Trivia: Best known as slightly geeky would-be ladies' man Dwayne Wayne on the television series A Different World, actor Kadeem Hardison's engaging onscreen persona and easy flair for comedy has earned him steady work as a supporting player in both film and television. Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1965, Hardison became interested in acting when he was in his early teens, and he began studying theater at New York's Eubie Blake Theater, where one of his instructors was Earle Hyman, who later portrayed Grandpa Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Hardison's work with Hyman helped win the young actor a guest spot on a 1984 episode of The Cosby Show, playing opposite Lisa Bonet; the same year, Hardison made his big-screen debut with a small role in the hip-hop musical Beat Street. Hardison made a handful of appearances in movies and television projects over the next two years, but his debut appearance on The Cosby Show earned him a major dividend in 1987, when Denise Huxtable, Lisa Bonet's character on The Cosby Show, was spun-off into her own series, A Different World, and Hardison was cast as fellow student Dwayne Wayne. While Bonet left the show after its first season, Hardison remained in the cast for its entire seven-season run, and directed several during the show's final two seasons. During his down time from A Different World, Hardison continued to work in motion pictures, with supporting roles in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and School Daze and a leading role in the independent horror film Def By Temptation. After A Different World went off the air in 1993, Hardison concentrated on film work, with roles ranging from the horror/comedy Vampire in Brooklyn to the political drama Panther. In 1997, he took another stab at series television on the short-lived sitcom Between Brothers, and began adding more TV guests spots to his resumé, appearing on Touched By an Angel, Just Shoot Me, and the revived Fantasy Island, while still maintaining a busy schedule of film work. In 2008 he played a small role in the romantic comedy Made of Honor, and co-starred in the 2011 horror Ashes, which followed a doctor who unintentionally releases a deadly plague.

Trivia: While she appeared in several notable features in the 1980s and 1990s, TV was the star-making venue for Jasmine Guy. A multi-talented performer, Boston-born Guy began her career as a dancer for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. She moved to acting and television, however, with a part in the TV film At Mother's Request (1987) and a starring role as snooty co-ed beauty Whitley in The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World (1987-1993). During the show's six season run, Guy also made her feature film debut in Spike Lee's politically charged college comedy/musical School Daze (1988) and co-starred in Eddie Murphy's ill-fated Harlem Nights (1989). Guy further revealed her range in TV movies Runaway (1989), A Killer Among Us (1990), and Stompin' at the Savoy (1992). After A Different World ended in 1993, Guy continued to be a regular TV presence with numerous guest star roles throughout the 1990s, particularly on Melrose Place and NYPD Blue. Guy also returned to the stage as a musical theater actress in touring companies of Grease and Chicago, played a major role in the feature thriller Kla$h (1995), and made a brief appearance as one of Stephen Rea's former female protégées in the 1999 Sundance Film Festival prizewinner Guinevere. She continued to act in projects such as the made-for-TV remake of Carrie, and enjoyed a run on the short-lived Dead Like Me - both of those projects written by Bryan Fuller. She appeared in the 2010 sequel Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, and the 2012 adoption/abortion drama October Baby.

Trivia: An esteemed African-American playwright and actor whose roles almost invariably contend with the politics and dynamics of race (frequent collaborator Spike Lee once famously described him as a "racial cheerleader"), thespian Roger Guenveur Smith grew up in Berkeley and debuted onscreen in the late '80s. Over the ensuing years, Smith cultivated and sustained a reputation for tackling demanding, challenging, and thought-provoking assignments with immense aplomb. He achieved much of his success thanks to repeated collaborations with Lee, who cast him as Yoda in the musical School Daze (1988) and Smiley, the hipster street philosopher in Do the Right Thing (1989); in fact, Lee later noted that Smith was the one who devised the idea for the juxtaposed photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in one of Thing's pivotal scenes. Meanwhile, Smith remained extremely active in regional theater, both by authoring his own efforts (such as a musical about Christopher Columbus that painted commonly accepted versions of the man's life story as historical revisionism) and by teaching drama to juvenile delinquents. As the years passed, Smith's onscreen activity crescendoed; he signed for plum roles in such contemporary classics as King of New York (1990), Deep Cover (1992), and Eve's Bayou (1997), and, significantly, extended his professional relationship with Lee to many additional projects. The celebrated director cast Smith in such features as Malcolm X (1992), Get on the Bus (1996), He Got Game (1998), and Summer of Sam (1999), all of which received considerable acclaim. Their actor-director working relationship culminated in the little-seen (but arguably brilliant) A Huey P. Newton Story (2001) -- a Lee-directed film of Smith's one-man stage show on the life of controversial Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton. The film preserves the original Smith-authored play, and stars the thespian as Newton; Lee augments the film with visual pyrotechnics and interpolates archival footage to give the feature depth and dimension. Unfortunately, the project failed to receive even a limited theatrical release, and premiered instead on the Black Starz cable network. Thereafter, Smith continued his theatrical work (albeit very infrequently) with such plays as the 2003 Iceland, a psychological drama about four unrelated characters that debuted in Philadelphia. He also continued his frequent film roles, with assignments including Shade (2003), God's Waiting List (2006), Confessions of a Call Girl (2006), and Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007).

Trivia: Many know actor Darryl M. Bell for his role as Ron Johnson on the sitcom A Different World. He would also appear in projects like the Spike Lee film School Daze, and on the show Homeboys in Outer Space. In 2009, Bell signed up to appear on the reality series Husbands of Hollywood.

Trivia: Is of African-American and Guyanese descent.Co-starred in the sitcom A Different World from 1987 to 1992, playing Jaleesa Vinson.Composed A Different World's theme song with Bill Cosby and Stu Gardner.Played Deloris Van Cartier, the Whoopi Goldberg role, in Peter Schneider's Sister Act the Musical before its Broadway run.Has lent her voice to a number of animated television series such as The Simpsons, Futurama, The Cleveland Show and The Boondocks, as well as to Pixar films Monsters University and Inside Out.