Trivia: South Carolina-born African American comedian Chris Rock grew up in Brooklyn and projected a marked aptitude for comedy early in life. Rock traveled the New York club circuit during his adolescence, so aggressively and persistently that he established himself as a seasoned veteran by his late teens. He happened to be performing at the New York Comedy Strip c. 1984, when his break arrived in the form of an audience visit by one Eddie Murphy. Deeply impressed with the then eighteen-year-old rising star, Murphy cast him in his forthcoming Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), as a parking valet. It hardly constituted a breakout performance, but the role and newfound connection with Eddie Murphy helped Rock land a couple of small supporting roles, and eventually a spot on NBC's hallowed Saturday Night Live, from 1990-93. During his SNL stint, Rock also periodically guest-starred in fellow comedian Keenan Ivory Wayans' African American sketch comedy series In Living Color. In 1991, Rock broke from comedy in favor of a more dramatic role, and his performance as a surprisingly innocent crack addict-cum-informant in Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City attracted a substantial amount of favorable attention; Roger Ebert praised Rock as "effortlessly authentic and convincing."One could argue with some foundation that the role in New Jack City is indicative of Rock's driving force (i.e., the politics of modern society and race within the contextual framework of American culture). Although Rock employs comedic delivery, many of his favorite topics are quite grave, and Rock's ability to confront these issues, cloaked in ribald humor, helped launch his career during the late '90s. While his 1993 screenwriting debut, on Tamra Davis's CB4: The Movie, received lukewarm reviews at best, Rock established himself as a household name after his scathing HBO comedy special Bring the Pain (1996) earned him two Emmy awards and a significantly larger fan base. The same year, he received a third Emmy for his work as a writer and correspondent for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Then, in 1997, the successes of Rock's stand-up, his contributions to Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, his film roleass, and his work on Bring the Pain collectively inspired HBO to sign Rock for a sketch comedy series, The Chris Rock Show, that ran from 1997 to 2000. The program borrowed the formats of Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, yet it upped the vulgarity, volatility, and presence of hot-button contemporary issues - in addition to the intelligence. In addition to Rock, the program featured a cast of up-and-coming African American comics, such as Wanda Sykes and Mario Joyner. The program ran to sensational reviews. Rock's film career expanded throughout the late '90s, and the young comic won particular notice for his role as a hot-headed law enforcement agent in 1998's Lethal Weapon 4 opposite Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, and later for Kevin Smith's irreverent Dogma(1999), as a bitter apostle of Jesus. He also published a book titled Rock This! with much success. Though Dogma received mixed reviews, in 1999 Rock mounted his second HBO comedy special, Bigger & Blacker, which found the comedian addressing topics from gun control to Bill Clinton and proper parenting techniques. In late 2000, Rock played an obnoxious hitman equipped with an incredibly inventive string of obscenities in Neil La Bute's controversial black comedy Nurse Betty, alongside Renee Zellweger and Morgan Freeman.In 2001, Rock put his screenwriting abilities to the test in Down to Earth, a remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, and again in Pootie Tang, a feature spin-off of one of the characters from The Chris Rock Show. In 2001, Rock voiced one of the characters in Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and another in Osmosis Jones, and rejoined Kevin Smith for a cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. In 2002, Rock was one of several comedians featured in Christian Charles' documentary Comedian, and in the same year starred opposite Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins as a CIA spy in the Joel Schumacher-directed action comedy dud Bad Company. Rock then directed, co-wrote and starred in 2003's Head of State as an unlikely presidential candidate for the Democratic party.Head of State divided critics; most felt nonplussed, or espoused mixed feelings, such as The Los Angeles Times's Manohla Dargis, who mused, " Rock can't set up a decent-looking shot, and… doesn't care about niceties such as character development… but…nonetheless wrings biting humor from serious issues with the… ferocity [of]… Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce." After Head, Rock's big screen activity diminished just a bit; he voiced Marty the Zebra in the CG-animated, family-oriented features Madagascar (2005) and Madagascar 2 (2008), but his most frequent turn during this period arrived in the form of a new semiautobiographical sitcom on UPN, Everybody Hates Chris, that debuted in September 2005. As written and produced by Rock, it cast Tyler James Williams as a younger version of the comedian, during the early '80s, who lives in the steel-tough area of Bedford-Stuyvesant and is bused, each day, to a school full of Italian Americans. As narrated by Rock, this sweet, gentle, nostalgic and witty program caught everyone off guard and drew outstanding ratings during late 2005 "TV Sweeps"; New York Times correspondent Alessandra Stanley was certainly not alone when she praised it as "charming" and compared it favorably to The Cosby Show - high praise, indeed.In 2007, Rock returned to cinemas, posing a quadruple threat (writer/producer/ director/star) with the adults-only sex comedy I Think I Love My Wife. In that picture (a remake of Eric Rohmer's Chloe in the Afternoon!) Rock plays Richard Cooper, a suburban investment banker saddled with a wife and two kids, who finds it increasingly difficult to avoid delving into a rich world of sexual fantasies, and then to avoid an imminent affair with a gorgeous "old friend" (Kerry Washington) seeking career advice. I Think I Love My Wife took its stateside bow in mid-March 2007, to reviews as mixed as anything in Rock's prior career; most critics either loved or hated it; a few responded ambivalently. Rock took on a supporting role in 2012's What to Expect When You're Expecting, and voiced the character of Marty the Zebra in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted the same year. He resprised his role in Grown Ups 2 in 2013. In 2014, he wrote, directed and starred in Top Five.

Trivia: Known for both her blonde, ethereal beauty and her considerable talent, Julie Delpy is one of the most popular French actresses of her generation. Born to show business parents in Paris on December 21, 1969, Delpy was discovered at age 14 by director Jean-Luc Godard, who cast her in his 1985 Détective. The young actress had her first starring role two years later as the title character in Bertrand Tavernier's La Passion Béatrice, and then gained worldwide prominence with her portrayal of a young pro-Nazi eager to produce babies for the Fuhrer in Agneiszka Holland's Europa, Europa (1991).Subsequent efforts to make Delpy a mainstream Hollywood actress in such films as The Three Musketeers (1993) were largely resisted by Delpy herself, who demonstrated a preference for appearing in the small, thought-provoking films best appreciated at cinema festivals. She made some of her more memorable appearances in Killing Zoe (1994), which cast her as a kind-hearted prostitute; Krzysztof Kieslowski 's Trois Couleurs: Blanc (1994), in which she played a young woman who divorces her hairdresser husband because of his impotency; and Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise (1995), in which she gave an excessively charming portrayal of a woman who has a 24-hour romance with a young American (Ethan Hawke) she meets on a train.Delpy continued to be most visible in small, quirky films, as evidenced by her roles in L.A. Without a Map (1998), and But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), the latter of which -- a comedy about a rehab house for gay and lesbian teens -- cast her as a lipstick lesbian. In addition to the steady stream of parts in little-seen independent films, Delpy took on a recurring role on the hit NBC medical drama ER in 2001.In 2004, Delpy reteamed with Linklater and Hawke for the sequel Before Sunset, a film the three are also credited with writing together.In 2007 she wrote, directed, edited, and starred in the romantic comedy 2 Days in Paris opposite fellow Richard Linklater alum Adam Goldberg. She followed that directorial effort with The Countess in 2009 and 2 Days in New York in 2011. That same year, rumors swirled of a possible sequel to Before Sunset.

Trivia: Born to a pair of lawyers in Syracuse, NY, and raised in nearby Lynchburg, Dylan Baker attended Georgetown Prep and William and Mary College before earning his B.F.A. at Southern Methodist University, where his passion for acting was ignited with numerous stage roles. Later refining his talents at Yale's School of Drama, Baker would turn professional with big screen roles in movies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Delirious (1991), and Love Potion No. 9 (1992). The mid-'90s found the increasingly busy actor dividing his time between stage, screen, and television, and Baker would soon wed actress Becky Ann Baker (the couple later appeared together in Woody Allen's Celebrity [1998]). A successful stage performance of La Bete found Baker nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards, and Baker and his wife continued to develop a close association with New York's Drama Department theater troupe. Following his remarkable performance in Happiness, Baker would appear in films such as Random Hearts, The Cell, and Thirteen Days (all 2000). As the 2000's unfolded, Baker would remain an active force on screen, appearing in movies like The Tailor of Panama, and Along Came a Spider, and on TV shows like 24, Damages, and Hawaii Five-O.

Trivia: Retained her British citizenship after her family moved to Manhattan, but considers herself to be an American actress. Made her silver-screen debut in 1969 in Anne of the Thousand Days, which starred her famous father, Richard. Was nominated for two Tony Awards in 2002 for her work in Hedda Gabler and The Elephant Man. Received an honorary doctorate from Brown University, her alma mater, in 2007. Portrayed all of the adult female roles in the 2008 hit Broadway show Spring Awakening. Narrated audio books for novels written by Patricia Cornwell, Lisa Scottoline, Iris Johansen and Dean Koontz.

Trivia: Actress Malinda Williams launched her career with scattered guest appearances on The Cosby Show and NYPD Blue, but branched out into big-screen roles in the mid-'90s. At an early stage, Williams vocally and pointedly expressed an interest in seeking out parts for African-American women characterized by their accuracy, incisiveness, and realism -- a desire that would shape and hone many of her subsequent project choices. She took two of her earliest big-screen bows in 1996 -- with small supporting roles in the Jon Lovitz laugher High School High and the Martin Lawrence sex comedy A Thin Line Between Love and Hate -- then appeared in such films as The Wood (1999), Idlewild (2006), and Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls (2007). Williams next signed for a pivotal supporting role in the crime comedy First Sunday (2008), about a couple of criminals who take hostage a bunch of church members.

Trivia: Born in Spain to a Catalan mother and Brazilian-born German father, and was subsequently raised in Germany and spent summers in Spain. Got his start on the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe in 1995. Speaks several languages; in Joyeux Noël, he speaks German, French and English. Owns a Spanish tapas bar, Bar Raval, in Berlin.