Trivia: Gloriously flamboyant American entertainer Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, HI, to the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. After dropping out of a drama class at the University of Hawaii, she took a tiny role in the 1966 film Hawaii, playing a seasick boat passenger (though it's hard to see her when viewing the film). Training for a dancing career in New York, Midler made the casting rounds for several months before finally winning a chorus role, and then the featured part of Tzeitel, in the long-running Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.It helps to do something well that no one else does, and Midler found her forte by singing at the Continental Baths, a gay hangout in New York. Most bath house performers were painfully bad, but Midler established herself by combining genuine talent with the tackiness expected of her. As the "Divine Miss M," Midler did an act consisting of campy (and dirty) specialty numbers; dead-on imitations of such earlier performers as the Andrews Sisters and Libby Holman; and the most outrageously revealing costumes this side of Bob Mackie. Soon she outgrew the bath houses and went on to nightclub and recording-artist fame, earning a Grammy Award in 1973. After several years of sell-out tours, Midler re-entered films as the star of The Rose, a 1979 film à clef loosely based upon the life and times of Janis Joplin. The film was a success, but it failed to establish Midler as a dramatic actress; audiences, particularly gay fans, still preferred the Divine Miss M. Jinxed (1982), Midler's next film, lived up to its name with well-publicized production squabbles between Midler, the director, producers, and a few of her co-stars. Following the film's failure, Midler wasn't seen onscreen until she signed a contract with Disney in 1986. Establishing a new film identity as a character comedienne, Midler sparkled in Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and was even better as a loudmouthed kidnap victim in Ruthless People (1987). Using her restored film stature, Midler set up her own production company and produced Beaches (1988), a pals-through-the-years saga that proved to be a four-hankie audience favorite. Once again attempting to establish herself as a tragedian, Midler starred in Stella (1989), a poorly-received remake of 1937's Stella Dallas. For the Boys (1992), offered Midler in tons of old-age makeup as a Martha Raye-style USO star (Raye responded to this "tribute" by suing the studio). The subsequent Scenes From a Mall (1991), which paired Midler with Woody Allen, and witchcraft fantasy Hocus Pocus (1993) also failed to truly showcase her talents. She rebounded somewhat in 1995 with a role in the wildly acclaimed Get Shorty, and had even greater success the following year co-starring with Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn in The First Wives Club. In 1999, Midler played herself in two films: the TV mockumentary Jackie's Back and Get Bruce!, a big-screen documentary about legendary comic writer Bruce Vilanch. In addition to her film work, Midler still performs live concerts to sold-out crowds and continues to release albums, including Bathouse Bette, a tribute to her early singing days. In 1993, she scored an enormous success in a superb TV adaptation of the Broadway musical Gypsy. And, in 2000, Midler extended her talents to television, starring as herself in the aptly-named sitcom Bette. Though she would only appear in a handful of films over the next decade, Midler remained quite active on stage and television, even earning an Emmy nomination for Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On in 2011.

Trivia: A child performer who went on to become an adult actor in one of the more radical transformations in the history of the American entertainment industry, Sarah Jessica Parker has captained both a career and a public image that could be accurately classified under the heading Revenge of the Nerd. As a pubescent actor most famous for her roles in the acclaimed high school-set TV series Square Pegs and in the big screen's Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Parker played the skinny girl with frizzy hair who was either the sidekick or underdog; when she wasn't cleaning up after Lori Singer in Footloose, she was battling snotty rich girls for the right to dance on local television in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. However, thanks to perseverance, talent, a fabulous stylist, and an HBO series called Sex and the City, Parker had emerged, by the end of the 1990s, as one of the most glamorous and employable actors around, known as much for the designer frocks she wore to awards ceremonies as for her work on the screen.Born in Nelsonville, OH, on March 25, 1965, as the fourth of eight siblings, Parker grew up in relative poverty following the divorce of her mother, an elementary school teacher, and her father, an aspiring writer. Raised by her mother and often out-of-work stepfather, she trained as a dancer and singer, bringing home paychecks from a young age. As a fledgling actor, Parker landed her first TV show at the age of eight; in 1976, after winning her first Broadway role in The Innocents, her family moved to New Jersey to encourage her career. Parker worked on the stage for the next few years, touring -- with four of her siblings -- in the national company of The Sound of Music and getting her first major break when she was chosen to take over the title role of Annie on Broadway, from 1979 to 1980.Continuing her training at the American Ballet Theater and the New York Professional Children's School, Parker made her film debut in the 1979 Rich Kids, which co-starred John Lithgow, Trini Alvarado, and Olympia Dukakis. In 1982, she won her first starring role in the aforementioned Square Pegs, and then received additional attention thanks to her role as Lori Singer's best friend and Chris Penn's girlfriend in the 1984 hit Footloose. The following year, Parker kept on dancing -- this time alongside a very young Helen Hunt -- in the similarly winning Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The actor's success in both films paved the way for steady work through the rest of the decade; in addition to her work on the big screen, Parker also starred in a number of TV shows, including the 1986 miniseries A Year in the Life and the drama series Equal Justice.The early '90s saw Parker segue into more adult roles, playing the Southern Californian creation SanDeE* alongside Steve Martin in L.A. Story (1991), then earning both critical and cult credibility as Nicholas Cage's fiancée in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) and as the wife of consummate schlockmeister Ed Wood in Tim Burton's celebrated 1994 film about Wood's life and times. Offscreen, as well, she was garnering notice for her attachment to actor Matthew Broderick; Parker -- who had been in high-profile relationships with Robert Downey Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr. -- married Broderick in 1997.Following a turn as Mia Farrow's daughter in the widely panned Miami Rhapsody (1995), supporting work in The First Wives Club and Burton's Mars Attacks! (both 1996), and a number of New York productions (including Sylvia, for which she earned a Drama Desk Award nomination), Parker landed the starring role of New York sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the new HBO series Sex and the City. Touted by some observers as the luckiest break in the actor's career to date, the show, which focused on the sex lives of four close friends (played by Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis) became a huge hit among both critics and viewers, ensuring Parker -- who won the Golden Globe for her work in 2000, 2001and 2002 -- both steady employment and an unimpeachably chic image that was eons removed from the bony elbows and frizzy bangs of her days as a square peg.Parker continued to appear in film roles during and after the Carrie Bradshaw years; among them include a starring role in The Family Stone (2005), and a supporting role in the 2008 comedy drama Smart People. In 2010 she starred in Sex and the City 2, and played a devoted mother attempting to balance her family with her career in 2011's comedy drama I Don't Know How She Does It.

Trivia: American character actress Kathy Najimy specializes in offbeat, theatrical characters. A substantial and energetic woman with distinctive curly hair and exotic features, Najimy has appeared on-stage, in feature films, and on television. She has also voiced cartoons. Film credits include The Fisher King, Soapdish (both 1991), Sister Act (1992), and Jeffrey (1996). In 1996, she appeared -- over 100 pounds thinner -- for a brief but memorable recurring role as a manic-depressive psychiatrist on the CBS TV series Chicago Hope. In 1997, she became a regular on the Kirstie Alley sitcom Veronica's Closet. Beginning in 1997 she spent thirteen seasons voicing Peggy Hill, the wife to tried and true Texan Hank Hill on the animated series King of the Hill. During the run of the show she appeared in a variety of big-screen projects including Bride of Chucky, Rat Race, Scream Team, and Say Uncle. She landed a recurring role on the TV series Numb3rs, and joined the Pixar family when she lent her vocal talents to WALL-E in 2008.

Trivia: You may not recognize his face on first (or even second) glance, but chances are if you're a fan of film and television you're already more familiar with Doug Jones than you realize. A master of disguise who could be equated to a modern-day Boris Karloff, Jones can frequently be spotted under some of the most elaborate special-effects makeup ever to appear on camera and has an uncanny ability to instill his characters with a soulful sense of personality that simply isn't achievable through computer-generated animation. Jones was born in Indianapolis, IN, the youngest of four brothers and raised on the city's northeast side. Upon graduating from Bishop Chatard High School, Jones enrolled in Ball State University to study telecommunications and theater. It was there that Jones first took to miming, and his skill as a contortionist soon lead to frequent commercial work (one of his earliest successes was being cast as the popular "Mac Tonight" character in a prominent, mid-'80s McDonald's advertising campaign). While a stint in the Indiana theater circuit helped Jones to get comfortable performing in front of an audience, it wasn't until moving to Los Angeles in 1985 that he would become a regular fixture in the worlds of film and television. Early film roles for Jones included bit parts in Batman Returns, Hocus Pocus, and Tank Girl, with a small role in emerging Mexican director Guillermo del Toro's sophomore effort, Mimic (1997), serving to launch an enduring and fruitful partnership. An appearance by Jones as one of the terrifying "Gentlemen" in an Emmy-nominated Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode entitled "Hush" proved a highlight of the entire series. In the following year, Jones would appear in such prolific box-office blockbusters as Men in Black II and The Time Machine -- his visage frequently hidden under copious amounts of prosthetic special-effects makeup. While it was Jones' remarkable ability to project emotion through layer upon layer of monster makeup that enabled him to create unusual characters whom the audience could connect with, his talents as a contortionist also allowed him to instill those characters with a strangely fluid sense of movement that made them entirely believable. While Jones' collaboration with del Toro momentarily lapsed with such efforts as The Devil's Backbone and Blade II, the release of Hellboy in 2004 found the partnership between the pair growing stronger than ever. Cast in the part of aquatic fish-man Abe Sapien, Jones proved so effective that actor David Hyde Pierce refused to take credit for voicing the role. Two short years later, Jones essayed the roles of both the titular character and the horrifying Pale Man in Del Toro's Oscar-winning fantasy film Pan's Labyrinth. Additional roles for Jones have included various imps in the movie Doom and Cesare in the 2005 "remake" The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In 2006 and 2007, the increasingly prolific actor reprised his role as Abe Sapien in a pair of animated Hellboy tales before portraying the titular otherworldly visitor in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and preparing to bring Sapien back to the big screen in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Trivia: For fans of the cult-favorite series Arrested Development, Tony Hale's spectacled face is all too familiar. He charmed and terrified a legion of fans as Buster, the most titularly immature of the adult siblings on the show from 2003 to 2006, but Hale's career has extended far beyond the borders of this one tragically canceled series. He attended the Young Actors Theatre in his home state of Florida, and in 1992 earned a degree in journalism from Alabama's Samford University. He went on to earn his master's from the School of Communication and the Arts at Regent University in Virginia before moving to New York to begin his professional acting career. In addition to various TV appearances, Hale filled out his résumé in these early years with commercials, including an iconic ad for Volkswagen in which he enthusiastically lip synced to "Mr. Roboto" by Styx from the front seat of a VW Golf. He also helped found a Christian ministry called the Haven, which is geared toward artistically minded parishioners. In addition to Arrested Development, Hale has appeared in other major films and TV shows like Stranger Than Fiction and Unaccompanied Minors. Appearances on such popular shows as Chuck, Numb3ers, Community, Justified, and Veep made him something of a small screen staple following the cancellation of Arrested Development, and in addition to his many live-aciton roles, Hale has also lent his distinctive voice to animated features like 2008's The Tale of Despereaux.

Trivia: Split his time between Detroit and Ghana while growing up due to his mother's Ghanaian nationality. Began studying improv comedy as a teenager and performing in stage productions at his high school. Is an alumni of Second City Chicago Mainstage. During his time at Second City, wrote and performed in two original revues, Spoiler Alert Everybody Dies and Southside of Heaven, which earned him nominations for the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor in a Revue for two consecutive years in 2010 and 2011. Performed at the Just for Laughs Montreal Fresh Faces of Characters showcase in 2012. In 2016, was honored at Wayne State University's 37th Arts Achievement Awards with the Career Achievement Award in the Field of Theatre.