Trivia: Hailed as the teen queen of the mid-'90s, Alicia Silverstone rapidly ascended the summit of idolism with the help of an infamous Aerosmith video and starring roles in the cult trash favorite The Crush, and Amy Heckerling's sleeper hit Clueless. Despite such a promising beginning to her career, however, the vivacious, green-eyed blonde subsequently weathered a series of professional set-backs, due to poor film choices, weight issues, and an industry increasingly congested with such similarly ebullient young starlets as Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt. By the end of the decade, Silverstone's future looked uncertain, although many observers noted that her youth and talent made her chances for a comeback entirely plausible.Born to English parents in San Francisco on October 4, 1976, Silverstone is the daughter of a real-estate agent and an airline stewardess. She began working as a child model at the age of six after her father sent several pictures of her in a bathing suit to a few agencies. Modeling work led to TV commercials, which in turn led to work on a number of TV series including an episode of The Wonder Years which cast her as Fred Savage's literal dream girl. At the age of 15, Silverstone landed her first starring role in The Crush (1993), a Fatal Attraction for the Noxema set in which she portrayed a young woman obsessed with an older man (Cary Elwes). Although the film was trashed by critics, it was a hit among its teenage target audience, and Silverstone -- who had become legally emancipated from her parents while making the film in order to work longer hours -- was feted at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards with trophies for Best Villain and Breakthrough Performance. Around the same time, she starred in the popular music video for Aerosmith's "Crazy." Her onscreen antics with Liv Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven, coupled with her vampish turn in The Crush virtually ensured Silverstone's status as Hollywood's latest embodiment of nubile, underage female sexuality.Silverstone's real break came with her starring role as the spoiled, meddlesome, but ultimately endearing Cher Horowitz in Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995). A very loose and modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, the film was a huge sleeper hit, and Silverstone was roundly praised for her effervescent performance. In the wake of the film's success, the actress signed a ten-million-dollar deal with Columbia that included a three-year first-look deal for her own company, First Kiss Productions. She also won the coveted role of Batgirl in Batman & Robin, something that allowed her to contemplate breaking out of the teen sexpot mode.Unfortunately, the actress was subsequently besieged with a number of problems, ranging from unending industry criticism of her weight to her first excursion as a producer, Excess Baggage (1997). The film, which also served as a starring vehicle for Silverstone, was a thoroughly misguided kidnapping comedy that failed to win favor with either audiences or critics. To add insult to injury, Silverstone's other major 1997 project, the long-awaited Batman & Robin, was one of the year's most expensive critical and commercial flops.After a nearly two-year absence from the screen, Silverstone resurfaced in 1999 with Blast from the Past. A likable romantic comedy that cast her as a cynical Valley girl opposite Brendan Fraser, the film enjoyed modest success. Silverstone followed it with a starring role as the French princess in Kenneth Branagh's much-anticipated musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost (2000), which saw the actress interpreting the Bard and Irving Berlin alongside the likes of Branagh, Nathan Lane, Matthew Lillard, and Alessandro Nivola.In 2001, Silverstone played an American rocker in England for the straight-to-video Rock My World (aka Global Heresay), which, despite providing little more than a blip on her resumé, gave her the opportunity to work with the iconic Peter O'Toole. After serving as executive producer for the animated television series Braceface, Silverstone went on to star in NBC's 2003 sketch comedy Miss Match, which featured the young actress as a divorced lawyer cum matchmaker whose good intentions were not necessarily met with equally positive results. In the same year, she starred opposite Rachael Leigh Cook in Scorched; this time playing a disgruntled bank teller. Silverstone played a role in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed alongside fellow twentysomethings Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. in the summer of 2004. A subsequent trip to the salon in Beautyshop found Silverstone continuing to keep audiences in stitches, and in 2006 she would join Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy, Missi Pyle, and Alex Pettyfer in bringing author Anthony Horowitz's adolescent daredevil to the screen in the family-oriented action adventure Stormbreaker. She reteamed with Clueless director Amy Heckerling for the vampire comedy Vamps.

Trivia: With a statuesque presence and a look that very much recalled the screen sirens of classic Hollywood, raven-haired Krysten Ritter entered the limelight on the fateful day when her path crisscrossed with a group of Elite Modeling scouts at a shopping mall in her Pennsylvania hometown. Witnessing the young woman's innate glamour, that agency, and later Wilhelmina Models, signed her -- propelling her to an international modeling career. She subsequently set her sights on film acting, began training under the tutelage of famed acting coach Marjorie Ballentine, and started accepting film roles in the early 2000s, meanwhile juggling careers as a businesswoman, writer, and recording artist/frontwoman for the band Ex Vivian. Throughout, Ritter exhibited a unique personal style that she later referred to as "rock-&-roll-'90s-ballerina...grungy yet feminine." Her filmed assignments began with a small turn as a 1950s art history student in the Julia Roberts vehicle Mona Lisa Smile (2003). Ritter then landed a multi-episode roles on Gilmore Girls (as Lucy), Veronica Mars (as Gia Goodman), and 'Til Death (as Allison Stark). She gradually ascended to higher billing in features, with supporting turns in a series of romantic comedies that included What Happens in Vegas (2008), Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), and She's Out of My League. She had a major part in the 2010 comedy Killing Bono, and the next year she wrote and starred in L!fe Happens. In 2012 she landed the part of Chloe on the sitcom Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23.

Trivia: Adopted at birth by middle-class teachers. Knew he wanted to become an actor while in primary school. Honed his acting chops with Britain's National Youth Theatre. Pursued stand-up comedy for a time during his college years. Joined the amateur theatrical Footlights Dramatic Club while at Cambridge. Discovered by British theatrical-film director Peter Hall, who spotted him in a Footlights production of Macbeth opposite Hall's daughter Rebecca. Editor-at-large for the Junket, an online quarterly magazine. Writes a column for the Sunday Telegraph (a British newspaper).

Trivia: The son of an editor for the New Yorker, the diminutive comedic actor Wallace Shawn achieved immortality for his portrayal of the Sicilian Vizzini in the 1987 classic The Princess Bride. A graduate of both Harvard and Oxford University, he has taught several courses in English and struggled as a playwright in the early '70s; in 1977 he translated Machiavelli's The Mandrake. Shawn broke into films soon after, building a successful career as a supporting actor to help fund his playwriting. He debuted in two of the best films of 1979: Woody Allen's Manhattan and Bob Fosse's All That Jazz.In 1981, he co-wrote the semi-autobiographical My Dinner With André, a talky comedy starring himself and theater director André Gregory in a dinner conversation, directed by Louis Malle. The movie was acclaimed by critics and a cult favorite. After this personal project, Shawn would build a career out of playing brief but surprisingly memorable roles in a long list of movies. His performance as the leader of the misfit criminal gang in The Princess Bride proved a pivotal moment, and that same year, he supplied the heroic voice for the Masked Avenger in Woody Allen's Radio Days. Shawn would also go on to do voice acting in projects like The Goofy Movie, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and the Toy Story series. He would also continue to work with Woody Allen throughout the next decade, and picked up a new generation of fans playing debate teacher Mr. Hall in the 1995 high school classic Clueless. Shawn would also take his quirky persona to the small screen with appearances on TV shows likeMurphy Brown, The Cosby Show, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sex and the City, as well as the ABC sitcom version of Clueless. Throughout his acting career, Shawn has managed to continue writing successful plays, and eventually adapted one of them, The Designated Mourner, for a feature film in 1997. In 2002, he played the publishing boss Mr. Gelb for the "Greta" story in Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity: Three Portraits. Shawn would continue to appear regularly on screen in the years to come, playing recurring roles on The L Word, Gossip Girl, and Eureka,

Trivia: Born in Oregon and raised on an Indian reservation, actor Justin Kirk started his career at a very young age. After studying at the Children's Theatre School in Minnesota, he lived in New York City working as a struggling actor and hotel bellboy. One of his first off-Broadway roles was Bobby Brahms, the blind younger lover of an aging choreographer in Terrence McNally's play Love! Valour! Compassion! This led to an Obie award, a career on Broadway, and a part in the 1997 feature film adaptation directed by Joe Mantello.Kirk continued to work on-stage in New York and Los Angeles, helping to found the Drama Department theater company. In 1999, his interests turned toward television and film. In the straight-to-video independent film The Eden Myth, he played a young man whose father (Gil Rogers) arranges his marriage. He also starred in the barely released comedy Chapter Zero starring Dylan Walsh and Penelope Ann Miller. On television, he had a regular role on the WB sitcom Jack & Jill about mainstream twentysomethings living in New York City. He played the moderately intelligent Barto (a character not unlike Ross on Friends) who was always hanging around the slightly less-intelligent Mikey (a character not unlike Joey on Friends). In 2002, he appeared in Harry Shearer's pet project Teddy Bears' Picnic, an independent spoof of an exclusive men's retreat. The same year he played mental patient Morris Monk in Alec Carlin's Outpatient, marking his first leading role in a feature film. Kirk gained much more exposure the next year as main character Prior Walter in the six-hour television miniseries version of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America, first aired on HBO in December of 2003. Kirk continued to have success on cable television throughout the 2000s, most notably on Showtime's Weeds in the role of Andy Botwin, who becomes tangled in his suburban family's involvement in the marijuana trade (2005-2012).

Trivia: Standup comedians are famous for their neuroses, but Richard Lewis takes anxiety to a new level. On-stage, he energetically frets and overanalyses the most personal aspects of his life and wallows in his low self-esteem until the audience convulses with sympathetic laughter. He was born in Brooklyn, but raised in New Jersey. While attending Ohio State University as a marketing major, Lewis also studied communications. Upon graduation, he worked as the lead copywriter for an advertising agency. Four years into his career, he abandoned it to become a standup comedian, making his club debut in Greenwich Village in 1972. His first break came when he won a regular gig at Budd Friedman's the Improv comedy club and then debuted on The Tonight Show. Lewis became really well known in 1979 when he co-wrote and starred in Diary of a Young Comic, a show which gained him a cult following. Its success led him to become a television writer. In 1982, he made his first appearance on David Letterman's late-night talk show and from there embarked upon a three-year cross-country tour. Lewis had great success with his first cable TV special, I'm in Pain, in 1986. His second special, The Richard Lewis I'm Exhausted Concert, earned him a nomination for a Cable ACE award in 1988. Two years later his third special, I'm Doomed, was similarly nominated. He and Jamie Lee Curtis starred in the popular ABC sitcom Anything but Love from 1989 to 1992. In the early '90s, he took a break from standup. He launched his film career in 1988 with That's Adequate and continued to occasionally appear in supporting or character roles, notably in the independent film Drunks (1995) in which he won kudos for his dramatic portrayal of an alcoholic junkie. Lewis starred in a short-lived sitcom, Daddy Dearest (1993), and did not again try a television series until he and comic Kevin Nealon co-starred in Hiller and Diller in 1997. His 1995 standup routine "Magical Misery Tour" won considerable kudos and was the basis for a well-received 1996 cable special, shot live from the Bottom Line club in New York. Since 1987, Lewis was actively involved with HBO's annual Comic Relief benefits, large star-studded comedy shows in which all proceeds go toward helping the homeless.

Trivia: Best known as the husky-voiced, no-nonsense Lt. Sally Solomon on the hit NBC fantasy sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) -- a role she played, opposite heavyweights John Lithgow and Jane Curtin, for the entire six-year run of the series -- fair-haired Kristen Johnson parlayed her success from that effort into a handful of A-list cinematic releases, beginning in 1999. After 3rd Rock wrapped in spring 2001, Johnston's movie activity crescendoed dramatically, and she became ever-present as a character player in the supporting casts of Hollywood feature films.Born January 20, 1967, in Washington, D.C., Johnston moved with her family to Wisconsin and attended high school in suburban Milwaukee, where prescient classmates voted her "Biggest Ham" and "Most Likely to be a Celebrity." Unusually tall for her age (6 ft. at age 13), with a booming, authoritative voice and an outsized personality, Johnston stood out from the crowd and reportedly struggled with self-doubt as a result; she later termed her height "incredibly distressing." The aspiring actress learned self-acceptance early on, however, as she attended NYU and studied drama there. For almost ten years, Johnston struggled as an up-and-coming actress, holding down assorted jobs and working on Broadway and off-Broadway productions, until an NBC executive noticed her and was instrumental in enlisting her as Sally on 3rd Rock. Johnston doubled this up with a 1998 guest appearance as herself on The Larry Sanders Show, then debuted cinematically the following summer as Ivana Humpalot in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). Johnston ascended to higher billing as Wilma Slaghoople, the wife of Fred Flintstone (a role she inherited from Elizabeth Perkins) in the family-friendly, effects-heavy Stone Age comedy The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000).Although 3rd Rock from the Sun, as indicated, ended its original network run in mid-2001, Johnston took a couple of years off, resurfacing in 2003 with a guest appearance on the shortlived courtroom seriocomedy Queens Supreme (produced by Julia Roberts). Johnston followed this up with several additional big-screen turns over the next few years. These included a supporting role in William Tannen's all-star showbiz satire Nobody Knows Anything (2003); the part of Fran -- an envious friend of newly involved Caroleen Feeney -- in Hal Salwen's quirky indie romantic comedy Duane Incarnate; a brief supporting turn as Coach Divers in Paul Dinello's big-screen prequel to the wild television comedy series Strangers with Candy (2005); and Rhonda in Marc Lawrence's romantic comedy Music and Lyrics (2007), co-starring Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. Appearances on The New Adventures of Old Christine and Ugly Betty followed, and in 2009 Johnston began teaching acting classes at New York University. Two years later, she documented her struggles with addiction in her memoir Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster.In addition to Johnston's film work, she acts in theatrical productions. Several of Johnston's higher-profiled stage productions include the Scott Elliott-directed revival of Clare Boothe Luce's play The Women (2001, alongside Rue McClanahan, Cynthia Nixon, and Jennifer Coolidge); the Mark Brokaw-directed 2004 production of Paula Vogel's one-act play The Baltimore Waltz (as Anna); and the 2006 John Crowley-directed production of John Kolvenbach's Love Song (as Joan).

Trivia: Blue-eyed British actor Malcolm McDowell has a history of playing angry, cruel characters that still managed to be charming. Born in working-class Leeds, England, he sold coffee around Yorkshire before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late '60s. By 1967, he had made his big-screen debut in Poor Cow, the first feature-length film from director Ken Loach. Moving to New York, McDowell met director Lindsay Anderson and appeared in his off-Broadway production of Look Back in Anger. (He would reprise his role of angry young man Jimmy Porter in the 1980 film version.) He then played Mick Travis, the rebellious boarding school student in If.... (1968), a role he would continue in Anderson's next two films, O Lucky Man! (which he co-wrote) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Director Stanley Kubrick took notice of his work with Anderson and gave McDowell his international breakthrough with A Clockwork Orange, based upon the novel by Anthony Burgess. His portrayal of the sadistic Alex earned him two Best Actor nominations, but also cemented a dark image that would persist throughout his career. He would occasionally get breaks with characters such as Captain Flashman, the hero in the adventure satire Royal Flash or the naïve fighter in the WWI drama Aces High. But his unscrupulous reputation was reinforced in 1979, when he starred in the title role as the Roman emperor in Bob Guccione's notorious production of Caligula. He made his first American film the same year, playing H.G. Wells in Time After Time alongside young actress Mary Steenburgen (they were married from 1980-1990). McDowell went on to star in the horror remake Cat People, the action-adventure Blue Thunder, and the rock musical-comedy Get Crazy. McDowell made several TV movies toward the late '80s, including Gulag, Arthur the King, and Monte Carlo. After a serious bout with a persistent drug problem, his hair turned white and he started playing regular villains in largely forgettable U.S. releases. He had better casting luck abroad, such as the leading role in the Russian film Assassin of the Tsar. After a cameo in The Player in 1992, the actor started lending his voice talent to cartoons, including Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Superman, Spider-Man, Batman: The Animated Series, Biker Mice From Mars, and the features The Fist of the North Star and Happily Ever After. He also provided the voice of Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn for the Wing Commander video game series and subsequent cartoon. His villainous roles started to gravitate toward science fiction with Tank Girl, Cyborg 3: The Recycler, and, most notably, Dr. Soran in Star Trek: Generations. On television, he played the evil Benny Barrett on the BBC series Our Friends in the North and the sinister Mr. Roarke on the ABC revival series Fantasy Island. In the late '90s, he appeared in a lot of direct-to-video and made-for-cable movies before making a return to U.K. theatrical features with the family drama My Life So Far in 1999 and Gangster No. 1 in 2000. In 2003, he appeared in the horseracing film Hidalgo, Robert Altman's The Company, and the Russian film Evilenko as serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. For better or worse, McDowell's most recognizable role of the decade would likely be that of Dr. Samuel Loomis in Rob Zombie's Halloween (2008) and its 2009 sequel -- thouigh a recurring role on the NBC hit Heroes certainly didn't hurt in boosting his exposure among viewers too young to remember his dramatic defining roles. Occasional voice work in The Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb continued that trend - albiet in a less conspicuous manner -- then in 2011 the screen veteran turned in a brief but memorable performance in Michel Hazanavicius' Oscar favorite The Artist, proving that even without so much as a line of dialogue, McDowell still had the charisma to command the screen.

Trivia: Though she is a classically trained dramatic actress and has played a variety of roles, Sigourney Weaver is still best known for her portrayal of the steel-jawed, alien-butt-kicking space crusader Ellen Ripley from the four Alien movies. The formidably beautiful, 5'11'' actress was born Susan Weaver to NBC president Pat Weaver and actress Elizabeth Inglis. Her father had a passion for Roman history and originally wanted to name her Flavia, but after reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby at the age of 14, Weaver renamed herself Sigourney, after one of the book's minor characters. After being schooled in her native New York City, Weaver attended Stanford University and then obtained her master's at the Yale School of Drama where, along with classmate Meryl Streep, she appeared in classical Greek plays. After earning her degree, Weaver was only able to find work in experimental plays produced well away from Broadway, as more conventional producers found her too tall to perform in mainstream works. After getting her first real break in the soap opera Somerset (1970-1976), she made her film debut with a bit part in Woody Allen's Annie Hall in 1977. Weaver had her first major role in Madman which was released just prior to Alien in 1979. Though the role of Ripley was originally designed for Veronica Cartwright (who ultimately played the doomed Lambert), scouts for director Ridley Scott saw Weaver working off-Broadway and felt she would be perfect for the part. The actress' take on the character was laced with a subtlety that made her a new kind of female action hero: Intelligent, resourceful, and unconsciously sexy, Weaver's Ripley was a woman with the guts to master her fear in order to take on a terrifying unknown enemy. Alien proved to be one of the year's biggest hits and put Weaver on Hollywood's A-list, though she would not reprise her character for another seven years. In between, she worked to prove her versatility, playing solid dramatic roles in Eyewitness (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), while letting a more playful side show as a cellist who channels a fearsome demon in Ghostbusters (1984). In 1986, Aliens burst into the theater, even gorier and more rip-roaring than its predecessor. This time, Weaver focused more on the maternal side of her character, which only served to make her tougher than ever. Her unforgettable performance was honored with a Best Actress Oscar nomination, and was followed up by Weaver's similarly haunting portrayal of doomed naturalist/animal rights activist Diane Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (1988). The role won Weaver her second Best Actress Oscar nomination, and that same year, she received yet another Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Supporting Actress -- for her deliciously poisonous portrayal of Melanie Griffith's boss in Working Girl. After 1992's Alien 3, Weaver had her next big hit playing President Kevin Kline's lonely wife in the bittersweet romantic comedy Dave (1993). She then gave a gripping performance as a rape/torture victim who faces down the man who may or may not have been her tormentor in Roman Polanski's moody thriller Death and the Maiden (1994). During the latter half of the decade, Weaver appeared in Alien Resurrection -- perhaps the most poorly received installment of the series -- but increasingly surfaced in offbeat roles such as the coolly fragile Janey in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm and the psychotic, wicked Queen in the adult-oriented HBO production The Grimm Brothers' Snow White (both 1997). In 1999, she starred in the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest, making fun of her image as a sci-fi goddess while continuing to prove her remarkable versatility.Weaver's first high-profile project of the new millenium saw her swindling Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman as a sexy con-woman teamed up with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Already into her fifties, Weaver proved she still possessed plenty of sex-appeal even alongside a substantially younger starlet like Hewitt. She played up her sultry side some more in the well-received 2002 indie-comedy Tadpole, but changed gears a bit in 2003, playing a villain in the family sleeper hit Holes.In 2004, Weaver could be seen as part of the ensemble cast in M. Night Shyamalan's summer thriller The Village. She played a tough-as-nails network executive in the satire The TV Set, and provided the voice of the ship's computer in WALL-E. In 2008 she appeared in projects as diverse as Baby Mama and Be Kind Rewind. She had a major role in the box-office blockbuster Avatar - teaming up with director James Cameron again. Her very busy 2011 included the role of a government official in the sci-fi comedy Paul, the girlfriend of a sheltered insurance salesman in Cedar Rapids, and a part in Oren Moverman's cop drama Rampart.Weaver has been married to stage director Jim Simpson since 1984. When not appearing in films, she continues to be active in theater.

Trivia: Enjoyed science as a child and wanted to be an astronaut. Known as the class comedian as well as an athlete in high school. Played basketball and football, and also held the high-jump record. A former class president, he was inducted into the Damien High School Hall of Fame in 2003. Majored in theatre in college but dropped out to get his Actors' Equity Association card. Self-taught comedian and writer. Got his big break writing for the comedy series In Living Color. Was cocreator and executive producer of The PJs, Eddie Murphy's prime-time animated series, and the award-winning The Bernie Mac Show. Started contributing to The Daily Show as the "senior black correspondent" in 2006. Author of I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts, published in 2009. Brother Marc also known as a stand-up comic and comedy writer. Has cited Johnny Carson and Richard Pryor as influences.

Trivia: Though best known for his work in screen comedies, actor Zak Orth felt at home in a surprisingly diverse array of genres including earnest drama. An Illinois native and the son of a piano teacher and opera singer, Orth began his acting career on the New York-area stage, with plum roles in productions including Suburbia (1994), Misalliance (1997), and The Eros Trilogy (1999), but concurrently branched off into film, landing one of his first A-list parts with a bit role in the Frank Oz-directed comedy In & Out (1997). Orth then traveled to the other end of the emotional spectrum with a small role in Scott Hicks' sincere historical drama Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), and landed supporting roles in the teen-oriented comedies Loser and Down to You ( both 2000).Beginning in 2001, Orth commenced a longstanding association with the cast members of the MTV sketch comedy program The State, appearing in their big-screen outings Wet Hot American Summer (2001), The Baxter (2005), and The Ten (2007). Supporting roles in two additional features -- the comedies Melinda and Melinda (2004) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) witnessed Orth collaborating with maestro Woody Allen.

Trivia: Began acting in school plays in third grade. Appeared in the Signature Theatre Company's production of Queens Boulevard in 2007. Starred in 2009's Why Torture is Wrong at the Public Theater. Appeared in Labyrinth Theater Company's premiere of The Muscles in Our Toes during a hiatus from The Blacklist.