Trivia: His role as the cherubic, bespectacled Dilbert-esque everyman on the long-running sitcom The Drew Carey Show has endeared comedian Drew Carey to the downtrodden cubicle-dwelling masses everywhere, making him one of the most beloved and popular characters in '90s and '00s television. However, Carey's massive success didn't come without some harrowing struggles with depression and numerous suicide attempts during his dark and directionless early years. Born and raised in Cleveland, OH, Carey suffered a devastating early blow when his father died of a brain tumor when Carey was only eight years old. Working long overtime hours to provide Drew and his brothers with the best childhood possible, his mother's frequent absence found the depressed youngster spending many nights home alone seeking solitude in cartoons and comedy albums.Upon entering Cleveland's Rhodes High School, Carey spent much of his free time playing coronet and trumpet in the school's marching band. Enrolling in Kent State and joining the Delta Tau Delta fraternity upon graduation, Carey found great difficulty balancing his studies and personal life, with his lack of direction compounding his depression and resulting in another suicide attempt before being expelled twice and dropping out of school with no degree. Subsequent years found the aimless youth drifting across the country with dreams of stability slowly fading from his horizon, but a return to Cleveland resulted in newfound hope when Carey decided to make a last-ditch effort and immerse himself in self-help books. Signing up with the Marine Corps Reserves in 1980 provided Carey with just the discipline that he needed, and following a six-year service and some newly instilled confidence, a close friend working in radio asked Carey to write some jokes to use on-air. Honing his skills and becoming increasingly focused on channeling his energy into humor, Carey took his act to local comedy clubs and, after winning an open-mic contest, began working as emcee at the Cleveland Comedy Club in 1986.The following years found Carey moving frequently between Cleveland and Los Angeles and gaining increasing recognition on the comedy circuits. Offered the rare privilege of joining Johnny Carson on the couch following a 1991 appearance on The Tonight Show proved a career-defining moment, and after a series of HBO specials and television appearances, Carey joined forces with writer/producer Bruce Helford (who had worked on such successful sitcoms as Family Ties and Roseanne), and in 1995 The Drew Carey Show was born. Endearing himself to television audiences with his small-town persona and everyman attitude, The Drew Carey Show quickly became one of the most popular sitcoms on television. Though his success may have been beyond any of his wildest dreams during his clouded formative years, Carey remained loyal to his hometown, always maintaining a level head. Serving as host of the American version of the massively popular British improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? (frequently featuring his Drew Carey Show cohort Ryan Stiles), Carey's small-screen presence increased, and appearances on such television comedy specials as Drew Carey's Improv All Stars and The New York Friar's Club Roast of Hugh M. Hefner (both 2001) ensured audiences that Carey's humor was as sharp and in tune as ever. Aside from his small-screen work, Carey has appeared in such comic features as Coneheads (1993). The September 1997 release of his autobiography, entitled Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined, provided fans with detailed and humorous insight into Carey's sometimes dark past, and emergency angioplasty in mid-2001 found the well-loved comedian going under the knife but making a quick recovery. In the summer of 2007, Carey's emcee experience paid off, as he was named the host of the venerable game show The Price Is Right, replacing much-loved Bob Barker. He also hosted the game show Power of 10, and in 2011 he appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill.

Trivia: An actor whose tall, rangy build and boyish good looks have made him a natural for comic roles, Diedrich Bader was born in Alexandria, VA, on Christmas Eve 1966; his father, William Bader, was Chief of Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the Carter administration, and his mother, Gretta Bader, was a sculptor of note. When Bader was two, he and his family moved to Paris, France, where the boy was exposed to a steady diet of classic American comedies; young Bader was especially fond of Charlie Chaplin, and appeared on-stage for the first time at the age of four, imitating the Little Tramp at a revival theater during an unexpected intermission after a rare Chaplin film jammed in the projector. Bader and his family returned to the United States in time for him to enter high school, and he later attended the North Carolina School for the Arts. While vacationing in Santa Fe, NM, during spring break, Bader met a casting agent who lined up an audition for a small role in a television pilot. Bader ended up winning the leading role instead, and while the pilot never sold, it did prompt Bader to relocate to Los Angeles and begin pursuing an acting career full-time. He began landing guest spots on episodic television shows, including Cheers, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. In 1993, Bader was cast as the Searcher on the television series Danger Theater, a short-lived spoof of action-adventure programs. Penelope Spheeris, who directed the Danger Theater episodes, remembered Bader when casting for her film The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), based on the popular sitcom of the '60s and '70s. Bader won the role of cheerful but slow-witted Jethro Bodine, and his performance was one of the comic highlights of the film. The movie significantly raised Bader's visibility, and in 1995 he was cast as the logically challenged Oswald on The Drew Carey Show. Bader's success on The Drew Carey Show led to notable supporting roles in motion pictures, such as Office Space and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; he also began doing voice work for a number of animated television projects, including Pepper Ann, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Kim Possible. In his private life, Bader married actress Dulcy Rogers in 1998. As his run on The Drew Carey Show continued, he also appeared regularly in feature film such as The Country Bears, Napoleon Dynamite, Eurotrip, and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, as well as animated films like Ice Age and Bolt. In 2010 he landed a recurring role on the short-lived NBC sitcom Outsourced.

Trivia: A master of improvisational comedy, tall, rangy, and rubber-faced, Ryan Stiles is best known for playing comic Drew Carey's best friend in the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show. Born in Seattle, Stiles entered the entertainment industry as a standup comedian in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was not the career his parents had hoped he would choose, but Stiles managed to make a living for a few years. In the mid-'80s, Stiles switched gears and joined the Second City comedy group in Toronto, renowned for its highly topical and fast-paced sketches. There, Stiles grew adept at improvising; in 1990, he transferred to the Los Angeles Second City troupe and, before long, the six-foot, five-inch redhead was working on television and in feature films. He made his film debut in Rainbow War (1986). Stiles' early television credits include guest-starring roles on Parker Lewis Can't Lose and Mad About You. Outside of The Drew Carey Show, he had his greatest success as a regular on the British improvisational series Whose Line Is It, Anyway?, which found an American audience on the Comedy Central cable network. During the show's run (1988-1993), it won four CableACE awards. The show was revised and updated, as a replacement series on ABC, in the summer of 1998. The show was hosted by Drew Carey.

Trivia: Best known for her spate of roles on American prime-time sitcoms, actress Christa Miller grew up in Manhattan. As the daughter of 1960s fashion model Bonnie Trompeter and aeronautical engineer Chuck Miller, and the niece of Love at First Bite star Susan Saint James, Miller overcame a significant physical debilitation as a young child -- the surgical removal of a potentially crippling leg tumor -- before establishing herself as a successful print model during her teens. The transition to acting was a fluid and easy one, and consisted, in the early years, of guest appearances on such programs as Kate & Allie (reportedly without James's involvement; the established actress later insisted that her niece got the job on her own behalf), Northern Exposure, and Seinfeld. Miller achieved full-fledged sitcom stardom in 1995, when comedian Drew Carey tapped her for regular cast billing as Kate O'Brien, his onscreen gal pal, on his blockbuster program The Drew Carey Show. Then, as Carey wound down at the end of the 2000-2001 TV season, Miller snagged another role: that of hospital board member Jordan Sullivan, with whom the main character (Zach Braff) enjoys a brief tryst, on the medically themed sitcom Scrubs (created by Miller's husband, Bill Lawrence). She remained with that program over the course of multiple seasons and struck a chord with audiences. In 2008 she was one of the leads in the remake of The Andromeda Strain, and the next year she was cast in the Courtney Cox series Cougar Town.

Trivia: An actress who debuted as a performer in the early 2000s, Laura Margolis began her career with guest spots on television series including Friends, The Drew Carey Show, Family Law, and Monk. In 2007, she took on a small role on the soapy drama Dirty Sexy Money, playing Daisy, the extremely capable personal assistant of Darling family lawyer Nick George (Peter Krause). Margolis transitioned to features (and undercut her fresh-faced, seemingly innocent image in the process) with a performance in a slasher film -- not as a victim, as might be expected, but one of the aggressors, in Bryan Bertino's horror movie The Strangers (2008).

Trivia: Versatile character actress Kathy Kinney gained considerable popularity in the late '90s for playing Mimi Bobeck, the outrageously made-up, flamboyantly vulgar, and vindictive nemeses of Drew Carey on the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show, but she had been involved with television, feature films, and stage work for years. Fans of the long-running CBS comedy Newhart may remember Kinney for playing Miss Goddard, the town librarian. She started out as an improvisational comedienne, performing in various New York comedy clubs. It was her friend Bill Sherwood who provided her film debut, when he cast Kinney as an artist who throws a going away party for a homosexual friend who has just broken up with his longtime lover in Parting Glances (1986). Armed with this success, Kinney moved to Los Angeles the following year and became a hard-working character actress. Her other film credits include appearances in This Boy's Life (1993), Stanley and Iris (1990), and Three Fugitives (1989).

Trivia: One of Scotland's most acclaimed comedians, Craig Ferguson first became known to American audiences as Nigel Wick, Drew Carey's evil boss on The Drew Carey Show. A fixture of the series from 1995, Ferguson won over film audiences four years later with his portrayal of Crawford Mackenzie, an indefatigable but naïve hairdresser intent on competing in the World Freestyle Hairstyling Competition in the mock-documentary The Big Tease.Originally hailing from Glasgow, Ferguson started out as a musician, but gradually segued into comedy via the stage and television. He earned great popularity as the star of a series of self-titled specials on the BBC, and also received positive notices as the lead of the West End revival of The Rocky Horror Pictures Show and Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, which was staged at the Edinburgh Festival. By the mid-'90s, Ferguson decided it was time to move on, to set his sights on grander schemes, and duly moved to L.A. Upon his arrival, he found himself being forced to masticate a particularly large slab of humble pie, as the charm and wit that had earned him so many fans back home did little but translate to open casting calls and endless auditions in Hollywood. Ferguson's luck began to change when he landed the role of Mr. Wick on The Drew Carey Show and he was able to use his initial hard-luck experiences in L.A. as the basis for The Big Tease, which, in addition to starring in, he wrote and executive produced with Sacha Gervasi. The film, which also starred Frances Fisher and contained a pivotal cameo by Carey, was relatively well-received by critics and enjoyed a fairly successful commercial release.Ferguson followed The Big Tease in 2000 with Saving Grace, which Ferguson also co-wrote and co-produced. He would go on to appear in movies like Trust Me, and lend his voice to animated films like How to Train Your Dragon and Winnie the Pooh, but Ferguson would become best known for his late night talk show, The Late Show with Craig Ferguson, beginning in 2005.

Trivia: Graduated from the College of William and Mary with a degree in economics. Moved shortly after college to Los Angeles to learn comedic improv at the Groundlings Theater. Made his theatrical debut in the United Kingdom in the musical Buddy, where he played the lead role of Buddy Holly and performed for Queen Elizabeth. Originally appeared in the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?; he later moved to become a regular in the US version. Tours through the United States with the improv group called Whose Live Anyway?; the group is made up of him and of his former Whose Line Is It Anyway? cast mates. His son Chase took Esten's Nashville TV daughter Lennon Stella to his senior prom.

Trivia: American actress Nan Martin's first burst of activity was in the late '50s, when TV anthology work abounded. Her film appearances commenced with The Buster Keaton Story in 1957. She remained a busy character actress into the mid '70s, playing such roles as the mother of paralyzed skiier Jill Kinmont (Marilyn Hassett) in The Other Side of the Mountain (1975) and its 1978 sequel. In 1986, Nan Martin had a recurring TV role as typist Grace D'Angelo on the Jeffrey Tambor sitcom Mr. Sunshine.

Trivia: Born in Connecticut, John Ratzenberger spent most of his early adulthood in England and Europe. After a brief stint as assistant to a London tree surgeon, Ratzenberger helped organize the English improvisational troupe "Sal's Meat Market" in 1971. He made his first screen appearances in such British-based productions as The Ritz (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Superman (1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Gandhi (1982). In 1982, Ratzenberger read for the part of post-office employee Norm on the upcoming American TV sitcom Cheers. Sensing that he hadn't won the role (which was true), Ratzenberger asked if the cast of Cheers included the character of "a bar know-it-all." Suddenly he launched into an impromptu ten-minute monologue, posing as an endlessly chattering repository of useless information. Then and there, the character of Cliff Clavin was born--a character Ratzenberger played for the next ten years. A man of many talents, Ratzenberger directed several Cheers episodes, and also co-wrote two British television plays Friends in Space (1978) and Scalped (1979). Tirelessly active in the pro-ecology movement, John Ratzenberger was owner and operator of Eco-Pak, a conservation-conscious packaging firm. Since the demise of Cheers, the actor has resurrected Cliff Clavin in the form of an advertising pitchman and has appeared in many commercials. He has also found success doing voice overs for advertising and voicework in films such as Toy Story (1995) and Dog's Best Friend (1997). Ratzenberger continued to make occasional guest appearances on television series such as Caroline in the City.He maintained a relationship with Pixar after Toy Story and went on to lend his distinctive voice to each of their films through Cars 2 in 2011. He returned to TV to appear in the fourth season of the reality competition series Dancing With the Stars.