Trivia: Decided she wanted to work as a voice actor for cartoons at the age of 8. Was a member of The Groundlings for 10 years. Earned her first professional voice-over role in a 1979 episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. Played the role of Lucille Ball in Weird Al Yankovic's 1983 music video for "Hey, Ricky!" In 1995, was nominated for the award for Voice Acting in the Field of Animation for her role as Dot Warner in Animaniacs at the 23rd Annual Annie Awards. Nominated for the award for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in a TV Production for her role as Debbie Douglas in Mission Freakazoid at the 25th Annual Annie Awards. Provided the voice for characters in numerous video games, including Kingdom Hearts, Futurama, Epic Mickey, Fallout and The Simpsons Game. Has been the voice of many iconic television characters, including Daisy Duck, Wilma Flintstone, Babs Bunny and multiple roles in The Simpsons.

Trivia: Forever associated with his ongoing voice work as Homer J. Simpson on Matt Groening and James L. Brooks' long, long-running Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons, Dan Castellaneta is well-reputed for his modest, unassuming presence in real life and his paradoxical ability to spin characters -- seemingly from out of nowhere -- that instantly take on lives of their own. Groening once famously remarked that "Dan can do everything, and he practically does....You might never notice him, but then he opens his mouth and he completely creates one character after another.'' Born in 1957, Castellaneta grew up in the small town of Oak Grove, IL, in the northwestern corner of the state, near the Iowa border. As a self-described introvert who developed and honed a facility for slipping into the guise of characters to entertain and make social situations easier (read: class clown), Castellaneta nevertheless diverged from this path in college and worked toward a career as a high-school art teacher via his studies at Northern Illinois University. Then, one of Castellaneta's professors (perhaps sensing some dissatisfaction) wisely admonished him to only work at a field, and in a job, that he loved. Castellaneta reasoned that acting fit the bill, and auditioned for the infamous sketch comedy troupe Second City shortly after graduation. The troupe hired him, and in time, the skills that the actor projected led to his involvement on the then-fledgling Fox network's sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show, which premiered on Sunday, April 5, 1987. Castellaneta joined Ullman, Julie Kavner, Joe Malone, Sam McMurray, and for a time Anna Levine in live-action skits that parodied all aspects of Western culture.As a most unusual aspect of her program, Ullman opted to feature crudely animated, offbeat segments as Monty Python-style transitions between the individual sketches. The episodes in question were drawn by Gabor Csupo and Groening (at that time, comic-strip artist of growing infamy known for his Life Is Hell series starring a buck-toothed, bug-eyed rabbit named Bucky). Although the subjects of the shorts initially varied, within a few months they began to focus exclusively on a hyper-dysfunctional blue-collar family called the Simpsons; Kavner and Castellaneta voiced parents Homer and Marge Simpson, respectively. Those segments gained such massive popularity that they eventually outshone that of the Ullman show itself (which wrapped in September 1990), and executive producer James L. Brooks, following this cue, decided to spin off the Simpsons into their own weekly animated series. Kavner and Castellaneta, of course, followed Brooks to the new program, joined in time by longtime Brooks acquaintance Harry Shearer, as well as Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and numerous others.The Simpsons premiered on Fox on December 17, 1989, and became not simply a hit but a phenomenon. It shot up to instantly become one of the highest-rated series on television, and attained iconic status. The program scored as a cause célèbre not simply with children (as expected) but with adult viewers as well, who appreciated the show's ability to skewer all aspects of society and culture. (It generated a billion-dollar marketing boom as well -- an onslaught of Bart Simpson-themed T-shirts, watches, dolls, beach towels, and everything else under the sun.) The program also drew an onslaught of celebrity guests -- everyone from Larry King to Tony Bennett to Beverly D'Angelo and Linda Ronstadt. Castellaneta himself will forever be tied to Homer Simpson -- the lunkheaded, potbellied, beer-swilling, donut-loving nuclear-plant worker with not a whole lot upstairs, and a thoroughly crass lifestyle, but also a big, soft heart (a quality which Castellaneta's co-workers insist that he alone brought to the character). But hardcore Simpsons cultists and even its less attentive devotees will realize that Castellaneta voices not only Homer (as mentioned), but also the gravelly voiced, booze-swilling, womanizing clown Krusty; local drunk Barney Gumble; Scottish elementary-school groundskeeper Willie; the octogenarian family patriarch Grampa Simpson; and innumerable others. Certainly, it would be difficult to imagine a program that took fuller advantage of Castellaneta's versatility with characterizations.Alongside The Simpsons, Castellaneta has also pursued a career as a live-action film and television performer, and spent most of the late '80s, '90s, and 2000s vacillating between the two mediums. His career on the big screen began at least a year prior to his involvement with Ullman and co., when he debuted with a bit part as Brian in the now-forgotten Garry Marshall dramedy Nothing in Common (1986), starring Jackie Gleason, Tom Hanks, Eva Marie Saint, and Sela Ward. In 1989, Castellaneta landed bit parts in two wildly different films: one as a maître d' in the Jim Belushi cop comedy K-9, and another (as one of Danny DeVito's clients) in the James L. Brooks-produced jet-black marital farce The War of the Roses. Castellaneta temporarily withdrew from live-action cinematic work in the early '90s, before returning to audiences as the narrator in Super Mario Bros. (1993) and Phil in Warren Beatty's Love Affair (1994). As the Castellaneta's career continued, he then segued into cinematic animated voice-over work (doubtless encouraged by the ongoing success of The Simpsons), doing voices in such features as 2000's Rugrats in Paris (under the aegis of old colleague Gabor Csupo) and Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002). In 2007, Castellaneta extended his Homer characterization to the big screen with his work on The Simpsons Movie -- the first cinematic appearance of Groening's famous animated family.As for television, Castellaneta appeared as a supporting actor in numerous sitcoms during the 1990s. These included ALF (as Steve Michaels in the 1990 episode "Stayin' Alive"), Married...with Children (as Pete in the 1990 episode "The Dance Show"), Wings (as George Wexler in the 1994 episode "Moonlighting"), and Murphy Brown (as Tony Lucchesi in the 1995 episode "Specific Overtures.") He also voiced Genie (inheriting the role from Robin Williams) on the animated Aladdin TV series. Of the Simpsons cast, Castellaneta is one of the only actors to regularly do on-stage comedic improvisation alongside his series work. He is married to Simpsons writer Deb Lacusta, whom he wed in 1987.He continued to work steadily in animated films such as Rugrats in Paris: The Movie and Hey Arnold! The Movie, and landed traditional acting parts every once in a while in movies as diverse as the indie comedy I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With and the Will Smith drama The Pursuit of Happyness. In 2007 he voiced nearly 20 different parts in The Simpsons Movie. He also landed a part in JJ Abrams 2011 Spielberg-influenced family sci-fi film Super 8.

Trivia: Rubber-faced comic actor and vocal artist extraordinaire Hank Azaria initially plied his trade on the stand-up circuit, then subsequently landed stage appearances and tackled bit parts on television. Azaria scored his breakthrough in 1989 when he began providing a multitude of voices for the Fox network's groundbreaking animated series The Simpsons, an assignment that imparted the performer with an enviable degree of cult stardom. In 1991, Azaria nabbed a major role in the Fox live-action sitcom Herman's Head, which ran until 1994 and gave audiences a glimpse of the man responsible for the vocal intonations of some of the most famous characters to ever corrupt an animator's storyboard.A native of Queens, NY, where he was born into a family of Sephardic Jews on April 25, 1964, Azaria commenced film roles in the late 1980s, coincident with his Simpsons stardom. Work on that program (which, after graduating from a series of crude sketches on The Tracey Ullmann Show to its own animated sitcom, quickly shot up to qualify as the Fox network's most popular enterprise) easily outstripped Azaria's screen work in popularity and visibility for many years. Recurring parts included Indian convenience store owner Apu, quack doctor Nick Riviera, dim-witted bartender Moe, and the idiotic, pig-nosed Springfield Chief of Police, Clancy Wiggum. Though his Simpsons work continued unabated over the years, beginning in the mid-1990s Azaria branched out somewhat, placing a heavier emphasis on live-action portrayals. Even in that venue, however, his work tonally mirrored his animated contributions; he specialized in adroitly handling goofy, over-the-top character parts, often with an ethnic bent. The performer attained visibility and memorability, for example, as the klutzy and scantily-dressed gay houseboy Agador in The Birdcage (1995), Hector, a goofy Hispanic paramour with a permanent effeminate lisp, in Joe Roth's underrated showbiz comedy America's Sweethearts (2001), and Claude, a Gallic beach bum with no qualms about taking off with other men's wives, in John Hamburg's gross-out romantic comedy Along Came Polly (2004).Azaria has also departed from the boundaries of screen comedy from time to time, doing memorable work across genre lines in such films as Great Expectations (1998) (which cast him as Gwyneth Paltrow's lackluster fiancé), Mystery Men (1999) (as the superhero Blue Raja), and Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock (1999), a historical drama about art and politics in 1930s New York that cast Azaria as leftist playwright Marc Blitzstein. In 2005, Azaria presided as one of the many off-color monologuists in Penn Jillette's stand-up comedy showcase film The Aristocrats; the performer subsequently provided at least seventeen voices (including his usual series roles) for The Simpsons Movie (2007) and voiced both Abbie Hoffmann and Allen Ginsberg in the animated sequences of Brett Morgen's offbeat documentary Chicago 10 (2007).He appeared in the pre-historic comedy Year One, and provided several voices in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. He played an ethically challenged doctor in Love and Other Drugs, and portrayed Gargamel, the bad guy in the big-screen hit The Smurfs. He was in family film Hop, and lent his prodigious vocal talents to Happy Feet Two. In 2012 he acted in the biopic Lovelace.In July 1999, Azaria married actress Helen Hunt, with whom he co-starred in several episodes of the sitcom Mad About You. The two divorced within eighteen months.

Trivia: Is of African-American and Guyanese descent.Co-starred in the sitcom A Different World from 1987 to 1992, playing Jaleesa Vinson.Composed A Different World's theme song with Bill Cosby and Stu Gardner.Played Deloris Van Cartier, the Whoopi Goldberg role, in Peter Schneider's Sister Act the Musical before its Broadway run.Has lent her voice to a number of animated television series such as The Simpsons, Futurama, The Cleveland Show and The Boondocks, as well as to Pixar films Monsters University and Inside Out.

Trivia: Eternally known as the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright is one of the most prolific voice actors of her time. Born in an Ohio suburb in the late '50s, she grew up doing community theater and watching cartoons. In her last year at Ohio University, she got a chance to meet Hanna-Barbara voice actor Daws Butler. Better known by his character names Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Quick Draw McGraw, Butler suggested she transfer to U.C.L.A. and start going to auditions. By 1980, Cartwright had her first professional job as the voice of Gloria on Richie Rich. With her new Screen Actors Guild card, she also got normal acting roles on the TV movie Marian Rose White, the feature film Twilight Zone: The Movie, and several television guest appearances. Her voice was heard as multiple characters on beloved '80s cartoons like My Little Pony & Friends, Pound Puppies, Space Ace, and Galaxy High School. Eventually Cartwright started to get singular roles like Kip on ShirtTales and Daphne on Snorks. In 1987, she auditioned for the role of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons but she landed the role of Bart instead. After a few years of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, The Simpsons got its own time slot on FOX in 1990. Cartwright won an Emmy and an Annie award for her work, which has expanded to several other Springfield youths including Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, Milhouse, Kearney, and Nelson. While still working on The Simpsons, she also did voices for Animaniacs, Goof Troop, and The Critic, as well as numerous short-lived cartoons (remember God, the Devil and Bob?). Cartwright has also found time to perform the one-woman play In Search of Fellini and write her autobiography My Life as a Ten-Year-Old Boy. In 2001 she took over for Christine Cavanaugh in the role of Chuckie on Rugrats while working on Kim Possible and launching her Internet animation company, SportsBlast. Her voice can also be heard on the web cartoons The Kellys and Timberwolf.Cartwright would continue to remain an extremely active force in the world of voice acting over the coming years, most notably on series like All Grown Up, The Replacements, and Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures.

Trivia: Even those who don't know Kevin Michael Richardson's face will frequently remember his voice. The actor's unique baritone has made him a memorable presence in many projects, including several voices on the animated series Family Guy. A classically trained performer, Richardson was one of eight students selected for the 1982 National Foundation for the Arts program, leading to a full scholarship for Syracuse University. He would go on to become a successful actor and voice actor, wracking up a long list of roles on everything from Pokemon to The New Batman Adventures. Othyer shows featuring Richardson's distinctive voice include Transformers Prime, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Real-life voices Richardson has portrayed include Bob Hope (in a 2006 Malcolm in the Middle episode), Bill Cosby (a number of Family Guy episodes) and Plato (PBS's Adventures From the Book of Virtues, 1996-98).

Trivia: Actress and comedian Marcia Wallace began her career as a stage actress, appearing with the improv troupe The Fourth Wall and in off-Broadway plays in the late '60s. After a guest appearance on the Merv Griffin Show, Wallace began a thriving TV career playing secretary Carol Kester Bondurant on The Bob Newhart Show and making countless appearances over the coming decades on game shows like Hollywood Squares and To Tell the Truth, as well as shows like Full House and The Young and the Restless. In 1990, she began voicing Edna Krabappel, Bart's jaded 4th grade teacher, on The Simpsons, winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992. Wallace continued to appear on the show in a recurring role up until her death in 2013.

Trivia: Looking more like the CEO of a law firm than a comedian, Canadian actor Phil Hartman has had a successful career playing against his physical appearance with an off-kilter sense of humor. He entered show business as a graphics designer; among his better-known artistic renderings was the official logo for the rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash. In the early '80s, Hartman was a member of a comedy troupe called the Groundlings, where he made the acquaintance of comedian Paul Reubens. In collaboration with Reubens, Hartman helped create the character of child/man Pee-wee Herman, cowriting the screenplay of Reubens' 1985 movie vehicle Pee-wee's Big Adventure and portraying the grimy Kap'n Karl on the Saturday-morning TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986-90). When asked later on if he was bitter over the way Reubens grabbed all the glory for the Pee-wee concept, Hartman characteristically made a self-deprecating joke, though it was decidedly at Reubens' expense. Before signing with NBC's Saturday Night Live, Hartman appeared as part of a comedy ensemble on the 1985 summer replacement series Our Time. Hartman's greatest comic strength lay in his celebrity impersonations, which he trotted out to maximum effect on both SNL and the Fox cartoon series The Simpsons. Hartman claimed that he had 99 celeb voices in his manifest, including a deadly funny impersonation of President Bill Clinton, which became an audience favorite on SNL and Jay Leno's Tonight Show where he often made guest appearances. Hartman remained with Saturday Night Live from 1986 through 1994, sharing a 1989 Emmy for "outstanding writing;" at the time he left the show (making pointed comments about the deteriorated quality of the writing staff), Hartman had set a record for the largest number of appearances (153) as an SNL regular. In 1995, Phil Hartman began a weekly assignment in the role of a pompous, self-centered (much like Ted Knight's character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show) anchorman on the network sitcom Newsradio. When not appearing on the series, Hartman was a successful TVcommercial voiceover artist and pitchman and also occasionally acted in feature films, including Blind Date (1987), Jingle All the Way (1996) and The Second Civil War (1997). In his personal life, Hartman was totally unlike the characters he usually played and was loved and respected for his humbleness, his affability and his generosity; he frequently donated his time to charities. It was therefore a terrible shock when on May 28, 1998, he was shot to death while sleeping in the bedroom of his Encino, California home. His wife Brynn Hartman committed the murder and then shot herself shortly after police removed the couple's two small children from the premises. Later reports stated that despite putting on a good public face as a couple, the two had been trying for years to resolve their difficulties and that drug and alcohol use on the part of Brynn were a factor in the tragedy.