Trivia: Born in Hawaii, actress Lauren Graham spent her childhood traveling with her single father. After earning her Bachelor's degree in English from Barnard College in New York City, she got her Master's in Acting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She then moved to California, where she began her professional acting career with appearances on Caroline in the City, Law & Order, and NewsRadio.Graham's big break came in 2000 with the lead role on the WB family drama Gilmore Girls. As Lorelai Gilmore, the 32-year-old single mother of a teenager (Alexis Bledel), Graham earned several awards and nominations on the massively popular series. While the show itself earned critical acclaim, Graham gained much media exposure for her strong and independent yet conventionally attractive portrayal of a single mom. She would stick with the show for its entire seven year run, becomming a fully fledged star in the process. Graham would also appear in movies like Evan Almighty, Bad Santa, and The Answer Man, in addition to other succsful TV projects, like the starring role of Sarah Braverman on the series Parenthood.

Trivia: With a distinctly natural and youthful earthy beauty that can alternate between ultra-glamour and wholesome field-frolicking nymph with the change of the breeze, former worldly model turned actress Alexis Bledel built a sturdy fan base with her role on television's Gilmore Girls before falling for a young immortal in 2002's Tuck Everlasting. A native of Houston, TX, whose native tongue was Spanish, Bledel's parents encouraged her to try community theater at the age of eight to overcome shyness. The aspiring actress would subsequently appear in local productions of Our Town and The Wizard of Oz before being scouted at a local mall and whisked into life on the catwalks. Traveling through Europe and Japan before graduating from Houston's Saint Agnes Academy, Bledel would also graduate from the Page Parkes Center for Modeling and Acting before enrolling as a film major at N.Y.U. Though it may come as no surprise to many that the ethereal young actress was voted one of People magazine's Hottest Stars Under 25 in 2002, the firmly grounded actress appeared to have a promising career in store for her whether it be on the pages of Vogue or under the bright lights of Tinseltown. Fans with a quick eye could also catch a brief glimpse of Bledel's film debut, as an uncredited extra, in Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998).In 2005, Bledel co-starred in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a coming-of-age drama following four teenagers who find a very special pair of blue jeans (the actress reprised this role in 2008 for the film's sequel), as well as in director Robert Rodriguez' post-noir crime thriller Sin City. Bledel continued to work in film following the cancellation of The Gilmore Girls in 2007, appearing in the films including The Good Guy (2009), Post Grad (2009), and The Conspirator (2010). The actress played a young assassin in the 2011 action comedy Violet & Daisy, and continues to be active in film and television, including a recurring role as a suburban housewife in season 5 of AMC's Mad Men.

Trivia: An award-winning stage actress, Kelly Bishop occasionally dabbles in television and feature films. Bishop's accolades, a Tony and a Drama Desk award, came from her outstanding work in the original Broadway version of A Chorus Line. Her television work includes two stints on the television soap opera One Life to Live (she played Serena Wyman in 1989, Dr. Robbins in 1996) and guest-starring roles on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Her film credits include Six Degrees of Separation ([1993] she also appeared in the original stage version), Miami Rhapsody (1995), and Private Parts (1997), in which Bishop played the mother of shock jock Howard Stern. At the beginning of the 21ast century she enjoyed long run as Emily Gilmore on the TV series Gilmore Girls, and five years after that show ended she returned to the big screen with a part in the comedy Friends With Kids.

Trivia: Born July 21st, 1943, Tony-winning American stage and film actor Edward Herrmann used his Fulbright scholarship to study at London's Academy of Music and Dramatic Art; several years of regional theatre led to movie and TV work. In 1977 Herrmann offered the first of his many interpretations of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the TV movie Eleanor and Franklin (He'd later be a singing FDR in the theatrical feature Annie [1982]). The actor was frequently dissatisfied with his own performances, feeling that with a little more time he could do much better. Such was the case of his portrayal of baseball great Lou Gehrig in the TV drama A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story (1979), though Herrmann was proud of the fact that he learned to pitch and bat southpaw, something that a previous movie Gehrig, Gary Cooper, never quite mastered. His occasional villainous movie appearances notwithstanding, Edward Herrmann is to most viewers the very embodiment of intelligence and integrity; he was decidedly well cast as the erudite host of several historical documentaries on the A&E Network. In 2000, Herrmann joined the cast of Gilmore Girls as patriarch Richard Gilmore, and continued appearing in supporting roles in movies, including the headmaster in The Emperor's Club (2002), film censor Joseph Breen in The Aviator (2004) and an accountant in Factory Girl (2006). Once Gilmore Girls ended in 2007, Herrmann returned to episodic TV, with runs on Grey's Anatomy and a recurring gig on The Good Wife. In 2014, he returned to his familiar role of FDR one last time, voicing the president in the Ken Burns documentary The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. Herrmann died in 2014, at age 71.

Trivia: First gaining notoriety as Sookie on the hit sitcom Gilmore Girls, actress Melissa McCarthy began her onscreen career with a bit part on her cousin's The Jenny McCarthy Show. Minor film and TV roles followed before she landed the aforementioned part of Sookie St. James, a role she would play throughout Gilmore Girls seven-season run on The WB/CW. In 2007, McCarthy was cast in a supporting role alongside Christina Applegate on the ABC comedy Sam I Am.She found genuine success with the sitcom Molly and Me, playing one-half of a weight-challenged couple opposite Billy Gardel and earning an Emmy nod for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. However, it was her supporting turn in the R-rated comedy Bridesmaids that brought her a taste of mass adulation as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Trivia: Studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York. Gilmore Girls was his English language acting debut.

Trivia: Starred as Lane Kim in Gilmore Girls during the entirety of the show's run between 2000 and 2007, returning in 2016 for the Netflix revival. Won the Best Performance in a TV Drama Series -- Supporting Young Artist Award at the Young Artist Awards for her role in Gilmore Girls. Nominated at the Teen Choice Awards three consecutive years, for the TV Choice Sidekick Award. Won the 2013 Asians on Film Festival Best Supporting Actress in a Short Award, for her role in Lil Tokyo Reporter. Launched the Drunk Monk Podcast in September 2015.

Trivia: A reliable supporting player specializing in slightly gritty and rough-cut characterizations, Scott Patterson spent several years biding his time in forgettable cinematic ventures such as Intent to Kill (1992) and Little Big League (1994), before achieving fame in a recurring role as Luke Danes, the diner owner and eventual suitor of Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) on the popular comedy drama series Gilmore Girls. After that series eventually went off the air, he subsequently transitioning to feature roles, such as that of an agent in the gore-filled slasher outing Saw IV (2007). In 2007, Patterson also landed a regular role on the prime-time sitcom Aliens in America -- about a Midwestern family that unwittingly hosts a Pakistani Muslim exchange student in an attempt to find a friend for their unpopular son.

Trivia: Singer-actress, onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Though he has appeared in a number of feature films, Scott Cohen is more familiar to audiences for his TV work. A native New Yorker, Cohen trained at the Actor's Studio and began his career on the stage. After his film debut in Adrian Lyne's supernatural thriller Jacob's Ladder (1990), Cohen appeared in several 1990s films, including The Mambo Kings (1992) (as one of the Mambo Kings' band members), Peter Yates' big-hearted dramedy Roommates (1995), and the comic Howard Stern biopic Private Parts (1997). Cohen played larger roles in the B-dramas Vibrations (1995) and Sweet Evil (1997), but his career began to thrive more on television in the late '90s. Following a season on the daytime drama One Life to Live in 1994, he played prominent supporting parts in the notable HBO biopics Gotti (1996), starring Armand Assante, and Gia (1998), featuring Angelina Jolie in the title role. Dubbed "Mr. February" by Entertainment Weekly, Cohen's February 2000 guest-starring stint on ABC's durable cop drama NYPD Blue coincided with his starring role as Wolf on NBC's elaborate, much-ballyhooed fantasy miniseries The 10th Kingdom and his supporting role in CBS's docudrama about the notorious JonBenet Ramsey murder, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town. Cohen continued his TV success the following fall, with a guest-starring role on the critically acclaimed WB series Gilmore Girls (2000). Along with his stint on Gilmore Girls, Cohen joined the guest star roster of ABC's celebrated legal drama The Practice in 2001 and co-starred with The Practice's Camryn Mannheim in the TV movie Kiss My Act (2001), a Cyrano de Bergerac-style romantic comedy. Returning to feature films in the same genre, Cohen was the brusque ex-boyfriend-turned-chastened new suitor to the neurotic, bi-curious title character in Kissing Jessica Stein (2001). A hit on the festival circuit, Kissing Jessica Stein became an art house favorite upon its spring 2002 release. Cohen finally landed a regular lead in a TV series, though, with the heavier Showtime drama Street Time (2002). As a drug dealer's gambling addict parole officer, Cohen joined former Northern Exposure star Rob Morrow in playing it serious in a gritty scenario involving cops who are as morally compromised as their quarry. He had a brief turn on Gilmore Girls, and a major role in 2007's small-screen adaptation of For One More Day. In 2009 he landed a brief role in Everybody's Fine, and appeared the next year in Love and Other Drugs. He became a regular on the series Necessary Roughness in 2011, and that same year he was cast in the made for cable docudrama Justice for Natalee Holloway. He is married and has one son.

Trivia: Texas native Jared Padalecki was only 12 years old when he started studying acting. He took to the stage all throughout high school, competing on his school's speech team and appearing in school plays. In 1999, the 17-year-old won Fox's "Claim to Fame" contest and had the chance to appear at the Teen Choice Awards. The opportunity led to the young actor signing up with an agent and beginning his professional career. He began scoring appearances on shows and in TV movies, playing the victim of a car accident on an episode of ER and a wealthy suitor in Ring of Endless Light. Then in 2001, Padalecki was cast as Dean Forester, love interest of Rory Gilmore on the hit series Gilmore Girls. He stayed with the show until 2005, when he joined up with the sci-fi thriller series Supernatural. Padalecki also ventured onto the big screen, appearing in films like House of Wax and The Christmas Cottage.

Trivia: Big-framed character actor (and sometime leading man) David Huddleston worked in virtually every film and television genre there is, from Westerns to crime dramas to science fiction. Born in Vinton, Virginia, he attended the Fork Union Military Academy before entering the United States Air Force, where he received a commission as an officer. After returning to civilian life, Huddleston enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his television debut in 1961, at age 31, in an episode of the Western series Shotgun Slade. Two years later, the actor made his first big-screen appearance with a small role in All the Way Home (1963). A year later, he showed up in Black Like Me; and in 1968, Huddleston was back on the big screen in the thriller A Lovely Way to Die. He got considerably busier in the years that followed, mostly on television series such as Adam 12, Then Came Bronson, and Room 222, in roles of ever-increasing size. These were broken up by the occasional film job, of which the most notable at the time was the part of the comically helpful town dentist in Howard Hawks' Western Rio Lobo (1970), which gave Huddleston some extended (and humorous) screen-time alongside John Wayne. At the time, his feature-film work was weighted very heavily toward Westerns, while on television Huddleston played everything from service-station attendants to teachers to devious executives, primarily in crime shows. With his deep voice and prominent screen presence, plus a sense of humor that never seemed too far from his portrayals -- even of villains -- Huddleston was one of the busier character actors of the 1970s. Indeed, 1974 comprised a year of credits that any actor in the business could envy: John Wayne used Huddleston in McQ, one of the aging star's efforts to get away from Westerns, but Huddleston was back doing oaters in Billy Two Hats and aided Mel Brooks in parodying the genre in Blazing Saddles (all 1974). As comical as Huddleston could be, he could play sinister equally well, as he proved in Terence Young's The Klansman (1974) -- and that doesn't even count his television roles. By the end of the 1970s, he had graduated to a starring role in the series Hizzoner (1979), about a small-town mayor; and in the 1980s he had recurring roles in series such as The Wonder Years. Huddleston's big-screen breakthrough came with the title role in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), and he became a ubiquitous figure on the small screen with a series of orange-juice commercials. His subsequent big-screen appearances included Frantic (1988) and The Big Lebowski (1998), playing the title character, and he continued working into the first decade of the 21st century. In 2004, Huddleston essayed one of the most interesting and challenging roles of his screen career, in the short film Reveille. Working without dialogue alongside James McEachin (with whom he'd previously worked in the series Tenafly), he helped tell the story of a sometimes comical, ultimately bittersweet rivalry between two veterans of different armed services. Huddleston died in 2016, at age 85.

Trivia: The youngest of six children. First professional acting job was in a commercial for the Illinois lottery. A co-creator of the web series James Gunn's PG Porn with brothers James and Brian. Nicknamed "The Judge," which originated from older Matt, who jokingly accused him of being judgmental. Has previously roomed with fellow actors Judy Greer and Gilmore Girls co-star John Cabrera. Appeared in the second episode of Gilmore Girls as Mick, before being brought back later in the season to play eccentric Stars Hollow resident Kirk; he eventually became a series regular.

Trivia: Traveled around Great Britain with her parents' comedy troupe when she was 3 years old. First television role was in Pete & Pete alongside her mother. Made her film debut in Whatever, which premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Starred in the stage play Poof at Montgomery Theater during hiatus from Gilmore Girls in 2004.