Trivia: Born and raised in New Orleans, deep-voiced actress Patricia Clarkson studied drama at Yale. She stayed on the East coast working in theater productions before her feature film debut in The Untouchables (1987) as the wife of Elliot Ness. Continuing to work in film, she gained attention for her role as the drug-addicted Greta in the independent film High Art. Also working in TV, she had reoccuring roles on Wonderland and Fraser, and even won an Emmy award for her role as Sarah on the HBO drama Six Feet Under. She gave memorable performances in her smaller film roles, such as the bedridden wife in The Green Mile. Her career really picked up in 2002 with appearances in such films as the Russo brothers' Welcome to Collinwood, Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, and Lars von Trier's Dogville. In 2003, Clarkson appeared in several films at the Sundance Film Festival, where she won the Outstanding Performance award for her work in All the Real Girls, The Station Agent, and Pieces of April. She continued to work steadily in projects such as the inspirational hockey drama Miracle, and George Clooney's Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck. She was part of the high-powered ensemble put together for the box-office disappointment All the King's Men, but remained one of the most in-demand character actresses of her time, In 2007 she appeared in Lars and the Real Girl, Married Life, and No Reservations. In 2008 she began a working relationship with Woody Allen when she was cast in Vicky Cristina Barcelona that continued with Whatever Works. She had a single scene in Martin Scorsese's paranoid thriller Shutter Island in 2010, the same year she appeared in the sleeper hit Easy A. The next year she acted in the romantic drama One Day as well as the comedy Friends With Benefits.

Trivia: Character actor and screenwriter Chris Mulkey is best remembered for his convincing portrayal of creepy former convict Hank Jennings in David Lynch's innovative television series Twin Peaks. A five-year veteran of the Children's Theatre Company of Minnesota, Mulkey, who had previously studied theater at the University of Minnesota, made his feature film debut in the comedy Loose Ends (1975). He made his screenwriting debut in 1988, with Patti Rocks.

Trivia: Fresh-faced actor Joseph Cross established himself as an onscreen presence from the late '90s onward, with a series of effective and tightly knit characterizations in consistently interesting (if critically divisive) projects. After a somewhat mawkish start, as the lovelorn preteen son in the family-oriented Michael Keaton movie Jack Frost (1998), Cross ultimately breached more adult-oriented material, much of it offbeat. He landed two of his most prominent roles in the mid-2000s: white trash Jerri Blank's (Amy Sedaris) jockey stepbrother in the satirical comedy Strangers with Candy (2005) and young Augusten Burroughs, a youngster growing up amid a hopelessly dysfunctional and cracked environment, in Ryan Murphy's adaptation of Burroughs' memoir, Running with Scissors (2006). The latter represented Cross' premier lead; most critics commended his efforts and his ambition, even as they panned the film for the incohesiveness of its elements. The following year, Cross also landed a supporting role in the Diane Lane thriller Untraceable (2008).

Trivia: Actress Jayma Mays began her big-screen career by focusing on somber material: she made a big impression on audiences as an assistant hotel manager forced to navigate her way through the night from hell in Wes Craven's 2005 thriller Red Eye, prompting one prominent critic to chalk the effort up as a "wonderful movie debut." Following a small role as a nurse in director Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima epic Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Mays discovered a flair for comedy (often filling the role of the straight man or the pretty romantic interest) in titles including Epic Movie (2007), Smiley Face (2007), and the Kevin James vehicle Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009). In 2009 she was cast as the love interest for the dutiful teacher in the hit FOX music series Glee, and in 2011 she could be seen as one of the humans in the big-screen version of The Smurfs.

Trivia: Though she is normally recognized as Angela Bower, the prissy, executive counterpart to Tony Danza's rough-hewn Italian nanny on the long-running television series Who's the Boss?, Judith Light considers her crowning achievement to be her activism in the fight against AIDS and gender discrimination. Born in Trenton, NJ, Light discovered her passion for the performing arts at a Pennsylvania summer camp at 12 years old. Light's high school drama teacher later encouraged her to attend the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, and the young actress found herself with a role in a Broadway production of A Doll's House by the mid-'70s. Despite her initial success, however, Light still found herself extraordinarily poor, at one point living on only ten dollars per week. Rather than holding her back, though, poverty not only increased Light's determination to act, but to use it as a tool in the fight against all forms of bigotry.Light's big break came in the form of One Life to Live, the Emmy-winning soap opera, which offered the aspiring actress a role that brought with it a steady paycheck until the inception of Who's the Boss? in 1983. In addition to her sitcom performances, Light starred with great success in The Ryan White Story, a docudrama concerning the real-life fight of a hemophiliac who contracted the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion. In addition to having established herself as one of the first celebrity activists in the battle against HIV and AIDS, Light also became a passionate volunteer for a variety of charitable organizations including Heart Strings and Project Angel Food.In 1998, after a long, successful stint in the television-movie world, Light flexed her comedy muscles again for The Simple Life, a short-lived television series featuring Light as a big-shot businesswoman whose move to the country is far from what she had expected. A year later, Light immersed herself in Wit, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolving around a brash, no-nonsense cancer victim's slow acceptance of her own mortality. In 2004, Light starred in The Stones, a CBS television series. She would go on to star on Ugly Betty and Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit as Judge Elizabeth Donnelly.

Trivia: Unlike some actresses who must work their way up to lead billing, Rutina Wesley started out on top. A native of Las Vegas, Wesley graduated from the University of Evansville, and then landed a coveted spot in the acting program at Juilliard. From there, Sam Mendes (American Beauty) immediately discovered her and tapped her to star opposite Hollywood luminary Julianne Moore in The Vertical Hour on the Great White Way. Wesley kicked off her tenure in film with a lead portrayal of Raya, an ambitious inner-city teen who enters a step-dancing competition to try to raise money for her tuition in director Ian Iqbal Rashid's inspirational drama How She Move (2008), a smash critical and box office success, and one of the best-received films at Sundance 2007. The following year, Wesley signed on to play the aggressive, short-tempered bartender Tara Thornton on the Alan Ball-created HBO vampire drama series True Blood.

Trivia: Dyed his hair blue for the role of Judas in a high school production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Made his film debut in 2001 cult favorite Donnie Darko. The film's lead, Jake Gyllenhaal, was a high-school classmate of Kranz's. Landed his first regular TV role with CBS sitcom Welcome to the Captain. Frequently works with Joss Whedon, acting in Whedon's Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods and Much Ado About Nothing. Played Bernard in Mike Nichols' 2012 Broadway production of Death of a Salesman.

Trivia: Sultry American leading lady Julie Carmen was first seen on television, appearing in various dramatic weeklies and in the TV biopic Can You Hear the Laughter? The Story of Freddie Prinze (1981). From February through June of 1983, Carmen showed up on a regular basis as Linda Rodriguez on the obscure ABC sitcom Condo. She has drawn upon her Latin heritage for many of her film roles, including those in The Last Plane Out (1982), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Kiss Me a Killer (1991) and Finding the Way Home (1991). Julie Carmen is versatile enough to move from westerns like Billy the Kid (1989) to horror quickies like Fright Night: Part Two (in which she was one of the most beautiful ghouls in screen history) without any evidence of undue strain.

Trivia: Aspiring to become a professional dancer until a congenital hip disorder dashed her dreams, Sheila Kelley turned toward acting and, since her film debut playing the oldest of three sisters who compete to bed the same man in Some Girls (1989), Kelley has built a low-profile but steady career in films. Kelley debuted on television in 1987, but did not attract much notice until she portrayed legal secretary Gwen Taylor from 1990 to 1993 on the NBC courtroom drama L.A. Law. Kelley's subsequent films include John Sayles' Passion Fish (1992) and Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies (1997).

Trivia: University of Tulsa graduate Mary Kay Place hightailed it to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a writer and performer of comedy material. She was hired for 1970s The Tim Conway Comedy Hour as a production assistant to both star Conway and producer Norman Lear. It was Conway who gave her her first on-camera break, while Lear saw to it that Place received her first writing credit on his subsequent All in the Family. Lear displayed her to even better advantage in the role of senseless, tactless, and eminently lovable would-be C&W star Loretta Haggers on the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976-1977). She won an Emmy for her work as Loretta, and was later nominated for a Grammy for her spin-off musical album, Tonight! At the Capri Lounge...Loretta Haggers. She wrote scripts for such TV sitcoms as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis, and MASH, usually in collaboration with her professional partner (and future Designing Women producer), Linda Bloodworth. In films since 1976's Bound for Glory, Place has only occasionally been given a chance to shine on the big screen; the best of her movie roles include the washout nightclub singer who briefly replaces Liza Minnelli in New York, New York (1976), and the reconstituted "child of the '60s" who eagerly volunteers for surrogate motherhood in The Big Chill (1983). Place then continued to work on a variety of projects throughout the 80's and 90's, playing family friend Camille Chersky on the tragically-cancelled dramatic series My So-Called Life, and directing episodes of TV shows like Friends and Arli$$. With the new millennium, Place turned once again towards the big screen, enjoying appearances in films like Being John Malkovich and Girl, Interrupted, but she continued to work in TV as well, with a recurring role on the Showtime series Big Love -- which earned her an Ammy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress on a Drama Series in 2010.