Trivia: From working on stage, Ellen DeGeneres has been able to translate her success with live performances into a television and a budding movie career. She was born in Metairie, LA, the daughter of two devoutly religious Christian Scientists. Her older brother, Vince DeGeneres, is a screenwriter. Her parents split up when she was 13. Shortly after the divorce, she and her mother moved to New Orleans. It was while trying to ease her mother's depression that DeGeneres discovered a talent for funny business. Following high school graduation in 1976, DeGeneres spent a semester at the University of New Orleans, but dropped out to hone her comedic skills. She won Showtime's Funniest Person in America contest in 1982, then moved to San Francisco, one of the centers for standup comedy. Her signature routine was a telephone call to God that had been inspired by a close friend's accidental death in New Orleans. She used the piece during her debut on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1986. Deeply impressed, Carson invited her to sit upon his couch, an honor that he bestowed upon only the most gifted comics; she was the first female comic to be so honored by him. Afterward, her career exploded with a cross-country tour and a few specials on cable television. In the early '90s, DeGeneres had offers to star in several new sitcoms, including Friends, but she declined and chose to join the cast of the ensemble sitcom These Friends of Mine. It was unsuccessful, but parent network ABC saw potential and overhauled the show, re-naming it Ellen. Largely based on DeGeneres' comedy, the series ran for four seasons, during which time she garnered two Emmy nominations. In 1997, DeGeneres created a stir with hints that her character on the show was gay and would come out of the closet later that season. As by this time the show's ratings were flagging, it was a gutsy move, one made even more titillating to audiences by rumors that DeGeneres herself was gay. Ellen, the character, did indeed come out of the closet at the end of April 1997. The episode generated high ratings and considerable controversy, for it was the first time an openly gay character starred on a television show. At the same time, DeGeneres herself admitted that she, too, was gay. The show centered on gay themes from then out and was cancelled (the network execs blamed low ratings, but DeGeneres supporters suspected other motives) in 1998. DeGeneres would soon be on TV in an even bigger way, however, hosting the massively successful daytime talk show Ellen beginning in 2003. The upbeat show would become well known for its effervescent style and humorous interviews with celebrities, who famously enter the set while dancing. The show would prove a hugely popular staple of daytime TV, and would run for many seasons.

Trivia: Kara DioGuardi established herself as one of the most prolific pop songwriters of early 21st century Top 40. She specialized in up-tempo female-driven pop with a litany of chart-busters authored for such artists as Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Kylie Minogue, and Hilary Duff -- to such a degree that the said artists owed a significant degree of their success to her involvement. As an entrepreneur, DioGuardi established the corporation Arthouse Entertainment, designed as a launching pad to develop and mentor up-and-coming artists in the music industry -- and quickly pushed the company to number seven on the Billboard List of Top Ten National Music Publishers for three quarters in a row. By that point, DioGuardi had also established a catalogue of well over 250 songs. The songwriter stepped in front of the cameras in 2009 as a judge on season eight of the white-hot Fox reality series American Idol, making her the second female judge opposite Paula Abdul. DioGuardi wouldn't stick with Idol, but despite remaining an extremely active force in the record industry, she would later go on to judge the series Platinum Hit.

Trivia: His father, Keith Murdoch was an Australian journalist and owned a number of newspapers. Followed in his father's footsteps and inherited the Sunday Mail and the News, Adelaide newspapers from him. In 1964 he launched The Austalian newspaper. When he moved in the UK market in 1968, he bought the News of the World. Is the founder and head of News Corporation in 1979. By 1985 he gave up his Australian citizenship for an American citizenship in order to become the owner of 20th Century Fox. He launched Sky television in the UK in 1989.

Trivia: Radio and TV personality Ryan Seacrest wanted to be a DJ from the time he was a child, and he scored a gig at a local radio station at the age of just 15, becoming one of the youngest successful DJs in history. He went on to attend the University of Georgia after high school, but left during his first year to take a job at ESPN. The show didn't pan out, but Seacrest continued to find work as a DJ, taking over the "afternoon drive" at Los Angeles adult contemporary station Star 98.7. While working in radio, Seacrest kept looking for a break in TV, eventually scoring a hosting spot on a new reality show called American Idol in 2003. The show became a massive hit and Seacrest finally became a household name. He stayed with the series through subsequent seasons while he also began working at the E! network, doing red-carpet duties at award shows and events and hosting E! News Daily.In 2005, Seacrest fulfilled a lifelong dream when he hosted Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve alongside the ailing legend. And before long Seacrest became a celebrity in his own right, landing more and more high-profile hosting gigs, including the 59th and 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, and lucrative endorsement deals with brands like Proctor & Gamble and Coca-Cola. In addition to his television hosting duties, Seacrest heads Ryan Seacrest Productions, which produced the ABC series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which won an Emmy award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2010, and many reality TV shows for E!, including Keeping Up With the Kardashians and their various spin-offs, like Kourtney and Kim Take Miami.

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.