Trivia: Solidly built American actor Craig T. Nelson started out as a comedy writer and performer, doing radio and nightspot gigs in the Los Angeles area. Success was not immediately forthcoming, and Nelson took a four-year sabbatical from show business, moving with his family to a remote cabin in Northern California. In 1979, he made his first film, ...And Justice For All, written by his onetime partner Barry Levinson. While subsequent roles in Poltergeist and Silkwood followed, Nelson would find true stardom on television. For eight seasons beginning in 1989, he starred as college athletics instuctor Hayden Fox on the top-ranked ABC sitcom Coach. Appearing alongside supporting players Jerry Van Dyke and Shelly Fabares, Nelson received an Emmy for his work on the show in 1992.After Coach, Nelson showed up in a few small roles in feature films and television mini-series before returning to series work in 2000, leading the cast of CBS's D.C.-based cop-drama The District. While enjoying the success of that show, Nelson found time for his first high-profile feature film role in over a decade, providing the voice of the head of a family of superheroes in the 2004 Disney/Pixar animated film The Incredibles. In 2005 he played the patriarch of the dysfunctional clan in The Family Stone, and followed that up two years later as skating coach in the comedy Blades of Glory. He was Ryan Reynolds disapproving dad in the hit comedy The Proposal in 2009. He was cast as the head of the Braverman clan in NBC's relaunch of Parenthood in 2010, and appeared in the inspirational Soul Surfer in 2011.

Trivia: A talented actor who began to win due notice in the late '90s, Sean Patrick Thomas broke through to mainstream audiences with winning turns in such films as Cruel Intentions (1999) and Save the Last Dance (2001). The son of immigrants from Guyana, Thomas was born in Wilmington, DE, in 1970. While attending the University of Virginia, where he studied English and planned to become a lawyer, Thomas decided to pursue a career in acting after auditioning for a student production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Thomas broke into film with small roles in productions that included Courage Under Fire (1996), Conspiracy Theory (1997), and Can't Hardly Wait (1998). In 1996, he further added to his acting credentials by earning an M.A. in drama from New York University. Relative fame and even a blush of notoriety greeted the actor in 1999, with a pivotal role in Cruel Intentions, Roger Kumble's free and loose adaptation of Choderlos De Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Co-starring alongside alpha-teens Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Ryan Phillippe in the torrid tale of lust, betrayal, and negligent parenting on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Thomas earned (literal) exposure as the cello teacher/illicit lover of one of the film's principle characters. Even greater exposure followed for Thomas the subsequent year, when he was cast in a substantial role as Detective Temple Page on the critically acclaimed TV series The District. Riding high, he then won his first starring role on the big screen in Save the Last Dance (2001), an interracial love story set in Chicago's South Side that featured him as a black high school student in love with a white classmate (Julia Stiles). Although the film earned mixed reviews, it found an appreciative audience, and with it, a growing fan base for the young actor.

Trivia: Is a practicing Quaker. Her first professional role was as Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. Made her Broadway debut as an understudy in The SeagulI in 1992. Performed as Katherine in the New York Shakespeare Festival stage production of Henry V. Played Brooke Wyeth in the off-Broadway premiere of Other Desert Cities in 2011; when the show transfered to Broadway, she was replaced by Rachel Griffith, but later joined the show as a replacement.

Trivia: Worked for three years as a medical doctor in Adelaide, Sydney and London before relocating to the U.S. to pursue a career in acting. Got his first break in 1996, when he joined the cast of the U.S. TV show New York Undercover. After living in the U.S. for 17 years, he had to work with an accent coach to recapture his Australian accent. Is a bit of a "motor-head"; rebuilt a 1973 Dodge Challenger by himself.

Trivia: American leading and supporting actress Vanessa Bell Calloway got her first major break playing Imani Izzi in Eddie Murphy's Coming to America (1988), one year after she had made her film debut. The winner of an NAACP Image Award, Calloway has also appeared in numerous other films, including voicing a character in the animated film Bebe's Kids (1992), What's Love Got to Do With It? (1993), and Crimson Tide (1995). Her television credits include a recurring role as Yvonne Caldwell on the daily serial All My Children, during the 1984-1985 season and in 1987.

Trivia: As a character player of Italian extraction, Frank Grillo found himself cast, almost by default, in tough, slick, street-smart roles specializing in urban cops, detectives, and assorted mafia types. Actually, Grillo's onscreen aura -- so often perceived as "unmistakably New York" -- was somewhat misleading: he grew up not in the Bronx or Brooklyn but in upstate New York, and gravitated to sports prior to drama, weighing his options and finding himself torn between a full-time career as an athlete and life as a full-time actor. Grillo's parents, it seems, would have neither, and sent him to business school at NYU; as soon as Grillo ended up on Wall Street, however, fate intervened: his path criss-crossed with that of a casting agent, and he promptly landed a role in a beer commercial. That marked the first of over 25 similar assignments, plugging various products and services. He took a massive step up in prestige and exposure when cast as regular Hart Jessup on the soap The Guiding Light, then enjoyed multi-episode runs and guest spots on such primetime series as The Shield, CSI, Las Vegas, and Without a Trace. Grillo's feature roles include The Mambo Kings (1992), April's Shower (2003), and Pride and Glory (2008). As the yers rolled on, Grillo would find himself cast in memorable projects like Blue Eyes, Edge of Darkness, Warrior, and The Grey.

Trivia: Began acting at age 13 when he and a pal would make movies with a video camera. Took drama and acting classes through high school and college. Played football, basketball and baseball in high school. Attended New Mexico State on a football scholarship. Involved with the Foundation Fighting Blindness for personal reasons: both his father and sister suffer from macular degeneration of the retina.

Trivia: Took classes at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia after graduating high school.Studied communications for 2 years at La Salle University.Made her television debut in the 2004 episode "Breath of Life" of the CBS series The District.Is known for playing Tami-Lynn in the comedy films Ted and Ted 2.Earned her first producing credit on the 2018 horror drama Along Came the Devil, in which she also starred.

Trivia: Black supporting actress, onscreen from the late '70s.