Trivia: Born December 19, 1972, quick-witted actress Rosa Blasi has gained as much attention for her sharp sense of humor as she has for her prowess as a serious stage performer, and thanks to a high-profile role on the long-running Lifetime medical drama Strong Medicine, she finally found her footing as a television actress after years of supporting roles on the small screen. Cast as single mother and Latino medico Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado on Strong Medicine, Chicago native Blasi gradually won over viewers thanks to her winning performance as an inner-city medical specialist who suddenly finds her clinic merging with the prestigious Rittenhouse Hospital.Having made her stage debut at the tender age of eight, Blasi was no stranger to the spotlight when she joined the Piven Performance Company and Second City in an effort to sharpen her skills as a performer, and thanks to roles on such popular sitcoms as Frasier, Becker, and The Drew Carey Show, the emerging actress grew increasingly comfortable on the small screen as well as the boards. In early 2006, Blasi took up her Strong Medicine role, which carried on for many seasons; meanwhile, she found time for movie roles as well. A dramatic part in the Showtime movie Noriega: God's Favorite preceded a fleeting appearance as the wife of Bill Pullman's ill-fated character in the horror hit The Grudge in 2004, with both offering fine examples of Blasi's undeniable onscreen charisma. In addition to her onscreen acting career, Blasi does frequent voice-over work and has become a regular fixture on the talk-show circuit.

Trivia: A Staten Island native, Rick Schroder was billed as Ricky Schroder in the fledgling stage of his acting career, which began when he was just a baby (working on commercials) and has persevered ever since. By the time he made his film debut at nine-years-old as the emotionally tortured son of a washed-up boxer (Jon Voight) in The Champ (1979), Schroder had more than 60 television appearances to his name, many of which had been filmed before he had even learned to speak. Schroder played another traumatized boy in The Earthling (1980) and fared well in several subsequent made-for-TV features, but his breakout role wouldn't come until the 1982 premiere of Silver Spoons. The NBC sitcom starred Schroder as young Ricky Stratten, the wealthy son of a toy-store mogul, and employed the winning '80s formula of single parent + wealth + cute kid + wacky best friend = hit.After the 1986 cancellation of Silver Spoons, the child actor officially became Rick Schroder and starred in several unremarkable small-screen features until landing the coming-of-age role of Newt Dobbs in the award-winning 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove. This would become a trend for Schroder; despite his attempts to make a transition into the film world (his most notable successes being a supporting role in Crimson Tide [1995] and a performance opposite a very young Brad Pitt in Across the Tracks [1991]), the actor would find a much warmer reception in the television community. From bad seeds (1990's The Stranger Within and 1991's My Son, Johnny) to survivalists (1992's Miles From Nowhere and 1993's Return to Lonesome Dove), Schroder's roles were continually met with praise, and he seemed to have escaped the curse suffered by so many child actors.As an adult, Schroder was fatefully cast as Detective Danny Sorenson in ABC's long-running cop drama NYPD Blue. Though he was decried by NYPD Blue loyalists as little more than a former child sitcom star, it wasn't long before his aptitude at the dramatic role convinced both critics and audiences of his acting capability. When Schroder left the series in 2001, it was a great disappointment to the fan following he had developed during his time on the series. However, fans of Schroder weren't left entirely in the lurch; in 2002, Schroder joined the cast of Poolhall Junkies along with Rod Steiger and Chazz Palminteri, and also starred in the German-helmed Consequence in 2003.

Trivia: Best known for playing unapologetically mature, assertive, and intelligent adult women, African-American supporting actress Jenifer Lewis originally launched her career as a vocalist, singing in a church choir in Kinloch, MO. Lewis' passion (and gift) for singing carried her to the Great White Way, where she appeared in a number of sell-out Broadway musicals -- including Ain't Misbehavin' and Dreamgirls. She subsequently migrated to the West Coast for a string of appearances in TV programs such as Roc, A Different World, Murphy Brown, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Touched by an Angel, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and graduated to features in 1992. The films in which Lewis has appeared run the gamut of quality, from outstanding (What's Love Got to Do With It?, 1993) to satisfactory (Sister Act, 1992; The Preacher's Wife, 1996) to downright abominable (Frozen Assets, 1992); many, however, demonstrated her fine gifts. More recently, Lewis attained some much-deserved recognition (and ascended to higher than usual billing) with her multi-season portrayal of Lana Hawkins in the prime-time medical drama Strong Medicine (2000).

Trivia: Identical twin Tamera Mowry starred as Tamera Campbell, opposite her sibling Tia, on the popular sitcom Sister, Sister -- both in its original ABC Friday-night run and later during its four-year stint on the WB network. This stardom arrived at the tail end of several one-shot prime-time series appearances and commercial appearances that began during the actress' preteen years. During the Sister, Sister period and for years afterward, the Mowrys broke the mold of standard twin and triplet actors by appearing together in films and television programs, in lieu of forking off into different paths. They co-headlined the family-oriented comedy Seventeen Again (2000), the teen movie The Hot Chick (2002), and the 2005 Disney Channel telemovie Twitches (a kind of rehash of the Sister, Sister premise with an occult twist, which spawned a sequel in 2007), but also essayed individual roles from time to time. Circa 2000, Tamera struck out on her own, starring in the Billy Graham-produced Christian telemovie Something to Sing About, alongside Graham, Darius McCrary, Kirk Franklin, and Irma P. Hall. She also joined the cast of the popular Lifetime medical drama Strong Medicine during that show's fifth and sixth seasons, as Kayla Thornton, a young physician from a rural area who arrives as a first-year resident at Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic following the traumatizing death of her brother, with the intention of pursuing a medical career. In later years, Mowry branched out more into reality TV, including a show with her sister Tia (cleverly titled Tia & Tamera), but still occasionally returned to acting.

Trivia: While she is associated with one particular role -- that of Winnie Cooper, Kevin Arnold's (Fred Savage) childhood sweetheart, on the seminal late-'80s seriocomedy The Wonder Years -- American actress Danica McKellar sported an impressive resumé that ultimately encompassed a variety of more challenging parts and extended far beyond the confines of acting in film and television.Born in La Jolla, McKellar was reportedly coaxed by neighbors and family friends to do commercials at an early age, but resisted until age 11, when she finally caved and secured representation. After two appearances on the '80s version of The Twilight Zone, the 12-year-old ingenue -- then a complete unknown -- auditioned for Wonder Years creators Neal Marlens and Carol Black (in 1988). She not only landed the role of Winnie, but so convinced series producers of her suitability as Cooper that they decided to change her part from that of a passing love interest to Kevin's main squeeze. McKellar would later recall that she and Savage flirted around off-camera, but that their relationship ultimately waxed far more fraternal than romantic.After that program wrapped in 1993, McKellar trekked off to UCLA and did revolutionary work in advanced math and physics; she and a research partner had a theorem named after them -- a principle referenced in a key book on statistical mechanics -- and her senior paper graced a highly respected physics journal. The actress graduated summa cum laude in 1998, then headed back to Hollywood, diploma under her arm, and resumed film work. She appeared as Elsie Snuffin in a few 2002 episodes of the blockbuster series The West Wing, voiced Sapphire Stagg on the animated program Justice League Unlimited, and -- on a higher-profile note -- headlined a fun series of telemovies and webisodes for the Lifetime network in the mid-2000s entitled Inspector Mom. As the title suggests, those features cast McKellar as a crime-solving soccer mom.Ever the Renaissance woman, McKellar then extended her cinematic activities into directing, by helming a number of experimental short subjects. In 2006 she made her screenwriting debut with the mystery Inspector Mom. She was also active in the theater, having appeared in such productions as The Vagina Monologues, Grease, and Proof, and authored the 2007 children's book Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail.McKellar continued acting, appearing in guest spots on TV and in TV movies, and competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2014.