Trivia: The son of a Cleveland Baptist minister, African American entertainer Arsenio Hall would often escape his bleak inner-city surroundings by imagining that he was a talk show host like his idol, Johnny Carson. He emulated Carson to the point that he briefly became an amateur magician in junior high school. His friends and teachers laughed at Arsenio's comic patter, but advised him to forget his dream -- because everyone knew that no black man would ever host a talk show. An excellent student, Hall was accepted at Ohio University in Athens, where he originally intended to study law, but at the last moment followed his heart and switched to the communications department. He later transferred to Kent State, working his way through school with gigs at local comedy clubs. After a long upward climb, Hall was hired as the opening act for such entertainers as Dionne Warwick and Nancy Wilson, then moved to Hollywood, where he was befriended by superstar Eddie Murphy. The two comedians co-starred in the 1987 comedy Coming to America, where Hall was permitted to display his versatility in a wide variety of quickie characterizations (one of which, a flamboyant minister, was ostensibly based on his own father). Comedienne Joan Rivers was also fond of Arsenio, and secured him several guest spots on her Fox network gabfest, The Late Show. When Rivers was axed by Fox in 1987, Hall took over as Late Show host. This led to his most prestigious assignment to date: The Arsenio Hall Show, a latenight entry syndicated by Paramount television, which premiered in January of 1989. With his unbounded energy, his ingratiating smile, his trademarked "Whoop Whoop Whoop" and his willingness to book guests that were deemed "chancy" by others (e.g. rap and soul artists), Hall quickly rose to the top of the ratings heap. In June of 1990, TV Guide singled out Arsenio Hall as the magazine's first "TV Person of the Year." Unlike the play-safe Johnny Carson, Hall courted controversy as often as possible, usually by attacking racism -- sparing no one, not even other black entertainers. Hall's program peaked in popularity in 1991, then seemed to run out of gas. When NBC made its announcement early in 1992 that Jay Leno would be replacing Johnny Carson as host of the Tonight Show, Hall reacted with inexplicable hostility, railing against Leno (who had always regarded Hall as a friend) and declaring that The Arsenio Hall Show would "whip Jay's ass." While Leno's ratings trailed against his CBS rival David Letterman, his program easily trounced the flagging Arsenio Hall. In 1994, after five years, Arsenio Hall and Paramount Television parted company, and Hall kept a low profile, all but disappearing from public view. In March of 1997, Hall emerged from his self-imposed exile to star, opposite Vivica Fox, in the ABC sitcom Arsenio as Michael Atwood, a cable network sportscaster in Atlanta. After that short-lived series left the air, Hall again disappeared from screens for a period of years. He could be seen in 2003 taking over for Ed McMahon as the host of a relaunched version of Star Search, and he provided a voice for the animated film Igor in 2008. The next year he appeared in the blaxploitation martial-arts comedy Black Dynamite.

Trivia: Beautiful Hawaiian actress Kelly Hu parlayed early experience as a model and beauty pageant winner into a busy career as an actress in television and film. Kelly Hu was born in Honolulu, HI, on February 13, 1968. While a student at Kameameha High School, Hu began taking modeling jobs on the advice of her friends, which led to her spending four months in Japan working on various assignments. Hoping to advance her career, Hu entered a local beauty pageant, which led to her being named Miss Teen U.S.A. in 1985, making her the first Asian-American to hold the title. While winning the prize ironically put her modeling career on pause (pageant regulations prevent winners from taking modeling assignments), it did help her launch an acting career; after her reign, Hu moved to Los Angeles, and in 1987, after landing a number of television commercials, she scored her first high-profile acting job when she was cast as Melia, Kirk Cameron's love interest, on several episodes of the TV sitcom Growing Pains. Hu began receiving a steady stream of television work, making guest appearances on such shows as Tour of Duty, Night Court, and 21 Jump Street, before she earned her first film role, a small part in Friday the 13th: Part VIII -- Jason Takes Manhattan. Hu's next film assignment would be a bit more prestigious -- she played the wife of musician Ray Manzarek (played by Kyle MacLachlan) in Oliver Stone's The Doors. More film and television work followed, including a brief run in 1992 on the daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful, before Hu took another stab at the pageant circuit, representing Hawaii in the 1993 Miss U.S.A. Pageant. Hu soon returned to acting, making memorable appearances on Melrose Place and Murder One, before she won the role of Michelle Chan on the action-drama series Nash Bridges. Hu lasted two years on the show; her next long-term TV role allowed her to make use of her martial arts skills (she holds a brown belt in karate) when she was cast opposite Sammo Hung on the action-comedy series Martial Law. Hu starred opposite Dwayne Johnson (aka the Rock) in 2002's The Scorpion King, the prequel to the runaway hit The Mummy. In 2003 Hu played the villainess Lady Deathstrike in X-Men: Reunited, and joined the cast of CSI: NY in the reoccurring role of Detective Kaile Maka (2005-2006). She played one-time valedictorian Kelly Lee in ABC's sitcom in 2007, though the show would unfortunately be cancelled after its first season. Luckily, the actress found more success on the small screen in The CW's popular supernatural romance series The Vampire Diaries in the role of Pearl (2010-2011), and appeared briefly on numerous television shows including Hawaii Five-0, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and NCIS. Hu took a starring role in Almost Perfect (2011) to play Vanessa, a thirtysomething career woman whose sudden familial problems threaten her seemingly ideal new relationship.

Trivia: American actress Gretchen Egolf came of age in Lancaster, PA, and first honed her acting ability as a young child on the theatrical circuit. Upon graduation from high school, Egolf enrolled in New York's illustrious Juilliard as a drama major. She subsequently launched a career as an on- and off-Broadway actress, a film star, and a television player. TV roles included a regular part on the series Martial Law and a recurring role on Roswell, in addition to guest appearances on such programs as Law & Order, Without a Trace, Medium, Nero Wolfe, and others. Cinematically, Egolf landed supporting roles in two particularly high-profile features: the 1994 Quiz Show (directed by Robert Redford) and the 1999 Talented Mr. Ripley (directed by Anthony Minghella). She also portrayed Genevieve Halford, wife of Jackie Gleason, in the eponymous made-for-television biopic of that superstar, Gleason (2002). In 2007, Egolf scored a regular role on the sci-fi drama Journeyman as the lead character's (Kevin McKidd) wife; the series was canceled after its first season.

Trivia: A British actor with a memorable face, Christopher Neame developed a reputation as a character actor in Hammer Horror films like Lust for a Vampire and Dracula A.D. in the early '70s. Able to convey an imposing feeling on screen, he would also find a niche playing bad guys on British TV shows, particularly those with a military bent, such as Lt. Dick Player on the prisoner drama Colditz, Kaiser Wilhelm II on Edward the King, and Flight Lt. John Curtis on Secret Army. During the '80s, Neame would make numerous appearances on American TV as well, making cameos on The A-Team and The Fall Guy. Neame's performance as Fallon in the 1989 Bond movie License to Kill struck a chord with audiences on both sides of the pond, and he would go on to serve his cult fan base with appearances on Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, and Sliders throughout the '90s. By the 2000's, Neame had all but completely established himself as a veteran genre actor, appearing on The Invisible Man, Star Trek Enterprise, and in the Christopher Nolan film The Prestige.

Trivia: Actor James Hong was working as a nightclub comic in San Francisco and Hawaii when he was tapped for his first regular TV role: "Number One Son" Barry Chan in the Anglo-American co-production The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1957). Hong would later appear as Frank Chen in Jigsaw John (1976) and Wang in Switch (1977-78). In theatrical features, he played characters bearing such flavorful monikers as Chew, Lo Pan and Bing Wong. He was seen as Faye Dunaway's butler in Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), repeating the role (minus Faye) in the 1990 sequel The Two Jakes. One of his most sizeable screen roles was Lamont Cranston's brainy assistant Li Peng in The Shadow (1994). James Hong has also directed a brace of feature films, including 1979's The Girls Next Door and 1989's The Vineyard.

Trivia: Actor and occasional producer Sung Kang launched his career in the early 2000s. Though he continually tackled bit parts or supporting roles that called for standard Asian types, such as guest spots on NYPD Blue and in features such as Antwone Fisher (2002) and Forbidden Warrior (2004), Kang made his most enduring mark by co-producing and starring in a series of critically praised independent films with predominantly Asian-American casts and crews. The first of these projects arose when Kang signed to associate produce and tackle a plum role as one of the leads in writer/director Justin Lin's drama Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), about a group of troubled Asian-American adolescents who drift ever so casually into low-level crime. He followed it up by producing and starring in a sophomore project, the action-infused crime saga Undoing (2006), as a somewhat naïve young man who embarks on a crusade of vengeance against the thugs who rubbed out his best friend. Additional supporting roles ensued, in features such as The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), and War (2007).