Trivia: Despite spending the first 25 years of his life in Adelaide, Australia, Anthony LaPaglia is best known for playing street-savvy Italian New Yorkers. This was not, however, LaPaglia's original plan. Rather than testing the waters of show business, LaPaglia traveled to the United States intending to pursue a full-time teaching career. As luck would have it, however, one of LaPaglia's odd jobs was a small role in Cold Steel (1987), a low-budget detective drama. LaPaglia began pursuing theater and television in his spare time -- one of his more notable early performances was in 1988's Frank Nitti: The Enforcer -- and considered himself a full-time actor by 1989, when he made his feature-film debut in Slaves of New York. It was 1990, however, when the young actor earned critical recognition for his role as an exceedingly polite mobster in Betsy's Wedding.LaPaglia continued to build his résuméthroughout the early '90s, most of which he spent playing either kindly policemen or good-hearted mobsters, and was delighted to work alongside a variety of noted actors so early in his career. Among those actors were Alan Alda in Betsy's Wedding, Michael Keaton in One Good Cop (1991), and Nathan Lane, Sharon Stone, and Kevin Bacon in He Said, She Said (1992). Later in 1992, LaPaglia could be found playing his first leading role in George Gallo's gangster farce 29th Street. Though the film did not fare particularly well, audiences were nonetheless impressed with LaPaglia's intensity, and he played a more serious gangster with great success opposite Susan Sarandon in The Client (1994). The actor switched gears for his next handful of films; in Mixed Nuts (1994) he played a disillusioned Santa Claus, while Empire Records (1995) found him as a down-on-his-luck store manager, and the Australian-helmed Brilliant Lies (1996) featured him as the defendant in a sketchy sexual-harassment case.Despite a smattering of mediocre films between 1995 and the early 2000s, LaPaglia continued to earn critical acclaim for many of his endeavors, such as Steve Buscemi's directorial debut, Trees Lounge (1996), for which LaPaglia joined a star-studded supporting cast, as well as for his role as a detective in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999). Luckily for him, 2000 and 2001 proved excellent for his career, as it was during this period that he played a wealthy businessman in The House of Mirth and an adulterous police detective in Lantana. In addition to receiving international success, Lantana earned LaPaglia the prestigious Best Actor award from the Australian Film Institute, as well as a nomination from the Film Critics Circle. In the meantime, he was adding several major television credits to his résumé, including a starring role as the head of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad on CBS's Without a Trace, and a recurring role on the long-running sitcom Frasier, a performance for which he would receive an Emmy in 2002. Far removed from his fledgling days as a teacher, 2002 also found LaPaglia working with Val Kilmer for The Salton Sea; Sigourney Weaver for The Guys; Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal in Analyze That; and Eric Stoltz in Happy Hour. In 2003, after filming Manhood with Janeane Garofalo and the late John Ritter, LaPaglia agreed to star in director Josh Sternfeld's Winter Solstice (2004).Over the next several years, LaPaglia would appear in a number of big screen projects, like Balibo (2009), Overnight (2012) and A Good Marriage (2014).

Trivia: Harboring an awesome wellspring of determination, Australian émigré actress Poppy Montgomery moved from down under to Los Angeles in 1993 (at the tender age of 18) and, with no connections or leads to her name, bought a copy of a book called How to Make it in Hollywood. In that text, Montgomery read an anecdote about one of Julia Roberts' early managers, who had helped engineer some of the actress' early successes. Montgomery searched diligently until she found the manager's telephone number, then so plagued him with calls, one after another, that she ultimately wore down his resistance; he put Montgomery in touch with a manager who helped launch her career. The self-assurance evident in this "breakout strategy" had taken root early in Montgomery's life; born June 19, 1975, in Paddington, New South Wales, Australia (a suburb of Sydney), Montgomery realized as a young girl that she only wanted to spend her life acting. Once in Hollywood, she refused to be snubbed or overlooked. As an ingenue in Los Angeles, Montgomery sustained smaller turns for seven years, including a role on NYPD Blue and performances in the Eddie Murphy comedy Life and the Garry Marshall tearjerker The Other Sister, until late 2000, when she landed the highly coveted lead role of Marilyn Monroe in the autobiographical miniseries about the superstar, Blonde, adapted from the book by esteemed belletrist Joyce Carol Oates. Though critics felt the telemovie uneven, most singled out Montgomery and raved over her interpretation.This unique, inherent ability to reach down deep into a character and understand her on the most intuitive level shone through again and again in Montgomery's work, and doubtless enabled her to land a recurring role on the CBS drama Without a Trace, about the day-to-day searches of a missing-persons unit headed by Anthony LaPaglia. When she received the call about Without a Trace, Montgomery had contributed exemplary work to two otherwise unsuccessful series -- Elizabeth Waclawek in The Beat (2000) and Ellie Sparks in Glory Days (2002) -- and needed a boost. The program, of course, became a massive hit, thanks in no small part to Montgomery's fine work. In the series she portrays FBI agent Samantha Spade with marked believability. As one season of Without a Trace after another unfolded, Montgomery worked with equal emphasis in film and television. Her cinematic roles included Allison in the Gen-X indie comedy How to Lose Your Lover (2004) and Nadine Roberts in David Ocañas' metaphysical thriller Between (2004); in 2005, Montgomery played Generosa Rand, the issue-ridden (and possibly homicidal) wife of wealthy investment banker Ted Ammon, in the made-for-television true crime saga Murder in the Hamptons. TV would prove a good fit for Montgomery, and she would find additional success with series like Without a Trace and Unforgettable.

Trivia: British actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste first became known to an international audience through her breakthrough performance in Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies (1996). Jean-Baptiste has received Best Supporting Actress Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations for her measured, insightful portrayal of a young woman who is reunited with her biological mother who gave her up for adoption at birth. Jean-Baptiste subsequently began doing steady work in both film and television, appearing in a disparate number of films, including Noah Baumbach's Mr. Jealousy (1997), the psychological thriller A Murder of Crows (1998), the independent comedy How to Make the Cruelest Month (1998), and Nancy Savoca's The 24-Hour Woman (1999). The beginning of the next decade founding Jean-Baptiste scoring roles in the thriller The Cell, the comedy drama 28 Days, and the thriller Spy Game. From 2002 to 2009 Jean-Baptiste could be seen in the Jerry Bruckheimer produced CBS television series Without a Trace as FBI agent Vivian Johnson who works in the missing persons division. She appeared in the 2006 drama Jam, and joined the cast of City of Ember (2008), a science-fiction fantasy drama following a society living in an underground city following a nuclear war. In 2010 the actress joined the cast of Takers, a crime thriller, and starred in Secrets in the Walls, a made-for-television horror film from Lifetime the same year. In addition to acting, Jean-Baptiste is also a composer. She supplied the music for Leigh's Career Girls in 1997.

Trivia: As far as role choice is concerned, Cuban-American supporting actor Enrique Murciano Jr. arrived in Hollywood at something of a low ebb -- with an appearance in one of the most embarrassing duds of the late '90s: the action thriller Speed 2: Cruise Control. Mercifully, his constituted a brief turn, and Murciano subsequently evinced a more acute predilection for solid material. He was memorable as Ruiz in Ridley Scott's Mogadishu-themed war drama Black Hawk Down (2001) and as Jeff Foreman in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), but is probably best known for his ongoing portrayal of Missing Persons Agent Danny Taylor in the crime-investigation series drama Without a Trace, opposite Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery. Murciano also signed for a small role in Michelle Danner's 2006 indie comedy How to Go Out on a Date in Queens.

Trivia: Actor Eric Close found his breakthrough role on the prime-time serial drama Sisters (1991), opposite Julianne Phillips, Sela Ward, and Swoosie Kurtz. Close's performance as a policeman in the sixth season of the program established his onscreen reputation as a solid and reliable performer. Alongside that program, Close landed roles in low-rent films such as Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994) and the made-for-television soaper The Stranger Beside Me (1995). The actor then received second billing after small-screen mainstay Michael Biehn in the Western series The Magnificent Seven (1998), joined the regular cast of the short-lived sci-fi drama The Sky Is Falling (1999), and scored a lead in Glenn Gordon Caron's eccentric, short-lived superhero series Now and Again. Close drew his largest audience, however, with his contributions to the outstanding crime-investigation drama Without a Trace, as Martin Fitzgerald, the missing-persons agent amorously, and perhaps unwisely, involved with colleague Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery).

Trivia: Went to college to study marine biology before turning his focus to acting. Trained at Playhouse West in North Hollywood and later became a teacher there. Film debut was in 1987's Fatal Beauty. Was nominated along with the rest of the cast of 2005's Capote for a Screen Actors Guild Award (Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture). Known for playing several supernatural characters: the mysterious near-immortal Jacob on Lost, Lucifer on Supernatural and a vampire boss on Being Human. Studies various types of martial arts.

Trivia: Actress Rachel Miner landed her first huge break in the late 1980s, when Woody Allen tapped the then nine-year-old actress to evoke a young Mia Farrow in the thoughtful, fantasy-themed seriocomedy Alice (1990). Miner spent the early to mid-'90s on the daytime soap Guiding Light playing the character Michelle Bauer. In 1998, Miner made headlines along with famous child actor Macaulay Culkin when the then-teenagers got married; they divorced two years later. Miner returned to the big screen in the early 2000s, initially with bit parts and supporting roles in such outings as Bully (2001), Haven (2004), Thanks to Gravity (2005), and The Black Dahlia (2006). She also could be found on a variety of TV programs, from memorable guest roles on Sex and the City, CSI, and Bones to a risqué recurring role on the David Duchovny vehicle Californication (2007). The actress essayed her first lead in 2006, in Richard Brandes' intense psychological thriller Penny Dreadful -- playing an orphaned young woman who finds herself at the mercy of a homicidal hitchhiker. Miner then joined co-star Rider Strong for the dystopian thriller Tooth & Nail (2007), about a group of refugees in a post-apocalyptic society who hole up together in a hospital and try to fend off hordes of rampaging cannibals.

Trivia: Edoardo Ballerini has played small roles in several films of the 1990s. He got his start off-Broadway at age 11 in a two-character play. After studying English at Wesleyan University, Ballerini went to Italy to study Latin and joined the Comedia dell'Arte Troupe. He then returned to New York to study acting further. In addition to film appearances, Ballerini also frequently works on-stage.

Trivia: Per his appearance, the stark-faced and rough-hewn character actor Kevin Durand built a successful career tackling tough-guy, redneck, and villain roles in such films as Walking Tall (2004), Smokin' Aces (2007), and 3:10 to Yuma (2007). His resumé also includes appearances on such small-screen programs as Dark Angel and Stargate SG-1. In 2008, Durand began a recurring role on the hit TV series Lost, playing mercenary Martin Keamy. After that high-profile gig, Durand returned to films, where his career picked up speed. He played The Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and followed that up with Legion (where he played the archangel Gabriel) and Robin Hood (playing Little John), both in 2010. By playing supporting roles, Durand managed to appear in an average of three films a year for the next several years, playing commanders (2011's I Am Number Four), soldiers (Barry Burton in 2012's Resident Evil: Retribution), shadowhunters (2013's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) and biblical figures (2014's Noah).