Trivia: One of the crop of bright-eyed, dewy-skinned young actors to attain teen idoldom and a regular paycheck during the late 1990s, Jessica Alba closed out the century as one of Hollywood's more promising new talents. Born in Pomona, California, on April 28, 1981, Alba, whose father was in the Air Force, moved with her family to Biloxi, Mississippi, when she was an infant, but she eventually moved back to California nine years later. It was back in California that she embarked on an acting career; having been in love with the idea of acting since she was five, Alba took her first acting class at the age of 12, and nine months later, she landed her first agent. She got her start on television, making appearances on shows like Beverly Hills 90210, and she made her film debut in the 1994 kids comedy Camp Nowhere. Originally cast in a minor role in the film, she got her first big break when the principal actress dropped out and she was asked to take over. Following her debut, Alba did a great deal of work on television. She got her first substantial film role as the object of the protagonist's disastrous affection in the teen horror comedy Idle Hands in 1999; that same year, she played one of the nasty popular girls who terrorize Drew Barrymore in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed.The following year Alba made waves on the small screen when she was cast in the much hyped Fox series Dark Angel, executive produced by James Cameron. She was cast as a genetically-engineered woman who escapes from the lab and joins a cyberjournalist named Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly) in his neverending fight against crime in a post-apocalyptic future. Though the series was cancelled after two seasons, Alba continued to appear in such indie features as Paranoid (2000) and The Sleeping Dictionary (2002); the little-seen Glitter-esque dancer drama Honey similarly did little to enhance her profile.All that would change, however, when Alba became one of the core members of the quartet of the Fantastic Four franchise. Mostly reviled by critics but a solid success with audiences, her role as the spontaneously invisible Susan Storm endeared her to 10-year-old sci-fi geeks everywhere. Now a blockbuster actress, Alba attempted to balance this heightened profile with a wide variety of genre roles, appearing in thrillers (Into the Blue, The Killer Inside Me, The Eye), grindhouse fare and pulp noirs (Sin City, Machete) and comedies (Good Luck Chuck, Valentine's Day, A.C.O.D.). Alba even appeared in the 2010 Meet the Fockers sequel, Little Fockers, as well as the kids' adventure flick Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D.

Trivia: Born October 28th, 1967, Georgia native Julia Roberts was raised in a fervently pro-theater environment. Her parents regularly hosted acting and writing workshops, and both of the Roberts children (Julia and her brother Eric) showed an interest in the performing arts at an early age. Ironically enough, Eric was the first to break into film; in 1978, one year after their father died of lung cancer at 47, Eric Roberts starred in director Frank Pierson's psychological drama King of the Gypsies. Though her older brother would go on to have a solid acting career, it was, of course, Julia Roberts who earned a spot among Hollywood's elite.After making her film debut in Blood Red -- which wouldn't be released until 1989, despite having been completed in 1986 -- and appearing in several late '80s television features, Roberts got her first real break in the 1988 made-for-cable drama Satisfaction. That role, consequently, led to her first significant supporting role -- a feisty pizza parlor waitress in 1989's Mystic Pizza with Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor, and a then 19-year-old Matt Damon. While Mystic Pizza was not a star-making film for Roberts, it certainly helped earn her the credentials she needed to land the part of Shelby, an ill-fated would-be mother in Steel Magnolias. The 1989 tearjerker found her acting alongside Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine, and culminated in an Oscar nomination for Roberts. While the success of Steel Magnolias played no small part in launching Roberts' career, and undoubtedly secured her role in the mediocre Flatliners (1990) with former flame Kiefer Sutherland, it was director Garry Marshall's romantic comedy Pretty Woman with Richard Gere that served as her true breakthrough role. Roberts' part in Pretty Woman (a good-hearted prostitute who falls in love with a millionaire client) made the young actress a household name and cemented what would become a permanent spot in tabloid fodder. Roberts broke off her engagement with Sutherland in 1991, just three days before they were scheduled to be married, and surprised the American public in 1993, when she began her two-year marriage to country singer Lyle Lovett. Roberts' personal life kept her name in the spotlight despite a host of uneven performances throughout the early '90s (neither 1991's Dying Young or Sleeping With the Enemy garnered much acclaim), as did a reputed feud with Steven Spielberg during the filming of Hook (1991). Luckily, Roberts made decidedly less embarrassing headlines in 1993, when her role alongside future Oscar winner Denzel Washington in The Pelican Brief reaffirmed her status as a dramatic actress. Her career, however, took a turn back to the mediocre throughout the following year; both Prêt-à-Porter and I Love Trouble proved commercial flops, and Mary Reilly (1996) fizzled at the box office as well. The downward spiral reversed directions once again with 1996's Michael Collins and Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson, and led to several successful comic roles including Notting Hill with Hugh Grant, Runaway Bride, and most notably, My Best Friend's Wedding with Rupert Everett and a then virtually unknown Cameron Diaz. Roberts' biggest success didn't present itself until 2000, though, when she delivered an Oscar-winning performance playing the title role in Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich. The film, based on the true story of Erin Brockovich, a single mother who, against all odds, won a heated battle against corporate environmental offenders, earned Roberts a staggering 20-million-dollar salary. Officially the highest paid actress in Hollywood, Roberts went on to star in 2001's America's Sweethearts with Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and John Cusack, as well as The Mexican with Brad Pitt. While on the set of The Mexican, Roberts met cameraman Danny Moder, whom she would marry in 2001 almost immediately after ending a four-year relationship with fellow actor Benjamin Bratt. Indeed, 2001 was a banner year for Roberts; in addition to America's Sweethearts and The Mexican, Roberts starred in the crime caper Ocean's Eleven, in which she rejoined former co-stars Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, and acted for the first time with George Clooney and Don Cheadle. Julia Roberts worked with Soderbergh once again in 2002's Full Frontal, which, despite a solid cast including Mary McCormack and Catherine Keener, among others, did not even begin to fare as well as Erin Brockovich. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), which featured Roberts as a femme fatale alongside George Clooney, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore did much better, and preceded 2003's Mona Lisa Smile with young Hollywood's Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2004, Roberts signed on for the sequel to Ocean's Eleven -- the aptly titled Ocean's Twelve. A supporting performance in the animated 2006 feature The Ant Bully marked the glamorous Hollywood beauty's first foray into the world of animation, which she would continue for Christmas of 2006 with the role of everone's favorite selfless spider in Charlotte's Web. In the coming years, Roberts would reteam with Tom Hanks for Charlie Wilson's War in 2007, and then again for Larry Crowne in 2011. In the meantime, the A-lister would keep busy with a critically acclaimed performance in 2010's Eat, Pray, Love, in which she portrayed a divorcee on a journey of self discovery, and 2012's retelling of Snow White, Mirror, Mirror.

Trivia: After graduating from Georgetown University in 1997, Bradley Cooper set his sites on becoming not just a working actor, but a good actor. He enrolled in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University and began molding his abilities around a love of the craft, rather than a paycheck. He made his first onscreen debut while attending the program, with an appearance on Sex and the City in 1998, as well as a starring role on the short-lived Darren Star series The $treet. Cooper kept his life well-balanced, however, spending time teaching acting to inner-city children through the Learning through the Expanded Arts Program and taking a job as host of the Discovery Channel show Extreme Treks in a Wild World, which took him on journeys to Peru and British Colombia. His first feature film role came in 2001 with a part in the absurdist comedy Wet Hot American Summer. Near this time, Cooper was cast as Will Tippin in the ABC series Alias, which he stayed with for two seasons. He was also cast in a number of canceled series such as Miss Match, Touching Evil, and Kitchen Confidential. Cooper would find greater and greater success with comedy, however, landing a part in 2005's Owen Wilson comedy The Wedding Crashers that exposed him to a wider audience, as well as roles in 2006's Failure to Launch, and 2008's Yes Man . But of course, Cooper's breakthrough film turned out to be the explosively successful 2009 comedy The Hangover. Cooper's starring role as the smartest friend in a misguided trio, searching for their buddy after losing track of him during his extremely wild bachelor party made him an instant household name, and he would reprise the role for 2011's The Hangover 2. In the meantime, Cooper would nab starring roles in more and more films, like the thriller Limitless and the big screen adaptation of The A-Team.He scored his biggest critical hit to date with 2012's Silver Linings Playbook where his portrayal of a bi-polar man trying to pull his life back together after being released from a mental institution garnered him a number of year-end accolades including a nomination for Best Actor from the Screen Actors Guild and at the Academy Awards. He returned to the Oscar race in 2014 playing the title role in Clint Eastwood's 21st century war drama American Sniper, for which he also was nominated for Best Picture, having served as a producer on the film.

Trivia: Actress Kathy Bates has been involved in the arts in one way or another since graduating from Southern Methodist University. Among the Memphis native's earliest jobs were a stint as a singing waitress in a Catskill resort and a sojourn as a gift shop cashier in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Bates was type-cast in character roles early on, which assured her a lot more work than the thousands of faceless ingenues in the business. Her film debut occurred with 1971's Taking Off, and she made her off-Broadway debut five years later in Vanities.For a long while, Bates made her name on the stage, only to see her roles go to other actresses in the plays' subsequent film adaptations. In 1983, she was nominated for a Tony award for her stage appearance as a garrulous would-be suicide in 'Night, Mother, a role played on screen by Sissy Spacek. She also appeared as Lenny McGrath in Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Crimes of the Heart, a role played on screen by Diane Keaton. And in 1987, playwright Terrence McNally wrote a part specifically tailored to Bates' talents: the much-abused waitress Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, a role which won her an Obie award, and, following a familiar pattern, was played on screen by Michelle Pfeiffer.Bates finally got to star in a movie herself in 1990. And what a starring role it was: in Misery, she portrayed the psychotic "Number One Fan" of romance writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan), a searing performance which earned the actress an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Appropriately enough, Hollywood screenwriters subsequently began making more room for Bates in their scripts. She worked steadily throughout the rest of the decade in films of greatly varying quality. Particular highlights included Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), A Prelude to a Kiss (1992), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Titanic (1997), and Primary Colors (1998), the latter of which featured Bates giving an Oscar and Golden Globe nominated performance as a political muckraker. Following her firey, foul-mouthed performance in that thinly veilied political biopic, Bates added a new credential to her resume, that of director. Initially taking the helm for the made-for-cable feature Dash and Lilly, Bates would subsequently direct episodes of the quirky HBO drama series Six Feet Under, simultaniously taking minor film roles before returning to more substantial roles with the CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame entry My Sister's Keeper. Roles in Love Liza and Dragonfly (both 2002) were soon to follow, and with her turn as an extroverted mother who catches the attention of Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt Bates would recieve her third Oscar nomination.She directed a number of episodes of the HBO series Six Feet Under before joining the cast in season 3 as Bettina. The next year she portrayed Queen Victoria in the big-budget remake of Around the World in 80 Days. She directed he feature Ambulance Girl in 2005. She continued to act steadily in a variety of projects including Failure to Launch, P.S. I Love You, Fred Claus, Bee Movie, and Revolutionary Road. She provided expert support for Sandra Bulock as the younger actress was winning an Oscar in The Blind Side, and Bates joined the cast of The Office in 2009. She was part of the large ensemble in 2010'ss Valentine's Day, and in 2011 starred as Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen's Oscar winning Midnight in Paris. That same year she launched her own network Drama series Harry's Law.

Trivia: Jessica Biel rose to fame as the wholesome preacher's daughter on the WB television show 7th Heaven, then gained greater notoriety for trying to get herself kicked off the show via a risqué photo spread in the men's magazine Gear. Making such statements as, "Mary Camden is dead," the 17-year-old Biel indeed got out of her contract to pursue a movie career; when that floundered, she - amusingly - found herself reconsidering her haste and returned for guest spots on the program.Biel was born on March 3, 1982, in Ely, MN, then raised in Boulder, CO. She was first discovered at the 1994 IMTA Los Angeles Convention, which earned her a scholarship to Diane Hardin's Young Actors Space in Los Angeles. Teen print modeling followed, and in 1996, Biel began her run as Mary Camden on the Aaron Spelling-produced 7th Heaven. Shortly thereafter, she was cast as Peter Fonda's granddaughter in Victor Nunez's rich character study, Ulee's Gold (1997), and as Jonathan Taylor Thomas' love interest in I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998).But Biel grew tired of playing a good girl on television and tried to force the producers to fire her from 7th Heaven, claiming her pristine image was a factor that kept her from landing the role that went to Thora Birch in American Beauty (1999). When the producers would not release her from her contract, she posed on the cover of the March 2000 Gear under the headline "Fallen Angel." The images inside featured her sprawled topless on a bed and against a bathroom mirror, her hands providing insufficient cover in a manner that pushed even Gear's lax standards for showing skin. The issue become one of Gear's most popular ever, with terrific resale value on Ebay, and got Biel canned from the show.However, the controversy and exposure did not immediately improve her film career. Biel's first post-Gear role was as a bikini-wearing babe in the Freddie Prinze Jr. baseball movie Summer Catch (2001), but the film barely made a flicker at the box office after being bumped from its initial release date. Biel has since been making guest appearances in her initial Mary Camden role and has been cast in director Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction (2002). An ill-advised shortcut down the backroads of Texas found Biel and friends pursued by one of the silver screen's most notorious maniacs in the 2003 remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with supporting roles in David R. Ellis's intense pot-boiler Cellular and the vampire-slaying Wesley Snipes action fantasy Blade: Trinity serving well to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. While a blast into the clouds with Stealth provided innoffensive thrills for more forgiving movie-goers, few would stand up to defend Almost Famous director Cameron Crowe's saccharine Elizabethtown as even throwaway fun. In 2006, Biel traveled back in time to become the source of a decidedly supernatural mystery as the ill-fated love of a turn-of-the-centry Vienna magician portrayed by Edward Norton in director Neil Burger's The Illusionist. Biel began 2007 at a low ebb, as the romantic lead in the apocalyptic sci-fi thriller NEXT. As directed by journeyman Hollywood action stalwart Lee Tamahori (XXX: State of the Union), and adapted (loosely) from the Philip K. Dick story "The Golden Man," the picture stars Nicolas Cage as Cris, an issue-ridden psychic who foresees the nuclear destruction of Los Angeles. Biel plays the seer's tender-hearted lover, who spends her free time every week at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, teaching the children of the Havasupai Indian reservation. The film bombed unequivocally at the box office, reeling in only around $14 million worldwide in its first week.The actress next switched genres, unveiling her comic flair to audiences in the hotly-anticipated buddy comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007). The Universal farce (released in the States in July 2007) stars Adam Sandler and Hitch's Kevin James as, respectively, Chuck Levine and Larry Valentine, the bachelors of the title - two straight macho firefighters who pose as gay marrieds to qualify for domestic partner benefits. No points for guessing that Biel plays the film's romantic lead; she's the attorney who represents the two men against the insurance company, with whom Sandler falls in love.Biel appeared in Gary Marshall's ensemble romcom Valentine's Day (2010) and the unrelated follow up, New Year's Eve (2011). She played Captain Charissa Sosa in the big-screen remake of The A-Team (2010) and continued on her action movie remake streak, playing Melina in Total Recall (2012). In 2012, she also appeared in Playing for Keeps with Gerard Butler and the bio drama Hitchcock, playing actress Vera Miles.

Trivia: Like a lot of young, hopeful actors, Eric Dane set his sites on Hollywood after showing his stuff in high-school theater productions. He moved to L.A. after graduation, and immediately started paying his dues appearing in things like the TV movie Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Story and The Basket. Almost ten years of getting by with minor appearances finally paid off for Dane in 2003, when he began appearing regularly on the popular sci-fi dramedy Charmed. He would continue to appear on the show through the next year, a year that would also see him get married to actress Rebecca Gayheart. He appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, which was, oddly enough, directed by Brett Ratner, his new wife's former fiancé, and that same year he joined the cast of the wildly popular series Grey's Anatomy. Dane played womanizing plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Sloan (aka "McSteamy"), whose prior affair with Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd (Kate Walsh) contributed to the end of her marriage to his colleague and former best friend, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). In 2008 he was cast in the hit Marley & Me even as he continued work on Grey's Anatomy. In 2010 he appeared in the musical Burlesque and was part of the large ensemble in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day.

Trivia: Noted for playing quirky and shy guys in his youth and charming leading men in his adult life, contemporary American actor Patrick Dempsey became a rising star in Hollywood during the late '80s and '90s. A state downhill skiing champion in high school, he began performing nonprofessionally as a juggler, magician, and puppeteer. He would soon parlay his performing skills onto the screen, becomming well known for the role of a loveable geek in the 1987 teen romcom Can't Buy Me Love.He would go on to appear in a number of films over the coming years, like With Honors, Outbreak, and Sweet Home Alabama. Dempsey would find his most definitive role in 2005 however, when he was cast as Dr. Derek Shepherd on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Dempsey's portrayal of the handsom doctor made him so popular, he became regularly referred to by the nickname "Dr. McDreamy," and he would stick with the series for many seasons to come.

Trivia: An actor of seemingly boundless range, New York-born Hector Elizondo began his career as a dancer. His initial training was at the Ballet Arts school of Carnegie Hall, from which he moved on to the Actors Studio. After several years' stage work, Elizondo made an inauspicious movie debut as "The Inspector" in the low-budget sex film The Vixens (1969). He was shown to better advantage in his next film, Hal Ashby's The Landlord (1970), which he followed up with strong character parts in such Manhattan-based productions as The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) and Thieves (1977). With Young Doctors in Love (1982), Elizondo began his long association with director Garry Marshall, who has since cast the actor in all of his films, in roles both sizable (Matt Dillon's dad in The Flamingo Kid [1984], the cafe owner in Frankie and Johnny [1991]), and microscopic (Overboard [1987]). Elizondo's screen roles have run the gamut from scrungy garbage scow captains to elegant concierges (Pretty Woman). In addition, he has been a regular on several mediocre television series: Popi, Freebie and the Bean, Casablanca (in the old Claude Rains role of Inspector Renault), a.k.a. Pablo, Foley Square, and Down and Out in Beverly Hills, In 1994, Elizondo took on a co-starring role as a demanding chief of surgery on the popular TV medical drama Chicago Hope. Other non-Marshall highlights in his filmography include Tortilla Soup, Overboard, Necessary Roughness, and Music Within.

Trivia: One of the most popular African-American comedians of the late 1990s, TV star turned screen actor Jamie Foxx was born Eric Marlon Bishop in the small town of Terrell, Texas, on December 13, 1967. Foxx was raised by his grandparents after his parents separated. He enjoyed a happy upbringing, going to church every day with his grandparents and excelling at everything from academics to music to football. During his teen years he had his first taste of the entertainment business as his church's choir director and music director, and also started his own R&B band. Foxx studied music while a student at the U.S. International University in San Diego; it was during his college days that he got his start as a stand-up comedian. Attending a comedy club one night with some friends, he was encouraged to take the stage and perform some impersonations, which proved incredibly popular with the audience. Foxx's enthusiastic reception led to his decision to move to L.A. and pursue a comedy career. At the age of 22 he was hired for In Living Color, and he subsequently landed a recurring role on Charles Dutton's sitcom Roc. Foxx eventually broke through onto the big screen with small appearances in movies like The Truth About Cats and Dogs, The Great White Hype, and Booty Call. Foxx's big break in film came in 1999 with Any Given Sunday, and he would henceforth find himself on a short list of bankable dramatic actors in Hollywood. He would go on to star in Michael Mann's Ali and Collateral, before playing legendary musician Ray Charles for the biopic Ray, which found Foxx taking home a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance. Foxx would continue to remain a top-tier actor, starring in major films like Stealth, Jarhead, Miami Vice, Dreamgirls, The Soloist, Law Abiding Citizen, Django Unchained, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the 2014 remake of Annie.

Trivia: While landing a guest spot on a hit television series would be a welcome event for most up-and-coming actresses, Jennifer Garner's brief run on Felicity proved especially fortunate for her -- thanks to her appearance on the show, she met her future husband, and the producer who would cast her in the leading role of the successful action/adventure series Alias. Jennifer Garner was born in Houston, TX, in 1972; when she was very young, her family relocated to Charleston, WV, where she grew up. Garner was the second of three daughters, and early on developed an interest in ballet. After graduating from George Washington High School in Charleston, Garner attended Denison University in Granville, OH, where she became interested in drama, and eventually received a degree in theater. After college, Garner moved to New York and began auditioning for stage roles, landing her first part only a month after arriving in town in 1995 as an understudy in the Broadway production of A Month in the Country. Later that same year, Garner moved to Los Angeles and began working in television, making her screen debut in the made-for-TV movie Zoya. Over the next two years, Garner landed guest roles on several television shows, including Spin City and Law & Order, and small parts in several motion pictures, among them Deconstructing Harry, In Harm's Way, and Mr. Magoo. 1998 found Garner cast as the female lead on the short-lived Fox drama Significant Others, and while the show only aired for a little over a month, Garner fared much better with a showy recurring role on Felicity, where she played Hannah, the former girlfriend of Noel Crane, played by Scott Foley. Though Garner claims she had to go through five rounds of auditions before she was given the role, she certainly made an impression on co-star Foley; they soon began dating, and were married in the fall of 2000. Garner's work on Felicity helped win her a major supporting role on the television series Time of Your Life, a spin-off of Party of Five starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. The heavily promoted series was a ratings disappointment, but Garner received enthusiastic notices, and began winning film roles in high-profile projects such as Pearl Harbor and Dude, Where's My Car? In 2000, J.J. Abrams, who produced Felicity, was preparing a new series for ABC about a female spy living a triple life as a college student and supposed bank employee, who is also a double agent working for the CIA. Abrams remembered Garner's impressive performance as Hannah, and cast her as Sydney Bristow in Alias. The show quickly became a success when it premiered in 2001, earning respectable ratings, strong reviews, and a devoted fan following who tuned in each week to see Garner beat up bad guys and don an impressive collection of slinky outfits. That same year, Garner also appeared opposite her then-husband, Foley, in a supporting role in the independent drama Rennie's Landing. Riding high on the success of Alias with a Golden Globe Award in hand, Garner continued to grow as a big-screen presence. After a memorable appearance in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, Garner displayed the butt-kicking skills she honed on Alias, appearing as Elektra in the 2003 comic-book adaptation Daredevil. The next year, she took on her first big-screen starring role, playing an adolescent girl who wakes up to suddenly find herself all grown up in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30. Garner would star on Alias until it ended its run in 2006, and subsequently enjoyed her career as a movie star, appearing in such films as Juno, The Kingdom, The Invention of Lying, Arthur, and Butter. She took a supporting role in the drama Dallas Buyers Club in 2013, before returning to family fare with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Trivia: Lanky, personable, and looking for all the world like Alan Alda's long-lost son, Topher Grace made an impressive film debut with his role in Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh's epic and widely acclaimed look at the American war on drugs. Grace received positive notices for his work in the film, which cast him as a cocky prep-school boy who turns his girlfriend (Erika Christensen) on to heroin and cocaine. The role marked a drastic departure from the young actor's regular job on the popular Fox sitcom That '70s Show, where he portrayed Eric Forman, a level-headed and predominantly wholesome high school student coming of age in "Me Decade" Wisconsin.A native New Yorker, Grace was born in the city on July 12, 1978. Raised in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he began acting in school plays and was a student at New Hampshire's Brewster Academy when his performance in a school production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum effectively secured him his first professional job. Among those to see the play were Bonnie and Terry Turner, parents of one of Grace's classmates and the would-be producers of That '70s Show. Impressed with the young actor's work in the play, they tapped him for the role of Eric Forman during his freshman year at the University of Southern California. Grace, who had studied acting at the Groundlings Improvisation School and the Neighborhood Playhouse, made his television debut in 1998, winning over both new fans and critical approval. His acclaimed work in Traffic two years later saw the actor's popularity further increase, acting as another testament to the beginnings of a promising career.While continuing to appear on That '70s Show, Grace remained selective of his film roles. Aside from showing up in a cameo as himself in Traffic director Steven Soderbergh's 2001 remake of Ocean's 11, he didn't appear in a film for three years. However, with his supporting turn in the Julia Roberts drama Mona Lisa Smile, it appeared Grace's film career was building steam.For his first big-screen starring role, Grace played opposite Kate Bosworth and Josh Duhamel in the 2004 love-triangle comedy Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, which was mostly well received by critics and audiences. Later in 2004, the young actor could be seen in the ensemble film sophomore effort from Roger Dodger director Dylan Kidd, entitled P.S. Cast as a twentysomething student who appears to be the reincarnation of an older woman's deceased high-school sweetheart, Grace offered a sense of soulful gravity to the under-seen romantic fantasy before rounding out his breakthrough year with a powerful performance as an ambitious young executive whose sense of synergy sets the boardroom ablaze in In Good Company. In the short span of just one year, Grace had proven himself capable of believably playing both a lovelorn Piggly Wiggly manager who can't muster the courage to express his love to the woman of his dreams, and an overambitious white-collar powerhouse who discovers something called a soul after casually assuming the position coveted by an experienced ad man twice his age. Whereas most actors of his generation would have been happy doing teen comedies and cashing in on the success of That '70s Show, it was obvious that Grace was opting for quality over quantity in making his transition to the big screen. After wrapping up his impressive run on That '70s Show in 2006, Grace henceforth chose his roles selectively, speaking often about having little hunger for fame, but a big appetite for interesting, fun, or challenging projects. He would appear in a number of feature films over the coming years, ranging form big budge action adventure fare, like Spiderman 3, to lighthearted comedies like Take Me Home Tonight, to offbeat, independent projects, like The Giant Mechanical Man. In 2014, he had a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film Interstellar.

Trivia: An actress whose first big screen gig also proved to be her breakthrough, Anne Hathaway became a familiar face to millions of moviegoers thanks to her starring role in Garry Marshall's 2001 hit The Princess Diaries. Cast as a clumsy high school girl who finds out she is the princess of a small country, Hathaway was able to prove her comedic timing opposite no less than Julie Andrews.Hailing from Brooklyn, where she was born November 12, 1982, Hathaway became involved in the theater at a young age, and as a teenager performed with the Barrow Group, a prestigious New York theatre company. She did her first industry work in the short-lived but critically praised TV series Get Real before auditioning for Marshall, who, according to legend, cast the actress as the accident-prone princess after she fell off a chair during her audition. The success of The Princess Diaries opened a number of doors for Hathaway, but she chose the one that led to Vassar College, where she enrolled in 2000, taking some time off from film.Though a supporting performance in the 2002 box-office disappointment Nicholas Nickleby offered Hathaway little chance to shine, a lead performance as the eponymous character in thefantasy-themed romantic comedy Ella Enchanted (2004) found her stepping into some big slippers for another Cinderella-style story not unlike the obligatory Princess Diaries 2 that same year. As if to anounce her acendancy out of the teen fantasy ghetto, Hathaway plunged into edgier territory with the gritty teen drama Havoc (also 2004), although the explicit film merited only a video release. It was her next two roles, however, that would announce the young actor's arrival into adulthood. As one of the two quietly suffering wives in Ang Lee's acclaimed Brokeback Mountain, Hathaway exhibited an irrepressible rodeo-girl spirit broken down over the course of a sham marriage. As the co-star of the chick-lit adaptation The Devil Wears Prada in 2006, she entered the world of contemporary, high-fashion power players, suffering the slings and arrows of a deliciously evil (and Oscar-nominated) Meryl Streep. The film played throughout the summer, becoming a bona-fide sleeper hit. Although initially cast in 2007's runaway summer comedy, Knocked Up, Hathaway backed out of the role that eventually went to Katharine Heigl. She chose instead to follow the period-romance path with Becoming Jane, a Shakespeare in Love-style speculative fiction on the life and one true love of Jane Austen.2008 turned out to be a banner year for the actress who scored a box office hit starring opposite Steve Carell in the big-screen adaptation of Get Smart, and garnered the best reviews of her career thus far for her work as a recovering addict in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. That role earned her a number of year-end critics awards, as well as Best Actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy. Hathaway would subsuquently find herself free to enjoy leading lady status, appearing in a number of iconic projects over the coming years, like the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland and a slinky Selina Kyle/Catwoman inThe Dark Knight Rises. In 2012 she landed the part of Fantine in Tom Hooper's adaptation of the phenomenally successful stage musical Les Miserable. Getting to deliver the production's most beloved song, "I Dreamed a Dream", Hathaway made the most of the small but juicy part and was rewarded with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.In 2014, Hathaway appeared in the indie film Song One and reteamed with her Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan for the sci-fi epic film Interstellar. She next starred in The Intern, opposite Robert De Niro, and reprised her role Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Trivia: American actor Carter Jenkins began his career as a child star in his early teens and ranked up a formidable number of supporting credits in a relatively short time. After a string of guest-acting roles and small parts in features, Jenkins found more prominent work in the Disney Channel movie Life Is Ruff and in Richard Linklater's colorful and profane remake The Bad News Bears, playing Joey Bullock. In 2005, Jenkins moved up the ranks, scoring a major role on a TV program, the mysterious sci-fi drama Surface. On that series, he played teenager Miles Barnett, who takes an egg he has found in the ocean home, leading to much intrigue and mayhem when a strange sea creature later hatches from it. The show only lasted for one season, after which the young actor appeared in episodes of such popular series as House and CSI: Miami, as well as films like Arcadia Lost, A Day's Work, and Aliens in the Attic.

Trivia: Having acquired legions of loyal female followers with his portrayal of the ever-horny and dimwitted Kelso in the popular television comedy series That 70s Show, it may come as a surprise that male model-turned-actor Ashton Kutcher ironically majored in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa before his "discovery" in an Iowa bar and subsequent stint on the catwalk for such fashion industry luminaries as Versace and Calvin Klein.Born in Cedar Rapids, IA, along with a fraternal twin named Michael, Kutcher was bitten by the acting bug in high school. Balancing his love for the stage with his talent for wrestling before gravitating toward the former in such high school productions as Annie, Kutcher worked numerous odd jobs during his tenure at the University of Iowa before winning the Fresh Faces of Iowa contest in 1997 and heading for New York. Competing in that same year's International Model and Talent Agency competition before being signed to the next agency, Kutcher relocated to Los Angeles the following year and soon landed his breakthrough role on That 70s Show. Though he had small roles in Down to You and Reindeer Games (both 2000), Kutcher's first major big-screen role was in Dude, Where's My Car? (also 2000), in which he teamed his airheaded goofiness with that of American Pie's Sean William Scott. Breaking out of the mold with a more serious turn alongside James Van Der Beek in 2001's Texas Rangers, a return to comedy wasn't far behind with a role in My Boss's Daughter scheduled for release later that same year. Though My Boss's Daughter would ultimately be pushed back to a late February 2003 release date, Kutcher and actress Brittany Murphy (8 Mile) scored a modest hit when Just Married was released into theaters in early January of the same year. Despite receiving only a lukewarm reception from critics, positive audience turnout ensured that Just Married would nevertheless hold on to a position in the box office top-ten for nearly a month after its release. Though My Boss's Daughter failed to stir up much at the box-office, the one-two punch of his immensely popular MTV prank show Punk'd and a high-profile romance with Demi Moore (whom he later married and then divorced) shot Kutcher's celebrity stock through the roof in 2003. He subsequently closed out the year with a self-depricating role in the holiday hit Cheaper by the Dozen.2004 saw Kutcher trying his hand at drama once again with the supernatural thriller The Butterfly Effect. Though the reviews were mixed, the film had its share of fans among critics and went on to makeup its budget more than three-times over. Kutcher continued finding success on the small-screen by producing the series Beauty and the Geek. In 2005 he teamed with Bernie Mac for the racial comedy Guess Who, and 2006 found Kutcher trying his hand at more action oriented fare teaming up with Kevin Costner for The Guardian. The actor would continue to find his place in the romcom niche with 2008's What Happens in Vegas, 2010's Valentine's Day and 2011's No Strings Attached, but made particular waves with a return to television, when he famously signed on to replace Charlie Sheen on the sitcom Two and a Half Men in 2011. His movie career slowed due to his television commitments, but he did find time to play Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the 2013 bio-drama Jobs. Two and a Half Men wrapped up in 2015, leaving Kutcher free to return to movies and producing.

Trivia: One of the most prominent female hip-hoppers of the 1990s thanks to her soulful and uplifting rhymes, Queen Latifah has also crafted an increasingly successful screen presence.Born Dana Owens in Newark, NJ, on March 18, 1970, this police officer's daughter worked at Burger King before joining the group Ladies Fresh as a human beatbox. Disgusted at the misogynistic, male-dominated rap scene, Owens adapted the moniker of Queen Latifah (meaning delicate and sensitive in Arabic) and was soon on her way to changing the way many people looked at hip hop. Soon gaining a loyal following due to her unique perspective and role model-inspiring attitude, Latifah recorded the single "Wrath of My Madness" in 1988 and the following year she released her debut album, All Hail the Queen. Making her feature debut three short years later in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, Latifah began refining a screen persona that would be equally adept in both drama and comedy. After starring as magazine editor Khadijah James on the FOX sitcom Living Single (1993-1998) and landing increasingly prominent film roles in Set It Off (1996), Living Out Loud (1998), and The Bone Collector (1999), she was given her own personal televised outlet in the form of The Queen Latifah Show in 1999. Losing her brother in a motorcycle accident in 1995 (she still wears the motorbike's key around her neck) in addition to grieving a friend who was shot when the two were carjacked the same year, Latifah has persisted in overcoming tragedy to remain positive and creative. The talented songstress has also appeared as both the Wicked Witch of the West (1998's The Wizard of Oz) and Glenda the Good (The O.Z. in 2002), in addition to remaining an innovative and inspiring recording artist. In 2003, Latifah hit a watershed moment in her career and in the public perception of her image: she signed to portray Matron Mama Morton in Rob Marshall's bold cinematization of the Bob Fosse musical Chicago. For Latifah, the turn embodied a breakthrough to end all breakthroughs - it dramatically reshaped the artist's image from that of a hip-hop singer turned actress to that of a multitalented, one-woman powerhouse with astonishing gifts in every arena of performance - voice, drama and dance. Latifah deservedly netted an Oscar nomination for this role, but lost to Catherine Zeta-Jones, who played Velma Kelly in the same film.Later that same year, the multifaceted singer/actress took a dramatic step down in ambition and sophistication, joining Steve Martin for the odd couple comedy Bringing Down the House. That farce tells the occasionally rollicking story of a hyper-anal white lawyer (Martin) who attempts to "hook up" with a barrister he meets online, but discovers that she is (surprise!) actually a slang-tossing black prison escapee with a mad taste for hip hop dancing (Latifah). Ironically - given the seemingly foolproof and ingenious premise - the film collapsed, thanks in no small part to an awkward and craven screenplay that fails to see the logic of its situations through to fruition, and wraps with a ludicrous denouement. The film did score with viewers, despite devastating reviews from critics across the country. (If nothing else, the picture offers the uproarious sight of Martin in hip-hop attire, and does celebrate Latifah's everpresent message of much-deserved respect for black women). Latifah's onscreen activity skyrocketed over the following half-decade, with an average of around 5-7 roles per year. One of her most popular efforts, Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), constitutes a sequel to the urban comedy-drama Barbershop (2002). The original picture (without Latifah in the cast) concerned the proprietors and patrons of a (mostly) all-black barbershop on the south side of Chicago, with seriocomic lead characters portrayed by Ice-T, Cedric the Entertainer and others. In the second Barbershop go-round, Latifah plays Gina, the owner of an inner-city beauty parlor who operates her business next door. Those films reached a combined total of around $143 million worldwide, thanks in no small part to a pitch-perfect demographic that flocked to both efforts without abandon. The pictures also generated a Latifah-dominated sequel, Beauty Shop (2005), devoted to the exploits of Gina, her customers, and her employees, particularly the flamboyantly gay stylist Jorge Christoph (Kevin Bacon). The movie expanded the target audience of its predecessors and upped the ante by working in WASPy female characters played by A-listers Andie MacDowell and Mena Suvari and having Gina move her shop to the more audience-friendly Atlanta. Though the picture failed to match the grosses of its predecessors, it did reel in just under $38 million worldwide. Each of the installments generated mixed reviews from critics, Concurrent with Beauty Shop's release, Latifah signed on to collaborate with director Mark Forster and stars Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson in the comedy-fantasy Stranger than Fiction (2006). In that picture - about a man (Ferrell) who discovers he is the character in a book by a washed-up author (Thompson), and due to be killed shortly, Latifah plays Penny Escher, the "assistant" hired to end Thompson's creative block and put her back on track. Though Latifah's constituted a minor role (and, arguably, a throwaway at that), the film itself scored on all fronts, including craftsmanship, audience reactions, box office and critical response. After voicing Ellie in the CG-animated feature Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Latifah revisited cinematic song-and-dance (and reteamed with House director Adam Shankman) for the hotly-anticipated musical comedy Hairspray, based on the hit Broadway production (which was, in turn, based on the 1988 John Waters film). Latifah plays Motormouth Maybelle, in a cast that also includes Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer and an in-drag John Travolta, reprising the role originated by Divine. Latifah signed to star alongside Diane Keaton and Katie Holmes in the crime comedy Mad Money -- a remake of the British farce Hot Money (with echoes of 1976's How to Beat the High Cost of Living) about a trio of female janitors in the Federal Reserve bank who team up to rob the place blind. In addition to music, movies, and television, Latifah also found time to author a book on self-esteem entitled Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman, and to serve as co-chairman of the Owens Scholarship Foundation, Inc., which provides assistance to academically gifted but financially underpriveleged students.

Trivia: Actress Emma Roberts made her film debut working with one of the best actors in history -- and she didn't even know it. At only ten years old, Roberts was cast as the daughter of Johnny Depp's character in 2001's Blow, but she would later recall that she was too young during the experience to realize what a respected figure her co-star was in Hollywood. In 2004, Roberts joined the ranks at the Nickelodeon network, taking a leading role in the series Unfabulous. The regular gig provided both experience and stability for the up-and-comer, but maintaining a presence on the big-screen remained a goal. In 2006, she made a splash with a leading role in Aquamarine, a comedy about a couple of tween girls who discover a mermaid living in their beach club's swimming pool. The young actress charmed audiences and casting directors alike with her performance in the romp, so much so that she was soon cast in the title role of Nancy Drew in a 2007 revival of the teenage-detective franchise.Alas, Nancy Drew failed to become the genesis of a new series, but on the heels of another starring role in the disposable teen comedy Wild Child Roberts continued to show an impressive amount of range in such subsequent features as Derek Martini's independent period drama Lymelife, the family-friendly romp Hotel for Dogs, and the sensitive 2010 comedy drama It's Kind of a Funny Story. Later, on the heels of a role in the slasher sequel Scream 4, Roberts could be seen opposite Andy Samberg and Rashida Jones in Celeste and Jesse Forever, and acting alongside John Cusack in the 2012 comedy Adult World. Roberts returned to TV with a high-profile role on American Horror Story: Coven, playing Madison Montgomery, a Hollywood actress who discovers she a witch. She stayed on in the AHS family for another season, playing Maggie in Freak Show, before jumping ship to another Ryan Murphy project, the Fox series Scream Queens.

Trivia: Michigan native Taylor Lautner had a knack for martial arts from the time he was a young child, winning karate tournaments in the Grand Rapids area while he was still in grade school. By eight, he'd developed enough skill to attract the attention of champion martial artist Mike Chat, who became Lautner's coach. The young athlete eventually won three gold medals in the World Karate Association, but he soon found his interests expanding. Connections in the karate world led to an audition for a role in a TV commercial in Los Angeles, and even though Lautner didn't get the part, he enjoyed the process so much that his family soon began flying him out to the coast regularly for auditions, eventually relocating to L.A. completely. In California, Lautner continued to do well at martial arts competitions, but additionally found success in acting, appearing on shows like My Wife and Kids and Danny Phantom. Then, in 2005, Lautner scored the role of Sharkboy in the Robert Rodriguez film The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl. The 13 year old had only been living in Hollywood for three years, but he instantly became a famous face, especially among young audiences. In 2008, he took on the role of Jacob Black in the highly anticipated film adaptation of the young-adult novel Twilight. The film became a smash-success, and made him a teen heartthrob. He tried his hand at romantic comedy in the ensemble film Valentine's Day in 2010, and had the lead in the thriller Abduction in 2011.

Trivia: Arguably the preeminent Hispanic comedian of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and one of the most influential Latino entertainers of all time, George Lopez broke new ground for Mexican-Americans by scoring many firsts. Most significantly, he clocked in as the first Hispanic comic since Freddie Prinze Sr. (whom he idolized) to headline his own blockbuster sitcom, thus providing Latinos with a much-needed television voice and role model to boot. Born in 1961 in Mission Hills, CA, Lopez was abandoned by his father at two months old; not long after his tenth birthday, his mother delivered him permanently into the hands of his working-class grandparents, a couple singularly lacking in parental skills, affection, and financial resources. Ingeniously, Lopez took the angst, desperation, impoverishment, and overwhelming dysfunction of these preadolescent and adolescent years and spun it into behind-the-mike fodder -- in other words, using his hard-hitting experiences as building blocks for exceptionally droll, inventive standup routines. Lopez foresaw standup comedy as his only desired option after high school, and thus reportedly worked the club circuit for almost two decades -- his exclusive gig until the late '80s and early '90s. At that point, Lopez tackled a few bit roles in junky comedies such as Ski Patrol (1989) and Fatal Instinct (1993), but turned a much-needed corner, and upped the prestige quotient, by signing on to work for the esteemed Ken Loach in that director's Bread and Roses (2000), a muckraking drama about Hispanic-American janitors. The finished film divided critics but unveiled new dimensions in the actor's ability. Lopez's eponymous sitcom commenced in 2002, with the schtickmeister cast as a variant of himself, George Lopez, who worked in an airplane-parts factory. The ABC program maintained high ratings well into its sixth season. In the meantime, Lopez branched out into feature-film roles -- this time with a more respectable cinematic pedigree -- in such pictures as The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (2005), Yours, Mine & Ours (2005), Balls of Fury (2007), and Tortilla Heaven (2007).Following a two year run as a late night talk show host on Lopez Tonight, Lopez continued to appear in a number of movies, including Swing Vote, Valentine's Day, and Balls of Fury.

Trivia: A dancer, singer, highly regarded actress and metaphysical time traveler, Shirley MacLaine is certainly among Hollywood's most unique stars. Born Shirley MacLane Beaty on April 24, 1934 in Richmond, Virginia, MacLaine was the daughter of drama coach and former actress Kathlyn MacLean Beaty and Ira O. Beaty, a professor of psychology and philosophy. Her younger brother, Warren Beatty, also grew up to be an important Hollywood figure as an actor/director/ producer and screenwriter. MacLaine's mother, who gave up her own dreams of stardom for her young family, greatly motivated her daughter to become an actress and dancer. MacLaine took dance lessons from age two, first performed publicly at age four, and at 16 went to New York, making her Broadway debut as a chorus girl in Me and Juliet (1953). When not scrambling for theatrical work, MacLaine worked as a model. Interestingly, MacLaine's big break was the result of another actress's bad luck. In 1954, MacLaine was understudying Broadway actress Carol Haney The Pajama Game when Haney fractured her ankle. MacLaine replaced her and was spotted and offered a movie contract by producer Hal Wallis. With her auburn hair cut impishly short, the young actress made her film debut in Hitchock's black comedy The Trouble With Harry (1955). Later that year, she co-starred opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the comedy Artists and Models. In her next feature, Around the World in 80 Days (1956), she appeared as an Indian princess. MacLaine earned her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a pathetic tart who shocks a conservative town by showing up on the arm of young war hero Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running (1959). She then got the opportunity to show off her long legs and dancing talents in Can-Can (1960). Prior to that, she appeared with Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford in Oceans Eleven (1960). MacLaine, the only female member of the famed group, would later recount her experiences with them in her seventh book My Lucky Stars. In 1960, she won her second Oscar nomination for Billy Wilder's comedy/drama The Apartment, and a third nomination for Irma La Douce (1963). MacLaine's career was in high gear during the '60s, with her appearing in everything from dramas to madcap comedies to musicals such as What a Way to Go! (1964) and Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity! (1969). In addition to her screen work, she actively participated in Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and served as a Democratic Convention delegate. She was similarly involved in George McGovern's 1972 campaign. Bored by sitting around on movie sets all day awaiting her scenes, MacLaine started writing down her thoughts and was thus inspired to add writing to her list of talents. She published her first book, Don't Fall Off the Mountain in 1970. She next tried her hand at series television in 1971, starring in the comedy Shirley's World (1971-72) as a globe-trotting photographer. The role reflected her real-life reputation as a world traveler, and these experiences resulted in her second book Don't Fall Off the Mountain and the documentary The Other Half of the Sky -- A China Memoir (1975) which she scripted, produced and co-directed with Claudia Weill. MacLaine returned to Broadway in 1976 with a spectacular one-woman show A Gypsy in My Soul, and the following year entered a new phase in her career playing a middle-aged former ballerina who regrets leaving dance to live a middle-class life in The Turning Point. MacLaine was memorable starring as a lonely political wife opposite Peter Sellers' simple-minded gardener in Being There (1979), but did not again attract too much attention until she played the over-protective, eccentric widow Aurora Greenway in James L. Brooks' Terms of Endearment (1983), a role that finally won MacLaine an Academy Award. That same year, she published the candid Out on a Limb, bravely risking public ridicule by describing her experiences and theories concerning out-of-body travel and reincarnation. MacLaine's film appearances were sporadic through the mid '80s, although she did appear in a few television specials. In 1988, she came back strong with three great roles in Madame Sousatzka (1988), Steel Magnolias (1989) and particularly Postcards from the Edge (1990), in which she played a fading star clinging to her own career while helping her daughter Meryl Streep, a drug addicted, self-destructive actress. Through the '90s, MacLaine specialized in playing rather crusty and strong-willed eccentrics, such as her title character in the 1994 comedy Guarding Tess. In 1997, MacLaine stole scenes as a wise grande dame who helps pregnant, homeless Ricki Lake in Mrs. Winterbourne, and the same year revived Aurora Greenway in The Evening Star, the critically maligned sequel to Terms of Endearment.MacLaine's onscreen performances were few and far between in the first half of the next decade, but in 2005 she returned in relatively full force, appearing in three features. She took on a pair of grandmother roles in the comedy-dramas In Her Shoes and Rumor Has It..., and was a perfect fit for the part of Endora in the bigscreen take on the classic sitcom Bewitched. In the coming years, McLaine would continue to give critically acclaimed performances in movies like Coco Chanel, Valentine's Day, and Bernie.For a long time, MacLaine did seminars on her books, but in the mid '90s stopped giving talks, claiming she did not want "to be anyone's guru." She does, however, continue writing and remains a popular writer.

Trivia: Music star Taylor Swift showed all the signs of her future career as a singer/songwriter when she was still a small girl growing up in Pennsylvania. Creative from the beginning, Swift was singing for local audiences by the time she was ten, and won a national poetry contest in the fourth grade for her poem "Monster in My Closet." By 12, the young artist was singing, writing songs, playing the 12-string guitar, and shopping demos around Nashville, hoping to score a record contract.Within a few years, Swift's family relocated to the Nashville area so that the aspiring performer could pursue her career full-time. She was eventually offered a development deal with RCA, but rejected it when it didn't allow for her to record her own songs. Swift would be rewarded for her stalwartness, however, when she was signed by Big Machine Records a short time later. She was also hired in as the youngest staff songwriter ever to work for Sony/ATV Tree publishing.Swift released a self-titled album in 2006, and it became an immediate hit, soon setting chart records that put her in league with established acts like the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. She released her sophomore album, Fearless, in 2008, which debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 list and became the top-selling album in the U.S. for 2009 and launched her first world tour to support the album. Shortly after, Swift made a move into acting, appearing in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and pulling double duty as both the host and musical guest in an episode of Saturday Night Live. The following year, she appeared in the ensemble romcom Valentine's Day, opposite another young Taylor- Taylor Lautner, of the Twilight film series.Despite trying to branch out into acting, Swift quickly returned to music, keeping very busy releasing three albums between 2010 and 2014 and going on a tour to support each one. Her 2014 release, 1989, marked her official break with country and was her first album to be exclusively pop.

Trivia: A capable comic actor whose regular-guy looks and sharp wit have made him a popular character performer in both movies and television, Larry Miller was born on October 15, 1953 on Long Island, NY. Miller grew up with a keen interest in music, and graduated with honors from Amherst College, receiving a degree in music. Hoping to make a career as a musician, Miller moved to New York City and began playing the nightclub circuit as a pianist and drummer. Working the clubs inspired Miller to take a stab at comedy, and he began performing occasional sets at comedy clubs such as the Comic Strip and Catch a Rising Star. Within two years, Miller had put his musical career on the back burner and was touring full-time as a comic. Miller made his film debut in 1978 in the film Take Down, but it would be several more years before Miller found himself before the camera again; as his career as a standup comic rose, Miller began landing occasional television guest shots and bit parts in films, as well as appearing on several cable television specials devoted to comedians. But it was Miller's appearance in the 1990 film Pretty Woman that kick-started his screen career; playing an arrogant but all-too-eager-to-please salesman, Miller's brief moment in the film earned big laughs, and he soon became a frequent presence in movies and television. Miller was a regular on the TV series The Pursuit of Happiness, Life's Work, and Michael Hayes -- all three of which only lasted a season -- and played recurring roles on Mad About You, Dream On, DAG, and My Wife and Kids. Miller also made a surprising appearance in a dramatic role on Law & Order, in which he played a man accused of murder. Miller played a number of showy supporting roles in theatrical films, including Waiting for Guffman, The Minus Man, The Nutty Professor, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. His comedy chops only gaining more bite with the passing years, Miller would find only increasing success when he appeared on such small screen hits as Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal in the mid-00s. Of course Miller was still very much a feature man, with roles in the underseen sleeper Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Any Bully providing plenty of room for the comic talent to shine. When not busy with his acting career, Miller still performs as a standup comic, and writes a humor column for The Daily Standard.

Trivia: Enrolled at the North Carolina School of the Arts when she was 14 to study ballet. Began dancing professionally when she was 17 and traveled the world with different troupes, including a modern-dance company founded by Karole Armitage. While touring in Los Angeles in 1987, became acquainted with Dennis Hopper, whom she would later marry. Decided to switch careers and study acting under Sanford Meisner after she watched Sydney Pollack's documentary on the famed teacher. Met her second husband, French Stewart, in 1996 when she guest starred as his love interest on an episode of 3rd Rock From the Sun. Owned and operated her own interior-design business called Casa LaNasa.

Trivia: Writer, actress, and comedian Kristen Schaal honed her skills working in the New York improve and stand-up scene in the early 2000s. In addition to winning the Best Alternative Comedian Award at the 2006 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, along with a number of other awards, Schaal began cultivating a career onscreen, appearing on shows like The Education of Max Bickford and Ugly Betty, and in movies like Norbit. Her notoriety increased in 2007, when she took on the role of obsessive fan Mel on the comedy series Flight of the Conchords. Schaal would soon find herself part of the Hollywood comedy scene, appearing in numerous movies over the next few years, including Shrek Forever After, Get Him to the Greek, Toy Story 3, Dinner for Schmucks, and Going the Distance. She appeared in The Muppets in 2011, then was cast to voice one of the main characters in the animated series Bob's Burgers.

Trivia: Gen-Y television fans (and avid viewers of the old "TGIF" Friday-night prime-time lineup during the 1990s) will perhaps best remember actress Christine Lakin for her multi-season portrayal of tomboy Alicia "Al" Lambert, daughter of contractor Frank Lambert (Patrick Duffy) on the family-themed sitcom Step by Step (1991-1998). Born in Dallas, TX, in 1979 and raised in the vicinity of Atlanta, GA, Lakin caught her first taste of performing at age seven, when she joined the Atlanta Workshop Players theatrical troupe. Lakin quickly secured representation and did a plethora of television commercials before making her dramatic debut on-camera at age 11 in the made-for-television period adventure The Rose and the Jackal (1990) and landing the Alicia role on Step by Step. After the program wrapped in 1998, the actress attended UCLA as a communications major and sought out a myriad of parts in independent films, including Whatever It Takes (2000), Who's Your Daddy? (2003), and Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2004). In 2008, Lakin starred opposite Paris Hilton in The Hottie & the Nottie.

Trivia: Was a theater major in college. In 1983, originated the role of Yvonne in the school stage production of Eleven-Zulu. Moved to New York City after college to work in the theater. First appeared on a national TV show in 1988 on the NBC comedy The Cosby Show in an episode called "If the Dress Fits, Wear It." Cinematic debut was in the 1989 drama Rooftops. Performed in the 1992 off-Broadway musical revue A...My Name Is Still Alice. First recurring small-screen series role was in the Fox drama Boston Public in 2001. In 2010, returned to TV in the CBS comedy Mike & Molly. Teaches acting classes.

Trivia: Encouraged by better-than-average success as a stage performer in such plays as Mister Roberts and The Seven Year Itch, American actor Rance Howard decided to try his luck in Hollywood. Talent, however, meant less than star appeal in Tinseltown, thus Howard was confined to small roles which took only minimal advantage of his abilities. Howard's wife Jean was also an actress, but retired to raise their son Ron (both mother and child appeared in the 1956 Western Frontier Woman). Ron was photogenic enough to attain supporting parts on various TV shows and films, leading to a regular role as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Those cynics who believe that Rance Howard forced his son into acting in order to create a meal ticket are referred to a well-known anecdote concerning the earliest years of the Griffith program. Little Ron decided to test his value by throwing a temper tantrum -- whereupon Rance took the boy aside, gave him a spanking, and told his son that if he didn't want to act like a professional he'd have to go home and forget about acting. While Rance certainly did not rely on Ron's fame alone to get work (he remained a busy stage actor), it is true that Ron recommended his dad for supporting roles in such films as The Music Man (1962) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), both of which featured the younger Howard. When child star Ronny Howard became A-list film director Ron Howard in the '80s he continued casting both dad Rance and younger brother Clint Howard in Splash (1984) and other films. Rance Howard remained a reliable general purpose actor well into the 2000s.

Trivia: Joined ESPN in 1996 as an anchor for ESPNEWS. Cohost of Mike and Mike in the Morning, ESPN Radio's morning drive-time show with Mike Golic. Authored the 2006 book Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot. Hosted the prime-time game show Duel on ABC.

Trivia: Attended University of Notre Dame on a football scholarship. Played nine seasons of professional football in the NFL with the Houston Oilers, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins. Began broadcasting career doing a weekly segment on the Randall Cunningham Show. Broadcaster for defunct women's wrestling organization, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (G.L.O.W.). Joined ESPN in 1995 as reporter and analyst for Sunday NFL Countdown. Began cohosting, with Mike Greenberg, the ESPN radio show Mike & Mike in the Morning in 1998. Mike & Mike began simulcasting on ESPNNEWS in 2004 and ESPN2 in 2006. Spokesperson for the NutriSystem weight-loss company.

Trivia: Diminutive musical prodigy Paul Williams worked as an apprentice jockey, professional skydiver and insurance salesman before turning to acting. Williams' size and puckish countenance enabled him to play adolescents well into his twenties; one of the best of his early film roles was the surly teenaged genius in The Loved One (1965). Though he kept a hand in acting throughout the 1970s, he was better known for his songwriter accomplishments. Working with such collaborators as Biff Rose, Roger Nichols and Charles Fox, he turned out such enduring song hits as The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun," Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World," Three Dog Night's "Old Fashioned Love Song" and Dionne Warwick's "That's What Friends Are For." In films, Williams was Oscar nominated for his musical contributions to 1974's Phantom of the Paradise (in which he also starred), 1975's Bugsy Malone and 1979's The Muppet Movie. In 1976, Williams and collaborator Barbra Streisand won an Academy Award for the hit tune "Evergreen," the highlight of the Streisand remake of A Star is Born. As mentioned, Williams was never too busy to accept an occasional acting role. He played Little Enos in the first two Smokey and the Bandit movies, camped it up as Dr. Miguelito Loveless Jr. in the 1979 TV movie The Wild Wild West Returns, and could be heard as the voice of the Penguin in TV's Batman: The Animated Series (1992). Paul Williams was also a popular guest on talk shows, quiz programs and variety series.