Trivia: Born November 10th, 1969, actress Ellen Pompeo's career began to soar after a memorable turn as Jake Gyllenhaal's sympathetic love interest in director Brad Silberling's introspective family drama Moonlight Mile. With roles in such eagerly anticipated films as Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002) and the comic-book adaptation Daredevil (2003) following close on the heels of what many considered an Oscar-worthy performance in Moonlight Mile, it seemed as if Pompeo was on the verge of becoming a well-known star. A native of Everett, MA, Pompeo got her start as an actress with a pair of appearances in the popular television drama Law & Order. Subsequently cast in the coming-of-age teen-sex comedy Coming Soon (1999), Pompeo continued to refine her skills as a harried waitress in the comedy In the Weeds (2000) while also appearing in a pair of comedic shorts entitled 8 1/2 x 11 (1999) and Eventual Wife (2000). In 2005, she landed the lead in ABC's medical drama Grey's Anatomy, playing Meredith Grey, a role she'd stick with for the next decade.

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: One of Canada's most respected actresses, Sandra Oh is one of her country's growing number of talented performers to make their presence felt in Hollywood. Oh, who is of Korean heritage, was born in Nepean, Ottawa, and began acting at the age of ten. Despite the disapproval of her traditionally-minded parents, she embarked on a professional acting career when she was barely out of her teens. After attending the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, Oh had her breakthrough in the 1993 CBC production of Runaway: The Diary of Evelyn Lau. Her portrayal of the title character, a 14-year-old runaway who endured hard times while living on the street, earned Oh a FIPA d'Or for Best Actress at Cannes.On the big screen, Oh first earned raves and recognition for her portrayal of a Chinese-Canadian woman struggling with both the demands of her conservative parents and those placed on her by society in response to her ethnic identity in Double Happiness. Her thoughtful, funny performance earned Oh her first Genie Award (Canada's equivalent of the Oscar), but unfortunately, further work was not immediately forthcoming. Things began to look up when Oh was cast on the popular HBO series Arli$$ in 1996, and in a bit part in the hit comedy Bean (1997).Oh found greater success as one of the stars of Don McKellar's Last Night (1998), a comedy-drama about the end of the world that cast the actress as a woman trying to get across town in time to make good on a suicide pact she has with her husband (David Cronenberg). An internationally praised film that enjoyed a particularly strong reception at the Toronto and Cannes Festivals, it received a number of awards, including a second Genie for Oh. The following year, Oh took part in another critical hit with Audrey Wells' Guinevere, in which she appeared alongside fellow Canadian Sarah Polley as one of a number of young women taken under the wing of a dubious mentor (Stephen Rea).Oh ushered in the new millenium with a role in the largely-improvised ensemble film Dancing at the Blue Iguana, and the ensuing years saw the actress primarily take on a variety of small character roles in such films as Big Fat Liar and Under the Tuscan Sun. In 2004, however, she garnered a number of positive responses playing the impulsive-but-tough Stephanie in then-husband Alexander Payne's dramedy Sideways. The role would be a breakthrough, even if Payne and Oh announced the end of their marriage shortly after the film was honored at the 2005 Academy Awards. Oh's professional life continued to improve landing a major role on the television series Gray's Anatomy. Her caustic, hilarious and often heartbreaking work in that series earned her strong reviews, as well as a Golden Globe Award and Emmy recognition. In 2006 she took time off from the show to appear opposite Robin Williams in the thriller The Night Listener. Oh would go on to appear in a number of feature films in the coming years, like Blindness, Defendor, and Ramona and Beezus.

Trivia: Television and movie heartthrob Justin Chambers began life on a difficult course; along with his fraternal twin brother, he reportedly battled multiple bouts of pneumonia, which forced the two boys to spend lengthy periods of time in oxygen tents. As a young man, this Springfield, OH, native flipped burgers at Hardee's and sold orthopedic shoes, then signed with a modeling agency and tackled print work across Europe in the early '90s. The leap from modeling to acting was a relatively short and easy one, and in 1996, Chambers commenced supporting roles in big-screen feature films, telemovies, and prime-time series. He began with a handful of TV movies, as well as a prominent role in Barry Levinson's gentle coming-of-age period piece Liberty Heights (1999). Chambers big break would come in 2005, however when he landed the role of cocky but emotionally guarded Dr. Alex Karev on the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

Trivia: After a decade and a half of popping up in bit movie parts and TV guest spots, Chandra Wilson, born in Houston on August 27th, 1969, saw her acting career take off in 2005 when she was cast as a lead on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy. The show immediately became a hit, and Wilson was honored with an Emmy nomination in 2006 and a Screen Actors Guild Award (for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series) in 2007.

Trivia: African-American character actor James Pickens Jr. sustains one of the longest and fullest Hollywood resumés in recent memory, just in terms of sheer volume of work. Soap opera devotees may remember Pickens for one of his earliest achievements -- his portrayal of Zack Edwards on the long-running daytime drama Another World, from 1986 through 1990. Pickens subsequently divided his time between characterizations on such prime-time programs as Roseanne and Murder, She Wrote, and small roles in A-list Hollywood features. At least in the early years, these films were often, though not always, action vehicles with predominantly black casts, such as the Ice-T and Ice Cube action thriller Trespass (1992), the Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper cop picture Boiling Point (1993), and the bullet-ridden Hughes Brothers pictures Menace II Society (1993) and Dead Presidents (1995). Back on the small screen, Pickens could be seen on such popular series as The X-Files, The Practice, NYPD Blue, Six Feet Under, and Philly. Also, in spring 1998, he joined episode writer Larry David and co. as the detective who threw Jerry and his cronies in the slammer on the much-anticipated series finale of Seinfeld; David and Pickens re-teamed several years later for two 2005 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Pickens drew his greatest attention and acclaim, however, when he ascended from bit player to a prominent supporting role as Chief of Surgery Richard Webber on the blockbuster medical drama Grey's Anatomy. This series premiered in 2005 to sensational ratings and quickly became an American institution, thanks in no small part to Pickens's work.

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: While she is best known for her role as the independent Dr. Callie Torres on ABC's popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy, actress Sara Ramirez is also a singer and Tony award-winning actress. In 2005, Ramirez took home the coveted award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Monty Python's Spamalot. Ramirez can also be seen in a number of small television and film productions; among her credits are You've Got Mail, Spider-Man, and Law & Order: SVU. In 2011 she released her first album, and also got engaged to business analyst Ryan Debolt.

Trivia: Born Chyler Leigh Potts in Charlotte, NC, in 1982, the future actress and her family relocated to Virginia Beach, VA, in 1984. After spending her early years at Trentwood Elementary and Great Neck Middle School, Leigh's parents divorced and Chyler and brother Christopher Khayman Lee relocated with their mother to Miami, FL, to begin a new life. It was in Miami that young Chyler decided to drop out of high school to pursue a career as an actress by training with acting coach Sharon Lane. It was under Lane Management that Leigh began landing frequent modeling and commercial work, appearing in television spots for Coca-Cola and Wendy's among others. Landing the job as co-host of the syndicated talk show Hall Pass (1996) proved the widest exposure to date for the burgeoning talent, and it wasn't long before Leigh would subsequently appear in such series as Kinetic City Cuper Crew and Safe Harbor. Also appearing in unaired pilots for Saving Graces and Wilder Days (and inadvertently cast as the teenage lover of real-life brother Christopher in the former), Chyler dropped Lane Management in favor of representation by The Gersh Agency before auditioning for her biggest feature role to date in Not Another Teen Movie. Though she secretly longed for the role of "The Pretty Ugly Girl," Leigh auditioned for the role of "The Perfect Girl" under the advise of her new management, and, to everyone's surprise, walked out of the audition with the role of "The Pretty Ugly Girl" secured. As the years wore on, Leigh would continue to find success, especially on the small screen, starring on shows like The Practice, Reunion, and Grey's Anatomy.

Trivia: A Scottish actor whose heritage is betrayed as much by his pale skin and red hair as it is by his accent, Kevin McKidd first earned recognition in 1996 with parts in Trainspotting and Small Faces, two films that helped to put the Scottish film industry on the world cinema map. Born and raised in Elgin, a town in the northeast of Scotland, McKidd developed an interest in acting early on and was active with the Moray Youth Theatre throughout his childhood and adolescence. His time as an engineering student at the University of Edinburgh produced little in the way of engineering but did allow McKidd to rack up experience as part of the university's Bedlam Theatre. Finally deciding to chuck his course of study in order to pursue acting full-time, he enrolled in the Queen Margaret Drama School, where he trained until he graduated in 1994. Immediately after his graduation, McKidd auditioned for and won the lead role in The Silver Darlings, which was staged by Robert Carlyle's Rain Dog Theatre Company. This was followed by his casting as a vicious Glasgow gang leader in Gillies MacKinnon's Small Faces (1995) and his role as Tommy, an Iggy Pop-worshipping, AIDS-stricken heroin addict in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996). The huge success of the latter film got McKidd noticed, although his performance was largely overshadowed by those of co-stars Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle. However, the actor soon found more work headed in his direction and spent the rest of the decade appearing in a steady stream of small art house pictures. Among the films he appeared in were Gilles MacKinnon's Hideous Kinky (1998), in which he had a cameo as a massively stoned traveler in Morocco and Rose Troche's Bedrooms and Hallways (1998), in which he starred as a gay man grappling with bisexual urges. In addition to his work on the screen, McKidd remained active on the stage, portraying the title character in the Almeida Theatre production of Jean Racine's Britannicus and starring alongside Jude Law in director Jonathan Kent's Albery Theatre production of John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. He worked steadily throughout the next decade in projects like Anna Karenina, Dog Soldiers, and the biopic De-Lovely. In 2005 he appeared in Ridley Scott's epic Kingdom of Heaven, and that same year he was cast in the historical series Rome. Two years later he had a major role in the Silence of the Lambs prequel Hannibal Rising. The following year, in 2008, McKidd joined the ensemble cast of Grey's Anatomy, which scaled back his film work. In 2010 he was cast as Poseidon, the father of the young hero in Percy Jackson & The Olympians. He joined the Pixar family in 2012 giving voice to Lord MacGuffin in Brave.

Trivia: Fair haired-beauty Jessica Capshaw had an easy means of entering the world of show business, as her stepfather is blockbuster director Steven Spielberg, but she didn't let that stop her from learning the ropes on her own. After graduating from Brown University, Capshaw attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She then began wracking up a modest collection of supporting roles on episodes of shows like ER and the British series Odd Man Out, as well as in movies like Minority Report and The Groomsmen. In 2002, Capshaw joined the cast of the series The Practice, playing Jamie Stringer from 2002 to 2004. Another starring TV role came in 2009, when she signed on to play Dr. Arizona Robbins on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

Trivia: Jesse Williams earned his acting chops studying at Temple University and appearing in several off-Broadway plays. He soon transitioned into on-camera work, appearing in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and on shows like Greek and Beyond the Break. He would go on to appear in Red Tails and The Cabin in the Woods. Williams joined Grey's Anatomy in 2009 as a recurring guest star, before being promoted to a series regular the following season. In 2013, he appeared in Lee Daniels' The Butler as as civil rights activist James Lawson.

Trivia: With her long face and delicate features, actress Kim Raver has a screen image that is hard to forget. Long before she blossomed into a willowy beauty, Raver began her acting career as a performer on the children's show Sesame Street, starting in 1975 when she was just six. Raver's supportive parents soon got her involved in an off-Broadway youth theater project, and by the time the young thespian was 18, she was pursuing a fine arts degree from Boston University. By her early twenties, Raver paid her dues as well as her bills with appearances in commercials as well as shows like Law & Order and Spin City. She maintained a presence on the stage, acting in theatrical productions of plays like Holiday, but by the new millennium, Raver would be making some major commitments. Not only did she get married to director Manu Boyer in 2000, but she also signed on for a starring role on the series Third Watch that same year. She gave birth to her son Luke in 2002 and then left Third Watch in 2004 to join the cast of the hit real-time thriller series 24. Her recurring role as Jack Bauer's sometime love interest kept her quite busy, so busy in fact that her career was barely effected by the failure of a series she starred in called The Nine, which premiered in 2006 but was canceled after just eight episodes. Fans could catcher Raver later that same year on the big screen, as she played the ex-wife of Ben Stiller's character in the hit fantasy comedy Night at the Museum.Back on the small screen, a leading role on the Sex and the City-inspired Lipstick Jungle found Raver living large in New York City, and though that series only lasted two seasons it was durnig that time the actress gave birth to her second son Leo. If it had seemed that Raver couldn't find her footing on television in the last few years however, things started to look up when she joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy in 2009, and quickly became a series regular by the end of the sixth season.

Trivia: Actress Sarah Drew projected an amiable, down-to-earth quality that served her perfectly in Middle American, girl-next-door roles. An East Coast native, Drew grew up in a conservative evangelical household as the daughter of a Connecticut-based Presbyterian minister. She actually commenced work in the entertainment industry before she finished high school by voicing the character of Stacy on MTV's popular animated sitcom Daria from 1998-2002, and in the meantime received her formal education at the University of Virginia, marrying almost immediately after graduation. Within the following two years Drew began signing for supporting roles in features and series. Some of the more memorable included a portrayal of Ed Harris' daughter in the disability-themed inspirational drama Radio (2003), a brief but funny one-scene turn as a girlfriend lovestruck by another man in the Michael Showalter comedy The Baxter (2004), and -- on a higher profile note -- a multiseason portrayal of Hannah, a shy Colorado high schooler with a terminally ill father, on the third and fourth seasons of the popular television series Everwood. In 2007, Drew signed for a supporting role in director Desmond Nakano's racially themed period sports drama American Pastime. She had a recurring role on Mad Men, playing Sal Romano's clueless wife, before joining the regular cast of Grey's Anatomy, playing Dr. April Kepner.

Trivia: Is the daughter of a retired police chief. Did print modeling work as a child. Directed a 2011 production of the play This Is Our Youth in Los Angeles. Joined the cast of the show Last Man Standing after its first season, becoming the second actress to play the role of Kristin. Hobbies include traveling and photography. Considers 27 to be her lucky number.

Trivia: Began studying at the Italia Conti Academy in England at the age of 11. Only had one public interview of Kate Middleton to use for research when she played the character in William & Kate. Joined Grey's Anatomy as a recurring guest star in season 9; she was promoted to a series regular the following year. In 2013, became the voice and motion capture artist for Lara Croft in the video game reboot of Tomb Raider.

Trivia: Performed with the Dallas Children's Theatre. Won the Rosenfield Award for Playwriting while at Southern Methodist University. Toured with the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Was a recurring character on the ninth season of Grey's Anatomy before being promoted to a series regular for the show's 10th season. Supports The Innocence Project.

Trivia: First appeared on stage in a sixth-grade musical. Studied acting in college and appeared in numerous plays and commercials. Appeared on the PBS series The Electric Company and Cyberchase. Had a recurring role on White Collar. Broadway debut was in the 2008 musical Passing Strange. Biggest break came in 2012 when she was cast as a surgical intern on Emily Owens, M.D., opposite Mamie Gummer. Is a founding member of the Jaradoa Theater company in New York City.