Trivia: An L.A. native whose self-titled debut album quickly propelled him to the top of the charts, smooth-voiced R&B crooner Tyrese (born Tyrese Gibson on December 30th, 1978) immediately stood out from the pack, thanks to the remarkable honesty of his songwriting, his alluring passion, and his self-assured style behind the microphone. It was at the age of 14 that a series of wins on the local talent circuit gave the up-and-coming singer his first enticing taste of success, with a Coca Cola commercial providing the breakthrough that would soon propel him to release his eponymous debut album in 1998. Of course, anyone who happened to catch Tyrese's Coca Cola commercial couldn't help but notice the singing sensation's undeniable screen presence. After making his acting debut with a small role in acclaimed filmmaker Julie Dash's made-for-television drama Love Song, the singer-turned-actor jumped headlong into features, as the protagonist of John Singleton's Boyz 'N the Hood follow-up, Baby Boy. Cast as an urban mama's boy whose staunch refusal to leave the nest eventually stifles his transition into adulthood, Tyrese offered just the right mixture of naïveté and street-tough bravado to draw audiences in, while showing notable promise for the future. With two films, a hit album, and a series of television appearances in such series as Martin and Moesha under his belt, Tyrese returned to the music scene for his sophomore effort, 2000 Watts, before jumping into the driver's seat for the 2003 film 2 Fast 2 Furious. The following year Tyrese kept the action moving at a clip with a supporting role in Flight of the Phoenix before opting for more dramatic roles in director Justin Lin's Annapolis and former collaborator John Singleton's family-themed revenge drama Four Brothers. A supporting role in Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin's Navy boxing misfire Annapolis was quickly followed by another headline performance as an ex-convict struggling to get his son back after his vehicle is carjacked with the boy still inside in the 2006 action thriller Waist Deep.

Trivia: Meagan Good started acting onscreen in the late '90s, and has worked in a wide array of genres. Her first major film role was in Kasi Lemmons' gently observed, well-received ensemble drama Eve's Bayou (1997). Good followed it up with such projects as the romantic comedy Deliver Us From Eva (2002), the teen dance film You Got Served (2004), and the post-noir mystery Brick (2005). In 2007, Good signed for a supporting role in the Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru (2008). Though that film was an infamous turkey, she continued to find work in projects such as 35 & Ticking (which she co-produced), Jumping the Broom, and the sleeper box office hit Think Like a Man, as well as the drama The Obama Effect.

Trivia: Born Jayceon Terrell Taylor, rapper The Game was born into a life of violence and hardship in Compton, CA. Surrounded by gang-related crime, he was placed in foster care as a child, though his foster parents noticed the young boy's intelligence early on. At 13, Game's older brother received a record deal, but was shot dead at a gas station before he could act on it. The pain and loss of losing his brother would help motivate the teenager to further pursue a life outside the dead-end world he was born into, but this was a hard goal to fulfill, especially when he was placed back with his mother at the age of 15. The pressure in high school to embrace gang life was hard, but Game devoted himself to athletics, winning several scholarships and eventually deciding on Washington State University. Unfortunately, Game succumbed to the pressures of the world he was raised in, and his scholarship was revoked within a year amid drug allegations. He moved in with his brother and became heavily involved with the drug trade, but one night, a drug deal went sour and Game was shot five times. The near-death experience awakened him to his true goals, and he began religiously studying hip-hop music. He recorded a demo which made it into the hands of record-company producers, and soon, he was signed. In 2005, The Game released his debut album, The Documentary, and became one of the most important influences in West Coast rap. In the mid-2000s, he began an acting career as well, appearing in such movies as Waist Deep, Tournament of Dreams, and Street Kings.

Trivia: From the opening moments of Menace II Society (1993) in which he commits a shocking double homicide, talented young actor Larenz Tate engrained himself into the public psyche as the virtual epitome of the random and senseless violence of the inner-city streets. And while subsequent roles in such similar projects such as Dead Presidents (1995) may have pigeonholed actors of lesser talent, versatile Tate has transcended his troubled ghetto-dwelling film persona to become an actor of impressive dramatic and comedic range. Born on the west side of Chicago in September 1975, Tate was the youngest of three siblings whose family moved to California when he was nine years old. Convinced by their parents to enter a drama program at the Inner City Cultural Center, the trio didn't take the lessons seriously until classmate Malcolm-Jamal Warner's ascent to fame after being cast on the hugely popular sitcom The Cosby Show. Subsequently realizing that they could parlay their efforts into a tangible form of success, the siblings began to receive small roles and in 1985 Tate made his small-screen debut in an episode of The Twilight Zone -- The Series. Following appearances in such popular television series as 21 Jump Street and The Wonder Years, Tate was cast in the made-for-television feature The Women of Brewster Place before receiving a recurring role in the popular family comedy series Family Matters (both 1989). Offers soon began pouring in and, following numerous small-screen roles, collaborative filmmaking siblings Albert and Allen Hughes approached Tate to star in their debut feature Menace II Society. A jarring vision of inner-city desperation and decay, the film found Tate channeling his substantial energy into creating a truly memorable character that audiences would not soon forget. Following up his breakthrough role with the little-seen but often-praised television series South Central, Tate would later appear in the family comedy-drama The Inkwell before re-teaming with the Hughes brothers for Dead Presidents (1995) and taking on the role of a love-stricken young poet in the romantic drama Love Jones (1997). With subsequent roles in such films as The Postman (as the automotively monikered Ford Lincoln Mercury), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), and 2000's Love Come Down, Tate continued to compel audiences well into the new millennium. Though a big theatrical release had eluded Tate for the first few years of the millennial turnover, the talented young actor would soon turn up opposite Laurence Fisburne in the high-octane Biker Boyz (2003). The thrills kept coming with a role in the action-packed Vin Diesel misfire A Man Apart, with a subsequent role in the Oscar underdog Crash affording Tate the ability to riff on the persona he had so successfully perfected in Menace II Society. Later that same year, Tate would play Quincy Jones to Jamie Foxx's Ray Cherles in director Taylor Hackford's critically-acclaimed biopic Ray. Upon taking back to the streets in director Vondie Curtis Hall's tense 2006 action entry Waist Deep, it was time to try to mediate a peaceful solution to a potentially-explosive situation when the cousin of Tate's character realizes that his car has been stolen with his son still inside. He joined the cast of the hit FX TV series Rescue Me in that shows fourth season, and stayed with the program until its conclusion in 2011.

Trivia: Though she's occassionally appeared in bit film parts, former-model Kimora Lee Simmons is best known for her eight-year marriage to music mogul Russell Simmons. Despite the couple's 2006 separation and 2008 divorce, they remained partners in their fashion venture, Baby Phat. In 2007, Simmons began starring in her own reality show, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, on the Style Network, which ran until 2011. In 2013, her second reality show, Kimora: House of Fab, premiered.

Trivia: Blonde-dreadlocked actress and filmmaker Kasi Lemmons was born in Missouri but raised in Massachusetts after her parents divorced. She performed in Boston Children's Theatre as a kid before studying at N.Y.U. and U.C.L.A. Starting at the tender age of 18, she acted professionally throughout the '80s in television and films, including a small role in Spike Lee's School Daze. With an interest in making documentaries, she went to film school at the New School for Social Research in N.Y.C. and made her first film, Fall From Grace, a short documentary about homelessness. Though she continued to develop her writing, she kept acting in order to pay the bills with supporting roles in The Silence of the Lambs, Candyman, Hard Target, and Fear of a Black Hat. Frustrated with her acting career and the lack of good roles for black women in Hollywood, she went to work on her screenplay for Eve's Bayou, a Southern Gothic drama about a girl growing up in Louisiana. In 1997, she appeared in Gridlock'd, the debut feature film by her husband, actor/director Vondie Curtis-Hall. That same year she became pregnant with her first child and made the short film Dr. Hugo -- based on a segment of her script and starring her husband in the lead role -- in order to convince the studios that she could direct Eve's Bayou herself. By the time shooting began, her son Henry Hunter Hall was just three months old. With Samuel L. Jackson as co-producer, Eve's Bayou was a critical success, winning Lemmons an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. In 2001, she teamed with Samuel L. Jackson again for the psychological thriller The Caveman's Valentine, adapted from a novel by George Dawes Green.