Trivia: Whether appearing on camera or simply stepping in front of the microphone to voice one of countless animated characters, actor/writer/producer and director Jay Johnston had a way of bringing the laughs to every project he worked on. While Johnston's career got off to a respectable start thanks to walk-on roles in Ellen and Just Shoot Me, it was the multi-faceted funnyman's involvement with Mr. Show that truly served to launch his career. Later, in between roles in such features as Jack Frost, Bicentennial Man, Not Another Teen Movie, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Johnston kept busy with appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Malcolm in the Middle. By the time Johnston assumed the role of Officer Taylor on Arrested Development, he was widely considered one of the comedy world's best-kept secrets. A role in the 2006 comedy Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny found Johnston helping to bring the self-proclaimed "Greatest Band in the World" to the big screen, with a recurring role on The Sarah Silverman Program following in quick succession. In 2007, Johnston signed on as writer/producer/voice star of the cynical, clay-animated religious satire Moral Orel -- which took direct aim at such kitchy religious propaganda as Davey and Goliath.

Trivia: Comedian Jenny Slate graduated from Columbia University before making waves in New York as one half of the comedy team Gabe & Jenny. After making a memorable appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Slate went on to join the 2009 cast of Saturday Night Live, where she made a serious impression by accidentally using an expletive on live television. Slate was let go at the end of the season (seemingy because of her on-air slip), but she bounced back quickly with the short film Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, which she created with her then-husband. The film gained a following online and gave Slate some favorable press after her SNL incident. Since then, she has carved out an impressive TV career with both guest and recurring arcs on shows like Parks and Recreation and House of Lies and doing voice-over work on shows like Bob's Burgers. In 2014, Slate starred in Obvious Child, her first starring role, and recieved a Critics' Choice Award for her work.

Trivia: Was born in a Jewish family.Has 2 younger siblings.Grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts.Dropped out of law school.Host of The Majority Report and Ring of Fire Radio.

Trivia: One of the longest-running cast member in the history of Saturday Night Live, easygoing funnyman Tim Meadows crafted some of the series' most enduring characters in his nine-year stint on the popular late-night comedy staple. Whether sipping Courvoisier as self-proclaimed Ladies' Man Leon Phelps or posing clueless questions to irritable guests as early morning talk show host Lionel Osborne, Meadows and his memorable collection of characters endured even during the more critically panned years of SNL and proved an important component of keeping the show on its feet during those dark days. Born in Highland Park, MI, and raised in Detroit, Meadows studied radio and television broadcasting at Wayne State University before performing improvisational comedy at the Soup Kitchen Saloon in nearby Ferndale. Quickly finding his stride on-stage, Meadows relocated to Chicago where he would join the ImprovOlympia team and later become associated with the Second City troupe. Gaining a loyal following during his three-year stint with the legendary comedy troupe, Meadows was soon courted by SNL producer Lorne Michaels and in 1991, he achieved the dreams of comics nationwide when he joined the SNL cast as a featured player. Nominated for an Emmy the same month he made the transition to cast member status two years later, Meadows was fired from the show in 1994 only to be hired back at the insistence of Michaels. Although he did little film or television work during his SNL years, Meadows prepared for his own departure from the series by appearing in the features of such former cast members as Dan Aykroyd (Coneheads [1993]), Mike Myers and Dana Carvey (Wayne's World 2 [also 1993]), and Julia Sweeney (It's Pat [1994]). Predictably, Meadows' segue into his post-SNL career began with the quickly dismissed Ladies Man feature, though he continued to grace the small screen with roles in such sitcoms as The Michael Richards Show and Leap of Faith.As the 2000's continued, Meadows began to carve out a niche for himself with memorable and funny supporting roles in a variety of comedies like The Even Stevens Movie, The Benchwarmers, and, quite notably, as the Carpal Tunnel suffering high school principle in 2004's Mean Girls. In 2007, he appeared as fictional rock star Dewey Cox's drummer in the musical biopic parody Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. He appeared in the 2008 Will Ferrell vehicle Semi-Pro, the 2011 Adam Sandler project Jack and Jill, and took a leading part in the sequel Mean Girls 2.

Trivia: Actress Megan Mullally was born in Los Angeles in 1958, to a family with show business roots -- her father, Carter Mullally Jr., was an actor who became a contract player with Paramount Pictures during the 1950s. In 1965, with Carter's career on the wane, Mullally's parents pulled up roots and moved to Oklahoma City, OK, where her family had become quite wealthy raising livestock. Megan picked up the performing bug from her father, and developed a passionate interest in music and especially dance. By the time Megan was a high school student, she'd performed as a featured soloist with the Ballet Oklahoma troupe in Oklahoma City, and during summer vacations she studied with George Balanchine's School of American Ballet in New York City. Her interest in classical dance eventually grew into a desire to act, and while attending Northwestern University, she began appearing in student theater productions. After graduating, Mullally moved to Chicago, where she immersed herself in the city's rich and varied local theater scene. In 1983, she won her first film role, playing a hooker in Risky Business, and in 1986 she relocated to Los Angeles after being cast on a television series, The Ellen Burstyn Show. However, the series proved short-lived, and Mullally was soon busying herself with guest spots on a number of different shows. Mullally continued to work in the theater, and in 1994 fulfilled a longtime dream when she scored a role in the Broadway revival of Grease. The next year, she earned a high-profile role in another noted Broadway musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (playing opposite Matthew Broderick), while continuing to work in television projects. Mullally's dedication and focus finally paid off in 1998, when she was cast as Karen Walker, a self-centered former socialite-turned-office assistant on the popular situation comedy series Will and Grace. A major ratings success, Will and Grace catapulted Mullally into the spotlight, and she won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, and an American Comedy Award for her work on the show. When not busy with Will and Grace, Mullally continues to pursue other projects, playing featured roles in the films Everything Put Together and Monkeybone and starring in a one-woman musical, Sweetheart, in which she shows off her talents as a singer. (Mullally has also released an album of songs from the show, which she produced herself.)Mullally would continue her successful career on Broadway while enjoying the long running success of Will and Grace, and would go on to appear in other successful TV series as well, like In the Motherhood, Party Down, Childrens' Hospital, and Parks and Recreation.

Trivia: The professional reputation of some actors and performers is inextricable from that of a larger ensemble to which they belong. Comedian/actor/screenwriter Aziz Ansari epitomizes this idea. Ansari shot to fame in the mid- to late 2000s as a member of the three-person comedy troupe responsible for The Human Giant -- a weekly, SNL-style collection of outrageous and irreverent comedy sketches that the group wrote and performed on MTV.Ansari is -- like Jay Chandrasekhar and a few other comics to emerge during the early 2000s -- of Tamil Indian heritage. Ansari grew up and attended university in rural South Carolina, then studied business at New York University. As a student, Ansari took classes with the famed Upright Citizens Brigade and mounted solo standup comedy gigs at Manhattan-area clubs. After a brief stint working on an Internet advertising business, Ansari discovered that he was earning enough with his standup efforts to focus on this full-time. His association with the Brigade ultimately led to a regular gig as emcee of "Crash Test," a weekly standup comedy showcase at the UCB Theatre, and -- in time -- to the creation of the Human Giant series.In 2009 Ansari landed a regular part on NBC's well-respected Amy Poehler-led sitcom Parks & Recreation. He parlayed that shows success into small parts in comedies like Judd Apatow's Funny People, Jody Hill's Observe & Report, and Get Him to the Greek. This led to his biggest role to that point as the best friend of a slacker forced to rob a bank in 30 Minutes or Less.In 2012 he contributed his vocal talents to Ice Age: Continental Drift.