Trivia: Born in Connecticut, John Ratzenberger spent most of his early adulthood in England and Europe. After a brief stint as assistant to a London tree surgeon, Ratzenberger helped organize the English improvisational troupe "Sal's Meat Market" in 1971. He made his first screen appearances in such British-based productions as The Ritz (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Superman (1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Gandhi (1982). In 1982, Ratzenberger read for the part of post-office employee Norm on the upcoming American TV sitcom Cheers. Sensing that he hadn't won the role (which was true), Ratzenberger asked if the cast of Cheers included the character of "a bar know-it-all." Suddenly he launched into an impromptu ten-minute monologue, posing as an endlessly chattering repository of useless information. Then and there, the character of Cliff Clavin was born--a character Ratzenberger played for the next ten years. A man of many talents, Ratzenberger directed several Cheers episodes, and also co-wrote two British television plays Friends in Space (1978) and Scalped (1979). Tirelessly active in the pro-ecology movement, John Ratzenberger was owner and operator of Eco-Pak, a conservation-conscious packaging firm. Since the demise of Cheers, the actor has resurrected Cliff Clavin in the form of an advertising pitchman and has appeared in many commercials. He has also found success doing voice overs for advertising and voicework in films such as Toy Story (1995) and Dog's Best Friend (1997). Ratzenberger continued to make occasional guest appearances on television series such as Caroline in the City.He maintained a relationship with Pixar after Toy Story and went on to lend his distinctive voice to each of their films through Cars 2 in 2011. He returned to TV to appear in the fourth season of the reality competition series Dancing With the Stars.

Trivia: One of the most prominent creative forces in the Pixar-led animation renaissance that swept through Hollywood in the 1990s and early- to mid-2000s, Pete Docter first gravitated to animation at the age of eight by creating his own animated flip-books. That experience gave the blossoming artist a deep-seated love of illustration, and he received a formal education in that arena by attending the character animation college program at Valencia-based CalArts. Docter excelled in that venue and attracted attention for his widely praised student shorts, including Next Door (for which he won the student equivalent of an Academy Award), then after graduation went to work for Pixar, becoming the company's third animator. He served as animator and screenwriter on 1995's Toy Story, served as storyboard artist on the 1998 A Bug's Life, and authored the screen story for the 1999 Toy Story 2, before authoring the story and co-directing the 2001 Monsters, Inc.. In 2009, Docter directed the Pixar feature Up, which earned him a Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and a win in the Best Animated Feature category. The film itself became the first to be nominated in the same year for Best Animated Feature and Best Picture. He served as an executive producer on Monsters University in 2013, but returned to the director's chair two years later with Inside Out. The film was nearly universally praised and nabbed Docter another pair of Oscar noms, again for Original Screenplay and Animated Feature, and he once again won the latter. In addition to his animation work for Pixar and other studios, Docter did a series of animated advertisements for brands and products, including LifeSavers and Tropicana Fruit Juice.