Trivia: An actress whose piercing, pale blue eyes could give even Meg Foster a run for her money, Emily Deschanel has come quite a long way since being listed as one of Interview magazine's "Six Actors to Watch" back in 2001. The firstborn daughter of Oscar-winning cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Weir (their second was starlet Zooey), Emily received her B.F.A. in theater from Boston University before launching her career on the stage and screen. Early roles in It's a Shame About Ray and Rose Red found the rising starlet gradually gaining her footing before the cameras, and as her confidence as an actress increased, so did her screen time. By the time Deschanel appeared in such features as Cold Mountain and The Alamo, viewers were already beginning to pick up on her talent, while she could also still be seen acting on-stage, frequently appearing in plays for the Interact Theatre Company. In 2003, Deschanel appeared in minor capacity as a receptionist in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, with her role in Ghost House Pictures' 2004 frightener Boogeyman serving to prove that she was much more than just another pretty face.As the 2000's rolled on, Deschanel would prove to be an even bigger force on the small screen, playing forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan, partner of FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), on the popular Fox crime drama series Bones.

Trivia: Look up the words "handsome" and "brooding" in any dictionary and chances are you'll have a pretty good description of actor David Boreanaz. Tall, dark, and possessing the sort of alluring charisma that suggests an Abercrombie and Fitch model from the dark side, Boreanaz flourished on the small screen in the early 2000s when his Buffy the Vampire Slayer role was spun off into the supernatural-flavored series Angel.Born in Buffalo, NY, and raised in Philadelphia, Boreanaz was inspired at age seven to pursue a career in acting after witnessing the legendary Yul Brynner's performance in The King and I. In the years that followed, the aspiring actor would strive to keep the dream alive, and when it came time for higher education, Boreanaz opted to study his craft at Ithaca College in New York. The allure of a life in films soon drew Boreanaz to Los Angeles, although it wouldn't take him long to realize that struggling actors were a dime a dozen in sunny California. Dreams of his name in lights soon gave way to realities such as earning a living by parking cars and handing out towels at a sports club -- and uncredited parts in such films as Aspen Extreme and Best of the Best 2 (both 1993) certainly weren't paying the rent. A one-time role on Married...With Children as daughter Kelly's (Christina Applegate) motorcycle-riding boyfriend gained the struggling actor modest exposure -- and his luck would soon change in the most unexpected (though somewhat typical by Hollywood standards) way. While Boreanaz was walking his dog in Hollywood, a manager was taken by his captivating intensity, and a subsequent introduction to casting agent Marcia Shulman almost immediately ensured his landing the role of the vampire Angel on the soon-to-be-hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Two years after the premiere of Buffy, Boreanaz's character proved popular enough to earn his own eponymously titled spin-off series, and the show proved a solid hit for the WB until it was inexplicably canceled in mid-2004. Of course, by this point, Boreanaz could rest fairly easy thanks to roles in such features as Valentine (2001) and I'm With Lucy (2002). Fans who couldn't get enough of the actor's dark side could look forward to his role as the villainous Luc Crash in The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2004).Soon however, Boreanaz found another compelling small-screen role, playing Special Agent Seeley Booth on the hit detective series Bones.

Trivia: Born in Hackettstown, NJ, but raised in Springfield, OR, actor Eric Millegan cut his teeth on the boards in a Eugene Opera production of Amahl and the Night Visitors back in 1981 and never looked back. Later, after appearing in such subsequent Eugene Opera productions as La Boheme and Madame Butterfly, the rising stage star set out to try his luck on the New York stage and landed a role in the Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. While it was on the stage that the Interlochen Arts Camp alumnus and University of Michigan graduate received the lion's share of his acting experience, by the early 2000s he was looking to branch out and began appearing on screens both large and small. Early television roles on 100 Centre Street, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Curb Your Enthusiasm found his popularity growing at an impressive rate, with parts in the films On_Line and The Phobic serving well to establish his indie film credibility. In 2005 Millegan joined the cast of Fox television's forensics crime series Bones as geeky grad assistant Zack Addy.

Trivia: A Boston native whose early work included stints with the Dallas Theater Center and New York's Mint Theater Company, actor T.J. Thyne studied his craft with theaters throughout the United States and British Columbia before receiving his B.F.A. in acting from the USC School of Theater. Numerous television roles were quick to follow after Thyne hit the audition circuit with unusual ferocity, and by the year 2000, Thyne had racked up nearly 50 small-screen credits thanks to appearances on such shows as Home Improvement, Party of Five, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Just Shoot Me. In 2002, Thyne founded the Los Angeles-based Theater Junkies Productions with the aim of producing for both stage and screen; their popular short film Validation subsequently screened at film festivals across the country. Memorable supporting roles in such high-profile features as Erin Brockovich Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Ghost World, How High, and Something's Got to Give made Thyne an increasingly familiar face to movie fans, though it was the actor's casting as bug expert Dr. Jack Hodgins in the hit Fox forensics drama Bones that would transform him into a bona fide television star. Thyne has also done frequent commercial work, with his role as a Shania Twain-singing Chevy truck passenger proving a particularly memorable television spot.

Trivia: Michaela Conlin knew she wanted to be an actress from the tender age of six, and from the time she appeared in her first play that same year, there was no turning back from her future on the stage and screen.A native of Allentown, PA, who honed her skills in community and regional theater before studying acting at New York City's Tisch School of the Arts, Conlin earned her B.F.A. while simultaneously appearing in productions at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School and the Atlantic Theater Company. Later, she would travel to Amsterdam to take part in the Experimental Theater Wing's International Training Program. While Conlin's first screen role after graduation was grounded firmly in reality (she was chosen to appear in a documentary film detailing the lives of young actors in New York City), it was only after moving to Los Angeles that her career truly began to catch on. Roles in MDs, JAG, and The D.A. quickly helped to establish Conlin as a rising small-screen talent, and in 2005 she signed on to play Angela Montenegro in the Fox forensic crime drama Bones. She made her first post-Bones jump to the big screen playing a detective in the legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer.

Trivia: Is the youngest of five children. First stage role was in Arthur Miller's Danger: Memory. Discovered by a TV casting director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he was playing Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. Starred on the short-lived Fox series American Embassy and had recurring roles on the crime dramas Bones and Women's Murder Club. Lent his voice to the animated movie Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010) and the video games Army of Two: The 40th Day and Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Is an avid reader and chess player.

Trivia: An actor who bears an uncanny resemblance to Val Kilmer, Loren Dean is as talented as he is underrated. Largely a supporting player, Dean has twice demonstrated his considerable mettle in films where he has been cast as the title protagonist -- first in the gangster drama Billy Bathgate (1991) and then in Mumford (1999), Lawrence Kasdan's tale of a small town's mysterious psychiatrist.Born in Las Vegas on July 31, 1969, Dean was raised in L.A. by his mother after his parents divorced when he was a small child. He saw his father on the weekends when the two went to the cinema; it was through these weekly outings that Dean developed an interest in film. He also took an early interest in music, something that carried him through a tumultuous adolescence that was marked by a short stint as a runaway in San Francisco when he was 16.Following his 1986 graduation from high school, Dean moved to New York to pursue a career in acting. Living in relative poverty, he eventually found an agent through a friend of a friend, and he began appearing onstage. The actor made his film debut in 1988 as the brother of an undercover cop in Martha Coolidge's Plain Clothes, and a year later, he played Lili Taylor's notoriously bad ex-boyfriend Joe in Cameron Crowe's celebrated ...Say Anything.Dean got what should have been a major career breakthrough in 1991, when he starred as Billy Bathgate's titular street urchin turned mob confidante. Unfortunately, the film flopped, although even its most naysaying critics usually singled Dean's performance out for praise. He subsequently appeared in a supporting capacity in films ranging from Apollo 13 (1995) to How to Make an American Quilt (1995) to Gattaca (1997), and he starred in a handful of films destined for video oblivion, such as 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Starf*cker (1998), which cast him as a cokehead ex-sitcom star. Dean received some of the best notices of his career when he starred as the eponymous small town shrink of Mumford (1999). He managed to stand out in a pleasant, unforced performance that was ably complemented by an ensemble cast which included Hope Davis, Alfre Woodard, Jason Lee, Mary McDonnell, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. Many observers were left to wonder where he had been hiding all this time. The following year, Dean resurfaced in Space Cowboys, an adventure drama that cast him as an astronaut sent along on a mission with a group of grizzled NASA veterans (Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, and Donald Sutherland) to repair a faulty satellite. After a major role in The War Bride, Dean appeared less frequently on screen limiting his output to some episodic television, The Poker Club, and 2010's Hilary Swank vehicle Conviction.

Trivia: University of Kansas City graduate Dee Wallace is best known for her role as Elliot's divorced mom in the box-office gold mine E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). A former ballerina, Wallace had made her cinematic debut three years prior to E.T. with a minor role in 10 (1979). She co-starred in The Howling (1981) and Cujo (1983), with actor Christopher Stone, whom she married (hence her current professional name). Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone also shared top billing on the syndicated TV series The New Lassie (1989-1990).

Trivia: Character actor Pat Skipper specialized in everyman roles, with a slightly stocky appearance that enabled him to convincingly play rough-hewn types on some occasions, law enforcement officers on others. He landed his first major film credit in 1987, with a bit part as a postal inspector in Oliver Stone's corporate-evisceration drama Wall Street, then alternated, for the next two decades, between A-list theatrical releases (Lethal Weapon 2, Predator 2, Independence Day) and direct-to-video potboilers (Demonstone, Ed Gein). Skipper was particularly memorable as Mason Strode, the ill-fated father of psychopath victim Laurie Strode, in Rob Zombie's 2007 gore-filled remake of the John Carpenter classic Halloween.

Trivia: After college, biked across Canada from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, documenting his adventure for the Toronto Sunday Sun. His thesis novel for his MFA from University of British Columbia, The Last Gypsy Summer, won the National Norma Epstein Award. Won several Gemini Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy) for Traders. Wrote for Judging Amy, Joan of Arcadia, Stargate SG-1 and Cupid before creating Bones in 2005. Has two sons with his wife Brigette.