Trivia: Perhaps most famous for his dramatic work on TV series like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Christopher Meloni has also been praised for his comedic appearances on screens of all sizes. His resumé proves him a versatile actor, indeed, with experience on television, in feature films -- both comedic and dramatic -- and even on-stage. (He acted in the 2001 Williamstown Theatre Festival.)He was born on April 2, 1961, in Washington, D.C., and earned his degree in 1983 at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Having grown interested in acting in college, he next studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City with Sandford Meisner. First noted for his role that began in 1990 on the hit series The Fanelli Boys on NBC, Meloni's accomplished television background consists of appearances on NYPD Blue (1993), the HBO's prison series Oz (1997), and numerous other series and TV movie roles. His lengthy list of supporting appearances on film includes major features like 12 Monkeys (1995), Bound (1996), and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). In 1999, he played one of Julia Roberts' husbands-to-be in Runaway Bride. Building upon his Oz experience, he starred in the PBS feature Shift in 2001, in a dramatic role as a prison inmate lovesick over a woman whom he only knows via telephone, and who doesn't know his whereabouts. Also in that year, he played a crazy 'Nam vet chef -- who provided some of the most accessible laughs of the absurd comedy -- at summer camp in David Wain's Wet Hot American Summer.In the years to come Meloni would appear in films like Nights in Rodanthe, Carriers, and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, as well as the series True Blood.

Trivia: The daughter of legendary sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay appears born to play the type of larger-than-life roles that would make her a Hollywood idol. Instead, from her breakthrough performance as a vulnerable single mother on ER to her starring turn as a somber detective on Law & Order: SVU, the talented actress has built her career by portraying real-life characters and keeping out of the spotlight. Raised in Los Angeles, Hargitay was a child of divorce before she celebrated her first birthday. In 1967, her mother died tragically when her car collided with a truck outside of New Orleans. Hargitay, then only three years old, was asleep in the backseat of the vehicle, but escaped uninjured. Days later, she moved in with her father and stepmother, Ellen Siano, a flight attendant. Hargitay participated in scores of activities throughout grade school, including cheerleading, student government, and athletics. She also developed a passion for performing: at 18, after being crowned 1982's Miss Beverly Hills, she enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles' prestigious undergraduate theater program. Hartigay began her professional acting career while she was still a student with a bit part in Bob Fosse's Dorothy Stratten biopic Star 80 (1983). In 1985, she appeared in the B-movie Ghoulies and agreed to portray a teenage parolee inCBS' short-lived series Downtown. Roles in the teen comedies Welcome to 18 (1986) and Jocks (1987) quickly followed. In 1988, the actress joined her dad in the biopic of his own career, Mr. Universe. That same year, Hargitay earned the recurring role of Carly Fixx on television's Falcon Crest. The next several years found Hargitay acting in B-movies, such as a martial arts film called The Perfect Weapon (1991), and a handful of television films, such as Blind Side (1993) and Gambler V: Playing for Keeps (1994). She earned a small role in Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and replaced Gabrielle Fitzpatrick as Dulcea in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), but her scenes were eventually re-shot with Fitzpatrick in the role. Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, Hargitay also appeared in numerous popular television shows -- In the Heat of the Night, Baywatch, Wiseguy, thirtysomething, Booker, Seinfeld, Ellen, The Single Guy -- and in quite a few failed series -- Tequila and Bonetti, Key West, Can't Hurry Love, Prince Street, and Cracker. In subsequent years, producer Dick Wolf tapped the actress for his Law & Order spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). As NYPD Detective Olivia Benson, Hargitay became a familiar and a celebrated face: She earned several award nominations for her performance on the show, as she stuck with the popular show for over ten years.In addition to working in film and television, Hargitay found time for the theater -- appearing on the Los Angeles stage in Salad Days, Women's Work, and Porno -- and read Rochelle Majer Krich's crime story Regrets Only on a mystery-themed audiobook. She also established her own charity, Spirit of the Dolphin, which gives abused children the chance to swim with dolphins in Hawaii. In 2007, Hargitay served as the National Ambassador for Lee National Denim Day to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. In terms of off-camera activity, Hargitay's successful pregnancy at the age of 42 (with her husband, SVU co-star Peter Hermann) made headlines as well.

Trivia: Launching his career as a standup comic, American performer Richard Belzer entered the 1970s as a member of an odd New York-based comedy troupe called Channel One. Anticipating the home video explosion by over a decade, Channel One staged satirical, scatological routines lampooning the banalities of television -- and staged them in front of TV cameras, which transmitted the routines to little TV monitors, which in turn were watched by the live audience. Some of the best sketches were assembled into an X-rated comedy feature, The Groove Tube (1970), which featured Belzer, Ken Shapiro, and a brash newcomer named Chevy Chase. For the next decade, Belzer played the comedy-club circuit, popped up as a talkshow guest, and appeared in occasional films like Fame (1982). He joined still another comedy troupe in 1983, which appeared nightly on the syndicated interview program Thicke of the Night. The host was Allan Thicke, and Belzer's comic cohorts included such incipient stars as Charles Fleischer, Chloe Webb and Gilbert Gottfried. Thicke of the Night was one of the more notorious bombs of the 1983-84 season, but it enabled Belzer to secure better guest-star bookings, and ultimately a hosting job on his own program, debuting in 1986 over the Lifetime Cable Service. It was on this series that wrestler Hulk Hogan, demonstrating a stranglehold on Belzer caused the host to lose consciousness -- which prompted a highly publicized lawsuit instigated by Belzer against the Hulkster. In the early 1990s, Richard Belzer could be seen as a non-comic regular on the TV series Homicide. His Homicide character, John Munch, would become one of the longest-running fictional creations on TV appearing in more than a half-dozen other television shows, most notably Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Trivia: Often cited as the founding father of gangsta rap, Ice-T has also crafted a successful film career from his hardened street persona. Despite the fact that his early roles stuck closely to his public image as a thuggish West Coast pimp, T has since proved both his versatility and his sense of humor by appearing as everything from a mutant kangaroo (Tank Girl [1995]) to, in a surprisingly effective about-face, a police officer (New Jack City [1991]). Born Tracy Marrow in Newark, NJ, in 1958 and later adapting his better-known persona as a tribute to pimp-turned-author Iceberg Slim, T was sent at age 12 to live in Califorina with an aunt after his father died of a heart attack (his mother had died four year earlier, also of a heart attack). Ice-T soon began to develop an obsession with rap music, and after serving a two-year stint in the Army, he began recording and appeared in the films Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (both 1984). Following a near death auto accident in 1986, T devoted his life to music and released his debut album, Rhyme Pays, the following year. T gained positive accolades for his first major film role in 1991's New Jack City, in which he played a dedicated police officer, and the irony was not lost on fans the following year when he caused a stir with a song entitled "Cop Killer." After sticking close to the streets in Ricochet (1991), Trespass (1992), and Surviving the Game (1994), T took a sci-fi detour with Tank Girl and Johnny Mnemonic (both 1995). Generally appearing in straight-to-video schlock from the mid-'90s on, Ice-T could be seen as a naval pilot in Stealth Fighter (1999) and stealing a magic flute from a vengeful green meanie in Leprechaun in the Hood (2000). Though his appearances in such films grew nearly too frequent to count, T occasionally appeared in such theatrical releases as 3000 Miles to Graceland and Abel Ferrara's 'R Xmas (both 2001). After offering curious insight into the life of a pimp in the documentary Pimps Up, Ho's Down, T continued to expound on the life of a hustler in Pimpin' 101 (2003). He also took on a recurring role on the Law & Order spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and later joined the cast as a regular in the show's second season, soon becoming a popular fixture on prime time TV. T would also enjoy success on the reality circuit, starring in the candid reality show Ice Loves Coco with his wife, Nicole "Coco" Austin.

Trivia: Dann Florek was a working actor for 15 years, on stage, in movies, and on television before he became a television star on Law and Order. Born in Flat Rock, MI (near Detroit) in 1950, he was a physics major at Eastern Michigan University until he discovered his affinity for acting and theater. He moved to New York in the early 1970s and became a member of The Acting Company at The Juilliard School. Florek's New York theater credits included work in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Lost, and Death of a Salesman. He later performed in many productions staged at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. Florek's film credits include Sweet Liberty, Hard Rain, Angel Heart, and The Flintstones, and he has made appearances on NYPD Blue, Wings, The Pretender, and The Practice. Additionally, he played Abraham Lincoln in the short-lived Fox Network series The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer. It was as Dave Meyer on L.A. Law that Florek first came to the attention of television viewers, but it was his four seasons on Law and Order that made him a star. He became a familiar and popular actor as Lieutenant (and later Captain) Donald Cragen, the head of the detective squad on whose investigations the series focuses from week to week. Florek also directed several episodes of the series after leaving the cast of the show in 1993, and is an active member of the Directors Guild of America. In 1999, he joined the cast of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, reprising and greatly expanding his role of Captain Cragen, now head of a detective unit specifically assigned to the investigation of sex crimes. Equally skilled at comedy and drama (although more familiar for his work in the latter), Florek is one of a new generation of triple-threat actor/directors to emerge from television in the 1980s and 1990s. Florek continued to work on Law & Order until 2010.

Trivia: For his role in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly, talented stage and screen actor B.D. Wong (born Bradley Darryl Wong) would enter into history as the only actor ever to be honored with a Tony, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Clarence Derwent Award, and a Theater World Award for a single performance. Proving equally adept onscreen, Wong's memorable early roles in The Freshman (1990) and Father of the Bride (1991) found him simultaneously attempting to break out of the Asian-American cinema stereotype while seeking out roles that would expand his dramatic capabilities. A native of San Francisco whose musical experimentation during his childhood eventually lead to the discovery of acting, Wong's parents were consistently supportive in nurturing his creative energy. Wong worked his way into Bay Area community theater while still a student at Lincoln High School, and his association with the San Francisco Unified School District proved an essential component in developing his skills as an actor. Following his subsequent graduation from San Francisco State University Wong moved to New York City, where he performed in dinner theater and off-Broadway productions. After making his professional bow in a New York Town Hall production of Androcles and the Lion, Wong began to essay small television roles on such series as Simon & Simon and Sesame Street about the time of his feature debut in The Karate Kid II (1986). Soon thereafter, Wong received coaching from Donald Hotton to prepare for his role in M. Butterfly, and following much critical acclaim, Wong slowly gained onscreen momentum with roles in Jurassic Park (1993) and the HBO AIDS-drama And the Band Played On (both 1993). In his constant search to portray original and diverse characters, Wong had a recurring role as Father Ray Makuda on the HBO series Oz. Subsequent performances included roles in Seven Years in Tibet (1997), voice work in the animated Disney film Mulan (1998), and the crime thriller The Salton Sea (2002). Television viewers became acquainted with Wong through his role on Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit.

Trivia: She might not be a household name, but the statuesque character actress Tamara Tunie sports a resumé as distinctive as she is innately glamorous. Tunie landed her first major role as litigator Jessica Griffin McKechnie Harris on the soap opera As the World Turns in 1986 -- a part she played for 11 years. In the mean time, Tunie signed for a small role in the endearing yet sadly overlooked coming-of-age dramedy Sweet Lorraine (1987), an unsung predecessor to the box-office blockbuster Dirty Dancing, starring Maureen Stapleton and Trini Alvarado. Tunie signed for a bit part in the 1989 period murder mystery Bloodhounds of Broadway, but despite the fact that it claimed a pedigree as impressive as Lorraine (with Matt Dillon, Madonna, Jennifer Grey, and others), the movie unfortunately failed to deliver on its noble intentions. Over the course of the next several years, Tunie turned up several times on Steven Bochco's NYPD Blue, and landed the bit part of Leslie Christos in the Al Pacino big-city crime drama City Hall (1996), directed by Harold Becker (Taps). She re-teamed with Pacino for the darkly comic supernatural horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997), then worked with Brian De Palma and Nicolas Cage on the 1998 thriller Snake Eyes. Tunie's most high-profile work, however, was yet to come. In 2002, she delivered a compelling performance as Alberta Green in the first season of the series thriller 24. In 1999, the actress resumed her portrayal of Jessica Harris on As the World Turns and continued to sporatically return to the role through the 2000s. Beginning in 2000, Tunie also portrayed Melinda Warner on the popular series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Trivia: For many fans, the image of fair-haired actress Stephanie March includes a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses, which she wore for the role of Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot on the series Law & Order: SVU. The role was one of the Texas native's first TV gigs, and she remained with the series from 2000 to 2004, then rejoined the series in 2009. March made her Broadway debut opposite Brian Dennehy in Death of a Salesman, and later appeared in a filmed version of the show. She also appeared in a number of other projects, like the Angelina Jolie spy movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, before reprising the role of Alexandra Cabot for the Law & Order spinoff Conviction. March continued to make memorable guest appearances in shows like Grey's Anatomy, 30 Rock and Happy Endings. She had a supporting role in the film Innocence in 2014.

Trivia: Wide-eyed young actor Nick Stahl made his feature debut opposite Mel Gibson and courted the late-'90s teen crowd with a role in the thriller Disturbing Behavior (1998), but a number of his movies have not been the average box-office fluff.Raised in Dallas, Stahl began acting at the age of four in commercials and local theater. After his first TV movie, Stranger at My Door (1991), Stahl soon moved to feature films with a starring role as the boy tutored by Mel Gibson's deformed recluse in the Gibson-directed drama The Man Without a Face (1993). Continuing to work with Hollywood heavyweights, Stahl played one of Susan Sarandon's sons in Safe Passage (1994) and acted with Walter Matthau in the TV film Incident in a Small Town (1994). After the young teen starred in the Disney film Tall Tale (1994), Stahl was back to TV movies with family drama Blue River (1995). Alternating between mainstream fare and more challenging work, Stahl began to aim for a slightly older audience with a role in the independent rural crime drama and Sundance Film Festival entrant Eye of God (1997). Though Stahl joined the late-'90s teen movie brigade co-starring alongside Katie Holmes in the thriller Disturbing Behavior (1998), he also appeared that same year as a Charlie Company soldier who dies too young in Terrence Malick's hypnotic anti-war anti-epic The Thin Red Line (1998). Stahl began 2001 with roles in two Sundance Film Festival critical favorites, Todd Field's family drama In the Bedroom (2001) and iconoclast Christopher Munch's The Sleepy Time Gal (2001). On his way to becoming an indie fixture, Stahl then took on the unappealing role of the doomed titular character in controversial photographer-turned-director Larry Clark's exploration of true-life violent teen anomie, Bully (2001). Stahl, however, finished 2001 on the critical high note with which it began when In the Bedroom, featuring Stahl as Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson's son, earned raves and prizes as one of the best films of the year.Though to this point Stahl's film roles had consisted of mainly low-budget and independent fare, all of this would change with the release of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003. Rumored to have taken over the role of John Conner following original star Edward Furlong's much publicized bout with drug abuse, Stahl eagerly stepped up to the role. The summer of 2003 also found Stahl gearing up for the premier of his the new HBO series Carnivàle.

Trivia: A professional actress since age 14, Ohio-born Carol Kane is best known for essaying a staggering variety of characterizations in her career. Most of her early film roles were fleeting but memorable, such as that of the hippie girlfriend of Art Garfunkel in Carnal Knowledge (1971), the "sailor's plaything" in The Last Detail (1973) and the terrified bank teller in Dog Day Afternoon (1973). Kane's first starring appearance was in Hester Street (1975), wherein she was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of a Jewish newlywed in turn-of-the-century New York. From 1981 through 1983, Kane played Simka, the wife of immigrant mechanic Latka Gavras (Andy Kaufman) on the TV sitcom Taxi. Simka's country of origin was fictitious, but Kane and Kaufman managed between them to "create" a Slavic language peppered with ridiculous, non-sequitur terms of endearment. The actress won an Emmy for her work on Taxi. Other regular TV sitcom assignments for Kane have included 1986's All Is Forgiven and 1990's American Dreamer. Kane has excelled in bizarre character roles, notably the kvetching old peasant wife in The Princess Bride (1986), the abusive "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Scrooged (1988), and the toothless, witchlike Grandmama in the two Addams Family theatrical features. She remained an in-demand character actress appearing in a variety of movies and TV shows including Even Cowgirls Get the blues, Trees Lounge, Office Killer, and appearing as herself in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. She slowed down not a whit in the 21st century playing parts in My First Mister, Love in the Time of Money, The Pacifier, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, and the 2012 indie Sleepwalk With Me.

Trivia: Actor Noel Fisher began his screen career on a conventional note with unremarkable adolescent roles in genre material, including the family comedy Max Keeble's Big Move (2001), the romantic comedy A Guy Thing (2002), and the formulaic teen thriller Final Destination 2 (2003). In the years to follow, however, he unveiled a propensity for edgier and more emotionally challenging role assignments. Some of his more memorable parts included the son in a family of con artists on the short-lived FX series The Riches (2007), and a by-the-throat turn as a malevolent, dog-slaying teen in the meditative revenge drama Red (2008).

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: An award-winning stage actress, Kelly Bishop occasionally dabbles in television and feature films. Bishop's accolades, a Tony and a Drama Desk award, came from her outstanding work in the original Broadway version of A Chorus Line. Her television work includes two stints on the television soap opera One Life to Live (she played Serena Wyman in 1989, Dr. Robbins in 1996) and guest-starring roles on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Her film credits include Six Degrees of Separation ([1993] she also appeared in the original stage version), Miami Rhapsody (1995), and Private Parts (1997), in which Bishop played the mother of shock jock Howard Stern. At the beginning of the 21ast century she enjoyed long run as Emily Gilmore on the TV series Gilmore Girls, and five years after that show ended she returned to the big screen with a part in the comedy Friends With Kids.

Trivia: The comely blonde supporting actress Diane Neal is best known for her ongoing portrayal of District Attorney Casey Novak on the blockbuster series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Her resumé also includes appearances in such direct-to-video exploitationers as Dracula II: Ascension and Dracula III: Legacy.

Trivia: Wrote an essay that was published in the book Struggle for Ethnic Identity: Narratives by Asian American Professionals. In 2001, played the role of Florizel in Winter's Tale at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Was the Artistic Associate of the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) in 2005 and has appeared in five NAATCO productions. Played Ariel in the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's stage production of The Tempest in 2009. In 2013, received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance for his role as Gordon Hirabayashi in Jeanne Sakata's one-person play Hold These Truths.

Trivia: Aspired to be an actress from an early age. Had an early role in the 2006 short drama The Beautiful Lie, which won an MTV Movie Award for Best Student Filmmaker. In 2008, she landed her breakthrough role on CW's One Tree Hill. After departing that series, she subsequently joined the cast of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Trivia: Began acting in community theater productions at age 6. Played on her high-school softball team. Appeared in the short-lived Broadway-bound play Bobbi Boland opposite Farrah Fawcett after arriving in New York in 2002. Costarred in the Web sitcom The Burg. Made television debut on the ABC soap opera All My Children in 2005. Filmed Past Life in Atlanta, Georgia, located about 45 minutes from her hometown of Cumming. Spent a week with real U.S. Marshals to prepare for her starring role in NBC's Chase.

Trivia: Is the son of Cuban immigrants. In his youth, aspired to become a baseball player or a lawyer, or join the Coast Guard. Was a lifeguard in Miami as a teen. Met his future wife, Lilly, during a middle-school theater class when they were just 13. They continued their education together through junior high, high school, college and graduate school. Off-camera pursuits include writing; received writing credits on the Cold Case episodes "Stealing Home" (2009) and "Metamorphosis" (2010).

Trivia: UCLA grad Joanna Merlin made her first film appearance in 1956, as one of Jethro's daughters in the Cecil B. DeMille superspectacular The Ten Commandments. Five years later she first stepped on a Broadway stage in Jean Anouilh's Becket. Her subsequent theatrical credits include the role of Tzeitel in the original 1964 production of Fiddler on the Roof. In films, she has specialized in such ethnically oriented character roles as the landlady in Hester Street (1975). From bag ladies to judges, Merlin has played 'em all. More recently, Joanna Merlin has functioned as a Hollywood casting director.

Trivia: Met her husband onstage during a theater production, which is the same way her parents met. Considers her parents the most influential people in her career. Appeared on Broadway in Getting Away With Murder in 1996. Won a Robby Award (a California theater award) for her performance in The Violet Hour with South Coast Repertory in 2002.