Trivia: Canadian-born actor and musician Luke MacFarlane studied his craft at Juilliard in New York before graduating in 2003 to pursue a professional acting career. He soon cultivated a successful career on-stage, playing a leading role in the Playwrights Horizons Theater production of Juvenilia in 2003, and the 2004 Vineyard Theatre production of Where Do We Live. He also made forays into film, appearing in movies like 2004's Kinsey and 2005's Over There. In 2006, he joined the cast of the series Brothers & Sisters playing Scotty Wandell.

Trivia: Appeared in commercials as a child. Played John Goodman's son on a Saturday Night Live sketch when he was 12 years old. Performed in an off-Broadway musical before beginning his comedy career. Took classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City. Created and cohosted a variety show called Creation Nation in 2003, where he first debuted his Billy on the Street character. Starred in a talk-show pilot, which also featured Joan Rivers, but it was never picked up. Nominated for a Daytime Emmy award for Best Game Show Host in 2013.

Trivia: Actress Monica Raymund learned as much as she could about her craft before getting a serious start on her professional career, graduating from the Juilliard School in New York and participating in Ann Reinking's Broadway Theatre Project for three years. When she decided to pursue an on-screen career, Raymund had little trouble getting started, snagging the role of tough-talking Ria Torres on the crime drama Lie to Me. When Lie to Me ended its three-season run in 2011, Raymund made the seamless transition to the CBS drama The Good Wife, in which she played the character of Dana Lodge.

Trivia: Went to Fresno State University on a track scholarship and was an All-American shot-putter. Won 15 professional arm-wrestling titles; also competed in weightlifting and bodybuilding tournaments. After college, worked four and a half years as a counselor at a Fresno correctional facility for juvenile offenders; later played corrections officers on iCarly (2008) and Desperate Housewives ('09). Broke into TV in Knights and Warriors, an American Gladiators clone, in 1992 (Jones' nom de guerre: Lady Battleaxe). Was cast as Coach Shannon Beiste in Glee after running into executive producer Brad Falchuk in an L.A. supermarket and asking to be on the show. Jones had previously worked with Falchuk and Glee creator Ryan Murphy on Nip/Tuck and their failed pilot Pretty/Handsome.

Trivia: Is a member of the Groundlings improv company in Los Angeles. Is sometimes mistaken for the musician Moby. Got his big break playing the role of Dean Pelton in the sitcom Community. Cowrote the screenplay for the film The Descendants (2011).

Trivia: A stunning, New York-born actress who shot to stardom with her role as the latter half of television's Will and Grace, Debra Messing's playful creativity beginning in her youth left her family with little doubt that the talented youngster would seek a career in some aspect of the entertainment industry.Raised in a small community outside Providence, RI, Messing's song and dance routines were the source of endless entertainment for her family throughout her youth, and the precocious youngster frequently attended performing arts camps in order to focus her skills as an actress. Later touring Canada, the U.S., and Mexico before planning her initial bid for stardom, Messing followed her mother's advice and enrolled in Massachusetts' Brandeis University, where she majored in theater arts. Traveling to London late in her schooling to study at the prestigious B.E.S.G.L. program, she was later accepted into New York University's Graduate Acting Program. Early roles such as a stint as sexpot Dana Abandando on television's NYPD Blue garnered much attention for the stunning starlet, and it wasn't long before Messing made her feature debut with A Walk in the Clouds (1995). Jumping back to the small screen for the short-lived Ned and Stacey the following year, she next turned up in the feature Prey (1997) and a subsequent television series based on the film. Launching her career into overdrive in 1998 with her role as Grace Elizabeth Adler in television's Will and Grace brought Messing critical and public praise, and her role as the interior designer living with a homosexual lawyer charmed audiences with its snappy writing and talented cast. With personal interests lending to involvement with such organizations as the Best Friend's Pet Sanctuary, Gay Men's Health Crisis, and AmFAR, the actress uses much of her personal time to encourage social awareness of HIV and AIDS-related issues and encourage people to adopt pets.The massive success of Will & Grace helped Messing gain a foothold in a film career. She tested the waters gingerly at first, taking small but key roles in films as diverse as the thriller The Mothman Prophecies and the Woody Allen comedy Hollywood Ending. She played Ben Stiller's newlywed wife in the hit comedy Along Came Polly in 2004. Although audiences ignored her romantic comedy The Wedding Date, Messing scored her most prestigious post-Will & Grace work yet landing a major role in Curtis Hanson's Lucky You in 2006, the same year as she lent her vocal talents to the animated film Open Season.Over the next several years, Messing would enjoy a number of projects, starring in movies like The Women, and series like The Starter Wife, Smash and The Mysteries of Laura.

Trivia: Is second cousins, once removed with politician Chuck Schumer. Appeared in college productions of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Stop Kiss. Studied at the William Esper Studio, focusing on the Meisner technique, in New York City. Starred as a young woman diagnosed with breast cancer in the off-Broadway play Keeping A-Breast. Was offered a contract by VH1 based on her self-produced comedy video short Chinese New Year. In 2007, placed fourth on the competitive reality show Last Comic Standing. Has written for Cosmopolitan magazine.

Trivia: A mainstay of the independent cinema scene throughout the 1990s, actor Guillermo Diaz spent the decade amassing a sizable resume with such films as Party Girl (1995), Girls Town (1996), and Nowhere (1997). A native of New York City, Diaz made his major screen debut with a small role in the acclaimed urban drama Fresh (1994). He had his first substantial performance as Parker Posey's DJ roommate in Party Girl, Daisy von Scherler Mayer's hit directorial debut, and went on to do supporting work in a diverse series of films. One of Diaz's most memorable portrayals was that of LaMiranda, one of the drag queen protagonists of Nigel Finch's Stonewall (1995), a drama based upon the historical 1969 Stonewall riot that launched the modern gay rights movement. In addition to his screen work, Diaz has also appeared on various TV shows, including E.R. and Law & Order.

Trivia: Best known for his 2005 live-action rendering of the Bill Cosby character Fat Albert on the big screen -- a character he brought to life with the aid of a trusty fat suit and the trademark, "Hey, Hey, Hey!" -- wunderkind comic Kenan Thompson honed his skills as a small fry by entertaining classmates with uproarious comedy routines on the playground in his childhood home of Atlanta. Thompson landed his big break by auditioning at age 15 for All That, a Nickelodeon sketch comedy series that (like The Mickey Mouse Club of years prior) functioned as a kind of unofficial petri dish for burgeoning young talent. Series producer and director Brian Robbins reportedly viewed Thompson's audition, tagged his ability to mimic and his comic timing as "dead-on," and hired the young man on the spot. The young comic wowed Nickelodeon, and network heads not only offered him his own sitcom within a year, co-starring another young schtickmeister, Kel Mitchell, but a network-produced movie, the 1997 Good Burger (also starring Mitchell). Numerous additional film roles ensued, and though Mitchell began with goofy, schtick-heavy comedies (Master of Disguise [2002], My Boss' Daughter [2003]), he periodically revealed an interest in stretching his ability into other genres, such as avant-garde/experimental video (Public Lighting [2004]) and action-saturated horror (Snakes on a Plane [2006]). In 2008, however, Thompson hearkened back to comedy by voicing one of the titular primates in the goofy live-action fantasy Space Chimps. Meanwhile, alongside his film work, Thompson achieved even greater success on the small screen. His debut series, All That, had been conveniently described by more than one critic as "SNL for the small set," and paved the way for Thompson's involvement in the real Saturday Night Live; he joined the SNL cast in 2003.

Trivia: Best known for her portrayal of Marcy Rhoades D'arcy, the manic, feminist/careerist neighbor on the long-running series Married...With Children, Amanda Bearse is also a prominent spokesperson for lesbian and gay rights in the entertainment industry and a very busy director on television. Born in Winter Park, FL, Bearse came to acting through high school and community theater and later moved to New York, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. Her first major acting role was as Amanda Cousins on the daytime drama All My Children from 1982 to 1984. Her early film appearances consisted of small roles in features such as First Affair (made for television), Protocol, Fright Night, and Fraternity Vacation, before Married...With Children came along in 1987. Originally, her portrayal and image were that of a perky supporting player but as the series evolved, the writing for her character did as well and her portrayal became harder, much funnier, and much edgier. Bearse also studied directing at the American Film Institute and U.S.C., and most viewers were less aware of the fact that from the middle of the series' run, she became one of the program's regular directors and also wrote several scripts. During this period she emerged as a spokesperson for gay and lesbian rights, declaring her sexuality openly in October 1993, as part of National Coming Out Day. After the end of the series' run of ten seasons, Bearse concentrated largely on directing, on sitcoms such as Ladies Man, Dharma and Greg, and Two Guys and a Girl, among other programs.

Trivia: A graduate of the Pratt Institute, actor/playwright Harvey Fierstein made his off-Broadway debut in something called Pork. Outspokenly homosexual, Fierstein has successfully smashed previous "gay" stereotypes with his deep, ratchety voice and his engaging "You got a problem with that?" belligerence. In 1982, Fierstein wrote and starred in the stage play Torch Song Trilogy, a bittersweet three-part comedy concerning the homosexual experience in the AIDS era; the play won two Tony Awards and became one of the longest-running Broadway productions in history, toting up 1,222 performances. Fierstein repeated his stage characterization of Arnold Beckoff for the heavily rewritten and severely shortened 1988 movie version of Torch Song Trilogy. The actor's crossover performances in mainstream roles have often been quite successful, notably his appearance as the likable cosmetician brother of Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). In 1994, Fierstein co-starred in the short-lived TV series Daddies' Girls, unfortunately lapsing into some of the clichéd gay mannerisms which he had so successfully avoided in his previous work. He was part of the ensemble in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway, and had a part in the smash sci-fi action spectacle Independence Day. He went on to be in the drubbed Death to Smoochy, Duplex, and a series of animated projects that include Mulan II and Foodfight!

Trivia: Joined the touring company of Rent, playing the character of Angel, the summer after graduating from high school; eventually made his Broadway debut in the role. Created a cabaret show called Monday Night Twisted Cabaret; also has a one-man show called Jai Rodriguez: xPosed. Appeared in both the Broadway and 2005 film version of Mel Brooks' The Producers. Served as a contributing editor for Latina magazine. Guest-starred on How I Met Your Mother playing Wayne Brady's husband.