Trivia: Whether he's acting or co-writing brilliantly quirky character studies with director/writing partner Wes Anderson, Owen C. Wilson's work exudes an insouciant yet earnest charm and eccentric comic sensibility, making him one of the most promising new talents to emerge in the 1990s.Born in Dallas on November 18th, 1968, Wilson raised enough hell in high school to get expelled from one institution in tenth grade, but he managed to attend college at the University of Texas in Austin and graduate in 1991. Along with his degree, Wilson's Austin years resulted in a budding partnership with a like-minded creative classmate, aspiring filmmaker Wes Anderson. Their first film together, a short about a bookstore heist called Bottle Rocket, played at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, attracting the attention of producer Polly Platt and writer/director James L. Brooks. With Brooks' support, Wilson and Anderson expanded the short into a feature, indie cult favorite Bottle Rocket (1996). Though it made little impression at the box office, Anderson and Wilson's distinctly offbeat, wry, and optimistic tale about aspiring criminal Dignan and his best friend Anthony (played by Wilson's brother Luke Wilson) earned ardent fans among cinéastes. Wilson's inspired performance as Dignan, not to mention his blond hair, large grin, and affable drawl, became his Hollywood calling card. That same year, Wilson also began a fertile association with actor/director Ben Stiller, appearing in one memorable scene as a smooth, ill-fated date in Stiller's black comedy The Cable Guy (1996).Alternating between supporting roles in Hollywood spectacles, collaborations with Anderson and Stiller, and smaller independent projects, Wilson worked steadily for the rest of the 1990s. Though he always seemed to fill the generic slot of Guy Marked for Death, Wilson still managed to bring a reliably laid-back, humorous spark to the bombastic proceedings in Anaconda (1997), Armageddon (1998), and The Haunting (1999). On a more artistically successful front, Wilson's next script with Anderson resulted in the lauded coming-of-age film Rushmore (1998). With its singular cast of characters, distinctive combination of deadpan humor and true emotion, and superb performances by Jason Schwartzman as teen prodigy Max Fischer and Bill Murray as depressed millionaire Blume, Rushmore earned prizes from the critics (if not the Academy) and proved that Bottle Rocket was no fluke. As far as acting, Wilson's ability to suggest complexity beneath a breezy surface earned positive notice for his unsettling performance as a laconic, self-styled Good Samaritan serial killer in indie thriller The Minus Man (1999).By 2000, Wilson began to take center stage in larger Hollywood projects as well. Though it was another Jackie Chan vehicle, Wilson's hilarious co-starring turn as a surfer dude-tinged outlaw in the chop socky Western Shanghai Noon (2000) nearly stole the movie. Wilson's brief appearance as a Jesus-loving, super rich romantic rival to Ben Stiller's put-upon Greg Focker was a comic highlight of the hit Meet the Parents (2000). Stiller's supermodel farce Zoolander (2001) further sealed Wilson's status as a superlative comic actor. As Zoolander's rival Hansel, Wilson's offbeat timing made him the ultimate bubble-headed mannequin; his catwalk competition with Stiller provided the biggest laughs in a hit-or-miss movie. Even as he flourished in broad Hollywood comedy, Wilson continued his partnership with Wes Anderson, co-writing with Anderson and co-starring (with his brother Luke and Stiller among others) in the unusual family story The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Branching out into serious roles, Wilson then co-starred with The Royal Tenenbaums patriarch Gene Hackman in the military drama Behind Enemy Lines (2001). An increasingly prevalent figure in action films following the millennial turnover, Wilson followed Behind Enemy Lines with I Spy (2002) and the Shanghai Noon sequel Shanghai Knights (2003) before appearing opposite Morgan Freeman in the critical and commercial disappointment The Big Bounce and co-starring in the underwhelming big screen adaptation of Starsky & Hutch. He made his third appearance in a Jackie Chan vehicle in the 2004 Disney production Around the World in 80 Days; though poised to be a blockbuster, the mega-budgeted film was one of the biggest flops of the season.A rebound was in order, and if his supporting turn in the 2004 holiday-season blockbuster sequel Meet the Fockers wasn't enough, Wilson found his greatest leading-man success to date as foil to the bawdy Vince Vaughn in 2005's raunchy, runaway hit The Wedding Crashers. The Wilson-Vaughn pairing challenged the Wilson-Stiller hilarity quotient as a pair of divorce consultants who bide their free time crashing weddings to get laid. The $200-million smash was indeed a tough act to follow, and while 2006's You, Me and Dupree - a thematic reprise of his Wedding Crashers role in which he plays an irritating houseguest who refuses to vacate - was something of a letdown, Wilson more than made up for it that same year with a leading voice role in Pixar's Cars and a supporting turn in Stiller's special-effects comedy A Night at the Museum.For the next couple of years, Wilson continued to stick with what worked - collaborations with Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) and sequels in his hit franchises (Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian (2009), Little Fockers (2010) and Cars 2 (2011)). He also starred in Woody Allen's Mightnight in Paris (2011), earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.Romantically linked, by turns, with a pre-Ashton Demi Moore, rocker Sheryl Crow, and actress Kate Hudson, Wilson, with his shaggy blond mane, blue eyes, and (as one magazine cited humorously in its front cover headline) "unusual nose," also found himself the unlikely forebear of a new wave of Hollywood sex symbols.

Trivia: Audiences were charmed by Troy Gentile from the very beginning, when he played the younger version of Jack Black in the 2005 comedy Nacho Libre. The young star would also appear in a remake of The Bad News Bears that same year, and would collaborate with Black again the next year, appearing in Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. In 2008, the actor continued to carve out his niche as a pint-sized source of outrageous comedy with a role in the Owen Wilson movie Drillbit Taylor. Then in 2009, he made a more family-friendly appearances in Hotel for Dogs.

Trivia: Edgy female comic Lisa Ann Walter may look like your wholesome, All-American former high-school prom queen, but don't be fooled by appearances -- she can work blue with the best of them. As a featured performer on the all-female standup special The Naughty Show, Walter brought down the house with her raucous stage presence. Of course, standup is only one of her many talents, and Walter has also appeared on television in episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Nip/Tuck, and Watch Over Me, and in such high-profile feature-film releases as Bruce Almighty, Shall We Dance?, and War of the Worlds. Walter's real-life role as a mother provided much of the fodder for her live comedy act, and the Pennsylvania native rose through the ranks of the New York City standup circuit to become one of the hottest female comics in the country. While Walter would have to tone town her outspoken ways for the small screen, she became an instant hit with audiences as one of the judges on the competitive ABC reality show The Next Best Thing: Who Is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator? in 2007.

Trivia: Named "wittiest" in her junior-high-school yearbook. Created sketch-comedy group Ms. Dee, named after her dog, in New York before writing and performing in the one-woman off-Broadway show This Is Where I Get Off. In 1996 became the first female correspondent on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and hosted her own series of interview specials. Was a recurring character on the Michael J. Fox sitcom Spin City for two years. In 2004 landed a lead role on the short-lived Fox comedy Method & Red, which starred Method Man and Redman. Played extremely different moms on Disney's I'm in the Band and MTV's The Hard Times of RJ Berger. Is fond of saying that she follows in "the rich tradition of Episcopalians in comedy."

Trivia: With a golden-locked classic Hollywood beauty reminiscent of Mia Farrow, pretty Leslie Mann has been gracing the screens of both theaters and televisions since her film debut in 1991 (Virgin High). A San Francisco native, Mann's striking blue eyes and softly high-pitched voice aren't the only factors that got her work in Hollywood amidst a sea of struggling actors; she credits much of her success to her three therapists, a psychic, and Susan Jeffers' popular self-help book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. Fidgety and energetic, Mann continued acting on television's Birdland (1994) before beating out 500 other aspiring actresses two years later for the role of Matthew Broderick's girlfriend in The Cable Guy. After turning up in She's the One the same year, Mann would take another high-profile role, as a period prostitute alongside Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing. Essaying the role of Ursula in George of the Jungle (1997) before taking on Adam Sandler in Big Daddy (1999), fans with a quick eye could later spot Mann in one of four screens in director Mike Figgis' Timecode in 2000. In the following years the attractive and increasingly prominent actress could be seen in such comedies as Orange County and The Promise (both 2002). In 1997 she married comedy writer/producer/director Judd Apatow, and he put her in a a great scene in 2005's The 40-Year-Old-Virgin which led to more high-profile parts in comedies such as Knocked Up, Funny People, 17 Again, I Love You Phillip Morris, and The Change-up. In 2012 she and Paul Rudd revived their characters from Knocked Up for the middle-age marriage comedy This Is 40.

Trivia: Born in 1976, character actor Danny McBride took his Hollywood bow in the early 2000s and frequented mostly youth-oriented comedies, often though not always with a visceral element. These included Jody Hill's cult hit The Foot Fist Way (which he also co-scripted with Hill and Ben Best), the Farrelly Brothers' raunchy remake The Heartbreak Kid (2007), and the Judd Apatow-produced, David Gordon Green-directed action comedy Pineapple Express (2008), which starred Seth Rogen. The 2009 Observe and Report -- a by-the-throat comedy about a psychotic mall guard -- re-teamed co-star McBride with lead Rogen and director Hill. In 2009, McBride added television to his résumé, starring as a washed-up ex-baseball player in the HBO sitcom Eastbound & Down, which he also executive produced; the following year, he collaborated with director Green once again on the fantasy-comedy Your Highness. He had a small but memorable part in the Oscar-nominated George Clooney vehicle Up In the Air. He reteamed with David Gordon Green and James Franco for the fantasy pot comedy Your Highness in 2011, lending his vocal talents to Kung Fu Panda 2 that same year.

Trivia: Actor Josh Peck rose to fame as a teen star, initially thanks to a frequent presence on the Nickelodeon children's television network. He began with a multi-season stint on the youth-oriented sketch comedy variety series The Amanda Show (as one of the ensemble players supporting lead Amanda Bynes), and then received title billing on his own series, Drake & Josh, which ran from 2004 to 2007. In that program, Peck played one of two constantly quarreling teens who inadvertently wind up as stepbrothers when their single parents wed -- then engage in a series of colorful adventures together and forge the closest of friendships. Commensurate with the long-running success and popularity of this program, Peck was able to branch out into movies with minimal effort -- in such films as (the Nickelodeon-produced) Max Keeble's Big Move, Ice Age: The Meltdown (where he provided the voice of Eddie), and a supporting role as Ronnie in the Owen Wilson comedy Drillbit Taylor (2008). The initially chubby Peck also made headlines for losing a prodigious amount of weight in a concerted effort to get fit and healthy. He later reflected on his body image: "It's my responsibility as a role model to keep up an image and help young people."Once Drake & Josh ended in 2007, Peck played the lead in The Wackness, a coming of age film set in 1994. The film earned favorable reviews and helped Peck launch his adult career, though he still made occasional appearances on Nickelodeon shows. He reprised his role of Eddie in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012). Also in 2012, the long-shelved remake of Red Dawn was finally released (the movie was filmed in 2009) and Peck nabbed the voice role of Casey Jones in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series. After memorable guest appearances on The Mindy Project and The Big Bang Theory, Peck landed on Grandfathered, opposite John Stamos, in the fall of 2015.

Trivia: Graduated as salutatorian of her high-school class in Arizona. Worked in interior design and upscale home furnishings before launching her acting and sketch comedy career. Co-founded the annual San Francisco Comedy Festival, or SF Sketchfest, in 2002. Hosts a podcast called The JV Club, chatting with fellow performers.

Trivia: Started his career in college appearing in student theater productions, including the lead role in Sweeney Todd. Is an alumnus of Minneapolis' Brave New Workshop, whose past members include Al Franken, Peter MacNicol and Mo Collins. Landed his first major TV role with Comedy Central's Cops parody Reno 911! While still appearing as a police officer on Reno 911! on TV, he played a prison guard in the 2004 movie Meet the Fockers. In addition to his film and television work, has lent his voice to various video game, including Iron Man 2, Mafia II and Crash: Mind Over Mutant.

Trivia: Actor Andrew Caldwell entered films and television as a young man and specialized in portrayals of geeky, overweight, socially awkward types. Caldwell made a series of guest appearances on small screen programs including The Bernie Mac Show, My Name Is Earl, and Hannah Montana before moving into films and specializing in glossy formulaic Hollywood outings. These included the big-budget action yarn Transformers (2007), the teen-oriented comedies College (2008) and My Best Friend's Girl (2008), and the Owen Wilson vehicle Drillbit Taylor (2008).

Trivia: Film and television player Roger Fan premiered on the small screen in the late '90s, with guest spots on such series as HBO's Arli$$ and NBC's Frasier. After the turn of the millennium, however, he segued into bit parts and supporting roles in theatrical features. These included Corky Romano (2001), Stuck on You (2003), and Annapolis (2006). Fan ascended to star billing as Breeze Loo (a riff on Bruce Lee) in Finishing the Game (2007) -- a martial arts-themed comedy about director Robert Clouse's attempts to polish off the actioner The Game of Death following the death of lead actor Lee.

Trivia: An actor who's certainly paid his dues, Kyle Kaplan began his career touring with the live production of the children's puppet series Bear in the Big Blue House when he was 13. He also worked in the world of TV commercials before landing a series of appearances on TV shows like The Bernie Mac Show, Zoey 101, and Hannah Montana. In 2009, Kaplan was cast in the TV adaptation of the film 10 Things I Hate About You.

Trivia: Worked as a copy editor for Popular Mechanics as well as an assistant at Rolling Stone magazine after leaving graduate school. Held positions of fact checker and the First Chief of Research for Spy magazine; also wrote about music for Hit Parader magazine. Launched her stand-up career in the early '90s, working various clubs in New York City and Los Angeles, where she developed a following for her raunchy and caustic routines. Breakthrough came in 2002, when she was the only female comedian invited to skewer Chevy Chase at the New York Friar's Club Roast on Comedy Central. Frequent guest of The Howard Stern Show. Landed first cable stand-up special, The Queen of Mean, in 2002. Put out first DVD, Take It Like a Man, in 2005; followed it up with Dirty Girl in early 2007.

Trivia: Started her professional acting career on stage when she was 11.Received the Presidential Scholarship in 1989 when she was a high school senior.Received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Debut Performance in 1994 for her work in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.Notably voiced Starfire on Teen Titans Go!, Teen Titans, New Teen Titans and DC Super Hero Girls; and Princess Bubblegum on Adventure Time.Founded the Hillside Produce Cooperative, a free exchange of local, organically grown food.

Trivia: Though he would remain one of the comedy world's best-kept secrets through the later half of the 1990s, improvisational comic-turned-actor David Koechner, (born August 24, 1962) later made a successful transition from SNL and Late Night With Conan O'Brien funnyman to supporting feature player roles when word of his talent spread, thanks to stellar supporting parts in such wide-release films as A Guy Thing and Anchorman. The Tipton, MO, native studied political science at the University of Missouri, with a subsequent career in the family business (manufacturing turkey coops) narrowly averted by a post-college move to Chicago. It was there that Koechner attempted to master his comic skills under the tutelage of improv master Del Close, with further studies at the Windy City's ImprovOlympic cementing the skills of the up-and-coming talent. A subsequent stint at Chicago's Second City Theater led to Koechner's lucky break when he was whisked away by SNL creator Lorne Michaels to become a player in the long-running weekly comedy mainstay. Though he would remain with SNL for merely one season, Koechner continued to impress on the small screen as a performer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the 1996-1997 season. As his reputation continued to grow due to appearances on such popular shows as Mad About You and Dharma & Greg, Koechner also made an impression in features thanks to small but memorable roles in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Man on the Moon, and My Boss's Daughter. Though he would continue to work in minor capacity on the small screen, Koechner seemed to be focusing on features at this point in his career, with a turn as a chauvinistic sportscaster in the 2004 Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman offering what was perhaps his most substantial feature performance to date. Koechner played a tobacco lobbyist in 2005's media satire Thankyou for Smoking, and reunited with Will Ferrell to for a supporting role in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby in 2006. In 2008 he joined the cast of Get Smart, the big-screen adaptation of Mel Brooks' popular 1960s-era comedy series, and proved himself no stranger to camp in Final Destination 5 (2011) and Piranha 3DD (2012).

Trivia: Dedicated film buffs will remember Tichina Arnold as Crystal, one of the three black girls who perform R&B numbers as a Greek chorus, in Frank Oz's imaginative movie musical Little Shop of Horrors (1986). Arnold was only 15 at the time; her career continued steadily after that, with a role or two almost every year. Though the actress' cinematic efforts -- such as How I Got Into College (1989) and the Paul Mazursky/Woody Allen collaboration Scenes from a Mall (1990) -- were typically disappointing, she delighted fans with her neat comic turn as Pam James (opposite Little Shop collaborator Tisha Campbell) in the Martin Lawrence sitcom Martin (1992-1997), and -- on a similar note -- waxed hilarious as housewife and mother Rochelle on the nostalgic Chris Rock sitcom Everybody Hates Chris (premiering in 2005). In 2007, Arnold reunited with Lawrence (as his "straight man" wife) in the big screen road comedy/buddy film Wild Hogs. She next took a decidedly serious turn, playing the lead in the period drama The Lena Baker Story, about the first woman to be executed via the electric chair in Georgia. Arnold continued to make guest appearances on shows like Raising Hope and Hit the Floor, and took a main role on Happily Divorced, beginning in 2011. In 2014, she had a small role in Top Five.

Trivia: Though best known for his work as radio station bigwig Jimmy James on the television series NewsRadio, Stephen Root is one of the busier character actors at work today, and a familiar face to television and movie audiences. Born in Sarasota, FL, on November 17, 1951, Root received a degree in acting and broadcasting from the University of Florida, and after graduating passed an audition to join the touring company of the National Shakespeare Company. After three years with the NSC, Root settled in New York City, where he began working in off-Broadway theater, making his debut in a revival of Journey's End. His first Broadway role, in So Long on Lonely Street, was a bust at the box office, but the 1987 revival of All My Sons was a big hit which generated plenty of enthusiastic press for Root. 1988 saw Root making his motion-picture debut in the George Romero horror opus Monkey Shines, and over the next several years Root worked steadily in feature films, episodic television, and made-for-TV movies, scoring recurring roles on L.A. Law, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Blossom; guest spots on Northern Exposure, Murphy Brown, and Quantum Leap; supporting parts in Ghost, Dave, and Robocop 3; and an acclaimed turn in A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story, as well as its sequel, Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, The Last Chapter. In 1993, Root was cast as R.O. on the television series Harts of the West; the show only lasted a season, but his next role on a series would last a bit longer; cast as Jimmy on the sitcom NewsRadio in 1995, Root would last with the show for five seasons, until the show was canceled after a disappointing final season following the death of co-star Phil Hartman. During hiatus from NewsRadio and after the series ended, Root continued his busy schedule, making memorable appearances in feature films (including Office Space and O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and guesting on other shows. Root also began doing voice work, speaking for Buck Strickland and Bill Dauterive on the animated series King of the Hill and the Sheriff on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.Root's small-screen voice-work would soon lead to his involvement in two popular big-screen animated features. In 2002's Ice Age, audiences could hear him along with Cedric the Entertainer as a pair of Rhinos. And the next year, Root lent his pipes to the blockbuster underwater adventure Finding Nemo. While his voice became more familiar to moviegoers, Root continued to become more of a presence in live-action films as well. Turning in no less than four supporting performances in high-profile films, Root spent 2004 reteaming with the Coen brothers for The Ladykillers, showing up in a prominent role in Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl, and costarring in the broad comedies Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Mad Money, and Leatherheads.He remained one of the most respected and in-demand character actors of his generation appearing in a variety of projects including Mad Money, The Soloist, Everything Must Go, Red State, Cedar Rapids, and J. Edgar. He also provided numerous voices for the Oscar-winning animated feature Rango.

Trivia: Encouraged by better-than-average success as a stage performer in such plays as Mister Roberts and The Seven Year Itch, American actor Rance Howard decided to try his luck in Hollywood. Talent, however, meant less than star appeal in Tinseltown, thus Howard was confined to small roles which took only minimal advantage of his abilities. Howard's wife Jean was also an actress, but retired to raise their son Ron (both mother and child appeared in the 1956 Western Frontier Woman). Ron was photogenic enough to attain supporting parts on various TV shows and films, leading to a regular role as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Those cynics who believe that Rance Howard forced his son into acting in order to create a meal ticket are referred to a well-known anecdote concerning the earliest years of the Griffith program. Little Ron decided to test his value by throwing a temper tantrum -- whereupon Rance took the boy aside, gave him a spanking, and told his son that if he didn't want to act like a professional he'd have to go home and forget about acting. While Rance certainly did not rely on Ron's fame alone to get work (he remained a busy stage actor), it is true that Ron recommended his dad for supporting roles in such films as The Music Man (1962) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), both of which featured the younger Howard. When child star Ronny Howard became A-list film director Ron Howard in the '80s he continued casting both dad Rance and younger brother Clint Howard in Splash (1984) and other films. Rance Howard remained a reliable general purpose actor well into the 2000s.

Trivia: Chuck Liddell is best known as the light heavyweight champion in the UFC, or Ultimate Fighting Championship, as well as taking the sport to commercial and popular heights. The mixed martial arts star is also known by his nickname, the Iceman. He's appeared in the UFC reality series The Ultimate Fighter, and competed on the ninth season of the popular reality competition series Dancing With the Stars.