Trivia: A child performer who went on to become an adult actor in one of the more radical transformations in the history of the American entertainment industry, Sarah Jessica Parker has captained both a career and a public image that could be accurately classified under the heading Revenge of the Nerd. As a pubescent actor most famous for her roles in the acclaimed high school-set TV series Square Pegs and in the big screen's Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Parker played the skinny girl with frizzy hair who was either the sidekick or underdog; when she wasn't cleaning up after Lori Singer in Footloose, she was battling snotty rich girls for the right to dance on local television in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. However, thanks to perseverance, talent, a fabulous stylist, and an HBO series called Sex and the City, Parker had emerged, by the end of the 1990s, as one of the most glamorous and employable actors around, known as much for the designer frocks she wore to awards ceremonies as for her work on the screen.Born in Nelsonville, OH, on March 25, 1965, as the fourth of eight siblings, Parker grew up in relative poverty following the divorce of her mother, an elementary school teacher, and her father, an aspiring writer. Raised by her mother and often out-of-work stepfather, she trained as a dancer and singer, bringing home paychecks from a young age. As a fledgling actor, Parker landed her first TV show at the age of eight; in 1976, after winning her first Broadway role in The Innocents, her family moved to New Jersey to encourage her career. Parker worked on the stage for the next few years, touring -- with four of her siblings -- in the national company of The Sound of Music and getting her first major break when she was chosen to take over the title role of Annie on Broadway, from 1979 to 1980.Continuing her training at the American Ballet Theater and the New York Professional Children's School, Parker made her film debut in the 1979 Rich Kids, which co-starred John Lithgow, Trini Alvarado, and Olympia Dukakis. In 1982, she won her first starring role in the aforementioned Square Pegs, and then received additional attention thanks to her role as Lori Singer's best friend and Chris Penn's girlfriend in the 1984 hit Footloose. The following year, Parker kept on dancing -- this time alongside a very young Helen Hunt -- in the similarly winning Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The actor's success in both films paved the way for steady work through the rest of the decade; in addition to her work on the big screen, Parker also starred in a number of TV shows, including the 1986 miniseries A Year in the Life and the drama series Equal Justice.The early '90s saw Parker segue into more adult roles, playing the Southern Californian creation SanDeE* alongside Steve Martin in L.A. Story (1991), then earning both critical and cult credibility as Nicholas Cage's fiancée in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) and as the wife of consummate schlockmeister Ed Wood in Tim Burton's celebrated 1994 film about Wood's life and times. Offscreen, as well, she was garnering notice for her attachment to actor Matthew Broderick; Parker -- who had been in high-profile relationships with Robert Downey Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr. -- married Broderick in 1997.Following a turn as Mia Farrow's daughter in the widely panned Miami Rhapsody (1995), supporting work in The First Wives Club and Burton's Mars Attacks! (both 1996), and a number of New York productions (including Sylvia, for which she earned a Drama Desk Award nomination), Parker landed the starring role of New York sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the new HBO series Sex and the City. Touted by some observers as the luckiest break in the actor's career to date, the show, which focused on the sex lives of four close friends (played by Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis) became a huge hit among both critics and viewers, ensuring Parker -- who won the Golden Globe for her work in 2000, 2001and 2002 -- both steady employment and an unimpeachably chic image that was eons removed from the bony elbows and frizzy bangs of her days as a square peg.Parker continued to appear in film roles during and after the Carrie Bradshaw years; among them include a starring role in The Family Stone (2005), and a supporting role in the 2008 comedy drama Smart People. In 2010 she starred in Sex and the City 2, and played a devoted mother attempting to balance her family with her career in 2011's comedy drama I Don't Know How She Does It.

Trivia: Kristin Davis first earned recognition as the pretentiously rich "schemer" she played on Fox's Melrose Place in the mid-'90s. As Brooke, she was constantly creating problems for the more regular characters, and just a year after gaining full-time character status, she had to be written off the show because of viewer dissatisfaction. However, doe-eyed Davis would find an abundance of work on television and in film, and demonstrate more versatility than she had as the "meanie" on Melrose. She was born on February 24, 1965, in Boulder, CO. After moving to Columbia, SC, with her family, she attended Rutgers University. She then moved to New York City, where she worked in theater and commercials for some time. In order to work on Melrose Place, starting in 1994, she relocated to Los Angeles. Davis made many television miniseries and movie appearances after her bout with Melrose Place, including appearances on ER and General Hospital. She had a bit part in Nine Months in 1995, and was featured in a TNT made-for-TV movie, The Heidi Chronicles, also starring Jamie Lee Curtis, that same year. In 1998, she had a small part in Sour Grapes, a comedy by Seinfeld writer Larry David. She then starred in two television motion pictures: Atomic Train in 1999, as Megan Seger, and Take Me Home: The John Denver Story in 2000, as Annie Denver, and co-starring with Chad Lowe. Also in 2000, she starred in the feature film Blacktop, and in 2001, appeared in a TV movie called Three Days with comedian Tim Meadows.When Sex and the City came to an end, she appeared in a handful of films including The Shaggy Dog and Deck the Halls before next appearing in the big-screen version of her iconic HBO series. She then appeared in Couples Retreat before taking part in the Sex and the City movie sequel. In 2012 she was the clueless mother in the family adventure movie Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.On the HBO series Sex and the City, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Davis played the innocent and adorable Charlotte York, a sweet and sensitive counterpart to the more blunt crassness of the program's three other female main characters. A striking contrast to the role she played on Melrose Place, Charlotte has provided Davis with a more diverse character range within the genre of drama-comedy on television.

Trivia: A true-blue New York actress who has worked on the stage and screen since her adolescence, Cynthia Nixon is probably best known to pop culture aficionados as Miranda Hobbes, the high-powered lawyer who has dated some of New York City's most dysfunctional men on HBO's Sex and the City. Although Nixon's starring role on the hugely popular series may have brought her to the attention of a new audience, observers of the New York theater had been watching the actor on and off Broadway since 1980, where she had performed in productions that included David Rabe's Hurlyburly, Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, Angels in America, and Indiscretions, for which she earned a Tony nomination.Born in New York City on April 9, 1966, Nixon made her film debut in the 1980 movie Little Darlings. She worked steadily through the rest of the decade, appearing in films ranging from Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City (1981) to Milos Forman's Oscar-winning Amadeus (1984) to Robert Altman's satirical Tanner '88, which cast her as the daughter of the titular politician. Nixon also worked on television, popping up in various miniseries, including the 1982 abortion drama My Body, My Child, in which she co-starred with Vanessa Redgrave and future Sex and the City co-star Sarah Jessica Parker. Continuing to appear on-stage in productions of Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (for which she won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Award), and Philadelphia Story (for which she won a Theater World Award), Nixon also became a founding member of the off-Broadway theater group The Drama Dept. In 1998, after appearing onscreen sporadically throughout the 1990s, in such films as Addams Family Values (1993), the actor landed the most widely recognized role of her career up to that point, on Sex and the City. Co-starring alongside Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, and Kristin Davis, Nixon, as the hilariously caustic Miranda, enjoyed critical praise and a number of awards and nominations for her work on the show, which formed another entry on an already long and varied resumé. She would reprise the role for big screen adaptations of the show, in addition to movie roles in Lymelife and An Englishman in New York, as well as a popular turn on the Showtime series The Big C.

Trivia: A popular screen figure of the 1980s and '90s whose casting in HBO's runaway hit series Sex and the City provided her career with a solid second wind, Emmy-winning actress Kim Cattrall has endured to prove that older women can retain their sexuality and femininity while simultaneously maintaining a vital screen presence. Born in Liverpool, England, Cattrall's parents immigrated the family to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, when the future actress was three years old. After returning to England at age 11 to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Cattrall finished high school in Vancouver, and at age 16 struck out on her own after winning a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Though director Otto Preminger would sign Cattrall to a five-year contract and give the actress her film debut in Rosebud (1975), Universal would soon step in to buy out her contract, making Cattrall one of the last actors to participate in the now defunct Universal Contract Player System. Following with television appearances in Starskey and Hutch and Charlie's Angels, and turning up in such features as Deadly Harvest (1977), it appeared as if good things were in store for Cattrall in the future. The dawn of the 1980s found Cattrall's star ascending in such features as Porky's (1981), and with the release of Police Academy in 1984 her face was becoming a familiar one to film and television audiences.Following up with such typically '80s fare as Turk 182! (1985), Cattrall essayed the role of the green-eyed girl whose fate was questionable in John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986), the year before her most famous (until Sex and the City of course) role in Mannequin (1987). Essentially a typical '80s throwaway comedy, Cattrall's effervescent presence, combined with Starship's catchy title tune "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," gave the film such a boost that it even spawned a Cattrall-less sequel. It was following Mannequin that Cattrall's career began to stall in the wake of such instantly forgettable films as Honeymoon Academy (1990) and the Gary Busey actioner Breaking Point (1993), though her role in 1995's Live Nude Girls proved a curious precursor to her role on Sex and the City. A frank and funny HBO series based on the writings of New York Observer columnist Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City gave Cattrall a chance to shine as a lusty an unabashedly sexual PR executive whose confidence in the bedroom rivals only her confidence in the boardroom. A runaway hit that's popularity only grew as the show entered is sixth season, Sex and the City once again made Cattrall a household name as it influenced everything from fashion to the drinks of the New York scene. Cattrall's character made her a bigger pop culture icon than ever, and she would stick with the franchise throughout its spin-off movies, while also appearing in feature films like Ice Princess and The Ghost Writer.

Trivia: With his ability to seamlessly alternate between a laid-back rugged handsomeness and fashionably well-coifed GQ good looks, John Corbett's endearingly goofy charm and picture-perfect smile have built the talented actor a devoted female fan base in addition to making him perfectly suited for roles in such diverse beloved television hits as Northern Exposure and Sex and the City. With his role as the culture-shocked WASP groom introduced into an extended Greek family in Nia Vardalos' surprise breakout hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, longtime fans of Corbett's small-screen work were delighted to see the actor finally match that success in feature films. Born and raised in West Virginia, Corbett initially moved to California not to seek success in the bright lights of Hollywood, but to pursue a decidedly less glamorous career working in a steel factory. Concurrently taking classes at a local college, fate had other plans for Corbett as he was forced to halt his factory work after six years due to an injury. Deciding to sit in on a friend's drama class on a lark and called to the stage by the teacher to assist in an exercise, Corbett's talent was clear to all and he was soon on his way to forging a new career on-stage. The encouragement and support of his teacher gave Corbett the confidence to develop his talents and seek a career as an actor, and it wasn't long before he was finding frequent work in commercials. Corbett's big break would come in the late '80s with an appearance on The Wonder Years, though it was his Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated performance in the popular television drama Northern Exposure (1990-1995) that endeared him to audiences and officially commenced his career in the public eye. As the free-thinking intellectual disc jockey who finds himself settled in the quirky town of Cicely, AK, Corbett settled into a role that would gain him a considerable fan base. Roles in numerous television productions followed, and Corbett's appearances in such features as Tombstone (1993) and Volcano (1997) found him successfully developing as an actor while maintaining his unique and likeable presence in front of the cameras. His role as Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest on the breakout HBO hit series Sex and the City found audiences sympathizing with the marriage-minded but lovelorn character, and after a role as a new age musician in the romantic comedy Serendipity, Corbett finally tied the knot in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Shot on a miniscule budget but becoming a massive success in the weeks following its release, My Big Fat Greek Wedding delivered Corbett's small-screen promise to the big screen with effectively side-splitting results and paved the way for a successful feature career. He had another brief TV run as a gambler in the cable series Lucky in 2003. In 2004 he appeared in the Kate Hudson romcom Raising Helen. Though he continued to work steadily in film, he returned to TV in order to be in The United States of Tara on HBO. He appeared in Sex and the City 2 and played the father in Ramona and Beezus in 2010.

Trivia: Best known as Steve, the boyishly charming nice-guy bartender (and the perfect complement to his onscreen romantic partner, snappish Miranda Hobbes) in HBO's blockbuster original series Sex and the City, the slightly diminutive, raven-haired American character actor David Eigenberg was born in Manhasset, NY, on May 17, 1964. As the only boy in a family of six children, Eigenberg moved with his parents and sisters at age four to Naperville, IL, a farming community just outside of the Windy City -- where he remained through the end of adolescence. Eigenberg reportedly struggled as a student, barely scraping by; a handful of run-ins with the law and minor recreational drug abuse allegedly ensued. Eigenberg did graduate from Naperville High School in 1982, however, and was promptly accepted to the University of Iowa, where he planned to study social work. For better or worse, this was not to be, for the Chicagoan ripped his dormitory apart during the first semester and was promptly booted out of the university after five weeks.A stint in the Marines and various construction jobs followed, instilling in Eigenberg healthy amounts of much-needed self-discipline and a sharply honed work ethic. These skills paved the way for Eigenberg's true calling: acting. A love of the dramatic arts had already taken root for the thespian when -- at age 12 -- he had signed on to play a key role in a local production of Kurt Vonnegut's Happy Birthday, Wanda June, and received an outstanding review from a local critic. These fond memories doubtless came flooding back when an adult Eigenberg auditioned -- and was selected for -- a large part in the Dennis Rosa-directed Chicago stage musical One Shining Moment, opposite Megan Mullally and Alan Ruck. Dissatisfied with a mere taste of the theatrical arts and eager to extend acting into a full-time passion, Eigenberg subsequently moved to New York and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, working odd jobs on the side (construction et al.) to put himself through school.Scattered roles followed, including a guest appearance on The Cosby Show and a bit part in the awful 1989 generation-gap comedy Rude Awakening (co-starring Cheech Marin and Eric Roberts), but Sex and the City (which Eigenberg auditioned for out of innumerable hopefuls) represented the actor's first huge break. He reportedly auditioned for a small part, and though the show's producers did not deem him right for the characterization, they felt so impressed by Eigenberg's presence that they created the character of Steve Brady especially for him, as an extension of his own personality; the plan, again, was to create a sincere, committed, down-to-earth male paramour to offset Miranda's (Cynthia Nixon) cynicism.Though initially intended as a temporary part, the popularity of the character among viewers (and Eigenberg's onscreen chemistry with Nixon) led to Eigenberg's permanent inclusion on the show, as well as subsuquent movies.Circa 2002, Eigenberg expanded into film roles by playing the business partner of Richard Gere in Mark Pellington's underrated supernatural thriller The Mothman Prophecies. When Eigenberg's Sex and the City run ended with the wrap-up of that series (at the end of the 2003-2004 season), he continued his cinematic work, first voicing Nermal the Cat in the FX-extravaganza Garfield: The Movie, then playing Reggie, the lover of Alicia Goranson's Myra, in Adrienne Weiss' quirky indie romantic comedy Love, Ludlow. Eigenberg returned to the same genre amid a cast of unknowns with the 2007 film The Trouble with Romance, directed by Gene Rhee. He reprised his role in the Sex and the City movie in 2008 and the sequel in 2010. In 2012, he joined the cast of NBC's Chicago Fire, playing a firefighter in the Windy City.

Trivia: Born in Maringa, Brazil, Sonia Braga acted on the stage as a teenager. She quickly rose to stardom on Brazilian soap operas during the '60s, but it was not until Bruno Barreto's Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1977) that she gained international screen stardom. She played the title character, a remarried widow who is prone to erotic visits from her first husband's ghost. She worked with Barreto again for the 1983 erotic drama Gabriela, based on one of her TV roles.Her first mainstream Hollywood movie was Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), in the dual role of the mythical title character herself and the woman of Raul Julia's past. She then appeared with Julia in her next few films, including Paul Mazursky's Moon Over Parador (earning her a Golden Globe nomination), Clint Eastwood's The Rookie, and John Frankenheimer's The Burning Season (earning her an Emmy nomination). She hasn't always played a sexpot, however; she was firey garage owner Ruby in Robert Redford's The Milagro Beanfield War as well as the math teacher known as "the Dragon Lady" on The Cosby Show. After living in the U.S. for some time, she returned to Brazil in 1996 to star in the romantic comedy Tieta of Agreste, which she also co-produced. The role of Tieta was a self-reflexive one, that of a mature beautiful woman returning to Brazil after several years away. In the late '90s, she worked on the miniseries Streets of Laredo, A Will of Their Own, and Four Corners. In 2001 she joined the cast of Gregory Nava's PBS series American Family as matriarch Berta. She can also be seen as Jennifer Lopez's mother in Angel Eyes and as Kim Cattrall's lover Maria on Sex and the City.

Trivia: Frances Sternhagen was still in her teens when she made her first professional stage appearance as the thirtyish Laura in a 1948 summer-stock production of The Glass Menagerie. After graduating from Vassar with a BA degree in drama, Frances attended the Perry-Mansfield School of the Theatre and New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. She briefly worked as a teacher at Massachussett's Milton Academy before her off-Broadway debut as Juliette in Girardoux' Thieves' Carnival--one of the last times that this dynamic character actress would ever portray a flighty ingenue. She went on to spend several seasons at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Back in New York, Sternhagen won two Obie Awards for her performances in Admirable Bashville and The New Pinter Plays, and in 1973 received the Tony Award for her multiple characterizations in Neil Simon's Good Doctor 1973. She followed this personal triumph by creating two of her all-time favorite stage roles: Dora in Equus (1974) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond (1979). Launching her film career in 1967, Sternhagen has been seen in an exhausting variety of movie roles; among the best of these was no-nonsense Dr. Marion Lazarus in Outland (1982), matching wits and witticisms with outer-space peacekeeper Sean Connery. On television, Frances Sternhagen enjoyed sizable roles on such daytime dramas as Love of Life, One Life to Live, Secret Storm, and was seen on a regular basis in the prime-time series Spencer (1985, as Millie Sprague), Stephen King's the Golden Years (1991, as Gina Williams) and The Road Home (1994, as Charlotte Babineaux).