Trivia: The squirrel-cheeked young actress Amanda Bynes rose to fame on Nickelodeon and moved on to the WB network for her teenage years. In 1996, she became a regular cast member on the kid's sketch comedy show All That, which first earned her a growing fan base of adoring admirers. Sticking with Nickelodeon-style broad comedy, she was a panelist on the game show Figure It Out as well as host for the popular variety show The Amanda Show, which won several Kid's Choice awards. After lending her voice to the long-running cartoon Rugrats, Bynes made the big switch from the PG world of Nickelodeon to the PG-13 world of the WB with a part on the short-lived series The Nightmare Room, narrated by author R.L. Stine. The next year she made her feature film debut in the comedy Big Fat Liar as the best friend of fellow young superstar Frankie Muniz. In 2002, she launched the WB sitcom What I Like About You, playing a comedic younger sister who moves into the trendy Upper West Side apartment of her straight-laced older sister (Jennie Garth from Beverly Hills 90210). Widely released one day after her 17th birthday, the romantic comedy What a Girl Wants marked her first major starring role and showcased her Sandra Bullock-style pratfalls as lead Daphne, a girl who goes to England in search of her father (Colin Firth) and finds romance. The undistinguished Just One of the Guys retread She's the Man followed in 2006, a year before she landed a plum supporting role in the big-budget musical remake of Hairspray.

Trivia: Actor Channing Tatum might be best known to audiences as a shirtless young man baring his muscular physique for the pages of Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs. His career began when he was cast as an extra in the Ricky Martin video for "She Bangs." Up until then, he'd been drifting from one job to another after the promising football career he prepared for in military school floundered when he entered college. Modeling proved to be a natural fit for Tatum, and he cultivated a successful career appearing in print ads and commercials for such companies as Nautica, Gap, Aeropostale, Emporio Armani, American Eagle, and Pepsi. His charisma in front of the camera didn't go unnoticed and he soon parlayed his modeling career into a shot at acting, landing an appearance on CSI: Miami in 2004. He was soon given a substantial role in the sports drama Coach Carter, which dealt with familiar subject matter for the lifelong athlete. He had no trouble being cast in films geared toward twentysomethings, as 2005 and 2006 brought him roles in Havoc, Supercross, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, She's the Man, and Step Up. Within only a few short years, Tatum had worked with many other up-and-coming actors of his generation, such as Amanda Bynes, Anne Hathaway, Jenna Dewan, and Bijou Phillips. In 2007, Tatum was cast in the leading role in 2007's epic Genghis Khan biopic Mongol: The Early Years of Genghis Khan, directed by legendary Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov, but he was later replaced by Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano amid rumors that Tatum's dominantly caucasian features were ill recieved by producers, who wanted an actor of Asian descent to play the 13th century Mongolian leader. Tatum's career didn't stall as a result of the upset, however, as he was soon working with acclaimed director Kimberly Peirce on the Iraq War drama Stop-Loss. He played Pretty Boy Floyd in Michael Mann's gangster drama Public Enemies in 2009, the same year he had a prominent role in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2010 he appeared in the Nicholas Sparks written romantic drama Dear John. The next year he had a short but memorable part in The Dilemma, but 2012 turned out to be something of a breakout year for the actor when he appeared in a variety of projects. First up was Haywire, Steven Soderbergh's action thriller. While working on that film, the duo cooked up Magic Mike based on stories Channing shared about his days as a male stripper. That film opened in the summer of 2012. Between those two projects, the comedy 21 Jump Street came out, featuring Tatum as an undercover cop working a high school with his best friend and partner played by Jonah Hill. His work paid off when he was named People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in late 2012. Tatum continued working at a neck-breaking pace the following year, reprising his role in the G.I. Joe sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation, starring in psychological thriller Side Effects and action film White House Down and appearing in cameo roles in This Is The End and Don Jon.

Trivia: A native of the Midwest, actress Laura Ramsey grew up in Rosendale, WI, where she attended Laconia High School. Harboring dreams of stardom, Ramsey relocated to Los Angeles after completing secondary school and followed the career route of many an ingenue by waitressing; she was then promptly "discovered" by the producers of Rick de Oliveira's 2003 documentary The Real Cancun, who appointed her as one of the cast members -- kick-starting a long and fruitful screen career in the process. Also like many young female Hollywood upstarts, Ramsey found her strongest foothold, in the beginning, in grisly horror fare; early projects included Venom (2005), Cruel World (2005), and The Covenant (2006). Catherine Hardwicke's 2005 skateboarding drama Lords of Dogtown marked a noteworthy exception to the rule. Ramsey's career took an unusual turn with her lead role as Lola in director Nabil Ayouch's offbeat romantic comedy Whatever Lola Wants (2007) -- the tale of a young American woman who impulsively follows her dreams of lifelong love and a professional belly dancing career to Cairo, Egypt. Ramsey returned to horror as one of four young people who encounter the nightmare of their lives during a Cancun vacation in Carter B. Smith's 2008 outing The Ruins.

Trivia: First earning renown in Great Britain as a star footballer, Vinnie Jones smoothly parlayed his physically formidable "hard man" sports rep into a second career as a charismatic movie tough guy. Raised on the estate where his father worked as a gamekeeper, Jones began his professional sports career with the Wimbledon FC soccer team in 1986. Becoming famous for his aggressive athleticism, Jones played for several other teams before returning to Wimbledon in 1994. A multimedia celebrity in Britain as well as a sports star, Jones also hosted TV and radio talk shows, published a book, and wrote a weekly column for the Sun during his years as an athlete. Jones found his next calling when tyro writer/director Guy Ritchie cast him as paternal enforcer Big Chris in the flashy London gangster romp Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1999). A major hit in England, and an art house success in the U.S., Lock, Stock earned Jones several British prizes. Jones officially retired from soccer in 1999, and turned his attention full time to acting. After a featured role as "The Sphinx" in the bombastic Hollywood car heist blockbuster Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Jones rejoined Ritchie's lad-movie universe as Bullet Tooth Tony in the charmingly titled diamond caper Snatch (2001). Having proven that he could hold his own among such Hollywood stars as Nicolas Cage and Brad Pitt, Jones was subsequently cast a series of films like Swordfish, Mean Machine, Hell Ride, The Heavy, and Kill the Irishmen. He would also find success on the dark superhero series The Cape.

Trivia: Like many actresses who've been typecast as airheads, Julie Hagerty is infinitely more intelligent than most of the characters she's played. After six years' worth of training in her hometown of Cincinnati and at Julliar!d, Hagerty pursued a modelling career in New York, continuing to take acting lessons under the tutelage of William Hickey. She then spent a few seasons playing a variety of roles at the Production Company, a Greenwich Village theatre troupe which she co-founded with her brother Michael. In 1980, she appeared in her first film, playing ditzy stewardess Elaine Dickinson in the disaster-flick lampoon Airplane!. The following year, she delivered a marvelous performance as the limited-intellect mistress of professorial Jose Ferrer in Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982). A couple of inconsequential projects followed (including the inevitable Airplane! sequel) before Hagerty once more appeared in a worthwhile role in a worthwhile film: in 1985's Lost in America, Hagerty and Albert Brooks (who also directed) sparkled as a pair of starry-eyed yuppies who try to go the "Easy Rider" route. She was cast against type (and also appeared sans screen credit) as the mistress of Claus von Buhlow in Reversal of Fortune (1990). There have been several career ups and downs since: the most recent "up", if only on an artistic level, was the 1995 film The Wife. On television, Julie Hagerty starred as Tracy Dillon in the short-duration series Princesses (1991). Hagerty continued to remain active in film and television throughout the 2000s, though she wouldn't recapture her Airplane! success. Among her credits include Freddy Got Fingered, comedian Tom Green's notorious flop from 2001, and the comedies Just Friends (2005), Adam & Steve (2005), and She's the Man (2006). In 2009 she played a small supporting role in Confessions of a Shopaholic, a romantic comedy based on Sophie Kinsella's novel of the same name.

Trivia: Irreverent comedian and social commentator David Cross has maintained a relatively low celebrity profile while at the same time working consistently in TV, film, and the live performance circuit, endearing himself to legions of fans. His smart and fearless comedy style is marked by a simultaneous honesty and cynicism that kind of goes beyond satire to somewhere else. His solo work tends to focus on topics of religion, politics, and a total refusal to skirt around any issue. Characterized by his small frame, bald head, and black glasses, his major career accomplishment has been as one-half of the HBO series Mr. Show with Bob and David. However, his memorable bit parts (Donnie, the guy who repeatedly says "Chicken Pot Pie" on NBC's Just Shoot Me) tend to stick in the imagination of the larger public. Born in Atlanta, GA, he went to college in Boston and started doing stand-up comedy before moving out to Los Angeles. He met Bob Odenkirk while working as a writer for The Ben Stiller Show on HBO and the two joined forces to create the unique sketch comedy series Mr. Show in 1995. With Odenkirk and Cross as the original funders, writers, actors, and executive producers, the show was nominated for several Emmy awards and eventually ended in 1998. Cross made several notable TV guest appearances on The Drew Carey Show and News Radio, as well as movies like Men in Black, The Cable Guy, Ghost World, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Waiting for Guffman. As a voice actor, he worked on the Hercules animated TV series, the feature films Small Soldiers and Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: Chipwrecked. Cross also continued to appear live on-stage in various formats (often with indie pop-rockers Ultrababyfat), wrote columns for magazines, and did a Mr. Show tour with Odenkirk. In November 2002, Cross released a two-disc comedy album, Shut Up You Fucking Baby!, consisting of highly charged political rants and other solo material recorded live in concert. Cross had a particularly memorable part on the beloved comedy series Arrested Development, and would later return to the small screen, writing and starring in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.

Trivia: Stories abound about the length to which American character player/writer Jonathan Sadowski ventured to pay his dues as an aspiring Hollywood talent and gain that elusive "in" to the club of the elite. Some of the anecdotes are confirmed, and some are not, but the fact that Sadowski traveled that well-worn road of many an actor by waiting tables is undeniable. The then-hopeful took a job at the Sunset Boulevard diner called The Griddle Café; he and fellow server/screenwriting partner Ben Branstrader subsequently authored a script called "This Man Smith," and pitched it, tableside, to producer J.C. Spink (of The Ring and Monster-in-Law fame) when the mogul came in for a bite in 2005. Spink reportedly signed the young men on the spot.Sadowski cut his acting chops far more quickly than he received onscreen writing credit, however, and the performer (who had already enjoyed a favorable run on American Dreams prior to his impromptu meeting with Spink) continued to make appearances in Hollywood A-list features over the next several years. These included Paul in She's the Man (2006), director Andy Fickman's teen comic update of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Trey in the Bruce Willis actioner Live Free or Die Hard (2007). Sadowski also signed for a role in the Ryan Shiraki-directed farce Spring Breakdown (2008), about a trio of thirtysomething girls who decide to crash a spring break resort popular with college coeds.

Trivia: A native of Langley, British Columbia, actress Amanda Crew began her entertainment career in Canadian productions, with assignments such as an ongoing role on the YTV network's series 15/Love and CTV's Whistler. Following work on a succession of Vancouver-based television series, Crew signed for series guest spots on Smallville and a multi-episode turn on Life As We Know It, then moved into features. She placed her strongest emphasis on teen-oriented material, such as the romantic comedies John Tucker Must Die and She's the Man and the teen thriller Final Destination 3 (all 2006). In 2008, Crew landed one of the lead roles, opposite James Marsden, Clark Duke, and Seth Green, in the comedy Sex Drive.

Trivia: A film and television actress who began on-camera appearances in her mid-teens, Jessica Lucas kick-started her career with small-screen work in such productions as Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001) and the series 2030 CE; she achieved her first significant break, however, with regular billing on the 2004 series drama Life As We Know It (2004-2005), a critically acclaimed albeit short-lived treatment of high-school social life. Lucas transitioned fluidly to big-screen features in 2006, with supporting roles in dual efforts from that year -- the teen-oriented romantic comedy She's the Man and the supernatural horror outing The Covenant -- and continued her associations with horror material when she played one of the victims of a bizarre rampaging monster in 2008's Cloverfield. She was cast in the 2009 relaunch of Melrose Place, and followed that up with the Nicholas Sparks' adaptation Dear John. In 2011 she appeared in the sequel Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. She was then tapped to appear in the 2013 remake of Evil Dead.

Trivia: Parents are originally from Trinidad and Grenada. Starred in a commercial for Honeycomb cereal when he was 12. Played basketball in high school. Attended college on a soccer scholarship, and planned to go to medical school.

Trivia: Made her live-action film debut in 1997's The Invader, as Gail. In 2003, wrote and directed dramatic short Arbor Vitae. Received a nomination for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role at the 2010 Gemini Awards, for her role on Republic of Doyle. Starred as Rose Miller on Republic of Doyle between 2010 and 2014. As of 2019, has starred as Randy Harrison in the drama series Tin Star since its 2017 debut.

Trivia: Though he may not draw instant name recognition among U.S. viewers, Australian character actor John Pyper-Ferguson boasts a resumé that reads like an exhaustive index of filmed entertainment, from the mid-'80s onward. It packs in theatrically released Hollywood B-pictures, A-list releases, telemovies, one- and two-shot series episodes, and much, much more. A thespian typically at home in supporting roles, this Aussie import became such a frequent on-camera presence that he was soon difficult, if not impossible, to miss.Pyper-Ferguson actually debuted in Canada -- auspiciously so, with the lead role of Sonny Hamilton, a character seeking information on his family history, in the prime-time drama Hamilton's Quest. He then segued to Hollywood film roles, with small appearances in such pictures as the slasher movie Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), the Mel Gibson/Goldie Hawn vehicle Bird on a Wire (1990), the frat-boy comedy Ski School (1991), and the John Ritter gag-fest Stay Tuned (1992). After a brief (brief) appearance in that same year's Best Picture winner, the Clint Eastwood Western Unforgiven, Pyper-Ferguson spent the rest of the 1990s working in mostly forgettable fare, such as the telemovie Children of the Dust (1995) and the Z-grade sci-fi movie Space Marines (1996). For most of the following decade, Pyper-Ferguson eschewed feature-length films and landed guest appearances on acclaimed television series ranging from CSI and ER to Arli$$ and Nash Bridges. Following a bit part in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, Pyper-Ferguson then signed for a regular role as Joe Whedon on the hit prime-time family drama Brothers & Sisters (2006).

Trivia: Making the fateful decision to dedicate her life to acting at the tender age of eight, young Katie Stuart began the long climb from her earliest performances with the Vancouver Youth Theater to appearing in such big-budget Hollywood fare as X2. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia on March 22, 1985, it was in the third grade that Stuart became involved with the Vancouver Youth Theater. Subsequently receiving early coaching at Vancouver's Tarlington Training center, Stuart soon had an agent and began to gain experience in addition to her training. Early roles in such television series' as Poltergeist: The Legacy were soon to follow, and with her role in 1997's Masterminds, Stuart kicked off a career in features. Though Stuart would gain positive notice for her role in the 1996 miniseries Intensity, it was the following year that found the burgeoning actress experiencing breakout success in the wake of Canadian television's Summer of the Monkeys. Following up with appearances in the series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven and Stargate SG-1, Stuart next appeared in the BBC's The Magician's House (1999) and its sequel before taking on a challenging role as a pregnant teen in the made-for-television feature Too Young to Be a Dad. Her role as Shadowcat in X2 hinting at positive things to come, Stuart could next be found preparing for her role in the television adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time in 2003. Following A Wrinkle in Time, Stuart would to put her acting career on hold in favor of graduating from high school and continuing her education. Stuart enjoys partaking in athletics such as ice hockey and basketball in her spare time, and her hobbies include mountain biking and rock climbing.

Trivia: Early acting appearances included guest spots on Dawson's Creek, Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Supplied voice work for Fox's animated comedy Family Guy, doing impressions of celebrities such as Cybill Shepherd, Sarah Jessica Parker and Christina Aguilera. Played Willa McPherson, Lucy's protégé-in-training, for two seasons on FX's Dirt.

Trivia: Film director Andy Fickman arrived in his chosen field by virtue of his career as a musical theater helmer. A native of Midland, TX, who was raised in a Jewish family by a homemaker mother and a geologist father, Fickman found his life's calling by virtue of his father, who conveyed his inveterate passion for the stage to young Andy. He later attended Texas Tech as a theater major, and thereafter directed a series of immensely popular plays in Southern California; the most successful, Reefer Madness, embodied a musical adaptation of Louis Gasnier's Z-grade 1936 cult film about the "evils" of pot smoking. The show opened at the Hudson Theater in San Bernardino to sellouts and critical raves, secured a prestigious New York opening in late 2000, and won Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and Ovation Awards for its director. Fickman followed it up with The Gift, a more sober stage musical about a reunion of college buddies, and juggled this with a day job as a studio development executive. He moved into direction of features beginning in 2002, with the sex comedy Who's Your Daddy?, then directed a film adaptation of his Reefer play for the Showtime network in 2004, starring Steven Weber, Neve Campbell, and Alan Cumming. Additional projects included the gender-bending teen comedy She's the Man (starring Amanda Bynes, in drag), the family-oriented sports comedy The Game Plan (starring the Rock), and the 2009 Disney remake Race to Witch Mountain.