Trivia: An actress who has been noted equally for her talent and beauty, Sanaa Lathan first caught the attention of critics and audiences alike in a series of witty, thought-provoking late-'90s films about the lives of young African-Americans. Featured prominently in such ensemble pieces as The Best Man and The Wood (both 1999), Lathan won her first starring role in Gina Prince-Bythewood's widely acclaimed Love & Basketball (2000), playing a talented basketball player who finds her professional dreams complicated by her relationship with her boyfriend and her own expectations of herself. Lathan's work in the film, along with her performance that same year in Prince-Bythewood's HBO movie Disappearing Acts, announced the actress as a charismatic new talent to watch. Born on October 19, 1971, Lathan -- whose first name is Swahili for "work of art" -- was the second oldest of five children born to Broadway actress and dancer Eleanor McCoy and director/producer Stan Lathan. Surrounded by show business since day one, Lathan began training in dance and gymnastics at an early age. Following her parents' divorce, she grew up shuttling between her mother's home in New York and Los Angeles, where her father lived. During her undergraduate education at UC Berkeley, where she studied English and toyed with the idea of becoming a lawyer, Lathan became involved with the Black Theater Workshop. Thanks in part to her stage experiences with the Workshop, she was encouraged to try out for the Yale School of Drama, where she was ultimately accepted.Following her training at Yale, where she performed in a number of Shakespeare's plays, Lathan earned acclaim both off-Broadway and on the Los Angeles stage. Encouraged by her father to make L.A. her professional base, the young actress found early TV work on episodes of such shows as Family Matters, NYPD Blue, and Moesha. During that same period, she won raves and a Best Actress nod from the Los Angeles NAACP Theatrical Award Committee for her performance in To Take Arms.In 1998, Lathan earned a degree of big-screen recognition with her role as the mother of Wesley Snipes' title character in Blade. She followed this the subsequent year with back-to-back turns in The Best Man and The Wood. The former was a comedic ensemble piece starring Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau Jr., and Monica Calhoun, and featured Lathan as Diggs' girlfriend; while the latter, another ensemble piece starring Diggs, Omar Epps, and Richard T. Jones, cast her as the love interest of Epps, who also happened to be her real-life boyfriend. In 1999, Lathan played yet another girlfriend, this time Eddie Murphy's, in Ted Demme's comedy Life. Lathan and Epps were reunited onscreen in Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball, this time playing a couple as passionate about basketball as they are about each other. The widely lauded film served as a break-out role for Lathan, who was finally able to play a leading character instead of the girlfriend of one. Her work in Love & Basketball earned her Best Actress nominations for both the N.A.A.C.P. Image Award and the Independent Spirit Award. That same year, Lathan earned additional acclaim for her work in the multicultural comedy Catfish in Black Bean Sauce and for her second collaboration with Prince-Bythewood, Disappearing Acts. Based on a novel by Terry McMillan, the HBO movie cast Lathan as an aspiring singer/songwriter in love with a carpenter, played by her Blade co-star Wesley Snipes. For her work in the film Lathan earned an Essence Award for Best Actress, as well as the added assurance of a very busy work schedule.

Trivia: A native of Silver Spring, MD, suave and clean-cut actor Michael Ealy appeared on-camera from the late '90s. He began on the small screen, with guest appearances on network programs including Law & Order and ER, but scored his breakout role with a much-favored turn as Ricky Nash, a convict-in-the-running with several past charges against him, in the predominantly African American ensemble comedies Barbershop (2002) and Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004). The billing in these projects was somewhat prescient: Ealy continued to take challenging and unique supporting roles and gradually worked his way up the Hollywood ladder, openly declaring himself in no hurry to become a top-billed star. Additional projects included the action sagas 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and S.W.A.T. (2003) and the psychological thriller November (2003), but Ealy netted much greater acclaim -- and flexed some impressive dramatic muscle -- with his portrayal of Teacake in the Oprah Winfrey-produced telemovie Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005). He then landed the incredibly demanding and edgy lead role of Darwyn Al-Sayeed, a terrorist plotting an attack on the United States, in the Showtime original miniseries Sleeper Cell (2005). In 2008, Ealy starred opposite Will Smith and Rosario Dawson in the earnest suicide drama Seven Pounds, directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness). Ealy took on a leading role as a Bishop hiding in a small Italian village that opposes the Nazi cause in Spike Lee's acclaimed war drama Miracle at St. Anna (2008), and co-starred with Julianna Margulies and Michael J. Fox in the CBS television series The Good Wife the following year. In 2010 he played a supporting role in the crime thriller Takers, and starred in the romantic comedy Think Like a Man in 2010.

Trivia: Morris Chestnut's career makes a case for the argument that for the bulk of the '90s, there simply were not enough good roles for talented African-American actors. After making an impressive debut as Ricky in John Singleton's Boyz 'N the Hood, Chestnut spent several years wallowing in television, appearing in made-for-TV movies and doomed series. Chestnut, born in Cerrios, CA, on New Years Day 1969, majored in drama and finance at California State University. Little is known about his personal life. Chestnut admitted in a 2001 interview with Essence.com that he doesn't enjoy giving interviews or discussing his private life, but then let it slip that he is married.Chestnut's first professional acting role was in Boyz 'N the Hood in 1991. He followed that up with roles in various TV movies, as well as a part on Patti LaBelle's short-lived sitcom Out All Night. Chestnut continued to steadily, but he often had only bit parts in throwaway, big-budget films, like 1995's Under Siege 2 or 1997's G.I. Jane. But as the decade ended, movies about young, professional African-Americans and their problems with family and relationships began to fill the cineplexes, creating roles for Chestnut and all the other talented black actors stuck in minor TV and film roles. In 1999, Chestnut starred in The Best Man with Taye Diggs and Nia Long, playing a professional athlete who doesn't know that his soon-to-be wife dallied with his best man -- who is about to release those details in his first novel, a Roman à clef about their time in college. The Best Man earned pretty good reviews, did well at the box office, and even earned Chestnut a NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. He followed it up with The Brothers, another film centering on the themes of fidelity and success among urban professionals. Chestnut joined Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for a supporting role in The Game Plan (2007), a family-oriented sports comedy, and became known for his portrayal of Ryan Nicholas on V, a sci-fi television drama from ABC.

Trivia: Born January 30, 195, Charles Dutton attended the Yale School of Drama, and in 1983 he first appeared off-Broadway in Richard III. Before long he was delivering Tony-calibre performances in such Broadway productions as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson. In films since 1986's No Mercy, the forceful, thunder-voiced Dutton has been seen in movies ranging from the mirth-provoking Crocodile Dundee 2 to the spine-chilling Alien 3. In 1991, Charles Dutton began a long TV run as the star of the Fox Network sitcom Roc.Dutton became an actor while serving a seven and a half-year prison sentence for stabbing a man during a street fight. While in prison, Dutton was stabbed in the neck with an ice pick during a fight with another inmate. The incident proved to be the turning point in Dutton's life when he refused to retaliate. Shortly thereafter, he became interested in drama and while serving his sentence completed a two-year college degree course. Upon his release from prison, Dutton was admitted into the Yale School of Drama. There he studied under playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards.In 2000, Dutton directed The Corner, an acclaimed miniseries from HBO adapted from David Simon and Ed Burns' novel "The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood". The Corner won several awards, including an Emmy for Best Miniseries, and Dutton himself was honored for his direction. This would not be the last Emmy he received; the actor won Emmy Awards in 2002 and 2003 for supporting roles in televisiond dramas The Practice and Without a Trace. In 2003, Dutton starred in the made-for-TV drama D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear, and continued to make appearances on popular television shows including The L Word, The Sopranos, and House, M.D. Dutton joined the cast of Threshold in 2005. While the CBS science fiction series gained a loyal following, the show was short-lived. The actor went on to appear in filmmaker John Sayles' 2007 drama Honeydripper, which follows the owner of a blues club that was revitalized by a young electric guitarist.

Trivia: Born in Arkansas and schooled in Missouri, actress Tess Harper worked hard to shed her Southern accent. Nevertheless, some of her best movies have been set in the American South. Her film breakthrough came in 1983 opposite Robert Duvall in Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies. As compassionate Rosa Lee, she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. After a few TV movies, miniseries, and feature films, she earned an Oscar nomination for her role of cousin Chick in the comedy drama Crimes of the Heart. Also directed by Beresford, the film was based on the play by Beth Henley and starred Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek. In the late '80s, other comedy roles followed in Beresford's Her Alibi and Elaine May's Ishtar. Harper began the next decade with a return to her Southern-style roots. In 1990, she starred in the Southern Gothic black comedy Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got the Will? as a greedy daughter fighting for her family fortune. In the drama My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, she was a sister of a rodeo rider. The actress appeared opposite Sam Waterston in Robert Mulligan's coming-of-age drama The Man in the Moon, also starring fellow Southerner Reese Witherspoon and set in small-town Louisiana. In 1992, Harper played an alcoholic mom in the drama Home Fires Burning, set in Pocohantas, VA. She switched to television for most of the '90s, including based-on-a-true-story dramas like Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story. The TV movie Christy led to a regular role on the CBS dramatic series of the same name, starring Kellie Martin as a schoolteacher in rural Tennessee. In 2000, Harper narrated the CBS TV movie Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, as the older Laura Ingalls Wilder herself.

Trivia: Held in warm regard by Xena-philes for her role as the vulnerable villain Najara in the popular fantasy adventure series Xena: Warrior Princess, actress Kathy Morris sports an impressively eclectic resumé, appearing in everything from television's creepy Poltergeist: The Legacy to such dramatic roles as The Contender (2000).Morris was born in Cincinnati, but grew up traveling constantly and living a Partridge Family-esque existence with her close-knit family/bandmates from the age of five. Though she would spend time in such geographically diverse climates as Brooklyn, TX, and the cold of Connecticut, it was with her early experiences in the spotlight that Morris found the most fulfillment. Seguing into theater after her youthful experiences on the stage, she began to refine her acting skills and soon made the decision to pursue a professional career as an actress. Laboring through countless hours of free work and waitressing in the years she spent launching her career, Morris finally got her break when cast alongside Mark Harmon in the made-for-television film The Long Road Home in 1991. Making her feature debut opposite 15-minute rap sensation Vanilla Ice in Cool as Ice the same year, Morris appeared in more made-for-TV movies (Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All [1994]) and low-budget thrillers (Sleepstalker [1995] and The Prophecy II [1998]) in the following years, Morris began to truly gain momentum in 1997 when she was cast in television's Pensacola: Wings of Gold and the aforementioned Xena: Warrior Princess. Never having been the athletic type, Morris left most of the fantastic swashbuckling of her sympathetic villainess in the physically demanding Xena to stunt doubles. After appearances in The Contender and the nuclear war thriller Deterrence (2000), Morris leapt into her biggest film yet with her role in Steven Spielberg's A.I. (2001). Spielberg also cast her in his next film, 2002's Minority Report, playing Tom Cruise's estranged wife.In 2003, Morris returned to television in the CBS series Cold Case. Playing Philadelphia Detective Lilly Rush, Morris was the lead in the show, which ran for seven seasons. After Cold Case wrapped in 2010, she played the small role of Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt) wife in the Oscar-nominated film Moneyball (2011), but her scenes were ultimately cut from the movie. In 2013, Morris appeared in the Hallmark Channel's TV Movie The Sweeter Side of Life.

Trivia: Unlike some actresses who must work their way up to lead billing, Rutina Wesley started out on top. A native of Las Vegas, Wesley graduated from the University of Evansville, and then landed a coveted spot in the acting program at Juilliard. From there, Sam Mendes (American Beauty) immediately discovered her and tapped her to star opposite Hollywood luminary Julianne Moore in The Vertical Hour on the Great White Way. Wesley kicked off her tenure in film with a lead portrayal of Raya, an ambitious inner-city teen who enters a step-dancing competition to try to raise money for her tuition in director Ian Iqbal Rashid's inspirational drama How She Move (2008), a smash critical and box office success, and one of the best-received films at Sundance 2007. The following year, Wesley signed on to play the aggressive, short-tempered bartender Tara Thornton on the Alan Ball-created HBO vampire drama series True Blood.

Trivia: At 14, ran away from home and took a Greyhound bus to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actor, but his parents tracked him down and sent him to a boarding school in Ireland. After graduating from high school in Omaha, he studied French, art history and theatre in Paris. Was cast as an understudy in the Broadway production of Biloxi Blues. As a 46-year-old training for the lead role in the FX series Lights Out, McCallany fulfilled a lifelong dream to fight in an amateur boxing competition, winning a three-round decision against a German heavyweight.

Trivia: Began acting in local theater productions in Calgary when she was 7. Attended French immersion school through 12th grade. Lived in Calgary until moving to Vancouver in 2006. Traveled extensively while growing up. Considers herself a shopaholic. Is also a professionally trained singer.

Trivia: Gordon Clapp is a supporting actor who began his film career in the late '80s.

Trivia: One of those screen performers whose genial off-center quality practically predestined him to a career as a character actor, Michael Panes graduated from Brown University with a music degree before moving into film. He made one of his earliest impressions as Levi, a violin-toting, self-professed doppelgänger of Peter Sellers (with horn-rimmed glasses) who turns up for a Hollywood get-together in the star-studded ensemble comedy The Anniversary Party (2001). The performer then shifted genres ad extremis to play an oddball analyst -- and the object of a sick patient's delusions -- in Ari Kirschenbaum's mind-bending psycho thriller Fabled. Panes further unveiled his proclivity for offbeat assignments with a seriocomic portrayal of a dorky loser who graduates to the jet set after winning a pile of money on a reality game show, in indie helmer Greg Pritikin's Surviving Eden (2004) (a film he also co-produced), and evoked an early Gore Vidal in Douglas McGrath's Truman Capote biopic Infamous (2005) before re-teaming with that film's co-star, Peter Bogdanovich, for a small supporting turn in the Zoe Cassavetes-directed romantic comedy Broken English (2007).

Trivia: Became interested in acting while in her high school drama club. Made her Broadway debut in 1980 in the Tony-nominated play Home. In 1988, played Bertha Holly in August Wilson's stage production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Won a Helen Hayes Award for her performance as Clemma Diggins in Broadhurst Theatre's production of Proposals in 1998. Was a company member of the Negro Ensemble Company. Won an Obie Award for her performance in Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives. In 2011, was a guest speaker at the Actors' Equity Association's New Member Reception.