Trivia: Born in 1976, Grenier grew up in Brooklyn and attended Bard College. It was during his studies that he was cast as the titular lead in the independent film The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998). His natural, unaffected portrayal of a young man growing up with his pre-op transsexual stepfather in 1980s upstate New York was a hit among critics, and Grenier was soon being touted as one to watch. That same year, the young actor -- who had made his film debut in the 1997 independent film Arresting Gena -- also gained a significant amount of exposure playing a member of Leonardo DiCaprio's entourage in Woody Allen's Celebrity. Following the critical and arthouse success of Sebastian Cole, Grenier was cast in his first mainstream film, Drive Me Crazy (1999). After a decidedly Manson-esque turn as a cinematic terrorist in director John Waters' Cecil B. Demented, Grenier could be seen in a small but notably less-psychotic role in Steven Spielberg's 2001 sci-fi drama A.I. He would appear in other films, like Hart's War and Anything Else, but it was the move to the small screen in 2004 with the lead on HBO's critically acclaimed Entourage that landed Grenier his most substantial notice and success to date. The massively popular show would run until 2011, and Grenier would also appear in the popular comedy The Devil Wears Prada. Grenier's interest would shift to documentary filmmaking, however, as the 2000's unfolded, and he would produce several projects, like Teenage Paparazzo and My Name is Faith, as well as the documentary series Alter Eco.

Trivia: Long Island, New York native Kevin Connolly broke into feature films and blockbuster television series roles by way of commercials; the fresh-faced star later recalled that he hawked every brand from Chips Ahoy! to Parker Brothers in front of the cameras during his early years. Cresting on this exposure, Connolly moved into bit roles in features during adolescence and gradually ascended to supporting billing. Projects in which he appeared included Rocky V (1990), The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), Angus (1995), and John Q. (2002). Connolly received elevated attention courtesy of his well-received supporting turns as Slim in the Denzel Washington-directed psychological drama Antwone Fisher (2002) and Fin in the nostalgic romance The Notebook (2004), but achieved widespread acclaim with his portrayal of Eric Murphy, one of several young men enjoying the perks of Hollywood stardom, in the HBO comedy series Entourage from 2004 to 2011. After the show ended its run, Connolly reentered the world of film, appearing in a number of projects, like the Ken Kwapis-directed romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You, and the horse-racing drama Secretariat.Connolly made his feature directorial debut in 2997 with the black comedy The Gardener of Eden, executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Trivia: The younger brother of actor Matt Dillon, Kevin Dillon was a movie leading man by age 20. Originally planning to study art, Dillon became an actor when he was spotted by an agent at the premiere of older brother Matt's Tex (1985). Often cast in lightweight roles (Heaven Help Us [1985], The Blob [1988]), Dillon has distinguished himself in the films of director Oliver Stone with a brace of powerful characterizations: the baby-faced but homicidal teenage soldier Bunny in Platoon (1986), and real-life rock musician John Densmore in The Doors (1991). He would continue to take on a variety of projects over the coming decades, most notably titles like Criminal Hearts, and Poseidon. Dillon has also enjoyed a successful TV career, on shows like Entourage and How to Be a Gentleman.

Trivia: Inspired by a teacher to pursue a career in acting while studying theater in college. Made his professional acting debut in 2000 on an episode of The King of Queens. Has used the alias Zack Morris while staying at hotels because Saved by the Bell was his favorite TV show while growing up. Has considered himself less outgoing and less outspoken than Turtle, his character on Entourage. Was the best man at the 2006 Las Vegas wedding of his Entourage costar Kevin Dillon. Co-owner of the Los Angeles deli Fat Sal's, which opened in 2010. Hobbies include golfing and playing video games; is a self-described homebody who doesn't do a lot of clubbing. Is not an avid traveler because he doesn't enjoy flying. Is a huge sports fan who dreamed of being a sports analyst before turning to acting.

Trivia: Classically trained character actor Jeremy Piven shot to stardom as Ellen DeGeneres' unforgettable, sharp-witted cousin Spence on the ABC sitcom Ellen. Born in New York City on July 26, 1965, Piven is the son of actors Byrne and Joyce Piven. He grew up in Evanston, IL, where his parents founded the Piven Theater Workshop. He studied theater at his parents' school alongside Lili Taylor, Rosanna Arquette, and pal John Cusack. The longtime friends, who began by performing Chekhov at age eight, have collaborated on several films -- including One Crazy Summer (1986), Say Anything (1989), The Grifters (1990), Floundering (1994), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), and Serendipity (2001). They also co-founded the New Criminals Theater Company in 1989, which is now New Crime Productions, the company behind Grosse Pointe Blank and the Cusack vehicle High Fidelity (2002).A former member of the Second City National Touring Company, Piven made his small-screen debut on Carol Burnett's short-lived variety show Carol and Company in 1990. He went on to play a writer on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show and to appear on Seinfeld before starring as an unemployed father on the short-lived series Pride & Joy. Disney, who produced Pride & Joy, then created a role for him on Ellen. After the sitcom's cancellation in April 1998, Piven landed his own show, the offbeat ABC comedy-drama Cupid. Also starring Piven's real-life neighbor Paula Marshall, Cupid followed the infamous matchmaker after he had been thrown out of heaven for bad behavior and attempted to earn his reentry by uniting 100 couples in true love without using his otherworldly powers. The series won critical acclaim and earned Piven quite a following. Yet, as with many of the network's more innovative shows, ABC mishandled Cupid, shuffling it in and out of prime time until its inevitable cancellation. Undaunted, Piven returned to television a year later to guest star on Will & Grace.While Piven's film career has suffered the same ups and downs as his time on television, it is marked by numerous scene-stealing supporting performances. After making his feature-film debut in Lucas (1986), the actor appeared in Robert Altman's The Player (1992), Cameron Crowe's Singles (1992), and Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts (1992). He fell into a slump with failures like Judgment Night (1993) and Car 54, Where are You? (1994), but became a cult favorite for his portrayal of a campus misfit in P.C.U. (1994). Standout roles opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in Miami Rhapsody (1995), Robert De Niro in Heat (1995), Bill Murray in Larger Than Life (1996), and Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls (1997) quickly followed. He then proved to be the only good thing in Peter Berg's Very Bad Things (1998), before playing Nicolas Cage's best friend in The Family Man (2000). Piven took a respectable dramatic turn as a doomed helicopter pilot in Ridley Scott's award-winning Black Hawk Down, but returned to comedy for Old School (2003), a film by the makers of Road Trip (2000).Piven continued his work in entourage and took a starring role in Chappelle's Show director Neal Brennan's farcical comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard in 2009. 2011 found the actor playing the dreaded Timekeeper in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, he would portray another villain, this time in a voice role, for the children's adventure The Pirates! Band of Misfits in 2012.Then, in 2005, Piven scored the iconic role of Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage. The show turned out to be a massive success, and Piven's profile was raised considerably, making him more of a household name, and helping him to score more interesting roles outside the show, like washed-out magician Buddy Isreal in the 2006 over-the-top action blow-out Smokin' Aces, and Damon Schmidt in the 2007 political thriller The Kingdom. In 2008, he joined the cast of the Guy Ritchie London crime movie RocknRolla.

Trivia: Known for her feline eyes and brash New York attitude, Queens native Debi Mazar began her show business career behind the scenes as a makeup artist for a star-studded clientele, the most lucrative of the bunch being Madonna. Attracted by her unique features, the iconic pop singer cast Mazar in the music videos for "True Blue," "Deeper and Deeper," and "Papa Don't Preach." It wasn't until 1990, however, that Mazar made her film debut as the cokehead girlfriend of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas. After portraying a series of small but indelible characters in Oliver Stone's The Doors, Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, and Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate (all 1991), Mazar had developed a small but devoted following and a reputation solid enough to land her the tough-talking role of legal defense secretary Denise Iannello on ABC's legal drama Civil Wars (1991-1993), a role she would reprise for NBC's L.A. Law in 1994.After taking on several more tiny supporting parts throughout the early '90s, including one which would reunite her with Jungle Fever director Spike Lee (in the Oscar-winning Malcolm X [1992]), Mazar made her debut as a lead character in Money for Nothing (1993), a blue-collar crime comedy co-starring John Cusack, with whom she would work for a second time in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994). After a brief performance as a manicurist in television's Witch Hunt (1994), Mazar could be found in the role of a femme fatale alongside Drew Barrymore, Jim Carrey, and Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995), and would portray an idealistic HIV-positive thief in Red Ribbon Blues (1995). Red Ribbon Blues wasn't the last time Mazar would delve into the complex world of sex and gender-related prejudice -- in 1996's Girl 6, Mazar co-starred as an anonymous member of a phone sex business, while Things I Never Told You found her playing a transsexual. Shortly afterward, Mazar chewed a respectable amount of scenery as one of Long Island barfly Tommy's (Steve Buscemi) potential hook-ups in 1996's Trees Lounge. The actress continued to exhibit her versatility in a series of roles during 1997, including those of a sleazy television show producer in Meet Wally Sparks, an intergalactic waitress in Space Truckers, and two decidedly more serious performances in the gay & lesbian drama Nowhere and Nick Cassavetes' romantic drama She's So Lovely.With the notable exceptions of bleaching her trademark jet-black tresses for 1998's Frogs for Snakes with Robbie Coltrane, and her role as Debbie De Luca in Michael Mann's tobacco industry exposé The Insider (1999), Mazar spent much of the late '90s on the small screen. After the failure of CBS's sitcom Temporarily Yours (1997), Mazar played lead roles in David and Lisa (a psychological drama co-produced by Oprah Winfrey) and NBC's Witness to the Mob. Following another NBC sitcom appearance in the short-lived Working (1998), the actress starred in 2000's CBS drama That's Life as an advice-dispensing hairdresser. In 2002, Mazar played right-hand woman to multi-millionaire Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs) in Jackie Chan's The Tuxedo, and went on to offer a poignant monologue in Ten Tiny Love Stories the same year. In 2004, Mazar took on a supporting role in the crime comedy Be Cool with John Travolta and Uma Thurman, and starred in Dennis Brooks' independent film Goodnight, Joseph Parker.She had a major role in 2008's A Beautiful Life, and that same year had a small part in the ensemble of The Women. In 2012 she could be seen in the porn queen biopic Lovelace.

Trivia: Born in New York City, but raised in New Hampshire. Guest starred in an X-Files episode alongside then-boyfriend David Duchovny. Charitable pursuits include the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Is a vegetarian. Is an avid practitioner of yoga and meditation.

Trivia: A native of Sarasota, FL, Gugino spent most of her youth being shuttled by her mother to various locations in California. At age 15, she and her mom were living in San Diego, when Gugino was convinced to try a modeling career in New York City. She succeeded, but soon found the fast pace of high-fashion modeling too much for her and moved to Los Angeles, where she took advice from an aunt, model Carol Merril, and enrolled in acting classes to study under drama coach Gene Bua. Gugino soon made her film debut in the comedy Troop Beverly Hills (1986). More features followed, until she got her first supporting major role, that of Norma in the Robert De Niro/Leonardo Di Caprio drama This Boy's Life (1993), and later scored a co-starring role on the Michael J. Fox sitcom Spin City. As her star continued to rise, Gugino would spend the subsuquent years appearing in a wide variety of high profile projects, like Spy Kids, Out of Sight, Sin City, Night at the Museum, Sucker Punch, Watchmen, and Mr. Popper's Penguins. Gugino would also find major success on the small screen, with roles on shows like Entourage and Californication.

Trivia: Actor and filmmaker Adam Goldberg first made an impression on film critics and audiences alike as the cynical Private Mellish in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. In 1998, the same year that Ryan was released, Goldberg made his feature directorial, screenwriting, and executive-producing debut with Scotch and Milk, a neo-noir drama centering around a group of L.A. friends burdened by love (or lack thereof) and a fixation with the 1950s. The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, helped to establish Goldberg as a talent worth watching.Born in Santa Monica on October 25, 1970, Goldberg was raised in Hollywood. He began performing at a young age, studying with Tracy Roberts when he was 14 and enrolling at Los Angeles' Lee Strasberg Institute a year later. He continued to act on stage while attending Sarah Lawrence College, and he subsequently returned to L.A. to pursue his career. Goldberg made his film debut in 1992 alongside Billy Crystal in Mr. Saturday Night, and the following year he could be seen in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, which cast him as a neurotic high school junior. He continued to act in supporting roles in a number of varied films, earning little notice until Spielberg cast him in the award-winning Saving Private Ryan. He wrote and directed the indie Scotch and Mil in 1998, and also contributed a voice to Babe: Pig in the City. At the beginning of the 21st century he could be seen in the Best Picture Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind, as well as the comedy The Hebrew Hammer, and reteaming with Richard Linklater on Waking Life. In 2004 he returned to directing and writing with I Love Your Work. He continued to work in a variety of interesting projects including Déjà vu, 2 Days in Paris, and Zodiac. He had a major supporting role on the short-lived TV series The Unusuals and in 2012 he played the part of Harry Reems in the Linda Lovelace biopic Inferno.

Trivia: Solemn, soulful-eyed character actor Harris Yulin made his 1963 off-Broadway debut in Next Time I'll Sing for You. Though Yulin remained a frequent visitor to the New York theatrical scene (he made his Broadway bow in a 1980 revival of Watch on the Rhine), he preferred to live and work in his home state of California. As one of the founders of the Los Angeles Classic Theater, he became a mentor and spiritual advisor for a number of film stars with theatrical aspirations. His own movie work includes the roles of Wild Bill Hickok in the 1971 revisionist Western Doc, Bernstein in the 1983 remake of Scarface, and King Edward in 1996's Looking for Richard, a contemporary spin on Shakespeare's Richard III. On television, Harris Yulin has been seen as Senator Joseph McCarthy in Robert F. Kennedy and His Times (1985) and as girl-chasing TV anchorman Neal Frazier in the weekly WIOU (1990).

Trivia: One of Hollywood's most steadily employed character actresses, Caroline Aaron has appeared in an impressive array of films for some of the industry's most esteemed directors. A native of Richmond, VA, where she was born August 7, 1952, Aaron made her film debut as a waitress in John Sayles' Baby, It's You (1982). Her subsequent film credits include Sayles' Brother From Another Planet (1984), Mike Nichols' Heartburn (1986), Working Girl (1988), and Primary Colors (1998); Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Alice (1990), Husbands and Wives (1992), and Deconstructing Harry (1997); Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and Wayne Wang's Anywhere but Here (1999). In 2000, she popped up in Nichols' alien comedy What Planet Are You From? and Don Roos' romantic drama Bounce, co-starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow.Aaron has also acted extensively on television and the stage. Within the former medium, she has guest starred on such popular series as Mad About You and Law & Order, while she has appeared on-stage in such acclaimed works as the Broadway production of The Iceman Cometh and the national tour of Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig.

Trivia: A trained dramatic actor, Shelley Berman rose to fame in the 1950s by becoming the first "sit-down" comedian. Berman's calculatedly self-pitying nightclub monologues concerned his tiltings with the minor frustrations of everyday life. His specialty was the "telephone" monologue; seated on a stool and holding an imaginary receiver, Berman invariably cast himself as the victim of Ma Bell bureaucracy and thick-headed unseen "second parties." He tended to wear his neuroses on his sleeve, and was well-known for his unpredictable temperament; in one notorious TV-special appearance of the 1960s, Berman was interrupted in mid-monologue by a ringing offstage pay phone, whereupon he stomped backstage and tore the offending phone off the wall. A busy TV guest-star, Berman showed up frequently on the Paar/Sullivan/Allen variety show circuit of the 1950s and 1960s, and played seriocomic roles on such TV series as Peter Gunn, The Twilight Zone and The Girl From UNCLE. He also played a recurring role on the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977), and was co-producer of the 1970 summer replacement series Comedy Tonight. Berman's film credits include The Best Man (1964), Divorce American Style (1967) and Son of the Blob (1970). Dropping out of public view due to profound personal problems (not least of which was the death of his son), Shelley Berman staged a comeback in the 1980s with appearances in such films as Teen Witch (1989) and Elliot Faumann MD (1990).

Trivia: One of a number of American independent filmmakers launched to prominence in the '90s by virtue of their success at the Sundance Film Festival, writer/director Edward Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, in 1968 and raised on Long Island. After attending Oneonta College and S.U.N.Y.-Albany, he transferred to Hunter College in New York City to study motion pictures; there he helmed a number of short films, including the 15-minute Hey, Sco! Upon graduating, Burns began working at a local news outlet and made Brandy, a 45-minute effort screened as a work in progress at the 1992 Independent Feature Film Market. During the spring of 1993, while working as a production assistant for the television newsmagazine Entertainment Tonight, Burns began conceiving The Brothers McMullen, a comedy focusing on the romantic troubles facing three Irish-Catholic siblings. Shot primarily in his parents' Long Island home, with a cast of unknowns including Burns himself and his then-girlfriend Maxine Bahns, the feature was filmed over eight months' time with a budget of about 25,000 dollars and with the aid of a technical crew comprised largely of fellow Entertainment Tonight staffers. Rejected by a series of distributors, The Brothers McMullen bowed at Sundance in 1995 and won the festival's Grand Jury Prize, becoming one of the most successful independent efforts of the year.For his follow-up, She's the One, Burns retained much of the McMullen cast and crew, including Bahns and actor Mike McGlone; by virtue of his newfound fame, he was also able to cast up-and-coming stars Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz in pivotal roles, and he even solicited an original soundtrack from rocker Tom Petty. Filmed with a comparatively lavish budget of about three million dollars, the romantic comedy premiered during late August 1996. Burns soon began work on his third feature, No Looking Back, a romantic drama set in a coastal town's working-class community. The film co-starred Lauren Holly and was released in 1998; that same year, Burns co-starred in the Steven Spielberg World War II epic Saving Private Ryan. In 1999, he was back on the screen with an appearance in Oliver Stone's football drama Any Given Sunday. In the years that followed, Burns wrote and directed a series of additional comedy-dramas incluing Sidewalks of New York (2001), Ash Wednesday (2002), Looking for Kitty (2004) and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas.

Trivia: Studied piano from the age of 6 and originally majored in music at Oberlin College, but ultimately decided to pursue acting. Early in his career, worked as an assistant to casting directors, which provided unintentional research for his breakout role as Lloyd, assistant to agent Ari Gold on HBO's Entourage. Won Asian Excellence Awards for Supporting Television Actor in 2007 and 2008 for his work on Entourage. Has appeared in commercials for Domino's, Dr. Pepper, Chevrolet and Wendy's. Theater work includes Queen of Angels, Letters to a Student Revolutionary and a revival of Charles Ludlam's Camille.