Trivia: Born July 29th, 1974, genial actor Josh Radnor established himself as a television star almost exclusively with one single, charming role: that of Ted Mosby, the young man whose future self (the voice of Bob Saget) narrates the story of how he snagged his wife and the mother of his children, on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. That program earned stellar notices when it premiered in 2005, suggesting a lengthy run and newfound stardom for the young actor. Radnor's resumé also includes guest appearances on such programs as ER, Six Feet Under, and Law & Order.

Trivia: Born January 18th, 1980, the first decade or so of Jason Segel's career as a Hollywood actor, he spent his time earning cult-favorite status -- beginning with the jet-black comedy Dead Man on Campus (1998), then the NBC comedy drama Freaks and Geeks (1999). Segel subsuquently achieved broader recognition for his long-running performance as Marshall on the beloved sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He also played Jason in the big-screen feature Knocked Up (2007), Judd Apatow's uproarious follow-up to The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Fresh off his success in Knocked Up, Segel parlayed his newfound wide-scale popularity into the ultimate chance to showcase his skills, writing and starring in the side splitting romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), alongside Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Russell Brand.The massively succesful film also featured a supporting performance by funnyman Paul Rudd, who reteamed with Segal for 2009's buddy comedy I Love You, Man. Having found a niche with audiences, the actor next picked up another tonally similar comedy, appearing with Cameron Diaz in the sharp witted, hard-R rated Bad Teacher in 2011. Later that same year, Segal showcased his talents on both sides of the camera yet again, writing the script for a reboot of Jim Henson's beloved Muppets, and starring in the film alongside the furry stars as well. As Segal geared up for 2012, he signed on to star alongside Emily Blunt in the romantic comedy A Five Year Engagement.

Trivia: Born March 24, 1974, in Washington, D.C., Hannigan became a TV commercial veteran following her family's move to Atlanta. From the age of four, Hannigan appeared in a steady stream of commercials, including ones for Oreo and McDonald's. At the age of 11, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television. She made her big-screen debut in the 1988 film My Stepmother Is an Alien, as Dan Aykroyd's daughter. The following year, she won a regular spot on the short-lived sitcom Free Spirit and acted in a variety of television miniseries and sitcoms (including Roseanne and Picket Fences) until 1997, when she won the part of Willow on Buffy.The show proved to be an unexpected success among critics and viewers alike, and paved the way for Hannigan to appear opposite Tom Everett Scott in the 1998 comedy Dead Man on Campus. American Pie followed the next year, giving Hannigan wider recognition and making her an unintentional poster child for band camps everywhere. She would return for sequels in the franchise, but Hannigan would also become just as well known for her subsuquent role on the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Trivia: Neil Patrick Harris made his first splash playing a 16-year-old doctor in the Steven Bochco television series Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989-1993). Following the series' demise, the young adult actor laid low for a few years, appearing in films like Starship Troopers and Shakespeare's Sister. Harris second act would come in 2004, however, when he played a hilariously insane, fictionalized version of himself for the stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Harris would follow this up with a starring role on the hugely popular, left of center sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing beloved rake and ladies' man Barney.In addition to his film and television career, Harris has also had a successful career on-stage. In 1997, he wowed California audiences playing the lead in the popular off-Broadway musical Rent.

Trivia: Born April 3rd, 1982, model-turned-actress Cobie Smulders grew up in her native British Columbia and commuted regularly from Vancouver to Los Angeles while looking for assignments. Smulders reportedly secured a work visa thanks to her first major role: that of Robin, the charming TV reporter whom lead character Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) falls in love with on their very first date, on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005). Before that, she had been a regular on the adventure series Veritas: The Quest and had appeared several times on The L Word (both series were shot in Canada). Her resumé also includes minor feature appearances in the Chris Klein comedy The Long Weekend (2004, as Ellen) and the Rock-headlined actioner Walking Tall (2004, as the Exotic Beauty). The actress continued to find success with How I Met Your Mother, and appeared as Agent Maria Hill in 2012's blockbuster The Avengers.

Trivia: Chris Elliott may have been born with a funny spoon in his mouth -- he's the son of Bob Elliott, the more deadpan half of the famous comedy duo Bob and Ray -- but he's developed his own offbeat brand of humor and gained his own substantial cult following. Elliott began his show business career as a standup comic, but he first gained public attention as a writer and performer on Late Night With David Letterman, helping that show define a new age of ironic comedy, and winning two Emmys as part of Letterman's writing team. Elliott played the sarcastic firebrand to Letterman's perturbable Midwestern reserve. He starred in sketches as the Panicky Guy, the Fugitive Guy, and the Guy Under the Seats, a character who lived in a cramped passageway underneath the audience, and would occasionally interrupt the show to chat with Letterman. As a result of Elliott's growing popularity on Late Night, his acting career took off. Or, to be more precise, he got bit parts in Michael Mann's Manhunter, James Cameron's The Abyss, and the Francis Ford Coppola segment of New York Stories. Elliott also went on to star in two hilarious, but little-seen half-hour comedy shows for Cinemax. FDR -- A One Man Show featured Elliott playing Chris Elliott, a pompous egomaniacal actor portraying FDR in a one-man show of tremendous historical inaccuracy, while Action Family economically combined satire of TV police dramas with a satire of a typical living room family sitcom. Around this time, Elliott published a Mommy Dearest-style mock exposé about his childhood, Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life With a Famous Father, which featured chapter-by-chapter rebuttals from his father, Bob, and a foreword by David Letterman.In 1990, Elliott, with help from talented collaborators like David Mirkin, Bob Odenkirk, and Adam Resnick, starred in a bizarrely funny sitcom, Get a Life. The character Elliott played, Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old paperboy, was not a far cry from his previous television personae. Peterson was a dimwitted, balding, doughy, sarcastic, celebrity-worshipping dolt, with a hilariously high degree of self-regard. He was an utter failure who somehow convinced himself he was doing great. Bob Elliott played Chris Peterson's father on the show. The mucky mucks at the fledgling Fox network didn't understand the show, and were hoping Peterson would be cuddlier. Elliott would later remember a network exec optimistically comparing the character to "Tom Hanks in Big." The show had disastrous ratings. Despite support from savvier TV critics, Fox gave up on the show quickly, and canceled Get a Life after two seasons. The show had gained a passionate cult following and some episodes were eventually released on DVD and syndicated briefly on the USA Network. Get a Life was later recognized for its influence on other, more successful programs, including The Simpsons and South Park.Elliott also had key supporting roles in the smash hit Groundhog Day, opposite Bill Murray, and in the unsuccessful rap mockumentary CB4 with Chris Rock. In 1994, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. Despite the addition of other talented comic actors (Randy Quaid, Michael McKean, and Janeane Garofalo), it was a dismal season, and Elliott was put off by the lack of collaborative spirit among some of the long-term cast members. He moved on after one season.This was also the period of Elliott's greatest professional disappointment -- the failure of the feature film he co-wrote and starred in, Cabin Boy. His frequent collaborator Adam Resnick co-wrote the film, and, at the urging of producer Tim Burton, also directed it. Letterman makes a brief, but very funny cameo appearance. The film has developed a small cult following, particularly among devotees of Get a Life, but it was a box-office flop. While the filmmakers themselves have acknowledged that Cabin Boy fell short of their expectations, Elliott was stung by the viciousness of the reviews. Elliott went through a creative dry spell after this, appearing in a recurring role in the Tea Leoni sitcom Flying Blind, and gaining more national visibility as a spokesman for Tostitos snack chips. He also continued making guest appearances on a variety of sitcoms. Since then, Elliott has appeared in supporting roles in a number of silly comedies (Snow Day, sequels to The Nutty Professor, and Scary Movie) and has developed a fruitful relationship with the Farrelly brothers, appearing in Kingpin, Osmosis Jones, and, most notably, in their smash hit, There's Something About Mary. He was also heard as the voice of Dogbert on the short-lived animated series, Dilbert, and he was a regular on the appropriately named, ill-fated Steven Weber series, Cursed.

Trivia: Moved to New York after graduating college.Lived with actor Nick Nolte, who she met on the set of I'll Do Anything (1994), for nearly 10 years.In 2007, won the Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her work in Michael John LaChiusa's Hotel C'est L'amour.In May 2010, released her debut album East of Midnight.A faculty member at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts.

Trivia: Moved to Los Angles at 13 to pursue acting and debuted a year later as Colleen Connelly-Carlton on The Young and the Restless. After recurring roles on How I Met Your Mother and Desperate Housewives, she joined the cast of the CW's Nikita as a budding assassin. In 2010, she appeared on the big screen in the comedies Hot Tub Time Machine and Kick-Ass. Is an accomplished tap dancer.

Trivia: Big break was landing the role of Petey Pitt on the Fox sitcom The Pitts. Had a recurring role as Larry on That's So Raven. Listens to the story of How I Met Your Mother as Future Ted's Son. Has a production company called YUTE Productions.

Trivia: Wayne Brady may have made one of his most lasting marks serenading unsuspecting audience members with love ballads on the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Hosted by Drew Carey, the show featured Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and other regulars, who played improvisational games in front of a studio audience. Brady's brilliant interaction with the other players on the show earned him not only three Emmy nominations (one of which actually found the comic taking home the prize), but enough attention to spawn his own Emmy award-winning series, The Wayne Brady Show, in 2001.Born June 2, 1972, in Orlando, FL, Brady began performing the central Florida theater circuit when he was still a teenager. After a brief stay in Las Vegas, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1996, where he gained a lot of stage and television experience as a dramatic artist. He made appearances on several dramatic series including I'll Fly Away and In the Heat of the Night. In 1998, he hosted the VH-1 series Vinyl Justice, in addition to his late-'90s appearance on Whose Line Is It Anyway? The TV-movie musical Geppetto featured Brady in the role of a magician, alongside Whose Line host Drew Carey, who starred in the comedy.The Wayne Brady Show debuted in 2001. Written by, produced by, and starring Wayne Brady, the series showcased both his comedic and dramatic talents. A sketch comedy show that had a relatively brief run on daytime television, The Wayne Brady Show nevertheless paved the way for a similarly-titled talk show that would hit the airwaves the very same year the original Wayne Brady Show was cancelled. His popularity growing at a rapid rate thanks to his amiable, down-to-earth persona and everyman attitude, Brady proved that he had a sense of humor about his nice guy image but memorably portraying himself as a drug-dealing psychopath on a particularly memorable episode of the wildly popular Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show in 2004. Numerous appearances in a variety of television series' including Reno 911, Stargate SG-1, and Kevin Hill were quick to follow, and in February of 2006 the versitile comic would serve as host to the thought-provoking TV Land series That's What I'm Talking About; a free-flowing look at the Black lifestyle in America that featured such special guests as Spike Lee, Wanda Sykes, DL Hughley, and Paul Mooney. As a recurring role in the popular television series Girlfriends continued to keep Brady busy on the small screen, additional performances in such wide-release features as the retro-minded roller-skating comedy drama Roll Bounce and the high-stakes streetball drama Crossover found the comic's film career continuing to gain momentum as well. In 2007 he began a three-year run hosting the music-related game show Don't Forget the Lyrics, and followed that up by filling the substantial shoes of Monty Hall as the MC of the relaunched Let's Make a Deal.

Trivia: Fresh-faced Becki Newton became interested in acting at a young age, participating in local theater from the time she was a child. After graduating from UPENN and studying abroad, Newton began devoting her career to show business, acting in commercials and appearing on shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Charmed. In 2006, Newton married fellow actor Chris Diamantopoulos and the next year, she was cast in the hit series Ugly Betty, playing mean-spirited receptionist Amanda.

Trivia: After appearing in a stage production of Twelve Angry Men, dropped out of art school---where he was studying painting---to become a full-time actor. His off-Broadway performance as the title character in Bertolt Brecht's Baal led to his film debut in K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). First starring role on TV was as copywriter Paul Kinsey on the acclaimed AMC drama Mad Men. Resembles legendary director/actor Orson Welles, whom Gladis was set to play in a biopic until funding fell through. Performs with the New York theater company Partial Comfort Productions. Is an avid acoustic-guitar player and songwriter.

Trivia: Bob Saget offers living proof that it is possible to dramatically (and aggressively) alter one's own show-business image in mid-act. This deceptively clean-cut writer/actor/comedian began his foray into televised entertainment typecast as a "family-oriented" comic actor, and then shocked nearly everyone by emerging as a popular "blue" comedian with raunchy standup gigs, delivered from such venues as Glitter Gulch. Throughout, Saget managed to achieve considerable success in each venue, albeit among radically different demographics.A graduate of Pennsylvania's Temple University, Saget originally planned to pursue medical studies, but a brush with the performing arts convinced him to head in that direction instead. Following a brief appearance as a doctor in the Richard Pryor-Michael Apted medical farce Critical Condition (1986), Saget achieved broad recognition in 1987 when cast as genial family man Danny Tanner, a widower and father of three, on the saccharine sitcom Full House (1987-1995). Two and a half years into that program's run, Saget concurrently turned up on another program, America's Funniest Home Videos, which -- per its title -- featured the comic actor emceeing a seemingly limitless series of humorous amateur video clips sent in by folks around the country -- in a contest that issued cash prizes for the very best. Videos, like Full House, instantly scored with the public when it bowed in January 1990; Saget remained with the series until 1997.Beginning immediately around the time that Full House wrapped, Saget started branching off into a variety of directions; he helmed several features, including telemovies (For Hope, Jitters) and at least one theatrically released comedy (the 1998 Dirty Work), but placed his strongest emphasis on standup. The performer hosted Saturday Night Live, contributed a routine to Comic Relief, and headlined a series of standup comedy specials on pay cable that were -- as indicated -- definitively for adults. He also contributed a memorably scatological and raunchy routine to longtime friends Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette's standup documentary revue, The Aristocrats (2005). (The routine was prefaced by Saget's ironic admission, "Some people think I have a reputation of being a dirty comedian...," and intercepted by his tongue-in-cheek request to have a copy of the video of the routine, to send it to the kids on Full House.) Saget's 2007 directorial effort Farce of the Penguins (2007) skewered the popular nature documentary March of the Penguins (2007) with raunchy voice-overs (by an all-star cast) placed atop nature footage of penguins in the wild. Meanwhile, beginning in 2005, Saget signed for a voice-only role on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He provides the older voice of the lead character, Ted Mosby, as he tells his two children the story of how he came to know their mother, effectively serving as narrator for the show.

Trivia: Began dancing competitively at 3—studying ballet, jazz, tap and hip-hop—and started singing in choirs and musicals at a young age, performing a solo at her church at 4. Signed with Ford Models when she was 8 and subsequently appeared in a number of print ads. Made her big-screen debut with a bit part in the 2004 comedy 13 Going on 30. Had to overcome her fear of heights in order to perform the cheerleading stunts in the 2007 comedy Bring It On: In It to Win It. Spent three years as a series regular on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives; made the leap to prime time in 2009 with the ABC supernatural comedy Eastwick.

Trivia: Left college to join the cast of Saturday Night Live; was the youngest female cast member in the show's history. Third generation of the Elliott family to be featured on Saturday Night Live: her father Chris was a cast member during the 1994-95 season, and her grandfather Bob Elliott appeared in a 1978 episode.

Trivia: Born August 28th, 2969, Jason Priestley began his own career as a child actor in TV commercials. After dropping out of acting in his teens to concentrate on high-school sports, Priestley got back in the professional swim following graduation, accepting one-shot roles on such Canada-based TV series as 21 Jump Street. The young actor's first American TV assignment was the regular role of teen orphan Todd Mahaffey on the 1989 sitcom Sister Kate. Producer Aaron Spelling's daughter Tori spotted Priestley on Sister Kate and suggested that her father audition him for a role in the upcoming Fox series Beverly Hills 90210. Priestley was cast as Brandon Walsh, twin brother of the estimable Brenda (Shannen Doherty).Like many of his young series co-stars, Priestley was intent on laying the groundwork for life after 90210. Though his first major film role in Penny Marshall's Calendar Girl (1993) came and went without fanfare, he enjoyed some success as a 90210 director. Priestley encountered further success and even critical vindication with his turn as Ronnie Bostock, the B-movie hunk who steals John Hurt's heart in Love and Death on Long Island (1997). Critics warmed to Priestley's performance, noting that his days of idolatry had given him overly adequate preparation for his portrayal. Unlike other teen idols who rue the day when the fan mail will cease, Priestley once claimed he was happy that his idoldom seems to be on a downward slide: "It's like having a big cancerous lesion on your shoulder. Because people are fickle, man." On March 28, 2000, Priestley was undoubtedly happy that the limelight's glare had dimmed: Arrested for drunken driving after crashing his car into some trash cans, he was sentenced to five days in a Los Angeles jail. Legal troubles aside, Priestly continued to appear in films throughout the 2000s (Cherish, Die Mommie Die, Homicide: The Movie), and joined Joss Whedon's Tru Calling in the role of Jack Harper, a man determined that the dead not be revived by Tru. Television continued to be a superior medium for the actor who made guest appearances on My Name is Earl, What I Like About You, and Without a Trace. Priestly stars as corrupt used-car salesman Richard "Fitz" Fitzpatrick" in HBO Canada's Call Me Fitz, and is a recurring character on Haven, a supernatural television series from Syfy.

Trivia: Tall, blonde, and possessing a choir of perfect teeth that would make any dentist jealous, James Van Der Beek emerged as one of the ultimate teen pin-ups of the late 1990s. First attaining prominence with the title role of Dawson Leary in the WB Network's Dawson's Creek, Van Der Beek proceeded to branch out with film and stage work, and in the process managed to be anointed in 1998 as one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful."Born March 8, 1977 to a cell phone salesman father and a mother who ran a gymnastics studio, Van Der Beek was raised in his hometown of Cheshire, Connecticut. The oldest of three children, he was an honors student and excelled at football until an injury sidelined his budding career. In its own way the injury proved to be serendipitous, as it led Van Der Beek to take up acting. Following a casting trip to New York with his mother, Van Der Beek made his professional debut at the age of 16 in the Off-Broadway production of Finding the Sun, which was written and directed by Edward Albee. More stage work ensued, as did some television work (most notably in the form of a 1995 stint on As the World Turns). Van Der Beek made his film debut in the 1995 comedy Angus, aptly cast as a golden-boy football quarterback. Another movie, the little-seen Claire Danes/Jude Law vehicle I Love You, I Love You Not, followed in 1997, but it was his starring role in Dawson's Creek, premiering in January of 1998, that gave Van Der Beek his big break. The show's success with critics and audiences alike propelled Van Der Beek and his fellow cast members into the limelight, and soon Van Der Beek secured his first major film roles, first in the little-seen Harvest (1998), and then in the football comedy-drama Varsity Blues (1998). The film's modest reviews were overshadowed by its financial success, geared as it was toward a new generation of teenagers eager to see their favorite actors in glorious celluloid. The film's enthusiastic commercial response, coupled with Dawson's continuing success, virtually guaranteed the young actor that no matter what the future held for him, his career had certainly gotten off to a very positive start.Though to this point Van Der Beek's success had been built on the image of the squeaky clean, all-American small town boy, a pair of efforts following the millennial turnover signaled that the actor who had become the very personification of white-bred wholesomeness was determined to create a new, decidedly more edgy image for himself. Though his initial effort ended in mystery as the segment featuring Van Der Beek as a closeted high school homosexual was cut from director Todd Solandz's Storytelling (2002) shortly before the film's release, his efforts would be cemented later that same year with the subsequent release of The Rules of Attraction. Directed by Pulp Fiction collaborator Roger Avery (Killing Zoe) and based on a novel by American Psycho author Brett Easton Ellis, The Rules of Attraction found the former innocent plunged into a strange world of drugs and sexual deviance that left many Dawson's Creek fans up in arms. As college student/drug dealer Sean Bateman (who also happens to be the brother of American Psycho maniac Patrick Bateman) Van Der Beek essayed what was without question his seediest role to date. With his Dawson's Creek and Rules of Attraction characters existing on the most extreme polar opposite ends of the spectrum imaginable, Van Der Beek made it no secret that his acting coach recieved a hearty workout as the actor attempted to balance hiumself between the two projects. When Dawson's Creek finally came to an end, Van Der Beek appeared in Clive Barker's The Plague, Eye of the Beast, Formosa Betrayed, and Stolen. He spoofed his own image as a squeaky-clean guy by playing an obnoxious version of himself in the sitcom Don't Trust the B - in Apartment 23 and joined the cast of CSI: Cyber in 2015.

Trivia: Born in 1959, Washington native Kyle MacLachlan, among other things, claims to be a descendent of the legendary composer Johann Sebastian Bach. However, unlike his very distant relative, MacLachlan made his mark not in music, but in television and film. After performing in a variety of local theater productions throughout his youth -- and acting out scenes from the popular Hardy Boys fiction series in his even younger years -- MacLachlan made his feature-film debut in director David Lynch's adaptation Dune in 1984. This would mark the first of many collaborations with Lynch; in 1986, Lynch cast MacLachlan as a young man shocked at what lies under a small town's picture-perfect facade in Blue Velvet. A year later, MacLachlan starred as an alien FBI agent in The Hidden, Jack Sholder's 1987 cult hit. MacLachlan, however, wouldn't gain true mainstream notoriety until 1989, when David Lynch called upon the young actor to play another FBI agent; this time, he was Special Agent Dale Cooper, who was sent to a small Washington town to investigate the murder of a young girl in ABC's popular but ultimately short-lived prime-time drama, Twin Peaks. The role would earn him two Emmy nominations for Lead Actor in a Drama Series and pave the way for more silver-screen roles, some of which include Ray Manzarek in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991), villain Cliff Vandercave in The Flintstones (1994), and a falsely accused bank clerk in The Trial (1993). MacLachlan offered several relatively well-received starring and supporting performances throughout the mid- to late '90s, and did what he could for his role in Paul Verhoeven's famous 1995 flop, Showgirls.Luckily, the late '90s to early 2000s were much kinder to MacLachlan. In addition to playing another smooth agent in David Koepp's The Trigger Effect (1996), which some critics claimed was his best performance since Blue Velvet, the actor also was cast as King Claudius in Michael Almereyda's adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. However, it was television that once again made MacLachlan a household name, albeit temporarily. In 2000, he joined the cast of HBO's multiple-award-winning series Sex and the City as Charlotte's (Kristin Davis) mama's boy husband, Trey. In 2003, MacLachlan starred in the Bravo network's popular documentary series, The Reality of Reality. Over the coming years, McLachlan wouldenjoy successful arcs on popular TV shows, like How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives, and Portlandia.