Trivia: Despite a thick Australian accent in some of his earlier films, actor Mel Gibson was born in Peeksill, NY, to Irish Catholic parents on January 3rd, 1956. One of eleven children, Gibson didn't set foot in Australia until 1968, and only developed an Aussie accent after his classmates teased him for his American tongue. Mel Gibson's looks have certainly helped him develop a largely female following similar to the equally rugged Harrison Ford, but since his 1976 screen debut in Summer City, Gibson has been recognized as a critical as well as physiological success.Though he had, at one point, set his sights on journalism, Gibson caught the acting bug by the time he had reached college age, and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, Australia, despite what he describes as a crippling ordeal with stage fright. Luckily, this was something he overcame relatively quickly -- Gibson was still a student when he filmed Summer City and it didn't take long before he had found work playing supporting roles for the South Australia Theatre Company after his graduation. By 1979, Gibson had already demonstrated a unique versatility. In the drama Tim, a then 22-year-old Gibson played the role of a mildly retarded handy man well enough to win him a Sammy award -- one of the Australian entertainment industry's highest accolades -- while his leather clad portrayal of a post-apocalyptic cop in Mad Max helped the young actor gain popularity with a very different type of audience. Gibson wouldn't become internationally famous, however, until after his performance in Mad Max 2 (1981), one of the few sequels to have proved superior to its predecessor. In 1983, Gibson collaborated with director Peter Weir for the second time (though it was largely overlooked during the success of Mad Max 2, Gibson starred in Weir's powerful WWI drama Gallipoli in 1981) for The Year of Living Dangerously, in which he played a callous reporter responsible for covering a bloody Indonesian coup. Shortly afterwards, Gibson made his Hollywood debut in The Bounty with Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins, and starred opposite Sissy Spacek in The River during the same year. He would also star in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) alongside singer Tina Turner.After the third installment to the Mad Max franchise, Gibson took a two-year break, only to reappear opposite Danny Glover in director Richard Donner's smash hit Lethal Weapon. The role featured Gibson as Martin Riggs, a volatile police officer reeling from the death of his wife, and cemented a spot as one of Hollywood's premier action stars. Rather than letting himself become typecast, however, Gibson would surprise critics and audiences alike when he accepted the title role in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet (1990). Though his performance earned mixed reviews, he was applauded for taking on such a famously tragic script.In the early '90s, Gibson founded ICON Productions, and through it made his directorial debut with 1993's The Man Without a Face. The film, which also starred Gibson as a horrifically burned teacher harboring a secret, achieved only middling box-office success, though it was considered a well-wrought effort for a first-time director. Gibson would fare much better in 1994 when he rejoined Richard Donner in the movie adaptation of Maverick; however, it would be another year before Gibson's penchant for acting, directing, and producing was given its due. In 1995, Gibson swept the Oscars with Braveheart, his epic account of 13th century Scottish leader William Wallace's lifelong struggle to forge an independent nation. Later that year, he lent his vocal talents -- surprising many with his ability to carry a tune -- for the part of John Smith in Disney's animated feature Pocahontas. Through the '90s, Gibson's popularity and reputation continued to grow, thanks to such films as Ransom (1996) and Conspiracy Theory (1997). In 1998, Gibson further increased this popularity with the success of two films, Lethal Weapon 4 and Payback. More success followed in 2000 due to the actor's lead role as an animated rooster in Nick Park and Peter Lord's hugely acclaimed Chicken Run, and to his work as the titular hero of Roland Emmerich's blockbuster period epic The Patriot (2000). After taking up arms in the battlefield of a more modern era in the Vietman drama We Were Soldiers in 2002, Gibson would step in front of the cameras once more for Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan's dramatic sci-fi thriller Signs (also 2002). The film starred Gibson as a grieving patriarch whose rural existence was even further disturbed by the discovery of several crop circles on his property.Gibson would return to more familiar territory in Randall Wallace's We Were Soldiers -- a 2002 war drama which found Gibson in the role of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry -- the same regiment so fatefully led by George Armstrong Custer. In 2003, Gibson starred alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Robin Wright-Penn in a remake of The Singing Detective. The year 2004 saw Gibson return to the director's chair for The Passion of The Christ. Funded by 25 million of Gibson's own dollars, the religious drama generated controversy amid cries of anti-Semitism. Despite the debates surrounding the film -- and the fact that all of the dialogue was spoken in Latin and Aramaic -- it nearly recouped its budget in the first day of release.The actor stepped behind the camera again in 2006 with the Mayan tale Apocalypto and was preparing to product a TV movie about the Holocaust, but by this time, public attention was not pointed at Gibson's career choices. That summer, he was pulled over for drunk driving at which time he made extremely derogatory comments about Jewish people to the arresting officer. When word of Gibson's drunken, bigoted tirade made it to the press, the speculation of the actor's anti-Semitic leanings that had circulated because of the choices he'd made in his depiction of the crucifixion in Passion of the Christ seemed confirmed. Gibson's father being an admitted holocaust denier hadn't helped matters and now it seemed that no PR campaign could help. Gibson publicly apologized, expressed extreme regret for his comments, and checked himself into rehab. Still, the plug was pulled on Gibson's Holocaust project and the filmmaker's reputation was irreparably tarnished.

Trivia: The daughter of a California-based civil engineer and a Costa Rican émigré, Madeleine Stowe attended the University of Southern California, but cut classes to watch plays. Her life as a waitress came to an end when she was fired for being "too spacey," but she was anything but spacey when it came to pursuing an acting career on the California theater circuit. Stowe eventually attracted the attention of Richard Dreyfuss' agent -- not for her stage work, but because the agent spotted her watching one of Dreyfuss' performances. This serendipitous turn of events enabled Stowe to get a bit part in the TV series Baretta, which led to more substantial roles on other shows. While working on the mid-'80s miniseries The Gangster Chronicles, the actress met her husband, future Dream On star Brian Benben. Stowe's screen career during the 1980s and '90s was not exactly a string of blockbusters, but she usually garnered excellent reviews and positive audience response, so that when she was in a bona fide hit, such as 1992's The Last of the Mohicans, reviewers were often inclined to credit her for at least some of the film's success. Stowe also starred in Robert Altman's critically-acclaimed Short Cuts in 1993 and Terry Gilliam's sci-fi cult film 12 Monkeys in 1995. She disappeared from screen for the next three years, but reappeared as part of the ensemble in Playing By Heart, and followed that up next year with The General's Daughter. She appeared in the made-for-TV remake of The Magnificent Ambersons, and co-starred opposite Sylvester Stallone in 2002's Avenging Angelo. She tried her hand at TV with 2007's Raines.

Trivia: Through a cruel twist of fate, American actor Sam Elliott came to films at just the point that the sort of fare in which he should have thrived was dying at the box office. A born cowboy star if ever there was one, the stage-trained Elliot made his debut in a tiny role in the 1969 western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Within a few years, the western market had disappeared, and Elliot had to settle for standard good-guy roles in such contemporary films as Lifeguard (1976). Never tied down to any one type, Elliot's range has embraced sexy "other men" (Sibling Rivalry [1989]) and vicious rapist/murderers (the TV movie A Death in California [1986]). Still, one yearned to see Elliot playing frontiersmen; fortunately, the western genre had not completely disappeared on television, and Elliot was well-served with such hard-riding projects as The Sacketts (1977), I Will Fight No More Forever (1981), The Shadow Riders (1982), Houston: The Legend of Texas (1986) and Conagher (1991), in which he appeared with his wife, actress Katherine Ross. When westerns began showing up on the big screen again in the 1990s, Elliot was there, prominently cast as Virgil Earp in Tombstone (1993) and the made-for-cable sagebrusher The Desperate Trail (1995). Awarded Bronze Wrangler trophies for his involvement in Conagher, The Hi-Lo Country, and You Know My Name, Elliot also made an impression on Cohen Brothers fans with a memorable performance as the laid back Stranger in the cult hit The Big Lebowski. A featured role in the 2000 made for television remake Fail Safe found Elliot hanging up his duster to revisit rising Cold War tensions, and later that same year he would finally make the leap into the new millennium with his role as a presidential aid in Rod Lurie's Oscar-nominated hit The Contender. Rewarded with a double hernia as a result of his intense training efforts to prepare for a role in the 2002 Vietnam War drama We Were Soldiers, the then fifty-seven-year-old endured the pain through the entire production and put of surgery until shooting had wrapped. Though Elliot would remain in the armed forces to portray a military general hell-bent on destroying the Hulk in 2003, his onscreen authority would weaken somewhat when he was cast as a cancer-riddled Marlboro Man in the 2005 comedy Thank You for Smoking. After traveling to the far corners of the globe to carry out a little vigilante justice in the 2006 made for television thriller Avenger, Elliot would next break a little new ground by venturing into the world of animation by lending his distinctive voice to the character of Ben the Cow in Steve Oedekerk's rural family romp Barnyard. He co-starred with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in The Golden Compass (2007), a film adaptation of the first installment of the wildly successful book series from author Philip Pullman. In 2009 he took on a role in the award winning comedy drama Up in the Air, and co-starred as an eccentric billionaire in director Tony Krantz's The Big Bang in 2011. He joined Robert Redford and Julie Christie to play a supporting role in 2012's comedy drama The Company You Keep.

Trivia: With the handsome looks and winning sarcasm that befit a late-night television talk show host, it is no surprise that Greg Kinnear first shot to stardom as the host of the E! channel's Talk Soup. More surprising, and thus more impressive, has been Kinnear's success in making the leap from television to the big screen. With only his fourth major celluloid outing, As Good As It Gets, Kinnear scored his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, effectively establishing himself as someone whose scope included screens small and large.Born June 17, 1963, in Logansport, IN, as the youngest of three sons, Kinnear led a peripatetic childhood. His father was a Foreign Services diplomat for the State Department, and his family accompanied him to places as far-flung as Beirut and Athens. While a student in Athens, Kinnear first ventured into the role of talk show host with his radio show School Daze With Greg Kinnear. Returning to the States for a college education, Kinnear attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he graduated in 1985, with a degree in broadcast journalism. From Arizona, he headed out to Los Angeles, where he landed his first job as a marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment. It was there that Kinnear got his first taste of show business, creating promotional campaigns for such films as Space Sluts in the Slammer. Following this stint, Kinnear found a job with the Movietime cable channel. Using an audition tape from a failed attempt at an MTV VJ position, Kinnear became a host and on-location reporter for the channel. All went swimmingly until he was fired, when Movietime became the E! Entertainment Network, and Kinnear soon found himself taking bit parts on such television shows as L.A. Law and Life Goes On.His luck began to change, however, when he became the creator, co-executive producer, and host of Best of the Worst, which aired from 1990 to 1991. In a more ironic and satisfying twist of fate, Kinnear was then hired back by E! to host Talk Soup, the network's new talk show. The show proved to be hugely popular, and Kinnear acted as its host and eventual executive producer until 1994, when he left the show for the NBC late-night talk show Later With Greg Kinnear. It was also in 1994 that he had his first big-screen role, as -- wait for it -- a talk show host in the Damon Wayans comedy Blankman. In 1995, he snared the part that was to give him more prominence among film audiences -- that of the irresponsible David Larrabee in Sydney Pollack's remake of Billy Wilder's 1954 classic romance Sabrina. The film was less than a success, but it did nothing to prevent Kinnear from getting the lead role in the 1996 comedy Dear God. That film, too, had a somewhat unfortunate fate, but Kinnear (now resigned from Later) more than rebounded with his next effort, James L. Brooks' As Good As It Gets (1997). The film was an unqualified hit, netting seven Oscar nominations and winning two, a Best Actor for Jack Nicholson and a Best Actress for Helen Hunt. Kinnear himself had the honor of both a Best Supporting Actor nomination and a Golden Globe nomination. Kinnear's next film, the romantic comedy A Smile Like Yours, had him starring opposite Lauren Holly as one-half of a couple trying to have a baby. The film met with lukewarm reviews and fairly anemic box-office results, but Kinnear's subsequent film, 1998's You've Got Mail, struck gold. He played Meg Ryan's significant other, a newspaper columnist wholly unlike what was to be his next character, that of Captain Amazing in the 1999 summer action film Mystery Men. With a stellar cast, including Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Lena Olin, and Tom Waits, Kinnear was indeed in good company, further proof of how far he had come in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, both Mystery Men and the subsequent Garry Shandling comedy What Planet Are You From (in which Kinnear amusingly portrayed Shandling's sleazy co-worker) fared poorly with both critics and audiences, and by the time he landed the role of a much-desired soap-opera star in Nurse Betty, it seemed that his star may have faded a bit. His role as a smug, one-dimensional college professor in the 2000 comedy Loser seemed near the bottom of the barrel for the formerly Oscar-nominated actor. Despite the fact that none of these failures were necessarily the fault of everyone's favorite smirky former talk-show host, his choice of projects left many wondering what had become of Kinnear. Of course, where there's darkness there will always be room for hope, and thankfully for Kinnear, the choices he was making began to pay off.In 2000, Kinnear essayed the role of a missing woman's grieving fiancé in the dark Sam Raimi thriller The Gift; the film seemed to mark the beginning of a comeback. His next role as the catalyst for an investigative report into the nature of male behavioral patterns in Someone Like You (2001) proved a step in the right direction, and following supporting performances in Dinner With Friends (2001) and We Were Soldiers (2002), Kinnear's comeback had been primed. Cast as ill-fated television star Bob Crane in Paul Schrader's disturbing 2002 biopic Auto Focus, Kinnear's spot-on performance was so eerie that it made the film almost discomforting to watch. The spotlight was somewhat stolen however, by co-star Willem Dafoe's indescribably creepy turn as the man generally believed to have caused Crane's untimely death. The following year Kinnear lightened the mood considerably when he was cast (literally) alongside Matt Damon as one-half of a pair of conjoined twins in the Farrelly Brothers' comedy Stuck on You. Intent on following his dreams of becoming an actor, Kinnear's character drags his reluctant brother to Hollywood to hilarious results.Kinnear's next role would come as the grieving father of a dead son who goes to desperate lengths to recapture his former happiness in the horror flavored Godsend (2004).A fun turn as a salesman who becomes involved with in hitman in the Golden Globe-nominated crime comedy The Matador went largely unseen despite generally favorable critical response, and after lending his voice to the animated Robots and berating little-league players in The Bad News Bears, Kinnear later join an impressive ensemble cast to investigate America's love affair with burgers and fries in director Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation. Later that same year, Kinnear would take family dysfunction to a whole new level as a motivational speaker attempting to get his daughter to a beauty pageant in Little Miss Sunshine, with a role as NFL coach Dick Vermeil following shortly thereafter in the inspirational sports drama Invincible. Kinnear would spend the following years maintaining his status as a bankable actor, appearing in films like Baby Mama, Green Zone, I Don't Know How She Does It, and the mini series The Kennedys.

Trivia: Possessing the sort of apple-cheeked, translucent-skinned All-American wholesomeness that has made him a natural for the pretty-boy jock roles which began his career, Chris Klein started a minor sensation after appearing in only two films. The actor was born in Hinsdale (Chicago), Illinois on March 14, 1979. After spending the first 13 years of his life there, he moved with his family to Nebraska. It was while he was in high school that Klein was discovered by director Alexander Payne, who was busy casting his upcoming film, Election (1999). Klein won the role of Paul Metzler in Payne's film, which opened to enthusiastic reviews. As Paul, Klein played the dim but sweet football player persuaded by Matthew Broderick's Jim McAllister to run against the unopposed Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) in the school's student council election. Klein played a similar character in his next film, the 1999 summer smash American Pie. As Chris "Oz" Ostreicher, Klein was again seen as a sweetly dim high-school jock, who, rather than wanting to win an election, channeled his energies toward losing his virginity. The success of the film was great enough to lead Klein to drop out of Texas Christian University (where he had been a freshman) to follow an acting career that had certainly gotten off to a serendipitous beginning. His days as a youthful and fresh-faced gentle jock numbered, 2002 found Klein substantially roughing it up with his action debut in director John McTiernan's much delayed and critically panned Rollerball. That same year he was in the indie drama The United States of Leland. He continued to work steadily in projects such as Just Friends, American Dreamz, and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. In 2011 he was cast in the American remake of the odd Australian sitcom Wilfred, and he answered the call when the Pie gang got back together for 2012's American Reunion. Klein later had guest spots on shows like Idiotsitter and The Grinder.

Trivia: With cool-eyed charisma and looks suggesting he had borrowed DNA from Paul Newman and Dennis Hopper, Barry Pepper first caught the attention of audiences and critics as the Bible-quoting Private Jackson in Saving Private Ryan. Before his role in the hit 1998 World War II epic, Pepper, a native of Canada, had been largely unheard of outside of his homeland. Born in Campbell River, British Columbia, on April 4, 1970, Pepper had what can only be described as a unique upbringing. When he was five years old, his parents built a boat and, setting sail with Pepper and his two older brothers, spent the next three years traveling around the world. Pepper was schooled in places as far-flung as Tahiti, Fiji, and New Zealand, and after returning to Canada, went to college to study graphic design. By his own account a poor student, Pepper dropped out of college and decided to give acting a try. He made his professional debut on the popular Vancouver TV series Madison and stayed with the show for four years. After parts in a couple of obscure films and a stint on the television series Titanic with George C. Scott, Pepper attracted the attention of director Steven Spielberg, who cast him in Saving Private Ryan. The critical and commercial success of the film put Pepper -- and several of his co-stars -- in the spotlight, and he soon had a coveted spot on the cover of Vanity Fair's 1999 Hollywood issue, alongside several other up-and-coming young actors. That same year, Pepper further enhanced his visibility with a role in the action thriller Enemy of the State. Hollywood hype being Hollywood hype, Pepper was soon being hailed as a Next Big Thing by any number of publications and his role as a prison guard in the hotly anticipated The Green Mile (1999) seemed to attest to this status. Whether the young actor really was a star in the making or not, his career had gotten off to an inarguably positive start.Over the next several years, Pepper would find success in movies like Flags of Our Fathers and True Grit, as well as the TV mini-series The Kennedys.

Trivia: With green eyes, clear skin, and a head of hair that any pre-Raphaelite would envy, Keri Russell became one of the most recognizable young actresses of the late 1990s. Propelled to fame by her title role on the WB Network's Felicity, Russell quickly endeared herself to critics and viewers with her searching and honest portrayal of a college freshman facing life on her own for the first time.Born Keri Lynn Russell on March 23, 1976 in Fountain Valley, California, Russell studied dancing from an early age. She later found that her love of dancing was good preparation for acting, insofar as both disciplines demanded self-discipline and an adherence to timing and choreography. Dancing led to a modeling stint, which in turn led to a trip to Los Angeles, where in 1991 she was cast as herself on the newly-revived Mickey Mouse Club. Russell stayed with the show until 1993, during which time she lived at Disney World, where the show was taped. During her time on the Mickey Mouse Club, Russell landed her first film role in 1992's Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. After her TV commitment ended, Russell moved to Los Angeles and in 1996 was cast in Aaron Spelling's Malibu Shores. In the same year, she did more film work in the little-seen The Babysitter's Seduction, and she continued her film work in 1997 with the comedy Eight Days a Week. In 1998, with her career flagging, Russell got her big break playing confused college freshman Felicity Porter, a part she nearly wasn't considered for because the show's creators felt she was too beautiful to have the problems her character did.Suddenly the subject of countless interviews and magazine covers, Russell found herself as one of television's hottest commodities, especially in the wake of the Golden Globe she netted for her portrayal of Felicity. Unsurprisingly, this new status led to a new range of opportunities, including her role in The Curve (1998), a thriller which had its premiere at Sundance and co-starred Matthew Lillard. After the conclusion of Felicity in 2001, Russell worked steadily in small but valuable roles in the films We Were Soldiers, The Upside of Anger, and The Management of Ordinary Days. Russell played a major role as a covert operative kidnapped by a weapons dealer in Mission Impossible III. Though she didn't manage to secure the role of Lois Lane for Superman Returns (2006) (that honor went to Kate Bosworth), Russell snagged the lead role of a small-town waitress in the highly acclaimed independent comedy Waitress (2007) and also played the lead in the modest hit August Rush (2007). The following year, she played Adam Sandler's love interest in Bedtime Stories.In 2010, Russell made an attempt to return to television in the Fox series Running Wilde, opposite Will Arnett. The show was canceled after only 13 episodes. However, in 2013, she scored a hit series with FX's Soviet spy-drama The Americans, playing a KGB officer posing as an American in 1980s Washington DC; she nabbed an Emmy nomination for her work on the show in 2016.

Trivia: A talented and handsome blond actor who has also shown a marked interest behind the camera, Ryan Hurst may have been destined to pursue a career in film considering his father's notable television career and his mother's occupation as an acting coach. Born in Los Angeles, CA, in 1976, Hurst found early commercial work before completing his primary education at Santa Monica High School. After an early appearance in a Spam commercial and a few helpful tips from mom and dad, the youth began to hit his stride on the stage. In addition to role his portrayal of Brutus in Julius Caesar and his work in such familiar plays as Harvey and Guys and Dolls, Hurst staged his own adaptation of the well-loved Cyrano de Bergerac for the Santa Monica Civic Light Opera and received a Best Performance award from Backstage West for his Canon Theater production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Television roles in Saved by the Bell: The New Class and Boston Common followed, and in 1997 Hurst made his feature debut in the Kevin Costner epic The Postman. Subsequent roles in such high-profile releases as Saving Private Ryan and Patch Adams (both 1998) continued to find his budding career flourishing; with a small role in 2000's The Rules of Engagement, Hurst also contributed behind the camera (he shot the 16 mm montage) and then turned up in the sports drama Remember the Titans (also 2000). Continuing to rise to the top of the credits with each film role, Hurst's roles in We Were Soldiers and Lone Star State of Mind (both 2002) were a testament to his remarkable versatility.

Trivia: Lead actor Nick Corri first appeared on screen in the late '80s.

Trivia: When college basketball star Marc Blucas did not make the NBA, he decided to apply to law school. The day before he was scheduled to take the Law School Admission Test, he unwound by watching Rob Reiner's courtroom drama A Few Good Men (1992) and realized that what excited him about the film was not the law, but the acting. A few years later, Blucas was a television veteran with several feature films under his belt and a coveted spot in Vanity Fair's prestigious Hollywood Issue.Born Marcus Paul Blucas on January 11, 1972, the actor grew up in the small town of Girard, PA. The son of a school superintendent and an education administrator, he made his stage debut as a cupcake in his third grade class' production of Hansel and Gretel. At 6'2" tall, he was the star center on the Girard High School basketball team. An All-State athlete, Blucas averaged 20.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game and lead his team to two 2A championships. In his senior year, the team went undefeated and was ranked among the best high school basketball teams by USA Today. Blucas earned a full scholarship to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, where he majored in business with a minor in speech communication and played shooting guard and small forward for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. He competed in four NCAA tournaments and won the Murray C. Greason Sr. Athletic Academic Award and the Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship in his senior year. When Blucas was not picked in the NBA draft, he joined the Manchester Giants and played pro basketball in England for one season. After starting a company that was targeted to assist athletes in endorsement and contract negotiations, he intended to go to law school but tried his hand at acting instead.Blucas had already appeared opposite Marg Helgenberger and Kris Kristofferson in the television movie Inflammable (1995), when a friend at Wake Forest informed him that the producers of the Whoopi Goldberg comedy Eddie (1996) were looking for a baby-faced basketball player to appear in the picture. He was a perfect fit and made his feature-film debut as a benched player on the New York Knicks. After working as the technical advisor on NBC's sports biopic Never Give Up: The Jimmy V Story (1996), Blucas was able to expand his part as an athlete in Pleasantville (1997) by coordinating the film's basketball sequences. He then dedicated himself to honing his craft through workshops and acting classes, before resurfacing as Jerry O'Connell's best friend in the NBC miniseries The '60s (1999), and as Carmen Electra's ex-beau in Jeff Abugov's The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999). He also appeared on MTV's Undressed, the WB's Clueless, and HBO's Arli$$.Blucas' breakthrough role came in the fall of 1999, when he was cast as a regular on Joss Whedon's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Portraying Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) demon-hunting boyfriend, Riley Finn, he became a recognizable actor with a sturdy fan base. Blucas left the show in 2000 (with the promise that he would be back) in order to pursue film work. After starring in the baseball-themed Summer Catch (2001) with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel, he began a back-to-back shooting schedule that included Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) with Ben Affleck and Jason Lee, John Sayles' The Sunshine State (2001) with Angela Bassett and Edie Falco, and Randall Wallace's We Were Soldiers (2002) with Mel Gibson and Chris Klein. He also joined the casts of the Gwyneth Paltrow comedy A View From the Top (2002), the thriller They (2002), and the period piece I Capture the Castle (2002).While still swearing to fans that he will return to Buffy the Vampire Slayer as soon as he can, Blucas signed on to director Alex Steyermark's Pray for Rock 'n' Roll, which stars Gina Gershon, Jennifer Esposito, Jane Adams, and Shelly Cole as a struggling Los Angeles-based girl band. Despite his onscreen success and his busy schedule, the actor still makes time for basketball. He plays on an adult team and serves as a referee for a Los Angeles youth league.

Trivia: Was an avid swimmer and rugby player in his youth. Worked at a variety of jobs before his acting career took off, including delivering milk, and selling cars and real estate. Performed in his parents' theater group and did radio voice-overs in New Zealand before moving to Australia in 1979, where he soon landed a role on the soap opera The Young Doctors. Became famous in Australia for playing the character Jim Robinson on the soap Neighbours for eight years. While he was playing bass in a band with his Neighbours costars at a 1987 charity event, a cast member named Kylie Minogue sang Little Eva's "The Loco-motion" with them, and her singing career was born. After moving to Los Angeles in 2000, quickly became familiar to U.S. audiences with roles on ER, The X-Files and The O.C., among other shows. Shared a 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for the ABC dramedy Ugly Betty. Says his motto is the Winston Churchill quote, "Never, never, never give up."

Trivia: Clark Gregg has spun a successful career on the New York stage into a growing profile in motion pictures and television as an actor, writer, and director. Clark Gregg's career as an actor began when he was a student at New York University, where he became a protégé of noted playwright and director David Mamet. Mamet cast Gregg in his first film role -- a small part in 1988's Things Change -- and that same year he made his off-Broadway debut in Howard Korder's play A Boy's Life. With Mamet's help, Gregg co-founded the esteemed Atlantic Theater Company in New York in the late '80s, and in 1990, Gregg made his Broadway debut in Aaron Sorkin's drama A Few Good Men. Through the 1990s, Gregg gave a number of strong supporting performances in such films as Clear and Present Danger, The Usual Suspects, and Magnolia, with Gregg earning a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards for his striking turn as a transsexual in the independent feature The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. In television, Gregg scored recurring roles on the shows The Commish and Sports Night, as well as guest appearances on Sex and the City and The West Wing. And he remained a near-constant presence on the New York stage, earning Outer Critics Circle, Obie, and Drama Desk nominations for his work. Gregg also began directing for the stage, including well-received productions of Mamet's Edmond and Kevin Heelan's Distant Fires. In the late '90s, Gregg developed an interest in screenwriting, and began working on a supernatural thriller in his spare time. As chance would have it, Gregg's script came to the attention of Robert Zemeckis, who was eager to direct a thriller; Gregg's first screenplay became What Lies Beneath, which starred Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford, and became a major box-office success. He continued to work in a variety of indie and big-budget films including Lovely & Amazing, the Steven Spielberg sci-fi film A.I., Spartan, and In Good Company. In 2006 he landed a recurring role on the well-respected CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. He became part of the Marvel universe when he took the part of Agent Coulson in Iron Man, a role he would return to in different comic-book adaptations. He returned to screenwriting and directing with the 2008 adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke. His steady acting career continued with the indie hit (500) Days of Summer and Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Trivia: Sturdy, reliable character actor Jon Hamm debuted onscreen at the turn of the millennium, with a series of key supporting roles in features including Space Cowboys (2000), Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), and Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers (2002). He also appeared on such TV series as Providence, The Division, What About Brian, and The Unit. Hamm scored his first major lead as executive Don Draper in the AMC network's series Mad Men (2007) -- a period serial about a group of boozing, chain-smoking, and sexist advertising suits toiling away at their jobs in a Manhattan high rise, circa 1960. He earned a variety of award nominations for his work on the show, which itself won the Emmy for best drama series each of its first four years on the air. He parlayed this high-profile success into a recurring gig on 30 Rock, and appeared in films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, Howl, and Sucker Punch. He was the cop chasing thief Ben Affleck in The Town (2010), and, the next year, had an uncredited appearance in the hit Bridesmaids. In 2012 he appeared in Friends With Kids, which was written and directed by his then-longtime girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt. While continuing to build his film résumé, Hamm snuck in some television appeances as a voice actor, including guest spots on shows like The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers and Archer. He had a memorable two episode stint on Parks and Recreation (essentially a stretched-out cameo). When Mad Men drew to a close in 2015 (with Hamm finally winning an Emmy Award for the final season), Hamm had significant guest arcs on two new web series lined up - The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. Hamm also expanded his film work with Million Dollar Arm, Minions and Keeping up with the Joneses.

Trivia: Raised in the Bronx, Desmond Harrington went to a Catholic prep school and worked as a bartender and construction worker before beginning his acting career. His film debut was in Luc Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, which led to a visit to the Sundance Film Festival and a few small roles in independent features such as Drop Back Ten and Massholes. In 2001, Harrington appeared in two big projects, Christine Lahti's directorial debut, My First Mister, and Riding in Cars With Boys with Drew Barrymore. He continued to work in dramas (We Were Soldiers), but then made the thriller Ghost Ship. He played a starring role in a short film called Life Makes Sense if You're Famous, and made his television debut in the miniseries Taken. In 2003, Harrington stuck with thrillers for a leading role in Wrong Turn. Harrington found continued success on the small screen with recurring roles in Dragnet, Sons & Daughters, and most prominently the Showtime serial-killer series Dexter. Even with these steady gigs, he worked in projects like TiMER and Life Is Hot in Cracktown.

Trivia: It would be difficult to imagine a more conspicuous or thrilling big-screen debut for a child actress than that of St. Louis-born Taylor Momsen, selected out of innumerable hopefuls at six years old to play Cindy Lou Who in Ron Howard's colorful holiday fantasy How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). The Momsen was already an on-camera veteran when she signed for the part (given her appearance in a Shake 'n Bake commercial at three years old, and one-shot roles on the series Early Edition and Cosby), The Grinch nevertheless heightened her exposure.Not long after The Grinch, Momsen stuck with the same genre: the family-oriented fantasy Hansel & Gretel (2002), which sported Lynn Redgrave. That very same year, however, the pint-sized ingenue returned to A-list material with small contributions to two acclaimed blockbusters: Mel Gibson's military drama We Were Soldiers and the can't-miss sequel Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002), directed by Robert Rodriguez. Her next major cinematic contributions arrived in 2007, with turns in the FX-heavy canine superhero picture Underdog and Gus Van Sant's coming-of-age drama Paranoid Park.Despite all of her work in high-profile films, Momsen broke through to mainstream notice in 2007 via her involvement in a prime-time teen soap opera: the CW's Gossip Girl. On that series, the actress played Brooklyn-dwelling wannabe social climber Jenny Humphrey (younger sister of Dan), who was a good girl at heart but flirted with misbehavior in her quest to become part of the rich-girl clique at her prep school. In 2008 she appeared in Spy School.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from 1985.

Trivia: Best known for playing Mickey, Edward Woodward's trusty assistant in the television series The Equalizer, Keith Szarabajka was also a feature film supporting actor who made his debut in Marshall Brickman's Simon (1980). He then divided his time between feature films and television movies such as Nightlife (1989).

Trivia: Born on the Japanese island of Okinawa, Brian Tee moved with his parents to the U.S. at the age of two. After growing up in the sunny suburbs of L.A., he graduated high school and enrolled at Cal State Fullerton with a major in pre-law. In an effort to remain connected to the arts, he took an acting for non-majors class and discovered a deep love of performance. Causing something of a family upset, he dropped out of Cal State and enrolled in the Dramatic Arts Acting program at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, he began auditioning, landing appearances on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Pretender. In 2006 he scored a role as the Drift King in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift before signing on for Nanking, Bill Guttentag's documentary about the 1937 massacre of the Chinese city.

Trivia: Possessing the sort of bland, familiarly handsome looks that make him equally effective at creating both instantly likable and inexplicably repelling characters, actor Dylan Walsh, born November 17th, 1963, generally specialized in the former. When he took to the latter, however, the unexpected change of pace could make for an extremely effective performance. Although audiences may recognize his face from such high-profile Hollywood fare as Congo (1995) and We Were Soldiers (2002), his most affecting roles have been in low-budget independent fare such as the low-key 2001 drama Jet Boy. A California native who graduated from Annandale High School in Virginia, Walsh wowed audiences as Atticus Finch in a high school stage production of To Kill a Mockingbird, giving signs of great things to come from the burgeoning actor. Subsequently gaining his footing as an actor with a recurring role on television's Kate and Allie, his first feature credit came with the 1989 Patrick Dempsey comedy Loverboy. His career truly beginning to gain momentum in the early '90s, Walsh's appearances in Betsy's Wedding (1990) and Nobody's Fool (1994) showed an actor just waiting for his breakthrough role. Although he would take the lead for the eagerly anticipated jungle adventure Congo, the film's dismal fate at the box office certainly didn't do anything for his career. Subsequent efforts such as Divided by Hate (1997) and Chapter Zero (1999) showed an actor capable of much more than what he was given with which to work. Admittedly taking roles just to pay the bills, Walsh was offered the lead in Calgary filmmaker Dave Schultz's dark psychological drama Jet Boy. Cast as a shady, morally ambiguous undercover cop who befriends a street smart orphan while attempting to take down a big-time drug dealer, the role offered some contrast to Walsh's recent performances, and simultaneously proved that he was fully capable of handling a leading dramatic role. Due to the success of Jet Boy, his career was somewhat reinvigorated and subsequent parts in We Were Soldiers and Blood Work paid testament to an actor regaining his footing after a few early falters. In 2003, Walsh donned scrubs for the critically acclaimed television series Nip/Tuck. In 2006 Walsh could be seen back up on the big screen as the buttoned-down boyfriend of Sandra Bullock's haunted character in the fantasy-flavored romantic drama The Lakehouse. Walsh changed his tune for The Stepfather (2009), which starred the actor as a sociopathic murderer. In 2010, he joined the cast of Secretariat in a supporting role as the husband of housewife-turned-horse racer Penny Cherry (Diane Lane).

Trivia: Started acting at 7 when his parents enrolled him at a children's theater workshop in his hometown of Atlanta, GA. Appeared in an NBA commercial with Charles Barkley. Released his first single, "If Eyes Could Speak," in 2010. Active with charities such as Starlight Children's Foundation, Feed the Children and L.A.'s Best.

Trivia: Adopted at six weeks old. Legal name is Amy Maria Young; there was another Amy Young registered in the Screen Actors Guild, so she adapted her first name to Bellamy. Was North Carolina's Junior Miss in 1987 (the national scholarship program changed its name to Distinguished Young Women in 2010). Made her Broadway debut in 1997 in the original production of The Life, a musical by Cy Coleman (music, book), Ira Gasman (lyrics, book) and David Newman (book) that was nominated for a Tony Award and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Musical. Other stage work includes a 1994 off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Merrily We Roll Along; and Randy Newman's Faust at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 1995. In addition to a starring role, has an associate-producer credit for the family drama Country Remedy (2007), aka Simple Things and Mountain Time, which was filmed in her native Asheville, NC.

Trivia: Boston-born Denis Leary is the sneering, tousle-haired comedian who popularized the cautionary phrase "two words." (His routine went something like this: "Regarding Bill Clinton's foreign policy, two words: Jimmy...Carter.") Best known for his many MTV appearances, Leary excels in playing characters who wavered between quiet sarcasm and howling insanity. His one-man show No Cure for Cancer premiered in New York in 1991, scoring a hit with its "intellectual guerilla" comedy. Among Leary's numerous films were National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon (1993), Judgment Night (1993), and Operation Dumbo Drop (1995). His best screen showing was as the beleaguered burglar and reluctant kidnapper in The Ref (1994). He later starred in Wag the Dog (1997), Jesus' Son (1999), and Joe Mantegna's directorial debut, Lakeboat (2000). Leary also served as a producer of the 2001 film Blow. In 2001, he starred as a New York detective in a night time drama called The Job. The series was cancelled before the end of the second season, but Leary was soon back in the movies, lending his voice to the character of Diego in the animated feature Ice Age. Then in 2004, Leary took on the character that would come to define the second leg of his career, accepting the lead role of firefighter Tommy Gavin on the FX series Rescue Me. Critically acclaimed and renowned for pushing the borders of cable television, the show proved to be a huge hit, and Leary won an Emmy for his performance. After the show wrapped in 2011, Leary would spend the followng years appearing in projects like The Amazing Spider Man.