Trivia: Multi-talented teen star Nick Cannon was born in San Diego, CA, in 1980. He was introduced to the entertainment industry as a dancer on Soul Train and as a standup comedian in Los Angeles. Like many of his teen-star brethren, Cannon quickly found a home on the Nickelodeon cable channel. During the 1998 season, he joined the cast of the teen sketch comedy show All That. During this time, he could be seen all over the channel, from Snick show host to series writer on Cousin Skeeter and Kenan & Kel. Also a songwriter and rapper, Cannon's cover of "Parents Just Don't Understand" (originally recorded by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince) appeared on the soundtrack to the Nickelodeon animated feature Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. After a few bit parts in the feature films Whatever It Takes and Men in Black II, he got ready to make his media breakthrough in film, television, and music.Cannon's first starring role came in the 2002 musical drama Drumline. He played Devon, a percussionist from Harlem who joins the competitive show-style marching band at Atlanta A & T University. His song "I'm Scared of You" appeared on the soundtrack. The same year, he created The Nick Cannon Show (along the same lines as The Amanda Show for his All That co-star Amanda Bynes). He then gained a lot of exposure with the romantic comedy Love Don't Cost a Thing (with a story borrowed from the '80s romantic comedy Can't Buy Me Love). On the soundtrack, he performs with Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, and Chingy for the song "Shorty (Put It on the Floor)." In December of 2003, he released his self-titled debut album on Jive Records. He collaborated with several big names, including R. Kelly on the hit single "Gigolo." Film projects for 2004 include the feature films Shall We Dance? and The Underclassman. In 2006 Cannon would strap on his rollerskates for the retro-minded comedy drama Roll Bounce, and after appearing alongside an impressive cast of players that included Forest Whitaker, Kelsey Grammer, and Danny DeVito in the gambling drama Even Money, the fast-maturing actor would earn his first voice credit as the titular hopper in The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. His voice well-suited to the world of animation, Cannon would step back into the recording booth to provide the voice for trigger-happy Office Lister in the computer animated family comedy Monster House. Next, Cannon took direction from Emilio Estevez with a role in the actor turn director's Robert F. Kennedy biopic Bobby, before doing a turn in the zombie horror flick Day of the Dead in 2008. Cannon's star would rise considerably the next year, as he not only took on hosting duties of the competitive reality show America's Got Talent, but also married pop star Mariah Carey. The very public couple soon became very public parents to a pair of twins, and soon Cannon's professional life was reflecting his personal life, as he took on a recurring role in the parenthood themed sitcom Up All Night in 2011. After the series ended, Cannon continued to work as a producer, host and occasional actor.

Trivia: A talented young singer/songwriter whose initial rise to fame came in the wake of collaborations with Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez, Christina Milian has -- much like her more famous musical partners -- opted to pursue a career not only on-stage, but onscreen as well. A native of New Jersey, Milian was raised by Cuban immigrant parents in Waldorf, MD. An early role in the popular play Annie seemed the idea vehicle to fuse the youngster's singing talent and acting ambitions, and before she had even reached her teens, Milian had also served as a junior journalist on the Disney Channel's Movie Surfers. Numerous television guest roles were quick to follow, and in 1998, the young actress voiced characters in the popular animated feature A Bug's Life. Subsequent roles in American Pie and The Wood found Milian gaining face time in front of the camera, and in 2001 she landed a prime role as hostess of the popular television series Wannabe -- which was soon followed by the release of her self-titled solo debut album. As her presence on the big screen gained momentum, her musical career exploded when the young songstress teamed with rapper Ja Rule for the breakthrough hit "Between Me and You." Of course, with that kind of exposure it doesn't take long for the phones to start ringing, and soon thereafter Milian was teaming with none other than Jennifer Lopez to pen the hit single "Play." As Milian began production on her second full-length album, she could be seen on the big screen in such high-profile releases as Love Don't Cost a Thing (2003) and Torque (2004).Never one to forsake her musical career simply for the silver screen, Milian keptthe grooves coming with the release of her sophomore album It's About Time in 2004. By this time Milian had grown to be as comfortable in front of the camera as she was in front of the microphone, with roles in 2005's Man of the House and Be Cool somehow managing to keep the laughs coming despite her increasingly crowded schedule. Her 2006 album So Amazin' drawing fair enough reviews from critics, Milian would next take a break from the funny to get her fans screaming in the 2006 horror remake Pulse.

Trivia: A longtime standup comic in addition to his work in television and radio, outspoken funnyman Steve Harvey has time and again proven his dedication to changing the public perception of African-American humor by means of his unique gift for humor. Though his universal truth-style and observant eye have gained Harvey a loyal following with his top-rated show on the WB, Harvey still vocally articulates his frustrations with the racial sliding scale of prime-time success. Harvey grew up in Cleveland and began his career as a standup comedian in the early '90s. With his popularity leading to a long-running stint on television's popular Showtime at the Apollo a few short years later, Harvey's small-screen career was soon on the rise and he next landed a leading role (as well as a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series) in television's Me and the Boys in 1994. With his own series, The Steve Harvey Show, close on the horizon, the comic's influence was gaining even more momentum in addition to a wider audience. And though he would earn four NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for his show, Harvey was quick to point out that that doesn't necessarily entitle him to the perks of a role in a more Caucasian-oriented sitcom. One of four black comics featured in director Spike Lee's The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), Harvey was soon joined in prime time by fellow King Bernie Mac when Mac debuted his own namesake television series in early 2001. In addition to serving as host of KKBT-FM's The Beat, Harvey frequently takes part in speaking engagements in which he stresses the importance of goals and the dangers of drugs to impressionable youths.

Trivia: Best known for his 2005 live-action rendering of the Bill Cosby character Fat Albert on the big screen -- a character he brought to life with the aid of a trusty fat suit and the trademark, "Hey, Hey, Hey!" -- wunderkind comic Kenan Thompson honed his skills as a small fry by entertaining classmates with uproarious comedy routines on the playground in his childhood home of Atlanta. Thompson landed his big break by auditioning at age 15 for All That, a Nickelodeon sketch comedy series that (like The Mickey Mouse Club of years prior) functioned as a kind of unofficial petri dish for burgeoning young talent. Series producer and director Brian Robbins reportedly viewed Thompson's audition, tagged his ability to mimic and his comic timing as "dead-on," and hired the young man on the spot. The young comic wowed Nickelodeon, and network heads not only offered him his own sitcom within a year, co-starring another young schtickmeister, Kel Mitchell, but a network-produced movie, the 1997 Good Burger (also starring Mitchell). Numerous additional film roles ensued, and though Mitchell began with goofy, schtick-heavy comedies (Master of Disguise [2002], My Boss' Daughter [2003]), he periodically revealed an interest in stretching his ability into other genres, such as avant-garde/experimental video (Public Lighting [2004]) and action-saturated horror (Snakes on a Plane [2006]). In 2008, however, Thompson hearkened back to comedy by voicing one of the titular primates in the goofy live-action fantasy Space Chimps. Meanwhile, alongside his film work, Thompson achieved even greater success on the small screen. His debut series, All That, had been conveniently described by more than one critic as "SNL for the small set," and paved the way for Thompson's involvement in the real Saturday Night Live; he joined the SNL cast in 2003.

Trivia: Kal Penn qualifies as one of the very few Indian-American actors of Gujarati heritage working in Hollywood. He was born Kalpen Suresh Modi on April 23, 1977, in Montclair, NJ, to an engineer father and a mother employed as a fragrance sampler for a perfume manufacturer. Modi bravely and intelligently cut against the grain of social expectations as a child, rejecting the prompting of his peers to join the soccer team, and instead joining the school drama team. Though allegedly mocked by classmates for his decision, Penn changed everyone's mind with his performance in a school production of The Wiz, and received a standing ovation for his work in that production -- no mean accomplishment for a beginner. During elementary school and junior high, Modi felt struck, again and again, by the crass Indian stereotypes perpetuated in Hollywood films, specifically in movies such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and 1986's Short Circuit, in which Caucasian actor Fisher Stevens plays the Indian-American Ben Jabituya for comic relief. Quietly vowing to work against this trend, Modi actually spent years attaining the box-office clout to make it happen. After his secondary school education (first at New Jersey's Howell High, then at Freehold Township High), Modi trained intensely as a dramatist on the Manhattan theatrical circuit, then attended UCLA as a drama major in the mid-'90s, and simultaneously started to land television parts right and left, in such series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and Spin City. At about that time, he took the advice of friends and family, and -- though initially reluctant to do so -- anglicized his name, changing it to Kal Penn. As a result, he later reported, job offers escalated by 50 percent.Penn made his feature debut coming in the 1999 culture-clash drama Freshmen. A supporting role in the independent romantic comedy American Desi (2001) quickly followed -- ironically, an exploration of race and identity, about an Indian-American boy, Krishna (Deep Katdare), who moves away from home and changes his name to Kris to disguise his ethnicity, but finds himself saddled with several roommates of like heritage. Penn plays Ajay, an Indian student who has immersed himself in black ("Afrocentric") behavior. The film received extremely limited U.S. theatrical bookings in the spring of 2001 and fair reviews from the critics who saw it. Penn then jointed the cast of the Animal House-cloned gross-out farce National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), about a seventh-year senior (Ryan Reynolds) threatened by his father's (Tim Matheson) decision to cut off his seemingly unlimited allowance. Widely drubbed as unfunny, the picture did embarrassing box office and opened and closed in one month, but its A-list issue nonetheless gave Penn (who plays Van's Indian friend, Taj Mahal Badalandabad) with his highest-profile exposure to date. Penn's onscreen activity escalated meteorically from 2003 through 2006, with the young actor averaging around seven or eight first-run features per year, and ascending to higher and higher credit billings. Most notably, he co-starred as Kumar (alongside fellow Gen-Xer John Cho) in 2004's stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, a surprise sleeper hit (and recipient of many enthusiastic notices) about two buddies, an Asian-American banker and an Indian-American medical student, whose unstoppable quest to find some White Castle hamburgers gives way to an epic road trip. Penn also delivered a brief supporting turn as Stanford, a henchman of Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) in 2006's Superman Returns. Meanwhile, Penn made an indelible impression on the small screen as well, as Harrison in the 2004 NBC 9/11 NBC drama Homeland Security. Penn was less effective in the ill-advised 2006 sequel National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, an installment that -- per its title -- finds Penn's Taj Mahal Badalandabad carrying Van's off-the-wall hijinks to Camden University in England. Penn subsequently signed on for an additional sequel, 2007's Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which finds the boys of the title mistaken for terrorists when they attempt to slip a bong aboard a flight to Amsterdam. That same year, Penn would headline Epic Movie, a massively scaled attempt to "send up" the Hollywood fantasy epic, Airplane! style,and join the cast of Fox's hit series thriller 24, during its sixth season. A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas followed in 2011, with concurrent roles in television's How I Met Your Mother and House guaranteeing continued small screen exposure between big screen outings.

Trivia: Writes and stars in the BBC Three series Russell Howard's Good News. Has performed his comedy on Live at the Apollo alongside numerous big names in comedy such as Jimmy Carr and David Walliams. Was awarded the title 'Best Theatre Show' at the Chortle Comedy Awards in 2009. Ran the Virgin London Marathon in 2010 in 4 hours and 15 minutes to raise money for the National Society of Epilepsy; his brother has epilepsy. Got into the finals of the 1999 So You Think You're Funny Competition.

Trivia: Best known for his longtime tenure as a sports anchor on the ESPN cable network (particularly on its SportsCenter series), Stuart Scott drew both fans and detractors for his vociferous, street-smart, urban mentality that made heavy use of slang and demonstrated no attempt to present varnished opinions in commenting on various sporting events. He made a number of guest appearances -- usually in cameos as himself -- in A-list feature films. These included the Bernie Mac-headlined sports comedy Mr. 3000 (2004), the Lindsay Lohan-starring Disney sequel Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), and the Rock-headlined sports comedy The Game Plan (2007). Stuart died in 2015, at age 49.

Trivia: American leading and supporting actress Vanessa Bell Calloway got her first major break playing Imani Izzi in Eddie Murphy's Coming to America (1988), one year after she had made her film debut. The winner of an NAACP Image Award, Calloway has also appeared in numerous other films, including voicing a character in the animated film Bebe's Kids (1992), What's Love Got to Do With It? (1993), and Crimson Tide (1995). Her television credits include a recurring role as Yvonne Caldwell on the daily serial All My Children, during the 1984-1985 season and in 1987.

Trivia: Pop star Nicole Scherzinger first caught public attention as part of the reality TV girl group Eden's Crush in 1998. She would record and perform with the group until 2001, when she left and later joined the burlesque-turned-recording-act the Pussycat Dolls. She found tremendous success with the group and was the only member to share songwriter credits on the 2006 album PCD. Scherzinger would also begin to cultivate a solo career and appeared as an actress in TV shows like My Wife and Kids and in movies like Love Don't Cost a Thing. In 2010, it was announced that the singer would join the cast of the popular reality series Dancing with the Stars for the show's 10th season. In 2012 she appeared as the cake-wielding hottie who springs intergalactic villain Boris the Animal from a moon prison in Men In Black 3.

Trivia: Reagan Gomez-Preston began her onscreen career in the mid-'90s, playing Zaria Peterson on the series The Parent Hood from 1995 to 1999. Many TV appearances followed, on shows like Strong Medicine and ER, and Gomez-Preston eventually scored another starring TV role, on the series Love Inc. in 2005. The show didn't last, but the actress landed on her feet, scoring a voice-acting role on the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show.