Trivia: Mark-Paul Gosselaar became a TV teen idol as bleached-blond Zack on Saved by the Bell and spent the latter half of the 1990s trying to live down that legacy. Born in California to Dutch parents, Gosselaar had already made numerous TV guest appearances as a child actor by the time he was cast on Saved by the Bell in 1989. Though the perky high school/college sitcom made him a hit with the young audience, he had difficulties finding work after leaving the show in 1994. Still, he managed to land roles in TV and B-films, including Sticks and Stones (1996), Kounterfeit (1996), and the Western Brothers of the Frontier (1996). Confirming that his teen (and perhaps teen idol) years were behind him, Gosselaar played a college date rapist in She Cried No (1996) and co-starred with Hilary Swank in the college hazing TV movie Dying to Belong (1997). Moving to higher profile feature films, Gosselaar engaged in slightly more lighthearted college hijinks in MTV Films' black comedy Dead Man on Campus (1998). He was back on TV, however, playing young adults in two short-lived drama series, Hyperion Bay (1998) and D.C. (2000). In 2001, Gosselaar was finally able to truly graduate from Saved by the Bell to bona-fide grown-up roles when he was selected to take over for Rick Schroeder on the long-running gritty cop series NYPD Blue. His four year run with the series cemented the actor's new reputation as an adult actor, and he would go on to star on several other shows, like Commander in Chief, Raising the Bar, and Franklin & Bash. In 2015, secure in his adult career, Gosselaar reunited with some of his Saved By the Bell cast members for a skit on The Tonight Show.

Trivia: Bearing an unconventional appeal that may have something to do with the slaphappy grin permanently stretched across his face, Breckin Meyer has made a name for himself playing characters that have an almost criminally laid-back attitude as their common denominator. Although he got his big break as endearing stoner Travis Birkenstock in Amy Heckerling's 1995 comedy Clueless, Meyer had been acting since he was 11 years old. Born in Minneapolis, MN, on May 7, 1974, Meyer was raised in Los Angeles, where he had early encounters with fame in the form of elementary school with Drew Barrymore (in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost, she credited Meyer with giving her her first kiss when she was ten and he was 11) and high school with a host of young actors, including future Clueless co-star Alicia Silverstone. Meyer got his start in commercials and television, appearing on various shows, including The Wonder Years. He had his rather inauspicious film debut in 1991, as one of the disposable teens in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, and had bit parts in various forgettable films and an appearance on Fox's Party of Five before being cast in Clueless.Following the huge success of Clueless, Meyer went on to appear in another teen movie, The Craft (1996). After secondary roles in Touch and Prefontaine (both 1997), the actor had a fairly substantial part in 54, in which he got to play Salma Hayek's husband and wear a very small pair of shorts. The film, which starred Meyer's real-life friend Ryan Phillippe, flopped with remarkable gusto, and Meyer's other film that year, the independent Dancer, Texas Pop. 81, was released without fanfare. However, the actor had success the following year as part of an ensemble cast that read like a Who's Who of Hollywood's Young and Employed in Doug Liman's Go. Playing a white boy who believes he's black at heart, Meyer won laughs for his part in the widely acclaimed film, and his appearance in the company of young notables such as Katie Holmes, Sarah Polley, and Scott Wolf went some way toward further establishing the actor's reputation as a noteworthy young talent.A fine supporting player to this point in his fledgling career, Breckin would finally come into his own as the hapless college student racing cross country to intercept a decidedly questionable videotape in director Todd Phillips's breakout comedy Road Trip. Though a subsequent stab at the small screen as the lead in the sports comedy series Inside Schwartz ultimately did little to advance Meyer's career, later roles in the theatrical comedies Rat Race and Kate and Leopold served well to keep the amiable comic talent in the public eye. After providing the voice for the eponymous wooden puppet in Roberto Benigni's 2002 misfire Pinocchio, Breckin helped to bring everyone's favorite comic-strip cat to the big screen with his role as the lasagne-loving feline's hapless master Jon Arbuckle in the 2004 family comedy Garfield. Vocal work in such animated efforts as King of the Hill and Robot Chicken found the actor earning his keep even when not stepping in front of the cameras, and in 2006 Meyer would return to the silver screen to the delight of children everywhere in the kid-friendly sequel Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. In the years to come, Meyer would also find success as a voice actor on shows like Titan Maximum, King of the Hill, Robot Chicken, and Franklin & Bash.

Trivia: Blue-eyed British actor Malcolm McDowell has a history of playing angry, cruel characters that still managed to be charming. Born in working-class Leeds, England, he sold coffee around Yorkshire before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late '60s. By 1967, he had made his big-screen debut in Poor Cow, the first feature-length film from director Ken Loach. Moving to New York, McDowell met director Lindsay Anderson and appeared in his off-Broadway production of Look Back in Anger. (He would reprise his role of angry young man Jimmy Porter in the 1980 film version.) He then played Mick Travis, the rebellious boarding school student in If.... (1968), a role he would continue in Anderson's next two films, O Lucky Man! (which he co-wrote) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Director Stanley Kubrick took notice of his work with Anderson and gave McDowell his international breakthrough with A Clockwork Orange, based upon the novel by Anthony Burgess. His portrayal of the sadistic Alex earned him two Best Actor nominations, but also cemented a dark image that would persist throughout his career. He would occasionally get breaks with characters such as Captain Flashman, the hero in the adventure satire Royal Flash or the naïve fighter in the WWI drama Aces High. But his unscrupulous reputation was reinforced in 1979, when he starred in the title role as the Roman emperor in Bob Guccione's notorious production of Caligula. He made his first American film the same year, playing H.G. Wells in Time After Time alongside young actress Mary Steenburgen (they were married from 1980-1990). McDowell went on to star in the horror remake Cat People, the action-adventure Blue Thunder, and the rock musical-comedy Get Crazy. McDowell made several TV movies toward the late '80s, including Gulag, Arthur the King, and Monte Carlo. After a serious bout with a persistent drug problem, his hair turned white and he started playing regular villains in largely forgettable U.S. releases. He had better casting luck abroad, such as the leading role in the Russian film Assassin of the Tsar. After a cameo in The Player in 1992, the actor started lending his voice talent to cartoons, including Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Superman, Spider-Man, Batman: The Animated Series, Biker Mice From Mars, and the features The Fist of the North Star and Happily Ever After. He also provided the voice of Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn for the Wing Commander video game series and subsequent cartoon. His villainous roles started to gravitate toward science fiction with Tank Girl, Cyborg 3: The Recycler, and, most notably, Dr. Soran in Star Trek: Generations. On television, he played the evil Benny Barrett on the BBC series Our Friends in the North and the sinister Mr. Roarke on the ABC revival series Fantasy Island. In the late '90s, he appeared in a lot of direct-to-video and made-for-cable movies before making a return to U.K. theatrical features with the family drama My Life So Far in 1999 and Gangster No. 1 in 2000. In 2003, he appeared in the horseracing film Hidalgo, Robert Altman's The Company, and the Russian film Evilenko as serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. For better or worse, McDowell's most recognizable role of the decade would likely be that of Dr. Samuel Loomis in Rob Zombie's Halloween (2008) and its 2009 sequel -- thouigh a recurring role on the NBC hit Heroes certainly didn't hurt in boosting his exposure among viewers too young to remember his dramatic defining roles. Occasional voice work in The Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb continued that trend - albiet in a less conspicuous manner -- then in 2011 the screen veteran turned in a brief but memorable performance in Michel Hazanavicius' Oscar favorite The Artist, proving that even without so much as a line of dialogue, McDowell still had the charisma to command the screen.

Trivia: A frequent small-screen presence during the mid- to late 2000s -- in a variety of blockbuster prime-time programs -- Iowa-born actress Dana Davis built her reputation as a sturdy and reliable guest actor in such series outings as Boston Public, Gilmore Girls, and Veronica Mars. She scored a regular role on fall 2006's much-hyped dramatic series The Nine, playing Felicia Jones, but the show failed to sustain viewers and didn't last a full season. Nonetheless, Davis bounced back the next season with a coveted part on the hit sci-fi drama series Heroes, playing a character named Monica. In late 2007, Davis signed on to appear in the remake of the slasher movie classic Prom Night (to be released the following year), directed by Nelson McCormick. In 2009 she was cast in the debut season of the small-screen adaptation of 10 Things I Hate About You.

Trivia: Was a writer on Michael & Michael Have Issues. Had a recurring role on The Colbert Report. Performed his one-man show Unpronounceable for the first time in Chicago in 2007.

Trivia: Pleasant-looking and genial American character player Reed Diamond delivered a number of early performances prior to his first major assignment -- as Detective Mike Kellerman on the series Homicide: Life on the Street. Diamond carried the role from 1995 through 1998, and reprised it in Jean de Segonzac's 2000 feature Homicide: The Movie. After essaying the Lloyd Bridges role in that same year's telemovie remake of High Noon, Diamond then branched off into cinematic work. He was memorable as John Aaron in George Clooney's Edward R. Murrow biopic Good Night, and Good Luck., and lent supporting roles to the horror picture The Darkroom (2006) and the thriller Adrenaline (2007). Diamond continued to work on the small screen as well, playing Stuart Collins for many episodes of Judging Amy and appearing in episodes of such popular series as CSI, Law & Order, The West Wing, and Ghost Whisperer. In 2007, he scored a regular role on the short-lived sci-fi drama Journeyman, as Jack Vassar, the brother of main character Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd). He also appeared in the first season of Joss Whedon's short-lived series Dollhouse in 2009, and the next year he landed a recurring part on the 8th season of the FOX action series 24. He returned to the big screen in 2011 playing Mark Shapiro in Moneyball, and returned to the Whedonverse with a role in the director's 2012 adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Trivia: It may come as little surprise to those who have seen beautiful model-turned-actress Garcelle Beauvais (also credited as Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon) that she was voted one of "The Ten Sexiest Women of 2001" by readers of Black Men Magazine, but take a look beyond the surface and you'll see that Beauvais has the talents to back up her beauty. Born in Haiti, the youngest of seven children, Beauvais moved to Massachusetts with her mother and siblings following her parents' divorce. Beauvais' first years in the U.S. were spent in boarding school while her mother supported the family by attending nursing school. With little knowledge of the English language, the French- and Creole-speaking youngster slowly began the process of educating herself by taking in episodes of Sesame Street. Though going from being a member of the social majority in Haiti to being a minority in America was a difficult transition, it was the change of climate that proved most jarring to young Beauvais. Roles in numerous school plays fueled a love for performing, and it wasn't long before the family opted for a more familiar climate in Miami when Beauvais was 16. The following year, the emerging model moved to New York and gained an increasing presence on the catwalk and numerous Essence and Ebony layouts. Early television appearances on such popular shows as Miami Vice, Family Matters, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air found Beauvais refining her skills in front of the camera, and it wasn't long before she was appearing in such high-profile films as Manhunter (1986) and Coming to America (1988). An ideal role in the Aaron Spelling-produced television series Models, Inc. found Beauvais combining both her modeling and acting experience, and after settling into a role on The Jamie Foxx Show in 1996 (playing Francesca "Fancy" Monroe), she would once again hit the big screen with Wild Wild West (1999) and Double Take (2001). Having previously appeared as ADA Valerie Heywood in the popular television police drama NYPD Blue, Beauvais expanded her role by joining the series full-time in 2001. A feature role in Bad Company (2002) opposite Chris Rock found Beauvais' feature career taking off, and hinted for great things to come. She subsequently moved into scripted dramatic roles with a heightened emphasis on big-screen features, including plum roles in the 2004 Ice Cube comedy Barbershop 2: Back in Business and the Lindsay Lohan shocker I Know Who Killed Me (2007), in addition to prominent billing in the sci-fi telemovie 10.5: Apocalypse (2006). In 2007, Beauvais also took some time out from filmdom to give birth to twins, and made headlines for appearing nude, while pregnant, in the August 2007 issue of Playboy magazine. She had a role in the 2009 sex comedy Women in Trouble.

Trivia: As Oz, the guitarist with a bit of a werewolf problem on the WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, actor Seth Green became known and loved by television viewers from the U.S. to Australia. What isn't as well-known to many of these viewers is the fact that Green has been acting in films and on television since 1984, when he made his debut as Egg, the little brother of Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe in The Hotel New Hampshire. A native of Philadelphia, Green was born February 8, 1974, and raised in the suburbs by his artist mother and math-teacher father. Although unbeknownst to him at the time, his first onscreen stint was as a newborn in a natural childbirth video. Green's more conscious interest in acting began at the age of six, when he had his first role in a summer camp play. With the help of his uncle, who was a casting director, Green was soon appearing in commercials and on various television shows. Getting his first real break with 1984's The Hotel New Hampshire, the young actor spent the next few years appearing in television shows before landing his first starring role in Woody Allen's 1987 film Radio Days. As Allen's young alter-ego, Green won a respectable amount of recognition (including an appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show) for his part in the nostalgic tale of a boy growing up as part of an eccentric family in 1940s America. The role led to work in various films, such as Can't Buy Me Love (1987) and the following year's My Stepmother Is an Alien (in which he co-starred with his future Buffy love interest Alyson Hannigan). The early '90s were not kind to Green, who found himself acting in a series of bad films and winning only small parts on the occasional television show, including The Wonder Years. In fact, if audiences recognized the actor at all, it was probably due to a series of Rally's commercials that featured him as the obnoxious fast-food worker who made "Cha-ching" part of the national lexicon for about three months. Things finally began to pick up in 1997, when Green won his substantial role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Coincidentally, he had been cast five years earlier in the original film incarnation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but his scenes had ended up on the cutting-room floor. Green found further success in 1997, when he landed a memorable supporting role as the son of Dr. Evil in the sleeper hit Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Suddenly once again in favor with Hollywood's Powers That Be, Green appeared the following year in the Jennifer Love Hewitt film Can't Hardly Wait and in 1999 reprised his role as Scott Evil in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Also in 1999, the actor landed a starring role as Devon Sawa's zombie friend in Idle Hands. The film, which was about a teen with murderous hands, had the unfortunate luck of opening a week after the Columbine High School shootings and quickly disappeared without a trace. However, this didn't seem to do substantial damage to the red-headed actor's career, as he continued riding high with his role on Buffy. Green also kept busy doing the voice of Chris Griffin on Fox's animated series The Family Guy, which he would stick with for over ten years. The turnover to the new millennium found Green increasingly popular on the big screen, with roles in such films as Rat Race and America's Sweethearts (both 2001). It wasn't long before the inevitable third chapter in the adventures of Austin Powers was to go before the cameras, and Green once again agreed to fill the shoes of Scott Evil.Green would spend the following several years appering in a number of filims, like The Italian Job, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Sex Drive, Old Dogs, and Mars Needs Moms. Green would also nurture a career as a writer and producer with animated comedy series like Robot Chicken and Titan Maximum.

Trivia: Though indie-savvy moviegoers may recognize Eric Mabius for his roles in the mid-'90s art-house hits Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Mabius's journey to mainstream recognition has been slow and steady as the talented actor assuredly made his way to starring in such wide-release films as Resident Evil (2002) and Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004). Born April 21, 1971, in Pennsylvania, Mabius studied film, dance, and sculpture at Sarah Lawrence College starting in 1990. Gaining experience in numerous off-Broadway roles, the aspiring actor (who often resembled a young Harrison Ford, with that actor's concomitant appeal) soon landed his first film role in director Todd Solondz's satirical Dollhouse. As the object of awkward seventh-grader Dawn "Weinerdog" Weiner's affection, Mabius's humorous performance raised a few eyebrows as well as a few chuckles. Following strongly with roles in Warhol, Lawn Dogs (1997), and The Minus Man (1999), Mabius turned up in increasingly prominent roles, with his turn as a closeted athlete in Cruel Intentions (also 1999) kicking his career into high gear. Taking over for the late Brandon Lee in the role of the Crow for 2000's The Crow: Salvation, Mabius had ironically auditioned for the role of Funboy in the first entry (a role that eventually went to Michael Massee, the actor who fired the gun shot resulting in Lee's untimely death).2002 found Mabius in his most prominent mainstream role to date as he joined the cast of the popular video game turned movie franchise Resident Evil. The film grossed upwards of $100 million giving Mabius enough exposure to land him the only leading male role in the 2004 debut season of Showtime's lesbian drama series The L Word. Though the role was diminished to an occasional guest-spot in subsequent seasons, Mabius remained a presence on the small screen with a multi-episode arc as Dean Jack Hess on Fox's The O.C. and a starring role in the short-lived ABC mystery show Eyes. In 2005, Mabius appeared in two minor films: the police actioner Venice Underground and the slasher movie Reeker. In the former, the actor plays an undercover agent who must help his partners track down the murderer of a narcotic agent, in the latter, the obnoxious Ecstasy supplier of a serial killer's victim. He also made a particularly huge splash on the small screen, as Daniel Meade, the fashion editor boss of "ugly duckling" Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) in the blockbuster prime-time series Ugly Betty (2006), adapted from a popular Spanish telenovela.

Trivia: American actress Cybill Shepherd's pre-acting career included a runner-up stint in the Miss Teenage America pageant and seemingly thousands of modelling gigs, most prominently for Cover Girl makeup. She was spotted adorning a magazine cover by film director Peter Bogdanovich, who selected her to play a small town heartbreaker in his prestigious 1971 film The Last Picture Show. Shepherd was praised for her cinematic debut, though the reviews devoted more space to her diving-board striptease than her delivery of lines. Except for a part as Charles Grodin's dream girl in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Shepherd did most of her subsequent early film work for Bogdanovich, once her lover as well as her mentor. Reviewers were barely tolerant of her performance in Daisy Miller (1974) -- and with the next Bogdanovich-directed appearance in At Long Last Love (1975) the gloves were off, her career had hit a hard spot. But she recovered, at least professionally, and did quite well for herself in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1975). The "Peter Bogdanovich's Girlfriend" onus took years to suppress; it was still being bandied about when she appeared in her first (short-lived) TV series "The Yellow Rose" (1983). But with her starring role in the popular detective/comedy weekly "Moonlighting" (1985), Shepherd made up for lost time and attained star status without any association with her onetime "Svengali." Shepherd and co-star Bruce Willis played the reluctant partners in a failing detective agency, but the plotlines were secondary to the banter and witticisms between the stars -- not to mention the winks at the audience and "in" jokes that let the folks at home know that the characters knew that they were just acting on TV. An instant success, "Moonlighting" was plagued with production problems almost from the outset. Shepherd and Willis made no secret of their distaste for one another, and both behaved rather boorishly to those around them. Firings and tantrums were almost everyday occurences on the set, and this, plus the problem of turning out a quality script each week, caused the series to fall woefully behind in schedule. Soon it became a media event if "Moonlighting" ran something other than a repeat. In 1987, Shepherd became pregnant with twins, which forced a speedup in production and some wildly convoluted (and often tasteless) scripts to accomodate the actress' condition. Power struggles continued between Shepherd and producer Glenn Caron (and the people who replaced Caron); "Moonlighting" was cancelled in 1989. Since that time, Shepherd has signed an endorsement contract with L'Oreal cosmetics, while continuing to appear in films and TV movies of variable quality (including Texasville, the best-forgotten sequel to The Last Picture Show). Besides becoming a favored and most entertaining guest on the talk-show circuit, Shepherd later returned to television in the Emmy-winning CBS sitcom Cybill. In 2003 Shepherd appeared as Martha Stewart in the NBC biopic Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart, and two years later she reprised the role in the made-for-television sequel Martha Behind Bars. For two years beginning in 2007 Stewart played the mother of her real-life daughter Clementine Ford's character on The L Word, and in 2010 she was bestowed the GLAAD Golden Gate Award for her efforts in increasing the LGBT community's visibility in the media. Meanwhile, appearances on such television series' as Psyche, Hot in Cleveland, and The Client List served well to keep her career going strong.