Trivia: Georgia native Omari Hardwick spent his formative years interested mainly in football, playing as a defensive back for the Furman Purple Paladins, and later for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. It was at UG where Hardwick first took an interest in acting, studying his craft in school and acting in a local theater troupe. Hardwick eventually moved to New York to act on Broadway, and later relocated to L.A. to pursue more on-camera roles. His big break came in 2004, when he was cast in Spike Lee's Sucker Free City, and within a few years, Hardwick was regularly appearing on the drama Saved. He stayed with the show for a season, and later made waves with a starring role in another Spike Lee project, 2008's Miracle at St. Anna. This soon led to a comedic turn in the crime comedy Next Day Air and the action comedy Kick Ass. He co-starred with Dylan McDermott in TNT's television series Dark Blue, in which he played a newlywed struggling to balance married liife with a demanding career in law enforcement (2009-2011), and took on a small role in the critically claimed musical drama Sparkle in 2012.

Trivia: So elegant and striking that she deservedly won Ebony magazine's Celebrity Beauty of the Month designation in January 2004 -- with the asset of outstanding dramatic instincts -- actress Sharon Leal achieved stardom in the early 2000s with her multi-season portrayal of no-nonsense schoolteacher Marilyn Sudor on David E. Kelley's groundbreaking small-screen drama Boston Public. The daughter of a Filipino military policeman and an African-American homemaker, raised by a succession of stepfathers, Leal graduated from Roosevelt School of the Arts in Fresno, CA, in 1990, and subsequently landed two ongoing dramatic roles, on the daytime soap Guiding Light and the prime-time UPN drama Legacy (1998). The Public role arrived two years after that, with Leal cast in the program from its inception; after the series folded, the actress segued into movie roles, with turns in the smash musical Dreamgirls (2006) and Tyler Perry's comedy drama Why Did I Get Married? (2007). She had prominent roles in Soul Man, the sequel to Why Did I Get Married, and in Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day.

Trivia: Best known for his role as Warrick Brown, the detective with a marked predilection for risk (and an ongoing gambling addiction), on CBS's blockbuster series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the easygoing, congenial, and memorably handsome African-American actor Gary Dourdan has built his life and his public image around uniqueness and originality. Six foot two inches tall, green-eyed, sporting bushy yet sculpted dreadlocks, and straddling the worlds of drama and avant-garde music, Dourdan commented to Ebony magazine, "I've always tried to be unconventional as much as I possibly could...one thing I'm trying to do with my career and with my craft is to blur the lines between what people think African-Americans should play and what I'm doing. I'm not much into fads and fashions and trying to follow things."Born December 11, 1966, in Philadelphia, PA, as the son of Robert and Sandy Durdin (his actual surname), the adolescent Dourdan attended "Freedom Theater," an inner-city program for aspiring actors, during adolescence. Success in this venue prompted him to travel to Manhattan on a weekly basis for musical training and dramatic auditions. Dourdan landed his "big break" as an actor in the early '90s, seemingly without even trying. While dating fashion model Roshumba Williams around 1991 and vacationing with her in France, Dourdan was spotted by powerhouse Debbie Allen, then the producer and director of A Different World; impressed by his looks and manner, she invited him to audition for the series. He played Shazza Zulu, the resident "con man" of Hillman College -- a role he sustained through the end of 1992 (for less than one season), before moving on to new endeavors. Dourdan debuted onscreen inauspiciously, with a bit part as the Second Cartel Man in Weekend at Bernie's II. Additional roles included that of a copy guy in Ron Howard's The Paper (1994), Christie in Alien Resurrection, and Yates in the Andy Wilson-directed medical thriller Playing God (1997). In 2000, Dourdan landed his biggest break with the CSI role, for executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer -- and (when the program instantly shot up to number one) continued the part as the series progressed. The same year that he signed with Bruckheimer and company, Dourdan played Malcolm X in the telemovie Muhammad Ali: King of the World. As mentioned, Dourdan is also a prolific alternative musician (with solo albums to his credit) and a record producer. He married African-American model Williams in 1992; the couple divorced two years later. He has two children, a son, Lyric, and a daughter, Nyla (the daughter of Jennifer Sutton, whom Dourdan dated from 1995 to 2000). He voiced the character of Detective Crispus Allen in 2008's Batman: Gotham Knight, and took on a supporting role as a chef in Jumping the Broom (2011).

Trivia: African American leading lady Lynn Whitfield made her film bow in 1983's Dr. Detroit. Three years later, the Louisiana born and bred Whitfield played the title character in the fact-based TV movie Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, the story of the first black female FBI agent. After gaining recognition for her work in a number of TV dramas, including The Women of Brewster Place (1990), Whitfield won an Emmy award and international acclaim for her starring performance in the HBO biopic The Josephine Baker Story in 1991. Whitfield subsequently split her efforts between TV and film, doing particularly strong work in Kasi Lemmons' much-feted Eve's Bayou (1997) as a family matriarch struggling with her husband's infidelity. In 1999, she earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for her work in Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding, a 1950s drama in which she was cast as the wealthy mother of a young woman (Halle Berry) intent on marrying a poor white musician.

Trivia: Appeared on the television talent showcase Star Search at the age of 7. With the help of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star Will Smith, released her debut album Kiss the Sky in 1998. Toured worldwide with *NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys. Was a spokesperson for the Millennium Momentum Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding youth education. Won back-to-back NAACP Image Awards in 2011 and 2012 for her work on The Young and the Restless. Hosted the United Negro College Fund's nationwide Empower Me tour in 2010.

Trivia: African-American supporting player Richard T. Jones boasts a resumé exhibiting the genre versatility of the most gifted character actors. Jones made his first significant onscreen appearance in 1993, with a bit part as Ike Turner Jr. in the harrowing drama What's Love Got to Do With It? He then branched out into supporting roles in such pictures as the military comedy Renaissance Man, the goofy Pauly Shore yuck-fest Jury Duty, the sci-fi horror film Event Horizon, and the psychological thrillers Kiss the Girls (1997) and Twisted (2004). In addition, Jones played Officer Clement Johnson on the short-lived cop drama Brooklyn South in the late '90s. The actor was particularly memorable in his regular role opposite Amy Brenneman on the legal drama series Judging Amy (1999-2005), as Court Services officer Bruce Van Exel. After taking appearing in multiple episodes of the sitcom Girlfriends as Aaron and in supporting roles in films such as Why Did I Get Married? and Vantage Point, Jones scored a regular part on the hit sci-fi series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, playing FBI agent James Ellison, who is constantly on the hunt for the fugitive Sarah Connor. He also appeared in J. J. Abrams 2011 Spielberg homage Super 8.

Trivia: Character actor Bill Cobbs began his acting career relatively late in life after working odd jobs in Cleveland, OH. At the age of 36, he moved to New York and joined the Negro Ensemble Company, making his Broadway debut in First Breeze of Summer. His film career started in the late '70s with small film roles and guest appearances on television. In the early '80s, he worked on several performances for the NBC Live Theatre series and a PBS anthology with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Usually cast as the token old black man dispensing words of wisdom, Cobbs' weathered-yet-honest looks got him several guest spots on TV shows from Good Times to The West Wing. He did end up with a few reoccurring roles on sitcoms like The Slap Maxwell Story, The Gregory Hines Show, and The Michael Richards Show. He even had a part in The Others, the NBC sci-fi drama answer to The X-Files. Perhaps his most memorable television appearance is his role as Regina Taylor's father on I'll Fly Away as well as in the TV movie version I'll Fly Away: Then and Now. Throughout his film career, he has built a long list of credits playing kindly fathers, grandfathers, and even Moses (in The Hudsucker Proxy). He was Whitney Houston's manager in The Bodyguard, an old man in New Jack City, and Grandpa Booker in The People Under the Stairs. Though he appears in nearly all genres of Hollywood films, he occasionally gets meatier roles in made-for-TV dramas like Carolina Skeletons, Nightjohn, and Always Outnumbered. In 2002, he played wisened elders in Sunshine State, Enough, and Sweet Deadly Dreams.

Trivia: Darrin Dewitt Henson established himself as a film and television mainstay during the 2000s, deftly and effectively juggling onscreen acting roles and dance performances with off-camera choreographic work. Henson made his first strong impression on American television, as one of the main characters (Lem) on the domestic comedy series Soul Food (2000-2004), then emceed a popular dance-themed instructional video (the 2001 Darrin's Dance Grooves, followed by a sequel in 2007), and moved swiftly into features. More high-profile projects included director Russ Parr's showbiz drama The Last Stand (2006), the blockbuster urban teen movie/dance film Stomp the Yard (2007), and Gary Fleder's inspirational sports drama The Express (2008, in which he portrayed football player Jim Brown). Henson also appeared in a recurring role on the TV family drama Lincoln Heights as Ruben (2007-2008). As a choreographer, Henson worked with a myriad of superstars including Britney Spears, *NSYNC, and Jennifer Lopez.