Trivia: Best known for portraying time traveler Dr. Sam Beckett in the popular sci-fi series Quantum Leap, Scott Bakula is also a noted Broadway actor and occasional movie star, though it is in the last venue that he has had the least amount of success. The son of a musician, Bakula is said to have started his own rock band when he was in the fourth grade. He also sang with the St. Louis Symphony before attending the University of Kansas. Bakula launched his acting career as a teen in regional theater and as a stage actor specializes in musical comedy. He made his Broadway debut in 1983 in Marilyn: An American Fable. He started showing up regularly on television as a guest star on such series as My Sister Sam and Designing Women during the 1980s. In 1986, Bakula starred in an unsuccessful television series, Gung Ho! Two years later he headlined another unsuccessful one, Eisenhower and Lutz. In 1988, Bakula was nominated for a Tony for his work in Romance, Romance. The following year, he was cast in Quantum Leap and has since gained a cult following; in 1992, he won a Golden Globe and was nominated four more times. Bakula was also nominated for a quartet of Emmys. Bakula made his feature-film debut starring opposite Kirstie Alley in Sibling Rivalry (1990). Other notable film appearances include L.A. Story (1991) and My Family/Mi Familia (1995). In 1993, Bakula had a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown as a love interest of Candice Bergen. He has also appeared in a number of television movies and in 1996, he had a stint in another short-lived series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.Though he worked steadily in movies, television turned out to be his next great success when, in 2001, he took the part of Capt. Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise, a program that lasted four seasons.In 2009 Bakula would star alongside Ray Romano and Andre Braugher in the well-respected comedy/drama series Men of a Certain Age, and landed in one of the best films of his career, Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!.

Trivia: Though he has proven to be a natural, allegedly Lucas Black's ambition is not to be an actor when he grows up. Born and raised in Alabama, Black became a professional actor when an open casting call landed him a bit part in Jon Avnet's The War (1994). After starring on TV's American Gothic (1995), Black definitively caught the audience's attention with his pivotal role in Billy Bob Thornton's award-winning drama Sling Blade (1996). Resisting child actor treacle, Black turned in a genuinely charming and moving performance as the young boy who befriends Thornton's mentally challenged ex-con. Despite the acclaim, however, Black opted to stay home in Alabama rather than go Hollywood. Black continued to act throughout his high school years, playing supporting roles in the racial drama Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) and the big-screen version of The X-Files (1998), and starring in the TV movie Flash (1997) and as the politically aware Peejoe in Crazy in Alabama (1999). In Thornton's second directorial effort All the Pretty Horses (2000), Black's performance as the young drifter who gets Matt Damon into trouble once again revealed his ability to hold his own against -- indeed outshine -- Hollywood's best. Black, however, has asserted that his ultimate goal is to become a professional fisherman. High profile roles as everything from a piano savant in Killer Diller to a high school football star in Friday Night LIghts and a fresh-faced Marine in Jarhead proved without question that Black had the acting range needed to craft and impressive and enduring career, and in 2006 Black put the peddle to the metal as a troubled teen whose trip to Tokyo finds him mastering the art of the drift in the adrenaline-charged sequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Trivia: Born in Guyana on December 25, 1952, actress CCH Pounder made her first film appearance as a nurse in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979). Pounder went on to play a small part in Prizzi's Honor before her first big role as truckstop owner Brenda in Bagdad Cafe. Her first TV-series assignment was as husband-murderer Dawn Murphy in the short-lived FOX sitcom Women in Prison. Many dramatic TV movies followed, including Leap of Faith, Third Degree Burn, Murder in Mississippi, and the two-part CBS miniseries Common Ground. On the big screen, she had supporting parts in Postcards From the Edge, Kurt Baker's version of The Importance of Being Earnest, and the romantic comedy Benny & Joon. After appearing in Sliver and Robocop 3, she returned to television for the role of Dr. Angela Hicks on ER, earning her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress. She left the show in 1997 and went on to countless TV movies (Final Justice, Netforce, A Touch of Hope, just to name a few), as well as a couple feature films (Face/Off, End of Days) and TV miniseries (House of Frankenstein, To Serve and Protect). In 2001, she narrated the PBS documentary series Race: The Power of an Illusion and played a judge in Allison Anders' independent drama Things Behind the Sun. In 2002, she was back on television as Detective Claudette Wynn on the FOX police drama The Shield.Pounder continued to work on The Shield until the series concluded in 2007, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her role as Detective Wynn. The actress appeared in 2009's psychological horror The Orphan, and voiced Mo'at, the spiritual leader of the Omaticaya clan, in James Cameron's mega-blockbuster Avatar the same year. 2009 would prove a rewarding year for Pounder, as her guest appearances on the BBC/HBO series No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency would earn her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

Trivia: Was part of the comedy troupe Commedus Interruptus in college. Co-founded the comedy troupe Summer of Tears with Todd Waldman in 2004. Won the U.S. Comedy Art Festival's jury prize for best sketch comedy in 2007 with Summer of Tears. Was a writer for ABC's Happy Endings.

Trivia: Was a member of '80s hip-hop group Groove B. Chill. Paralyzed from the waist down as the result of a November 2001 motorcycle accident in South Carolina. Has served as a spokesman for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Established the Daryl Mitchell Foundation, which was founded on the principles of awareness, education and advocacy for those impacted by spinal-cord injuries.

Trivia: Was honored as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts by the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program during her senior year in high school. Wrote two articles that were published in The Juilliard Journal while in college. Made her New York stage debut in the Delacorte Theater's production of The Merchant of Venice in 2010. In 2013, made her Broadway debut in Christopher Durang's production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as Cassandra, a role that she originated. Is involved with an anti-racism organization, A People's Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Trivia: Brooklyn, NY, native Vanessa Ferlito grew up amid somewhat challenging circumstances as an only child (the daughter of two Italian-American hair salon owners) whose father died before she reached the age of three. She developed acting aspirations early in life and broke into the entertainment business via television, with guest spots and recurring roles on crime-themed series programs including CSI: New York and The Sopranos -- where her unmistakably ethnic, weathered but voluptuous look lent her time and again to effective portrayals of molls, mistresses, and other gritty urban female types. She landed her most prominent early feature roles in Spider-Man 2 (as a co-star in Mary Jane's play) and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof segment of the 2007 two-episode omnibus Grindhouse (as one of the low-down women stalked and murdered by Kurt Russell's psychopath Stuntman Mike). After the Tarantino project, Ferlito joined co-stars Debra Messing and Alfred Molina for the gentle comedy Nothing Like the Holidays and worked with Tyler Perry on the farce Madea Goes to Jail (2009).

Trivia: Actress Zoe McLellan got her first break in the movie Mr. Holland's Opus in 1995. Like a lot of new actresses, she struggled to pay the bills with appearances on TV shows and in commercials, eventually scoring a role in the 2000 movie Dungeons & Dragons. Then the next year, she was cast as P.O. Jennifer Coates on the hit series JAG. She stayed with the show until 2005, then in 2007 she took a role on another series, this time playing Lisa George, the wife of lead character Nick George (Peter Krause), on Dirty Sexy Money.

Trivia: Beautiful Hawaiian actress Kelly Hu parlayed early experience as a model and beauty pageant winner into a busy career as an actress in television and film. Kelly Hu was born in Honolulu, HI, on February 13, 1968. While a student at Kameameha High School, Hu began taking modeling jobs on the advice of her friends, which led to her spending four months in Japan working on various assignments. Hoping to advance her career, Hu entered a local beauty pageant, which led to her being named Miss Teen U.S.A. in 1985, making her the first Asian-American to hold the title. While winning the prize ironically put her modeling career on pause (pageant regulations prevent winners from taking modeling assignments), it did help her launch an acting career; after her reign, Hu moved to Los Angeles, and in 1987, after landing a number of television commercials, she scored her first high-profile acting job when she was cast as Melia, Kirk Cameron's love interest, on several episodes of the TV sitcom Growing Pains. Hu began receiving a steady stream of television work, making guest appearances on such shows as Tour of Duty, Night Court, and 21 Jump Street, before she earned her first film role, a small part in Friday the 13th: Part VIII -- Jason Takes Manhattan. Hu's next film assignment would be a bit more prestigious -- she played the wife of musician Ray Manzarek (played by Kyle MacLachlan) in Oliver Stone's The Doors. More film and television work followed, including a brief run in 1992 on the daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful, before Hu took another stab at the pageant circuit, representing Hawaii in the 1993 Miss U.S.A. Pageant. Hu soon returned to acting, making memorable appearances on Melrose Place and Murder One, before she won the role of Michelle Chan on the action-drama series Nash Bridges. Hu lasted two years on the show; her next long-term TV role allowed her to make use of her martial arts skills (she holds a brown belt in karate) when she was cast opposite Sammo Hung on the action-comedy series Martial Law. Hu starred opposite Dwayne Johnson (aka the Rock) in 2002's The Scorpion King, the prequel to the runaway hit The Mummy. In 2003 Hu played the villainess Lady Deathstrike in X-Men: Reunited, and joined the cast of CSI: NY in the reoccurring role of Detective Kaile Maka (2005-2006). She played one-time valedictorian Kelly Lee in ABC's sitcom in 2007, though the show would unfortunately be cancelled after its first season. Luckily, the actress found more success on the small screen in The CW's popular supernatural romance series The Vampire Diaries in the role of Pearl (2010-2011), and appeared briefly on numerous television shows including Hawaii Five-0, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and NCIS. Hu took a starring role in Almost Perfect (2011) to play Vanessa, a thirtysomething career woman whose sudden familial problems threaten her seemingly ideal new relationship.

Trivia: Declared at age 6 that she would one day move to Hollywood to become an actress. First professional acting job was at 16 in a production of Beauty and the Beast at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. First TV role was on Nip/Tuck; she followed that up with appearances on NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, The Unit and Lost. Big break came when she was cast as Dalia Hassan on the final season of 24 in 2010. Shares the longest recorded screen kiss (3:24) with costar Traci Dinwiddie in the independent drama Elena Undone. Made her Broadway debut opposite Robin Williams in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo in 2011. Is fluent in English, German, Farsi and French. Is a cultural ambassador for the Levantine Center Organization in Los Angeles. Sings and plays guitar for the band Dogs With Wigs.