Trivia: Rising to fame as American family man Al Bundy on the lowbrow sitcom Married...With Children, actor Ed O' Neill was the physical embodiment of almost every stereotype leveled at lower-middle-class husbands and fathers. Although many sneered at the bathroom humor and questionable taste of the series (O'Neill himself admitted that he thought the show would be canceled after a mere six episodes), his perfection in the role was undeniably effective -- so much so that it was difficult for him to avoid typecasting despite the versatility he displayed in such features as Prefontaine and The Spanish Prisoner (both 1997). Following graduation from Ursuline High School, the Youngstown, OH, native worked a series of odd jobs before studying theater and history at Ohio University College and, eventually, Youngstown State University. A talented football player, O'Neill was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, though was cut from the team shortly thereafter. His early stage auditions weren't much more encouraging, and between minor theater roles, the acting hopeful returned to his former high school to teach social studies. He continued to dream of becoming an actor, however, so moved to New York in 1977 and studied at the famed Circle in the Square. An early break came when O'Neill, an understudy for the lead role in the Broadway play Knockout, was asked to take the stage when the original actor abandoned the production. Although O'Neill had appeared in a brief (one-line), uncredited role in 1972's Deliverance, he had his first real part as a police detective in the Al Pacino thriller Cruising in 1980. As the decade progressed, O'Neill found steady work in made-for-TV features and occasional television guest appearances. In 1986, his performance in the title role in Popeye Doyle (a real-life character memorably portrayed by Gene Hackman in The French Connection) showed him to be a confident and effective lead. During a stage performance as Lenny in Of Mice and Men in Hartford, CT, an executive from FOX happened to be in the audience. After showing the script of Married...With Children to his wife, O'Neill knew that it was not an opportunity to let pass. He landed the role with ease, and his portrayal of the bumbling Al Bundy not only formed the backbone of the series, but created a caricature of American family life which would only be matched by the likes of Homer Simpson. O'Neill appeared in several feature films during the show's ten-year run, including Dutch (1991), Wayne's World (1992), Blue Chips, and Little Giants (both 1994). As the series drew to a close in 1997, the actor began to venture outside the confines of the Bundy family living room in such unexpectedly dramatic turns as The Spanish Prisoner and The Bone Collector. O'Neill later returned to the small screen in Big Apple (2001) and a 2003 remake of Dragnet, playing policemen in both series.He appeared in the David Mamet thriller Spartan in 2004, and worked with the director again on 2008's Redbelt. He was on the short-lived HBO series John From Cincinnati in 2007. However, in 2009 he scored a major career boost as the patriarch in the ABC sitcom Modern Family. His work on the show earned him an Emmy nomination, something that never happened during his days as Al Bundy.

Trivia: It seems appropriate that Julie Bowen, an actress who helps tutor high school students in her spare time and says she usually prefers staying home with a good novel to going out to a party, would rise to fame playing Carol Vessey, the pretty and quick-witted high school teacher on the popular comedy-drama series Ed. Born Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer in Baltimore, MD, on March 3, 1970, Bowen first acquired a taste for acting as a child, when she began putting on plays with her sisters at home. Bowen developed a more serious interest in the theater while studying at Brown University, where she received a degree in Italian Renaissance studies; she appeared in a number of student theater productions, including Guys and Dolls and Lemon Sky, and in her senior year she was cast in her first film, an independent feature called Five Spot Jewel. After graduating, she began honing her craft by studying at the Actor's Institute, Shakespeare and Company, and Will Geer's Theatricum, and began pursuing a career in television, landing roles in television commercials and eventually winning a supporting role on the daytime drama Loving. She also appeared in a student film directed by Edward Burns, several years before he made his breakthrough independent feature The Brothers McMullen. In 1995, Bowen became a regular on a short-lived adventure series, Extreme, and the following year she earned a showy role in the hit comedy feature Happy Gilmore. In 1998, Bowen did a nine-episode run on E.R., before debuting on Ed in 2000, receiving enthusiastic reviews and solid ratings, finally earning her an unqualified success on television. TV would offer Bowen several more successful roles over the coming years as well, from recurring roles on Lost and Weeds, to a starring role on the legal comedy/drama Boston Legal. The quirky, humorous vibe of the show showcased Bowen's sharp sense of comedy, leading to a starring role on the hit sitcom Modern Family.

Trivia: Tall and dark actor Ty Burrell has the kind of deep-set eyes and sharp features that make him ideal for roles such as the self-absorbed yuppie who cast a cold gaze in Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead and the authoritative yet undeniably vain plastic surgeon on the CBS sitcom Out of Practice. And while Burrell's background may indeed be in repertory theater, it is in the worlds of film and television that he has truly come into his own.Equally comfortable on screens both large and small, Burrell found his footing before the camera thanks to walk-on roles on Ellen and The West Wing before supporting performances in Ivan Reitman's Evolution and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down singled him out as a talent to watch for on the big screen. Never one to stay away from the stage for too long a stretch, the Ashland, Oregon, native subsequently returned to the boards to star in the Signature Theatre off-Broadway production of Burn This opposite Edward Norton and Catherine Keener. While subsequent television roles in Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit served well to prepare Burrell for his regular role in the comedy series Out of Practice -- a lighthearted affair about a dysfunctional family of physicians -- big-screen roles in Dawn of the Dead, In Good Company, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets virtually ensured a lasting career in film as well. In 2007, he was cast as a regular on the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton local-news sitcom Back to You as field reporter Gary Crezyzewski, but the show only lasted one season. Burrell bounced back in a big way with a prominent supporting role as Dr. Samson in the summer 2008 release The Incredible Hulk.In 2009 Burrell enjoyed his most high-profile success so far as a member of the ensemble in Modern Family, the hit ABC sitcom that would earn him a number of award nominations. On the big screen in 2010 he had a small but memorable part as a creepy morning-show host in Morning Glory, and the next year played a part in the political satire Butter as a champion butter carver.

Trivia: A picture of bronze beauty whose radiant personality and unwavering devotion to family endeared her to Univision viewers when she debuted as host the popular 1995 travel series Fuera de Serie, model/actress Sofía Vergara's crossover appeal was cemented when a memorable performance on the FOX Network's 1995 American Comedy Awards launched her almost instantaneously into Hollywood stardom. Born on July 10th, 1972 in Barranquilla, Colombia, Vergara joined an extended, musically-inclined family that included five brothers and sisters in addition to many cousins, quiet and studious Vergara attended the private bilingual school Marymount while dreaming of a future career in dentistry. At the age of 18, Vergara married the man who had been her childhood sweetheart since age eleven, and soon thereafter the young couple gave birth to a baby boy. Thanks to years of hard work and intense studies it appeared as if young Vergara was at last close to realizing her childhood dream of becoming a dentist, though an innocent walk on the beach proved that fate had other things in store for the career-minded beauty. Glimpsed by a well-known photographer as she strolled the shore in her native Colombia, Vergara was soon stepping in front of the cameras to appear in a Pepsi commercial that soon made her a recognizable face across the country. A move to Bogotá two years later found Vergara making a name for herself on the runway as well as the small screen, and soon the rising starlet's popularity would spread stateside when she accepted an offer to host the globetrotting Univision series Fuera de serie. Her undeniable charm even more infectious on screen than it was in the glossy pages of high fashion magazines, Vergara was an instant hit and soon branched out as host of the weekly prime-time variety-show A Que No Te Atreves. When a brief but memorable performance at the 1995 American Comedy Awards found her appeal reaching even further beyond Spanish-speaking audiences and into the American mainstream, it didn't take long for Hollywood to come calling. In 2002, many American filmgoers got their first look at the up-and-coming actress when Vergara appeared in a supporting role in director Barry Sonnenfeld's ill-fated comedy Big Trouble. Pushed back from its original release date of 2001 due in large to sensitivities resulting from a plot involving a bomb and an airplane, Big Trouble died quickly at the box office before hastily being relegated to life on the home-video market. Though her following two films, Chasing Papi and The 24th Day, didn't fare much better at the box office, Vergara's winning performance in the high-flying 2004 comedy Soul Plane did well in showcasing both her remarkable beauty and impeccable comic timing. Her subsequent role in the animated IMAX film Robots found her stepping behind the cameras for her first voice-over role, though audiences could rest assured that in 2005 Vergara would be back in front of the lens not only in director Catherine Hardwicke's eagerly anticipated Dogtown and Z-Boys companion piece The Lords of Dogtown but the comedies Pledge This! and Grilled as well. However, Vergara is most recognizable for her starring role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the award winning television drama Modern Family, and would remain active over the following years with appearances in New Year's Eve (2011), The Three Stooges (2012), Machete Kills (2013) and Chef (2014). She landed her first true starring role in 2015, opposite Reese Witherspoon in Hot Pursuit.

Trivia: A native of Missoula, MT, who came of age in Albuquerque, Jesse Tyler Ferguson first cut his dramatic chops on the American stage, delivering fluid performances in such on and off-Broadway productions as On the Town, The 25th Annual Puttnam County Spelling Bee, Little Fish, and Hair. Ferguson moved into filmed work as early as 2000, with a bit part in the made-for-television opus Sally Hemings: An American Scandal, and appeared on the British situation comedy Absolutely Fabulous, before making his mark as a regular on two series: The Class (2006), as Richie Velch, a former "nerd" thrust back into a social situation with various members of his third-grade class during adulthood; and Do Not Disturb, as a housekeeper at a Manhattan hotel more preoccupied with strife at home than with sticking to the requirements of his daily grind.

Trivia: A veteran improv comedian, Eric Stonestreet honed his skills at the ImprovOlympic theater, but soon transitioned to the screen, making appearances on shows like ER and The West Wing during the early 2000s. He would go on to land roles in films like Ninja Cheerleaders and American Crude, but scored his biggest break when he was cast as Cameron in the sitcom Modern Family in 2009. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for that role in the acclaimed show's first season. The show remained popular, and Stonestreet ended up appearing in the big-screen comedy Bad Teacher.

Trivia: Made feature-film debut as Howard Stern's daughter in Private Parts (1997). Played orphan Molly in Peabody Award-winning TV-movie Annie (1999), and later portrayed the titular tot in a 2002 production of Annie at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. Made Broadway debut in 2006 as a 12-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier (later Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) in Grey Gardens: The Musical, by Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winner Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife). Has appeared with her father, Edward James Hyland, in two films (1998's The Object of My Affection and 1999's Cradle Will Rock), and with her brother, Ian, in Spanglish (2004). Suffers from kidney dysplasia and received a kidney from her father in April 2012.

Trivia: Began acting and modeling at 3 years old, following his brother, Aidan, into the business. Has studied with acting teachers Patrick Malone and Lisa Picotte in order to improve his craft. Is a collector of vintage Hot Wheels toy vehicles and Legos. Is a member of Mensa.

Trivia: Aspired to become an actor at a very young age when she wanted to crawl into the TV to actually go exploring with Dora the Explorer. First acting job was in a Cool Whip commercial. Took her first trip to Europe to act in the 2008 big-screen version of Speed Racer, which was filmed in Germany. Is an avid music fan and aspiring singer who loves to record songs with her friends in bands such as 4evercrush and WickedSweet. Favorite sports are track, soccer and tennis. Is a fan of the Twilight series of novels. Is environmentally conscious and urges young readers to "renew, reuse and recycle" in interviews.

Trivia: Moved from Texas to Los Angeles at age 6 with his mother and 11-year-old sister, Raini, when the latter wanted to pursue an acting career (their father stayed in Texas to work); after one year, despite not wanting to go to California in the first place, he liked what his sister was doing and enrolled in acting classes. Has appeared in numerous commercials, including ones for WalMart, Dodge and Blue Cross-Blue Shield. He and sister have been homeschooled.

Trivia: Joined Modern Family in season 3. Her mother was adopted as a baby from Korea, which helps her relate to her character on Modern Family. Was the youngest nominee and recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award when the cast of Modern Family won in 2011. Supports St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

Trivia: A comedic actor whose legacy is deeply intertwined with his long-standing involvement as a performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen graduated to on-camera work via an unlikely and wholly circuitous route. He studied film production at New York City's School of Visual Arts, then enjoyed a stint as a drummer in several punk bands including Trenchmouth and Those Bastard Souls, and performed with the Chicago production of the Blue Man Group. Shortly thereafter, Armisen authored a comedic short, Fred Armisen's Guide to Music and SXSW, which found him tooling through the South by Southwest Music Festival and conducting Sacha Baron Cohen-style parodistic interviews with legitimate musicians (most fully unaware of the joke being played). Upon playing at underground film festivals, that short turned the heads of HBO executives and prompted the network not only to sign Armisen as a regular correspondent on their music seires Reverb (a look at blossoming talent in the world of music), but to give him comedic interstitial segues in between regular programs, entitled Fred.From there, it was only a short leap to SNL stardom, and executive producer/creator Lorne Michaels brought Armisen in for a multi-season tenure beginning in 2002. On that program, as in his comedy shorts and standup acts, Armisen displayed a proclivity for sinking so completely into character that it became frequently difficult to separate the actor from the role; recurring characterizations included Martin Scorsese, Liberace, Tony Danza, Vicente Fox, and others. Armisen also landed supporting roles and cameo appearances in big-screen comedies; these included Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), the same year's Eurotrip (in a memorable bit as a creepy gay Italian), Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006), and Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007). In 2008, Armisen tackled a supporting role in the workplace comedy The Promotion, starring Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, and Jenna Fischer.He continued to land small roles in big-screen comedies such as Easy A, Cop Out, and Confessions of a Shopoholic, but his first big success outside of SNL came when he teamed up with longtime friend and musician Carrie Brownstein to create, write, and star in Portlandia, a sketch-comedy show about Portland that aired on IFC. The series earned critical raves, and enough buzz to earn a second season.Though he married Mad Men actress Elizabeth Moss in 2009, their union lasted just ten months, and his next high-profile relationship was with his fellow SNL castmate Abby Elliot.

Trivia: A native of Hanham, England, Stephen Merchant shot to fame practically overnight by virtue of his role executive producing the BBC situation comedy blockbuster The Office (2001-2003) with creative partner Ricky Gervais. Born in Bristol, England, in 1974, Merchant enjoyed a brief tenure as a standup comedian and then culled a massive British audience by emceeing his own satirical radio program, The Steve Show, on W963 radio. From 1992 to 1996, the burgeoning comic attended the University of Warwick, where he earned his degree in film and television; he subsequently partnered up with Gervais, and the two attempted to launch a comedy series entitled "Golden Years" on Channel 4 television in the U.K. While that pilot failed to connect with an audience, it prompted the network to give Gervais a spot on the sketch comedy ensemble program The 11 O'Clock Show and paved the way for the duo's success with The Office.The said program premiered in July 2001, and satirized British corporate culture by observing the eccentric doings of the Hough-Wernham paper company's Slough, Berkshire branch. Though the U.K. version of The Office lasted only two seasons, it became an instant sensation, put the names of Gervais and Merchant on the map, and inspired producers Greg Daniels and Ben Silverman to buy the rights to a U.S. remake of the program -- which ran for numerous seasons, culled an untoward number of Emmys, and became one of the highest-rated programs on any network. Gervais and Merchant then created Extras, a satirical comedy about a pair of actors (one played by Gervais, the other by Ashley Jensen) repeatedly working as extras in productions starring famous celebrities. The series featured at least one famous guest star per episode, each a caricatured version of himself or herself. Having previously only played a bit part on The Office, Merchant also took on the supporting role of Darren Lamb, the egregiously incompetent agent of Gervais' character, Andy Millman. The program mirrored the success of its Gervais-Merchant predecessor, and series co-producer HBO quickly picked it up for a run in the United States.Merchant would go on to appear in comedies like The Invention of Lying and Hall Pass, in addition to writing, directing, and appearing in ongoing Gervais collaborations, like Life's Too Short and The Ricky Gervais Show.

Trivia: Joined MediaCorp in 1993 after winning the biannual Star Search and clinching the "Miss Photogenic" title at the same contest. Three-time recipient of the Star Awards for Best Actress in 2000, 2004 and 2006 respectively. Has won Top 10 Most Popular Female Artist on six occasions which is a record in itself. Left the entertainment industry in November 2009 and moved to Hong Kong with her family.

Trivia: The gifted young comedian Patton Oswalt first carved a name for himself as a bit player in television programs, where he seemingly made the perfect everyman. Even those who fail to recognize the comic's agnomen doubtless encountered him as early as the mid- to late '90s, on such hit programs as NewsRadio, Dr. Katz, Mr. Show, and Seinfeld. (He was particularly memorable in the latter, as the video-store clerk who refuses to proffer a customer's address to a conniving George Costanza.) Oswalt also penned sketches for the long-running series MADtv and frequently lent his voice to Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, as one of the program's below-the-belt prank callers. Beginning in 1996 (and for at least four years thereafter), Oswalt began touring the country with his standup act and hitting comedy clubs; in 1997, he hosted his first standup special on HBO and received a positive response. Unabashedly iconoclastic and atheistic, with many routines devoted to excoriating Christianity and what he perceives as the hypocrisies of middle-American values, Oswalt buries his anti-establishment cynicism beneath a deceptively soft exterior (setting himself apart from, say, the more openly caustic and rave-happy George Carlin). Whatever the subject at hand, Oswalt displays a quick wit, a fearlessness to speak his mind, and an ability to unveil ironies behind practically everything. Regardless of one's personal convictions, Oswalt is also frequently hilarious, with his well-known impersonations of such personalities as Robert Evans and Nick Nolte absolutely unparalleled and definite high points in his routines, as are his riffs on pornography and bizarre sexual proclivities. In 1998, Oswalt landed his second recurring role on a television series, and his highest billing up through that time: that of Spence Olchin, one of the three buddies of Kevin James' Doug Heffernan, on the sitcom The King of Queens; he remained with the series for several seasons. Scattered movie roles followed -- typically bit parts at first, such as that of the scuba diver who experiences a bizarre death in the prologue of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999) and Hedges in Blade: Trinity (2004). Around 2004, Oswalt took a temporary siesta from acting, and re-launched himself into the arena of standup comedy. He and several friends (Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis, and Maria Bamford) formed the "Comedians of Comedy" troupe and mounted a coast-to-coast tour; that ensemble headlined an eponymous 2005 concert film. Oswalt issued his first standup album, Feelin' Kinda Patton, in 2004; it drew critical raves and impressive sales. He followed it up with a joint effort alongside Galifianakis, the 2005 recording Patton vs. Alcohol vs. Zach vs. Patton, and the 2006 concert film Patton Oswalt: No Reason to Complain. A sophomore solo recording, Lollipops and Werewolves, appeared in the summer of 2007.That same year, Oswalt voiced the character of Remy -- a French rat with a refined culinary instinct who single-handedly overturns Parisian haute cuisine -- in the Pixar animated film Ratatouille. It marked Oswalt's first reception of premier billing in an A-list feature and his debut work for Pixar.In 2009 he had the lead in the underrated indie drama Big Fan, as a man assaulted by the best player on his favorite football team, appeared in The Informant, and recorded the stand-up special My Weakness Is Strong. In 2011 he had a memorable turn in A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, released the stand-up concert Finest Hour, and earned the best reviews of his career playing opposite Charlize Theron in Young Adult.Oswalt's most consistent work, though, was in television. He amassed a slew of memorable TV roles, with one-offs, recurring gigs and voice-over roles. A seasons-long arc on United States of Tara coincided with other gigs on Bored to Death and Caprica. In 2013, he had a highly-regarded and publicized guest stint on Parks and Recreation, playing a character giving a filibuster on Star Wars. That same year, he started a recurring role on Justified and began doing narration work on The Goldbergs (playing an older version of the main character, Adam Goldberg). The following year, he played identical brothers on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., allowing Oswalt to return even if his character had been killed. In 2015, he played the VP's Chief of Staff on Veep. Oswalt also voices several characters on shows like BoJack Horseman and We Bare Bears.

Trivia: Born in the Midwest and educated in the military, actor Fred Willard has proven his talent for improvisational comedy on the stage, television, and the big screen. His characters are frequently grinning idiots or exaggerated stereotypes, but Willard's skillful timing has always added a unique spin. An alumni of Second City in Chicago, he's worked with many of the biggest-named comedians of his time. His early TV credits include a regular stint on The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour, a supporting part on the sitcom Sirota's Court, and the role of Jerry Hubbard, sidekick of TV talk-show host Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) in the satirical Fernwood 2Night. He went on to appear in subsequent incarnations of Fernwood and continued to work with Mull and his gang for the next few decades. In the early '80s, he hosted the actuality series Real People and co-hosted the talk show Thicke of the Night. Some of his small, yet memorable, performances in feature comedies included President Fogerty in National Lampoon Goes to the Movies; the garage owner in Moving Violations who's mistaken for a doctor; the air force officer in This Is Spinal Tap; and Mayor Deebs in Roxanne. Doing a lot of guest work on television, he was also involved in Martin Mull's The History of White People in America series and was the only human actor amid a cast of puppets on the strange show D.C. Follies. In the '90s, he worked frequently in the various projects of fellow satirists Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and the like. He was travel agent Ron Albertson in Waiting for Guffman, TV announcer Buck Laughlin in Best in Show, and manager Mike LaFontaine in A Mighty Wind. He also appeared in Eugene Levy's Sodbusters, Permanent Midnight with Ben Stiller, and showed up in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. On television, he picked up a regular spots on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Roseanne (as Martin Mull's lover), and Mad About You, along with voice-over work on numerous cartoons. He also received an Emmy nomination for his role as Hank McDougal on Everybody Loves Raymond. Since 2000, he has shown up in quite a few mainstream commercial films, including The Wedding Planner, How High, and American Wedding; but he also played Howard Cosell in the TV movie When Billie Beat Bobby. Projects for 2004 include Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.IHe also joined up with his Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman castmates again in 2006 with For Your Consideration, a satire of Hollywood self importance injected with Willard's trademark clever silliness. The next year he appeared in the spoof Epic Movie, as well as the romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman. He was in the Pixar sci-fi film WALL-E, and had a role in the 2009 comedy Youth In Revolt. In 2012 he starred in Rob Reiner's The Magic of Belle Isle opposite Morgan Freeman.

Trivia: Born in Oregon and raised on an Indian reservation, actor Justin Kirk started his career at a very young age. After studying at the Children's Theatre School in Minnesota, he lived in New York City working as a struggling actor and hotel bellboy. One of his first off-Broadway roles was Bobby Brahms, the blind younger lover of an aging choreographer in Terrence McNally's play Love! Valour! Compassion! This led to an Obie award, a career on Broadway, and a part in the 1997 feature film adaptation directed by Joe Mantello.Kirk continued to work on-stage in New York and Los Angeles, helping to found the Drama Department theater company. In 1999, his interests turned toward television and film. In the straight-to-video independent film The Eden Myth, he played a young man whose father (Gil Rogers) arranges his marriage. He also starred in the barely released comedy Chapter Zero starring Dylan Walsh and Penelope Ann Miller. On television, he had a regular role on the WB sitcom Jack & Jill about mainstream twentysomethings living in New York City. He played the moderately intelligent Barto (a character not unlike Ross on Friends) who was always hanging around the slightly less-intelligent Mikey (a character not unlike Joey on Friends). In 2002, he appeared in Harry Shearer's pet project Teddy Bears' Picnic, an independent spoof of an exclusive men's retreat. The same year he played mental patient Morris Monk in Alec Carlin's Outpatient, marking his first leading role in a feature film. Kirk gained much more exposure the next year as main character Prior Walter in the six-hour television miniseries version of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America, first aired on HBO in December of 2003. Kirk continued to have success on cable television throughout the 2000s, most notably on Showtime's Weeds in the role of Andy Botwin, who becomes tangled in his suburban family's involvement in the marijuana trade (2005-2012).

Trivia: Known for his outrageous, divinely comedic performances on stage and screen, Nathan Lane has led a career encompassing Broadway, television, and film. Born Joe Lane in Jersey City, New Jersey on February 3, 1956, Lane took his stage name from Nathan Detroit, the character he played to great acclaim in the 1992 Broadway version of Guys and Dolls.Lane made his film debut in 1987's Ironweed, and he spent the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s playing secondary roles in films like Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Frankie and Johnny (1991), and Addams Family Values (1993). During this time, his stage career was thriving; in addition to his celebrated turn in Guys and Dolls (for which he won a Tony nomination, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), he frequently collaborated with playwright Terrence McNally, who cast him in a number of his plays, including The Lisbon Traviata, in which Lane played an opera queen, and Love! Valour! Compassion!, in which he starred as Buzz, an HIV-positive musical aficionado who provides much of the play's comic relief and genuine anger. The actor won particular acclaim for his portrayal of the latter character, taking home Obie and Drama Desk Awards, as well as other honors, for his work.In 1994, the same year that he starred in the stage version of Love! Valour! Compassion! (his role was played in the film version by Jason Alexander), Lane gained fame of a different sort, lending his voice to Timon, a hyperactive meerkat in Disney's animated The Lion King. He reprised the role for the extremely successful movie's 1998 sequel. Two years after playing a meerkat, Lane finally became widely visible to screen audiences as Robin Williams' flamboyantly limp-wristed lover in The Birdcage, Mike Nichols' remake of La Cage aux Folles. The film helped to establish Lane--who was at the time starring on Broadway in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum--as a comic actor worthy of big-screen exposure, and in 1997 he was given his own vehicle to display his talents, Mouse Hunt. Unfortunately, the film was a relative disappointment, as was Encore! Encore!, a 1998 sitcom that cast the actor as a Pavorotti-like opera singer alongside Glenne Headly and Joan Plowright. However, Lane continued to work steadily, appearing both on stage and in film. In 1999, he could be seen in At First Sight and Get Bruce, a documentary about comic writer Bruce Vilanch. The same year, he could also be heard in Stuart Little, a live action/animated adaptation of E.B White's celebrated children's book.Over the coming years, Lane would appear in several films, including a new big screen adaptation of The Producers and the fairy tale Mirror Mirror.

Trivia: Benjamin Bratt was already an experienced film and TV actor by the time his four-year stint as Det. Reynaldo "Rey" Curtis on NBC's long-running hit Law and Order made him famous. Born and raised in San Francisco, Bratt studied acting at UC-Santa Barbara and in his hometown. After roles in two short-lived 1980s TV series, Bratt made his film debut as John Travolta's foe in the shelved, then straight-to-cable Chains of Gold (1991). Concentrating on building a movie career, Bratt played supporting roles in the action films Demolition Man (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and The River Wild (1994), as well as one of the lead roles in Bound by Honor (1993), about Chicano gang life. After joining Law and Order in 1995 as the coolly-passionate Curtis, the half-Peruvian Indian, half-Caucasian Bratt's chiseled looks received positive notices along with his acting, but rather than rest on his laurels, Bratt used his hiatus time to produce (with his director brother Peter Bratt) and star in the indie film Follow Me Home (1997). After leaving the show in 1999 (girlfriend Julia Roberts guest-starred in one of Bratt's last episodes), Bratt moved back to San Francisco to be closer to his family and focus on making movies. He costarred as Madonna's paramour in The Next Best Thing (2000).Untouched by The Next Best Thing's failure, Bratt joined the prestigious ensemble cast of Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed, Oscar-winning narcotics drama Traffic (2000), becoming nearly unrecognizable in a brief appearance as a sleazy drug dealer. Scoring his second Christmas 2000 hit, Bratt played off his smooth, sexy law enforcement officer image as Sandra Bullock's FBI ally-turned-love interest in the comedy Miss Congeniality (2000).Though the first half of 2001 was marked by his well-publicized break-up with Roberts, Bratt was poised to leave his days as tabloid fodder behind with his lead performance in the independent biopic Piñero (2001). Winning the title role over such high profile Latino actors as Jimmy Smits, Bratt's uncanny evocation of troubled Nuyorican writer and drug casualty Miguel Piñero attracted early dark horse Oscar buzz.Bratt would go on to find continued success on the small screen throughout the 2000's, in mini-series like The Andromeda Strain , and continually on Law and Order, which he would stick with until 2007. Bratt would also star on the TV series The Cleaner, as well as on the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice.

Trivia: Grandfather, Rodolfo Hoyos, was an opera singer. With Ricardo Montalban, her father, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. co-founded Nosotros, an organization aimed at improving the image of Latino/Hispanic actors in the entertainment industry. Trained at LACC Theatre Arts Academy. Studied with director James Frawley.

Trivia: Is the grand-niece of 1959 Nobel Prize winner Severo Ochoa.Comes from a scientific and artistic family.Is a member of MENSA.Is a PADI DiveMaster with over 2000 logged dives spanning the globe.Best known for her roles on TNT's Animal Kingdom and as the lead on SyFy's Blood Drive.

Trivia: While in college and then for a few years after graduation, he did a stint as a television anchor and news reporter in Madison, WI. In the early 1990s, he worked as a writer on the NBC comedy series Wings; by the end of his tenure on the show, he was a co-executive producer. In 1997, he created his first series, the comedy Just Shoot Me. Won a Humanitas Award, a Producers Guild Award and a Television Critics Association Award for his work on the NBC show Frasier (1993-2004).