Trivia: One of Hollywood's sexiest and most magnetic leading men, Denzel Washington's poise and radiantly sane intelligence permeate whatever film he is in, be it a socially conscious drama, biopic, or suspense thriller. More importantly, Washington's efforts, alongside those of director Spike Lee, have done much to dramatically expand the range of dramatic roles given to African-American actors and actresses.The son of a Pentecostal minister and a hairdresser, Washington was born in Mount Vernon, NY, on December 28, 1954. His parents' professions shaped Washington's early ambition to launch himself into show business: from his minister father he learned the power of performance, while hours in his mother's salon (listening to stories) gave him a love of storytelling. Unfortunately, when Washington was 14, his folks' marriage took a turn for the worse, and he and his older sister were sent away to boarding school so that they would not be exposed to their parents' eventual divorce. Washington later attended Fordham University, where he attained a B.A. in Journalism in 1977. He still found time to pursue his interest in acting, however, and after graduation he moved to San Francisco, where he won a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theatre. Washington stayed with the ACT for a year, and, after his time there, he began acting in various television movies and made his film debut in the 1981 Carbon Copy. Although he had a starring role (as the illegitimate son of a rich white man), Washington didn't find real recognition until he joined the cast of John Falsey and Joshua Brand's long-running TV series St. Elsewhere in 1982. He won critical raves and audience adoration for his portrayal of Dr. Phillip Chandler, and he began to attract Hollywood notice. In 1987, he starred as anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom alongside Kevin Kline, and though the film itself alienated some critics (Pauline Kael called it "dumbfounding"), Washington's powerful performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.Two years later, Washington netted another Best Supporting Actor nod -- and won the award -- for his turn as an embittered yet courageous runaway slave in the Civil War drama Glory. The honor effectively put him on the Hollywood A-List. Some of his more notable work came from his collaboration with director Spike Lee; over the course of the 1990s, Washington starred in three of his films, playing a jazz trumpeter in Mo' Better Blues (1990), the title role in Lee's epic 1992 biopic Malcolm X (for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination), and the convict father of a high-school basketball star in He Got Game (1998).Washington also turned in powerful performances in a number of other films, such as Mississippi Masala (1991), as a man in love with an Indian woman; Philadelphia (1993), as a slightly homophobic lawyer who takes on the cause of an AIDS-stricken litigator (Tom Hanks); and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), as a 1940s private detective, Easy Rawlins. Washington also reeled in large audiences in action roles, with the top box-office draw of such thrillers as The Pelican Brief (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), and The Siege (1998) attesting to his capabilities. In 1999, Washington starred in another thriller, The Bone Collector, playing a paralyzed forensics expert who joins forces with a young policewoman (Angelina Jolie) to track down a serial killer. That same year, he starred in the title role of Norman Jewison's The Hurricane. Based on the true story of a boxer wrongly accused of murdering three people in 1966, the film featured stellar work by Washington as the wronged man, further demonstrating his remarkable capacity for telling a good story. His performance earned him a number of honors, including a Best Actor Golden Globe and a Best Actor Oscar nomination.After another strong performance as a high-school football coach in Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans, Washington cut dramatically against his "nice guy" typecast to play a corrupt policeman in Training Day, a gritty cop drama helmed by Antoine Fuqua. Washington surprised audiences and critics with his change of direction, but in the eyes of many, this change of direction made him a more compelling screen presence than ever before. (It also netted him an Oscar for Best Actor.) 2002 marked an uneven year for Washington. He joined the cast of Nick Cassavetes' absurd melodrama John Q., as a father so desperate to get medical attention for his ailing son that he holds an entire hospital hostage and contemplates killing himself to donate his own heart to the boy. Critics didn't buy the film; it struck all but the least-discriminating as a desperate attempt by Washington to bring credulity and respectability to a series of ludicrous, manipulative Hollywood contrivances. John Q. nonetheless performed healthily at the box (it grossed over a million dollars worldwide from a 36-million-dollar budget). That same fall, Washington received hearty praise for his directorial and on-camera work in Antwone Fisher (2002), in which he played a concerned naval psychiatrist, and even more so for director Carl Franklin's 2003 crime thriller Out of Time. Somewhat reminiscent of his role in 1991's crime drama Ricochet, Out of Time casts Washington as an upstanding police officer framed for the murder of a prominent citizen. In 2004, Washington teamed up with Jonathan Demme for the first occasion since 1993's Philadelphia, to star in the controversial remake of 1962's The Manchurian Candidate. Washington stars in the picture as soldier Bennett Marco (the role originally performed by Frank Sinatra), who, along with his platoon, is kidnapped and brainwashed during the first Gulf War. Later that year, Washington worked alongside Christopher Walken and Dakota Fanning in another hellraiser, director Tony Scott's Man on Fire, as a bodyguard who carves a bloody swath of vengeance, attempting to rescue a little girl kidnapped under his watch. Washington made no major onscreen appearances in 2005 -- and indeed, kept his activity during 2006 and 2007 to an absolute minimum. In '06, he joined the cast of Spike Lee's thriller Inside Man as a detective assigned to thwart the machinations of a psychotically cunning burglar (Clive Owen). The film opened to spectacular reviews and box-office grosses in March 2006, keeping Washington on top of his game and bringing Lee (whose last major feature was the disappointing 2004 comedy She Hate Me) back to the pinnacle of success. That same year, Washington joined forces once again with Tony Scott in the sci-fi action hybrid Déjà Vu, as an ATF agent on the trail of a terrorist, who discovers a way to "bridge" the present to the past to view the details of a bomb plot that unfolded days earlier. The Scott film garnered a fair number of respectable reviews but ultimately divided critics. Déjà Vu bowed in the U.S. in late November 2006. Meanwhile, Washington signed on for another action thriller, entitled American Gangster -- this time under the aegis of Tony Scott's brother Ridley -- about a drug-dealing Mafioso who smuggles heroin into the U.S. in the corpses of deceased Vietnam veterans.Washington appeared as New York City subway security chief Walter Garber in the 2009 remake of the 1974 thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and begun filming the post-apocalyptic drama The Book of Eli in the same year. He earned a Best Actor nomination in 2012 for his work as an alcoholic pilot in Robert Zemeckis' drama Flight.

Trivia: Bearing the kind of sensitive-man good looks that have led many to think he would be perfect for a career as a tortured, latte-chugging intellectual, Ethan Hawke instead emerged in the 1990s as both a talented actor and a thinking girls' poster boy. In addition to acting, Hawke penned two novels -- The Hottest State, which is rumored to be based on a former relationship he had with singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb, and the best-selling Ash Wednesday. Born November 6, 1970, in Austin, TX, to teenage parents who separated when he was a toddler, Hawke was raised by his mother. The two led an itinerant existence until she married again, and the family settled in Princeton Junction, NJ. There Hawke began to study acting at Princeton's McCarter Theatre, and at the age of 14, he made his film debut in Explorers (1985). A sci-fi fantasy flick that starred the actor alongside River Phoenix, it didn't make much of an impact upon its theatrical release, but thanks to the presence of both Hawke and Phoenix, it went on to a second life on cable.Following his debut, Hawke stopped acting professionally to attend Carnegie Mellon University. His college career didn't last long, however; while still a student, Hawke was chosen to play one of the young protagonists of Peter Weir's Dead Poets Society. The 1989 film, which marked the beginning of Robin Williams' turn toward more dramatic roles, was a success, and Hawke, in his role as the shy, cringing Todd Anderson, made prep school angst look so photogenic that he soon had something of a teenage following. After starring as Ted Danson's son in Dad the same year, Hawke went on to make a string of movies that allowed him to demonstrate his talent but never quite propelled him further into the realm of stardom. White Fang (1991) provided him with a go at adventure by casting him as a young gold miner who forms a bond with the titular canine, while Waterland (1992) had Hawke plumbing the depths of mild delinquency as the troublesome student of an emotionally estranged Jeremy Irons. Unfortunately, almost nobody saw Waterland, and the same could be said of Hawke's other film that year, the WWII drama A Midnight Clear. Lack of an audience obscured the actor's strong performances in both films, and it was not until 1994 that he began to gain recognition for something besides Dead Poets Society. In that year, Hawke created something of a reputation for himself, both on- and offscreen. Offscreen, he became tabloid fodder when he was caught dancing with a then-married Julia Roberts and thus gained a certain -- if fleeting -- kind of notoriety. On screen, the actor starred in Ben Stiller's Reality Bites, portraying the kind of goateed, ennui-mired, more-sensitive-than-thou slacker that helped get him labeled as such in real life. Matters weren't helped when, that same year, the actor published The Hottest State, a meditation on love from the point-of-view of an angst-ridden twentysomething that was scorned by many critics as pretentious posturing.After starring as another sensitive student of life in Richard Linklater's romantic talkathon Before Sunrise (1995), Hawke went back to his sci-fi roots with Gattaca (1997), a near-future parable about the dangers of genetic engineering. Although the film was a relative disappointment, it did present Hawke with an introduction to co-star Uma Thurman, whom he married in 1998 and had a daughter with later that same year. Also in 1998, the actor starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations; despite mixed reviews, the film heightened Hawke's profile while further establishing him as one of the leading interpreters of sensitive-boy artistic angst. After a starring turn as one of the titular Newton Boys alongside Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D'Onofrio in Richard Linklater's neglected 1998 Western, Hawke took on an entirely different role in 1999. Starring in Scott Hicks' Snow Falling on Cedars, he portrayed a journalist investigating the murder of a Japanese-American man in post-WWII Washington State. The same year, he appeared in Joe the King, the directorial debut of his friend and Midnight Clear co-star Frank Whaley.In addition to his film work, Hawke has remained active in the theater. He was the artistic director of the now-defunct Malaparte, a New York theater company that he co-founded with a group of actors including Robert Sean Leonard, Frank Whaley, and Josh Hamilton. He has also worked behind the camera, directing the music video for Lisa Loeb's "Stay" in 1994.Hawke subsequently earned some of the best reviews of his career to date as the title character of Michael Almereyda's 2000 adaptation of Hamlet. Set in modern-day New York, the film allowed Hawke to give the famously tortured prince a slackerish spin that more than one critic noted seemed to come naturally to the actor. The following year, he could be seen in an altogether different feature, portraying a rookie cop opposite Denzel Washington in Training Day, Antoine Fuqua's gritty cop drama. He also collaborated again with director Linklater, first for Tape, a drama co-starring Robert Sean Leonard and wife Thurman, and then for Waking Life, a groundbreaking animated feature in which the actor reprised the role of Before Sunrise's Jesse. 2001 also marked Hawke's first significant foray behind the camera as the director of Chelsea Walls, a multi-character drama about various artists living in New York's famed Chelsea Hotel.In 2002, Hawke played alongside Frank Whaley in The Jimmy Show and made an appearance on the hit television drama Alias the next year. The year 2003 was not a banner one for the actor -- after rumors of an affair between Hawke and a young model began circulating among various television and print tabloids, Uma Thurman announced their official separation after five years of marriage. In 2004, Hawke starred with Angelina Jolie in director D.J. Caruso's Taking Lives and reprised his Before Sunrise role opposite Julie Delpy in Linklater's sequel Before Sunset, a film which also provided the long-time actor with his first screenwriting credit.Hawke appeared in several moderately successful films throughout 2005 and 2006 (Assault on Precinct 13, The Hottest State, Fast Food Nation), but found himself back in the limelight for 2007's crime thriller Before the Devil Know You're Dead, in which the actor played one of two brothers involved in a plan to rob their parents' jewelry store. The film would win the Best Picture from the American Film Institute. He found success yet again for his role in the 2008 crime drama What Doesn't Kill You. The film, which also stars Mark Ruffalo and Donnie Wahlberg, features Hawke as a street-hardened young adult struggling to rise above the dog-eat-dog lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. In 2009 Hawke starred in Daybreaker, in which he played a vampire sympathetic to the human plight, and worked with Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, and Richard Gere for his role as a narcotics officer in the crime thriller Brooklyn's Finest.In 2013 Hawke scored a minor hit as the star of the horror film The Purge. In that same year he returned with Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater with Before Midnight, their sequel to Before Sunset, which garnered Hawke a second Oscar nomination in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. He returned to Oscar contention in 2014, this time in the Best Supporting Actor category for playing the father in Linklater's Boyhood.

Trivia: Ex-marine and ex-newspaper reporter Scott Glenn was ideally suited to the action-oriented films that would become his lot in the 1980s and 1990s. After learning the rudiments of his craft at the Actors Studio and appearing off-Broadway, Glenn made his film bow in 1970's The Baby Maker. He was rescued from low-budget cycle flicks by director Robert Altman, who cast Glenn as Pfc. Glenn Kelly in Nashville (1975). As rangy and rugged off-camera as on, Glenn was one of the few film actors of recent years to flourish in western roles: among his more impressive credits within this genre are Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), Silverado (1985), My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1993), and, stretching a point a bit, Urban Cowboy (1980). Glenn has been equally laudable in such suit-and-tie roles as Jodie Foster's FBI chief in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), in "military" assignments like astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff (1981) and the U.S. sub commander in Hunt for Red October (1990). As a tribute to Robert Altman, the director who elevated him to "A" pictures back in 1975, Scott Glenn accepted a drastic cut in salary to portray "Himself" in Altman's The Player (1992). Over the next several years, Glenn remained active on screen, appearing in films like Training Day, The Virgin Suicides, The Bourne Ultimatum, W., and The Paperboy.

Trivia: May 31, 1949, University of Missouri graduate Tom Berenger began his theater work in regional repertory. Once he hit New York, he was employed in several TV soap operas, most prominently as the ill-fated Timmy Siegel on One Life to Live. His first film acting ranged from the grittier urban demands of Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) to the cavalier heroics of Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979). After such relatively sympathetic assignments as The Big Chill in 1983, Berenger followed in the role of the sociopathic, battle-scarred Sergeant Barnes in Platoon (1986), a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination. This did not, however, stop the versatile actor from trying future good-guy roles like the irresponsible baseball player in Major League (1988). Berenger continued to successfully fluctuate between heroes and villains into the '90s, with a few side trips into television, notably in an amusing, unheralded guest stint in the waning days of the sitcom Cheers. In 1998, he gave a particularly good portrayal of a villainous low life in Robert Altman's adaptation of John Grisham's The Gingerbread Man. Berenger continued to take on supporting roles, and starred in TNT's short-lived television series Nightmares & Dreamscapes in 2006. Other notable work includes a role alongside Armand Assante and Busta Rhymes in the 2009 thriller Breaking Point, and his turn of the wealthy father of Robert Michael Fischer (Cillian Murphy) in 2010's Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page.

Trivia: Solemn, soulful-eyed character actor Harris Yulin made his 1963 off-Broadway debut in Next Time I'll Sing for You. Though Yulin remained a frequent visitor to the New York theatrical scene (he made his Broadway bow in a 1980 revival of Watch on the Rhine), he preferred to live and work in his home state of California. As one of the founders of the Los Angeles Classic Theater, he became a mentor and spiritual advisor for a number of film stars with theatrical aspirations. His own movie work includes the roles of Wild Bill Hickok in the 1971 revisionist Western Doc, Bernstein in the 1983 remake of Scarface, and King Edward in 1996's Looking for Richard, a contemporary spin on Shakespeare's Richard III. On television, Harris Yulin has been seen as Senator Joseph McCarthy in Robert F. Kennedy and His Times (1985) and as girl-chasing TV anchorman Neal Frazier in the weekly WIOU (1990).

Trivia: A ubiquitous actor specializing in ethnically oriented character roles of various racial backgrounds, New Zealand-born Cliff Curtis, who is of Maori decent, debuted onscreen in the very early '90s. He then proceeded to chalk up a myriad of effective supporting parts in A-list features including The Piano (1993), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Whale Rider (2002), Runaway Jury (2003), Sunshine (2007), and Live Free or Die Hard (2007). Curtis ascended to supporting billing opposite Harrison Ford and Sean Penn in the immigration-themed drama Crossing Over (2008) and tackled another major supporting role in Roland Emmerich's prehistoric adventure 10,000 B.C. (2008). Over the coming years, Curtis would continue to appear on screen, most notably on shows like Trauma and Missing.

Trivia: One of the founding fathers of gangsta rap, the G-funk style, Death Row Records, and Aftermath, Dr. Dre has been bringing innovation and slick production to the world of rap since the early days of N.W.A. in the late '80s. As with many restless souls in the music industry, it was only a matter of time before Dre decided to expand his role in the entertainment industry to feature films. Born Andre Young in February of 1965, Dre's early work in the film industry involved orchestrating the soundtracks for such films as Above the Rim and Murder Was the Case in 1994. Taking the director's chair for 1993's Hour of Chaos and Murder Was the Case the following year, Dre also turned up in front of the camera for Set It Off (1996), Whiteboyz (1999), and Training Day (2001). Despite his reputation for being so "hard," Dre's first major film role would come surprisingly in the comedy The Wash (2001) alongside longtime friend and fellow G-Funk cohort Snoop Doggy Dogg. With former collaborator Ice Cube having already taken his act to the screen for laughs in 1995's Friday, it appeared as if the ever-serious former N.W.A. killaz had finally lightened up a bit and taken on a more easygoing celluloid existence as opposed to their more dangerous vinyl incarnation.

Trivia: Laid-back rapper Snoop Dogg followed in the footsteps of such West Coast colleagues as Ice Cube and Ice-T, and added acting to his repertoire in the late '90s.Raised in Long Beach and nicknamed Snoop due to his resemblance to Peanuts' top canine, Snoop Dogg's troubled teen years culminated in a drug conviction after high school. After he got out of prison, Snoop Dogg turned to rap and soon captured the attention of star producer/rapper Dr. Dre. Introduced on Dr. Dre's seminal album The Chronic (1992), Snoop Dogg's smooth low-key style and lyrical authenticity turned him into one of gangster rap's stars, culminating with the release of his own top-selling, Grammy-nominated debut album Doggystyle (1993). Snoop Dogg's street cred, however, proved too negatively authentic when his involvement in a drive-by shooting led to a murder charge that same year. Battling the charge through the mid-'90s, Snoop Dogg was cleared in 1996, but his record sales waned along with gangster rap's popularity.Still a notable music celebrity, however, Snoop Dogg branched out into acting with a cameo appearance in the stoner comedy Half Baked (1998). Staying true to his urban persona, Snoop Dogg appeared in L.A. crime drama Caught Up (1998) (as Kool Kitty Kat) and Master P's coming-of-age story Hot Boyz (1999), and co-starred with Ice-T in action movies The Wrecking Crew (1999) and Urban Menace (1999). Increasingly comfortable as an actor, Snoop Dogg subsequently took on roles in several prominent 2001 releases. Trying comedy, Snoop Dogg co-starred with Dr. Dre as friends and car wash employees in The Wash (2001). Though John Singleton's Baby Boy (2001) failed to live up to antecedent Boyz 'N the Hood (1991), Snoop Dogg was convincing as the neighborhood troublemaker. After a cameo as a drug dealer paralyzed by Denzel Washington's corrupt cop in Training Day (2001), Snoop Dogg moved to his first solo starring role in the horror movie Bones (2001). As a murdered 1970s superfly community pillar-turned-ghostly avenger, Snoop Dogg earned kudos for his assured, menacing performance. Despite claims that his legal problems were over, Snoop Dogg was busted for marijuana possession during his Puff, Puff, Pass tour in October 2001.2003 marked the release of Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, which featured Snoop Dogg changing his role from gangster to prankster in a series of sketch comedy bits and various on-the-street disguises. Despite its popularity, Snoop's busy schedule prevented the show for lasting more than two seasons, though it helped reestablish the market for smart, African-American satire, which had been left largely unfulfilled since the cancellation of The Chris Rock Show. Luckily, Dave Chappelle proved a more than worthy successor to Snoop Dogg in that area, leaving the rapper more than enough time to make a cameo as himself in Old School (2003), as well as continue his contributions to the infamous Girls Gone Wild series, and thoroughly overuse the never-quite-hip slang suffix "izzle." In 2004, Snoop played informant to Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's Starsky & Hutch, as well as co-starred in director Jessy Terrero's Soul Plane.In 2006 he appeared in and produced Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror, and lent his voice to the animated family film Arthur and the Invisibles. He became a regular at celebrity roasts starting in 2007 when he helped skewer fellow iconic rapper Flavor Flav. He continued to appear steadily in a variety of projects, usually as himself, including Bruno, The Big Bang, and the documentaries Straight Outta L.A. and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.

Trivia: R&B singer Macy Gray made a splash in the music scene in the late '90s, gaining attention for her songwriting style and distinctive, raspy voice. Her recording career had only recently skyrocketed when she decided to try out acting, appearing in projects like a 2000 episode of Ally McBeal, and 2001's Training Day. She would continue to maintain a sideline in acting throughout the years, most notably in movies like Domino, and in 2009 she ventured into reality TV, joining the cast of the popular Dancing with the Stars.

Trivia: Moved to Vermont from Puerto Rico as a child. Won Miss Teen USA in 1992. Lived in various foster homes for fourteen years before being adopted at 17. Co-authored a book titled Lost in the System in 1996, detailing her childhood in foster care. Appeared in the Ricky Martin video for "She's All I Ever Had."

Trivia: A fiercely independent actress who refuses to be pressed into a conventional mode or typecast, Eva Mendes was studying marketing in the late '90s when an agent stumbled across her photo while perusing Mendes's neighbor's portfolio. She soon appeared in an Aerosmith video and made her film debut in Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. Mendes next appeared in a few made-for-television productions and hammed it up with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in A Night at the Roxbury before being cast in a prominent role in Urban Legends: Final Cut. Working against typecasting despite her teen horror resumé, Mendes next took roles in Exit Wounds, Training Day, and All About the Benjamins. Mendes next began work on a children's book titled Crazy Leggs Beshee in which she wanted to introduce art, history, vocabulary, and values to children in a fun and easily comprehendable medium.In 2003, Mendes' career took off, with the actress taking on large roles in an ecclectic quartet of high-profile films. In 2 Fast 2 Furious she played a customs agent working with Paul Walker to bring down a Miami drug cartel. Out of Time found her reteaming with Training Day costar Denzel Washington. Flexing her comedic chops, Mendes was the love interest of half a pair of conjoined twins in the Farrelly brothers' Stuck on You. And in Once Upon a Time in Mexico she played another government agent, this time opposite Johnny Depp.Mendes would go on to appear in a number of films over the coming years, like The Wendell Baker Story, Hitch, Ghost Rider, The Other Guys, and Girl in Progress. She took several years off in order to focus on her growing family, but in 2015, it was announced she would reprise her role from 2 Fast 2 Furious in a future Fast film.

Trivia: Nick Chinlund's handsome, rugged exterior makes him an ideal candidate for roles in such high-profile, high-octane releases as Con Air and Tears of the Sun, so casting directors may be tempted to steer him toward films that make use of his somewhat imposing physical presence; nonetheless, the talented stage and screen actor also possesses the chops needed to highlight such little-seen indies as Amy's Orgasm and Chutney Popcorn. That rare combination offers great potential for crossover appeal, so audiences on both sides of the blockbuster spectrum can find reasons for appreciating an actor of Chinlund's caliber. The New York native started out as a jock, but his aspirations on the court were sidelined by a college basketball injury; however, it didn't take long for him to see the silver lining in his career-halting accident, and he soon veered toward acting. Though Chinlund would remain at Brown University in the following years, a shift toward drama classes soon convinced him that his future didn't lie on the well-polished planks of the basketball court, but the well-worn boards of the theater stage. Roles in such Williamstown Theater Festival productions as Mother Courage and Little Oedipus helped the fresh-faced hopeful make a name for himself in the theater community, and shortly after graduation, Chinlund opted to kick-start his feature career by making the move to Los Angeles. In addition to an impressively creepy early role in a pair of X-Files episodes entitled "Irresistable" and "Orison," Chinlund also made a mark in such features as Lethal Weapon 3, Bad Girls, and Eraser. While small-screen roles in episodes of Third Watch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer found Chinlund continuing to make a name for himself among television viewers, his performances in such character-driven dramas as A Brother's Kiss and Once in the Life saw the emerging actor eschewing more action-oriented fare in favor of roles in more down-to-earth features. Though supporting roles in Training Day, Below, and Tears of the Sun did find Chinlund's visibility rising among the multiplex set, it was his participation in such efforts as Goodnight, Joseph Parker (in which he played the eponymous character) that seemed to draw him the most praise from critics. In 2004, Chinlund rejoined Below director David Twohy for a role opposite action icon Vin Diesel in the eagerly anticipated Pitch Black sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick.

Trivia: Grew up in East Los Angeles. Was inspired to take up acting after a school trip to see the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird. Made TV debut in 1987 and has appeared in guest or recurring roles in some 30 series, including Cagney & Lacey, Knots Landing, China Beach, The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, NYPD Blue, 24, My Name Is Earl, Nip/Tuck and CSI: Miami. Was a regular on The Eddie Files, a Peabody Award-winning math-education program that aired on PBS stations in the late 1990s. Received a 2010 Saturn Award nomination for his role as psychotic drug dealer Tuco on Breaking Bad. Likes to build and ride motorcycles; a bike he owns appeared in a 2008 episode of The Closer.

Trivia: Dyed his hair blue for the role of Judas in a high school production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Made his film debut in 2001 cult favorite Donnie Darko. The film's lead, Jake Gyllenhaal, was a high-school classmate of Kranz's. Landed his first regular TV role with CBS sitcom Welcome to the Captain. Frequently works with Joss Whedon, acting in Whedon's Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods and Much Ado About Nothing. Played Bernard in Mike Nichols' 2012 Broadway production of Death of a Salesman.