Trivia: Alberto Estrella was born on September 23, 1962 in Mexico; his brother Rodrigo went on to become a notable doctor in Mexico. Alberto made his first television appearance at age 11 on the Mexican version of Sesame Street as a character named Abelardo Montoya. He was billed as Alberto Rodriguez Estrella in his first role as an adult, in the 1986 film El otro. Several different roles in movie shorts and brief television arcs followed before Estrella earned a supporting role in 1990's Los fugitivos, alongside Daniel Balk and Guillermo Capetillo. Another notable role followed in the form of Guama Botero, one in a trio of brothers linked by blood and fate in the 1993 drama Principo y fin. The role earned him a Silver Ariel nomination for the Mejor Cactuacion Maculina (Best Supporting Actor) performance of the year. Roles followed over the next few years, including La reina de la noche (1994), En el sire (1995) and Salon Mexico (1996). Estrella then took the lead in the 2000 prison drama Tres reos, a performance which garnered critical acclaim. 2002's Pacas de a mil shined a light on Estrella once again. Later that same year, as Roberto in eXXXorcisms, Estrella delivered a powerhouse performance. Backed by a dense, heart-stopping plot delivered by writer/director Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Estrella's turn was very well-received. The movie itself was nominated for four Ariel Awards, including Estrella's second nomination, and his first for a lead role. Most of Estrella's recent notable roles have come on the small screen. Reinventing himself as a convincing telenovela antagonist, Estrella has starred as a villain on three different shows since his most recent Ariel nomination, initially in Entre el amor y el odio as Marcial Andrade. After roles in Contra viento y marea and Lo que la vida me robo, Estrella resurfaced in the role of Danilo Vargas on the popular telenovela La malquerida, which premiered in 2014. Other telenovelas which Estrella has contributed to include El Equipo and the 2013-14 hit show What Life Took From Me (in the role of Juventino). Estrella also had a minor role as Adjutant AFI in the 2004 Denzel Washington vehicle Man on Fire.

Trivia: The handsome, ruddy-faced, and often bespectacled Latino actor Demián Bichir debuted before the cameras from the age of 14 and launched himself as a telenovela star in his native Mexico in the '80s and '90s, prior to his slick and seemingly effortless transition into internationally oriented films during the early 2000s. Bichir became instantly known for his ability to combine rugged and exotic appeal with depth-signaling intelligence and articulation.Although Bichir officially debuted in a U.S. production circa 1983 -- with a turn in the telemovie Choices of the Heart (a biopic of ill-fated Irish missionary Jean Donovan [Melissa Gilbert], set in El Salvador) -- at that time he failed to draw significant attention in the American press as anything more than a footnote. (In fact, a New York Times review of that picture, from 1983, misspells his name as "Denian Bicher.") Bichir continued to score as a well-respected actor in Mexico, however, and did additional Hollywood crossover work from time to time -- usually in American features with predominantly Hispanic casts, such as Cliff Osmond's 1988 romantic drama The Penitent, starring Armand Assante and Raul Julia. Bichir signed for one of his most prominent and popular roles in the 1999 Mexican erotic drama Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas, as Tomas, a housewife's former lover who pays a most unexpected visit to that woman and her husband (and impedes the already strained, cracking marriage).In 2000, Bichir lent a memorable performance to the Mexico/U.S. co-production In the Time of the Butterflies, a Showtime original movie, directed by Mariano Barroso, about a plantation owner's daughter from the Dominican Republic (Salma Hayek) who courageously rebels against a Central American despot. Though not a starring role per se, the turn marked Bichir's first significant American breakthrough. It brought the actor much-deserved attention and second billing in an American film, when he played an insanely jealous boyfriend and pasta sauce entrepreneur, opposite Chelsea Altman, in Rudolph Gerber's eccentric soap opera comedy/murder mystery Heartbreak Hospital (2002). Unfortunately, that picture bombed with critics and the public and disappeared almost instantly -- which could partially explain why Bichir reverted to south-of-the-border films for his next several projects. The first of those pictures, Ciudades Oscuras -- Fernando Sariñana's memorably dark Altmanesque tale of intertwined urban lives, with Bichir at the center (as a bartender who has the film's individual stories told to him) -- scored with Mexican viewers. Bichir followed it up with the lead in the 2004 Spanish-language biopic Zapata, essaying the role of the famous Mexican bandit played by Marlon Brando 50 years prior.Bichir then signed for dual roles in 2006. He played Malboro, a young man who reunites with his younger brother and sets off on a long trip to explore their family's heritage, in Mexican director Javier "Fox" Patron's moody, contemplative festival drama Beyond Heaven (Fuera del Cielo, aka Chilango Blues), and a Bolivian dad wildly desperate to reconnect with his child in Miami (even if it means breaking multiple laws) in Juan Carlos Valdivia's hyper-stylized American Visa. Though these features received limited bookings and returns in the United States, they drew significant international attention for Bichir that far exceeded any notice engendered by his early telenovelas or U.S. network telemovies.Bichir continued to work steadily, landing a part in Steven Soderbergh's two-part biopic about Che Guevara, and he was cast in a recurring role on the Showtime series Weeds. 2011 proved to be a breakthrough for the hard-working thespian when his work in Chris Weitz's immigration drama A Better Life garnered him Best Actor nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy. In 2012, the actor played a supporting role in director Oliver Stone's Savages, a crime thriller based on Don Winslow's best-selling novel of the same name.