Trivia: Though Terrence Howard's great grandmother Minnie Gentry was a successful New York stage actress, Howard didn't venture onto the screen himself until the age of twenty. Raised in a multiracial Jehovah's Witness household, the young man studied chemical engineering at Pratt Institute before being discovered on the street in New York. This quickly led to appearances on such television shows as Coach, Street Legal, Living Single, and Picket Fences. His breakout role in 1995's Mr. Holland's Opus helped pave the way for Howard's film career, as did his critically acclaimed performance as Cowboy in the Hughes brothers film Dead Presidents. By the time he took the role of Quentin in 1999's The Best Man, Howard had established a reputation as an actor of both skill and integrity. The new millennium finally brought Howard work that showcased his talent and made him a well-known name, like his role in the Paul Haggis film Crash, as well as his work in the John Singleton's Four Brothers. He also attracted the spotlight on the small screen with parts in the acclaimed TV films Their Eyes Were Watching God with Halle Berry, and Lackawanna Blues with S. Epatha Merkerson. This set the stage for his career-making performance as a pimp desperate to create a new life for himself as a musician in Hustle & Flow, for which he earned an Oscar nomination. Over the coming years, Howard would remain a vital force on screen, appearing in several films, likeGet Rich or Die Tryin', Idlewild, Iron Man, and On the Road. In 2013, he played a supporting role in Lee Daniel's The Butler and reprised his role in The Best Man Holiday. Howard returned to television in Fox's smash-hit Empire, playing music mogul Lucious Lyon.

Trivia: Distinguished and versatile actor Cuba Gooding Jr. spent many years in bit roles before finally becoming a star. The son of Cuba Gooding, lead singer for the '70s pop group the Main Ingredient, he was born in the Bronx on January 2, 1968, but moved to Los Angeles after his father's group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972. Unfortunately, the elder Gooding abandoned his family two years later. The subsequently tumultuous nature of Gooding Jr.'s upbringing did not deter him from achievement: During his teens, he attended four different high schools but managed to become class president of three of them. Gooding Jr. made his professional debut in 1984 as a breakdancer for Lionel Richie's show at the Olympics. As an actor he was discovered by an agent while performing in a high school play, and began working steadily in television commercials, which led to a bit part on an episode of Hill Street Blues. The experience inspired him to take acting lessons and after attending workshops and classes, he began to get a few more parts in television and films. He made his first feature-film appearance in Coming to America (1988) in which he was credited as "Boy Getting Haircut." Gooding Jr.'s first real break came when he was cast as Tre Styles in Boyz 'N the Hood (1990). The film earned him considerable acclaim and seemed to offer the promise of a great career. Sure enough, Gooding began landing fairly substantial parts in feature films. Unfortunately, save for a few exceptions like A Few Good Men (1992), most of the films were not well regarded, and the actor continued to work in relative obscurity. The comic talents he demonstrated as Paul Hogan's sidekick in 1994's Lightning Jack were overshadowed by further mediocre films, and it was not until 1997 that he truly came into the spotlight. That year, he starred as a loyal football player in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his efforts. Following this triumph, Gooding Jr. next appeared in the acclaimed As Good as It Gets alongside Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Two relatively obscure films, the suspense drama A Murder of Crows and the mockumentary Welcome to Hollywood, followed before Gooding Jr. took part in another high-profile picture, What Dreams May Come. Starring opposite Robin Williams, Gooding Jr. played the deceased Williams' tour guide to heaven. Unfortunately, the film was critically savaged and failed to do much business at the box office. In 1999, Gooding Jr. kept busy with both television and film. In addition to starring in a series of Pepsi commercials, the actor appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins in Instinct and had a lead role in Chill Factor, an action extravaganza which featured him as an ice cream man trying to keep a top-secret military chemical safe with the help of a short-order cook (Skeet Ulrich). Gooding Jr. would star opposite screen legend Robert De Niro in 2000's military drama Men of Honor, in which he portrayed the real life experience of Carl Brashear, the first African-American to serve as a diver in the United States Navy. Just one year later, he stepped into the role of an ill-fated serviceman in Pearl Harbor, though he took a break from heady, big-budget war dramas in favor of comedies Rat Race (2001) and Snow Dogs (2002). The year 2003 would prove another busy year for the actor, who starred in three wildly different movies including Boat Trip, a comedy of errors in which he played an unwitting straight man aboard an entirely gay cruise; Radio, which featured Gooding Jr. as the film's mentally challenged protagonist; and The Fighting Temptations, a musical comedy starring Beyoncé Knowles. In 2004, the young actor lent his vocal chords to voice the role of Jake the Horse in Disney's Home on the Range. He next appeared in Lee Daniels' directorial debut, Shadowboxer, playing a contract killer opposite Helen Mirren. In 2007, he appeared in the critically reviled Norbit, playing a supporting role to Eddie Murphy, and also starred in Daddy Day Camp, the sequel to Daddy Day Care, replacing Murphy in the lead role. Gooding again played a Tuskegee pilot in 2012's Red Tails (he had previously appeared in the 1995 HBO made-for-TV movie The Tuskegee Airmen). In 2013, he re-teamed with director Daniels on The Butler and had a small role in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills.

Trivia: A familiar face to a nation of television viewers thanks to his role as the more-than-slightly demented father on the popular FOX sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, longtime stage and screen actor Bryan Cranston has had a rich and varied career, lending his talents to everything from anime voice work (Armitage III and Macross Plus) to daytime television (as an original cast member of Loving). His commanding but off-kilter presence and quirky charm have easily provided Cranston with the necessary range to essay such diverse roles, and the longtime actor can always be counted on to inject a healthy dose of personality into his performances, no matter how large or small the role may be. Though the San Fernando Valley native made his television debut as a commercial actor at the age of eight, it wasn't until college that Cranston truly realized his calling as an actor. Following college graduation, Cranston's passion eventually drew him to Daytona Beach, FL, where the burgeoning actor appeared in such community-theater productions as Barefoot in the Park and Death of a Salesman. In 1982, he joined the cast of the then-new soap opera Loving, and though he would only remain with the daytime drama for a short time, appearances in Airwolf and Hill Street Blues, among various other series, found the actor maintaining a notable presence on television. Following a series of supporting feature performances, Cranston moved back to the small screen with a regular role in the 1988 sitcom Raising Miranda. In the years that followed, he would frequently shift between film (Clean Slate) and television (The Louie Show) while supplementing his income with voice-over work for such popular anime series as Armitage III. Supporting performances in such high-profile features as That Thing You Do! and Saving Private Ryan helped to increase the busy actor's recognition factor, and in 1999, Cranston wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his first feature film, a low-key drama entitled Last Chance. Though the film failed to gain much attention, Cranston was soon receiving numerous positive notices for his Emmy-nominated role as the hapless father in the breakout television hit Malcolm in the Middle. His performance alternately eccentric and endearing, Cranston injected the role with the perfect balance of fatherly weirdness and down-to-earth charm, and the series embarked on a healthy run. In the years that followed, Cranston became an increasingly familiar face to television and film viewers, and in addition to offering vocal work for the short-lived animated television series Clerks, he would contribute to such family-friendly fare as 'Twas the Night and The Santa Claus Brothers. After taking the lead in the 2003 made-for-television feature Thanksgiving Family Reunion, Cranston could be spotted opposite screen legend Kirk Douglas in the 2004 drama The Illusion. He appeared in the 2006 miniseries Fallen, and had a bit part in the Oscar nominated Little Miss Sunshine.However, in 2008 his career entered a whole new phase when he began work on the AMC series Breaking Bad, playing a chemistry teacher who becomes a meth dealer. His work on the critically lauded program would earn him four Emmys for Best Actor in a Drama Series (plus another two as a producer on the series). It also made him an in-demand character actor for movies and he worked steadily appearing in projects as radically different as Drive, Larry Crowne, Red Tails, John Carter, and Rock of Ages among many others.In 2014, Cranston made his Broadway debut in the play All The Way, playing President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The role earned him a Tony Award, and he committed to reprising the role for a TV movie. The following year, he played blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in the film Trumbo (2015), nabbing Cranston his first Academy Award nomination.

Trivia: Was an All-American wrestler in high school and college. Worked as a computer programmer before being discovered by a talent agent when he accompanied a friend to a modeling convention in Dallas, and was persuaded to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting, even though he had no prior acting experience. Big break came in 2007 when Denzel Washington cast him in The Great Debaters, which Washington was directing. Made his screenwriting and directorial debut with The Birth of a Nation at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival; the movie sold to Fox Searchlight for $17.5 million, establishing a record price for an acquisition at Sundance. In March 2016, announced the fall opening of the Nate Parker School of Film and Drama at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.

Trivia: As a child, lived for seven years in Nigeria, where his parents were born and his family descended from royalty. Was a member of London's National Youth Music Theatre, which is where he met his wife. Played King Henry VI in a 2001 Royal Shakespeare Company trilogy of the Bard's plays, and was the first black actor to portray an English king in an RSC production. For his role in the British spy drama Spooks, he met with British-intelligence officers. Co-wrote a 2006 romantic comedy-drama for the BBC called Graham and Alice, about two London loners who decide to rob a betting shop. Fulfilled a bucket-list wish by working with Steven Spielberg on 2012's Lincoln. As part of the training for his role as a WWII Tuskegee Airman in 2012's Red Tails, he got to fly in vintage P-51 Mustangs. Appointed an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2016 New Year Honours.

Trivia: Though he specialized urban-oriented roles onscreen, actor Tristan Wilds lacked an edgy intensity and instead ushered in a soft, sensitive spirit that suggested a tremendous amount of vulnerability and depth. A star from his mid- to late teens, Wilds gained particularly favorable attention on television, initially for his portrayal of broken home victim Michael Lee on HBO's The Wire (in the fourth season of that program), and for his supporting role in the Queen Latifah/Dakota Fanning drama The Secret Life of Bees. In 2008, Wilds signed to play Southern California high school student Dixon Wilson in 90210, a spinoff of the original Beverly Hills 90210. Four years later he was cast in the WWII fighter pilot drama Red Tails.

Trivia: Artistic partner of fellow rapper/actor Redman, Method Man was also an original member of the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan before his solo rap career began. He made two solo albums, the first of which contained the original version of the Grammy award-winning single "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By," featuring Mary J. Blige, as well as numerous collaborations with the likes of Redman, Notorious B.I.G. Method Man has subsequently continued to accumulate a broad range of credits.Featured in Brian Robbins' documentary The Show (1995), preceded by appearances in his own music videos, Method Man officially became an actor in the late 1990s when he appeared in The Great White Hype, Copland, and Belly. He also played a small role in Kevin Reynolds' 187 (1997) and made a guest appearance on an episode of the pseudo-animated series Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1996.Method Man has made many cameo appearances as himself, in roles ranging from walk-on to starring, in all genres including the film Black and White (1999), the video Backstage: Hard Knock Life, and as the host of the television series Stung in 2002. The HBO dramatic prison series Oz featured Method Man in a 2001 season episode. His acting credits continued with the feature films How High with Redman and Obba Babatunde, and Brown Sugar with Queen Latifah in 2002.Additionally, his background as a rapper aided Method Man's involvement in the film industry, as he is accredited on several soundtracks from the 1990s and 2000s. Soundtrack credits include the major motion pictures Batman Forever, Space Jam, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Rush Hour 2, and All About the Benjamins.He continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including Scary Movie 3, Garden State, Soul Plane, The Wackness, The Sitter, and Red Tails as well as contributing to a number of music documentaries.

Trivia: Began his career in musical theater. Met a casting director in Los Angeles while helping a friend move, which led to a role in Point Break (1991). Grew his hair long to avoid being typecast as a wholesome character.

Trivia: Born in Camden, AR, R&B musician Shaffer Chimere Smith Jr. is better known as his stage name Ne-Yo. His debut album In My Own Words was released in 2006, and the singer would remain squarely in the public eye during the following years, with a consistent stream of hits. Ne-Yo would also make regular appearances in films, with roles in Save the Last Dance 2, Stomp the Yard, and Battle: Los Angeles. He starred as the Tin Man in the NBC's live-event version of The Wiz in 2015.

Trivia: Multifaceted performer Elijah Kelley debuted on camera in his early teens, initially with bit parts that included roles in the racially-themed drama A Lesson Before Dying (1999) and the prime-time cop drama The Shield. Kelley's enduring passions and most heightened gifts, however, lay in dancing and vocal performance -- gifts he showcased with great aplomb in two successive projects: the dance-themed drama Take the Lead (2006) and the blockbuster movie musical Hairspray (2007).

Trivia: A performer with a hip, street-smart mentality that he exhibited consistently from project to project, Andre Royo is perhaps best known for his multi-season portrayal of amiable junkie informant Bubbles on HBO's popular cop/crime drama series The Wire (2002-2008). Royo grew up in New York City, and was reportedly expelled from high school prematurely for a perceived overemphasis on acting and drama at the expense of his other studies. He scored his first major career break with a role in the TLC music video of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," then delved into feature performances beginning in 2000 with a bit part in John Singleton's Shaft, followed by a supporting contribution to director Christopher Scott Cherot's moody romantic drama G (2002). Thereafter, Royo would continue to appear on screen in films like Men Without Jobs, Jellysmoke, andAugust.

Trivia: Made his Broadway debut at age 17 in Rent (he cut school to audition for the show). Originated the character of Isaiah Sturdevant in the 2012 Broadway production of Leap of Faith, and the role won him the 2012 Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer on Broadway. Coached a group of aspiring Broadway hopefuls who were preparing for the 2012 National High School Musical Theater Awards. Attended the same college as Smash costars Christian Borle and Megan Hilty. He and Hilty graduated a year apart and became friends in school. On Smash, he was promoted from recurring status in Season 1 to regular status in Season 2. Narrated the audiobook version of Taylor Branch's The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement (2013).

Trivia: Took tap-dancing lessons as a youngster. Modelled for Modell's Sporting Goods and Toys"R"Us. Appeared in Pleasure P's 2008 music video for "Did You Wrong." Provided the voice of Jace in the video game Gears of War 3. Was homeschooled but was allowed to play on the basketball team at New Jersey's Newark Arts High School. Once received a $40,000 royalty check that was supposed to be sent to NBA great Michael Jordan, who starred in Space Jam. The catchphrase "Where's Wallace?", a reference to his teen drug-dealer role in HBO's The Wire, became popular among fans of the series. His middle name, Bakari, is Swahili and means "of noble promise."

Trivia: Was born in Boston, but moved to Portugal at the age of five. Had her big break at the age of 16, appearing on a Portuguese television series. Was the winner of Portugal's version of "Dancing with the Stars." Studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City. Has volunteered to raise money for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.