Trivia: As an actor, writer, producer, and director of films and stage plays, the New Orleans-born Tyler Perry began his career as a dramatist in 1992. When inspired by Oprah Winfrey to channel his creativity through writing, Perry put pen to paper as a method of healing the wounds that lingered from a painful childhood. His first production, entitled I Know I've Been Changed, hit the stage to rapturous reviews in 1997, and following a collaborative period with Bishop T.D. Jakes that resulted in the plays Woman, Thou Art Loosed and Behind Closed Doors, Perry flew solo to create cantankerous 68-year-old grandmother Mabel "Madea" Simmons (whom Perry played, in full drag) in I Can Do Bad All by Myself around 2000 A slew of Madea-based projects were quick to follow, and shortly thereafter Perry joined Grammy Award-winner Kelly Price for the play Why Did I Get Married?. His plays garnered countless fans thanks to Perry's trademark practice of releasing them on home video. Throughout this period, many credited Perry with resuscitating (and reinventing) African-American theater; in the process, Perry's first eight plays reportedly earned a cumulative gross of over 75 million dollars in ticket and video sales.Perry didn't fully enter the public spotlight, however, until he cropped up in mid-2005 with the oddball A-lister Diary of a Mad Black Woman, self-adapted from his own hit play. This story of an African-American woman Helen McCarter (Kimberly Elise) struggling to rebound after a painful separation, whose life is invaded (in more ways than one) by the obnoxious, loudmouthed, chainsaw-wielding (!) Madea, Diary -- a bizarre combination of domestic melodrama, violent, racially-oriented farce, and Christian proselytizing -- understandably left many critics running for the exit, but, of course, ticket buyers prevailed. The film scored with its intended African-American audience and grossed a healthy 50 million dollars (it ranked as number one at the box office during February 2005), leading to an early 2006 sequel, Madea's Family Reunion, this one written and directed by Perry. Either because Perry's talent had matured within a year or because the press had grown accustomed to the playwright-cum-filmmaker's defiantly unconventional style, critics were slightly kinder about the sophomore Madea outing, which benefits from finely-felt supporting turns by the legendary Cicely Tyson and Maya Angelou. Like its predecessor, Reunion struck box office gold, and even topped Diary's net, reeling in an estimated 63.3 million dollars in international grosses. Perry then scrapped the Madea character for a tertiary cinematic outing, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls. This romantic dramedy concerns Monty (Idris Elba), a financially strapped African-American mechanic who loses custody of his children to his drug-pushing ex-wife, and then falls in love with the beautiful attorney (Gabrielle Union) whom he hires to get the children back. Increasingly prolific on stage and screen in the following years, Perry continued packing fans into theaters with Madea Goes to Jail (2009), I Can Do Bad All By Myself (also 2009), Good Deeds (2012) and Madea's Witness Protection while simultaneously making a mark on television as creator of the hit sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Perry also began to take some acting roles in films that he didn't write/direct/producer, like the titular character in Alex Cross (2012) and a supporting role in David Fincher's Gone Girl (2014).

Trivia: African American leading lady Lynn Whitfield made her film bow in 1983's Dr. Detroit. Three years later, the Louisiana born and bred Whitfield played the title character in the fact-based TV movie Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, the story of the first black female FBI agent. After gaining recognition for her work in a number of TV dramas, including The Women of Brewster Place (1990), Whitfield won an Emmy award and international acclaim for her starring performance in the HBO biopic The Josephine Baker Story in 1991. Whitfield subsequently split her efforts between TV and film, doing particularly strong work in Kasi Lemmons' much-feted Eve's Bayou (1997) as a family matriarch struggling with her husband's infidelity. In 1999, she earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for her work in Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding, a 1950s drama in which she was cast as the wealthy mother of a young woman (Halle Berry) intent on marrying a poor white musician.

Trivia: Handsome actor Blair Underwood was born into a military family and studied at Carnegie-Mellon University before moving to New York to pursue his career. Guest-starring work on The Cosby Show earned him a part on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, followed by a reoccurring role on the short-lived series Downtown. In 1985 he made his film debut as a record producer in the rap comedy Krush Groove. This was followed by the successful TV docudramas Heat Wave and Murder in Mississippi. His breakthrough finally came about on L.A. Law, playing attorney Jonathan Rollins from 1987 to 1994. Supporting roles followed, as an accused rapist in Just Cause, a well-to-do love interest in Set It Off, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the HBO original movie Soul of the Game. Also during the '90s, he tried his hand at screenwriting and producing with the short film Second Coming, a contemporary take on Christ's second coming starring himself as a dread-locked Jesus accused of insanity. In 2000, he starred in the CBS medical drama City of Angels, followed by supporting roles in the military courtroom drama Rules of Engagement, as well as Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal, and the teen movie Malibu's Most Wanted. He consistently found work on the small screen in a variety of TV shows including LAX, the short-lived Dirty Sexy Money, and as a haunted military pilot in the first season of HBO's In Treatment. On the big-screen he could be seen in Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, Something New, and The Art of Getting By. He and wife Desiree DaCosta (two-time executive assistant to Eddie Murphy) have three children.

Trivia: Owing his unique, smoldering good looks to his German mother and West African father, actor Boris Kodjoe first caught the attention of Hollywood casting agents in the pages of major men's magazines, as one of the most highly sought-after male models of the late '90s. The former star tennis player delayed a career in marketing -- his major in college at Virginia Commonwealth University -- for a chance to be the subject of fashion spreads from such photographers as Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber. The exposure led him to Hollywood, where he first found roles as a romantic heavy on television, and eventually a steady gig on the small-screen version of Soul Food. Despite starring roles in a pair of independent features (The Gospel and Doing Hard Time), Kodjoe's big-screen breakthrough would come courtesy of the second feature in writer/director Tyler Perry's popular Madea series, 2006's Madea's Family Reunion. Kodjoe would continue to find success in the coming years on shows like

Trivia: At once a novelist, actress, poet, singer, and humanitarian (and one of the most renowned figures in each of the said roles), Maya Angelou spent the majority of her life crusading for egalitarianism, human rights, and spiritual healing in the African American community. A child of the Great Depression and a victim of extreme racial discrimination and abject poverty from early childhood, Angelou came of age in the racially segregated American south, experiences ultimately chronicled in the 1970 memoir that made her a literary giant, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She survived a host of personal trials, including childhood rape, a period of uncertainty regarding her own sexual orientation, and single parenthood -- in addition to a period that witnessed her working as a prostitute -- but eventually learned to support herself and her son as a calypso dancer. By the 1960s, Angelou extended herself into acting roles, began publishing poetry and plays, and spent periods of time at home and abroad in a succession of relationships with men. Most significantly, she plunged into the Civil Rights movement opposite Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, and received a personal appointment by King to head up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.The literary triumph of Caged Bird is well-known; championed by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt and others, it became a massive bestseller and a staple of college classrooms everywhere, and also helped carry the torch of the civil rights movement. In successive decades, Angelou began publishing a series of sequels; she also moved into film work as a screenwriter and occasional actress, peaking in on-camera activity during the 1990s. Assignments included parts in John Singleton's urban drama Poetic Justice (1993), Jocelyn Moorhouse's female ensemble drama How to Make an American Quilt (1995), and the urban seriocomedy Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion (2006). Angelou also hosted the PBS series Maya Angelou's America: A Journey of the Heart in the early '90s, and appeared in everything from Sesame Street videos to documentaries on Christianity. She achieved her greatest recognition, however, and made history in the process, when President Bill Clinton asked her to deliver an original poem at his 1992 inauguration. Her appointment to U.S. poet laureate made her the first American to wear that title in 30 years, and the first African American female poet laureate in U.S. history. In 1998, Angelou debuted as a director with the gentle ensemble drama Down in the Delta. She continued to make public appearances until shortly before her death in 2014, at age 86.

Trivia: Best known for playing unapologetically mature, assertive, and intelligent adult women, African-American supporting actress Jenifer Lewis originally launched her career as a vocalist, singing in a church choir in Kinloch, MO. Lewis' passion (and gift) for singing carried her to the Great White Way, where she appeared in a number of sell-out Broadway musicals -- including Ain't Misbehavin' and Dreamgirls. She subsequently migrated to the West Coast for a string of appearances in TV programs such as Roc, A Different World, Murphy Brown, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Touched by an Angel, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and graduated to features in 1992. The films in which Lewis has appeared run the gamut of quality, from outstanding (What's Love Got to Do With It?, 1993) to satisfactory (Sister Act, 1992; The Preacher's Wife, 1996) to downright abominable (Frozen Assets, 1992); many, however, demonstrated her fine gifts. More recently, Lewis attained some much-deserved recognition (and ascended to higher than usual billing) with her multi-season portrayal of Lana Hawkins in the prime-time medical drama Strong Medicine (2000).

Trivia: Born in a small town just outside of Chicago, IL, performer Keke Palmer initially gravitated to singing as a young child, but soon landed a memorable screen role as the niece of Queen Latifah in the urban comedy Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004). Palmer turned to acting given the success of this first assignment; its positive reception prompted the budding actress' family to relocate to Southern California and doubtless helped open the doors that led to Palmer's first lead portrayal. She played Akeelah, the 11-year-old daughter of a single parent who ascends through the ranks of spelling bee competitions, in the sleeper hit Akeelah and the Bee (2006). Palmer subsequently teamed up with director Tyler Perry twice, first with a role in his comedy Madea's Family Reunion, then with a guest spot on his series Tyler Perry's House of Payne, and landed the lead role in the teen movie musical Jump In! (2007), a made-for-television picture about two adolescents who compete against one another in a rope-skipping competition.

Trivia: One of America's most respected dramatic actresses, Cicely Tyson has worked steadily as a television, film, and stage actress since making her stage debut in a Harlem YMCA production of Dark of the Moon in the 1950s. The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, Tyson was raised in Harlem. After working as a secretary and a successful model, she became an actress, landed her first jobs in off-Broadway productions, and eventually made it to the Great White Way in the late '50s.Tyson got her first real break in 1963, playing a secretary to George C. Scott on the TV series East Side/West Side, and in 1966 signed on with the daytime soap The Guiding Light. That same year, she made her credited screen debut starring opposite Sammy Davis Jr. in the drama A Man Called Adam (her first uncredited film role was in 1959's Odds Against Tomorrow). More film, television, and stage work followed, but Tyson did not truly become a star until her Oscar-nominated performance in the Depression drama Sounder (1972). An unusual beauty with delicate features, expressive black eyes, and a full, wide mouth, Tyson next hid her good looks beneath layers of old-age makeup to convincingly portray a 110-year-old former slave who tells her extraordinary life story in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974). A well-wrought effort, it won Tyson her first Emmy for her title role, which required her to age 91 years on the screen. Tyson subsequently had great success on television, particularly with her role in the legendary miniseries Roots (1977) and her work in The Women of Brewster Place (1989). She also continued to do a fair amount of film work, appearing in films like Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994), The Grass Harp (1995), and Hoodlum (1997). In 1997, Tyson again donned old woman's makeup to offer a delightfully crotchety version of Charles Dickens' Scrooge in the 1997 USA Network original production Ms. Scrooge. Two years later, she had another television success -- and another Emmy nomination -- with A Lesson Before Dying, a drama set in the 1940s about a black man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit. Tyson was later featured in a trio of popular Tyler Perry movies, including Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005), Madea's Family Reunion (2006) and Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010). She also had a small, but pivotal, role in 2011's Oscar-nominated The Help, as Contstantine, the loving and elderly maid of Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone).

Trivia: Attended Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire on a basketball scholarship. Auditioned for roles while working at a financial-management firm in his hometown, Stamford, CT. Lived in the attic of the LaMama Theater Company for four months after moving to New York City. Made movie debut in the 1994 Tupac Shakur basketball drama Above the Rim and TV debut in a 1994 Saturday Night Live basketball skit, replacing injured NBA star Derrick Coleman. Named one of the 50 Sexiest Stars of All Time by TV Guide in 2002. Has a twin sister who's a casting director.

Trivia: Trained as a ballet dancer. Her big-screen break was the role of Denise Porter in White Chicks (2004). Has appeared in commercials for McDonald's, L'Oreal, Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz. Played Leigh Barnthouse in the short-lived 2007 Fox series Drive. Landed guest-star roles on CSI: NY, Bones and NCIS.

Trivia: Character actor Afemo Omilami built a career out of portraying gritty, urban types in Hollywood features, often with an aggressive edge, such as taxi drivers, longshoremen, barkeeps, drill sergeants, and angry spouses. Omilami debuted onscreen in the late '70s and evolved into an increasingly common screen presence as the years passed. The dozens of projects in which he appeared include the Tom Hanks-Shelley Long disaster comedy The Money Pit (1986), the Sydney Pollack-directed legal thriller The Firm (1993), Best Picture winner Forrest Gump (1994) (as a screaming drill sergeant), and the Ray Charles biopic Ray (2004). In 2007, Omilami joined the cast of director Deborah Kampmeier's rape-themed period drama Hounddog.