Trivia: Seemingly every struggling standup comic dreams of landing their own television series, but few managed to do so with greater success than Jerry Seinfeld, whose career as a nightclub comedian led to him starring as himself on the show Seinfeld -- arguably the most successful situation comedy of the 1990s.Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, NY, on April 29, 1954, to Kalman Seinfeld, a signmaker, and his wife, Betty; Jerry was the second of the couple's two children. The Seinfeld family moved to Long Island when Jerry was a child, and he spent most of his youth there. After graduating from high school, Seinfeld went on to college, first attending the State University of New York at Oswego, and then moving on to Queens College of the City University of New York, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in 1976. Seinfeld developed a keen interest in performing while in college (his degree from Queens was in communications and theater), and after graduation he began working New York comedy clubs, often without pay, while holding down a number of odd jobs. Seinfeld's first big break came when his bright but understated observational humor caught the eye of standup legend Rodney Dangerfield, who featured Seinfeld on a special for HBO. The exposure helped establish Seinfeld on the comedy club circuit, and won him a recurring role on the situation comedy Benson. However, Seinfeld and the show's producers clashed over the character's direction, and he was fired after only four episodes.In 1981, Seinfeld appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Johnny Carson, and made a strong impression on both the audience and the host; he became a frequent guest on the Carson show, as well as David Letterman's late-night talk show. As Seinfeld's fame began to rise, he starred in several cable TV specials, and was approached to star in several TV series. However, remembering his experience on Benson, Seinfeld opted to avoid episodic television unless he was in a position of greater control (though he did do occasional guest spots on sitcoms and played a small role in Danny De Vito's TV movie The Ratings Game). In the meantime, Seinfeld and his good friend Larry David began working up an idea for a situation comedy to be called The Seinfeld Chronicles. In 1989, NBC took the bait, and a year later the show premiered under the streamlined name Seinfeld. Concerning standup comic Jerry Seinfeld and the often odd everyday occurrences of his circle of friends (many of whom were based on people Seinfeld and David knew in real life), Seinfeld got off to a slow start, but began to win a healthy audience in its second season, and in time became one of NBC's biggest hits, until Seinfeld and David opted to end the show at the peak of its popularity in 1998. Unlike most stars of top-rated television shows, Seinfeld displayed no interest in moving into films, and instead returned to standup comedy shortly after his show went off the air with a sold-out concert tour. In the Spring of 2002, however, Seinfeld did sign a deed to appear in a documentary about his return to the comedy circuit with a new act. In 2010 Seinfeld made a high-profile return to television on NBC's The Marriage Ref -- a show that found a rotating panel of celebrities attepting to settle petty disputes between squabbling spouses -- but the show went off the air after two seasons due to poor ratings. In his personal life, during the height of his fame, Seinfeld was romantically linked with several women (including comic and writer Carol Leifer, fashion designer Shoshanna Lonstein, and writer Jennifer Crittenden) before marrying Jessica Sklar, a publicist who met Seinfeld only a few weeks after her marriage to Eric Nederlander in 1998. Seinfeld and Sklar wed in December of 1999, and their first child, daughter Sascha, was born on November 7, 2000.

Trivia: Most everyone who went to high school in Livingston, NJ, with Newark-born Jason Alexander knew that the lad was destined to become a major actor. Though inclined to stoutness -- and baldness -- from age 16 onward, Alexander had such a commanding stage presence that he was invariably cast as the star in school plays, in roles ranging from romantic leads to elderly character parts. While attending Boston University, the 20-year-old Alexander was cast in the lead of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along, which might have made him an overnight star had it not closed almost as soon as it opened. Alexander's first film role was in 1981's The Burning; that same year he made his TV-movie bow in Senior Trip. By 1989, Alexander had two major industry awards to his credit: the Tony and Grammy, both for his participation in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. In 1990, he was cast as clueless loser George Costanza in the popular sitcom Seinfeld (the character was allegedly based on series co-creator Larry David). And in 1994, his voice could be heard each week on the USA cable network as the web-footed, sex-obsessed private eye hero of the animated cartoon series Duckman. Though still best-known for his portrayal of George Costanza, Alexander's feature film career picked up speed during the '90s as both a character actor in major comedies such as Dunston Checks In and a voice-over artist on such animated Disney features as Aladdin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In 1997, he played a more dramatic role as an AIDS-afflicted drag queen who finds romance in Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997). After a disappointing blink-and-you-miss-it comeback to the small screen as a self-help guru in Bob Patterson, Alexander leapt back to the big screen opposite Jack Black in the Farrelly brothers' Shallow Hal. He directed the sex comedy Just Looking in 1999. He had another small-screen misfire with Listen Up. But he continued to appear regularly in movies including the documentary The Aristocrats, the improvised poker movie The Grand, and Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror. He has lent his voice to a handful of animated projects over the years, and in 2012 he appeared in the family film A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up Timmy Turner.

Trivia: Like other Saturday Night Live alumni, Julia Louis-Dreyfus made the move to feature films, but she achieved true stardom on TV as Seinfeld's inimitable Elaine Benes. Born to an affluent family and raised in Washington, D.C., Louis-Dreyfus studied theater at Northwestern University. Along with working as a member of The Practical Theater Company, Louis-Dreyfus cut her sharp comic teeth as part of Chicago's Second City troupe. She soon followed in the footsteps of prior Second City-ers John Belushi and Bill Murray, joining the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985 (along with Northwestern classmate and eventual husband Brad Hall). Louis-Dreyfus bounced to films with appearances in Soul Man (1986), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), before returning to TV on the second episode of a low-rated NBC primetime sitcom starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld in 1990.As Jerry's ex-girlfriend-turned-pal Elaine, Louis-Dreyfus proved that she could hold her own as the sole female member of Seinfeld's do-nothing quartet of neurotic New Yorkers. With her "big wall of hair," signature shoes and penchant for over-enthusiastic exclamations, Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine was no mere foil, but rather a full participant in the show's increasingly popular, irony-laden comic shenanigans. Along with winning an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1996, Louis-Dreyfus won the Golden Globe in 1994 and the Screen Actor's Guild award in 1997 and 1998. During Seinfeld's phenomenally successful nine-year run, Louis-Dreyfus also played supporting roles in North (1994), Father's Day (1997), and as a libidinous sister in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997). After Seinfeld went off the air in 1998, Dreyfus took some time off from appearing in front of the camera to spend time with her husband and two sons, but she did the voice of Princess Atta in the Pixar animated blockbuster A Bug's Life (1998).Louis-Dreyfus subsequently returned to TV as the Blue Fairy in the TV movie musical Gepetto (2000) before attempting another sitcom. After two of her Seinfeld co-stars failed to make their own series fly in 2000 and 2001, Louis-Dreyfus opted for a non-traditional approach, playing a struggling lounge singer in the real time, laugh track free Watching Ellie in 2002. Louis-Dreyfus would continue to remain one of the most beloved comedic actresses in TV, starring on The New Adventures of Old Christine, and the political satire Veep.

Trivia: Mention the name of actor Michael Richards and it immediately conjures up images of Cosmo Kramer, the wild-haired, well-meaning neighbor-from-hell on the long-running NBC sitcom Seinfeld. But though Kramer is the role for which Richards is best known, it would be unfair to categorize him as a one-note actor, for he had already established a solid career as a comic character actor before landing the role in 1989. A native of Van Nuys, CA, Richards was raised by his mother Phyllis Richards, a medical records librarian. His father, William Richards, an electrical engineer, died when Richards was a toddler. His mother raised him in Culver City, one of L.A.'s centers for movie and television production. When Richards was in the eighth grade, he developed a passion for acting that blinded him to almost all other career options. After high school, he aspired to become a dramatic actor and enrolled in the theater program at Valley College in California. There, however, it quickly became apparent that Richards' genius lay not in drama, but in comedy (he credits his mother for his sense of humor). He did not graduate and was drafted by the Army. After serving two years in Germany, he returned to attend the California Institute of the Arts. He did not earn a degree, however, until he attended Washington State's alternative school, Evergreen State College. After graduating, he returned to Los Angeles and began performing in comedy clubs. In those days, he specialized in a blend of surrealist and zany comedy. He had worked the standup circuit for less than a year when he was tapped by the ABC network to appear in their new sketch series Fridays. Though derided as a direct rip-off of NBC's more successful Saturday Night Live, the show ran from 1980 to 1982. The year the show was cancelled is the year Richards made his feature film debut, in Garry Marshall's comedy Young Doctors in Love (1982). Though Richards subsequently never lacked for work in features and television, he remained relatively obscure until fellow Fridays castmate Larry David called to offer him a part in The Seinfeld Chronicles, a show he had recently developed with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. After a rocky start, the show was renamed Seinfeld and given a regular timeslot. Richard's character Kramer was based on one of David's friends. It took the actor a few episodes to develop his kooky alter ego, but once he did the results were dazzling, garnering Richards a trio of Emmys for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Playing Kramer was not always easy for him. In many ways a classic slapstick character, the role's physical demands often exhausted Richards, who also suffered the underlying stress of becoming typecast. Fortunately, the fame accorded him for his television work provided him the opportunity to stretch out on the big screen, as he did in Diane Keaton's Unstrung Heroes (1995). In 1997, Richards received top billing for the first time in Trial and Error, which co-starred Jeff Daniels. In November of 2006, a high profile, on stage meltdown at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles found Richards labeled a racist for repeatedly screaming "the 'N' word" at a pair of hecklers, and despite a quick apology on Late Night With David Letterman and discussions with leaders in the black community, it appeared Richards had irreparably damaged his reputation. In 2007 Richards retired from stand-up comedy, though his old friend David gave him a shot at a small screen comeback with a brief recurring role on his hit HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Trivia: Encouraged by better-than-average success as a stage performer in such plays as Mister Roberts and The Seven Year Itch, American actor Rance Howard decided to try his luck in Hollywood. Talent, however, meant less than star appeal in Tinseltown, thus Howard was confined to small roles which took only minimal advantage of his abilities. Howard's wife Jean was also an actress, but retired to raise their son Ron (both mother and child appeared in the 1956 Western Frontier Woman). Ron was photogenic enough to attain supporting parts on various TV shows and films, leading to a regular role as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Those cynics who believe that Rance Howard forced his son into acting in order to create a meal ticket are referred to a well-known anecdote concerning the earliest years of the Griffith program. Little Ron decided to test his value by throwing a temper tantrum -- whereupon Rance took the boy aside, gave him a spanking, and told his son that if he didn't want to act like a professional he'd have to go home and forget about acting. While Rance certainly did not rely on Ron's fame alone to get work (he remained a busy stage actor), it is true that Ron recommended his dad for supporting roles in such films as The Music Man (1962) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), both of which featured the younger Howard. When child star Ronny Howard became A-list film director Ron Howard in the '80s he continued casting both dad Rance and younger brother Clint Howard in Splash (1984) and other films. Rance Howard remained a reliable general purpose actor well into the 2000s.

Trivia: Brenda Strong's offscreen name might not immediately register with Seinfeld fans, but they will immediately identify the character actress after learning that she played the grating Sue Ellen Mischke, one of Elaine Benes's thorn-in-the-flesh nemeses, on that seminal American sitcom. Actually, Strong's television-heavy resumé reads like a best-of prime-time series list -- including not only Seinfeld, but Ally McBeal, Nip/Tuck, Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven, and others. Strong remains best known, however, for her pivotal contribution to Desperate Housewives as the ill-fated Mary Alice Young, a social-climbing hausfrau who commits suicide in the opening episode of the program, and then hangs around (in a regular voice-over) to offer acerbic observations from the afterlife about her backstabbing earthbound friends. Once Desperate Housewives ended in 2012, Strong joined the continuation of the series Dallas, playing Ann Ewing, Bobby's wife.In addition to her television work, Strong also landed bit parts in such features as Spaceballs (1987), The Craft (1996), and Starship Troopers 2 (2004). In 2009 she appeared in Melora Hardin movie You. Strong hosted a series of exercise videos in the early 2000s as well, among them Yoga 4 Fertility (2001) and Yoga 4 Partners (2002).

Trivia: Versatile American character actor Wayne Knight has been frequently on stage, screen and television since the late 1970s. In the early '80s, he temporarily left acting (after appearing over 1,000 times in the play Gemini) to become a private detective. In 1986, Knight returned to film in The Sex O'Clock News. He has worked with a number of distinguished directors including Oliver Stone, Kenneth Branagh and Steven Spielberg playing roles ranging from comics to villains. On television, he is best known for playing the oily, self-serving postman Newman on the long-running sitcom Seinfeld, and Officer Don on the outworldly comedy Third Rock From the Sun.

Trivia: Actor John O'Hurley's stately voice and brilliant silver mane have earned him many notable roles, but the one he's perhaps best known for is the quirky J. Peterman on the hit sitcom Seinfeld. Playing the real man behind the iconic catalogue full of exotic items supposedly discovered by the world-traveling adventurer, O'Hurley became such a hit with fans in the small role that the character became a regular part of the series. O'Hurley's other roles have included everything from family movies to erotic thrillers, and his interests outside of acting are varied as well. He's received classical training in voice and piano, he works in the non-profit sector to raise money for epilepsy research, and after his lauded appearance on Seinfeld, he was offered the chance to buy a portion of the real J. Peterman Company, which had been in a serious financial slump, but turned a new profit the year after O'Hurley came on board.In 2005, O'Hurley competed in the first season of the hit series Dancing with the Stars and, along with his partner Charlotte Jørgensen, was the runner up in a very close finale. Controversy arose because he was so popular with the public that many fans felt the competition had been rigged in favor of the official winner, soap star Kelly Monaco. O'Hurley won the resulting dance-off, earning over a hundred thousand dollars for the charity Golfers Against Cancer. Then in 2006, he took over hosting duties for the game show Family Feud, which was beginning its 30th year on television. O'Hurley has also appeared in numerous stage productions, including the Las Vegas production of the Monty Python musical Spamalot, for which he took on the the starring role of King Arthur.

Trivia: Richard Herd was a busy character actor for 20 years, mostly playing tough cops, ruthless corporate executives, and murderous villains in everything from topical dramas to science fiction thrillers before he became a comedy star in the 1990s, thanks to the series Seinfeld. A stage actor of long experience, he has received awards for his theatrical work, most notably The Couch With Six Insides, which he co-produced and which garnered an Obie. Herd began appearing on television in the early '60s, in commercials, for Newport cigarettes and other products, which frequently had a comic side to them, but it was in harder and heavier roles in movies and television that he was best known in the 1970s and 1980s: Captain Sheridan in the police show T.J. Hooker; villains in Scarecrow and Mrs. King and numerous other hour-long dramas; tough executives and military officers on M*A*S*H and other series; and as the alien leader John in the NBC miniseries V. His portrayal of ruthless power company executive Evan McCormack in the feature film The China Syndrome left Herd typed as a heavy for years, which didn't prevent him from giving memorable performances in series such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and feature films like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In the 1990s, however, his flair for comedy also came to the fore with his portrayal of Mr. Wilhelm, George Costanza's high-pressure boss at the New York Yankees, which earned him an award from the Screen Actors Guild. He has also appeared in series such as E.R. and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and has a growing legion of fans in the field of science fiction from his work on Star Trek: Voyager.

Trivia: Raised in Woodland Hills, CA, and the son of a hearing aid specialist who worked in geriatrics and a full-time housewife, Garrett began performing stand-up at various Los Angeles Comedy Clubs upon graduation from high school. Spending six weeks at UCLA before his fateful appearance on the Tonight Show, the young comedian later felt the wrath of that show's grudge after telling a joke that the talent booker had warned him against. Garrett has since never been invited back. Nevertheless he continued on strongly, opening for Frank Sinatra and soon finding roles in such popular television shows as Roseanne, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Seinfeld, and perhaps most famously, Everybody Loves Raymond. Offering his voice to numerous animated features since his breakout in the early '80s, Garrett voice acted in family films like Casper (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Ratatouille, Tarzan II, Garfield, Tangled, and Finding Nemo. Garrett has also appeared in several movies, like Music and Lyrics, The Pacifier, and Night at the Museum.

Trivia: British character actor, onscreen from the late '60s.