Trivia: With looks suggesting a closet full of football trophies, the blond, blue-eyed Paul Walker has made a name for himself with a number of high-profile projects, including the successful teen flicks She's All That and Varsity Blues.Hailing from Glendale, CA, where he was born on September 12, 1973, Walker got his start at a young age, modeling and acting in various TV shows including Charles in Charge, Diff'rent Strokes, and Who's the Boss. His film debut came in the 1986 horror spoof Monster in the Closet, which complemented a part in the short-lived 1986 sitcom Throb. After high school, where he was active in a variety of sports, Walker opted to study marine biology at a series of California community colleges. Realizing his real love was acting, Walker resumed his long-dormant career in 1993, with a role on the CBS soap The Young and the Restless. This was followed by a lead role in Tammy and the T-Rex, which also starred an unknown Denise Richards. In 1998, after starring in the desultory Meet the Deedles, Walker won a secondary role as the object of Reese Witherspoon's pent-up passion in the critically acclaimed Pleasantville. His onscreen success continued with the following year's She's All That and Varsity Blues, both of which allowed the actor to capitalize on the craze for teens on the screen. In 2001, Walker tackled a leading role as he put the pedal to the metal with burgeoning star Vin Diesel in The Fast and the Furious. A throwback to the forgotten drive-in exploitationers of the past, adrenalized and pumped-up for the new millennium, The Fast and the Furious brought Walker into edgier thriller territory as a youthful undercover FBI agent drawn into the world of underground racing gangs. Taking to the road once again, Walker appeared later that year as a teen stalked by a maniacal trucker while on the way to pick-up his dream girl (Leelee Sobieski) in Joy Ride.In 2003, Walker reprised his Fast and the Furious role for the sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, before signing on to appear alongside Penelope Cruiz, Susan Sarandon, and Alan Arkin for veteran actor Chazz Palminteri's big screen directorial debut, the ensemble drama Noel. The low-key movie provided a fore into films of a more subdued, dramatic nature, but the young actor wouldn't stay away from the thriller genre for long. In 2005 he appeared with Jessica Alba in the underwater adventure Into the Blue, and by 2006 he starred in the crime drama Running Scared. Walker kept the adrenaline pumping but widened his target audience for his next film, the Disney feature Eight Below. Walker starred as an Antarctic explorer who is forced to leave his beloved sled dogs behind when his life is in danger, but remains determined to rescue them. The movie was more family friendly than his other recent efforts, but before long he would be back to the grown-up fare that seemed to suit him. He next took a role in the John Herzfeld action flick The Death and Life of Bobby Z, in which he played opposite Laurence Fishburne as a convict who agrees to pose as a deceased drug dealer during a hostage switch. The edgy crime film was right up his alley, but Walker would change gears again for his next film, playing one of the six soldiers who raised the American flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima during WWII, in the Clint Eastwood movie Flags of Our Fathers. He was the lead in the 2006 action film Running Scared, as well as the star of the old-fashioned adventure film Eight Below. In 2009 he returned to his signature franchise with Fast & Furious, and followed that up with the crime film Takers, and then Fast Five, which became a huge hit. Walker continued to apppear in The Fast and the Furious franchise films before ironically losing his life as a passenger in a car crash at age 40 in 2013.

Trivia: An L.A. native whose self-titled debut album quickly propelled him to the top of the charts, smooth-voiced R&B crooner Tyrese (born Tyrese Gibson on December 30th, 1978) immediately stood out from the pack, thanks to the remarkable honesty of his songwriting, his alluring passion, and his self-assured style behind the microphone. It was at the age of 14 that a series of wins on the local talent circuit gave the up-and-coming singer his first enticing taste of success, with a Coca Cola commercial providing the breakthrough that would soon propel him to release his eponymous debut album in 1998. Of course, anyone who happened to catch Tyrese's Coca Cola commercial couldn't help but notice the singing sensation's undeniable screen presence. After making his acting debut with a small role in acclaimed filmmaker Julie Dash's made-for-television drama Love Song, the singer-turned-actor jumped headlong into features, as the protagonist of John Singleton's Boyz 'N the Hood follow-up, Baby Boy. Cast as an urban mama's boy whose staunch refusal to leave the nest eventually stifles his transition into adulthood, Tyrese offered just the right mixture of naïveté and street-tough bravado to draw audiences in, while showing notable promise for the future. With two films, a hit album, and a series of television appearances in such series as Martin and Moesha under his belt, Tyrese returned to the music scene for his sophomore effort, 2000 Watts, before jumping into the driver's seat for the 2003 film 2 Fast 2 Furious. The following year Tyrese kept the action moving at a clip with a supporting role in Flight of the Phoenix before opting for more dramatic roles in director Justin Lin's Annapolis and former collaborator John Singleton's family-themed revenge drama Four Brothers. A supporting role in Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin's Navy boxing misfire Annapolis was quickly followed by another headline performance as an ex-convict struggling to get his son back after his vehicle is carjacked with the boy still inside in the 2006 action thriller Waist Deep.

Trivia: A fiercely independent actress who refuses to be pressed into a conventional mode or typecast, Eva Mendes was studying marketing in the late '90s when an agent stumbled across her photo while perusing Mendes's neighbor's portfolio. She soon appeared in an Aerosmith video and made her film debut in Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. Mendes next appeared in a few made-for-television productions and hammed it up with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in A Night at the Roxbury before being cast in a prominent role in Urban Legends: Final Cut. Working against typecasting despite her teen horror resumé, Mendes next took roles in Exit Wounds, Training Day, and All About the Benjamins. Mendes next began work on a children's book titled Crazy Leggs Beshee in which she wanted to introduce art, history, vocabulary, and values to children in a fun and easily comprehendable medium.In 2003, Mendes' career took off, with the actress taking on large roles in an ecclectic quartet of high-profile films. In 2 Fast 2 Furious she played a customs agent working with Paul Walker to bring down a Miami drug cartel. Out of Time found her reteaming with Training Day costar Denzel Washington. Flexing her comedic chops, Mendes was the love interest of half a pair of conjoined twins in the Farrelly brothers' Stuck on You. And in Once Upon a Time in Mexico she played another government agent, this time opposite Johnny Depp.Mendes would go on to appear in a number of films over the coming years, like The Wendell Baker Story, Hitch, Ghost Rider, The Other Guys, and Girl in Progress. She took several years off in order to focus on her growing family, but in 2015, it was announced she would reprise her role from 2 Fast 2 Furious in a future Fast film.

Trivia: After making his film debut alongside a cast of future stars, Cole Hauser made his own mark as a TV and indie film actor in the 1990s. Raised in Santa Barbara, Hauser got hooked on acting in junior high. Shortly after he moved to Los Angeles at age 15 to pursue his chosen career, Hauser was cast in the prep school anti-Semitism drama School Ties (1992) along with up-and-comers Brendan Fraser, Chris O'Donnell, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. After this auspicious beginning, Hauser became part of an equally noteworthy ensemble of young stars-to-be in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993), appeared in the NBC TV movie A Matter of Justice (1993), played a skinhead in John Singleton's college drama Higher Learning (1995), and starred as an abusive boyfriend in All Over Me (1997). Hauser was cast in the lead role in the ABC series High Incident in 1996, but the show lasted only two seasons. Following a supporting role as one of Damon and Affleck's Boston cronies in their breakthrough hit Good Will Hunting (1997), Hauser played a small part in Stephen Frears' little seen modern Western The Hi-Lo Country (1998) and scored a hit as one of the marooned travelers battling mutant aliens in the sci-fi sleeper Pitch Black (2000). After reuniting with his Tigerland (2000) co-star Colin Farrell in the box office failure Hart's War (2002), Hauser gained more notice for his supporting role later that year in the women's melodrama White Oleander (2002). Though he only appeared in a few scenes, Hauser's kindly and sexy young foster dad Ray easily caught the eye of the audience as well as troubled foster teen Alison Lohman. Returning to more testosterone-friendly work, Hauser subsequently co-starred with Hart's War officer Bruce Willis in Antoine Fuqua's action thriller Man of War (2003), and got behind the nitro-charged wheel for the sequel The Fast and the Furious 2 (2003). He continued to work in little-seen fare like Paparazzi and The Cave, but did score a part as one of Vince Vaughn's brothers in the aptly titled comedy The Break-Up. Over the next several years, Hauser would remain active on screen, appearing in films like The Cave, The Break-Up, and The FAmily That Prays, as well as on TV series like K-Ville and Chase. Hauser's father is actor Wings Hauser.

Trivia: One of a number of hip-hop musicians to successfully tackle a career in movies as well, Ludacris began his career as a humble radio DJ working in Atlanta, GA. He used the job as an opportunity to hone his skills as a musician and rapper, eventually hooking up with talents like super-producer Timbaland and getting signed to a subsidiary of Def Jam in 2000. He shortly thereafter released his first album, Inconegro, and soon became a household name, not to mention one of the most important forces in hip-hop. His fame was only boosted when, in 2002, he was signed to do a promotional deal with Pepsi, but the sponsorship was terminated when right-wing TV news shock-jocker Bill O'Reilly complained that Ludacris' image promoted violence. The controversy created much debate and attracted substantial attention, possibly more than the promo contract would have earned on its own, and the rapper's album sales continued to rise.It wasn't long before Ludacris' notoriety had movie directors tapping him to make appearances in their films. After a small role in 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, he was cast in the 2005 film Hustle & Flow, a movie starring Terrence Howard as Djay, an aspiring rapper trying desperately to make it. Ludacris played Skinny Black, a world-famous hip-hop star who started out in Djay's hometown of Memphis. The movie became a critical success, and Ludacris followed it up with a 2006 appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as the stepson of cast member Ice-T. His booming music career didn't make it easy, but Ludacris couldn't help signing onto another project in 2007, parodying his own street-tough image as a disgruntled elf in the Christmas comedy Fred Claus.

Trivia: With his distinct appearance, the bald and imposing African-American player Thom Barry made a seemingly perfect character actor, and thus found himself frequently cast as guards, police detectives, and heavies in mainstream Hollywood features, from the early '90s on. He landed a bit part as a guard in Rob Reiner's The American President (1995), appeared as Samahani in Congo (1995), and played Sgt. Marcus in the Shaquille O'Neal-headlined superhero picture Steel (1997). Barry maintained a higher profile as Agent Bilkins in two Jerry Bruckheimer-produced action pictures, The Fast and the Furious (2001) and its sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). Additionally, after years of guest-acting work on the small screen, he signed for his first regular role -- that of homicide investigator Will Jeffries -- on the popular detective series Cold Case (2006).

Trivia: Hard-working character actor James Remar has been mainly typecast as a psychopathic killer in a wide variety of thrillers, both blockbusters and low-budget straight-to-video. A native of Boston, he studied acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and made his Broadway debut with Bent, opposite Richard Gere. His first major film role was gangster Ajax in Walter Hill's 1979 action drama The Warriors. The film gained a minor cult following and seemed to cement Remar's reputation as a bad guy. He would continue to work with director Hill for Windwalker (1980), 48 Hrs. (1982), and Wild Bill (1995).During the '80s, he played psycho gangster Dutch Schultz in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, a maniac killer in Rent-a-Cop, and a Neanderthal in The Clan of the Cave Bear. He got a little break in 1989 as the cop Gentry in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy. During the '90s, he made a deal with the devil in Tales From the Darkside: The Movie and appeared in many movies that ended up on TV or home video. He had played so many villains that he was able to spoof himself as Max Shady in the comedic thriller parody Fatal Instinct. A few gentle comedy dramas followed with Penny Marshall's Renaissance Man and Herbert Ross' Boys on the Side.Many film roles opened up in the late '90s, from Victor Salva's independent comedy Rites of Passage to the big-budget Robert Zemeckis mystery What Lies Beneath. After playing Frank Cisco on the TV series Total Security, he showed up on HBO's Sex and the City as Richard, Samatha's (Kim Cattrall) rich boyfriend of the moment. He then joined the cast of the USA original series The Huntress as fugitive Tiny Bellows, the love interest of Dottie Thorson (Annette O'Toole). In 2003, he could be seen in feature films from the action moneymaker 2 Fast 2 Furious to the light comedy Duplex.

Trivia: Chances are that by the time you saw model-turned-actress Devon Aoki step behind the wheel in 2 Fast 2 Furious you were already asking yourself, "where have I seen that face before?" With an impressive modeling background that has included campaigns for such world-famous designers as Chanel and Versace -- not to mention appearances on the covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Interview -- the answer to that question could be one of many. A seemingly ubiquitous presence in the world of modeling in the millennial changeover, Aoki has since gone on to craft an impressive career onscreen as well thanks to roles in such high-profile Hollywood features as the aforementioned Fast and the Furious sequel, the high-school secret agent comedy D.E.B.S., and director Robert Rodriguez's Sin City. Devon Aoki was born in New York City to Benihana restaurant founder Rocky Aoki and Anglo-Bavarian jewelry designer Pamela Hilburger; the Aoki family subsequently settled briefly on the West Coast before returning back East when young Devon was 13 years old. It was shortly after their return to New York that Aoki was spotted by a photographer while attending a Rancid concert, and following a move to London shortly thereafter, Aoki's modeling career skyrocketed. A hot property on both the magazine scene and the runway circuit, Aoki soon began considering other means by which to expand her career. Already comfortable in front of the camera and a big fan of the movies, Aoki convinced filmmakers to give her a shot at the big screen, and despite the fact that she didn't have a driver's license and had never driven a car, the striking young model was soon cast in director John Singleton's 2 Fast 2 Furious. A role as a brainy schoolgirl who joins an elite national-defense group in D.E.B.S. was quick to follow in 2004, and the following year Aoki used the very sword that Uma Thurman wielded in the Kill Bill saga to air out Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro in the brutally violent and visually vibrant comic book film Sin City.

Trivia: Puerto Rican born Amaury Nolasco had no intention of becoming an actor when he was studying biology at the University of Puerto Rico on the road to becoming a doctor, but a casting director who recruited him into an appearance in a commercial changed his plans, and within a few gigs he was hooked. He packed his bags and moved to New York, where he enrolled at the American-British-Dramatic-Arts School and began appearing on shows like CSI and ER. Within a few years, Nolasco had built up a resumé that made him more viable for substantial movie roles. In 2003, he landed a small part in 2 Fast 2 Furious, and in 2004 he scored a role in the Bernie Mac comedy Mr. 3000. These big breaks were nothing, however, compared to the job he got in 2005 when he was cast as series regular Fernando Sucre on the hit series Prison Break. On the heels of this success, Nolasco nabbed a supporting role in the David Spade comedy The Benchwarmers, but much more impressive was the role he signed up for later that year, joining the cast of the hotly anticipated big-screen version of Transformers, slated for release in 2007.

Trivia: A native of Silver Spring, MD, suave and clean-cut actor Michael Ealy appeared on-camera from the late '90s. He began on the small screen, with guest appearances on network programs including Law & Order and ER, but scored his breakout role with a much-favored turn as Ricky Nash, a convict-in-the-running with several past charges against him, in the predominantly African American ensemble comedies Barbershop (2002) and Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004). The billing in these projects was somewhat prescient: Ealy continued to take challenging and unique supporting roles and gradually worked his way up the Hollywood ladder, openly declaring himself in no hurry to become a top-billed star. Additional projects included the action sagas 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and S.W.A.T. (2003) and the psychological thriller November (2003), but Ealy netted much greater acclaim -- and flexed some impressive dramatic muscle -- with his portrayal of Teacake in the Oprah Winfrey-produced telemovie Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005). He then landed the incredibly demanding and edgy lead role of Darwyn Al-Sayeed, a terrorist plotting an attack on the United States, in the Showtime original miniseries Sleeper Cell (2005). In 2008, Ealy starred opposite Will Smith and Rosario Dawson in the earnest suicide drama Seven Pounds, directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness). Ealy took on a leading role as a Bishop hiding in a small Italian village that opposes the Nazi cause in Spike Lee's acclaimed war drama Miracle at St. Anna (2008), and co-starred with Julianna Margulies and Michael J. Fox in the CBS television series The Good Wife the following year. In 2010 he played a supporting role in the crime thriller Takers, and starred in the romantic comedy Think Like a Man in 2010.

Trivia: Burly and heavyset character actor Mark Boone Jr. specialized in portrayals of thuggish rednecks and imposing blue-collar types, occasionally those with a slightly shady undercurrent. Boone first stepped in front of the camera in the early '80s, and grew more prolific over time; he was memorable in films such as the 1990 Die Hard 2 (as a terrorist), the 1995 Seven (as a greasy FBI agent), and the 2003 2 Fast 2 Furious (as a detective). His onscreen activity crescendoed circa 2005, with performances in four of that year's features, including Batman Begins. The following year, Boone signed for one of the key supporting roles in David Slade's supernatural horror opus 30 Days of Night (2007).