Trivia: The quiet yet dynamic screen presence of actor Joe Mantegna has made him one of the most powerful supporting actors in Hollywood. Born in Chicago, Mantegna made his acting debut in the 1969 production of Hair. He then joined Chicago's Organic Theatre Company. In 1978, he debuted on Broadway in Working; he also helped write Bleacher Bums, an award-winning play. Still, he did not become well-known until he played a recurring role on the TV show Soap. By 1983 he'd returned to Chicago, where he began working with playwright David Mamet. While playing the lead in Mamet's play Glengarry Glen Ross (1983), Mantegna won a Tony. When Mamet began making films, Mantegna became his actor of choice in works such as House of Games (1987) and Homicide (1991). Prior to that, the actor had played small roles in a number of other films. He also continues to play in a variety of movie genres, working with some of Hollywood's top directors. Mantegna turned producer in 1998 with the crime comedy Jerry and Tom. That trend continued on the small screen as Montenga produced such shows as Midway USA's Gun Stories, Shooting Gallery, and QuickBites, but it was his role as a regular on the CBS series Joan of Arcadia that really kept him in the public eye. Continually returning to his recurring role as Fat Tony on The Simpsons over the next decade, Montegna joined the cast of the hit television series Criminal Minds in 2007, and recieved an Emmy nomination for his performance in the successful mini-series The Starter Wife that same year.

Trivia: Curly haired, sandy-voiced actress Mary Steenburgen is a natural when it comes to playing Southerners, probably because she hails from the region herself. Born in Arkansas on February 8, 1953, Steenburgen was the daughter of a railroad employee. Pursuing drama in college, she headed to New York in 1972, where she worked with an improvisational troupe. She was spotted by Jack Nicholson, who cast her as his feisty "in name only" frontier wife in 1978's Goin' South. Two years later, she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Melvin Dummar's inamorata in Melvin and Howard (1980).Able to convey a wide age and character range, Steenburgen was effectively cast as a free-spirited Frisco girl in Time After Time (1979), the corseted matriarch of a turn-of-the-century household in Ragtime (1981), prim authoress Marjorie Rawlins in Cross Creek (1983), a long-suffering suburban housewife in Parenthood (1989), and a Marcia Clark-like attorney in Philadelphia (1993). She also portrayed the Jules Verne-loving Western schoolmarm Clara in Back to the Future 3 (1990), a role she perpetuated (via voice-over) on the Back to the Future TV cartoon series. In 1988, she was executive producer of End of the Line, in which she also appeared. Steenburgen's film appearances throughout the 1990s were erratic: some highlights, in addition to Philadelphia, include What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Nixon (1995), and The Grass Harp (1995). In 1999, she starred as Noah's wife in the biblical epic Noah's Ark, sharing the screen with the likes of Jon Voight, F. Murray Abraham, James Coburn, and Carol Kane. As the 21st century began, Steenburgen continued to work steadily in projects such as Life as a House, I Am Sam, Sunshine State, and Elf. She was cast in the CBS drama Joan of Arcadia in 2003. In 2006 she appeared in David Lynch's Inland Empire, and the next year she starred opposite Jodie Foster in the vigilante drama The Brave One. She was cast in the comedies Step Brothers and Four Christmases in 2008, and in 2011 she was the editor who inspires the main character to write the book in The Help.Formerly married for several years to actor Malcolm McDowell, Steenburgen married former Cheers star Ted Danson in 1995. The two have collaborated on a number of projects, including 1994's Pontiac Moon and the made-for-TV Gulliver's Travels in 1996.

Trivia: As the daughter of American child star-turned-cult favorite Russ Tamblyn (Peyton Place, Twin Peaks), Hollywood heartthrob and ingenue Amber Tamblyn inherited the stunning red hair, fair complexion, and acting chops of her famous dad. Born in the early '80s to Russ and wife Bonnie Murray, Tamblyn was discovered by an agent at her school during her preteen years, and soon landed a prominent role as the maniacal tot Emily Quartermaine on General Hospital -- a turn she sustained from 1995 to 2001.Tamblyn guested on such series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Boston Public in the early 2000s, and tackled a small role in Gore Verbinski's 2002 shocker The Ring (as one of Samara's unfortunate victims), but the actress failed to generate a sizeable fan base prior to the advent of the fantasy-tinged drama series Joan of Arcadia in 2003. Tamblyn received first billing in that program as Joan Girardi, a seemingly average high school teenager who is tapped by the Almighty to perform various assignments. Joan drew a substantial cult following and outstanding critical assessments (USA Today pegged it as the most promising dramatic series of 2003), but unfortunately, its popularity failed to spread beyond a small enthusiastic band of adherents and it folded within two years.Tamblyn then segued back into film work, with first billing in Ken Kwapis' coming-of-age comedy drama The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005, as one of four teenage girlfriends (alongside America Ferrera, Blake Lively, and Alexis Bledel) who make a good-luck pact; the picture received outstanding reviews and ensured continued stardom for Tamblyn. In 2006, the young actress essayed the title role in Hilary Brougher's fine psychological drama Stephanie Daley, about a troubled teenager accused of killing her newborn child. Tamblyn also traveled the programmer route that year with a turn in the horror sequel The Grudge 2. The following year, the actress starred in Beth Schacter's teen comedy Normal Adolescent Behavior and Rigoberto Castaneda's indie thriller Blackout. In the latter -- a high-wire suspense picture about a bunch of people trapped in a hospital elevator -- Tamblyn played a young woman desperate to reach her grandmother before the elderly woman dies. In 2008, she reprised her Traveling Pants role in the sequel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.Amber Tamblyn is also a prolific poet and runs her own website, The Rebel Asylum, with postings of her work. Her volume of poetry Free Stallion was published by Simon & Schuster in 2005.

Trivia: Since actor Jason Ritter hails from a long line of successful entertainers, it seemed only natural that he would eventually try his hand at performing. The son of late Three's Company star John Ritter and the grandson of Hollywood Western star Tex Ritter, young Jason has proven more than capable of carrying on his family's impressive showbiz legacy with roles in such features as Mumford and Freddy vs. Jason. Born in Los Angeles in February of 1980, Ritter made his screen debut opposite father John in the 1990 made-for-television L. Frank Baum biopic The Dreamer of Oz. Though he remained relatively inactive on the screen for much of the 1990s, Ritter continued to train as an actor at both New York University and London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before founding New York City's Irreputable Theater Company. Subsequent roles in the MTV series Undressed and the fantasy-flavored CBS drama Joan of Arcadia quickly elevated Ritter to teen-icon status. A segue into feature territory followed with parts in Freddy vs. Jason (2003) and Swimfan (2002), with his continuing role on Joan of Arcadia serving well to balance his feature and television careers. Unfortunately, personal tragedy struck in 2003 when his father died suddenly of a previously undetected heart condition. Performances in the made-for-television Who's Your Mama? and the Hilary Duff movie Raise Your Voice were quick to follow, and Ritter could also be seen opposite such screen heavies as Steve Coogan, Tom Arnold, and Maggie Gyllenhaal in director Don Roos' ensemble comedy drama Happy Endings. Meanwhile, the rising star continued to rack up impressive credits on both stage and screen, including tackling a sitcom role in the short-lived CBS series The Class (2006-07) and headlining the NBC action thriller The Event in 2010.

Trivia: Sporting a clean-cut, all-American look, Los Angeles-born actor Michael Welch entered the limelight well before his teens and balanced feature and television work with about equal weight. Early small screen projects included guest appearances and recurring roles on series such as Frasier (as a young version of David Hyde Pierce's Niles), Veronica's Closet, and Touched by an Angel, while Welch's feature work invariably emphasized teen-oriented material and often found him cast as a young heartthrob. These big screen endeavors included the teen slasher movie All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), the gore-soaked shocker Day of the Dead (2007), the family-friendly political comedy Choose Connor (2007), and the gothic vampire outing Twilight (2008). Welch also starred as Luke Girardi on the offbeat fantasy series Joan of Arcadia (2003-5).

Trivia: A show business veteran well before his 10th birthday, Secaucus, NJ, native Christopher Marquette covered virtually all the bases of acting at a tender age, making a name for himself in such diverse venues as feature film, Broadway theater, Barney videos, and print advertisements. Marquette and his mother, Tisha, temporarily moved to Los Angeles to accommodate his burgeoning acting career in the fall of 1995 (thus coinciding with TV pilot season), and indeed, he made his biggest splash with guest spots in television programs during the late '90s and early 2000s, including Law & Order, ER, and Touched By an Angel, before scoring a regular role as Marc Delgado (son of doctor Luisa Delgado) on the Lifetime network medical drama Strong Medicine (2001-2006). Meanwhile, Marquette staked out feature territory in such projects as the guilty pleasure slasher opus Freddy Vs. Jason (2003), the crime drama Alpha Dog (2006), and musician-turned-director Fred Durst's gritty drama The Education of Charlie Banks (2007).

Trivia: Involved in amateur theatricals since childhood, Annie Potts received her BFA in theatre arts from Missouri's Stephens College. Potts has been seen in comic supporting roles in films since 1978; she is most closely associated with the part of ditzy secretary Janine Melnitz in the two Ghostbusters flicks of the 1980s. On television, Potts has played Edith Bedelmeyer on the one-season sitcom Goodtime Girls (1980), then enjoyed a longer run as Mary Jo Shively on Designing Women (1986-93). Her characterization of outspoken gourmet chef Dana Paladino on the prime time sitcom Love and War won Annie an Emmy nomination in 1994. Annie Potts has also been featured in a popular series of commercials for a well-known corn-chip product, and has served as national spokesperson for the Women for Arthritis Foundation. In 1996 she was cast as a no-nonsense schoolteacher of troubled inner-city high schoolers in the ABC-TV show Dangerous Minds, a series based on the 1995 Michelle Pfeiffer film of the same name. She voiced the part of Bo Peep in the first two Toy Story films, and in 2003 she took part in a Designing Women reunion. That same year she was the lead in Defending Our Kids: The Julie Posey Story. She appeared intermittently on the Showtime series Huff, and in 2007 she joined the cast of the short-lived series Men In Trees. In 2012 she was cast as one of the leads in the new TV series GCB.

Trivia: Teen actress Hilary Duff quickly rose to fame on the strength of her winning performance on the successful television series Lizzie McGuire. Born in Houston, TX, September 28, 1987, she developed an interest in dance at the age of six and began taking ballet lessons, later making her stage debut in a Christmas production of The Nutcracker. She developed a stronger passion for acting after being cast in a television commercial, and, in 1998, appeared in the direct-to-video Casper Meets Wendy as Wendy, a youthful witch. After taking on more dramatic roles in the made-for-TV movie The Soul Collector and a guest appearance on Chicago Hope, Duff was cast in the title role of Lizzie McGuire in 2001. A sitcom for young people, Lizzie McGuire concerned the trials and tribulations of middle-school student Lizzie as she and her animated alter ego deal with the funny side of adolescence. An immediate hit on The Disney Channel, the show made Duff a recognizable face to television viewers, and Disney quickly responded by casting her in a made-for-cable movie, Cadet Kelly, which earned high ratings. In 2002, the actress also made a brief appearance in the offbeat comedy Human Nature, playing Young Lila, a hirsute child who grows up to become Patricia Arquette. After the success of Lizzie McGuire, Duff branched out into music, writing and singing a song for the show's soundtrack album, and recording a Christmas album in 2002. Released in theaters in the summer of 2003, The Lizzie McGuire Movie provided the ideal cinematic alternative for pre-teen girls uninterested in the exploits of X2: X-Men United and too young to be swept up in the hype of The Matrix Reloaded. Taking in twice the cost of production in only four weeks at the box office, Duff stunned fans less than a month after the film's stateside release by announcing that, due to contract negotiation failures, she would be departing from the lucrative Lizzie McGuire franchise to pursue other career opportunities. By the time the show's finale aired in 2004, Duff had already kicked her film career into high gear, closing out 2003 with three hit films under her belt: Agent Cody Banks, the aforementioned Lizzie McGuire Movie, and the holiday blockbuster Cheaper by the Dozen.Hoping to keep her momentum growing, Duff would continue to appear in tween-friendly features like Raise Your Voice, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and Material Girls. As the 2000's unfolded, however, Duff would take on slightly more adult roles, most memorably in movies like Stay Cool and on TV shows like Gossip Girl. She continued to find success in TV, booking guest roles on Raising Hope and Two and a Half Men and nabbing a main role on the series Younger.

Trivia: Wrote and recorded her first song when she was 9. As a kid, her pre-audition superstition was to do a cartwheel. Her dance background includes ballet, jazz, contemporary, lyrical and tap. Was a member of the band Topanga, which earned her an L.A. Music award for Best Female Vocalist. Cast in five pilots that were never picked up before landing a role in The Michael J. Fox Show.

Trivia: Received his SAG card during a Shakespeare Festival in Los Angeles. Performed in the national stage tour of Six Degrees of Separation. Made his TV debut on Bodies of Evidence. Made his film debut in Sour Grapes in 1998. Served on the SAG Hollywood board.