Trivia: The daughter of a contractor father and an artist mother, Kate Mulgrew was the second oldest of eight children. At 18, Mulgrew headed to New York to study acting with Stella Adler. She spent a grueling year or so pounding on casting-agency doors and making ends meet as a waitress and model. Then, on the same day in 1975, she landed two plum roles: Emily Webb in a stage revival of Our Town, and Mary Ryan on the new ABC TV soap opera Ryan's Hope. Four years later, she was tapped to play Kate Columbo, the previously never-seen wife of dishevelled TV detective Columbo (Peter Falk), on the prime-time series Mrs. Columbo, later retitled Kate Loves a Mystery. Columbo himself would never be seen on Mrs. Columbo; for that matter, few viewers saw Kate Mulgrew, since the rather ill-conceived series never built up much of an audience. Despite this setback, the actress persevered, starring in the 1981 miniseries The Manions of America and appearing in such theatrical features as A Stranger is Watching (1982), Remo Williams (1985) and Throw Mama from the Train (1987). She went on to co-star with James Garner in the short-lived weekly Man of the People (1991), and in 1995 joined the ever-growing "Star Trek" family as Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek Voyager (she replaced Genevieve Bujold, who dropped out of the role in the middle of filming the first episode). Her significant TV guest appearances include a Boston councilwoman who carries on a torrid romance with Sam Malone (Ted Danson) in a 1986 episode of Cheers, and an alcoholic broadcast journalist on a 1992 installment of Murphy Brown; this last-named performance earned her a Tracey Humanitarian Award. Throughout her film and TV career, she has periodically returned to the stage, most recently in an all-star Broadway revival of Peter Schaffer's Black Comedy. In recognition of twenty years' worth of "artistic contributions," Kate Mulgrew was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Seton Hall University.Her career changed forever when she was cast as Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, becoming the first woman to lead one of the ships in the durable sci-fi franchise. The program ran for seven years. She was in 1998's Riddler's Moon, 2002's big-screen effort Star Trek: Nemesis. In 2011 she was part of the Star Trek documentary The Captains.

Trivia: Beltran is a supporting actor onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Though he was born in Washington, D.C., African-American film and television actor Tim Russ came of age in Turkey, where he attended Izmir High School for a brief period. Russ returned to the Big Apple prior to graduation and enrolled in Rome Academy, then studied theatrical arts at Saint Edwards University (as an undergraduate) and at Illinois State University (as a graduate student).Russ launched his film career on an exciting note, with his portrayal of blues legend Robert Johnson in Walter Hill's defiantly individualistic cinematic fable Crossroads (1986); he also delighted schtick fans the following year as the trooper hopelessly lost in the desert in Mel Brooks' gag-laden sci-fi spoof Spaceballs, and landed a plum supporting role in Clint Eastwood's homage to Charlie Parker, Bird (1988). Though Russ' subsequent work during the late '80s and the '90s occasionally dipped into exploitation -- such as his involvement in the lurid bedroom thriller Night Eyes 2 (1991) -- the actor also landed in more respectable fare from time to time. For instance, he joined the cast of the Billy Crystal comedy drama Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and appeared in a few episodes of the popular Will Smith sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.Russ left his most memorable mark, however, on Trekkies -- first with some appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, then with his evocation of Lt. Commander Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager -- a role he carried from 1995 through 2001. In 2007, Russ returned to comedy, playing sarcastic doorman Frank on the Christina Applegate sitcom Samantha Who?, and playing Principal Franklin on the Disney series iCarly.

Trivia: Yale alumnus Robert Picardo made his off-Broadway debut in David Mamet's one-act play Sexual Perversity in Chicago. That was in 1975; two years later, Picardo was first seen on Broadway in Gemini. He launched his TV career in the 1980 miniseries The Dream Merchants, and in 1981 made his first film, The Howling--one of several assignments for director Joe Dante. During his early TV years, he was all too often cast in "first husband" or "wrong boyfriend" supporting roles. Things improved in 1986, when he was hired to play the much-feared high school gym teacher Coach Cutlip in the weekly dramedy The Wonder Years. He went on to co-star as Dr. Dick Richard in the highly acclaimed Vietnam-era series China Beach (1989-91). A busy voiceover artist, Picardo has supplied a variety of vocal characterizations for such series as Dinosaurs and Batman. Undoubtedly you'll be reading even more about Robert Picardo in the future, by virtue of his being cast as the holographic Doc Zimmerman on TV's Star Trek: Voyager(1995- ). In the post Star Trek years, Picardo would find ongoing success on shows like The Lyon's Den, Stargate SG-1, and Stargate Atlantis.

Trivia: Made her professional acting debut in a production of the musical A Chorus Line on Broadway playing Diana Morales.Notably played half-human, half-Klingon Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres on the show Star Trek: Voyager over the entirety of the series' run from 1995 to 2001.Co-wrote the Tenebrea novel trilogy – Entering Tenebrea, Tenebrea's Hope and Tenebrea Rising – with Daniel Graham.

Trivia: Jeri Lynn Ryan is the stunning actress adored by science fiction fans for her portrayal of the Borg-human Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager. She was born in Munich, Germany, but was raised on several military bases all over the world. Settling on Illinois for college, she joined a sorority and competed in beauty pageants, making it all the way to the Miss America Pageant in 1990. She started her acting career with TV movies (Co-Ed Call Girl) and made several guest appearances on shows like Matlock and Melrose Place. In 1997, she gained a reoccurring role on the short-lived NBC series Dark Skies and joined the cast of Voyager. She has since gained a loyal fan base for this role, which requires a costume so tight it takes nearly an hour to get into it. In 2001, she moved on to the role of Ronnie Cooke on the Fox drama Boston Public, a role creator David E. Kelley penned specifically for her. After that show's demise, Ryan popped up as a guest on a number of series, notably The O.C. as a con artist, but the drama she faced on screen was nothing compared to her tumultuous personal life. When her former husband, Jack Ryan, ran for the Illinois state senate in 2004, details of their 1999 divorce became public, including her allegations that he had tried to pressure her into visiting sex clubs. But the scandal failed to tarnish the actress' reputation, and in 2006 she landed a regular role as a district attorney on Shark. Once that show ended, she maintained her presence on TV with guest roles on Law & Order: SVU, Leverage and Psych, before joining the main cast of the new show Body of Proof. She made her feature film breakthrough in Men Cry Bullets, followed by starring roles in The Last Man and Down With Love.