Trivia: African-American entertainer Bill Cosby, in his own words, "started out as a child," the son of an eight-dollars-a-day maid and an absentee father. A product of grinding poverty, Cosby escaped his rundown Philadelphia neighborhood by dropping out of high school and joining the navy. He earned his diploma via correspondence course, then earned a football scholarship to Temple University. Working nights as a bartender, Cosby discovered he had the ability to make people laugh, so he temporarily shelved his plans to become an athletics teacher and set out to become a nightclub comedian. Most black comics of the era used the race issue in their act; this didn't quite work for Cosby, but relating humorous reminiscences about himself and his childhood buddies worked beautifully. After numerous TV guest shots and several top-selling, Grammy Award-winning record albums, Cosby was signed by producer Sheldon Leonard to co-star with Robert Culp in a weekly TV espionage series, I Spy. This was an era of acute racial tension; many NBC executives were wary about a black leading man, and quite a few Southern affiliates threatened not to run the show, but Leonard, a street scrapper from way back, refused to back down. I Spy was a hit, earning Cosby an Emmy. As the series progressed, the camaraderie between Cosby and Culp deepened, and by the end of the series, Culp was talking and ad-libbing in the same low-key, offbeat cadence that Cosby had adopted for his club appearances! After I Spy, Cosby signed a sweetheart deal with NBC, which guaranteed him a two-year run on his next program, whether the ratings were good or not. The Bill Cosby Show cast the star as high school coach Chet Kincaid, and was unusual for the time in that it was a sitcom minus a laughtrack. At times it was a sitcom minus laughs as well, but NBC had made its promise, and Cosby did his best. In the '70s he teamed with actor/director Sidney Poitier to make a trio of popular crime/comedy features: Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again, and A Piece of the Action. Viewers who think of Cosby in terms of one success after another have forgotten such failed 1970s TV projects as The New Bill Cosby Show and Cos. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there was The Cosby Show, the eight-season wonder that single-handedly rescued the sitcom format from oblivion in 1984 and enabled the woebegone NBC network to crack the Number One slot in the ratings week after week. And there were guest spots on the award-winning children's show The Electric Company and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1969-84) a superlative Saturday morning cartoon show supervised by Cosby that managed to be what is now called "prosocial" without losing any of the fun. He has also been the long-time commercial spokesman for Jell-O. In the fall of 1996 Cosby returned to prime time TV with yet another The Cosby Show sitcom, again set in New York City and co-starring Phylicia Rashad. Although The Cosby Show became made him arguably the most famous person in the country, he could not capitalize that rush of fame into a film career choosing to make a series of box office bombs including Leonard Part 6 and Ghost Dad. He created yet another TV show, The Cosby Mysteries, and shepherded a successful animated chilsdren's series, Little Bill, to screens in 2001. He appeared in the big-screen version of Fat Albert in 2004.

Trivia: A talented Broadway actress who shot to fame with her portrayal of loving mother-of-five and high-powered attorney Claire Huxtable in television's The Cosby Show, Phylicia Rashad's strong television presence has lent itself to numerous dramatic roles in the years since her role as the member of one of the most famous families in television history. Born the daughter of a dentist in Texas in 1948, Rashad's (born Phylicia Allen) continual focus on her potential as an actress has attracted her to roles of integrity and honesty, with generally family friendly fare that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. After making her television debut in the 1978 production of The Wiz, Rashad appeared in such soap operas as One Life to Live and Santa Barbara before settling into an eight-year run as mother to one of television history's most beloved families (during which period she would also star with television daughter Keshia Knight Pulliam in a pair of television movies based on the popular children's character Polly). Married to Village People member Victor Willis in 1975, Rashad would later wed former Minnesota Viking and sports announcer Ahmad Rashad (who extravagantly proposed to her during a televised football game) in 1985. Continuing her television career following the end of The Cosby Show's run, Rashad would also turn up in such made-for-television thrillers as The Possession of Michael D. and The Babysitter's Seduction (both 1995) before once again joining television husband Bill Cosby in 1996's Cosby. A well-known member of numerous charities including the Diabetes Association African-American Program and the Educational Teacher's Association, Rashad has strived to bring social issues to the small screen with roles in such thoughtful productions as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1985) and Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored (1996). Though many female actors lament the glass ceiling that prevents them from obtaining roles in their later years, Rashad's maturity brings a distinctive presence to her roles in such dramatic television productions as Free of Eden (1999) and The Old Settler (2001). Over the next several years, Rashad would prove as consistent a force on screen as ever, appearing in movies like For Colored Girls and Good Deeds, as well as on TV series like Psych and Everybody Hates Chris.

Trivia: Best-known as teenage son Theo on the legendary sitcom The Cosby Show, Malcolm-Jamal Warner had already made a handful of TV appearances when he joined the show's cast in 1984. The precocious 14 year old showed up for the last day of casting, but quickly won over the producers and remained with the show until it ended its run in 1992. Warner would go on to try his hand at several other projects, starring in the comedy series Here and Now until 1993 and taking on the role of The Producer on the children's series The Magic School Bus from 1994 to 1997. Warner would also star in the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie starting in 1996, staying with the show until 2000. In 2003, the actor began appearing on the sci-fi series Jeremiah and continued with the show until it was canceled in 2004. Warner would then take on the recurring role of Bernie on the sports-oriented comedy Listen Up in 2005, and subsequently kept busy making appearances on shows like Dexter and The Cleaner. In 2009, Warner found yet another outlet for his talents on the small screen, joining Sherri Shepherd on the sitcom Sherri. Though the series didn't last, it did provide Warner's television career with a satisfying second wind that was highlighted by a leading role on the BET comedy series Reed Between the Lines (which won him an Image Award), and a recurring character on NBC's Community.

Trivia: Best known as daughter Vanessa Huxtable on the classic sitcom The Cosby Show, actress Tempestt Bledsoe began her TV career with that very role, joining the cast for the show's premiere in 1984. Bledsoe was just 11 years old, but she instantly became a famous face in American households. After the series ended its run in 1992, the actress obtained a bachelor's degree in finance from New York University, before working her way back into show business in the late '90s with a recurring role on the legal drama The Practice. She would continue to act selectively, with appearances on shows like Strong Medicine, South of Nowhere, Raising the Bar, and The Replacements, as well as on reality shows like Clean House and Celebrit Fit Club.

Trivia: Raven-Symone earned a fond place in the hearts of Cosby Show fans around the world when she joined the cast of that seminal '80s sitcom as pint-sized Olivia Kendall, the daughter of Lt. Martin Kendall (Joseph C. Phillips) and Denise Huxtable Kendall (Lisa Bonet) during the hit program's sixth season. The series wrapped within a few years of Symone's enlistment, but the young actress continued her ascent by establishing herself as a force to be reckoned with in the multiple venues of television, pop music, and feature film.Born in Atlanta, GA, in December 1985, Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman began modeling diapers at the age of two and landed the Cosby assignment by the age of three. By 1993 (one year after Cosby took its final bow), Symone had joined the cast of yet another sitcom, ABC's Hangin' With Mr. Cooper (1992-1997), then a year into production; she would remain with Cooper until it folded in 1997, but in the mean time branched off into another venue altogether as an R&B recording artist. MCA quickly signed her and issued her rap-infused album Here's to New Dreams in 1993; unfortunately, it failed to connect with a sizeable audience, and it would be six years before Symone emerged with a sophomore recording, the R&B-flavored Undeniable (1999). That album unabashedly showcased the young performer's desire to become a teen pop sensation, and revealed her vocal skills much more transparently than its predecessor, as did its follow-up efforts. Meanwhile, Symone landed bit parts and supporting roles in movies, including Dr. Dolittle (1998) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001); she also voiced the character of Monique on the animated television series Kim Possible (2002) and headlined her own Disney Channel sitcom, That's So Raven. The smash program cast Symone as a 15-year-old girl whose gaffes get her family into a seemingly endless series of outrageous difficulties. Symone then starred in the hit telemovies The Cheetah Girls and The Cheetah Girls 2, lent a supporting role to the theatrical feature The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), and signed to star in the big-screen outing College Road Trip, opposite funnyman Martin Lawrence. In that comedy, Symone plays a young woman on a college-scouting trip with her policeman father.