Trivia: A successful standup comedian, the headliner of one of television's most popular sitcoms, a movie star, and a best-selling author, Tim Allen spent much of the '90s being a "Male Pig," a source of pride for countless men, and a franchise unto himself. He was born Timothy Allen Dick, in Denver, CO, one of ten brothers and sisters. Mercilessly teased by his peers because of his last name, Allen developed a keen sense of humor to protect himself. His father died in an auto accident in 1964 when Allen was 11, and his mother later married an old high school flame who had also lost his wife in a car crash. Eventually the family moved to a suburb of Detroit. In 1976, Allen graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in television production and went on to work in a sporting goods store and then in an advertising agency. He made his debut as a standup comedian at Detroit's Comedy Castle in 1979 after accepting a dare from a good friend, but his career was cut short when he was arrested for dealing cocaine and sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. Following his release, Allen decided to turn over a new leaf and concentrate on his standup career. His early comedy routines were characterized by their vulgarity, and Allen did not find success until he perfected his "Men Are Pigs" routine. A glorious celebration of the masculine mystique centering on the joys of big block engines and tools (especially power tools), punctuated by his trademark manly grunting, the routine made him a hot property on the nightclub circuit and led to a series of televised specials on the Showtime cable network in the early '90s. While constructing his career, Allen moonlighted in television commercials, including spots as Mr. Goodwrench. It was while performing for a Showtime special that he got his break in series television. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chairman of Disney Studios, saw his act, liked it, and with Walt Disney Company chairman Michael Eisner, offered him the lead in a couple of planned series based on popular films; but Allen didn't feel they were right and suggested instead that they do a series based on his comedy character. They agreed, and Home Improvement, the continuing saga of bumbling TV handyman (whose show somewhat resembled This Old House) Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor and his brood, debuted on the ABC television network in September 1991. It quickly went on to become one of the most consistently highly rated shows on television. Allen made his starring feature film debut in 1994 with the box-office busting The Santa Clause. That same year, he also published a best-selling book, Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man. In 1995, he provided the voice for the heroic toy astronaut Buzz Lightyear in Disney's computer-generated extravaganza Toy Story, and the following year published his second book I'm Not Really Here, a more philosophical look at his life, his fame, and his family. In 1997, he starred in the largely panned Jungle to Jungle, and could not be seen on the big screen again until 1999. That year -- the same year Home Improvement ended its highly successful run -- he reprised his Buzz Lightyear role for Toy Story 2 and starred in the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest. Though his next film, Big Trouble, was pulled from its original release date and delayed by Touchstone (the studio thought audiences may find the plot involving a missing nuclear bomb distasteful after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks), fans could still get their fill of the popular funnyman with the release of Joe Somebody in late 2001.When Big Trouble and Joe Somebody proved to be box-office duds, Allen returned to familiar territory in 2002, starring in the sequel The Santa Clause 2. With the success of that sequel under his belt, Allen stuck with the holiday genre for his next starring role. Playing opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, Allen filled the lead for 2004's adaptation of John Grisham's Skipping Christmas, Christmas with the Kranks; in what was becoming a pattern in his career, the movie was reviled by critics, but did well at the box-office. Allen fared slightly better with his first 2006 effort, a remake of Disney's The Shaggy Dog. Summer 2006's superhero-school comedy Zoom came and went; a second Santa Clause sequel, entitled The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, did modest business considering the franchise. The early-2007 weekend-warrior comedy Wild Hogs -- in which Allen joined Martin Lawrence, John Travolta and William H. Macy -- may not have seemed like a good bet on paper, but its surprise success did much to establish Allen in a new, non-holiday franchise.Allen went outside his comfort zone to play a spoiled Hollywood superstar in David Mamet's Redbelt in 2008, and a couple of years later he directed Crazy on the Outside. He reliably returned to voice Buzz Lightyear in a third Toy Story film, as well as in a handful of shorts created by Pixar featuring the character. In 2011 he returned to the small-screen as the star of Last Man Standing, and the next year he narrated the Disney nature film Chimpanzee.

Trivia: The daughter of film stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis launched her film career as a "scream queen." After a nondescript supporting role on the TV series Operation Petticoat, Curtis rose to cult stardom playing the straight-laced teenage babysitter imperiled by an unknown slasher in Halloween (1978). Upon appearing in the film's sequel and in such spookers as The Fog (1979) and Prom Night (1980), she seemed in danger of being limited to blood-splattered horror films. But Curtis wasn't about to be typed this early in the game: with a meaty secondary role as a prostitute -- featuring several well-publicized nude scenes -- in the big-budget comedy Trading Places (1983), she made the transition from imperiled teen type to knowing adult with nary a hitch. Curtis didn't exactly have a string of box-office smashes after Trading Places, but she was always worth watching even when the films weren't. And when the good parts did come along, notably her roles in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and My Girl (1991), she proved she was an actress of range and stature and not just another "movie star's kid." Taking a potentially humiliating role as the unknowing wife of a secret agent in the megabucks Arnold Schwarzenegger adventure True Lies (1994), Curtis delivered a sparkling performance, emerging as the only truly likable character in a loud and misogynistic melodrama. In 1997, she was reunited with the cast of A Fish Called Wanda (Kevin Kline, John Cleese, and Michael Palin) for Fierce Creatures, another comedy farce in the same vein as Wanda. Unfortunately, the film was largely disappointing; but, the following year, Curtis rebounded with a return to familiar territory in Halloween: H2O. The slasher flick, although less than a critical favorite, proved to be popular with audiences. In 1999, Curtis again ventured into the big-budget realm with the action thriller Virus, and had a supporting role in Daddy and Them, Billy Bob Thornton's sophomore writing/directorial effort. She could then be seen in Drowning Mona, a black comedy in which she played a waitress caught up in an affair with the husband of her town's most infamous dead woman.The 2000s have brought Curtis several interesting opportunities, including a live performance at Paul McCartney's benefit for the controversial animal rights organization PETA in 2000, and a no-holds-barred photo shoot with More magazine in 2002 -- the then 44-year-old actress wanted to emphasize that even high-profile celebrities look "normal" without the help of a team of makeup artists and digital alterations. In 2001, Curtis starred alongside Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush and James Bond front man Pierce Brosnan in the espionage thriller The Tailor of Panama, and returned for a cameo appearance in Halloween: Resurrection, which supposedly marked her final role in the Halloween franchise. Curtis would return to more family-oriented pictures in 2003's spirited Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan, which featured the forty-something actress playing a punky teen whose spirit had magically been transferred to her mother's body; the success of that film led to the curdled comedy of the critically drubbed Christmas With the Kranks. She acted in Beverly Hills Chihuahua and You Again, but became better known in later years as a spokeswoman for Activia yogurt.Married to actor Christopher Guest since 1984, Curtis became a Baroness, Lady Haden-Guest, when her husband inherited the Barony in 1996.

Trivia: One of the most vibrant comic personalities of the 1970s and '80s, as well as a noted actor and screenwriter, Dan Aykroyd got his professional start in his native Canada. Before working as a standup comedian in various Canadian nightclubs, Aykroyd studied at a Catholic seminary from which he was later expelled. He then worked as a train brakeman, a surveyor, and studied Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, where he began writing and performing comedy sketches. His success as a comic in school led him to work with the Toronto branch of the famed Second City improvisational troupe. During this time -- while he was also managing the hot nightspot Club 505 on the side -- Aykroyd met comedian and writer John Belushi, who had come to Toronto to scout new talent for "The National Lampoon Radio Hour." In 1975, both Aykroyd and Belushi were chosen to appear in the first season of Canadian producer Lorne Michaels' innovative comedy television series Saturday Night Live. It was as part of the show that Aykroyd gained notoriety for his dead-on impersonations of presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. He also won fame for his other characters, such as Beldar, the patriarch of the Conehead clan of suburban aliens, and Elwood, the second half of the Blues Brothers (Jake Blues was played by Belushi). Aykroyd made his feature-film debut in 1977 in the Canadian comedy Love at First Sight, but neither it nor his subsequent film, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video, were successful. His first major Hollywood screen venture was as a co-lead in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). But Aykroyd still did not earn much recognition until 1980, when he and Belushi reprised their popular SNL characters in The Blues Brothers, a terrifically successful venture that managed to become both one of the most often-quoted films of the decade and a true cult classic. Aykroyd and Belushi went on to team up one more time for Neighbors (1981) before Belushi's death in 1982. Aykroyd's subsequent films in the '80s ranged from the forgettable to the wildly successful, with all-out comedies such as Ghostbusters (1984) and Dragnet (1987) falling into the latter category. Many of these films allowed him to collaborate with some of Hollywood's foremost comedians, including fellow SNL alumni Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Eddie Murphy, as well as Tom Hanks and the late John Candy. In such pairings, Aykroyd usually played the straight man -- typically an uptight intellectual or a latent psycho. He tried his hand at drama in 1989 as Jessica Tandy's son in Driving Miss Daisy and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. During the '90s, Aykroyd's career faltered just a bit as he appeared in one disappointment after another. Despite scattered successes like My Girl (1991), Chaplin (1992), Casper (1995), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), and Antz (1998), the all-out flops -- The Coneheads (1993), Exit to Eden (1994), Sgt. Bilko (1996) -- were plentiful. Likewise, the long-awaited Blues Brothers sequel, Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), proved a great disappointment. Aykroyd, however, continued to maintain a screen profile, starring as Kirk Douglas' son in the family drama Diamonds in 1999. During the next few years, he found greater success in supporting roles, with turns as a shifty businessman in the period drama The House of Mirth (2000), Woody Allen's boss in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), pop star Britney Spears' father in her screen debut, Crossroads (2002), and (in a particularly amusing turn) as Dr. Keats in the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore comedy 50 First Dates. Aykroyd also appeared in the 2005 Christmas with the Kranks, alongside Tim Allen and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry with Adam Sandler in 2006. He also provided the voice of Yogi Bear in the big screen adaptation of the titular cartoon -- but none of these projects did particularly well with fans. Aykroyd soon planned to revive the smashing success of the Ghostbusters franchise, collaborating with Harold Ramis to create a script and reunite the original four stars. However, ongoing hold-ups, including the public refusal of pivotal member Bill Murray to participate, continued to push the project back. In the meantime, Akroyd played a recurring role on TV shows like According to Jim, The Defenders, and Happily Divorced.Since 1983, Aykroyd has been married to the radiant Donna Dixon, a model who holds the twin titles of Miss Virginia 1976, and Miss District of Columbia 1977; the two co-starred in the 1983 Michael Pressman comedy Doctor Detroit. In Aykroyd's off time, he claims a varied number of interests, including UFOs and supernatural phenomena (his brother Peter works as a psychic researcher), blues music (he co-owns the House of Blues chain of nightclubs/restaurants), and police detective work.

Trivia: Rarely garnering a lead role, M. Emmet Walsh has become one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood, using his ruddy, seedy appearance to embody countless low-life strangers with unsavory agendas. In his rare sympathetic roles, he's also capable of generating genuine pathos for the put upon plight of struggling small-timers. His effortless portrayals have made him a welcome addition to numerous ensembles, even if many viewers can't match a name to his recognizable mug. In fact, his work is so well thought of that critic Roger Ebert created the Stanton-Walsh Rule, which states that no film featuring either Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton can be altogether bad.Contrary to his frequent casting as a Southerner, Walsh is a native New Yorker, born on March 22, 1935, in Ogdensburg, NY. As a youth he attended the prestigious Tilton School in New Hampshire, and went on to share a college dorm room with actor William Devane. He graduated from the Clarkson University School of Business, but it was not until his thirties that he discovered his true calling: acting. He first popped up in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and has worked steadily ever since, some years appearing in as many as eight motion pictures, other years focusing more on TV movies. Working in relative anonymity through the '70s and early '80s, appearing in films ranging from Serpico (1973) to Slapshot (1977) to Blade Runner (1982), Walsh landed his meatiest and most memorable role in Joel and Ethan Coen's remarkable debut, Blood Simple (1984). Without batting an eye, Walsh exuded more casual menace as the amoral private detective doggedly pursuing his own self-interest than a host of typecast villains could muster in their entire careers. His role was key to creating a stylish noir that would launch the careers of two modern masters. It earned him an Independent Spirit Award.Blood Simple did not markedly alter Walsh's status as a supporting actor, as he went on to appear in this capacity in Fletch (1985), Back to School (1986), and Raising Arizona (1987), his next collaboration with the Coens, in which his bull-slinging machinist scores riotously with less than a minute of screen time. One of the first appearances of the kindly Walsh was in 1988's Clean and Sober, in which he plays a recovering alcoholic helping Michael Keaton through the same struggle.As he crept into his late fifties and early sixties, the stature of Walsh's films diminished a little, if not his actual workload. Continuing to dutifully pursue his craft throughout the early '90s, Walsh again returned to a higher profile with appearances in such films as A Time to Kill (1996), William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996), and My Best Friend's Wedding (1997). More as a reaction to the ineptitude of the movie than Walsh's performance, Ebert called into question his own Walsh-Stanton Rule in his review of Wild Wild West, the 1999 Will Smith-Kevin Kline debacle in which Walsh is one of the only tolerable elements. In the years to come, Walsh would remain active on screen, appearing in films like Youth in Revolt and providing the voice of Olaf on the animated series Pound Puppies.

Trivia: A precocious Swedish-American with a gift for comedy, drama, and Tae Kwon Do, Erik Per Sullivan notched a couple of hit movies and a starring role in the popular, critically acclaimed sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2000) before the ripe old age of ten. Born, raised, and residing in Milford, MA, during his time off, Sullivan began acting at age five when his father took him to an open casting call for Michael Bay's blockbuster Armageddon (1998). After appearing as an extra in Armageddon, Sullivan won his first credited film role in the Oscar-winning film adaptation of John Irving's The Cider House Rules (1999). One of a group of New England locals cast as the orphans in Dr. Larch's St. Cloud's Orphanage, Sullivan drew attention for his touching performance as the sickly Fuzzy. Sullivan's distinctive looks and comic timing, though, turned him into a TV star on Malcolm in the Middle. As goofy youngest brother Dewey Wilkerson, Sullivan played an integral part in the humorous family dysfunction that turned Malcolm into an Emmy-nominated, mid-season hit for Fox.Along with his role on Malcolm, Sullivan continued to work in movies. After appearing as the young Joe Dirt in the David Spade white-trash opus Joe Dirt (2001), Sullivan garnered praise as a child haunted by bizarre phenomena in the upstate New York woods in cult horror filmmaker Larry Fessenden's indie creature feature Wendigo (2002). Back in the realm of slick Hollywood drama, Sullivan subsequently played Richard Gere and Diane Lane's son in Adrian Lyne's sexy adultery thriller Unfaithful (2002).

Trivia: The son of a Los Angeles police officer, American actor/director Richard "Cheech" Marin earned his nickname through his fondness for the Chicano food, specialty cheecharone. An excellent student (if something of a class cutup), Marin entered California State University, only to drop out and hightail it to Canada to avoid the draft. While working as an improvisational comedian with Vancouver's City Work troupe, Marin teamed with Tommy Chong; the Hispanic/Asian duo created the characters of Cheech and Chong, a pair of zoned-out dopers ever in search of the "perfect joint." On the strength of their bestselling record albums, Cheech and Chong were signed for the inexpensive comedy film Up in Smoke (1978), which wound up as one of Warner Bros.' highest-grossing films (not to mention one of its highest, period). As the drug culture lost its momentum, so did the film career of Cheech and Chong, with each of the team's subsequent films making less money than its predecessor. By the time C & C headlined the atrocious The Corsican Brothers (1984), the jig was up. Cheech and Chong split up in 1984 (though they remained friends) and went off to their own projects. While it was Chong who directed many of the team's features, Marin sat in the director's chair for the best of his post-team projects, the 1987 film Born in East L.A, inspired by Cheech's own parody music video. Marin's starring film is Shrimp on the Barbie (1990) contained no drug jokes and fewer laughs (an indication of its quality is the fact that the director had his name removed from the credits in favor of the pseudonymous "Alan Smithee"). Lately regarded as an elder statesman of the counterculture, Marin has kept busy with cameo roles, cartoon voice-overs (Oliver and Company, Ferngully, The Lion King), and a brief stint as a costar of the 1992 TV sitcom "Golden Palace." In 1996, he began co-starring opposite Don Johnson in the television drama Nash Bridges. Around this time he began a fruitful collaboration with independent filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Marin had a part in Desperado, and played multiple characters in the vampire film From Dusk 'til Dawn for the Austin based maverick. Marin was cast as Kevin Costner's best friend in the golf comedy Tin Cup in 1996. The beginning of the next decade brought Marin an unexpected new audience as he began a series of humorous appearances in family films and lent his vocal talents to a number of animated films. He appeared in all three segments of Rodriguez's Spy Kids series, did vocal work in Good Boy, and voiced one of the Cars in Pixar's film. He also played small parts in John Sayles Silver City, and Bob Dylan's Masked & Anonymous.

Trivia: Part of a burgeoning "second generation" of Hollywood actors, Jake Busey, the long-limbed son of Gary Busey, established himself as a reliable character actor in the 1990s. Though he made his film debut at age five in Straight Time (1978), Busey had no plans to become an actor until he took a drama class "on a whim" while attending Santa Barbara College. Busey spent three years auditioning before he finally broke through in the early '90s. Despite the slow start, Busey worked steadily throughout the decade, alternating between small roles in high profile studio movies, including I'll Do Anything (1994) and Twister (1996), and more substantial parts in smaller films, such as S.F.W. (1994) and Tail Lights Fade (1999). Busey starred a member of the gung ho young battalion in Paul Verhoeven's ironic, effects-laden science fiction adventure Starship Troopers (1997), but he was back to supporting duties in big movies when he and the more diminutive second generationer Scott Caan were paired as government assassins in Enemy of the State (1998). Happy to do more than dodge special effects, Busey played Luke Wilson's bully older brother in the romantic comedy Home Fries (1998) and co-starred with Jamie Foxx in the crime comedy Held Up (2000). Busey's foray into series TV as the laid-back Dennis on UPN's Shasta McNasty (1999) proved short-lived. Returning to movies after his unfortunate foray into series TV, Busey appeared in the weak Jamie Foxx comedy Held Up (2000). Busey then co-starred as a resolute bachelor moved to compete with Jerry O'Connell for Shannon Elizabeth's love in the tasteless comedy Tomcats (2001). Tomcats, however, mercifully failed at the box office. Busey's next comedy, the office farce The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest (2002), suffered a similar fate. Busey finally added a success to his resume, though, with the creepy murder by numbers thriller Identity (2003). Featuring Busey as a snarling convict trapped in a motel with other Agatha Christie-esque little Indians John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta and Clea DuVall, Identity reveled in movie-literate scares and deftly survived the pre-summer blockbuster late spring box office lull.

Trivia: An alumnus of the Yale School of drama, American actor Austin Pendleton was lucky enough to latch onto a starmaking stage role relatively early in life. Pendleton was the first performer to play the part of tailor Motel Kamzoil in the evergreen musical Fiddler on the Roof, in which he had one of the play's best non-Tevye songs, "Miracle of Miracles." Hollywood has been less generous to Pendleton in terms of good roles. He was cast in a supporting role in Skidoo (1968), a smash miss frequently cited as the worst film in the careers of most of its participants (Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, Carol Channing, Otto Preminger, et al.) He was shown to better advantage in What's Up, Doc? (1972), while in The Front Page (1974) he sparkled as a condemned killer plagued by a bad head cold on the eve of his execution. A first-rate character player, Austin Pendleton has never quite scaled the heights of stardom in films, though his theatre work as both actor and director has always been critically lauded.

Trivia: Though many casual observers perceive that comic actor Tom Poston was "discovered" by Steve Allen in 1956, Poston had in fact been a performer long before Allen ever set foot on a stage. At age 9, Poston was a member of the Flying Zebleys, an acrobatic troupe. After Air Force service in World War II, he began his formal acting training at the AADA. Poston made his "legit" New York stage debut in Jose Ferrer's Cyrano de Bergerac (1947). With several years of stage work under his belt, Poston was engaged to host the local New York TV variety series Entertainment (1955), and it was this effort that brought him to the attention of Steve Allen. The story goes that Poston was so flustered at his audition for Allen's TV variety series that he forgot his own name when asked. From 1956 through 1960, Poston was seen along with Louis Nye and Don Knotts as a member of the Allen stock company; appropriately, he was most often cast as a "man on the street" interviewee who could never remember his name. Poston won an Emmy for his work on Allen's show in 1959, and that same year hosted the weekday TV game show Split Personality; this gig led to a long tenure as a guest panelist on other quiz programs. In films from 1953, Poston starred in a pair of offbeat William Castle-directed comedies, Zotz (1962) and The Old Dark House (1963). Poston's TV sitcom credits include such roles as prison guard Sullivan on On the Rocks (1975), absentminded Damon Jerome on We've Got Each Other (1977), cantankerous neighbor Franklin Delano Bickley on Mork and Mindy and Ringo Crowley on Good Grief (1990). In 1982, Poston beat out Jerry Van Dyke for his most famous prime-time TV role: caretaker George Utley on Newhart. Poston died at age 85 in April 2007, of undisclosed causes. Until the time of his death, he was married to Suzanne Pleshette of The Bob Newhart Show.

Trivia: The image of singer and actress Julie Gonzalo makes many fans think of the blond-haired, blue-eyed, all-American girls that she's played, like cheerleader Amber in Dodgeball and high-school queen bee Stacey in Freaky Friday. Gonzalo's roots, however, are very diverse, leading back to Argentina, where she was born in 1981. After moving to the U.S. at age eight, Gonzalo began modeling as a child, while studying acting in school. After graduation, she moved to L.A. to pursue her career full-time, and soon began appearing in films like A Cinderella Story and Christmas with the Kranks. In 2006, she scored a big break with the role of Parker Lee on the cult-hit series Veronica Mars, and though the show was canceled in 2007, Gonzalo had no trouble staying on television, soon playing Maggie Dekker on the show Eli Stone. In 2012 she was cast in the reboot of Dallas as Rebecca Sutter.

Trivia: Born in Montreal, Quebec, Caroline Rhea launched herself on the path to stardom in 1986, when the then-22-year-old moved to Manhattan and enrolled in the New School for Social Research's standup comedy program. On the side, Rhea cut her chops by practicing at the standup club Catch a Rising Star, and the success of those engagements yielded additional bookings, not simply at Big Apple venues, but on such national television programs as Comic Strip Live and Caroline's Comedy Hour. Rhea segued into scripted television programs and features around 1996, with roles on such sitcoms as Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Drew Carey Show, before hitting a watershed moment in her career: the launch of her own eponymous series, the talk program The Caroline Rhea Show (which followed her guest-hosting of The Rosie O'Donnell Show). Unfortunately, Rhea's talk show folded less than a year after its 2002 premiere, but Rhea continued to build her own reputation, with popular standup bookings across the U.S. and Canada, appearances on talk programs such as Live with Regis and Kelly, and small roles in movies. She played Candi in the disastrous Tim Allen holiday comedy Christmas With the Kranks (2004) and Gloria in the Mark Rosman-directed teen movie The Perfect Man (2005), and hosted the popular series The Biggest Loser, a reality series in which contestants compete to determine who can lose the most weight. In 2006, Rhea also hosted the made-for-cable standup special Caroline Rhea: Rhea's Anatomy, which found her offering witty divertissements on such subjects as post-40 pregnancy and age-disparity romances.

Trivia: An alumna of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, actress Felicity Huffman is one of many classically trained stage performers who have found a home on television. She appeared on Broadway in David Mamet's Feed the Plow and co-founded the New York Atlantic Theater Company, along with Mamet and her husband, film actor William H. Macy. Making her feature-film debut in 1988 in Mamet's comedy drama Things Change, Huffman continued her acting career in the world of made-for-TV movies. A few exceptions include small roles in Reversal of Fortune, Hackers, The Spanish Prisoner, and Magnolia. In 1997 she won an Obie award for her work in the off-Broadway production of David Mamet's Cryptogram. Moving to the small-screen, Huffman was bumped up to starring status for the role of Dana Whitaker on the sitcom Sports Night, which ran from 1998 to 2000 on ABC before moving over to Comedy Central in syndication. She earned Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for her work on that show. After Sports Night's cancellation in 2000, Huffman had her first child and could be seen in a string of TV movies, notably as Lady Bird Johnson in John Frankenheimer's Path to War. She then lent her voice to Disney's animated series Kim Possible and made appearances on Frasier, The West Wing, and {Girls Club. In 2003 Huffman was back to lead status as Lorna Colm on the Showtime original series Out of Order, also starring Eric Stoltz and husband Macy. Though the show was soon cancelled, it wouldn't be long before Huffman was back at it with another new show. This time around, she starred in ABC's dark primetime dramatic comedy series Desperate Housewives, which premiered in the Fall of 2004. The wildly successful series proved to be a break unlike anything the actress had ever experienced, earning her an Emmy, a Screen Actor's Guild Award, multiple Golden Globe nominations, and a stardom that finally made her a household name. In 2006, she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her role in Transamerica, in which she plays a pre-op male-to-female transsexual who learns she has a teenage son from a clumsy sexual encounter during her life as a man. Huffman's critical acclaim cemented that she had arrived as an actress and would not need to rely on the notoriety of Desperate Housewives in order to maintain a vibrant career. She would spend the next several years apperaing in films like Georgia Rule, Phoebe in Wonderland, and Rudderless.

Trivia: As a respected American supporting player in film, television, and theater who occasionally moonlights as a screenwriter, Patrick Breen first culled recognition in the American press in 1991. That spring, the then-30-year-old delivered a bravura performance as an emotionally damaged son in Jon Robin Baitz's disappointing play The Substance of Fire. Breen hit his zenith as a film actor during the mid-'90s, with turns in several memorable (if uneven) Hollywood movies. These included For Love or Money (1993), Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty (1995) and Men in Black (1997), and Carl Franklin's One True Thing (1998). Breen's generally nondescript, albeit pleasant, appearance enabled him to fill practically any role, from a doctor (in the Sonnenfeld picture) to Mr. Tweedy (in the Franklin film).Breen first branched off into screenwriting just after the turn of the new millennium, with back-to-back indie features which he both acted in and scripted. The 2000 picture East of A constitutes a slice-of-life drama about a trio of New York City roommates over the course of ten years. Unfortunately, East of A received extremely limited distribution and was reviewed by very few mainstream critics. Its follow-up, the 2002 ensemble comedy Just a Kiss (directed by the character actor and comic Fisher Stevens and starring Ron Eldard, Kyra Sedgwick, and Marisa Tomei) provides a surrealistic exploration of the romantic vicissitudes among a group of swinging singles. That film fared better in terms of pedigree, but demonstrated an extremely unstable overtone, meandering between lighthearted romantic comedy and darker, more cynical black comedy; perhaps as a result, it premiered in 2002 to almost unanimously devastating reviews, opening and closing practically overnight, and effectively turning Breen away from produced screenwriting work for quite some time. In 2004, he returned to A-list acting as a character player in the holiday comedy Christmas with the Kranks, starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. He was away from movie screens for five years, returning next in 2009's Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and had the leading role two years later in the horror film The Bleeding House.

Trivia: Worked as a teacher for nearly 13 years to help supplement her acting income. Won the first Natalie Schafer Award for Comedic Actress in 1996. Won the Ovation Award in Los Angeles for her role in the theatrical production of Our Country's Good. Appeared in commercials for AT&T and Hometown Buffet. Was cast in director Doug Atchison's films The Pornographer and Akeelah and the Bee. Costarred with her husband, John Billingsley, in The 12 Dogs of Christmas and The Nine. Became a series regular in the fourth season of Chuck.

Trivia: Was born in Virginia but moved to Houston, TX, with his family before he began school. As a youngster, considered becoming an animator. Before finding success in showbiz, worked as a caterer, nanny, telemarketer and food expeditor on the Sunset strip, among other things. Was still waiting tables while appearing on Six Feet Under in a recurring role. After making appearances on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as an actor, he wrote and submitted a script, eventually earning the position of producer-writer.

Trivia: Attended University of Southern California on a debate scholarship. While touring as a stand-up comedian, he opened for such major acts as Rodney Dangerfield and Jerry Seinfeld. Won an NAACP award in 1990 for his role in the Ken Davis play Glass House. Portrayed Fats Domino in the 1999 made-for-TV movie Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story. Landed the role of Big Mike on Chuck after auditioning for the Harry Tang character.

Trivia: Graduated summa cum laude from Southern Oregon State College. Worked for three years as a veterinarian's assistant. Is certified in three kinds of stage combat: hand-to-hand, quarterstaff and rapier/dagger. Appeared as Cindy Harrison on both Another World and As the World Turns.

Trivia: Is a founding member of New York improv group the Swarm; has also performed improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade. Has done voice work for Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse cartoons that aired on Saturday Night Live. Among the impressions he performed on MADtv were Carrot Top, Bill Maher, Dick Cheney and Pat Sajak.

Trivia: Born in Brooklyn, David L. Lander was raised in Bronx. Lander attended drama classes at Carnegie Tech, where he befriended fellow student Michael McKean. The two budding comedians joined a Hollywood improv group called the Credibility Gap (another member was Harry Shearer), gaining a huge fan following with their manic appearances on an LA radio station. Hired by producer Gary Marshall as writers/consultants for the '70s TV sitcom Laverne and Shirley, Lander and McKean immediately wrote themselves into the first show. Lander played Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman and McKean portrayed Lenny Kosnowski, two adenoidal, terminally stupid truck drivers for Milwaukee's Shotz Brewery. The boys remained with the series from 1976 to 1983, then pretty much went their separate ways. Lander played comic character roles in films, and was prominently featured in the off-the-wall television efforts of David Lynch, notably the 1992 series On the Air, in which he was cast as unintelligible TV director Vladja Gochktch. Since providing the voice of the title character in the 1970 animated cartoon series Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down?, Lander has been a busy and versatile voiceover artist, most recently as Lechner in the USA Network's Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills (1994-95). Also for USA, he played the recurring role of Elvis the mechanic in the 1995 series Pacific Blue. David L. Lander's credits are sometimes confused with those of British actor David Lander.

Trivia: Founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade with comedians Matt Besser, Amy Poehler and Ian Roberts. They met while studying at the ImprovOlympics Theater in Chicago. Cowrote and starred in the 2003 movie Martin & Orloff. Hosts a sports podcast called Bear Down, about the Chicago Bears.