a Trace and Unforgettable.

Trivia: British actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste first became known to an international audience through her breakthrough performance in Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies (1996). Jean-Baptiste has received Best Supporting Actress Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations for her measured, insightful portrayal of a young woman who is reunited with her biological mother who gave her up for adoption at birth. Jean-Baptiste subsequently began doing steady work in both film and television, appearing in a disparate number of films, including Noah Baumbach's Mr. Jealousy (1997), the psychological thriller A Murder of Crows (1998), the independent comedy How to Make the Cruelest Month (1998), and Nancy Savoca's The 24-Hour Woman (1999). The beginning of the next decade founding Jean-Baptiste scoring roles in the thriller The Cell, the comedy drama 28 Days, and the thriller Spy Game. From 2002 to 2009 Jean-Baptiste could be seen in the Jerry Bruckheimer produced CBS television series Without a Trace as FBI agent Vivian Johnson who works in the missing persons division. She appeared in the 2006 drama Jam, and joined the cast of City of Ember (2008), a science-fiction fantasy drama following a society living in an underground city following a nuclear war. In 2010 the actress joined the cast of Takers, a crime thriller, and starred in Secrets in the Walls, a made-for-television horror film from Lifetime the same year. In addition to acting, Jean-Baptiste is also a composer. She supplied the music for Leigh's Career Girls in 1997.

Trivia: As far as role choice is concerned, Cuban-American supporting actor Enrique Murciano Jr. arrived in Hollywood at something of a low ebb -- with an appearance in one of the most embarrassing duds of the late '90s: the action thriller Speed 2: Cruise Control. Mercifully, his constituted a brief turn, and Murciano subsequently evinced a more acute predilection for solid material. He was memorable as Ruiz in Ridley Scott's Mogadishu-themed war drama Black Hawk Down (2001) and as Jeff Foreman in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), but is probably best known for his ongoing portrayal of Missing Persons Agent Danny Taylor in the crime-investigation series drama Without a Trace, opposite Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery. Murciano also signed for a small role in Michelle Danner's 2006 indie comedy How to Go Out on a Date in Queens.

Trivia: Actor Eric Close found his breakthrough role on the prime-time serial drama Sisters (1991), opposite Julianne Phillips, Sela Ward, and Swoosie Kurtz. Close's performance as a policeman in the sixth season of the program established his onscreen reputation as a solid and reliable performer. Alongside that program, Close landed roles in low-rent films such as Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994) and the made-for-television soaper The Stranger Beside Me (1995). The actor then received second billing after small-screen mainstay Michael Biehn in the Western series The Magnificent Seven (1998), joined the regular cast of the short-lived sci-fi drama The Sky Is Falling (1999), and scored a lead in Glenn Gordon Caron's eccentric, short-lived superhero series Now and Again. Close drew his largest audience, however, with his contributions to the outstanding crime-investigation drama Without a Trace, as Martin Fitzgerald, the missing-persons agent amorously, and perhaps unwisely, involved with colleague Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery).

Trivia: Tanzania native Marin Hinkle is best known for her role as bookstore proprieter Judy Brooks on ABC's Once and Again, though her breakthrough performance was on long-running soap opera Another World. After the cancellation of Once and Again in 2002, Hinkle went on to find success in the sitcom world, co-starring with Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer on CBS' popular Two and a Half Men, and appeared on a variety of prime-time dramas including ER, House, and Law & Order. Though Hinkle is primarily a television actress, she has had small roles in several films; her credits include Frequency, I Am Sam, Friends With Money, Weather Girl, The Next Big Thing, and Rails & Ties.

Trivia: Possessing the kind of elegant screen beauty that often draws comparisons to a Breakfast at Tiffany's-era Audrey Hepburn, actress Elizabeth Banks' onscreen career has been steadily rising since the up-and-coming actress won the Young Hollywood Award for "Exciting New Face" back in 2003. With roles in such notable Hollywood hits as the Spider-Man films and Seabiscuit, Banks has not only had the pleasure of sharing the screen with hot-property actor Tobey Maguire multiple times, but has also been nominated -- alongside Maguire, Jeff Bridges, William H. Macy, and Gary Stevens -- for an "Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture" award by the Screen Actors Guild for her performance in the latter. The Pittsfield, MA, native got her first taste of fame when nominated Harvest Queen in her hometown's annual fall celebration, and in the years that followed, Banks would receive her bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and go on to pursue her graduate degree at the American Conservatory Theater. In 1998, Banks made her feature debut in the controversial addiction drama Surrender Dorothy, with subsequent small-screen roles in Third Watch and Sex and the City only serving to contribute to her rapidly growing profile in film and television. Of course, a move from New York to Los Angeles also may have had something to due with her landing more film roles, and though she would appear under her real name, Elizabeth Mitchell, in the 2000 action thriller Shaft, she soon had to change her name to avoid conflict with another actress who had already established a career under that surname. Undaunted, Banks forged on with roles in the cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer and the romantic drama Ordinary Sinner in 2001, with a supporting performance as Betty Brant in the 2002 box-office smash Spider-Man providing her most substantial onscreen performance to date. With roles opposite Madonna in Swept Away and Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, it was obvious that Banks' career was on the rise, but it was her winning performance in Seabiscuit that truly put her on the map. Though the Screen Actors Guild award that the she and the cast were nominated for would ultimately go to the cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, it was obvious to all who had been following her career that Banks was only at the beginning of her Hollywood ascent. In 2003, Banks appeared in the drama The Trade before reprising her role as Betty Brant for Spider-Man 2, and with increasingly prominent roles in Heights, The Sisters, and The Baxter scheduled through 2005, audiences could rest assured that they would be seeing plenty more of Banks in the years to come.By the time Banks turned in a standout supporting role as a bookstore employee who may hold the means of solving The 40 Year Old Virgin's titular dilemma in the 2005 Steve Carell hit, it seemed that she was an actress capable of brightening most any screen. A substantial role as a small-town trophy wife in director James Gunn's comic-frightener Slither found Banks having noticable fun in front of the cameras, with a pair of appearances on the popular television medical comedy Scrubs preceding a more serious-minded turn in the inspirational 2006 sports drama Invincible.2008 was a very busy year for Banks in which she continued to build her career as a comedic presence in films as varied as Role Models, Meet Dave, and Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and was also allowed to stretch her dramatic wings as Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's biopic W. In 2009 she first played the role of a conservative television commentator who becomes a romantic partner for Alec Baldwin's character on the award-winning sitcom 30 Rock, a role she would return to intermittently for the next few years. In 2011 she co-starred in the comedy Our Idiot Brother, and in 2012 she had a supporting part in the phenomenally successful adaptation of The Hunger Games.