Trivia: A founding member of the Chicago's influential Steppenwolf Theatre Company (along with Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry) when he was barely 19, Gary Sinise made his professional acting debut at the age of 17 in a 1973 production of The Physicist. Sinise himself would sum up his career best by noting that the secret to a successful career is not to focus on taking off like a rocket, but to "always keep the engine running." With a prolific and well-defined career on each side of the camera in addition to his stage work, keeping the engine running is precisely what Sinise has done, and that engine has been well maintained.Born March 17th, 1955 in Blue Island, IL, Sinise's attraction to the stage was supported early on through the encouragement of Barbara Patterson, his high school drama teacher. After a role in West Side Story, Sinise's love for the stage was set in stone, leading him to found the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he would meet his future wife, actress Moira Harris. Initially based in a church basement, the Steppenwolf quickly grew in stature and respectability, serving as the breeding ground for such talents as John Malkovich and Laurie Metcalf, and earning critical praise with productions like Sam Shepard's True West, which would eventually become the company's Broadway debut. Sinise's film and television career began as a director on such television series' as Crime Story and thirtysomething, eventually leading to his feature directorial debut with the rural drama Miles From Home (starring fellow Steppenwolfers Metcalf and Malkovich) and his feature acting debut in the haunting war drama A Midnight Clear (1991). Sinise's love for the stage resurfaced with his ambitious 1992 remake of Of Mice and Men (in which he also starred, again with fellow Steppenwolf alum Malkovich, in the roles they had both portrayed on stage).But it was his performance as the physically crippled and emotionally shattered Lt. Dan in Robert Zemeckis' blockbuster Forrest Gump (1994) that brought Sinise to light as an actor of considerable talent. His sensitive portrait of a once invincible soldier reduced to a pathetic self-pitying ghost of his own former glory was the perfect vessel for the actor's quiet intensity and florid emotional capabilities, and brought him the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That same year Sinise had a starring role in the long-anticipated television adaptation of Stephen King's apocalyptic thriller The Stand.Sinise continued to display his dramatic abilities through the '90s, rejoining Gump co-star Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's Apollo 13 and starring as both Harry S. Truman and George Wallace in the biopics Truman (1995) (for which he won a Cable Ace Award and a Golden Globe) and George Wallace (1997) (for which he won an Emmy). With minor appearances in The Green Mile and Being John Malkovich (both 1999), Sinise brought in the year 2000 in a sci-fi mode, with Brian De Palma's existential thriller Mission to Mars and as a weapons engineer with questionable motives in Imposter. Throughout the next decade Sinise worked in a variety of films including The Big Bounce, The Human Stain, and The Forgotten. However he had is most visible role on the small screen when he was cast as the male lead in the third of the popular CSI series, CSI: NY. In 2006 he brought his theater trained voice to the animated Open Season.

Trivia: With her genuine smile, earthy beauty, and striking green eyes, Melina Kanakaredes staked her claim on daytime television in The Guiding Light before expanding her talents to numerous other popular series and, eventually, the silver screen.Born and raised in Akron, OH, the second-generation Greek-American was the third daughter of an insurance salesman and homemaker who began her career as an actress in a community theater production of Tom Sawyer at the age of eight. Later enrolling in Ohio State University to study music, dance, and theater but disheartened at poor inter-departmental relations, Kanakaredes opted for a conservatory education at Point Park College in Pittsburgh. Soon performing with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and appearing in commercials and industrial videos, Kanakaredes moved to New York after graduating magna cum laude and began working in dinner boat theater and off-Broadway productions. Taking her role as Greek immigrant Eleni Andros Cooper in The Guiding Light after being spotted by the William Morris Agency in 1991, Kanakaredes was nominated for two Emmys and soon began to expand to roles on NYPD Blue and OZ. Soon turning up in such features as The Long Kiss Goodnight and Rounders, the natural beauty began to gain even more footing in her feature aspirations with her turn in the Robert DeNiro heist-thriller The Score in 2001. Kanakaredes would spend the ensuing 2000's appearing frequently on TV, joining the cast of the police proceedural CSI: NY.

Trivia: A true case of fate intervening in the most unexpected of ways, the career of aspiring baseball star Carmine Giovinazzo, born August 24th, 1973,seemed decidedly grim when a major back injury dashed any hopes of achieving his childhood dreams of running the bases as millions of fans screamed in excitement. If those dreams weren't meant to come true, however, the fallen athlete would turn the negative into a positive by using his injury as a means of pushing himself to find his talent as an actor and realizing his true calling before the camera. A native of Staten Island, NY, Giovinazzo spent much of his childhood making short films as a hobby. The athlete-turned-actor was pounding the pavement soon after recovering from his career-altering injury. With the support of his family and an impressive resume that included many short films from NYU and SUNY Purchase, Giovinazzo was soon setting his sights on Los Angeles. The up-and-comer achieved an impressive feat by landing his very first audition for a small role in the pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a feature debut in the 1996 drama No Way Home, proving without a doubt that he could captivate on the big screen as well. If many of his subsequent screen roles weren't exactly memorable, he did prove promising as the lead in the 1998 thriller Fallen Arches before returning to the diamond for Spider-Man director Sam Raimi's 1999 baseball drama For Love of the Game. A stab at television with the short-lived and regrettably titled Shasta McNasty didn't further his career nearly as much as bit roles in such high-profile features as Black Hawk Down, though he did carry the 2001 crime drama The Learning Curve with suitable charm. In 2004 Giovinazzo's career was finally on the verge of breaking through with his role as forensic scientist Danny Messer on the CBS CSI spin-off CSI: NY.

Trivia: One of the more compelling actors of his generation, Hill Harper, born May 17th, 1973, has earned a reputation for turning in complex performances defined by equal parts intensity and charisma. Acting since the age of 7, Harper, a native of Iowa City, continued to nurture his interest while an undergraduate student at Brown and then as a graduate student at Harvard, where he earned degrees in law and government. During his years at Harvard, the actor was a full-time member of Boston's Black Folks Theater Company, one of the oldest and most acclaimed African-American theater troupes in the country.Harper broke into both film and television in 1993, doing recurring work on the Fox series Married...with Children and making his film debut in the short Confessions of a Dog. He had his first substantial role in a feature in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996), which cast him as a UCLA film student riding a bus to the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. He went on to further demonstrate his versatility in such films as Lee's He Got Game (1998) and Christopher Scott Cherot's Hav Plenty (1997), the latter of which featured him as an egotistical pop-soul singer. The actor's profile subsequently rose on both the mainstream and independent film circuits, thanks to roles in films ranging from Beloved (1998) to the independent romantic comedy Loving Jezebel (1999) to The Skulls (2000), an entry into the teen thriller/horror genre. Harper also did some of his most acclaimed work in Jordan Walker Pearlman's The Visit (2000), an independent drama in which he starred as a prisoner dying of AIDS who tries to put his life back together.

Trivia: A spunky actress with a winning on-camera presence, Anna Belknap got her start as a guest star on a wealth of popular TV series -- everything from Homicide: Life on the Street to Law & Order: SVU to Third Watch -- before her establishment as a regular on the short-lived (one-season) shows The Handler and Medical Investigation. She found more enduring success on the popular spin-off series CSI: NY. Her portrayal of Detective Lindsay Monroe, a Midwestern transplant with deep-seated emotional scars from a decade-old mass murder that she just barely survived, imparted Belknap's scenes with a tense undercurrent even as it spoke to the character's deeply moving vulnerability. 2005 marked a fortuitous year for Belknap; in addition to joining the CSI program, she signed on as Marissa in Evan Oppenheimer's gentle, techno-hip romantic comedy Alchemy. Unfortunately, that picture encountered extremely limited theatrical distribution (despite a favorable Variety review) and went almost straight to video.

Trivia: Genial and handsome character actor Eddie Cahill garnered significant attention for two onscreen series portrayals during the early 2000s: that of Tag, the twentysomething assistant hired by Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) in the 2000-2001 season of the blockbuster sitcom Friends, and that of NYPD homicide detective Don Flack on the successful crime series spin-off CSI: NY (2004). In addition, he had starred in the shortlived WB comedy drama Glory Days (2002) as author Mike Dolan, but it took the CSI role to secure him lasting small-screen success. In 2004, Cahill made his first feature-film appearance, as famous goalie Jim Craig in the Olympic hockey drama Miracle, followed soon after by his role as Larry Gordon in Catherine Hardwicke's bittersweet skateboarding movie Lords of Dogtown (2005). In 2008 he appeared in both This Is Not a Test, and the drama The Narrows.

Trivia: Canadian actor Robert Joy has been appearing in films on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border since the 1970s. He has always been a welcome presence, even when the scripts took pains not to make him feel welcome. As Susan Sarandon's husband in Atlantic City (1981), Joy stuck around just long enough to be bumped off by drug dealers. And as demented socialite Harry K. Thaw in Ragtime (1981), Joy existed principally to shoot Stanford White (Norman Mailer) full of holes and then get thrown in the looney bin. One of Robert Joy's largest, and most unorthodox, film assignments was as the would-be political demagogue (and one-time flamenco dancer) in the Newfoundland-based The Adventures of Faustus Bidgood (1986). Over the next several years, Joy would continue to remain an ongoing force on screen, appearing in films like Joe Somebody, Pretty Persuasion, Land of the Dead, and Superhero Movie. He would find success with a starring role on the long running crime proceedural CSI: NY.

Trivia: Immigrated to Canada with his family when he was 6 years old. Made his first television appearance in the 1994 made-for-TV drama The Disappearance of Vonnie. Made his feature-film acting debut in the 1998 teen horror movie Disturbing Behavior, starring Katie Holmes and James Marsden. Has appeared in several sci-fi/horror TV series, including Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Fox's The X-Files and Millennium, and the CW's Supernatural. Has a movie and television production company called Fourfront Productions, and is part-owner and frequent contributor to Louisiana's Scene magazine.

Trivia: Beckel is a supporting actor onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Bearing an eerie resemblance to a slightly more stalwart David Duchovney, former model-turned-actor Brendan Fehr has etched out a lucrative film career as a teenage tough guy in such popular high school horror-fests as Disturbing Behavior (1998), Final Destination (2000), and The Forsaken (2001). Also appearing on such small-screen efforts as Millennium and Roswell, Fehr has proven himself able to successfully alternate between television and film while doing his best to avoid being pigeonholed as a teen horror brat packer for the new millennium. Born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Fehr showed an interest in sports early on, and nearly went into a career as an accountant due to his love of mathematics. Relocating to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1990, Fehr began to consider a career as a teacher while simultaneously finding work as a model. After approaching an agent while visiting his family in Vancouver in 1997, the handsome young model was convinced that his looks would shine through on camera and soon made his film debut on UPN's Breaker High. Moving on to numerous roles for the Fox Family network and appearing on such television hits as Millennium found Fehr an increasing sought-after up and comer, and it was only a matter of time before he made his film debut in the sci-fi horror hit Disturbing Behavior. Numerous supporting roles followed, and in addition to his work in teen fright flicks, Fehr also appeared in such seldom-seen films as Kill Me Later (2001). Fehr was increasingly busy in the early years of the new millennium, with such films as Long Shot and Paper, Scissors, Stone hinting at a bright future for the developing actor.

Trivia: The youngest of four children, Savas was born in Harlem, New York, and raised in Northern New Jersey. Received his big break at 15 when he was chosen from 15,000 actors for a two-episode role on HBO's The Sopranos. Cofounded the YouTube comedy channel Reckless Tortuga and has acted in numerous Web series, including The Online Gamer, Psycho Girlfriend and Office Douche Bag. Trained with actual Navy SEALs to play the character of PO3 Cossetti on the TNT drama The Last Ship. Added producer to his resume with the feature film Bad Roomies, a dark comedy partially funded by Kickstarter ($75,000 was raised), and starring himself and Patrick Renna.

Trivia: After college, worked for a year as an apprentice winemaker in Virginia. A member of New York's Rumble in the Redroom sketch-comedy group. A singer-songwriter who co-founded the acoustic rock band, Minus Ted. An amateur racing-and-stunt driver, he did almost all the vehicular stunt work and costarred in Ronin. Has narrated a number of audio books, including Donald Trump's Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life and Peter S. Canellos' Last Lion: the Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. In 2010, was given a special commendation from the New York Senate for his involvement with the Friends of Firefighters organization.

Trivia: Practiced law in Washington, D.C., before deciding to move to Los Angeles and pursue a writing career in the entertainment industry. First audition piece was a sample script for Remington Steele, which landed her a position as a writer for Fame. Early career highlights include writing for Hardcastle & McCormick and Wiseguy, and working as an executive producer on Melrose Place. Was working on the pilot for Frogmen, which was set to star O.J. Simpson until he was arrested and jailed. Has been executive producer and showrunner of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation since its first season, making her one of the few women in the industry to hold such a position.

Trivia: Brooklyn, NY, native Vanessa Ferlito grew up amid somewhat challenging circumstances as an only child (the daughter of two Italian-American hair salon owners) whose father died before she reached the age of three. She developed acting aspirations early in life and broke into the entertainment business via television, with guest spots and recurring roles on crime-themed series programs including CSI: New York and The Sopranos -- where her unmistakably ethnic, weathered but voluptuous look lent her time and again to effective portrayals of molls, mistresses, and other gritty urban female types. She landed her most prominent early feature roles in Spider-Man 2 (as a co-star in Mary Jane's play) and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof segment of the 2007 two-episode omnibus Grindhouse (as one of the low-down women stalked and murdered by Kurt Russell's psychopath Stuntman Mike). After the Tarantino project, Ferlito joined co-stars Debra Messing and Alfred Molina for the gentle comedy Nothing Like the Holidays and worked with Tyler Perry on the farce Madea Goes to Jail (2009).