Trivia: For better or worse, leading actor Kelsey Grammer's name will probably forever be associated with the pompous, garrulous, and self-absorbed but lovable psychiatrist Frasier Crane, a character Grammer has played on television since he first appeared on the NBC sitcom Cheers, in 1984, as a love interest for Shelley Long. Though Frasier was not intended to become a series regular, Grammer's performance of the blowhard neurotic charmed audiences and he remained with Cheers through its 1993 demise. At the beginning of the 1993-1994 television season, Grammer's character was resurrected in his own show and moved from Boston to Seattle, where he became a radio psychologist and faced a whole slew of folks just waiting to poke metaphorical pins in his hot air balloon. Thanks to excellent performances and top-notch writing, Frasier became as big a hit as its predecessor. Grammer won three Emmy awards and was nominated for seven more (twice for Cheers, once for his guest appearance on a 1992 episode of Wings, four times for Frasier) for playing the character. Born on St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Grammer knew extreme tragedy in youth. Following the shooting death of his father when he was a boy, he was raised in New Jersey and then Florida, by his mother and grandfather. His grandfather died before Grammer became a teen. When he was 20, his sister was abducted and violently murdered. Five years later, he lost two half brothers in a diving accident. As a young man, Grammer found comfort in Shakespeare; with his acting debut in a high school production of The Little Foxes came an interest in pursuing drama as a career. He enrolled in Juilliard, but dropped out after two years to work at San Diego's Old Globe Theater, where he gained three years' invaluable experience performing in Shakespearean and classical dramas; afterward, Grammer performed in productions across the country. He eventually made it to Broadway, where he appeared in various productions, including Othello. Prior to playing Frasier, Grammer appeared occasionally on television and had regular roles in three soap operas, including One Life to Live. He continues to occasionally guest star on other series. Fans of the animated satire The Simpsons will recognize his periodic voice characterization as the venomous Sideshow Bob. Miniseries and telemovies in which he has appeared include London Suite and Beyond Suspicion. Grammer made his feature film debut with a small role in Top of the Hill (1989) and had his first starring role in the much-panned comedy Down Periscope (1996). In addition to his Emmy kudos, Grammer has received an American Comedy Award, two Golden Globes, and a People's Choice Award. In 1995, he published his autobiography So Far.Grammer would spend the following years taking on TV roles on shows like Back to You and Boss, but would find even more success as a producer, helping bring shows like The Game, Girlfriends, Hank, Medium, and World Cup Comedy to fruition. In 2014, he returned to acting in a big way, making a cameo appearance in X-Men: Days of Future Past, reprising his role as Beast, playing the bad guy in Transformers: Age of Extinction, and returning to television in the FX series Partners.

Trivia: Although he is best known for his role as anal-retentive psychiatrist extraordinaire Niles Crane on the celebrated sitcom Frasier, David Hyde Pierce has also done considerable work on the stage and screen. Fair, birdlike, and bearing an uncanny resemblance to Frasier co-star Kelsey Grammer, Pierce is one of the entertainment business' finest purveyors of a certain kind of blue-blooded neuroticism, and, in the eyes of some viewers, has even gone so far as to make insecurity perversely sexy.Born in Saratoga Springs, New York, on April 3, 1959, Pierce was raised in what he has described as a "very run-of-the-mill, middle-class" household. When he was eight, he began taking piano lessons, and he decided to pursue a career as a concert pianist. He continued to train until he got to Yale University, where he realized that he was better suited to the acting profession. Following graduation, Pierce moved to New York and did a brief stint as a tie salesman at Bloomingdale's before being cast in a Broadway play. Although the production was a flop, Pierce continued to work on the stage in New York and Chicago for several years and was eventually cast as a suicidal congressman on the short-lived sitcom The Powers That Be in 1992. His work on the show, coupled with his resemblance to Kelsey Grammer, led to his casting on Frasier the following year.Frasier proved to be the turning point in Pierce's career. His portrayal of Niles, aside from winning him a slew of awards, including an Emmy, also provided a number of opportunities for the actor on the big screen. Pierce, who had been acting sporadically in films since the early '80s, could be seen in supporting roles in such '90s films as Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Nixon (1995), in which he played John Dean, and the animated A Bug's Life (1998), for which he provided the voice of a stick insect.As the first decade of the 21st century opened, Pierce began appearing in more and more feature films, selecting an eclectic array of roles that utitlized his strengths without resorting to rehashing the Niles Crane character. Diverse in their genre and theme, the projects also ranged in their levels of success and acclaim. The 2000 comedy Isn't She Great was an abysmal failure, while the indie films Wet Hot American Summer and Full Frontal both left audiences and critics fiercely split. Pierce also continued to flex his voice skills in the animated features Osmosis Jones and Treasure Planet.One of Pierce's best-received roles came in 2003, when he costarred in the tongue-in-cheek comedy Down With Love. While not much of a box-office hit, the film managed to charm many critics with its wall-to-wall homages to 1960s sex-comedies. A year later, Pierce again showed up sans-body, providing the voice of Abe Sapien in the comic-book adaptation Hellboy. He reunited with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola's animated comic adaptation The Amazing Screw-On Head to voice the role of the dreaded Emperor Zombie in 2006, and joined the cast of The Perfect Host in 2010 for a leading role as Warwick Wilson, whose genteel façade hides a deep rage and mental instability.

Trivia: A distinctive-looking, grey-haired British character actor, John Mahoney worked onstage in his teens, and moved to the U.S. at 19. In his mid-30s, while employed as an editor in Chicago, he decided to renew his interest in acting, and he enrolled in classes at a local theater co-founded by playwright David Mamet; he landed a role in a Mamet play and left his job for the part. At the urging of actor John Malkovich, he went on to join Chicago's celebrated Steppenwolf Theater; eventually he appeared in more than 30 plays. For his work in the Broadway play House of Blue Leaves he won a Tony and a Clarence Derwent Award. For his work in the lead role of Orphans (on Broadway and in Chicago) he won a Theater World Award. He still lives in Chicago, and maintains his connection with Steppenwolf. Mahoney debuted onscreen in Mission HIll (1982), but his screen breakthrough came in his fifth film, Barry Levinson's popular comedy Tin Men (1987); afterwards he went on to better parts in more noteworthy movies, and has avoided typecasting in a busy screen career. Mahoney's TV credits include Favorite Son and House of Blue Leaves, in which he reprised his stage role; he has since achieved wide popularity as Martin Crane, Frasier Crane's crochety father, on the NBC sitcom Frasier.

Trivia: Began studying ballet at a very early age, but hurt her ankle when she was 18 and was forced to give it up. Appeared in David Lee Roth's video for "California Girls." Lived for a time with her best friend Faith Ford, whom she met in acting class. Cofounded the production company Bristol Cities with Frasier costar Peri Gilpin in 1998. Since her first pregnancy wasn't written into Frasier, her character, Daphne, was sent off to a fat camp and was said to have lost 9 pounds, 12 ounces---the weight of Jane's daughter when she was born. Made her Broadway debut in Cabaret as Sally Bowles in 2002. Reunited with Fraiser alum Wendy Malick to costar in the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland.

Trivia: With a father who was a famous local radio and television celebrity, a model mother who appeared in television, and a working relationship with Wings producer Roz Doyle in her past, it may all seem like an obscure cosmic joke that pretty Peri Gilpin would rise to fame as radio producer Roz Doyle on the smash television sitcom Frasier, though the longtime actress would likely credit her success to hard work rather than astrological coincidence.Born in Waco, TX, and raised in Dallas, Gilpin began acting on stage with the Dallas Theater Company at the age of eight, a fact that helped her shake stage fright and gain the confidence that would accompany her through numerous future auditions. A Skyline High School graduate, Gilpin later studied acting at both the University of Texas at Austin and London's British-American Academy. Upon returning to the U.S., Gilpin worked as a makeup artist in the Dallas area before taking an apprenticeship with the Williamstown Theater Festival. A chance meeting with actress Blythe Danner resulted in Gilpin gaining some support within the industry, and it wasn't long before Gilpin's dreams were coming true with roles on television's Flesh 'n' Blood and 21 Jump Street. A role on Cheers followed shortly after, and when a spin-off series entitled Frasier became an unexpected hit, Gilpin found the role that would bring her into households across the country on a weekly basis. Appearing frequently on such made-for-television films as The Secret She Carried (1996) and Laughter on the 23rd Floor (2000) while simultaneously essaying her role on Frasier, Gilpin (who was named after the animated Disney character Peri the squirrel) has also loaned her voice to such animated projects as television's Hercules and the computer-animated feature Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001). Throughout the 2000's and 2010's, Gilpin remained active, starring most notably on the dance series Make It or Break It.

Trivia: The daughter of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel, Zooey Deschanel made her film debut as the conflicted, rebellious patient of a small-town psychologist in Lawrence Kasdan's Mumford (1999). Prior to her debut, Deschanel -- who spent much of her childhood on location with her parents -- acted in a number of stage productions and made her professional debut on an episode of the sitcom Veronica's Closet. A year after making her film debut in Mumford, the young actress appeared in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous as the sister of an aspiring rock journalist who becomes caught up in the parallel universe of '70s rock. After turning up in the Dogma 95-style Manic in 2001, Deschanel would join the strong cast of director Barry Sonnenfeld's long-delayed comedy Big Trouble before re-teaming with that film's D.J. Qualls for the loser-turned-smooth operator teen comedy The New Guy in (2002). After following up with a role in the equally ill-recieved teen-thriller Abandon the same year, Deschanel earned positive nods for her role as the virginal teen who falls for a reformed womanizer in critical darling David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls. Though her next few film roles remained relatively low-key, the latter half of 2003 found the emerging young actress appearing in both the independent black comedy Eulogy and wide-release Will Ferrel family comedy Elf.In 2005 she scored a part in the big-screen adaptation of the popular sci-fi book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In 2006 she was cast in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch. In 2007 she scored a small-screen success as Dorothy in the reimagining of Wizard of Oz known as Tin Man. In 2008 she was the lead actress in the derided thriller The Happening, but had a huge critical success the next year in the indie comedy (500) Days of Summer. In 2011 she was one of the sisters in the comedy Our Idiot Brother, and had another hit on the small-screen as the lead in the FOX sitcom New Girl.

Trivia: An actor whose well-scrubbed Midwestern good looks have served him well in a wide variety of roles, Bradley Whitford was born in Madison, WI, on October 10, 1959. Whitford developed an interest in acting while in high school, and after graduating in 1977, he attended Wesleyan University, where he majored in English and Theater. After completing his studies at Wesleyan, he went on to receive a master's degree in Theater from the Juilliard Theater Center, and began pursuing an acting career in New York. Whitford made his screen debut in 1985 in a low-budget thriller called Dead As a Doorman, but received a good bit more attention for a supporting role in a 1986 TV movie, C.A.T. Squad, directed by William Friedkin. In 1987, Whitford appeared in both the New York and Los Angeles productions of Sam Shepard's drama Curse of the Starving Class; while in L.A. with the play, Whitford was cast as Jack Ford in the TV movie The Betty Ford Story. After returning to New York, Whitford continued to alternate stage roles with film assignments, and by the early '90s was appearing in a steady stream of supporting roles in such films as Presumed Innocent, A Perfect World, and Philadelphia. However, Whitford soon began scoring more substantial roles on television, including a recurring role as Norman Gardner on the series NYPD Blue and a memorable turn as a distraught father-to-be on the Emmy-award winning "Love's Labor's Lost" episode of E.R. In 1999, Whitford's finally scored the role that made him famous when he was cast as Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the TV series The West Wing (created by Aaron Sorkin, whose play A Few Good Men had featured Whitford in its Broadway cast). Whitford's work on the series eventually earned him an Emmy Award in 2001; the same year, he was also recognized as part of the show's ensemble cast by the Screen Actor's Guild Awards (also honored with Whitford was John Spencer, who had appeared with him in the movie Presumed Innocent).Whitford appeared in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005, as well as the critically acclaimed comedy drama Bottleshock in 2008. The actor enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in 2012 for his turn as a ruthless, yet oddly likable businessman in director Joss Whedon's popular horror comedy Cabin in the Woods.