Trivia: The son of a Brooklyn policeman who died when he was eight, African-American comedy superstar Eddie Murphy was raised in the comfortable middle-class community of Hempstead, NY, by his mother and stepfather. A natural-born class clown, he was voted the most popular student at Roosevelt Junior and Senior High. By the age of 15, he was doing standup gigs at 25 to 50 dollars a pop, and within a few years he was headlining on the comedy-club circuit.Murphy was 19 he was when hired as one of the backup performers on the NBC comedy weekly Saturday Night Live. His unique blend of youthful arrogance, sharkish good cheer, underlying rage, and street-smart versatility transformed the comedian into SNL's prime attraction, and soon the country was reverberating with imitations of such choice Murphy characterizations as sourball celebrity Gumby, inner-city kiddie host Mr. Robinson, prison poet Tyrone Green, and the Little Rascals' Buckwheat. Just when it seemed that he couldn't get any more popular, Murphy was hastily added to the cast of Walter Hill's 1982 comedy/melodrama feature film 48 Hours, and voila, an eight-million-dollars-per-picture movie star was born. The actor followed this cinematic triumph with John Landis' Trading Places, a Prince and the Pauper update released during the summer of 1983, the same year that the standup album Eddie Murphy, Comedian won a Grammy. In 1984, he finally had the chance to carry a picture himself: Beverly Hills Cop, one of the most successful pictures of the decade. Proving that at this juncture Murphy could do no wrong, his next starring vehicle, The Golden Child (1986), made a fortune at the box office, despite the fact that the picture itself was less than perfect. After Beverly Hills Cop 2 and his live standup video Eddie Murphy Raw (both 1987), Murphy's popularity and career seemed to be in decline, though his staunchest fans refused to desert him. His esteem rose in the eyes of many with his next project, Coming to America (1987), a reunion with John Landis that allowed him to play an abundance of characters -- some of which he essayed so well that he was utterly unrecognizable. Murphy bowed as a director, producer, and screenwriter with Harlem Nights (1989), a farce about 1930s black gangsters which had an incredible cast (including Murphy, Richard Pryor, Della Reese, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Jasmine Guy, and Arsenio Hall), but was somewhat destroyed by Murphy's lazy, expletive-ridden script and clichéd plot that felt recycled from Damon Runyon stories. Churned out for Paramount, the picture did hefty box office (in the 60-million-dollar range) despite devastating reviews and reports of audience walkouts. Murphy's box-office triumphs continued into the '90s with a seemingly endless string of blockbusters, such as the Reginald Hudlin-directed political satire The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), that same year's "player" comedy Boomerang, and the Landis-directed Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). After an onscreen absence of two years following Cop, Murphy reemerged with a 1996 remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor. As directed by Tom Shadyac and produced by the do-no-wrong Brian Grazer, the picture casts Murphy as Dr. Sherman Klump, an obese, klutzy scientist who transforms himself into Buddy Love, a self-obsessed narcissist and a hit with women. As an added surprise, Murphy doubles up his roles as Sherman and Buddy by playing each member of the Klump family (beneath piles and piles of latex). The Nutty Professor grossed dollar one and topped all of Murphy's prior efforts, earning well up into the hundreds of millions and pointing the actor in a more family-friendly direction. His next couple of features, Dr. Dolittle and the animated Mulan (both 1998), were children-oriented affairs, although in 1999 he returned to more mature material with the comedies Life (which he also produced) and Bowfinger; and The PJs, a fairly bawdy claymation sitcom about life in South Central L.A.Moving into the new millennium, Murphy resurrected Sherman Klump and his brood of misfits with the sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) before moving on to yet another sequel in 2001, the decidedly more family-oriented Dr. Dolittle 2. That same year, sharp-eared audiences were served up abundant laughs by Murphy's turn as a donkey in the animated fairy tale spoof Shrek. Nearly stealing the show from comic powerhouse co-star Mike Myers, children delighted at Murphy's portrayal of the put-upon sidekick of the kindhearted ogre and Murphy was subsequently signed for a sequel that would go into pre-production in early 2003. After bottoming out with the subsequent sci-fi comedy flop The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Murphy stepped into Bill Cosby's old shoes for the mediocre big-screen adaptation of I Spy. With the exception of a return to donkeydom in the 2004 mega-hit Shrek 2, Murphy stuck with hapless father roles during the first several years of the new millennium, Daddy Day Care being the most prominent example, with Disney's The Haunted Mansion following closely behind.In December 2006, however, he emerged with a substantial part in Dreamgirls, writer/director Bill Condon's star-studded adaptation of the hit 1981 Broadway musical about a Supremes-esque ensemble's ascent to the top. Murphy plays James Thunder Early, an R&B vocal sensation for whom the titular divas are hired to sing backup. Variety's David Rooney proclaimed, "Murphy...is a revelation. Mixing up James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson, and some of his own wiseass personae, his Jimmy leaps off the screen both in his scorching numbers (his proto-rap is a killer) and dialogue scenes. It's his best screen work." A variety of critics groups and peers agreed with that assessment, landing Murphy a number of accolades including a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Around the same time, Murphy wrapped production on director Brian Roberts' Norbit. In that picture, the actor/comedian retreads his Nutty Professor work with a dual turn as Norbit, an insecure, backward geek, and Norbit's monstrous wife, an oppressive, domineering loudmouth. The story has the unhappy couple faced with the possible end of their marriage when Norbit meets his dream-girl (Thandie Newton). Never one to stray too far from familiar territoryMurphy next reteamed with the vocal cast of Shrek yet again for the next installment in the series, Shrek the Third.Over the coming years, Murphy would appear in a handful of comedies like Meet Dave, Imagine That, and Tower Heist. In 2011, he was announced as the host of 2012 Academy Awards, with Brett Ratner (his Tower Heist director) producing the show, but Murphy dropped out after Ratner resigned. In 2013, a fourth Beverly Hills Cop was announced, but the film was pulled from Paramount's schedule after pre-production issues.

Trivia: Of the many siblings of mega-star Michael Jackson, Michael's youngest sister Janet is one of the few with enough genuine talent to succeed without her family ties. Jackson's fame rests largely on her successful, elaborately produced music videos, wherein the talented singer and dancer projects a more accessible, realistic image than her otherworldly brother. She is also a skilled and agreeable actress, as witness her series-TV stints on Good Times (1977-78), Diff'rent Strokes (1981-82) and Fame (1984). In 1993, Janet Jackson made her movie debut as a South Central L.A. beautician in director John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993); the film was no classic, but Janet dominated every scene she was in, even those shared with notorious rap artist Tupac Shakur.

Trivia: A capable comic actor whose regular-guy looks and sharp wit have made him a popular character performer in both movies and television, Larry Miller was born on October 15, 1953 on Long Island, NY. Miller grew up with a keen interest in music, and graduated with honors from Amherst College, receiving a degree in music. Hoping to make a career as a musician, Miller moved to New York City and began playing the nightclub circuit as a pianist and drummer. Working the clubs inspired Miller to take a stab at comedy, and he began performing occasional sets at comedy clubs such as the Comic Strip and Catch a Rising Star. Within two years, Miller had put his musical career on the back burner and was touring full-time as a comic. Miller made his film debut in 1978 in the film Take Down, but it would be several more years before Miller found himself before the camera again; as his career as a standup comic rose, Miller began landing occasional television guest shots and bit parts in films, as well as appearing on several cable television specials devoted to comedians. But it was Miller's appearance in the 1990 film Pretty Woman that kick-started his screen career; playing an arrogant but all-too-eager-to-please salesman, Miller's brief moment in the film earned big laughs, and he soon became a frequent presence in movies and television. Miller was a regular on the TV series The Pursuit of Happiness, Life's Work, and Michael Hayes -- all three of which only lasted a season -- and played recurring roles on Mad About You, Dream On, DAG, and My Wife and Kids. Miller also made a surprising appearance in a dramatic role on Law & Order, in which he played a man accused of murder. Miller played a number of showy supporting roles in theatrical films, including Waiting for Guffman, The Minus Man, The Nutty Professor, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. His comedy chops only gaining more bite with the passing years, Miller would find only increasing success when he appeared on such small screen hits as Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal in the mid-00s. Of course Miller was still very much a feature man, with roles in the underseen sleeper Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Any Bully providing plenty of room for the comic talent to shine. When not busy with his acting career, Miller still performs as a standup comic, and writes a humor column for The Daily Standard.

Trivia: Salt-and-pepper-haired, frequently mustachioed African-American character player Richard Gant tackled supporting roles in a plethora of Hollywood A-list features during the 1980s and '90s. Among other efforts, his resumé from that period includes Suspect (1987), Rocky V (1990), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), and CB4: The Movie (1993). Gant continued his big-screen roles through the tail end of that decade and well into the 2000s, but also achieved substantial recognition and audience identification on the small screen, with a regular role as Sgt. Bill Dornan on Steven Bochco's hit cop drama NYPD Blue. Gant later appeared memorably as the livery stable owner Hostetler on the HBO Western drama Deadwood, and joined the cast of long-running soap opera General Hospital as Dr. Russell Ford in 2007.

Trivia: Black supporting actress, onscreen from the late '70s.

Trivia: Was born in Cyprus, but grew up in Massachusetts. Got an early acting start in the Boston Children's Theatre. Attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. First TV appearance was a guest role in the 1988 British police drama Rockliffe's Babies. She also had roles in The X-Files (as Scully's sister) and The Commish. Is best known for recurring roles in Desperate Housewives, The West Wing and, memorably, as an edgy, cynical and manipulative wife of a comic on the acclaimed drama Mad Men. Is certified in stage combat by the British Society of Fight Directors. Plays the saxophone. Played Commissioner Gordon's wife in the hit film The Dark Knight in 2008. (Nathan Gamble played her son in the film, and was again cast as her son in the short-lived 2009 sitcom Hank.) In 2009, wrote an essay about the premature birth of her daughter for the book Note to Self: 30 Women on Hardship, Humiliation, Heartbreak, and Overcoming It All.

Trivia: Chris Elliott may have been born with a funny spoon in his mouth -- he's the son of Bob Elliott, the more deadpan half of the famous comedy duo Bob and Ray -- but he's developed his own offbeat brand of humor and gained his own substantial cult following. Elliott began his show business career as a standup comic, but he first gained public attention as a writer and performer on Late Night With David Letterman, helping that show define a new age of ironic comedy, and winning two Emmys as part of Letterman's writing team. Elliott played the sarcastic firebrand to Letterman's perturbable Midwestern reserve. He starred in sketches as the Panicky Guy, the Fugitive Guy, and the Guy Under the Seats, a character who lived in a cramped passageway underneath the audience, and would occasionally interrupt the show to chat with Letterman. As a result of Elliott's growing popularity on Late Night, his acting career took off. Or, to be more precise, he got bit parts in Michael Mann's Manhunter, James Cameron's The Abyss, and the Francis Ford Coppola segment of New York Stories. Elliott also went on to star in two hilarious, but little-seen half-hour comedy shows for Cinemax. FDR -- A One Man Show featured Elliott playing Chris Elliott, a pompous egomaniacal actor portraying FDR in a one-man show of tremendous historical inaccuracy, while Action Family economically combined satire of TV police dramas with a satire of a typical living room family sitcom. Around this time, Elliott published a Mommy Dearest-style mock exposé about his childhood, Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life With a Famous Father, which featured chapter-by-chapter rebuttals from his father, Bob, and a foreword by David Letterman.In 1990, Elliott, with help from talented collaborators like David Mirkin, Bob Odenkirk, and Adam Resnick, starred in a bizarrely funny sitcom, Get a Life. The character Elliott played, Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old paperboy, was not a far cry from his previous television personae. Peterson was a dimwitted, balding, doughy, sarcastic, celebrity-worshipping dolt, with a hilariously high degree of self-regard. He was an utter failure who somehow convinced himself he was doing great. Bob Elliott played Chris Peterson's father on the show. The mucky mucks at the fledgling Fox network didn't understand the show, and were hoping Peterson would be cuddlier. Elliott would later remember a network exec optimistically comparing the character to "Tom Hanks in Big." The show had disastrous ratings. Despite support from savvier TV critics, Fox gave up on the show quickly, and canceled Get a Life after two seasons. The show had gained a passionate cult following and some episodes were eventually released on DVD and syndicated briefly on the USA Network. Get a Life was later recognized for its influence on other, more successful programs, including The Simpsons and South Park.Elliott also had key supporting roles in the smash hit Groundhog Day, opposite Bill Murray, and in the unsuccessful rap mockumentary CB4 with Chris Rock. In 1994, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. Despite the addition of other talented comic actors (Randy Quaid, Michael McKean, and Janeane Garofalo), it was a dismal season, and Elliott was put off by the lack of collaborative spirit among some of the long-term cast members. He moved on after one season.This was also the period of Elliott's greatest professional disappointment -- the failure of the feature film he co-wrote and starred in, Cabin Boy. His frequent collaborator Adam Resnick co-wrote the film, and, at the urging of producer Tim Burton, also directed it. Letterman makes a brief, but very funny cameo appearance. The film has developed a small cult following, particularly among devotees of Get a Life, but it was a box-office flop. While the filmmakers themselves have acknowledged that Cabin Boy fell short of their expectations, Elliott was stung by the viciousness of the reviews. Elliott went through a creative dry spell after this, appearing in a recurring role in the Tea Leoni sitcom Flying Blind, and gaining more national visibility as a spokesman for Tostitos snack chips. He also continued making guest appearances on a variety of sitcoms. Since then, Elliott has appeared in supporting roles in a number of silly comedies (Snow Day, sequels to The Nutty Professor, and Scary Movie) and has developed a fruitful relationship with the Farrelly brothers, appearing in Kingpin, Osmosis Jones, and, most notably, in their smash hit, There's Something About Mary. He was also heard as the voice of Dogbert on the short-lived animated series, Dilbert, and he was a regular on the appropriately named, ill-fated Steven Weber series, Cursed.

Trivia: A character actor with a deadpan delivery, Earl Boen is known to many for the role of psychiatrist Peter Silberman in Terminator, a role he reprised for the hit sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day, as well as for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. A veteran of TV, film, and stage, Boen spent decades racking up a résumé packed with literally hundreds of appearances beginning in the early '70s. Many of Boen's credits came in the form of single-episode guest appearances on TV shows like The Paper Chase and M*A*S*H, while others took the form of recurring roles, like that of adman Jim Petersen on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, a role Boen would reprise for five episodes between 1984 and 1986. Boen also worked extensively in animation, lending his voice to cartoons like Justice League, Kim Possible, and Pirates of Dark Water, as well as many video games, such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and EverQuest.

Trivia: Nikki Cox's show-business career started rolling when she was just four years old. It was at this young age that she began to demonstrate the coordination and creativity that made her parents enroll her in dance classes, and it was five years later that a talent scout spotted her in one of those very classes. She was soon cast as a dancer in Moonwalker, and as Ryan White's sister in The Ryan White Story. Cox grew and matured into a very attractive woman, so she had no trouble snagging roles as she came into adulthood. She had a recurring role on The Norm Show before starring in her own sitcom, Nikki. The series lasted two seasons and when it finished its run in 2002, she snatched up a part in what would be a very popular show the very next year. Joining the cast of the hit series Las Vegas, Cox became a permanent cast member of the show, Once Las Vegas wrapped up, Cox slowed her acting career, using her off time to play Bambi in the mystery-comedy Lonely Street in 2009 and the occasional TV guest spot.

Trivia: A quick-witted comedien who has transcended the comedy scene to become one of the funniest comics to hit the stage in some time, Wanda Sykes' unique blend of stinging humor and outspoken honesty has found her moving beyond a career in standup thanks to notable success in film and television. With an Emmy under her belt indicating a bright and enduring career in the years ahead, Sykes has shown a versatility that has gained her increasing attention on such acclaimed HBO series' as The Chris Rock Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Born in Portsmouth, VA, and raised in Maryland, Sykes rounded out her education by receiving her B.S. in marketing at Hampton University. It was around this time that an impromptu performance at Washington D.C.'s Super Talent Showcase sparked an interest in standup comedy, and in the years that followed, the rising starlet would continue to hone her skills on-stage. In 1997, Sykes kicked off her small-screen career as a writer for both The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show and The Chris Rock Show, with the latter offering additional exposure by giving the comedien a place in front of the camera as well as behind. A supporting role in Louis C.K.'s 1998 feature Tomorrow Night was quick to follow, and a 1998 part in the HBO special Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm found Sykes in a scene-stealing performance as David's wife's best friend. By this time, Sykes' feature career was beginning to gain momentum, and after commendable supporting performances in The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and Down to Earth, she delivered a winning performance in the little-seen C.K. comedy Pootie Tang. Though her next foray into television on the short-lived The Downer Channel proved almost as abysmal as Pootie Tang's box-office returns, Sykes endured to lend her voice to the hit Comedy Central series Crank Yankers and host the pay-cable channel's popular standup comic series Premium Blend. The following year seemed to find Sykes at her peak as she landed her own sitcom, Wanda at Large, and her first standup special, Wanda Sykes: Tongue Untied, and served as a field correspondent for HBO's Inside the NFL. Though Wanda at Large premiered to impressive ratings early in the year, the show was moved from Wednesday to Friday nights for its second season and died a quick death in the difficult time slot. Hardly deterred by the end of that sitcom, Sykes appeared in the hit comedy Monster-In-Law offering up zingers at Jane Fonda in her comeback film, and appearing in the Ivan Reitman comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Considering that withering sarcasm comes easily to Sykes, it is little surprise that she has worked on a variety of animated films including Over the Hedge and Barnyard.She had a bit part in Clerk II, and in 2008 she was cast in the hit sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. She had her own cable series, The Wanda Sykes Show, for a brief period, and continued to work steadily in animated projects like Rio and Ice Age: Continental Drift.

Trivia: Towering American character actor Charles Napier has the distinction of being one of the few actors to transcend a career start in "nudies" and sustain a successful mainstream career. Napier, clothed and otherwise, was first seen in such Russ Meyer gropey-feeley epics as Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1969) and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Graduating from this exuberant tawdriness, Napier became a dependable film and TV villain, playing nasty characters in films like Handle With Care (1977) and Rambo (1984). Napier would continue to become an ever more familiar face throughout the 80's and 90's, with roles in movies like The Blues Brothers (1980), Married to the Mob (1990), Ernest Goes to Jail (1991) and the-Oscar winning Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia (1994), The Cable Guy (1996), and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) - just to name a few. He would also remain active in the realm of TV, appearing on shows like Walker, Texas Ranger and Roswell. The new millennium would find Napier playing roles on shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as well as lending his voice to animated shows like The Simpsons, Squidbillies, and Archer. Napier passed away in October of 2011 at the age of 75.

Trivia: An individual who ultimately clocked in as one of Hollywood's mainstays for helming male-dominated farces (and demonstrated an adroit hand for working with A-list stars), Peter Segal graduated from the University of Southern California. He forged his first significant professional association with Tom Arnold, for whom he wrote a series of acclaimed specials and worked as a writer on the comic's sitcom The Jackie Thomas Show (1992-1993) during the early '90s. Segal first bowed as a director on the schtick-fest The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), and thereafter, moved almost exclusively into feature territory with his heaviest emphasis on slapstick. Projects included the Chris Farley yuckfest Tommy Boy (1995), the Dan Aykroyd-Jack Lemmon presidential comedy My Fellow Americans (1996), and the Eddie Murphy vehicle The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000). Shortly thereafter, Segal began a longstanding, multi-film association with comedic actor Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison production banner, for which he turned out Anger Management (2003), 50 First Dates (2004), and The Longest Yard (2005) -- all starring Sandler. Two years after Yard, Village Roadshow tapped Segal to helm the spy comedy Get Smart, starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway -- a cinematization of Mel Brooks' 1960s sitcom of the same title.

Trivia: Was born abroad because her parents were missionaries. Was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Started out as a teacher in Compton, CA, before becoming an actor. Owns a production company called Kwick Whit Productions. Regularly performs stand-up comedy in and around Los Angeles.