Trivia: Born June 24, 1979, comedian and actress Mindy Kaling's portrayal of airhead Kelly Kapoor on the hit series The Office is so good, it's easy to forget that in real life, her considerable brain power has gone into producing and writing the show as well. Kaling graduated from Dartmouth College in 2001, but not before leaving her mark on the school's improv troupe The Dog Day Players, creating a comic strip in the Dartmouth newspaper called Badly Drawn Girl and portraying none other than male actor Ben Affleck in a satirical play that she co-wrote entitled Matt & Ben. The play went on to make Time Magazine's "Top Ten Theatrical Events of the Year" for 2003. Kaling joined the cast and crew of The Office in 2005. She also began appearing in feature films, starting with a cameo in Steve Carell's The 40-Year-Old Virgin and later appearing in Office co-star John Krasinski's romantic comedy License to Wed. Kaling left The Office at the beginning of the show's ninth season to produce and star in her own sitcom, The Mindy Project, on FOX.

Trivia: A character-oriented actor who specialized in playing American everymen, Chris Messina emerged in the mid-'90s, landing guest appearances on series programs such as Law & Order and mounting supporting parts in Hollywood features including You've Got Mail and Rounders (both 1998). Messina gained even more exposure when he joined the cast of the quirky HBO comedy drama Six Feet Under during that program's fifth and final season. On that series, Messina played Ted Fairwell, a Republican attorney smitten with Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose) who (as the program reveals) will eventually marry her. After Six Feet wrapped, Messina hearkened back to feature portrayals, this time as a lead, in director Jennifer Westfeldt's (Kissing Jessica Stein) critically praised sophomore effort Ira & Abby (2006). The actor proved he could hold his own with a multilayered turn as a neurotic therapist's son who rushes headlong into marriage only to watch his confidence fall to pieces when he learns of his new wife's two ex-husbands. In 2008, Messina took on a supporting role in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opposite Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson. In the years to come, Messina would enjoy continued success as an established actor, appearing in films like Ruby Sparks and Argo, as well as on TV series like The Mindy Project and The Newsroom.

Trivia: Mother is El Salvadorian. Was president of the Footlights drama club while at Cambridge. Started his career doing stand-up and commercials in England. Part of the sketch comedy team Tommy and the Weeks. Sold a pilot about his parent's divorce to CBS that ultimately wasn't picked up.

Trivia: Dropped out of college after one year, but was inspired to study improvisational comedy after seeing the iO (aka ImprovOlympic) 15th-anniversary show in Chicago. Worked for the Chicago Transit Authority while studying and performing improv at iO, Second City and the Annoyance Theatre. Spent two years in Amsterdam with the comedy troupe Boom Chicago. Hired to be a writer (along with his high-school classmate and writing partner, Dave Stessen) on The Mindy Project after series creator Mindy Kaling noticed him on HBO's Eastbound & Down; joined the cast when Kaling created a character especially for him. A founding member of the improv group the Lindbergh Babies.

Trivia: A successful character actress most adept at playing matronly types, Beth Grant took her onscreen bow in the late '80s and began tackling innumerable roles in Hollywood features, usually bit parts as housewives, female doctors, or down-home small-town women. Grant received her first feature assignment as a harried mother at a farmhouse in Barry Levinson's Rain Man (1988). She subsequently divided her time between film and television roles, guest-acting on dozens of series and occasionally taking on more extensive small-screen roles, such as on Coach and Jericho. Grant's many big-screen credits include the films Don't Tell Her It's Me (1990), Speed (1994), Donnie Darko (2001), and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). She was particularly memorable in the latter, as one of the snotty and obnoxious pageant judges. Darko represented Grant's first experience working with helmer Richard Kelly; she re-teamed with Kelly for his follow-up, the dystopian black comedy Southland Tales (2005).

Trivia: Joined the Amazing Grace Conservatory, a performing arts program in Los Angeles, in high school. Performed in plays like Twelfth Night and The Diviners while at New York University. Did a reading of Really Really at the Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Festival in 2009 with Krysta Rodriguez and Eddie Kaye Thomas.

Trivia: Louisiana native Mark Duplass paid his dues both behind and in front of the camera, writing, producing, directing, and starring in a number of films throughout the early 2000s, like The New Brad and This is John. Duplass' efforts began capturing wider attention with 2008's The Puffy Chair and 2009's Baghead, which garnered some critical buzz on the festival circuit. The filmmaker's star climbed even higher in 2010, when he received critical acclaim for his next project, an uncomfortable comedy called Cyrus, starring Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, and John C. Reilly. Simultaneously, Duplass made a successful six-episode run as an actor on the comedy series The League, as well as in fellow indie filmmaker Noah Baumbach's 2010 dramedy Greenberg.

Trivia: Character player Garret Dillahunt appeared onscreen from the late '90s, and -- though versatile -- often displayed a predilection for evocations of slightly rugged types. Early in his career, Dillahunt essayed a string of guest portrayals on series including NYPD Blue and The X-Files, and signed on as a fixture on less successful series outings such as Maximum Bob (1998), Leap Years (2001), and A Minute with Stan Hooper (2003). When these programs folded not long after they first bowed, Dillahunt continued to find work on the small screen, appearing in multiple episodes of such series as ER (2005-2006), The 4400 (2005-2006), John from Cincinnati (2007), and Damages (2007), in such a variety of characterizations that his versatility as an actor was clearly notable. Dillahunt's ability to disappear into a role lead to him portraying not one but two memorable characters on HBO's critically acclaimed Western series Deadwood; his evocation of Wild Bill Hickock murderer Jack McCall so impressed the series' producers that he was brought back the next season to portray George Hearst's emissary Francis Wolcott (who was also secretly a serial killer). The next year, the actor's evocation of Jesus on Jack Kenny, Flody Suarez, and John Tinker's risky comedy drama series The Book of Daniel (2006) brought him lead billing, but the program never caught fire with the public. In 2007, Dillahunt transitioned to features and appeared in at least two A-list theatrical releases: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men. For No Country, Dillahunt and his co-stars picked up a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He appeared in the short-lived HBO surfing series John From Cincinnati, and had a recurring role on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. In 2009 he starred in the big-screen remake of Last House on the Left, and had a small role in The Road. In 2010 he landed the role of the grandfather of the title character on the FOX sitcom Raising Hope, which turned into a ratings hit. He was one of the stars in the drama Any Day Now as a gay lawyer attempting to adopt a child.

Trivia: Sporting a memorably handsome, clean-cut, all-American look, actor Bryan Greenberg parlayed that image into a series of roles that directly played off of it. Greenberg grew up as the son of two psychologists in the Omaha, NE area, and entered the arena of professional performance via ballet. At the age of seven, he began local ballet classes and was tapped to perform in the Omaha Ballet's touring production of The Nutcracker -- an assignment that lasted two months. Five years later, the family moved to St. Louis and Greenberg caught his first taste of national exposure (in a commercial for Cookie Crisp cereal), but decided, along with his parents, to put his career on the back burner while he finished high school and formally studied acting at New York University. In seemingly no time, Greenberg secured an agent and began regularly landing roles, both before and after graduation. Prominent features with Greenberg in the cast included the 2005 romantic comedy Prime (the lead, opposite Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep, as a 23-year-old Jewish boy caught up in a May-December romance with a 37-year-old WASP); the 2007 crime comedy Nobel Son (another lead, this one opposite Alan Rickman as a Ph.D. student kidnapped by some hapless crooks); and the 2008 Kate Hudson-Anne Hathaway romantic comedy Bride Wars. In addition to his work on the big screen, Greenberg had recurring part on One Tree Hill (2003-2006) and took on the regular role of Nick Garrett on the ABC drama October Road in 2007, before moving to cable and starring on HBO's How To Make It In America. Greenberg also branched out into music. In 2007, he released his first album Waiting for Now, which was followed by a second, entitled We Don't Have Forever, in 2011.

Trivia: Wrote for an entertainment blog for seven years. Tried out for Saturday Night Live twice. Competed on Last Comic Standing in 2010. Named one of Variety magazine's 10 Comics to Watch in 2014. Created a pilot with Tina Fey called Cabot College in 2014; the show wasn't picked up to series. Member of the Groundlings Sunday Company improvisational group.

Trivia: A member of the sketch-comedy group Hot Sauce. Has performed and taught at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Cofounded a production team called Chubby Skinny Kids with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand. Has a tattoo of his Hebrew name on his chest.

Trivia: Father, Mark Jarman, is an English professor and influential poet who won the Poets' Prize in 1991 for his collection The Black Riviera and was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Critics Circle Award for Questions for Ecclesiastes; mother, Amy Jarman, is a soprano and voice teacher. In high school, was selected to study theater at the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts. Studied improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade and the Groundlings in Los Angeles. Played Puck in a 2007 production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.