Trivia: Actor, producer, writer, and director Vin Diesel had a charmed entry into the world of screen acting: after seeing Multi-Facial, a short that Diesel wrote, produced, financed, directed, and starred in, Steven Spielberg created the role of Private Caparzo specifically for the talented young newcomer in his Saving Private Ryan (1998).Born in New York City on July 18, 1967, Diesel made his stage debut at the age of seven in "Theatre for the New City," which was produced in Greenwich Village. He continued to be involved with the theatre throughout his adolescence, and he went on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his studies in creative writing led him to begin writing screenplays. Diesel became active in filmmaking in the early '90s, first earning notice for the short Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. He followed up Multi-Facial with his first feature-length film, 1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he cast himself as a gang boss whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed, and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival, which led to a deal with MTV to turn it into a series.Following the success of Saving Private Ryan, Diesel could be heard voicing the title character of the animated The Iron Giant (1999), another critically praised feature. He then starred with fellow young actors Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Affleck, Jamie Kennedy, and Nicky Katt in Boiler Room, an off-Wall Street drama that cast him as one of the members of a shady brokerage firm. He also flexed his sci-fi muscles in Pitch Black (2000), an interplanetary thriller that featured him and fellow Earthlings doing battle with a host of nasty alien mutants. Diesel jumped genres yet again as a devious, determined hot-rodder in The Fast and the Furious (2001), a cheeky, action-packed street racing picture in the vein of '50s exploitation flicks. The low-profile, star-free summer release left skid marks at the box office as it grossed over $40 million dollars in its first weekend alone -- more than enough to cover its production costs, and enough to lead many to believe that Diesel had finally arrived as a bankable leading man.Indeed Diesel was growing increasingly comfortable in his role as a tough guy action icon, though the ex-NYC club bouncer's prominent smirky scowl (usually accompanied by a hearty smile and laugh) proved almost a wink to his fans that while it worked well for him, he didn't take the image altogether seriously. The following year found Diesel teetering on the edge of mega-stardom with the release of his eagerly anticipated reteaming with The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX. With images of a bulky Diesel adorning movie theaters nationwide and an advertising campaign that left almost no viable stone unturned, the duo were undoubtedly aiming to repeat the success of the muscle-car extravaganza. This time setting their sights on breathing life into the ailing secret agent action adventure genre, XXX's protagonist, a former extreme sports athlete recruited by the government to take on a dangerous mission, would prove a large-scale attempt at bringing James Bond style thrills into the 21st century. With his reputation set in stone, Diesel would spend the 2000's enjoying a steady stream of similar work, starring in action adventure films like The Chronicles of Riddick (a sequel to 2000's Pitch Black) and Babylon A.D., as well as occasional comedic turns, like The Pacifier. He eventually rejoined the Fast & Furious franchise, reprising his role of Dom Toretto in numerous sequels, and also working as a producer on the films. In 2014, he voiced the role of Groot in the smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy, and also recorded his iconic line "I am Groot" in numerous languages for international versions of the film.

Trivia: Born in Hawaii, actress Lauren Graham spent her childhood traveling with her single father. After earning her Bachelor's degree in English from Barnard College in New York City, she got her Master's in Acting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She then moved to California, where she began her professional acting career with appearances on Caroline in the City, Law & Order, and NewsRadio.Graham's big break came in 2000 with the lead role on the WB family drama Gilmore Girls. As Lorelai Gilmore, the 32-year-old single mother of a teenager (Alexis Bledel), Graham earned several awards and nominations on the massively popular series. While the show itself earned critical acclaim, Graham gained much media exposure for her strong and independent yet conventionally attractive portrayal of a single mom. She would stick with the show for its entire seven year run, becomming a fully fledged star in the process. Graham would also appear in movies like Evan Almighty, Bad Santa, and The Answer Man, in addition to other succsful TV projects, like the starring role of Sarah Braverman on the series Parenthood.

Trivia: Sweet, Southern Faith Ford is perhaps best known as perky anchorwoman Corky from the long-running sitcom Murphy Brown. After growing up in Virginia, where she honed her passion for acting in school plays, Ford headed off to New York at the age of 17 to pursue a career in show business. She began landing appearances on shows like Webster and the soap opera Another World before changing coasts and trying her luck in Hollywood. She landed a recurring role on the drama thirtysomething, and shortly following, she landed the now-iconic role of Corky on Murphy Brown. Ford stayed with the show through all of its nine seasons, using her downtime to try out other projects like the family movie North. When Murphy Brown ended its run, Ford executive produced and starred in the series Maggie Winters, which got excellent reviews but sadly lasted for only one season. Ford had no shortage of projects, however; she was cast in the hit show Norm in 1999, and in 2003, she took a starring role in the ABC series Hope & Faith, playing a typical, Midwestern mom whose world is turned upside down when her movie-star sister shows up at her door. The popular series lasted until 2006, when Ford started looking for a new project. She found what she was looking for with 2007's comedy series Carpoolers, a show about the hilarious and strange goings-on between a group of men who drive to work together.

Trivia: The photogenic and fair-haired Brittany Snow traveled the path of Brooke Shields and others by going to work as a model at the age of three. Born in Tampa to John and Cynthia Snow on March 9, 1986, Brittany appeared on the small screen from the age of eight -- when she landed a number of spots on the Spielberg-produced SeaQuest DSV, starring Roy Scheider -- not a bad start for an elementary schooler. Snow later voiced Shizuku in the Americanized version of Hayao Miyazaki's Whisper of the Heart. In the fall of 2000, she enrolled as a freshman in the Tampa-area's Gaither High School, a public secondary institution.At the age of 16, Snow signed for one of the central roles on NBC's coming-of-age series American Dreams, a kind of Wonder Years update. Set about five years before that series began, Dreams opened in 1963 with the Kennedy assassination. As Meg Pryor, a high schooler with a much-coveted job as an American Bandstand dancer (and two romances -- one with a Bandstand participant, the other with a record store employee), Snow stole viewers' hearts and helped propel the series to a four-season run.After a supporting role in the 2005 Vin Diesel comedy The Pacifier, Snow found her broadest exposure in two 2006 releases. That year's black comedy John Tucker Must Die (by Hill Street Blues alum and Private Parts director Betty Thomas) unofficially reworks -- and sanitizes -- the Dangerous Liasons formula, with Snow and two other teen heartthrobs (Ashanti and Sophia Bush) as disgruntled high schoolers determined to give the class stud a comeuppance by hiring a girl to break his heart. The film received so-so reviews and opened in late July 2006 to predictably decent box office. Snow landed her first big-screen lead in the same year's On the Doll (directed by Thomas Mignone) , as Balery, a stripper. In spring 2006, she signed with Kristin Cavallari to star in the psychological thriller Fingerprints for Harry Basil (Meet Wally Sparks Cloud Nine). Snow decided to return to network TV in 2010 when she signed on to play a lawyer's assistant in David E. Kelly's midseason legal drama Harry's Law. Offscreen, she is active with the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing emotional stress and preventing suicide among college students.Snow lives with her mother in Florida.

Trivia: Life can be tricky for teenagers attempting to establish themselves in Hollywood; thankfully for rising star Max Thieriot, a prominent role in the kid-friendly action adventure Catch That Kid proved just the right catalyst needed to launch an impressive film career. Subsequently nominated for a Young Artist Award as a result of his performance in the 2005 Vin Diesel comedy The Pacifier, Thieriot showed a marked maturity with his role as the son of Billy Bob Thornton's rural stargazer in The Astronaut Farmer the following year. A substantial supporting role in 2007's Nancy Drew was soon to follow, and with parts in the Doug Liman sci-fi thriller Jumper and the high-profile kids flick Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery following in quick succession, speculation that Thieriot might be Hollywood's next golden boy seemed well founded.

Trivia: A professional actress since age 14, Ohio-born Carol Kane is best known for essaying a staggering variety of characterizations in her career. Most of her early film roles were fleeting but memorable, such as that of the hippie girlfriend of Art Garfunkel in Carnal Knowledge (1971), the "sailor's plaything" in The Last Detail (1973) and the terrified bank teller in Dog Day Afternoon (1973). Kane's first starring appearance was in Hester Street (1975), wherein she was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of a Jewish newlywed in turn-of-the-century New York. From 1981 through 1983, Kane played Simka, the wife of immigrant mechanic Latka Gavras (Andy Kaufman) on the TV sitcom Taxi. Simka's country of origin was fictitious, but Kane and Kaufman managed between them to "create" a Slavic language peppered with ridiculous, non-sequitur terms of endearment. The actress won an Emmy for her work on Taxi. Other regular TV sitcom assignments for Kane have included 1986's All Is Forgiven and 1990's American Dreamer. Kane has excelled in bizarre character roles, notably the kvetching old peasant wife in The Princess Bride (1986), the abusive "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Scrooged (1988), and the toothless, witchlike Grandmama in the two Addams Family theatrical features. She remained an in-demand character actress appearing in a variety of movies and TV shows including Even Cowgirls Get the blues, Trees Lounge, Office Killer, and appearing as herself in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. She slowed down not a whit in the 21st century playing parts in My First Mister, Love in the Time of Money, The Pacifier, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, and the 2012 indie Sleepwalk With Me.

Trivia: Raised in Woodland Hills, CA, and the son of a hearing aid specialist who worked in geriatrics and a full-time housewife, Garrett began performing stand-up at various Los Angeles Comedy Clubs upon graduation from high school. Spending six weeks at UCLA before his fateful appearance on the Tonight Show, the young comedian later felt the wrath of that show's grudge after telling a joke that the talent booker had warned him against. Garrett has since never been invited back. Nevertheless he continued on strongly, opening for Frank Sinatra and soon finding roles in such popular television shows as Roseanne, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Seinfeld, and perhaps most famously, Everybody Loves Raymond. Offering his voice to numerous animated features since his breakout in the early '80s, Garrett voice acted in family films like Casper (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Ratatouille, Tarzan II, Garfield, Tangled, and Finding Nemo. Garrett has also appeared in several movies, like Music and Lyrics, The Pacifier, and Night at the Museum.

Trivia: Along with attracting fans as a member of Canada's famed sketch comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall and for his stint on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, Scott Thompson has also made his comic presence felt in the movies. Raised in Brampton, Ontario, Thompson headed to York University to study drama. He was asked to leave after his third year due to his "disruptive presence," so he began to hone his skills on the improv and stand-up comedy circuit instead. After meeting Mark McKinney in 1984, Thompson joined the Kids in the Hall, easily meshing with their outrageous humor. Though he appeared in several movies during his years with the Kids, including the science fiction yarn Millennium (1989) and the horror comedy Popcorn (1990), Thompson and his cohorts became TV stars when their series The Kids in the Hall began broadcasting in 1989. During the show's five-year run, Thompson was famous for such characters as Queen Elizabeth, Danny Husk, and the controversially bitchy gay bar owner/philosopher Buddy Cole. After the show ended in 1994, Thompson appeared in the pseudo-documentary about a porn actor/director, Super 8 1/2 (1994), and joined the other Kids for the troupe's feature debut Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996). Though the drug culture spoof included inspired moments of Kids lunacy, particularly Thompson's spectacular "coming out" musical number, Brain Candy failed at the box office and the Kids disbanded. Thompson, though, had already scored a role on another highly esteemed TV series in 1995, Garry Shandling's mercilessly funny Hollywood satire The Larry Sanders Show. During his three seasons as Hank's Jeffrey Tambor personal assistant. Brian, Thompson also played a horrific assistant to a deplorable producer in the Tinsel Town comedy Hijacking Hollywood (1997) and appeared in the miniseries Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City (1998). After The Larry Sanders Show went off the air in 1998, Thompson began to work again with his Kids in the Hall colleagues, co-authoring Buddy Babylon: The Autobiography of Buddy Cole with Paul Bellini in 1998, and playing a role in Brain Candy director Kelly Makin's Mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). The Kids in the Hall officially reunited for a 2000 tour, but Thompson also continued to pursue non-Kids projects, including his own Internet series Scottland and acting in Amy Heckerling's presciently titled college comedy Loser (2000).

Trivia: With his handsome, everyman looks and strong abilities on stage and screen, actor Tate Donovan has endured to become one of the most talented actors that no one recognizes. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing; with previous girlfriends such as Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston and solid performances in Clean and Sober (1988) and Memphis Belle (1990), it's readily apparent that he has the charm to match his talent. A Tenafly, NJ, native who took up acting in his teens, Donovan's early screen appearances came with troubled teen roles in such efforts as Not My Kid and Into Thin Air (both 1985), as well as a memorable appearance in the 1986 sci-fi adventure Space Camp. A move to Los Angeles found Donovan closer to the world of film production while he pursued his higher education at U.S.C., and it was there that he made the acquaintance of longtime friends such as George Clooney. A post-collegiate role in Memphis Belle (1990) proved that Donovan was indeed honing his skills in front of the camera to good effect, and following an appearance as a recovering drug addict in Clean and Sober (1988), he took his first leading role in the 1992 romantic comedy Love Potion No. 9. Though a relationship with that film's co-star, Sandra Bullock, would result in an engagement, the couple parted ways two short years later, and Donovan began a series of appearances in such art-house efforts as Ethan Frome (1993). A role in the Buena Vista comedy Holy Matrimony (1994) found Donovan getting in good with the folks at Disney, and in three short years he would be providing the voice for the eponymous character in the animated Disney adventure Hercules. More success came in the late '90s with appearances in the popular television series Ally McBeal and Friends, and in addition to a memorable appearance in Homicide: Life on the Street, Donovan gained even more exposure when he was spotted around Tinseltown with high-profile squeeze Jennifer Aniston. Though such later efforts as The Office Party (2000) and Exposed (2002) went largely unseen, Donovan returned to the small screen in 2003 with supporting roles in the series The O.C. and Mister Sterling. Over the coming years, Donovan would continue to appear in several projects, including movies like The Pacifier, Shooter, and Argo, as well as TV series like The O.C. and Damages.

Trivia: Won a 2006 Golden Sheaf Award (presented at the Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival) for Best Female Performance for Santa Baby. Enjoys dancing, snowboarding and swimming.

Trivia: With looks that suggested magazine-cover finesse and massive heartthrob potential, blue-eyed and square-jawed Canadian actor Kyle Schmid did indeed begin his career as a much-sought-after print model. He then made the short leap into filmed work, first with commercial advertisements, then with fictional narratives. Born August 24, 1984, in Mississauga, Ontario, Schmid first reached audiences during his teenage years, with appearances in such productions as the direct-to-video family drama Alley Cats Strike! (2000) and What Girls Learn (2001). After a small role as Scott in the Vin Diesel family comedy The Pacifier, and a bit part in the female buddy film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants that same year, Schmid received fourth billing (his highest up through that time) as Max, in the quirky, gender-bending teen sex comedy Zerophilia. Schmid achieved much higher billing and broader exposure, however, when he scored one of the central roles in the sci-fi horror series Blood Ties, which premiered in 2007. In that program, Schmid played Henry Fitzroy, a 450-year-old vampire who strikes up a romance with a sexy female private eye.