Trivia: Born August 19th, 1965, actress Kyra Sedgwick was seemingly born into fame, as a cousin of '60s mod icon and muse of Andy Warhol Edie Sedgwick. While only 16 when she made her professional acting debut on the TV soap Another World in 1982, Kyra proved much more stable than her ill-fated predecessor, graduating from USC and going on to cultivate a successful acting career on the stage, screen, and television. With high cheekbones, piercing eyes, full lips, and a mane of striking blonde curls, the young actress had no problem landing the film and TV roles to sustain her life as a working actress, but her solid, pensive presence onscreen proved to be an even more useful asset than her looks. Landing at least two substantial parts a year, she built up a resumé over the next decade that included the title role in 1985's Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale and a part in the acclaimed 1987 TV movie Lemon Sky, where she met co-star and future husband Kevin Bacon. The two were married the following year and would have two children.As the '90s approached, Sedgwick gained big-screen attention with a supporting role in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989). In 1992, she notably had the chance to embrace her Jewish side -- as a person who'd openly spoken about her mixed ethnic identity -- with a role in Miss Rose White, starring as a Polish-born woman sent to New York as a child to escape the Holocaust, but who is forced to confront the Jewish heritage she's since denied when she finds that the sister she was separated from is still alive.That same year, Sedgwick scored the "big break" part that she would long be remembered for when Cameron Crowe cast her as the female lead in his film Singles. A sweet and funny generational opus about life and love after college, the dramedy was filmed on location in Seattle in 1991, just as the grunge music movement was beginning to take off. In addition to supporting cast members like Matt Dillon and Bridget Fonda, the film featured artists like Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell in minor roles as musicians. Sedgwick's placement in a movie that would prove to be so iconic for its time and place endeared her greatly to Gen-Xers, though she would lie low throughout the '90s and 2000s, frequently choosing smaller, independent projects.In 2004, Sedgwick and husband Kevin Bacon undertook a joint project, The Woodsman, which Bacon also produced. Still more daunting for the spouses than the notoriously stressful task of working together, the film cast Bacon as a paroled pedophile, examining the character's recovery and the tentative relationship that he forms with a somewhat emotionally hardened fellow lumberyard worker, played by Sedgwick. While hardly blockbuster subject matter, the project was praised by critics, as was Sedgwick's intimate, minimalist performance.It seemed clear that Sedgwick's interests as an actor lay outside the harshest glare of the Hollywood limelight, but in 2006 she managed to stumble into its illumination anyway, starring in the TNT drama The Closer. Playing a Southern-born police detective with an uncanny skill for extracting confessions, Sedgwick brought a multi-dimensional quality to the character of Brenda Johnson that made the series considerably more well-rounded than the other procedural crime shows that flooded prime time. The complex nature of the role earned her immense praise, as in a singe episode, Brenda could share the screen with her arrogant co-workers, her flirtatious beau, her beloved but nagging mother, and several criminal suspects that she might persuade to confess through any number of personal approaches. Audiences were awed at the genuineness with which Sedgwick was able to portray a character who is so frequently choosing her words and actions with careful precision, and the series was picked up for a second season in 2007. That same year, Sedgwick took home a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama.When The Closer ended in 2012, Sedgwick returned to movies, including a small role in Man on a Ledge (2012), the lead in the horror film The Possession (2012) and an uncredited cameo in 2013's Kill Your Darlings.

Trivia: Jonathan Kimble Simmons was originally a singer, with a degree in music from the University of Montana. He turned to theater in the late 1970s and appeared in many regional productions in the Pacific Northwest before moving to New York in 1983. He appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway shows and also did some television -- his early roles included the portrayal of a white supremacist responsible for multiple murders in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. In that same vein, Simmons first gained wide exposure as Vern Schillinger, the leader of an Aryan Brotherhood-type organization in prison in the HBO series Oz. Parlaying his small-screen notoriety into feature film opportunities, Simmons had a small part in the 1997 thriller The Jackal and played a leading role in Frank Todaro's low-budget comedy Above Freezing, a runner-up for the most popular film at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival. Also in 1997, Simmons increased his television prolificacy by taking on the role of Dr. Emil Skoda, the consulting psychiatrist to the Manhattan district attorney's office in the series Law and Order. By 1999, Simmons was showing up in such prominent films as The Cider House Rules and the baseball drama For Love of the Game, directed by Sam Raimi. The director again enlisted Simmons for his next film, 2000's The Gift. After a supporting turn in the disappointing comedy The Mexican, Simmons teamed with Raimi for the third time, bringing cigar-chomping comic-book newspaperman J. Jonah Jameson screaming to life in the 2002 summer blockbuster Spider-Man. In 2004, he would reprise the role in the highly anticipated sequel, Spider-Man 2. That same year, along with appearing alongside Tom Hanks in the Coen Brothers' The Ladykillers, Simmons continued to be a presence on the tube, costarring on ABC's midseason-replacement ensemble drama The D.A.His career subsequently kicking into overdrive, the popular character actor was in increasingly high demand in the next few years, enjoying a productive run as a voice performer in such animated television series' as Justice League, Kim Possible, The Legend of Korra, and Ultimate Spider-Man (the latter of which found him reprising his role as J. Jonah Jameson), as well as turning in memorable performances in Jason Reitman's Juno, Mike Judge's Extract, and as a hard-nosed captain in the 2012 crime thriller Contraband. Meanwhile, in 2005, he joined the cast of TNT's popular crime drama The Closer as Assistant Chief Will Pope -- a role which no doublt played a part in the cast earning five Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Ensemble Cast. Simmons continued to work steadily in movies, returning to the Spider-Man franchise in 2007. That same year he co-starred as the father of a pregnant teen in Juno, which led to him being cast regularly by that film's director Jason Reitman in many of his future projects including Up In the Air and Labor Day. It was Reitman who got Simmons the script for Whiplash, Damien Chazelle's directorial debut. The actor took the part of an abusive, but respected music teacher and the ensuing performance garnered Simmons multiple year-end awards including a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Academy.

Trivia: Legally emancipated from his mother at 16, and subsequently began his acting career in his hometown of Richmond, VA. Never studied singing, dancing or acting outside of public school. Worked as a cruise ship entertainer after high school. Broadway debut in Hairspray earned him nominations for an Outer Circle Critics Award, a Drama Desk Award and a Tony. Made his big-screen debut in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal (2004) after the director saw his performance in Hairspray. First series-regular role came with the part of Sgt. David Gabriel on TNT drama The Closer. Works on scripts in his spare time and has written a comedy-series pitch and a movie about an all-black paratrooper unit in World War II.

Trivia: Was originally a music major at the High School of Performing Arts in New York. First professional acting job was in an off-Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest after graduating from high school. Is the first cousin of Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr. The play for which he won an NAACP Theater Award, Indigo Blues, was written by his wife, Michele. Learned to play drums for the 2009 cable movie Flying By.

Trivia: Though he would return to higher education nearly three decades later, Texas native G.W. Bailey left college and spent the mid-'60s working at local theater companies. Determined to establish an acting career for himself, a young Bailey moved to California in the 1970s and worked in a variety of settings. From appearances on television's Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels to stage productions of Shakespearian classics, Bailey, despite his lack of professional experience, proved a surprisingly versatile actor. He did not, however, attain significant mainstream recognition until 1981, when he was cast as pool-hall con artist Private Rizzo in CBS's long-running series M*A*S*H. The exposure led to five large supporting roles on a variety of feature-length television dramas, and ultimately, a very different type of performance all together: that of the imposing yet incompetent Lieutenant Harris in the lowbrow cop comedy Police Academy (1984). His Police Academy role was reprised as sequels were churned out in rapid succession, and he was cast as a similarly inept authority figure in 1987's Mannequin.Though the 1980s found Bailey immersed in fairly unmemorable film roles (mainly comedies and dark thrillers), he was able to forge a more than respectable resumé in the realm of television movies, including the popular Murder in Texas (NBC, 1981), On Our Way (CBS, 1985), Spy Games (ABC, 1991), and Dead Before Dawn (ABC, 1993). His television roles offered a G.W. Bailey quite unlike Lieutenant Harris, and he was able to develop a following and a steady reputation as a supporting actor. Eventually, he was able to add "college graduate" to his list of accomplishments, as his mid-'90s stint at Southwest Texas State University proved successful as well. In 2004, Bailey lent his vocal chords to Disney's animated musical Western Home on the Range.He was cast as Lt. Provenza on The Closer, a show that would be for a time the highest rated scripted program on basic cable, and he would stay on the show for its entire run.

Trivia: Character actor Jon Tenney has appeared on stage and in feature films, but he may be best known for his television work, notably for playing Patrol Sergeant Francis X. Donovan on Steven Bochco's short-lived police drama Brooklyn South. His film work includes Twilight of the Golds (1997), Fools Rush In (1997), and With Friends Like These... (1998). Tenney's interest in acting stems from early childhood and it developed further while he attended Vassar College, where he majored in drama and philosophy. Afterwards, he was accepted to Juilliard, where he was a standout student. He made his professional debut starring in a touring production of The Real Thing, directed by Mike Nichols. This led to his working steadily on and off Broadway, as well as in regional theater. His television credits include Equal Justice and Crime and Punishment. His made-for-television movie credits include Alone in the Neon Jungle (1987). Since 1994, Tenney has been married to popular television actress Teri Hatcher. He appeared in Kenneth Lonnergan's first film, You Can Count on Me, and Albert Brooks cast him in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. In 2005 he was cast in the hit cable series The Closer as Agent Fritz Howard, and he would stay with that show for the next few years. He continued to work on the big screen in projects such as The Stepfather, Rabbit Hole, and Green Lantern.

Trivia: Supporting actor Anthony Denison has appeared onscreen since the '80s.

Trivia: Grew up in East Los Angeles. Was inspired to take up acting after a school trip to see the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird. Made TV debut in 1987 and has appeared in guest or recurring roles in some 30 series, including Cagney & Lacey, Knots Landing, China Beach, The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, NYPD Blue, 24, My Name Is Earl, Nip/Tuck and CSI: Miami. Was a regular on The Eddie Files, a Peabody Award-winning math-education program that aired on PBS stations in the late 1990s. Received a 2010 Saturn Award nomination for his role as psychotic drug dealer Tuco on Breaking Bad. Likes to build and ride motorcycles; a bike he owns appeared in a 2008 episode of The Closer.

Trivia: Raised in Richmond, CA. Decided to pursue acting while in college. Stage debut came in 1977's The Year of the Dragon with the San Francisco-based Asian American Theatre Company. Appeared in the 1981 off-Broadway production of Family Devotions. Played Data's father in the 1985 film The Goonies. His first TV series was the 1994 syndicated drama Valley of the Dolls. Provided the voice for Jimmy Ho on Fox's animated comedy The PJs. Likes to ride, build and restore single-speed bikes.

Trivia: Her mother is African-American and her father is Puerto Rican. Is a classically trained dancer. Was originally planning to be a lawyer. Was nominated for an ALMA Award in 1999 for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Made-for-Television Movie or Mini-Series in a Crossover Role, for The Temptations. In 2007, founded Project Reina, an organization that educates young women about HIV/AIDS prevention.

Trivia: The daughter of actress Whitney Blake, Meredith Baxter received extensive training in the arts at the Interlochen Summer Camp in Michigan. Meredith worked as an usher, file clerk and cafeteria checker before getting her first film break in Ben (1971). The 5'7" blonde actress entered the "America's sweetheart" category when she was cast as Bridget Fitzgerald Steinberg, the prettier half of a Catholic-Jewish married couple, in the TV sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie (1972). While the series lasted only a year, her "reel" marriage became a "real" one when, in 1974, she wed her B Loves B co-star David Birney. In addition to yielding a new, hyphenated professional name for Meredith, her union with Birney produced three children before the couple divorced in the early 1990s (she also had two children from a previous marriage). In between stage appearances in such productions as Hamlet, Guys and Dolls and Butterflies are Free, Meredith played Nancy Lawrence Maitland on the TV dramedy Family, winning two Emmy nominations during her four-year (1976-80) stint with this series. In 1982, Meredith agreed to star as flower child-turned-suburban mom Elyse Keaton on the weekly TV comedy Family Ties, having been assured that she would be the star of the series in fact as well as in name. As it happened, Family Ties was dominated throughout its seven-year run by co-star Michael J. Fox. A prolific TV-movie actress, she owns the distinction of playing the same real-life character twice, with two entirely different interpretations. When she first played accused murderess Betty Broderick in 1992's A Woman Scorned, Meredith was sympathetic to Broderick's plight, and played the role accordingly (earning an Emmy nomination in the process); but by the time 1993's Her Final Fury rolled around, Meredith, like everyone else involved in the project, was convinced that Betty Broderick deserved what she got--and played the role in the manner of a Gothic Novel villainess. A made-for-TV movie fixture over the course of the next decade, Baxter remained a familiar face on the small screen thanks to appearances in such popular shows as The Closer and Cold Case, later showing her playful side with voice work in such animated series' as Family Guy and Dan Vs. A breast-cancer survivor, she received a public-awareness award from the National Breast Cancer Coalition for starring in and coproducing the 1994 drama My Breast.

Trivia: Possessing the kind of blonde, hard-bodied looks that make him ideal fodder for both straight women and gay men, Brad Rowe has inspired repeated comparisons to Brad Pitt. Audiences first waxed poetic over the photogenic actor when he appeared in the arthouse hit Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss in 1998. A romantic comedy with Rowe as the sexually ambiguous object of the title character (Sean P. Hayes)'s affections, it was equal parts "Doris Day" comedy, campy musical revue, and heartfelt search for love. It had the added attraction of a scene that allowed Rowe to showcase his more physical attributes with the aid of a very small swimsuit.Rowe got his start in acting with a mail room job at the United Talent Agency, where he began working after a stint as a finance manager in Washington, D.C. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was born May 15, 1970, he attended the University of Wisconsin. After graduating with a degree in Economics, he headed to Spain, where, in addition to working and studying, he also played in a blues band. After returning to the States, he worked in Washington, where he decided he wanted to pursue screenwriting. He took some writing classes at Northwestern and then headed to Los Angeles. After securing his mail room job at UTA, he began taking acting classes, and, with the help of various UTA co-workers, started landing auditions. Rowe's first real acting job was on the TV sitcom NewsRadio, on which he played an intern for a few episodes. After starring in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss in 1998, he began finding more steady work: in 1999, he could be seen on screens big and small. On television, he starred in Wasteland, Kevin Williamson's latest offering, and in the miniseries Purgatory, a Western that also featured Sam Shepard, Randy Quaid, and Peter Stormare. On the big screen, Rowe could be seen in Body Shots, an ensemble film in which he starred as one of a group of L.A. twentysomethings searching for love, or, failing that, plain old sex.

Trivia: New Jersey native Jeffrey Nordling attended Wheaton College in Illinois before beginning his professional acting career, making small appearances in movies like Working Girl and Shooter in the early '80s. He would continue to work regularly as the years passed, eventually becoming particularly well known to audiences for parts like ex-husband Jake on Now and Again, and Brent Barrow on Dirt, as well as FBI agent Larry Moss on the seventh season of 24. He joined the cast of Desperate Housewives in that show's sixth season, and in 2010 he could be seen on the big-screen in Tron: Legacy.

Trivia: An actress with the kind of versatile beauty that has allowed her to effortlessly alternate between earthy and glamorous roles, Veronica Cartwright's steel-blue eyes have a strange way of piercing through the screen and transcending their two-dimensional restraints. Having successfully made the transition from child actor to seasoned screen veteran, Cartwright continued a career which allowed her to explore roles that ran the gamut from straight drama to chilling horror. A native of Bristol, England, Cartwright's family emigrated to the United States when she was still very young. Following a series of modeling jobs and print ads, the aspiring actress became a familiar face to television viewers as the "Kellogg's Girl" in a series of breakfast cereal commercials. She made her screen debut in the 1958 war drama In Love and War, and, in the years that followed, alternated between film and TV work with roles in such features as The Children's Hour (1961) and The Birds (1963), in addition to a turn as Lumpy's sister on the small-screen classic Leave It to Beaver. From 1964-1968, the actress endeared herself to television viewers as Jemima Boone on the popular Daniel Boone series. Although the transition from adorable child star to serious adult actor has been a serious stumbling block for generations of young stars, Cartwright skillfully avoided this pitfall with a series of memorable roles in the 1970s. Playing opposite such heavies as Richard Dreyfuss in Inserts (1975) and Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Cartwright was well on her way to crafting an enduring film career. A role as the ill-fated navigator in the 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien found her taking part in what would become one of the most lucrative and prolific franchises in cinema history, and a memorable performance in the 1983 space program drama The Right Stuff (in which she worked again with Body Snatchers director Philip Kaufman) helped to sustain her career through the '80s. Subsequent roles in Flight of the Navigator (1986) and Wisdom (1987) offered little in the way of dramatic depth, though Cartwright's winning performance in George Miller's The Witches of Eastwick (1987) found her nearly stealing the show from stars Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Despite the fact that Cartwright kicked off the '90s with a memorable turn in the popular weekly drama L.A. Law, the roles which followed were mostly comprised of thankless appearances in made-for-TV features and forgettable horror sequels. Although she remained busy, her parts just weren't as rich as they had been. Despite the dry spell, however, Cartwright was nominated for an Emmy for three memorable appearances in the popular small-screen chiller The X Files. The following decade found her edging back toward memorable film work with appearances in In the Bedroom (2001), Scary Movie 2 (2001), and Just Married (2003). After facing off against a cat-munching alien in the 2002 short Mackenheim, Cartwright essayed a substantial role in Richard Day's 2004 comedy Straight Jacket. She played the wife of famous sexual researcher Alfred Kinsey in the 2004 biopic of the man, and appeared in the 2007 sci-fi film The Invasion. In 2009 she returned to familiar ground with a part in the small-screen adaptation Eastwick, and she landed a major part in the 2011 thriller InSight.

Trivia: Was a member of DUMB, the Duke University Marching Band while attending Duke University.Was part of a 2003 national campaign for Nintendo in both print and commercials.Appeared in the 2006 music video for the Stephanie McIntosh song "Mistake."An accomplished drummer and lyricist.Famously portrayed Dr. Lucas Jones on the soap series General Hospital, but also had the recurring role of Justin on Desperate Housewives and played the titular Phantom/ Kit Walker on the syfy comic book adaptation mini-series The Phantom.

Trivia: Fluent in German and Spanish. Worked as a Pan Am flight attendant and collects airplane memorabilia. Has a pilot's license. Enjoys renovating homes. Made his feature-film debut in the 2004 drama Role of a Lifetime. Best known for playing a surveillance expert on the hit police drama The Closer, starting in 2007.

Trivia: Jo Anderson has appeared on stage, television, and in feature films of the '80s and '90s. Fans of the defunct television series Northern Exposure will remember her for playing Roslyn, one of the founders of the town of Cicely on the memorable episode "Cicely" in 1992.