Trivia: Displaying the kind of off-kilter charm that makes him a natural for leading roles in independent films and character parts in mainstream features, Liev Schreiber has made a name for himself on both circuits. Born October 4, 1967, in San Francisco, Schreiber was raised on New York's Lower East Side. A graduate of Hampshire College in Massachusetts, he initially wanted to become a writer, but later decided to try his hand at acting, training at both London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Yale School of Drama.Schreiber's first acting job was on Broadway, where he appeared in In the Summer House. More theater work followed and in 1994, the actor made his film debut in the Steve Martin comedy Mixed Nuts. The film was an unequivocal flop, although Schreiber's role as a rather muscular transvestite proved to be one of the picture's few memorable features. His next project, the 1995 indie Denise Calls Up, fared a little better; despite almost non-existent box-office ratings, it was rewarded with critical approval. Following more minor film work, he landed the role of a British bouncer in the successful indie flick Party Girl (1995), which also starred nascent indie queen Parker Posey. Schreiber got an introduction to a more mainstream audience thanks to his role as killer Cotton Weary in Wes Craven's mega-hit Scream, a role he reprised in the film's sequel, Scream 2 (1997). The same year, Schreiber had leading roles in two more independent films, The Daytrippers (which again paired him with Posey) and Walking and Talking, as well as a secondary role in the bloated Mel Gibson thriller Ransom. Deftly straddling the divide between Sundance and the studio, Schreiber went on to make three major mainstream pictures in 1998: Phantoms, with Rose McGowan and Ben Affleck; Twilight with Susan Sarandon, Paul Newman, and Gene Hackman; and Sphere with Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone, and Dustin Hoffman. The following year, Schreiber returned to more familiar territory with his role in Tony Goldwyn's small but successful drama A Walk on the Moon. As the man Diane Lane cuckolds for Viggo Mortensen, Schreiber mined endless possibilities from what could have been a narrow role, giving his character the sort of charming, good-intentioned inadequacy that became one of the actor's trademarks.In 2000, Schreiber returned to the role of Cotton Weary a third time to close out the Scream franchise. It was around this time that he also began doing a considerable amount of voice-over work, mainly for PBS's NOVA series. As the decade progressed, Schreiber continued to be a presence in bigger mainstream projects, such as the 2002 adaptation of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears. Two years later, he could be seen in another high-profile, politically tinged thriller, this time opposite Denzel Washington in director Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate.In 2005 he made his directorial and screenwriting debut with Everything Is Illuminated, and appeared in the critically acclaimed, Golden Globe-winning HBO movie Lackawanna Blues, a life-affirming film about a selfless black woman (played by S. Epatha Merkerson) in 1950s segregated New York who provides a home and a guiding hand to the youths who come to live at her boarding house. His 2006 project would be quite a departure from this sweet, poignant tale, as Schreiber took the role of Robert Thorne in John Moore's remake of the 1976 horror classic The Omen. Heavily publicized for its "666" release date (June 6th, 2006), the film pleased horror fans, as did Schreiber's performance as husband to Julia Stiles and father to the infamous Damien, a little boy who seems to harbor an evil that at best makes him disturbingly cold and at worst, places him at the crux of the devil's own plan for hell on Earth. Schreiber next went into production on The Painted Veil, an adaptation of the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Playing the playboy whom Naomi Watts cuckolds her husband with, the actor immersed himself in the part for the drama. Meanwhile, a return to the stage in the lauded revival of Glengarry Glen Ross not only earned Schreiber a Tony award, and in 2005 he made his debut as a film director and screenwriter with the indie Everything Is Illuminated. Always up for new challenges, he played the role of the comic-book supervillain Sabertooth in the 2009 summer blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In addition to his acting, Schreiber also has a lucrative career narrating documentaries and commercials.

Trivia: A talented and attractive actress who has managed to wrangle a remarkable number of affecting roles despite her youthful age, Elisabeth Moss may be best known to television viewers as the President's daughter on the acclaimed series The West Wing, though thoughtful characterizations in such features as Girl, Interrupted and Imaginary Crimes have been a testament to an actress not afraid to court more challenging and emotionally demanding roles unusual for an actress of her age.Born to music manager and a mother who specialized in the blues harp in 1983, Moss spent her childhood in Los Angeles and was inspired to pursue acting at an early age by screen idol Bette Davis. Working with some of the most respected actors in the industry by the age of 16, Moss made her acting debut at the age of seven in the television miniseries Lucky Chances. Continuing through the mid-'90s with numerous television roles (including a stint on the popular series Picket Fences), Moss' early film roles range from both lightly comical (Suburban Commando [1991]) to increasingly dramatic (Imaginary Crimes [1994]). A humorous bit-part as a conservative 12-year-old facing the wrath of a group of lethal liberals in 1995's The Last Supper dropped a dollop of humor in the mix before Moss returned to more dramatic roles in Separate Lives (1995) and A Thousand Acres (1997), and the talented young actress continued her winning streak with roles in such diverse films as The Joy Riders and Mumford (both 1999). The year before the new millennium proved to be a successful period for Moss as she gained wide recognition for her roles in television's The West Wing and as a sympathetic, mentally disturbed teen in the psychological drama Girl, Interrupted. Moss' personal connection with her Girl, Interrupted persona's inability to relate to others brought a warmth to the role that shined through the screen. Touching audience's sympathies and drawing them into her personal destruction, the talented actress lent the film a performance worthy of praise and recognition. An avid reader in her free time, Moss fancies Shakespearian fare and finds motivation in roles that inspire her and challenge her to be the things that she might not be in real life. She worked steadily in projects like West of Hare, Virgin, and Bittersweet Place, but she had her greatest success so far in 2007 when she was cast as Peggy Olson on the award-winning drama series Mad Men garnering multiple Emmy and Screen Actors Guild nominations for her work on the program. She parlayed her small-screen success into roles in the comedy Get Him to the Greek, and the long-awaited adaptation of On the Road. She was married to Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen for less than two years.

Trivia: Ron Perlman grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City, where his father was a radio/TV repairman and his mother an employee with the city's Department of Health. A profoundly unhandsome youth, Perlman was nonetheless very active in high school theater by virtue of his height (6-foot-2) and his deep, rolling voice. He continued studying drama at Lehman College and later at the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a master's degree in theater arts. He went to work with New York's Classic Stage Company, an organization specializing in Elizabethan and Restoration plays. Perlman starred in several Manhattan and touring productions staged by Tom O'Horgan of Hair fame before accepting his first film role as a Neanderthal man in 1981's Quest for Fire. Emotionally drained, Perlman backed off from acting after finishing the movie, but was soon back in the groove, essaying such attention-getting roles as the hunchbacked Salvatore in The Name of the Rose (1986). Most often cast as brooding, inarticulate, villainous characters in films (such as Pap in 1993's The Adventures of Huck Finn), Perlman became best known for his performance as the beneficent, albeit hideously ugly, sewer-dwelling Vincent in the late-'80s TV series Beauty and the Beast. Though this remained the actor's defining role for years after the show's run had drawn to a close, he was busier than ever through the '90s. Appearing in everything from obscure arthouse hits (Cronos [1993] and The City of Lost Children [1995]) to voice-over work for television (Aladdin) and video games (Fallout, A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game) to overblown Hollywood blockbusters (Alien Resurrection), Perlman left few stones unturned in terms of flexibility and experimentation in new media. He continued this trend into the early 2000s, alternating between various arenas with remarkable ease and refusing to be pigeonholed, appearing in such high-profile releases as Titan A.E. (2000), Enemy at the Gates (2001), and Blade II (2002). Though his recognition factor seemed higher than ever, few could foresee the opportunity just ahead when Blade II and Cronos director Guillermo del Toro announced that Perlman would star in the film adaptation of Mike Mignola's popular comic book Hellboy, although it seemed highly unlikely that studios would invest the millions of dollars needed to bring the comic to life with an actor of such minimal "marquee value." They wanted Vin Diesel for the role, but del Toro, with the blessing and encouragement of character originator Mignola, eventually won out to have Perlman play the Nazi-creation-turned-superhero in the 2004 fantasy-action film.

Trivia: Naomi Watts had already been a working actress for over a decade when she earned notice as a promising newcomer in David Lynch's Cannes Film Festival prizewinner Mulholland Drive (2001).Born September 28th, 1968, Watts began acting in her teens, landing her first film role in For Love Alone (1986). Watts subsequently appeared with future Hollywood headliners Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton in John Duigan's disarming teen romance Flirting (1991). Watts's next film with Duigan, Wide Sargasso Sea (1992), was not so well received. After her first taste of Hollywood with Joe Dante's schlock movie homage Matinee (1992), Watts nabbed a starring role as Jimmy Smits's disturbed student in George Miller's little seen courtroom drama Gross Misconduct (1993). Watts then starred as Jet Girl to Lori Petty's Tank Girl (1995), but the science fiction fantasy suffered an ignominious box office fate. After a series of TV movies and thrillers, including Sleepwalkers (1997) and Children of the Corn IV (1996), Watts appeared in Marshall Herskovitz's high-toned Venetian courtesan costumer Dangerous Beauty (1998) and successful TV docudrama The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer (1999). Watts's breakthrough finally arrived when David Lynch cast her in his ABC pilot Mulholland Drive. Though ABC canceled the project in 1999 after Lynch turned in a typically mood-drenched work, StudioCanal financed its transformation into a feature that debuted to acclaim at Cannes in 2001. A Los Angeles dreamscape akin to Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive featured Watts as the blonde half of a female duo caught in a mystery of shifting identities. Drawing attention for her not-for-network TV love scene with co-star Laura Harring, Watts also earned praise as a rising "new" actress.Though ignored for an Oscar nomination, Watts's tour-de-force dual performance earned her numerous accolades and critics' awards, igniting her career. Working steadily in the wake of Mulholland Drive, Watts scored a box-office as well as critical success a year later with The Ring (2002), the Hollywood remake of the Japanese horror blockbuster. Starring Watts as an intrepid reporter investigating the origins of a lethal videotape, The Ring overcame studio doubts to become a sleeper hit, solidifying Watts's new star status. Watts subsequently donned period dress for the Showtime western The Outsider (2002), and to co-star alongside fellow Aussie Heath Ledger in The Kelly Gang (2003). Balancing her genre work with potentially headier fare guided by notable directors, Watts also appeared with Kate Hudson, Glenn Close and Stockard Channing in the Merchant-Ivory romantic comedy Le Divorce (2003), and won a leading role opposite formidable actors Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro in Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams (2003).In 2004, Watts worked opposite Mark Ruffalo for the independent film We Don't Live Here Anymore, and reteamed with Sean Penn for The Assassination of Richard Nixon. She landed the starring role of Ann Darrow in director Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong (2006), and starred in the 2006 remake of The Painted Veil. Watts was praised for her work as a British midwife who accidentally gets involved in the Russian mafia in director David Cronenberg's psychological thriller Eastern Promises. Watts starred along with Clive Owen in 2009's The International, for which she played the part of an assistant district attorney who participates in a plan to rob a bank, and co-starred alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Annette Benning, and Kerry Washington for the drama Mother and Child. Watts was later cast in Dream House (2011), a thriller starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, and worked with Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2011 biopic J. Edgar. In 2012 she played the mother of a family trapped in a catastrophic storm in The Impossible, garnering a Best Actress nomination for her work in the film.

Trivia: Born July 7th, 1966, Indiana native and standup comic Jim Gaffigan cultivated a reputation during the late '90s and early 2000s as a low-key, witty, and inventive comic with mildly self-deprecative routines. He then branched out into television and film roles, finding mixed (if not unqualified) success in those venues. Launched during the early '90s, Gaffigan's original standup act sparked the attention of such after-hours talk programs as Late Night with David Letterman (on CBS) and Late Night with Conan O'Brien (on NBC). Both shows booked the comic for repeated spots to tremendous audience enthusiasm. Letterman was reportedly so wowed by Gaffigan's material, delivery, and presence, in fact, that he commissioned his company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, to produce a sitcom for Gaffigan, Welcome to New York. The series cast Gaffigan as a character named Jim Gaffigan, a former weatherman from Indiana who moves to New York and takes a job on a Good Morning America-like local talk show called "AM New York." Christine Baranski co-starred as Gaffigan's caustic producer, Marsha Bickner, Roseanne's Sara Gilbert as Marsha's assistant, Amy, and Rocky Carroll as Adrian Spencer, the program's smarmy, artificial host. Many of the initial gags and bits revolved around the "fish out of water" concept of a Hoosier thrust into the Big Apple, and Gaffigan's co-workers' cutting objections to his presence in the newsroom. Unfortunately, Welcome to New York folded a few months in, thanks to markedly poor ratings and viewership. The comic continued his television work unabated, however, with a recurring role on the equally short-lived Ellen DeGeneres starrer The Ellen Show. Beginning in 1999, Gaffigan began signing for supporting roles, typically comic turns, in feature films, starting with David O. Russell's Three Kings. He played Larry Johnson, the highway pullover dumbfounded by a "meow"-spouting cop, in Broken Lizard's Super Troopers (2001), then a hotel manager in the eccentric dramedy Igby Goes Down (2002). Gaffigan also landed a bit part as Chris Grandy in Gary Winick's Big update 13 Going on 30 (2004). In mid-2005, Gaffigan issued his premier comedy video, Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale -- an hour-long special in which the comic delivers a number of riffs on the subjects of food, holidays, gift giving, and religion. (The title refers to the fair-haired Gaffigan's ghostly white complexion, one of the recurring subjects of his shtick.) Gaffigan then essayed a supporting role in Hilary Brougher's 2006 psychodrama Stephanie Daley, starring Tilda Swinton, Amber Tamblyn and Timothy Hutton. 2008 found the actor co-starring alongside Justin Timberlake and Verne Troyer in the Love Guru, which won the dubious honor of three Raspberry Awards. Gaffigan would have better luck in 2009, when he joined the cast of Sam Mendes' comedy Away We Go, and again in 2010 for the films Going the Distance and It's Kind of a Funny Story. He also worked in the television sitcom My Boys from 2006-2009. '

Trivia: Within four years of his film debut in Zebrahead (1993), Michael Rapaport (born March 20th, 1970) became one of Hollywood's hardest-working and most versatile supporting/character actors. He began as a standup comedian, but turned to acting after landing a guest-starring role in a 1990 episode of the ABC television drama China Beach. Rapaport's portrayal in Zebrahead of a Jewish teen struggling to survive in an African-American-dominated Detroit neighborhood while romantically involved with a black girl earned him considerable acclaim and a nomination for an Independent Feature Project Spirit Award. After that, he did a bit more television work and his career remained low-key until the following year, when he suddenly burst back onto the screen in four major films: True Romance, Point of No Return, Money for Nothing, and Poetic Justice. Some of Rapaport's notable subsequent roles include that of a college student who mistakenly attempts to find his niche by becoming a skinhead in John Singleton's Higher Learning (1995) and that of a slightly dim prizefighter set up for a blind date with a goodhearted hooker in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995). In 1998, Rapaport co-starred in the Showtime cable network's black comedy series about the zany world of substance abuse recovery programs Rude Awakening. That year, Rapaport also appeared in the films Palmetto and Some Girls. Rappaport worked in film sporadically throughout the 2000, but found some success in Metro, Deep Blue Sea, and Higher Learning. However, the actor is much more recognized for his work in the television shows Boston Public, Prison Break, and the War at Home.

Trivia: African-American actor Pooch Hall began his career on a noble and dignified note, by landing one of his first significant acting assignments in the critically acclaimed miniseries Miracle's Boys -- under the aegis of revered directors Spike Lee, Ernest Dickerson, LeVar Burton, Bill Duke, and Neema Barnette. In Boys, Hall starred as the eldest of three orphaned brothers, Ty'ree, who sacrifices an MIT scholarship in order to look after his siblings, remaining in Harlem and working in a publishing-house mail room. The work received positive notices and scored favorable ratings for Hall when it premiered on The N network in 2005, and marked an auspicious beginning for the actor. He then opted to portray football hero Derwin Davis (the boyfriend of med student Melanie Barnett [Tia Mowry] in the weekly series The Game) and, also in 2006, signed for a supporting role in the blood-soaked comic fright-fest Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror. The next year, Hall contributed a minor role to the romantic comedy Blind Dating. In 2011 he joined the cast of the comedy drama Jumping the Broom.

Trivia: Appeared in commercials for Budweiser and Molson. Was a member of the sketch-comedy troupe, The Bobroom. Cowrote, coproduced and starred in Ham & Cheese. Landed recurring roles on Queer as Folk and How I Met Your Mother. As a correspondent for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, he visited Iran to shoot segments that wrapped up filming just before the tumultuous 2009 election.

Trivia: From the time of his screen debut in the late '80s, the slightly stocky character actor William Hill specialized in everyman portrayals, often with a professional edge, such as psychiatrists, guards, and police detectives. He struck a fairly equal balance between television (with a series of appearances as different characters on Law & Order over the years) and features that fell into a wide variety of genres. These included Striptease (1996), Anything Else (2003), and Gran Torino (2006).

Trivia: First feature film appearance was an uncredited role in the 2009 Peter Jackson film The Lovely Bones.Landed the starring role of Lauren in the Lloyd Kaufman films Return to Nuke 'Em High Vol. 1 and Return To Return To Nuke 'Em High Vol. 2. Has been featured in the New York Times, MAXIM, TIME, PAPER, Le Figaro and Interview magazines.Spearheaded the Occupy Cannes movement and its subsequent 2019 Troma documentary Occupy Cannes!Is an advocate of independent art and has spoken at The Museum of the Moving Image, The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center.