Trivia: The 5' 3," sandy blonde-haired Gen-Y icon Sarah Michelle Gellar's life story reads like a preteen wish fulfillment fantasy. Born in Manhattan in 1977 and discovered by an agent in a Manhattan restaurant at the age of four, Gellar signed for her first role (in the 1983 telemovie An Invasion of Privacy) not one week later. A plethora of bit parts in television series (Spenser: For Hire) and theatrical films (Over the Brooklyn Bridge, 1984; Funny Farm, 1988; High Stakes, 1989) followed, before Gellar landed a recurring role, in the early '90s, on the decades-long daytime soap opera All My Children. Throughout the early years of her career, Gellar was managed and supervised by her mother, a former nursery school teacher who insisted on straight A's as a prerequisite of an acting career. Sarah Michelle delivered, time and again.Despite the apparent fairy tale-like quality of her rise, Gellar reportedly battled several decidedly unhappy experiences as a child, including a parental divorce, decades of estrangement from her father, and social struggles in a New York City high school, experiences parlayed into her first (and most infamous) lead: that of Buffy, a California valley girl high school student-turned-"exterminator of the undead" in the early-'90s syndicated cult fantasy series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gellar inherited the role from Kristy Swanson, who fleshed it out in the (decidedly more comic) 1992 theatrical release of the same name. Under Gellar's aegis, the show lasted seven years, from 1996 through 2003, and it became a massive international hit, garnering legions of fans. The subject matter of the series required the young actress to engage in rigorous exercise and physical training off-camera throughout Buffy's run.Gellar (a compulsive shopper and brand aficionado off-camera) then signed as a Maybelline spokeswoman and prepared to move into the third phase of her acting career. As Buffy wrapped, it coincided with the resurgence of American teen horror films led by Wes Craven's Scream series, and although Gellar did not join the cast of the first installment, her popularity on Buffy the Vampire Slayer thematically paved the way for involvement in one Scream sequel and one emulator: Scream 2 and I Know What You Did Last Summer (both 1997). In 1999, Gellar teamed up with two other notables of the same generation, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, for the Dangerous Liaisons teen update Cruel Intentions. As Kathryn Merteuil -- the depraved schemer who coaxes her stepbrother (Phillippe) into deflowering the school headmaster's daughter (Witherspoon), and thus inadvertently sets in motion a chain of disasters that will destroy them all -- Gellar played off of her wholesome, "all-American girl" image and helped turn the picture into a minor hit. Meanwhile, Gellar met and fell in love with Hollywood heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr. (the son of the ill-fated, late-'70s Hispanic comedian Freddie Prinze), and the two married in Mexico in 2002, the same year they co-starred as Fred and Daphne for director Raja Gosnell in the live-action summer blockbuster Scooby-Doo. Two years later, Gellar and Prinze took the wheel of the Mystery Machine to fight a mischievous specter in 2004's Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Gellar (long a student and admirer of Japanese culture) then traveled to Japan to do battle with some truly frightening entities in the 2004 J-horror remake The Grudge. In that effort, she plays an American student employed at a Japanese health center who uncovers a centuries-old curse that feeds off of anger and guides one victim after another into an unquenchable, violent rage.Subsequent vocal work on the animated cult hit Robot Chicken found the former vampire slayer having a bit of behind-the-scenes fun without the stress of appearing before the camera, and a role as an ambitious porn star teetering on the edge of the apocalypse in director Richard Kelly's eagerly anticipated Donnie Darko follow-up, Southland Tales, preceded a trip back into terror as a successful business woman haunted by a decades-old murder in the 2006 supernatural thriller The Return. In that picture, Gellar plays Joanna Mills, a thick-skinned, courageous Midwestern girl plagued by haunting supernatural visions, who attempts to uncover the origin of these specters. Unfortunately, that film opened to horrendous critical reviews and lackluster box office numbers in November 2006, appearing and disappearing quickly.Gellar would do plenty of voice acting in movies like the family-friendly CG-animated fairy tale Happily N'Ever After and the Weinstein-produced, CG-animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Gellar would ultimately find continued success in TV, however, lending her voice to the animated sketch comedy series Robot Chicken, and her role on the series Ringer.

Trivia: Legions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans know Nicholas Brendon as the goofy but loyal character Xander, which he played for seven seasons between 1997 and 2003. Born in Los Angeles in 1971, Brendon was surrounded by the bright lights of Hollywood from the womb, but unlike a lot of hopeful stars, he didn't dive into show business as a child. Brendon's first love was baseball, and he had aspirations to pursue a career in sports until an injury forced him to change his plans. Addled with a stuttering problem that had plagued him from a young age, he tried his hand at acting at the age of 20 as a way to overcome his problem. The method worked, both curing his stuttering and offering him an avenue for career success -- eventually.Brendon's first shot at acting ended after two years, with Brendon frustrated by the shallow politics of Hollywood. He subsequently tried his hand as a janitor, daycare counselor, plumber's assistant, waiter, and even medical school student before giving acting another chance. After less than a week of auditions, he landed the role of Xander.After Buffy ended in 2003, Brendon followed the show with a starring role in the series Kitchen Confidential. Though the show was canceled after just one season in 2006, the actor had no shortage of projects lined up, soon working on both sides of the camera by producing and starring in the 2007 horror film Unholy. A short time later, he appeared in the horror comedy Blood on the Highway before assuming a recurring role on the procedural crime drama Criminal Minds. In 2009 he had a main role in the family-friendly A Golden Christmas. He had a terrifying arc on Private Practice, playing a rapist, in 2011.

Trivia: Born March 24, 1974, in Washington, D.C., Hannigan became a TV commercial veteran following her family's move to Atlanta. From the age of four, Hannigan appeared in a steady stream of commercials, including ones for Oreo and McDonald's. At the age of 11, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television. She made her big-screen debut in the 1988 film My Stepmother Is an Alien, as Dan Aykroyd's daughter. The following year, she won a regular spot on the short-lived sitcom Free Spirit and acted in a variety of television miniseries and sitcoms (including Roseanne and Picket Fences) until 1997, when she won the part of Willow on Buffy.The show proved to be an unexpected success among critics and viewers alike, and paved the way for Hannigan to appear opposite Tom Everett Scott in the 1998 comedy Dead Man on Campus. American Pie followed the next year, giving Hannigan wider recognition and making her an unintentional poster child for band camps everywhere. She would return for sequels in the franchise, but Hannigan would also become just as well known for her subsuquent role on the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Trivia: An unlikely candidate to end up as immortal vampire Spike on Joss Whedon's popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in addition to reprising his role for the spin-off series Angel), former stage actor James Marsters got his start in the spotlight by performing in such Shakespeare classics as The Tempest before donning fangs to portray the conflicted bloodsucker who eventually falls for the one girl sworn to do battle with the undead. Marsters was born in the Northern California logging town of Greenville, later moving with his family and spending much of his childhood in nearby Modesto. From his grade-school stage debut as Eeyore in a production of Winnie the Pooh, the aspiring thespian knew that he had the talent and drive to become an actor. After studying his craft at New York's renowned Juilliard School of the Arts, he set his sites on Chicago, making a name for himself with impressive performances at the Goodman Theater before heading west to Los Angeles. The talented stage actor made a transition to the small screen when he made an appearance on the popular series Northern Exposure in 1992, with a few other minor television roles preceding his rise to fame on the wildly popular Buffy. Though his character, Spike, was originally supposed to be killed off during his first season on the show, he proved so popular that he was kept on and eventually made a regular. In addition to his appearances on Buffy and Angel, Marsters also found time to act in a pair of independent films entitled Winding Roads and Chance. While fans of his character on Buffy may have been saddened when that series wound to a close, they could take some solace in the fact that he would return as the mischievous Spike in the 2003-2004 season of successful spin-off Angel. Marsters' other small-screen roles included appearances in Strange Frequency and Andromeda, as well as voice work on the animated television series Spider-Man in 2003. In addition to his theater roles, Marsters maintained an entirely different stage persona as a member of the rock band Ghost of the Robot.

Trivia: Actress Michelle Trachtenberg was born on October 11, 1985, in New York City, and made a recognized splash into the Hollywood scene only 11 years later when she starred with Rosie O'Donnell in Harriet the Spy. Before the film, she had commercial and television acting experience, most notably with future Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar on the soap opera All My Children. After Harriet, Trachtenberg made smaller film appearances, along with additional television roles. In 1999, she co-starred as Penny in Inspector Gadget with Matthew Broderick. She took on the role of Gellar's younger sister on the WB series Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 2001, and a recurring turn as pop star Celeste on Six Feet Under in 2004. She appeared in Ice Princess and Black Christmas. In 2009 she joined the cast of the series Mercy, and continued to work on the big-screen in projects like 17 Again, Cop Out, and Take Me Home Tonight.

Trivia: Holding a degree in psychology, Emma Caulfield began her acting career in television on shows like General Hospital and Beverly Hills 90210. After a couple of brief film appearances, she landed her breakthrough role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the demon Anyanka, reborn as the human Anya Emerson, at Sunnydale High. Her popularity on the show led to an expanding role for her character as well as a lead in the thriller Darkness Falls (2003).

Trivia: Tall African-American actor D.B. Woodside is best known for two recurring series roles: that of Principal Robin Wood on Buffy the Vampire Slayer during the program's seventh and final season, and that of Wayne Palmer on the blockbuster Fox action thriller 24. Born in New York City, David Bryan Woodside stepped into drama during his teens, almost completely by accident. As a varsity football hero, he suffered from an unexpected injury on the field and happened to be looking for an alternative pursuit. While walking down a school corridor, Woodside overheard a rehearsal for the musical Brigadoon and decided, spontaneously, to check it out. The pieces fell into place, and after graduation, Woodside devoted more of his attention to dramatics -- this time, on a curricular level, first as an undergraduate at the State University of New York at Albany (where he received his B.A.) and later via his studies at the Yale University School of Drama, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts. Woodside signed with a manager and subsequently landed the role of Melvin Franklin, bassist singer for the Temptations, in the 1998 telemovie biopic of that Motown supergroup; that of Forrest in the low-budget 1998 cop thriller Scarred City; and that of Anthony Hilliard in the BET original telemovie After All. He also portrayed Colin in Andrzej Bartkowiak's big-screen martial arts update of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo Must Die. The Buffy role purportedly came to Woodside some time before he agreed to accept it; he later recalled his manager phoning him on several occasions and insisting that he audition for the part. In the first two instances, Woodside declined, but with the third offer, he begrudgingly accepted and soon "fell in love with the part." Unfortunately, the series ended with that season (in 2003), but Woodside made a memorable impression. When reflecting on the series' closure in a BBC interview, he later observed, "It was sad to see these guys who had been together for seven years of their lives, who had grown up together. They were a family, and like many families they work hard and love hard. They were fantastic and welcomed me into that family for the final season. So there were quite a few tears, quite a few hugs, but they felt the need to move on." Woodside continued on to other roles, including playing "stoner" Martin, the best friend of Marguerite Moreau's Jamie Harris, in the quirky, low-budget romantic comedy Easy (2003). However, Woodside's most notable and high-profile role was that of Wayne Palmer -- the brother and Chief of Staff of President David Palmer -- on the aforementioned 24, starting with the hit show's third season (2003-2004). He then returned in season five (2005) for a handful of appearances before his character ascended to the presidency for the show's turbulent sixth season the next year.

Trivia: An actress who enjoyed fame and recognition as the on-camera mother of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), on the action-horror series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996-2003), Kristine Sutherland grew up in Lexington, KY, and first explored her capacity for effective drama via stage work. She first began appearing in A-list feature films in the mid- to late '80s, with projects including Legal Eagles (1986) and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), but her career caught fire with the role of Joyce Summers on Buffy, and her portrayal prompted at least one major publication to term her "Television's Sexiest Mom." After she exited the program in 2002, Sutherland decided to attend a still photography course at Santa Monica College upon feeling inspired by a year-long residence in Italy with her husband and daughter. She so enjoyed the course -- and the art of taking photographs -- that it encouraged her to open up her own studio, with an emphasis on portraiture. She also occasionally still appeared on television; in 2008, she played Elmira Forsythe in the Western miniseries Comanche Moon and took on a guest role on the series New Amsterdam.

Trivia: As a child, frequented Video Archives, a video-rental store in Los Angeles, and got to know one of the store's clerks, Quentin Tarantino. Played the role of Jonathan in the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the role ended up recurring through the entire series. Was awarded a fellowship from USC in 1997. Made Variety's Top Ten Screenwriters to Watch list in 2007.

Trivia: Born in 1977, actress Amber Benson entered the hallowed halls of show business as a child star, with multifaceted, audience-commanding portrayals in such respected arthouse fare as King of the Hill (1993) and Imaginary Crimes (1994). Benson netted far greater exposure, however, as Tara Maclay, the lesbian sorceress and first girlfriend of fellow witch Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) on the cult hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That assignment lasted for two and a half years; near the end of Benson's participation in it, she assumed quadruple-threat status as the writer, director, producer, and star of the offbeat comedy drama Chance (which, unfortunately, bypassed wide release and received extremely limited ancillary exposure). She then returned to acting in films including Intermedio (2005), Tripping Forward (2006), and the medieval monster-themed telemovie Attack of the Gryphon (2007) before re-assuming directorial duties with the 2007 feature Lovers, Liars and Lunatics.

Trivia: Made his TV debut in the 1996-99 Nickelodeon series The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. Played a recurring character on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Has directed a number of music videos. Codirected the 2010 film Drones with former Buffy costar Amber Benson. Performs in the indie rock band Common Rotation.

Trivia: Actress Azura Skye took her premier cinematic bows during her late teens, and tended to play against her straight-laced appearance by essaying a series of consistently quirky and offbeat roles. She was memorable as a drug addict alongside Sandra Bullock in 28 Days (2000), played one of Cinderella's "beautiful" half-siblings in the revisionist small-screen fairy-tale update Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (2002), and then signed for a small part in Goran Dukic's darkly comic romance Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006).