Trivia: Although probably best known as the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, New York native Robert Smigel's legacy is really more that of a writer. Writing for Saturday Night Live since 1985, he is one of the longest running writers in the show's history, though he's only been producing and acting on it since the '90s. Some of his parodies and sketches include "Superfans" and "The McLaughlin Group." Smigel has also written for Lookwell, The Dana Carvey Show, and Late Night. As an actor, he's had bit parts in such comedies as Wayne's World 2 (1993) and, since then, nearly all of Adam Sandler's movies, including Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Little Nicky, and Punch-Drunk Love. His puppet character of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has transcended O'Brien for wider pastures such as Christmas specials and award shows. Some of Smigel's best work has been in animation. Appearing in tiny bursts on cable and late-night programming, his short cartoon bits include "The Ambiguously Gay Duo," co-created with comedian Stephen Colbert, and "Fun With Real Audio," cartoons which re-imagine popular figures of the day. Smigel eventually had enough bits to launch a whole show as creator, executive producer, and voice actor of TV Funhouse on Comedy Central. Aired in eight episodes from 2000-2001, the show was a hilarious blend of live-action, puppetry, and animation. Smigel is also a voice on Crank Yankers and a writer of many television specials.

Trivia: Getting her start in a comedy team called "My Mother's Fleabag" while studying at Boston College, the frantically energized Amy Poehler (born September 16th, 1971) has become an improv queen of sorts on the comedy circuit. After graduation, Poehler got involved with Second City and ImprovOlympic in Chicago, where she worked with improv guru Del Close and began touring. After joining up with the sketch comedy group The Upright Citizens Brigade, she moved to New York City with them in 1996. The group had a show on Comedy Central for three seasons and opened their own theater in New York. Her big mainstream breakthrough came in January 2002, when she was promoted from featured player to member of the repertory cast of Saturday Night Live. Two of her most well-known SNL characters have been the one-legged dating show contestant and the combative trailer-park wife. Her other television appearances included recurring characters on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and Undeclared. On the big screen, she seemed to make an impression despite her small roles. In Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, she played a Tourette's Syndrome sufferer, and in Wet Hot American Summer she was a snobby drama club leader. After appearing in the feature Martin & Orloff with the other members of the Upright Citizens Brigade, she would star with Jack Black and Ben Stiller in Envy in 2004, the same year that she memorably portrayed a wannabe hip mom in the Tina Fey-penned comedy Mean Girls. The following few years found Poehler skillfully balancing her small-screen career with her feature aspirations, and whether she was sitting at the "Weekend Update" desk, playing the wife of then-real-life husband Will Arnett on Arrested Development, or waiting tables in Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, the increasingly busy actress/comedian could always be counted on for a few hearty laughs. Additional appearances in both the kiddie-friendly Spongebob Squarepants and the terrifyingly hilarious Wonder Showzen during this period in her career would offer hilarious proof of Poehler's crafty ability to alternate between subversive adult material and harmless kid cartoons with an ease that no doubt helped to make her a hit with audiences young and old alike. Despite substantial appearances in (Donnie Darko director) Richard Kelly's eagerly anticipated sophomore feature Southland Tales and Alec Baldwin's remake Shortcut to Happiness going largely unseen when both films languished without a release date for far longer than anyone would have anticipated, fans in need of a Poehler feature fix would find little cause to complain as the actress turned up in The Ex, Blades of Glory -- again opposite then-husband Arnett -- and Shrek the Third in 2007.Poehler continued to be a popular choice for voice roles, lending her vocal talents to Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), and The Secret World of Arrietty (2010). In 2008, she reunited with Tina Fey to play the freewheeling surrogate mother to a high-strung, career-oriented woman (Fey) who desperately wants a baby. Poehler's star continued to rise with the sitcom Parks and Recreation. Introduced in 2009, the popular comedy series follows Leslie Knope (Poehler), a mid-level bureaucrat working for the parks department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana.

Trivia: A native of Mount Vernon, NY (born Jerry Brooks -- hence the initials), standup comic, comedy writer, and actor J.B. Smoove began his career as a dancer in an hip-hop ensemble, performing as J. Smoove. The performer transitioned to schtick early on and cut his chops in Manhattan-area clubs, then landed a few small roles in Hollywood features (including the 2001 Pootie Tang and the 2002 Mr. Deeds), before striking gold on Saturday Night Live as both a sketch writer and a sketch participant. Smoove culled greatest attention, however, for his recurring role during season six of Curb Your Enthusiasm; he played the über-confident, street-smart Leon Black, a member of an African-American family adopted by Larry David and his wife after their residence is decimated by a hurricane. Smoove later acknowledged that the popularity of the role "set fire" to his career and led to roles on the sitcoms Everybody Hates Chris and 'Til Death.

Trivia: A rising young filmmaker who brought a humorous edge to his Hollywood work, TV producer-turned-movie director Ted Demme's career was abruptly cut short by his death in January 2002. Born in New York City, Demme may have been a college athlete, but he preferred to follow his uncle Jonathan Demme's lead, entering the entertainment industry after school. Starting his career as a production assistant at MTV, Demme quickly made his mark as one of the creators of the trailblazing hit series Yo! MTV Raps in 1988. After honing his skills as a producer and music video director for MTV, Demme helmed his first feature, hip-hop comedy Who's the Man? (1993), and reached a key professional turning point when he directed comic Denis Leary's TV special No Cure for Cancer (1992). Hitting it off with Leary and in tune with his hilariously caustic sensibility, Demme subsequently established his promise as a movie director when he teamed with Leary for his second feature, the acid comedy The Ref (1994). Starring Leary as a rough-edged cat burglar who gets entangled with a highly dysfunctional Connecticut family on Christmas Eve, The Ref earned kudos for Leary, Judy Davis, and up-and-comer Kevin Spacey's riotously sharp performances, and evolved into a sleeper hit on video and TV after a lackluster theatrical run. Although he continued to work in TV, directing episodes for the highly regarded series Homicide: Life in the Streets, Demme further burnished his movie reputation with the ensemble romantic comedy Beautiful Girls (1996). Inspired in part by The Deer Hunter's (1978) perceptive take on small town, working-class male friendship, Beautiful Girls' story of a Big Chill-esque (1983) reunion was enhanced by the superb young Hollywood cast, particularly Natalie Portman as the precocious object of Timothy Hutton's affection. As with The Ref, however, Beautiful Girls left more of an impression on critics than at the box office.Reuniting with his favorite "bad boy" entertainer, Demme helmed Leary's TV special Lock N' Load (1997), and helped reveal that Leary had acting chops beyond comedy in the gritty street drama Monument Ave. (1998). Centering on Boston's Irish-American "mob," Monument Ave. starred Leary as a car thief suffering a crisis of conscience when too closely confronted with the corrupt relationship between the mob and the law. Monument Ave., though, garnered more attention at film festivals than theaters. After the comedy-drama Life (1999), starring Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy as two wrongly imprisoned lifers, failed to measure up to the popular clout of its stars, Demme drew more favorable attention for his TV work as one of the executive producers of the scathing insider comedy series Action (1999) and co-producer of the serious HBO film A Lesson Before Dying (1999). A 1940s drama about a black man wrongly sentenced to death, A Lesson Before Dying earned Demme an Emmy award. Anxious to make a movie about American cocaine kingpin George Jung since Leary had turned him on to the story several years before, Demme's wish finally came to fruition as Blow (2001). Starring Johnny Depp as Jung, and shot and scored with great flair, Blow began as a zingy Goodfellas (1990)-meets-Boogie Nights (1997) account of Jung's 1970s rise before degenerating into an awkward attempt to render Jung as a sentimental hero who just loves his daughter. Still, Blow confirmed Demme's visual talents as well as his way with actors. Demme was in preproduction on the Ewan McGregor-Heath Ledger thriller Nautica, as well as working on an IFC documentary about 1970s American cinema, when he died of cardiac arrest after a celebrity basketball game on January 13, 2002. Demme's final completed project, A Decade Under the Influence (2003), was released a year after Demme's death. Co-directed by Richard LaGravenese, A Decade Under the Influence chronicled the artistic renaissance in 1970s Hollywood, paying tribute to the iconoclasts who helped to inspire Demme's own work as a filmmaker.