Trivia: Rocketing from obscure bit player to TV's resident über-sex god thanks to his role as FBI agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files, David Duchovny can claim to have had one of the 1990s' more remarkable career metamorphoses. Although his initial attempts to translate his TV stardom into celluloid success proved less than memorable, the tall, classically handsome actor has continued to enjoy a great deal of popularity, evidenced in particular by the countless estrogen-drenched internet shrines erected in his honor.Born in Manhattan on August 7, 1960, to a Jewish father and a Scottish mother, Duchovny did his undergraduate work at Princeton and then went on to pursue a Master's degree in English Literature at Yale. While working toward his degree, he began commuting to New York to study acting, and he was soon appearing in a few off-Broadway plays. His interest in acting ultimately eclipsed his dedication toward earning his degree, and Duchovny dropped out of Yale to pursue a career as a performer. He got his first break starring in a beer commercial, and in 1988, he made his film debut with a breathtakingly abbreviated appearance as a party guest in Mike Nichols's Working Girl. Work in a number of diverse and usually obscure films, including starring roles in Julia Has Two Lovers (1991), The Rapture (1991), and Kalifornia (1993), followed, but the actor was able to command a more steady paycheck from his TV work. Before The X-Files debuted in 1993, Duchovny was best-known to TV viewers as Dennis/Denise, Twin Peaks' resident transvestite detective. As The X-Files steadily grew from cult favorite to mainstream success, becoming recognized as one of the most groundbreaking shows of the decade, Duchovny also began to enjoy both industry respect and huge audience popularity. Dubbed as the latest in a long line of thinking women's sex symbols, he would also appear in films like Playing God and Return to Me.Duchovny would The X-Files during the show's seventh season, much to fans' dismay, returning only for the series finaly. Post X-files, Duchovny would continue to act on screen, most notably in films like Trust the Man and another X-Files movie, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, as well as on the debaucherous TV series Californication.

Trivia: When actress Gillian Anderson landed the role of Agent Scully for the Fox television series X-Files (1993- ) she could not have foreseen that within two years she would become an internationally known cult phenomenon. She was born in Chicago, but moved to London at age two and remained there until she was in her early teens. She and her family then moved to Grand Rapids, MI, where she rebelliously got heavily into the punk rock scene complete with spiky, brilliantly colored hair and body piercings with safety pins. When she was 14, she became romantically involved with a 20-year-old punk singer and occasionally sang in his band. Her punk period lasted through high school. Following graduation, she got involved in local theater and from there studied fine arts at the Goodman Theater School of Drama at Chicago's DePaul University. Following graduation, she moved to New York where she waited tables and appeared in off-Broadway plays, most notably in Absent Friends, in which she had a starring role that won her a Theater World Award. Anderson made her film debut in 1992 with the low-budget drama The Turning. She then appeared in a theatrical production of The Philanthropist and after that moved to Los Angeles. Though she was frequently courted for television roles, Anderson disdained the medium until the X-Files audition came along. Though the producers were looking for a brainy version of a Baywatch girl, the beautiful but more natural looking (having long passed her outrageous days) Anderson got the role thanks to the insistence of the show's creator Chris Carter. The show became a smash hit within two seasons and Anderson found herself an international star, as did her co-star David Duchovny, the subject of numerous pages on the Internet, and the recipient of such awards as a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In addition to continuing work on the X-Files, Anderson hosted a couple of television specials, including More Secrets of the X-Files and the BBC documentary series Future Fantastic. She also lent her voice as a documentary narrator on Spies Above and as animated characters on shows like The Simpsons and Reboot and films like the English version of Princess Mononoke.Anderson would spend the next several years working extensively in British television, starring in series like Bleak House, Any Human Heart, Moby Dick, and The Fall, as well as appearing in numerous UK films, like The Last King of Scotland and Shadow Dancer.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Brooklyn-born Xander Berkeley made the rounds on numerous TV shows throughout the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, not just as an actor, but as a makeup artist. The actor has put his uncanny talent in the makeup department to use on the sets of many shows, like on 24, where he designed his own makeup to depict his character's affliction with radiation sickness.Berkeley got his start in show business in the early '80s, appearing on shows like Moonlighting, The A-Team, and M*A*S*H. He went on to appear in movies, as well, like The Rock and Apollo 13, but he frequently returned to the small screen for memorable roles like George Mason, head of the Counterterrorist Unit on 24, and Sheriff Roy Atwater on CSI. In the coming years, Berkeley would continue to find success on teh small screen, on shows like Nikita.

Trivia: An alumna of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, actress Felicity Huffman is one of many classically trained stage performers who have found a home on television. She appeared on Broadway in David Mamet's Feed the Plow and co-founded the New York Atlantic Theater Company, along with Mamet and her husband, film actor William H. Macy. Making her feature-film debut in 1988 in Mamet's comedy drama Things Change, Huffman continued her acting career in the world of made-for-TV movies. A few exceptions include small roles in Reversal of Fortune, Hackers, The Spanish Prisoner, and Magnolia. In 1997 she won an Obie award for her work in the off-Broadway production of David Mamet's Cryptogram. Moving to the small-screen, Huffman was bumped up to starring status for the role of Dana Whitaker on the sitcom Sports Night, which ran from 1998 to 2000 on ABC before moving over to Comedy Central in syndication. She earned Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for her work on that show. After Sports Night's cancellation in 2000, Huffman had her first child and could be seen in a string of TV movies, notably as Lady Bird Johnson in John Frankenheimer's Path to War. She then lent her voice to Disney's animated series Kim Possible and made appearances on Frasier, The West Wing, and {Girls Club. In 2003 Huffman was back to lead status as Lorna Colm on the Showtime original series Out of Order, also starring Eric Stoltz and husband Macy. Though the show was soon cancelled, it wouldn't be long before Huffman was back at it with another new show. This time around, she starred in ABC's dark primetime dramatic comedy series Desperate Housewives, which premiered in the Fall of 2004. The wildly successful series proved to be a break unlike anything the actress had ever experienced, earning her an Emmy, a Screen Actor's Guild Award, multiple Golden Globe nominations, and a stardom that finally made her a household name. In 2006, she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her role in Transamerica, in which she plays a pre-op male-to-female transsexual who learns she has a teenage son from a clumsy sexual encounter during her life as a man. Huffman's critical acclaim cemented that she had arrived as an actress and would not need to rely on the notoriety of Desperate Housewives in order to maintain a vibrant career. She would spend the next several years apperaing in films like Georgia Rule, Phoebe in Wonderland, and Rudderless.

Trivia: A solid character actor whose balding head and craggy face are perfect for playing any number of stuffy bureaucrats, Mitch Pileggi gradually came to attention in the television world as FBI Deputy Director Walter S. Skinner, the man directly in charge of Special Agents Mulder and Scully in their investigations into The X-Files. At first played mainly as a brick wall for Mulder to run into periodically, Skinner has gradually taken on depth and nuance, as well as a certain mysterious quality -- he appears to be somehow involved with the mysterious Elders, yet has stood against them, and the Cigarette Smoking Man (William D. Davis) on more than one occasion. Skinner has also been the primary focus of several episodes, and has been tied directly into the mythology of the series. Neither Mulder nor Scully seem to have a firm idea of where Skinner stands and his position was supposed to be revealed in the 1998 X-Files motion picture.Pileggi is the son of a former Department of Defense contractor who took his family all over the world during Pileggi's youth. Pileggi himself also went to work, very briefly, for the Department of Defense, but abandoned that career track in favor of theater when he was 27 years old. He quickly graduated from the theater to parts in television and motion pictures, always playing relatively small, low-key parts. He had a recurring part in Dallas for a while. During his career he had lead billing only in Wes Craven's Shocker, in which he played a serial killer who manages to cheat the electric chair by becoming electrical energy himself. A couple of Pileggi fan clubs have been created since his first appearance on The X-Files, and his AudioBook readings of the various X-Files novelizations have done very well for HarperCollins. While Skinner's ultimate fate is unknown, he seems likely to survive the 1998 X-Files movie -- though one should be mindful of the ultimate fates of earlier characters Deep Throat and Mister X.

Trivia: Started acting as a child, working in summer stock with the Straw Hat Players in Ontario. Served as assistant director of England's National Theatre for six years, working under acting legend Laurence Olivier. Was artistic director of the National Theatre School's English Acting Program in Montreal. In 1989, he opened the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study—which counts Xena star Lucy Lawless among its former pupils—in Vancouver. An avid water skiier, he has been Canadian national champion in his age division several times. Contrary to his X-Files character, who was known as the "Smoking Man" or "Cancer Man," ex-smoker Davis is a Canadian Cancer Society spokesperson; he quit smoking in the 1970s and used herbal cigarettes on the show. Published his memoir, Where There's Smoke....The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, in 2011.

Trivia: An avid bowler, he had an average score of 186 when he was in high school and went to the New York state finals. Was feeding lines to actors auditioning for 1991's The Marrying Man when the director decided he should audition himself; landed the role of George. Best-known for his recurring role as Kenny Bania on Seinfeld. Became a Universal Life minister in order to preside over the wedding of his friends Dan Martin and Arden Myrin.