Trivia: Tony-nominated, Drama Desk award-winning actress Anna Kendrick got her start on the stage before segueing into film with roles in the Todd Graff musical comedy Camp and Spellbound director Jeffrey Blitz's post-Napoleon Dynamite teen misfit comedy Rocket Science. Cast in the latter as the love interest of a stuttering high-school student seeking to steady his voice by joining the debate team, Kendrick charmed viewers with her effervescent radiance before taking the lead as a teen desperately searching for her missing best friend in cinematographer-turned-director Nathan Hope's 2007 thriller Elsewhere. Later that same year, Kendrick could be seen opposite Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman in director Todd Louiso's arrested-development comedy The Marc Pease Experience. In 2008 she landed a recurring part in the highly successful Twilight series, but her real breakthrough came in 2009 with her Oscar-nominated turn opposite George Clooney in Up in the Air. In 2010 she appeared in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and a year later she earned strong reviews playing a psychiatrist counseling a young cancer victim in 50/50. In 2012 she was in the ensemble pregnancy comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting, lent her voice to the animated film ParaNorman, and scored a huge hit with the a capella comedy Pitch Perfect.

Trivia: The daughter of longtime screen actor Ernie Lively and the junior member of a showbiz-savvy sibling collective that also includes brothers Jason and Eric and sisters Lori and Robyn, Tarzana, CA native Blake Lively possesses just the kind of wholesome good looks that the Hollywood lens seems to love. Of course, it wouldn't take a psychic to figure out what line of work the cheery and clean-cut blonde would go for, and even after suffering an early career setback at a Mrs. Doubtfire audition gone bad, Lively was still determined to persevere. It was at the tender age of five that young Lively first had her shot at the big time, and though her parents' plan to calm her by telling her that she was only going to be auditioning alongside Robin Williams' twin bizarrely backfired when the aspiring actress was introduced to the real deal, she would later bounce back around the end of the 1990s with a featured performance in the girlish hit The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. A family affair was quick to follow when Lively and fellow family members Robyn, Lori, and Ernie were all tormented by Crispin Glover in the 2006 horror film Simon Says. Also that year, the recently graduated high-school student would venture off to college with her role as the ideal object of a creative-thinking loser's affections in Accepted. In 2007 she landed her breakout role as Serena on the popular TV series Gossip Girl. She returned for the Traveling Pants sequel in 2008, and had a crucial part in Ben Affleck's well-reviewed crime drama The Town. She was cast in Green Lantern in 2010, and two years later she would be part of Oliver Stone's gritty crime film Savages. Lively then took a short break from acting, returning in 2015's The Age of Adaline.

Trivia: Son of an English father and a Malaysian mother.When he was 8, his family moved to Surrey, England.Worked as a hairdresser in London.Moved back to Malaysia at the age of 21, where he became a travel host.Before getting married, he went in the wilderness of Borneo to attain his bejalai, the Iban rite of passage into manhood, which he documented for the television series Surviving Borneo.

Trivia: Enrolled in his first theater class at age 9 and performed in his first show at age 11. Started his professional career by doing voice-over work in various video games and cartoons, including Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Had replacement roles in the Broadway productions of Hairspray and Jersey Boys before landing one of the lead roles in the original Broadway cast of The Book of Mormon. Researched his role in The Book of Mormon by meeting with some missionaries. Was cast in Girls after the producers attended the opening night of The Book of Mormon and then asked him to audition for the role of Elijah.

Trivia: Don't let actress Jean Smart's filmography fool you, because though she seems to have a penchant for appearing in fairly light-hearted fare of the family-oriented variety, she possesses all the skill of the most talented dramatic stage and screen actresses around. Unafraid to take the sort of risks necessary to keep her career and her personal life in fair balance, fans balked when Smart left television's hugely popular Designing Women while the series was in its prime, though her subsequent performances have found her sound judgment well justified. A Seattle native who received her B.A. from the University of Washington, it wasn't long before Smart was taking the stage at the 1975 Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Relocating to New York City, Smart's performance in the off-Broadway play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove earned the emerging actress a Drama Desk nomination. Her performance in the Broadway production of Piaf found Smart heading to Hollywood to tape the play for PBS, and it wasn't long before she began appearing in such films as Protocol (1984) and Project X (1987). A pivotal moment came when Smart was cast in the television series Designing Women; following the show's premier in 1986 she would remain a member of the cast until the 1991 season. It was while on that series that friend and fellow castmate Delta Burke set Smart up on a date with actor Richard Gilliland, whom Smart would later wed. The birth of their son Conner prompted Smart to reassess her career; though she would soon depart from Designing Women, she would continue to act in such efforts as the television feature Locked Up: A Mother's Rage (1991) and Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story (1992), in which she essayed the role of America's most notorious female serial killer. As the 1990s progressed Smart became something of a television fixture, and performances in The Yearling (1994) and A Change of Heart (1998) found her career continuing to flourish. Roles in such features as Disney's The Kid and Snow Day (2000) found Smart ever more associated with family-friendly fare, an association which she would continue to embrace with a role in the 2002 Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible. Other series in which Smart appeared included Hercules, Frasier, and The Oblongs; and in 2003 Smart teamed with her husband for the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Audrey's Rain.In 2004, Smart joined the cast of the bittersweet romantic comedy Garden State, and made a brief appearance in I Heart Huckabees during the same year. In 2006, Smart was earned nominations for two Emmy awards (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series) for her turn as the mentally fragile First Lady of the United States, whom she portrayed in the fifth season of 24. The actress wouldn't win an Emmy, however, until 2008, when she took home the coveted award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the sitcom Samantha, Who?. Smart played another mother in the film adaptation of C.D. Payne's novel Youth in Revolt in 2009, and took on the role of Hawaii Governor Pat Jameson for Hawaii Five-0, the CBS remake of the popular 1970s police procedural of the same name.

Trivia: Of Indian descent, her parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s from Hyderabad, Telangana, India.Both of her parents are doctors.Was accepted into the United States Military Academy but didn't attend.Performed onstage for the first time on her 20th birthday.Moved back to Washington, D.C., after graduating from college, then moved to Los Angeles and finally arrived in New York.Was included in Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch for 2016.

Trivia: After studying at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts, Rupert Friend made his big-screen debut with the supporting role of Downs in the 2004 historical drama The Libertine. Art house films would prove to be a good niche for the actor, and he subsequently made waves with roles in The Moon and the Stars and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Friend then scored an even bigger break when he was cast as the title role in the 2009 Stephen Frears film Chéri. He followed that up as the male lead in the period piece The Young Victoria. He directed the short film Steve in 2010, and starred in the war drama 5 Days of War. Friend joined the Showtime hit Homeland in season 2, playing Peter Quinn, a CIA operative.

Trivia: Taught and performed at Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Was a member of The Groundlings sketch comedy troupe. Her first onscreen gig was in Sweet Home Alabama in 2002, but her scenes were cut. Was a recurring guest-star on the NBC sitcom Go On before being upped to a series regular for the back half of the first season.

Trivia: Though sharp-eyed Game Show Channel fanatics may recall her from her fireplace-winning stint on The Price Is Right or her appearance on Family Feud, pretty actress Linda Cardellini may be most affectionately known among her fans for her memorable early role as conflicted high school student Lindsay Weir on the short-lived television series Freaks and Geeks. Born in June of 1975 in Redwood, CA, Cardellini became fascinated with acting when asked to sing in a school play at the age of ten. Soon dedicating all of her spare time to stage productions and acting classes during her tenure at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, CA, the young actress received her first television role when she was cast as a student at the ominously named Edgar Allen Poe High School in the creepy kids show Bone Chillers (1996). Feature roles followed shortly thereafter, with Cardellini appearing in such films as Good Burger the following year, and alongside future Freaks and Geeks cast mate (and future love interest) Jason Segel in Dead Man on Campus (1998). Later turning up as a teen tormented by a sadistic Dee Snyder in Strangeland, Cardellini appeared in small roles in a few other small-screen productions before finding herself in the studious but free-thinking shoes of her Freaks and Geeks alter-ego. Examining the flip side of the Beverly Hills 90210 beautiful and privileged teen set, the smart show had a solid cast, insightful writing, and a dedicated following. Unfortunately, it was canceled after less than 20 episodes. Following with supporting roles in The Prince and the Surfer (1999), Legally Blonde, and The Unsaid (both 2001), Cardellini's rising popularity contributed to her largest feature, that of the brainy super sleuth Velma in the live-action adaptation of the beloved animated mainstay Scooby-Doo. She joined the cast of the long-running NBC medical drama E/R in2003, and had one of her most-high-profile successes in 2005 when she appeared in the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain. She lent her voice to the short-lived animated series The Goode Family in 2009, and the next year she acted in James Gunn's Super. In 2011 she appeared in Kill the Irishman, and was part of the voice cast of All-Star Superman.

Trivia: A native of Yellow Knife, Northwest Territories, clean-cut Canadian actor Dustin Milligan gamely established himself as a Hollywood presence during the mid- to late 2000s. As one interested in drama from a tender age, Milligan initially moved to Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada's premier film community), where he signed with the agency Lucas Talent; by 2004, however, he transitioned to Hollywood and began signing for bit parts in projects including the feature Perfect Romance and the docudrama telemovie Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution (based on the infamous Scott Peterson homicide case). Milligan maintained a much higher profile as Henry Rader, the son of framed and threatened Washington, D.C., district attorney Paul Rader (Donnie Wahlberg) on the CW network's short-lived thriller series Runaway (2006); following a small supporting role in director Jon Kasdan's feature In the Land of Women (2007), Milligan signed on to play Southern California high school student Ethan Ward in the Beverly Hills 90210 spinoff series 90210 (2008). In the years to come, Milligan would find ongoing success in movies like Extract, Repeaters, and The Campaign.

Trivia: Is of Vietnamese descent. Is the youngest of five siblings. Was raised in Ohio, into a rural conservative community, and said that much of her humor is inspired by growing up there. It wasn't until college that it occurred to her to perform on stage, thanks to a friend. Admitted that used to deal with internalized transphobia by making jokes about her sexuality. Came out as transgender by the time she finished college. Saved money by working in customer service for Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic before moving to New York in 2015 to pursue comedy full-time. Gained popularity after her appearance on The Tonight Show, when she discussed President Donald Trump's trans military ban.

Trivia: Best known for Connor Undercover and Repo Men (2010).

Trivia: Won the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. Released her self-titled debut album in 2005. Performed as Eponine in a 2013 Toronto production of Les Miserables; she later joined the 2014 Broadway revival cast of the show, acting in the ensemble and as an understudy for Eponine and Fantine. Won a 2014 Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in Theatre/Opera for her performance in Les Miserables.