Trivia: One way (though perhaps not the ideal way) to describe the familiar TV persona of American Actor Rob Morrow is as a more neurotic, less loveable Woody Allen. Supporting himself as a waiter and balloon messenger in his earliest acting days, Morrow made his prime time network TV debut in 1988 as Marco on the weekly dramatic series Tattinger's. A year later, he was up for the lead in a planned series called The Antagonists, but he opted instead for a tailor-made role in the shortlived stage play The Substance of Fire. Though warned by his agent that this move would cost him any future TV work, Morrow went on to achieve fame in 1990 as Dr. Joel Fleischman, the misplaced general practictioner of Cicely, Alaska, on CBS' Northern Exposure. Two years into the series, Morrow threatened to quit if he wasn't given a substantial pay hike; but when September rolled around, Morrow was back as Dr. Fleischman. Morrow left Northern Exposure for good in 1994 (the series was obviously on its last legs anyway), but not before appearing as cigar-chomping, Boston-accented, fiercely moralistic federal attorney Richard Goodwin in Quiz Show, the 1994 film re-enactment of the 1958 TV game-show cheating scandal.

Trivia: One of the more accomplished young actors to be immortalized on celluloid in the late 1990s, David Krumholtz has distinguished himself with both talent and the sort of unconventional looks that allow him to be both dashing and nebbish at the same time.A native of New York City, where he was born May 15, 1978, Krumholtz began his professional career at the age of 13, when he starred opposite Judd Hirsch in the Broadway production of Conversations with My Father. He went on to make his film debut in 1993, appearing as an obnoxious child actor in the Michael J. Fox comedy Life with Mikey. That same year, he had a small role as Wednesday Addams' (Christina Ricci) socially stunted love interest in Addams Family Values. Krumholtz's first truly memorable film role was that of Francis Davenport, the Upper East Side brat who gets Katie Holmes drunk in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997). He'd go on to play Natasha Lyonne's older brother in The Slums of Beverly Hills, and a high schooler in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). As the years wore on, Krumholtz would prove himself to be a viable force on screen, appearing in movies like Ray, Serenity, Walk Hard, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and This is the End,, and on the popular crime proceedural Numb3rs.

Trivia: Born March 15th, 1935, Bronx-native Judd Hirsch attended CCNY, where he majored in engineering and physics. A blossoming fascination in the theatre convinced Hirsch that his future lay in acting. He studied at the AADA and worked with a Colorado stock company before his 1966 Broadway debut in Barefoot in the Park. He spent many years at New York's Circle Repertory, where he appeared in the first-ever production of Lanford Wilson's The Hot L Baltimore. After an auspicious TV-movie bow in the well-received The Law (1974), Hirsch landed his first weekly-series assignment, playing the title character in the cop drama Delvecchio (1976-77). From 1978 to 1982, he was seen as Alex Reiger in the popular ensemble comedy Taxi, earning two Emmies in the process. While occupied with Taxi, Hirsch found time to act off-Broadway, winning an Obie award for the 1979 production Talley's Folly. In the following decade, he was honored with two Tony Awards for the Broadway efforts I'm Not Rappoport and Conversations with My Father. His post-Taxi TV series roles include Press Wyman in Detective in the House (1985) and his Golden Globe-winning turn as John Lacey in Dear John (1988-92). Judd Hirsch could also be seen playing Jeff Goldblum's father in the movie blockbuster Independence Day (1996). In 2001, Hirsch co-starred with Paul Bettany and Christopher Plummer in the multi-Award winning biopic A Beautiful Mind. The actor once again found success on the television screen in CBS' drama Numb3rs, in which he took on the role of Alan Eppes, father of FBI agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and Professor Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz). After appearing on all four seaons of Numb3rs, Hirsch took a small role in director Brett Ratner's crime comedy Tower Heist (2011).

Trivia: Handsome and elegant African-American actor Alimi Ballard recalls such contemporaries as the St. Elsewhere-era Denzel Washington and Blair Underwood, but has only gradually begun to draw like stature and acclaim. After cutting his acting chops as a frequent guest star on various U.S. television series for decades, including Loving, NYPD Blue, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Ballard worked his way up to recurring roles in several U.S. television programs around the turn of the millennium. Ballard is perhaps best known for his portrayal of urban philosopher Herbal Thought, who offered wise counsel to bioengineered superhero Max Guevara (Jessica Alba), on the James Cameron-produced apocalyptic actioner Dark Angel (2000), starring Jessica Alba. Ballard procured another regular TV role a few years later, playing Special Agent David Sinclair opposite Rob Morrow and Judd Hirsch in the weekly procedural Numb3rs (2005), a detective program about a brilliant mathematician (David Krumholtz) who helps the feds solve baffling crimes. Ballard also appeared in bit roles in the big-screen films Deep Impact (1998) and Men of Honor (2000).

Trivia: Upon graduating from the University of Minnesota, Peter MacNicol traveled the length and breadth of the U.S. as a regional repertory actor. In his first film, Dragonslayer (1981), MacNicol essayed one of his few leading-man roles as Galen, a hapless assistant sorcerer who makes good. His most celebrated film assignment was as Stingo, the innocent-bystander narrator of Sophie's Choice. Most of the time, MacNicol has been seen in comical, sycophantic roles, such as the easily demonized Janocz in Ghostbusters II (1989) and the unctuous camp counselor in Addams Family Values (1993). On television, Peter MacNicol starred in the brief Norman Lear political lampoon The Powers That Be (1992) and co-starred as Alan Birch on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope (1994).MacNicol continued to play small but indelible roles in a variety of small but indelible films throughout the mid-'90s. There was 1992's underrated Housesitter with Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin; acclaimed director Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995); and a starring role opposite cult comedian Rowan Atkinson in 1997's Bean. Despite his respectable feature-film success, however, MacNicol wouldn't get solid mainstream recognition until the 1997 debut of Ally McBeal. The show featured MacNicol as John Cage, an immensely insecure but highly gifted lawyer whose lovable, if over-sensitive, nature tugged at the heartstrings of Ally (Calista Flockhart) and television audiences alike. MacNicol remained a lead character on the show from 1997 to 2002, and was able to participate not just as an actor, but also as a director, screenwriter, and amateur karaoke singer. No longer the affable John Cage, MacNicol could be seen assigning Jamie Foxx the unpleasant task of letting his employees know of a rapidly approaching downsizing in 2004's Breakin' All the Rules. Recurring roles on Numbers and 24 as well as voice work in such animated shows as Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, The Batman, The Spectacular Spider-Man helped MacNicol maintain a high profile in the following years, and in 2012 he could be seen as the Secretary of Defense in the big-budget game board adaptaion Battleship.

Trivia: The daughter of a German mother and Indian father, actress Navi Rawat grew up in California before moving to New York to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Her first big break came in 2003, when she won the recurring role of Theresa Diaz on the hit series The O.C. Later that same year, she appeared in the critically acclaimed film House of Sand and Fog, but she would become even more well known to audiences in 2005, when she was cast as Amita Ramanujan on the procedural show Numb3rs.

Trivia: Forget "ingenue" -- by the time the glamorous Diane Farr arrived on set for her first major filmed assignment, with her sun-drenched brunette hair and photogenic Mediterranean complexion, she already qualified as an old pro in the talent realm, as a veteran model from her preteen years. Though her official acting resumé dates back to 1992, Manhattan-born Farr first culled national recognition six years later, as a hostess of the television series Loveline, a somewhat frank spin-off of a popular radio program in which viewers could phone in and ask the hosts questions about health and/or relationships. After a series of occasional turns in low-profiled TV series and telemovies, Farr landed a string of semi-permanent roles on popular small-screen series. She began with the blockbuster sitcom The Drew Carey Show (in 1999). As Tracy -- the object of multiple affections from Drew, Lewis (Ryan Stiles), and Oswald (Diedrich Bader) -- Farr unwittingly instigated a series of cutthroat competitive games among the boys, including her own sporting event, christened "The Tracy Bowl" and announced by broadcaster Bob Costas. The Tracy characterization lasted a short time, but it marked only the beginning of a seemingly unending line-up of roles for Farr. Between 2001 and 2002, she starred as gutsy female police detective Jan Fendrich in the critically praised but all-too-short-lived Denis Leary cop dramedy The Job. Two years after that, Farr worked for director Barnet Kellman in Like Family (2003), a short-lived sitcom about a black family and a white family attempting with great strain to live under the same roof together harmoniously. In 2005, Farr scored critically and commercially as FBI agent Megan Reeves on the detective program Numb3rs, starring David Krumholtz, Rob Morrow, and Judd Hirsch. Carr joined the cast of HBO's Californication in the show's first season, and appeared in Buried (2010), a well-received psychological thriller following a truck driver who becomes trapped underground.In addition to her acting work, Farr is also a published author. Her first novel, The Girl Code, found a considerable audience, and she has penned articles for numerous women's magazines. In addition to her acting and writing work, Farr co-founded and operates a greeting card firm.

Trivia: With his tough-guy image and stocky build, American actor Dylan Bruno carved out a niche for himself as a character player in steel-toed action and adventure movies, beginning in the late '90s. These ran the gamut from critically praised masterworks -- such as Steven Spielberg's much-ballyhooed war opus Saving Private Ryan (1998) -- to John Irvin's less successful WWII telemovie When Trumpets Fade, that same year. Perhaps afraid of limiting himself, Bruno made a conscious attempt to expand his range into alternate genres, but successive roles essentially constituted variations on this original typecast. For example, Bruno appeared in the gentle romantic drama Where the Heart Is (2000) -- about an expectant blue-collar mother (Natalie Portman) who moves into an Oklahoma Wal-Mart -- as the rough-hewn redneck boyfriend, Willy Jack Perkins, who deserts her. Similarly, Bruno appeared in the TV drama The Pennsylvania Miners' Story (2002) as one of the gritty working-class men of the title who find themselves trapped in a mine with a decidedly slim chance of survival. Bruno subsequently built up his television resumé during the mid-2000s. He was particularly memorable as Colby Granger, a military veteran-cum-federal agent, on the popular detective drama Numb3rs (2005).

Trivia: Started dancing at a young age and studied ballet at the Juilliard School. Worked as a cocktail waitress in Manhattan. Only female regular in ensemble cast of cop drama Hawaii. Performed in the 2003 stage production of Pieces. Film debut was in the 2004 horror movie Bloodline. Produced and choreographed the short experimental film Love Runs Red. On her mixed heritage (her mother is Japanese, her dad is Caucasian) she told the Honolulu Advertiser in 2004: "Growing up, everyone is always asking you, 'Where are you from? Where did you get those eyes? What planet are you from?' I was conscious of it every day."

Trivia: Bearing the kind of golden-skinned, blue-eyed handsomeness that often leads to predictions of superstardom, Sean Patrick Flanery has been acting on screens big and small since the 1980s. Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana on October 11, 1965, Flanery was raised in Houston, Texas. While attending Houston's University of Saint Thomas, he decided to take a drama class in the hopes of pursuing a fellow drama student. Flanery's interest in the girl proved fleeting, but the same could not be said of his interest in the theatre: after getting hooked, he packed up and headed out to Los Angeles, where he had an obligatory stint waiting tables before he found an agent. After eight months of looking for work, Flanery began acting in television commercials, which in turn led to work on various television shows. Although he made his film debut in 1987's A Tiger's Tale, it was his work in the 1992 television series Young Indiana Jones that gave Flanery his first taste of recognition. Although the series was short-lived, it did manage to build up something of a fan base, and Flanery continued to make Young Indy specials until 1996. In 1995, the actor returned to film, appearing in an adaptation of Truman Capote's The Grass Harp and starring in Powder. Unfortunately for Flanery, the latter film was mired in controversy surrounding suspect actions on the part of its director, which obscured the quality of the actor's performance. Flanery continued to appear in a number of films, including 1997's Suicide Kings and the 1998 Drew Barrymore vehicle Best Men. Also in 1998, he could be seen portraying a callous rocker in the independent film Girl. The following year, Flanery starred opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the romantic comedy Simply Irresistible. Later that same year, he could be seen giving romance another try in Body Shots, a tale of angst-ridden twenty-somethings in L.A.'s treacherous dating scene.He was in The Boondock Saints and the gentle family drama Kiss the Bride. He was the lead in Tobe Hooper's The Damned Thing, which was part of the Masters of Horror series. He worked on The Dead Zone TV series, and returned as Connor MacManus for The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. He appeared in the horror film Saw: The Final Chapter, the thriller InSight, and the moving drama Lake Effects.

Trivia: A native of Boston, MA, actress Ari Graynor was born in 1983 and attended Trinity College in Hartford, CT. She broke through to acclaim with her supporting role as Caitlin Rucker, a sexually promiscuous, manic-depressive student at Meadow Soprano's college on the HBO mafia drama The Sopranos (during the third season, in 2001), and thereafter moved into features, with contributions to films from a broad cross-section of genres. These included the gritty drama Mystic River (2003), the bittersweet Jeff Daniels/Sigourney Weaver seriocomedy Imaginary Heroes (2004), and the Christopher Guest satire For Your Consideration (2006). In 2008, Graynor portrayed a flighty and befuddled young urbanite with a passion for turkey sandwiches in the teen-oriented romantic comedy Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Alongside her film and television work, Graynor has remained fully active on-stage, landing her most prominent role as Alison in the 2005 Broadway outing Brooklyn Boy.

Trivia: For those who grew up in the 1980s, many will remember hating actor William Atherton for his hissable characters in such films as Ghostbusters (1984) and Real Genius (1985). Specializing in heady, clueless bureaucrats who never cease to hinder the protagonist and who often get what's coming to them before the credits roll, Atherton is one of those busy character actors who audiences are not likely to forget, even if they can't remember where they know him from. A Connecticut native who got his start on the stage while still in high school, Atherton would subsequently move on to become the youngest member ever accepted into New Haven's Long Wharf Theater repertory. Studies at the Pasadena Playhouse and Carnegie Tech led Atherton to pursue more theater roles, and a few short years later the seasoned stage actor made his leap to the big screen with The New Centurions (1972). A role in Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974) found Atherton's feature career getting off to a solid start, and the fledgling actor would continue career momentum with featured roles in The Hindenburg (1975) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). In the 1980s Atherton would develop a convincingly weasel-like persona with roles as the popcorn-hating professor of Real Genius and a relentlessly obnoxious EPA agent who unleashes a nightmare upon New York in Ghostbusters. Following up with a memorably sleazy reporter in Die Hard (1988) and its sequel, Atherton would remain busy in the 1990s with roles in The Pelican Brief (1993), Bio-Dome (1996), Hoodlum, and Mad City (both 1997). The millennial turnover found Atherton appearing in such fare as The Crow: Salvation (2000) and Race to Space (2001), and as 2003 approached his feature career seemed to be having a bit of a resurgence with such major releases as Who's Your Daddy? and The Last Samurai.

Trivia: One of the more promising actors to emerge during the late-1990s Teen Invasion, Shawn Hatosy got his start in commercials and theatre. The Maryland native first broke into film with a miniscule role in the 1995 Home for the Holidays, and two years later appeared in a string of films, with his most notable role being the high school student who stands up for an outed Kevin Kline in In & Out. He gained further recognition the following year as a football player battling alien teachers in The Faculty, and in 1999 had a number of substantial roles: he could be seen as the protagonist of the Farrelly Brothers' coming-of-age comedy Outside Providence, as a young Nick Nolte in Simpatico, and as the guy who teaches Natalie Portman a few things about life in Wayne Wang's Anywhere But Here. As the new century got under way, Hatosy could be seen in a variety of projects including Down to You, 11:14, and the indie hit The Cooler. He continued to work steadily in projects such as Faith of My Fathers, Alpha Dog, Factory Girl, and Nobel Son. He landed a major part in the cop series Southland, and found time during his work on that show to appear in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and Michael Mann's historical gangster film Public Enemies.