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: 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: Best known as the acid-mouthed Raina Troy -- a take-no-prisoners litigator -- on the James Woods-headlined, prime-time legal drama Shark (2006), African-American actress Sophina Brown also performed sketch comedy in the second season of the popular Chappelle's Show, opposite comic Dave Chappelle. Her resumé includes occasional guest appearances on such programs as Committed, Numb3rs, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

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: A longtime character actor with a reputation for taking on villainous roles with gleeful abandon and a subtle touch of humor, John Glover was once dubbed "the supreme rotter of the '80s" by the late film critic Pauline Kael, thanks to unforgettable performances in such films as 52 Pick-Up, Masquerade, and Scrooged. Always injecting his baddies with an element of quirk and personality, Glover later gravitated away from a life of cinematic crime to success with more sympathetic roles in Love! Valour! Compassion! and Mid-Century. A Salisbury, MD, native who pursued his higher education at Towson State Teacher's College, Glover began an off-Broadway career in the late '60s, which led to small parts in the mid-'70s in such films as Shamus (1973) and Annie Hall (1977). With occasional small-screen roles balancing out his features, Glover began carving out a villainous niche for himself during the '80s in such movies as The Evil That Men Do and 52 Pick-Up. Though Glover's big-screen work served as his bread and butter, more sympathetic television appearances -- as a valiant AIDS patient in An Early Frost (1985) and a dedicated doctor in L.A. Law -- earned the actor a pair of Emmy nominations. As his career progressed, Glover became an increasingly prominent figure on TV thanks to parts in Miami Vice, Murder, She Wrote, and Frasier, and his "villains" became ever more quirky in such high-profile features as Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Robocop 2. Glover's roles were also becoming increasingly diverse. Offering a side of himself rarely seen by audiences, he played artist Leonardo DaVinci in the 1991 made-for-TV feature A Season of Giants, and then portrayed another villain, this time the biggest of them all -- the Devil himself -- in the 1998 series Brimstone. Beginning in 1992, Glover did voice work for the popular superhero cartoon Batman: The Animated Series and, later, Batman: Gotham Nights; he also had onscreen roles in the live-action feature Batman & Robin and the WB series Smallville. Glover often returns to his alma matter (now called Towson University) to work with the drama students at the school's Fine Arts College.

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."