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: Was a regular performer with the Upright Citizens Brigade. Starred in three seasons of the LOGO series The Big Gay Sketch Show. Made her Saturday Night Live debut on April 7, 2012. Was the first active SNL cast member to win an Emmy for their work on the show, when she won in 2016.

Trivia: First starring role was in sixth grade when she played a lawyer who was prosecuting Hitler. Decided on a comedy career while attending college. Studied at the Second City Conservatory and is a member of the Second City National Touring Company. Was a member of the female improv troupe Virgin Daiquiri. Big break came in the summer of 2012 when producer Lorne Michaels spotted her in a comedy showcase in Chicago and cast her on Saturday Night Live.

Trivia: Started her comedic training at iO Chicago while in college. Is an alum of Chicago's Second City improv troupe, where many other Saturday Night Live greats were discovered. Made her SNL debut in the show's 38th season, along with Tim Robinson and Cecily Strong, who also hail from Chicago's comedy scene. Her first impression on SNL was of CNN correspondent Candy Crowley, who moderated the second 2012 presidential debate.

Trivia: Voted Most Likely to Be a TV Star in middle school. Formed Good Neighbor comedy troupe while an undergrad at the University of Southern California with fellow students Beck Bennett and Nick Rutherford (and later added friend Dave McCary to the group). Started writing and performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade in 2007. Appeared in commercials for Taco Bell, McDonald's and Comcast.

Trivia: Served as president of the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine in the early 2000s. Studied the History and Literature of Russia and Britain at Harvard. Wrote for the cartoon Kappa Mikey before joining Saturday Night Live. His brother Casey Jost is a member of the Staten Island improv comedy trio ManCrush. Won three WGA Awards for his work on SNL. Has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Huffington Post, the Staten Island Advance and Radar magazine.

Trivia: The youngest of seven siblings. After graduating high school, designed t-shirts and sold them on the streets of New York. Performed at his first open mic night at age 26. Made his stand-up television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy. Named one of Variety magazine's 10 Comics to Watch in 2013. Was a correspondent on The Daily Show for only three months in 2014; he left the job to write for Saturday Night Live. Was the first stand-up comedian to perform on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2014.

Trivia: Lost his father, a firefighter, in the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the age of 7. Began doing stand-up comedy at 16. Was discovered by Nick Cannon at age 17. Made his television premiere on Gotham Comedy Live. Was named as one of Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch for 2014. Is the first cast member of Saturday Night Live to be born in the 1990s.

Trivia: A veteran of Los Angeles' famed Groundlings comedy troupe, comedic performer and writer Mikey Day did the majority of his early work on cable television. Among other accomplishments, he authored blackouts for -- and performed on -- Damon Wayans' short-lived Showtime sketch comedy series The Underground, guest starred on Reno 911!, and appeared as himself in the reality program Faking the Video. In 2007, Day landed a role opposite Katt Williams, Jeremy Piven, and Snoop Dogg in the direct-to-video urban comedy Katt Williams: American Hustle -- The Movie.

Trivia: Became interested in performing after doing celebrity impressions at her high-school talent show. Began attending the Laugh Factory Comic Camp at the age of 15. Was one of the top 16 finalists in Season 6 of America's Got Talent. Has headlined more than 100 venues as a stand-up comic. Gained fame as a comedian due to her many celebrity impressions, including Owen Wilson, Jennifer Lopez, Barbara Walters and Sarah Silverman. Joined the 42nd season of Saturday Night Live as the show's first-ever Latina cast member.

Trivia: Moved to the Chicago suburb Naperville when he was 8 years old and began his career in rap, stand-up and improvisational comedy there.Is an alumnus of Second City Touring Company.Has listed Boxing, Football, Track & Field, Tennis, Cycling, Swimming, Baseball and Rollerblading as his athletics skills on his resume.Co-wrote the acclaimed improv-sketch-dance hybrid show "The Art of Falling" with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2014.Joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2017.

Trivia: Well-known in Chicago's improv comedy scene, having regularly performed at iO Chicago Theater, the Annoyance Theatre, Zanies and the Comedy Bar. Starred in his own one-man show titled Good Little Winnetka Boy at the Annoyance Theatre in 2010. Is a Second City alum who teaches for the Second City Training Center's teen and youth program. Joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for its 42nd season in 2016.

Trivia: Was raised by his grandparents in China while his parents attended graduate school in Canada.Grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, after moving there with his parents at the age of 5.Worked as an accountant at a top accounting firm for almost a year before pursuing acting as a career.Bought out a cinema in Toronto, Canada, for a screening of The Farewell (2019), starring his friend and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) co-star Awkwafina.At Comic-Con 2019, it was revealed that he would play the first Asian superhero, Shang-Chi, in a Marvel film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).

Trivia: A graduate -- like Will Ferrell, Kathy Griffin, and many others -- of the famed Groundlings comedy troupe in Southern California, comic-turned-actor/screenwriter Will Forte segued from that stage ensemble into a series of small-screen producing assignments, on such sitcoms as 3rd Rock From the Sun and That '70s Show. Forte only began to gain national attention, however, when he signed on as one of the regular cast members of Saturday Night Live in 2002. Within the framework of that series, the comic parlayed his versatile all-American winsomeness into a host of diverse characterizations including President George W. Bush, The Falconer, Senator Zell Miller, and Tim Calhoun. Meanwhile, he also authored scripts for Late Night with David Letterman on the side and penned a feature script, for the comic vehicle The Brothers Solomon (2007), in which he also starred opposite Will Arnett. In that picture, the men played John and Dean Solomon, two socially hopeless brothers desperate to find a woman to have their baby, to fulfill their dying father's last wish. At about the same time, Forte also joined scripters Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and others by contributing to the screenplay of the teen sex comedy Parental Guidance Suggested (2007). As an actor, Forte's resumé also includes roles in such comic romps as Beerfest (2006) and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. In 2008 he had a small part in Tina Fey's Baby Mama, and the next year he appeared in the Broken Lizard vehicle The Slammin' Salmon. In 2010 he wrote and starred in a big-screen adaptation of his recurring SNL character MacGruber, but the film met a chilly box office reception. In 2012 he had a part in the jukebox musical Rock of Ages.

Trivia: Known for the darkly eccentric characters he often plays, Willem Dafoe is one of the screen's more provocative and engaging actors. Strong-jawed and wiry, he has commented that his looks make him ideal for playing the boy next door -- if you happen to live next door to a mausoleum.Although his screen persona may suggest otherwise, Dafoe is the product of a fairly conventional Midwestern upbringing. The son of a surgeon and one of seven siblings, he was born on July 22, 1955 in Appleton, Wisconsin. Dafoe began acting as a teenager, and at the age of seventeen he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Growing weary of the university's theatre department, where he found that temperament was all too often a substitute for talent, he joined Milwaukee's experimental Theatre X troupe. After touring stateside and throughout Europe with the group, Dafoe moved to New York in 1977, where he joined the avant-garde Wooster Group. Dafoe's 1981 film debut was a decidedly mixed blessing, as it consisted of a minor role in Michael Cimino's disastrous Heaven's Gate . Ultimately, Dafoe's screen time was cut from the film's final release print, saving him the embarrassment of being associated with the film but also making him something of a nonentity. He went on to appear in such films as The Hunger (1983) and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) before making his breakthrough in Platoon (1986). His portrayal of the insouciant, pot-smoking Sgt. Elias earned him Hollywood recognition and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.Choosing his projects based on artistic merit rather than box office potential, Dafoe subsequently appeared in a number of widely divergent films, often taking roles that enhanced his reputation as one of the American cinema's most predictably unpredictable actors. After starring as an idealistic FBI agent in Mississippi Burning (1988), he took on one of his most memorable and controversial roles as Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Dafoe then portrayed a paralyzed, tormented Vietnam vet in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), his second collaboration with Oliver Stone. Homicidal tendencies and a mouthful of rotting teeth followed when he played an ex-marine in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), before he got really weird and allowed Madonna to drip hot wax on his naked body in Body of Evidence (1992). Following a turn in Wim Wenders' Faraway, So Close in 1993, Dafoe entered the realm of the blockbuster with his role as a mercenary in Clear and Present Danger (1994). That same year, he earned acclaim for his portrayal of T.S. Eliot in Tom and Viv, one of the few roles that didn't paint the actor as a contemporary head case. His appearance as a mysterious, thumbless World War II intelligence agent in The English Patient (1996) followed in a similar vein. In 1998, Dafoe returned to the contemporary milieu, playing an anthropologist in Paul Auster's Lulu on the Bridge and a member of a ragingly dysfunctional family in Paul Schrader's powerful, highly acclaimed Affliction. He then extended his study of dysfunction as a creepy gas station attendant in David Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999). After chasing a pair of killers claiming to be on a mission from God in The Boondock Saints, Dafoe astounded audiences as he transformed himself into a mirror image of one of the screens most terrfiying vampires in Shadow of the Vampire (2000). A fictional recount of the mystery surrounding F.W. Murnau's 1922 classic Nosferatu, Dafoe's remarkable transformation into the fearsome bloodsucker had filmgoers blood running cold with it's overwhelming creepiness and tortured-soul humor. After turning up as a cop on the heels of a potentially homicidal yuppie in American Psycho that same year, the talented actor would appear in such low-profile releases as The Reconing and Bullfighter (both 2001), before once again thrilling audiences in a major release. As the fearsome Green Goblin in director Sam Raimi's long-anticipated big-screen adaptation of Spider-Man Dafoe certainly provided thrills in abundance as he soared trough the sky leaving death and destruction in his wake. His performace as a desperate millionare turned schizphrenic supervillian proved a key component in adding a human touch to the procedings in contrast to the dazzling action, and Dafoe next headed south of the border to team with flamboyant director Robert Rodriguez in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Dafoe impressed critics with his performance of John Carpenter in the Bob Crane biopic Auto Focus. In 2003 he voiced one of the fish in the dentist's tank in Finding Nemo, and the next year he reprised his role as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man 2. He played a small role for Martin Scorsese in 2004's The Aviator, and had a memorable supporting turn in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou that same year. In 2005 he appeared in Lars Von Trier's Manderlay. He appeared in Spike Lee's successful heist thriller Inside Man. In 2007 he appeared as a film director in Mr. Bean's Holiday. In 2009 he reteamed with two different directors he's worked with before; he voiced the role of the rat in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, and played a husband in Lars Von Trier's audience-dividing Antichrist. In 2012 he lent his vocal talents to the infamous Disney flop John Carter.

Trivia: Parents went to law school with Bill Clinton. Started doing stand-up during his junior year in college. Worked as an intern at Comedy Central when he first moved to New York. Professes to be afraid of possums. Made his on-camera debut on Saturday Night Live as a clapboard operator in a sketch about Activia yogurt.

Trivia: After his portrayal of Joseph, the father of Jesus, in New Line Cinema's holiday release The Nativity Story (2006), Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac also appeared in Scott Z. Burns' made-for-HBO crime thriller The Half Life of Timofey Berezin (2007). His career would kick into high gear after taking a small role as an interpreter in Guerilla (2008), a biopic of Che Guevara. In 2009, Isaac's role as José Ramos-Horta in the drama Balibo earned in an award for Best Supporting Actor from the Australian Film Institute. He co-starred with Rachel Weisz in award-winning director Alejandro Amenábar's Agora (2009), a historical drama in which the actor played the student of a female mathematician in the late 4th century. Isaac portrayed King John in director Ridley Scott's 2010 retelling of Robin Hood, and went on to co-star with Albert Brooks and Ryan Gosling in the thriller Drive (2011).

Trivia: The daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, actress Zoe Kravitz took her first major feature bow in the 2007 romanic comedy No Reservations, followed soon after by a turn in the Jodie Foster revenge thriller The Brave One.