Trivia: Jason Biggs gained overnight recognition for his role in the 1999 summer smash American Pie. As the boy who put the American in the Pie, Biggs earned a place alongside There's Something About Mary's Ben Stiller on the screen roster of Most Embarrassing Moments Involving Genitalia and Inanimate Objects. What many people who saw him as an overnight success didn't realize, however, was that he'd actually been acting--on the screen, stage, and television--for most of his young life. A native of Pompton Plains, New Jersey, where he was born May 12, 1978, Biggs began modeling and acting in commercials when he was a small child. When he was barely an adolescent, the young actor made his Broadway debut opposite Judd Hirsch in the acclaimed play Conversations With My Father and landed a recurring role on the short-lived sitcom Drexell's Class around the same time. At the age of fifteen, he joined the cast of the daytime drama As The World Turns as Pete Wendall. His performance on the show, on which he appeared from 1994 to 1995, earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination. With this honor to his name, Biggs segued into film a short time later, debuting in the 1997 Camp Stories.In 1999, the unequivocal hit that was American Pie came along, and Biggs, portraying Jim, one of the more perpetually humiliated members of a group of four friends trying to lose their virginity by high-school graduation, made an undeniably distinct impression on critics and audiences alike. Riding high on his success, he soon entered into a two-picture deal with Miramax and a development project with 20th Century Fox Television, ensuring that his career had certainly gotten off to an auspicious and memorable start.In the two years following Pie, Biggs' recently-won popularity was evidenced by his starring roles in a number of films. Included amongst them were Robert Iscove's Boys and Girls, which cast the actor as a college student, and Amy Heckerling's Loser, in which Biggs again set foot on a college campus to play a social misfit in love with an unattainable girl (Pie co-star Mena Suvari). Pairing the young star with two comic actors 10 years his senior (Jack Black and Steve Zahn), Saving Silverman followed in early 2001; with it, Biggs completed a triumverate of critical and commercial failures.Finding himself in need of a comeback at the ripe old age of 23, Biggs seemed poised to do just that later in the year, beginning with his reprisal of the bumbling post-adolescent Jim in American Pie 2. Taking a step back from leading roles, the actor then poked fun at the movie industry with a cameo in director Kevin Smith's satire Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back before playing a supporting part opposite Christina Ricci in the big-screen adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel's memoir, Prozac Nation. After rounding out the American Pie trilogy with 2003's American Wedding, Biggs would once again appear opposite Ricci in the Woody Allen comedy Anything Else (also 2003). Though the film may have performed fairly well with teens at the box office given the names of the young stars involved, an 'R' rating from the MPAA was likely the culprit in relegating the movie to little more than a brief "blip" on the box-office radar. In 2004, Biggs returned to the screen with a supporting-role in Jersey Girl, which reteamed him with Smith but was plagued by scathing reviews and the stigma of the "Bennifer" fiasco of 2003. Biggs would keep a low profile for the next few years, appearing in movies like Eight Below and Wedding Daze before turning to the small screen with the sitcom Mad Love in 2011, alongside Judy Greer and Sarah Chalke. Around that same time, Biggs signed on for another installment in the franchsie that launched his career, reprising the role of Jim in 2012's American Reunion. In 2013, he took on a supporting role in the surprise hit Orange is the New Black, playing Larry Bloom.

Trivia: Making an art out of portraying dysfunctional losers and likable freaks, Steve Zahn worked for years before getting his due as one of the most engaging and unconventionally gifted actors in Hollywood. Hailing from Marshall, MN, where he was born in 1968, Zahn was first introduced to improvisational acting in high school. Following a year at Gustavus-Adolphus College, he was accepted at the prestigious American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, where he trained for two years. After completing his tenure there, Zahn settled in Hoboken, NJ, and tried to support himself with acting in New York, working a variety of odd jobs on the side. He found work in various theater productions, including a 13-month road tour of Bye, Bye Birdie, which provided both steady employment and an introduction to his wife, who was a dancer in the musical.Zahn's break came when he was cast in Sophistry, a play that also starred Ethan Hawke. His performance was seen by Ben Stiller, who offered him a role in his upcoming film, Reality Bites. Zahn took the part of Sammy, Winona Ryder's amiable, slightly conflicted gay friend. The film, which was released in 1994, was actually Zahn's second feature, the first being the 1993 drama Rain Without Thunder. Reality Bites met with relative success and helped to jump-start not only Zahn's career, but those of Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo, as well. Zahn proceeded to take a significant role in Eric Bogosian's play SubUrbia and his work in the production led to his casting in the 1995 submarine thriller Crimson Tide, starring Denzel Washington. The following year, he won a leading role in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do! and subsequently re-created his SubUrbia role for the play's film adaptation, which also featured Giovanni Ribisi and Parker Posey. In 1998, Hollywood began to take notice of the actor, as he was featured in four different films. Three of them, You've Got Mail, Out of Sight, and The Object of My Affection, proved to be box-office successes; the other one, Safe Men, was released into general obscurity. The following year, Zahn made an appearance in the romantic comedy Forces of Nature, co-starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock, and had a leading role in Happy, Texas, which was released at Sundance. For his performance as a con artist forced to play gay, Zahn won a special acting award at the festival, a much-deserved token of appreciation for an actor as underrated as he is original.In the years that followed, Zahn elevated his portrayal of lovable losers to a virtual art form. Though he would head up an impressive cast in the 2000 feature Chain of Fools, the film would be inexplicably relegated to cinematic limbo and audiences would next catch an unexpected glimpse of the rising star in director Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000). If the following year's Saving Silverman found Zahn back to his usual antics, abysmal reviews and poor audience reaction quickly sunk the romantic comedy and audiences would catch their next glimpse of him in John Dahl's edge-of-your-seat thriller Joy Ride (also 2001). His portrayal of Drew Barrymore's character's well-intending but hopeless husband in the 2001 comedy drama Riding in Cars with Boys showed a dramatic side many audiences had yet to experience from Zahn, and after a brief break from the screen Zahn returned in 2003 with a pair of high profile comedies. After joining comedian/actor Martin Lawrence as one half of a pair of hapless security guards in the 2003 comedy National Security, Zahn attempted to bring up baby opposite actor/comedian Eddie Murphy in the family friendly comedy Daddy Day Care. A series of supporting performances in Shattered Glass, Speak and Employee of the Month (all 2004) were quick to follow, ensuring that audiences who couldn't get their fill of Zahn's unique and endearing quirkiness wouldn't be left out in the lurch for long.Behind the camera, Zahn has provided vocal work for such family films as Stuart Little (as well as its 2002 sequel), Doctor Dolittle 2 and Chicken Little (2005). In 2006, Zahn again tried his hand at more dramatic work with a role in the Werner Herzog POW film Rescue Dawn, but soon he was going back to his comedic roots with 2008's Sunshine Cleaning and Strange Wilderness. He was one of the stars of the thriller A Perfect Getaway in 2009. Zahn then changed gears by taking on the role of dad Frank Heffley in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Trivia: Actor, musician, and cult idol ascendant, Jack Black is known for both the characters he portrays on the screen and as one of the forces behind Tenacious D, a rock band/standup routine that Black has described as "a Smothers Brothers for the Dungeons and Dragons misfits set."A native of Santa Monica, CA, Black attended the University of California at Los Angeles. He got his professional start on the stage, appearing in Tim Robbins' production of Carnage at the 1989 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He would go on to collaborate with Robbins throughout his career, making his screen debut in the director's 1992 political satire Bob Roberts and appearing in Robbins' Dead Man Walking (1995) and Cradle Will Rock (1999). Black spent the '90s playing supporting and lead roles in a variety of films, including Demolition Man (1993), The Cable Guy (1996), which cast him as the best friend of Matthew Broderick's character, and Jesus' Son (1999), in which Black had a small but extremely memorable role as a pill-popping hospital orderly.In 2000, Black had one of his most recognizable and enthusiastically received screen roles to date in High Fidelity. Stephen Frears' popular adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, it featured Black as Barry, a thoroughly obnoxious record-store employee. The part allowed the actor to do some of his own singing, a talent that he had previously inflicted on numerous audience members during his years with the aforementioned Tenacious D. The band, comprised of Black and fellow holy terror Kyle Gass, had existed since 1994, and it had been featured on the TV comedy series Mr. Show and as the subject of their own HBO series entitled (tongue firmly in cheek) Tenacious D: The Greatest Band on Earth. It was only a matter of time before Black stepped up from supporting character to leading man, and with the Farrelly brother's Shallow Hal Black may just have found the ideal vehicle for the successful transition. As a superficial man who falls in love with a 300-pound woman after being hypnotized to see only the "inner beauty" of the opposite sex, Black co-starred alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Jason Alexander in what promised to be a charmingly offensive addition to the Farrelly canon.Though MTV Films' heavily marketed Orange County (2002) was not a huge commercial success, Black's supporting role as the lead character's slacker brother was well received by critics and long-time fans alike, and the once obscure figure began appearing on media outlets including Saturday Night Live, Primetime Glick, commercials for The Osbournes, and various MTV music and film awards. In 2003, Black starred in his first big hit -- director Richard Linklater's musical comedy School of Rock, which featured Black as a disgruntled heavy metal-guitarist doing a substitute teaching gig for extra cash. Critics were so taken by his performance that he was honored with a Golden Globe nomination.2004 saw Black turn in a cameo in the Will Ferrell vehicle Anchorman, after starring opposite Ben Stiller in director Barry Levinson's black comedy Envy. While the film was a box-office bomb after having its release pushed back several times, Black still had much to celebrate when it was announced he would be taking the lead in Peter Jackson's highly anticipated 2005 remake of King Kong. The epic film helped transition Black from a cult hero to a traditional movie star, though he was still careful to keep his original fans happy. In 2006, he starred in Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess' comedy Nacho Libre. The part of a disgruntled monk turned Lucha Libre idol was a perfect fit for the bombastic star, and he followed the performance up with another comic offering for his serious fans as he and Kyle Gass, his partner in Tenacious D, starred in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. This big screen telling of the band's mythical history promised to be full of the over-the-top laughs that rocked fans of the group's HBO series, and also included appearances by rock and metal idols like Ronnie James Dio and Meatloaf, who portrayed Black's dad. Black didn't abandoning straight acting. He would appear in a number of more conventional, and even dramatic roles over the coming years, like in The Holiday and Margot at the Wedding, while still pursuing the broad comedic roles he was known for in full force, with comedies like Be Kind Rewind, Tropic Thunder, Year One, and The Big Year. In 2012, Black reteamed with Richard Linklater for a unique blending of comedy, drama, and crime, playing a congenial southern murder suspect in Bernie.

Trivia: Born on January 11th, 1972, Amanda Peet grew up in New York and made a decidedly unconventional debut into showbiz: At three-years-old, a thoroughly uninvited Peet jumped onto a stage during the middle of a play. Despite the auspicious beginning, Peet treated acting as more of a hobby than anything else, and only began to consider it a potential career after her drama professor at Columbia University encouraged her to audition for renowned acting teacher Uta Hagen. Peet studied with Hagen for four years, during which time she participated in the off-Broadway revival Awake and Sing. Though she would eventually be voted one of the year's 50 most beautiful people in a 2000 issue of People magazine -- not to mention participate with the likes of Susan Sarandon, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jack Nicholson -- Peet worked as a waitress during the first few years of her acting career.The sloe-eyed brunette made her onscreen debut in Craig Singer's Animal Room (1996). That same year, she could also be seen in an episode of Law & Order, and went on to play a role in Grind (1996), a crime drama starring Billy Crudup. Before long, Peet landed a small role in the Michelle Pfeiffer-George Clooney romantic comedy One Fine Day. Since then, the actress has continued to build both her film and television credits: in 1997, she appeared in the AIDS drama Touch Me, and the following year she had sizable roles in South Boston crime drama Southie with Donnie Wahlberg and Rose McGowan, which won the American Independent award at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival. On television, she could be seen guest starring on a number of shows including Seinfeld and Ellen Foster. In 1999, she got her own television show, Jack & Jill, on the WB network. That same year, she could be seen playing Sean Patrick Flanery's fiancée in Simply Irresistible and then acting as his bedmate in Body Shots, another in the long line of explorations into pre-millennial twentysomething dating angst.After starring in director Neil Turitz's debut Two Ninas, Peet landed a leading role in Peter M. Cohen's independent comedy Whipped. While the film itself performed dismally, Peet met her boyfriend, Brian Van Holt, on the set. Despite it's independent status, Whipped was given a solid amount of mainstream marketing, and Peet was praised for a game performance in the face of an admittedly weak script.After a small role in 2000's Isn't She Great with Bette Midler and Nathan Lane, Peet was finally recognized by critics and audiences alike in The Whole Nine Yards. Though the film itself did not fare particularly well, Peet was praised for holding her own against Hollywood heavy-hitter Bruce Willis, which certainly didn't hurt her when it came time to audition for Saving Silverman, which placed her opposite Jason Biggs while he was still reeling from the success of American Pie. In 2002, Peet played a considerably less vicious wife in Changing Lanes with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, and won no small amount of praise for her performance as the heroin-addled mistress of Kieran Culkin's godfather in Igby Goes Down. Peet would go on to star opposite film veterans Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson in Nancy Meyers' Something's Gotta Give, in which she stars as Nicholson's scandalously young girlfriend, as well as James Mangold's psychological thriller Identity with John Cusack. In 2004, Peet signed on for the sequel to The Whole Nine Yards (aptly titled The Whole Ten Yards), and acted alongside Will Ferrell, Chloë Sevigny, and Josh Brolin in the Woody Allen feature Melinda and Melinda. The next year, Peet starred alongside Ashton Kutcher in the romantic comedy A Lot Like Love, before joining the cast of the politically charged thriller Syriana. Then, in 2006, the actress accepted a recurring role on the one-hour drama Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip. The Aaron Sorkin written series received major critical acclaim but was cancelled after just one season. Undeterred, Peet next teamed up with John Cusack for the quirky, heartfelt drama Martian Child. The sci-fi theme continued with voice work in Battle for Terra (2007), The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and 2012, though by 2010 Peet seemed to be focusing on honing her comedy skills with toles in Wainy Days, Important Things with Demetri Martin, and How I Met Your Mother. In 2010, after receiving numerous critical accolades for her performance in Nicole Holofcener's Please Give, Peet plunged into televosion full-time with Bent -- an NBC series that found her cast as a high-strung lawyer contening with a free-spirited construction worker. Unfortunately for Peet the series failed to perform, and was swiftly cancelled by the network, freeing her up to appear in such high profile fare as director Terrence Malick's romantic drama To the Wonder (2012), though her scenes were ultimately cut from the final film. She had a guest arc on The Good Wife and played a supporting role in the indie flick The Way, Way Back in 2013.

Trivia: The adorably spunky Amanda Detmer had everyone going when she took on teen roles, bright-eyed and genuine, in films like Boys and Girls and Final Destination. Indeed, the actress in real life was substantially older than the young women she portrayed onscreen, although her convincingly youthful performances aided her looks in deceiving viewers about her age. Born on September 27, 1971, in Chico, CA, Detmer's academic career was established long before her successful list of film credits. After attending California State University as an undergraduate, she earned her master's degree at N.Y.U. in fine arts. While her acting debut occurred with the television movie Stolen Innocence in 1995, she decided to complete her M.F.A. before seriously embarking on a career in show business. In 1999, she re-entered the dramatic scene with a role in the TV miniseries To Serve and Protect. She also gained exposure and television experience on the series MYOB and Ryan Caulfield: Year One. Finding an asset in her youthfulness, she then appeared in two teen films, despite being in her late twenties, in 2000: Boys and Girls -- a romantic comedy starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Claire Forlani, and Jason Biggs -- and the thriller Final Destination. Upon gaining attention in Hollywood, she was often found in warm and lighthearted roles, if not in outright comedy, as appropriate for the sweet charm her presence evokes onscreen. She starred as a would-be nun, longed for by the character played by Jason Biggs in Saving Silverman (2001), also featuring Jack Black. In The Majestic (also 2001), she portrays the woman Jim Carrey leaves behind when stricken with amnesia. In addition to smaller roles in 2002's Kiss the Bride and Big Fat Liar, she would star in a comedy by Lorena David entitled Extreme Dating. An action-packed romantic adventure, the film also starred Devon Sawa. Though Extreme Dating may have thrown a little something original in the romantic comedy mix by offering a little more gunplay and adrenaline than the typical chick flick, few of Detmer's efforts in the following years would prove adventurous or original enough to really break the mold or merit mentioning. A key role on the small-screen relationship drama What About Brian offered the actress a bit more to chew on in 2006, and later that same year Detmer could be seen in the Owen Wilson houseguest-from-Hell comedy You, Me, and Dupree. Over the coming years, Detmer would appear in a number of other projects, including the series What About Brian, Private Practice, Man Up, and Necessary Roughness.

Trivia: A few character actors make such an indelible impression with one role that they find it consistently impossible to outgrow that image. Anthony Perkins had it with Norman Bates, M. Emmet Walsh has it with Visser (from Blood Simple), and R. Lee Ermey will forever be associated with the sadomasochistic verbal rapist of a drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, from Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam opus, Full Metal Jacket (1987). Though Ermey never again quite matched the intensity of this role (or the gutter-bucket poetic invention of its obscene dialogue), it was enough to give him permanent recognition as a character actor among filmgoers, and to typecast him in a series of variants on that role, again and again, throughout his life.Born on March 24, 1944, in Emporia, KS, Ermey enlisted in the armed forces as a young man and hightailed it to Vietnam on a non-commissioned basis, but injuries forced him to retire from active duty. He received full disability pay and moved to Manila in the early '70s, where he managed to ably support himself on his USAF allotment (thanks to the lower cost of living) while studying for a degree in criminology. Each morning, Ermey visited the coffee shop at the Manila Hilton -- well-reputed as the haunt of American filmmakers shooting on-location in the Philippines -- until one of the directors happened to notice Ermey and asked him to pose for a series of blue jeans ads. This experience led to his film debut, a role as a retired soldier in a local production. By 1976, Ermey had appeared in several Filipino films. He broke into Hollywood films that year, when he slipped onto the set for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and convinced Coppola to hire him as a helicopter pilot. Indeed, the ex-officer's Vietnam experience came in handy and Coppola utilized him as a technical advisor. Ermey made his American cinematic debut -- and held to the military-man typecasting -- in Sidney J. Furie's comedy drama The Boys in Company C (1978), and the director's follow-up, Purple Hearts (1984). But his biggest break came shortly thereafter, when Stanley Kubrick -- a notorious tyrant himself -- tapped him to portray Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket (1987). Ermey's evocation of the satanically profane, vile, and sadistic Hartman, laden with the thankless, brutal job of toughening up raw recruits before sending them to Vietnam (who eventually gets blown away by one of his trainees) dominates the film's first 45 minutes and provides an unforgettably realistic, disturbing portrait of military training. Thanks to his unique countenance and authoritative voice, Ermey maintained his image as a rough-hewn, tough-as-nails SOB onscreen.Neither Company C or Purple Hearts received substantial critical and public recognition (or a very wide release); in contrast, the broader exposure of Full Metal Jacket (it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and a National Board of Review nomination for Best Picture) boosted Ermey's prominence -- immeasurably so. He followed it up with spots in such well-received pictures as Alan Parker's racial drama Mississippi Burning (1988) and Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers (1993). In 1995, Ermey spoofed himself to great effect as the voice of the leader of the little green soldiers in Toy Story, and doubled it up with a turn as the vengeful father of a homicide victim in Tim Robbins' capital punishment drama Dead Man Walking. A third role in that same year -- as the boss of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt in David Fincher's seminal work Seven -- elicited a positive (if limited) critical and public response for Ermey's portrayal.During the early 2000s, Ermey once again drew on his military expertise and background, albeit in a much different fashion, as host of the small-screen program Mail Call. Episodes featured him answering a series of viewer questions about various aspects of military life and history. In 2003, he returned to his dramatic roots (and managed to top the despicability of Sgt. Hartman) in Marcus Nispel's Tobe Hooper remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Ermey plays Sheriff Hoyt, the deviant backwater law officer -- in cahoots with the family of slaughter-happy cannibals -- who refuses to listen the cries and wails of Jessica Biel's Erin. (In fact, Nispel invented Ermey's role for the remake). After a comic turn as yet another tough-nosed authority figure, Captain Nichols, in the 2005 Tommy Lee Jones vehicle Man of the House, Ermey reprised the Hoyt role for the sequel to the Chainsaw remake, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006). In that picture, Hoyt precipitates the central crisis by happening upon another group of teens, murdering one in cold blood, and dragging the others back to the house where maniac Leatherface and his cronies reside. R. Lee Ermey married his wife, Nila Ermey, in 1975. They have four children.

Trivia: Popular singer Neil Diamond has occasionally appeared in film. He debuted onscreen in The Jazz Singer (1980).

Trivia: Best known as one half of the surprisingly musically competent comedy rock band Tenacious D, Kyle Gass has actually been appearing in front of the camera since long before the inception of his face-melting collaboration with Jack Black. Despite speculation that he sold his immortal soul to the devil himself in exchange for his musical abilities, Gass began playing the flute at the age of eight, eventually moving on to the saxophone and then guitar. He got his first acting break as a kid, appearing in a 7-Up commercial. After graduating high school in 1979, Gass enrolled at UCLA, where he met future celebrity Tim Robbins. Robbins recruited him into the Actor's Gang, where he soon met his future bandmate, a 16-year-old kid named Jack Black. Gass didn't take too kindly to the blustering upstart at first, but soon the two joined forces in the name of rock (and comedy). He taught Black to play guitar, and before long the two were creating the mythos of Tenacious D. Gass made numerous small appearances in movies throughout the '90s, playing characters like the anesthetist in Brain Dead and a smoker in an episode of Seinfeld. Then, in 2000, Tenacious D were given their own show on HBO. Combining sketch comedy with their bombastic songs and hardcore talent, the show earned the band a huge cult following. More small roles in movies took Gass through the inception of the new millennium, but the success of Tenacious D's show, appearances, album, and concerts were what made him the most visible. In 2006, Gass and Black filmed Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, a big-screen telling of the band's mythical story including appearances by Ronnie James Dio, Meat Loaf, and of course, Satan.