Trivia: As a key member of what many comedy lovers consider to be one of the funniest families on Hollywood, producer/writer/actor Shawn Wayans has been instrumental in bringing such hit parodies as Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, Scary Movie, and its sequel Scary Movie 2 to the big screen. Though Wayans has occasionally branched out to appear in such non-Wayans productions as the 1999 action thriller New Blood, it's mainly family that serves as this funnyman's bread and butter, with a lead role in the WB sitcom The Wayans Bros. leading to increasingly prominent roles in such family productions as White Chicks and Little Man. Raised in the Chelsea area of Manhattan with his nine siblings, Wayans credits his family's boundless sense of humor in helping him to get by when money was tight and the future looked grim. Supporting roles in such early efforts as elder brother Keenen Ivory's I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and the hit sketch comedy series In Living Color (for which he also DJ'ed) encouraged Wayans to try his hand at writing, and in the following years he would team with sibling Marlon to great success. Specializing in the kind of low-brow comedy that appealed mainly to the high-school and college set, the two Wayans soon found that an ideal way to gauge the success was in how much their efforts offended their mother. When their disapproving mom walked out on Scary Movie 2, the pair knew they had a surefire hit on their hands. After appearing as the titular "females" in the 2004 comedy White Chicks, it was time to shrink his best collaborator down to size for the big-head-on-a-little-body comedy Little Man in 2006.

Trivia: The youngest member of what may arguably be the funniest family in show business, Marlon Wayans may also be working his way up to becoming funniest member of the funniest family in show business. Regarding the formidable task of living up to the humorous standards set by his siblings, Marlon takes a healthy and positive attitude, considering his family an important exemplary support system rather than an ominous shadow casting impossible expectations.Born in 1972 in New York City, Marlon graduated from the School of Performing Arts in New York before moving on to study film and arts at Howard University. Following the lead of eldest clan member and brother Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marlon was inspired to pursue a career in show business. After taking a small role in brother Keenen's blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! (1988), Marlon joined the cast of Keenen's groundbreaking and trend-setting hip-hop variety show, In Living Color. A natural knack for comedy found Marlon quickly gaining momentum among the cast and refining the skills that would eventually lead him to bigger roles in both film and television. With his role in brother Damon's con-artist comedy Mo' Money, Marlon continued to display his talents for comedy with more substantial roles. Teaming with brother Shawn for television's The Wayans Bros. (1995), Marlon began to expand his responsibilities. Taking on numerous roles -- from writer to director and, of course, star -- Marlon learned the virtues of multi-tasking that would lead him to become a key creative force behind such spoofs as Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) and Scary Movie (2000). Wayans gained the majority of positive press earned by the otherwise run-of-the-mill comedy Senseless, and a few even compared him to the likes of Jerry Lewis, thanks to his talent for rubber-limbed humor. Yet Marlon began to seek out more serious roles. "I would do straight dramatic stuff. I'm trained as a dramatic actor," he said. "A lot of people just think I'm funny and crazy all the time, but I went to a performing arts high school, so I'm trained in the dramatic arts. I just happen to be funny." Though Marlon got deadly serious for his role as Jared Leto's drug-addicted friend on a collision course with disaster in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, he continued to display his exceptional gift for comedy by hosting the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards with brother Shawn, and developing the follow-up to his runaway hit Scary Movie.The early 2000s were less benevolent to Wayans. Critics singled out and excoriated him for his foolhardy appearance as Snails in the 2000 bomb Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie. Cited as one of the most wretched films of its year - or any year, by almost everybody, Dungeons barely made half of its thirty-five million dollar budget. USA Today wrote, "Marlon Wayans' performance as a cowardly thief would have seemed in bad taste a half-century ago." As Gawain McSam in the lackluster Coen brothers remake The Ladykillers, Wayans similarly did little more than reinforce an ignorant, filthy-mouthed, jive-talking ghetto stereotype; moviegoers responded slightly more favorably than critics.Perhaps sensing the need to return to his roots for a fresh success, Marlon spent 2004 and 2006 in two family vehicles: the raunchy comedies White Chicks and Little Man, respectively In the former, he and brother Shawn play African American federal agents who go undercover as blonde Caucasian sorority girls to bust a kidnapping scheme. This film climbed the charts to become a top weekend and summer grosser. Little Man, directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and released in July 2006, uses trick photography and sight gags to turn Marlon into the dwarfish thief Calvin Simms, who attempts to retrieve a fenced jewel by posing as an infant and hiding out in the home of aspiring parents. Once there, he relentlessly torments his would-be adoptive father (Shawn Wayans).

Trivia: A successful model (and, despite her masculine-sounding first name, most certainly not a man), James King has gone from gracing the pages of the world's leading fashion magazines to a promising career as an actress. Jaime King (James is a stage name) was born in Omaha, NE, in 1979; King's statuesque beauty became evident at a young age, and in her early teens, she began attending a local modeling school. When King was 14, a representative from a New York modeling agency saw her in a show, and a year later King's career was in high gear. King's picture had appeared in Vogue, Glamour, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, and Mademoiselle before she'd reached the age of 17, and she'd also become an in-demand runway model, with her lean good looks being used to promote the latest designs from Christian Dior, Marithe and Francois Girbaud, and Chanel. However, after rising to fame, King succumbed to the pressures and temptations of the high-pressure world of modeling, and she began to abuse alcohol and drugs, leading to a brief addiction to heroin; King had also become romantically involved with photographer David Sorrenti, and after he died of a drug overdose in 1997, King was inspired to get clean and sober and has remained drug-free since then.King's acting career really took flight, with appearances in the biopic Blow, the blockbuster Pearl Harbor, and the teen-horror satire Happy Campers. The actress would spend the 2000's cementing her role as an in-demand starlet, appearing in films like Sin City, Two for the Money, and Fanboys, as well as numerous TV shows, like The Class, Gary Unmarried, and Heart of Dixie.

Trivia: Born Richard Laughlin Munro in the small town of Lac La Hache in British Columbia, Canadian-born actor Lochlyn Munro made a name for himself with high-strung comic performances in such films as Scary Movie, Dead Man on Campus, and A Guy Thing, as well as turns in more dramatic roles. A gifted sportsman who won awards as a competitive athlete, Munro was in his mid-'20s when he began to focus on a career in acting. His first professional credits were guest appearances on such TV series as Wiseguy and Neon Rider, and while he made his big-screen debut with a bit part in Cadence, he spent much of the early to mid-'90s doing television work, and began building a fan base when he was cast as a regular on the Canadian drama Northwood. He also starred in the short-lived crime series Two, and played recurring roles on JAG and Charmed. Munro's breakthrough was the comedy Dead Man on Campus, in which he played an overly intense college student whose roommates, in hopes of scoring an easy A, attempt to lead him to his death; he was cast as another tightly wound young man in A Night at the Roxbury. In 2000, Munro appeared in the top-grossing horror film spoof Scary Movie, as well as a more straightforward terror tale, Dracula 2000, and Bruce Paltrow's karaoke-themed comedy drama Duets.

Trivia: A veteran of Chicago's free-form Organic Theatre, the boyish, personable John Heard won the Theatre World Award for his performance in the 1976 play Streamers, and two years later was the recipient of the Obie Award for two separate off-Broadway productions. He made his film bow as the harried correspondent for an underground newspaper in Joan Micklin Silver's Between the Lines. In Silver's 1979 Head Over Heels, Heard again received top billing, this time as the obsessive ex-lover of Mary Beth Hurt. One of his first "mainstream" leading roles was in Paul Schrader's erotic thriller Cat People (1981). Heard was agreeable, if a little bullheaded, as Macaulay Culkin's dad in the two Home Alone films; less agreeable was his portrayal of Tom Hanks' abrasive business rival in Big (1988) On television, Heard was seen as the tormented Reverend Dimmesdale opposite Meg Foster's Hester Prynne in the PBS production of The Scarlet Letter, and was heard as one of the celebrity voices on the made-for-cable Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam (1987). John Heard was at one time married to actress Margot Kidder. He turned in fine supporting work in Beaches, and was the bad guy in the Tom Hanks hit Big. A well-respected character actor, Heard continued to work in projects as diverse as Rambling Rose, Radio Flyer, In the Line of Fire, and the comedy My Fellow Americans. He had a major part in the Brian De Palma thriller Snake Eyes in 1998, and the next year he had a brief recurring part on The Sopranos. He appeared in the 2000 biopic Pollock, and the next year was in the Shakespeare inspired high-school drama O. In 2002 he played legendary television executive Roone Arledge in the made for TV film Monday Night Mayhem, and in 2004 he appeared in the comedy White Chicks. He worked non-stop throughout the rest of the decade appearing in such films as The Great Debaters, The Guardian, and Formosa Betrayed. In 2007 he was cast in the short-lived ABC series Cavemen. In 2011 he was part of the ensemble in the well-regarded docudrama about the 2008 financial meltdown, Too Big to Fail.

Trivia: With her memorable performance as tough but sympathetic rebel teen Kim Kelly in the critically praised but criminally short-lived series Freaks and Geeks, actress Busy Philipps crafted one of the most compelling young characters in contemporary television. In addition to later serving as something of a life-support system for the rapidly expiring teen drama Dawson's Creek, Philipps has gone on to make a name for herself in such features as the Columbine-influenced Home Room and the 2004 comedy White Chicks as well. Born Elizabeth Jean Philipps in Oak Park, IL, the active youngster was quickly dubbed "Busy" for her seemingly boundless energy and sociability. A role as Wilber the Pig in a grade-school production of Charlotte's Web eventually lead to Philipps being voted Best Actress of her class in her senior yearbook. The ambitious screen prospect went on to take classes at the Acting Lab of Arizona, where she would write and produce a pair of successful plays. Philipps subsequently refined her skills by studying at England's Oxford School of Drama before making a name for herself in community theater around the Scottsdale area, with her first professional gig coming with a role as a real-life Barbie doll at Mattel's Toy Fair convention in New York. Philipps role in Freaks and Geeks did wonders for her exposure, regardless of the endearing show's remarkably short lifespan, and in the years that followed, she continued to impress in such features as Anatomy of a Hate Crime and Home Room. Many viewed Philipps' involvement with Dawson's Creek as something of a breath of fresh air for the somewhat stale series, with simultaneous appearances in the Freaks and Geeks follow-up series Undeclared proving a welcome opportunity to work with old friends. In 2004, Philipps took a supporting role opposite Jaime King in the Shawn and Marlon Wayans comedy White Chicks. In 2009 she was cast in the TV series Cougar Town, and in 2011 she appeared in the Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle I Don't Know How She Does It.

Trivia: A native of Flint, MI, who played in the NFL for seven years before segueing into film, athlete-turned-actor Terry Crews made his television debut on the small-screen sports entertainment show Battle Dome and has since moved on to appear in films by such disparate directors as David Lynch, Mike Judge, and David Ayer.During high school, Crews studied at Interlochen Art Academy, and he continued on to Western Michigan University for college; it was during his freshman year that he first took to the gridiron, and after making an impression as a Mid-American Conference defensive end, he solidified his reputation as a star player by leading his team to the Mid-American Conference championship in 1988. Crews married longtime wife Rebecca the day before his 21st birthday, and later went on to have an impressive professional football career while playing for the L.A. Rams, the San Diego Chargers, and the Washington Redskins. Though he had originally intended to become a special-effects artist, Crews gradually became aware of the power of his onscreen charisma when he accepted a role in the short-lived television series Battle Dome in 1999. Despite the fact that only a few episodes of the seires ever made it to the airwaves, the experience left Crews convinced that he had found his calling.Few lifelong actors could even dream of landing roles in such major motion pictures as The 6th Day, Training Day, and Friday After Next so early in their careers, but that's precisely what Crews did, and he has never looked back since. The actor's hulking frame made him an ideal candidate for intimidating onscreen figures, and his disarming sense of humor has found him developing a distinct comic persona in such films as Starsky & Hutch, Soul Plane, White Chicks, and The Longest Yard while also winning over viewers on the small screen with his role as Chris Rock's father on Everybody Hates Chris. As a supporting player, Crews consistently impresses, with his little-seen role as former professional wrestler-turned-President of the United States in Beavis and Butt-Head creator Judge's Idiocracy (2006) offering a telling example of how far he is willing to go to get a laugh. That same year, Crews showed his impressive range by making a brief appearance in surrealist specialist Lynch's Inland Empire, with comic roles in Norbit, Who's Your Caddy?, and Balls of Fury following in short order.2008 proved a busy year for Crews. In addition to his continued work on Everybody Hates Chris, he co-starred in the police drama Street Kings, as well as director Peter Segal's revamp of the classic comedy series Get Smart. Crews played a member of a motley gang of mercenaries in 2010's action blockbuster The Expendables (he reprised this role for the film's sequel in 2012).

Trivia: Along with twin sister Cynthia, blonde beauty Brittany Daniel got her break through her role in the high school TV comedy drama Sweet Valley High. As snobbish cheerleader Jessica Wakefield, Brittany proved to be the show's breakout star, a turn which lead to being cast in such popular series as Dawson's Creek and her feature debut in The Basketball Diaries (1995). Born March 17, 1976 in Gainesville, FL, she and her sister began modeling in high school. As with many actors, modeling jobs lead to commercial work and, before Daniel knew it, guests spots on television shows. Following her role as the love interest of David Spade in the comedy Joe Dirt (2001), she returned to television with the short-lived That 80s Show. (She had previously made an appearance in That 70s Show as Penny [aka "Eric's Hot Cousin"].) Undaunted by the failure of That 80s Show, Daniel soldiered on in 2003 in the Broken Lizard troupe's parody of '80s slasher and resort films, Club Dread.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Naturally blonde, innocent-looking Jessica Cauffiel has drawn comparisons to Heather Graham in appearance, only with curlier ringlets. Her fresh-faced look has earned her a succession of supporting roles, often playing the sweet ditz. This character type runs contrary to her real-world intelligence -- among her other accomplishments, Cauffiel became fluent in the local language after a two-month stay in Indonesia. The daughter of a domestic violence police investigator and true crime novelist Lowell Cauffiel, the actress was born in Detroit, MI. Cauffiel attended the University of Michigan, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater before working briefly as an entertainment director on a cruise ship. An accomplished jazz singer, Cauffiel first gained television recognition on Guiding Light, then with two 1999 guest appearances on Frasier, where she played a vacant wild girl who gets stuffy Niles to wear leather jackets and party till dawn. Her first notable film role came as the wrong Tiffany in Road Trip (2000), in which she angrily batters her boyfriend's sports car after being mistakenly told he is cheating on her. Cauffiel then worked in a duo of obligatory teen slasher movies, Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) (in which she plays the femme fatale) and Valentine (2001), before appearing as one of Reese Witherspoon's cheery sorority sisters in the 2001 summer hit Legally Blonde. She followed that with You Stupid Man (2001), the directorial debut of Edward Burns' brother Brian.

Trivia: The classically beautiful, Massachusetts-born actress Anne Dudek received formal training in a number of theatrical masterworks, including the lead in a Chicago production of Iphigenia in Taurus, staged by JoAnne Akalaitis, before transitioning to supporting roles in filmed work. After a 2001 guest spot on ER, Dudek played Lisa Silk, daughter of racially masked professor Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins) in Robert Benton's thoughtful drama The Human Stain (2003). Dudek offered a memorable comic turn as snooty heiress Tiffany Wilson in the Wayans Brothers farce White Chicks (2004), and guest spots on such series programs as Six Feet Under (in 2003) and Desperate Housewives (in 2004), then scored her highest billing to date as Lorraine in Brad Silberling's 10 Items or Less (2006), starring Morgan Freeman. That same year, Dudek landed a plum role in Kurt Voelker's nutty, ensemble-driven farce, Park. In 2007, the actress scored several memorable and notably diverse supporting roles on the small screen: a '60s housewife on the critically acclaimed AMC drama Mad Men; one of the wives of the scheming Alby Grant on the HBO polygamist drama Big Love; and one of Dr. Gregory House's (Hugh Laurie) possible new employees at the start of the hit medical drama House's fourth season. Her ambitious character on the latter show, dubbed by House as "Cutthroat Bitch," was ultimately not chosen for his elite medical team, but she returned later in the season as the love interest of his best friend, Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard).Over the next several years, Dudek would land starring roles on still more successful shows like Big Love and Covert Affairs.

Trivia: Trained as a ballet dancer. Her big-screen break was the role of Denise Porter in White Chicks (2004). Has appeared in commercials for McDonald's, L'Oreal, Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz. Played Leigh Barnthouse in the short-lived 2007 Fox series Drive. Landed guest-star roles on CSI: NY, Bones and NCIS.

Trivia: For many impressionable filmgoers, actress Jennifer Carpenter will forever be the sheltered teen at the center of a controversial demonic possession case in The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Though her filmography has also included such features as White Chicks and D.E.B.S., it was the small screen that next served to improve her profile when the Kentucky native and Juilliard graduate took on a challenging role on the acclaimed Showtime series Dexter. It was Carpenter's aunt who helped to get the aspiring young actress interested in a career as a performer, and though her dad urged her to have a backup plan, there was no room for a half-hearted attempt as far as the determined daughter was concerned. In the years that followed, she threw herself headlong into her craft, eventually landing her breakthrough role opposite Angela Bettis in director Kevin Ford's intersecting-lives drama People Are Dead in 2002. Several film roles followed, until the prominent Emily Rose performance greatly boosted her profile in 2005. Fresh off that success, Carpenter went on to the prominent role of the titular character's adoptive sister, Debra Morgan, on Dexter. Carpenter stayed with the show through all eight seasons. The show ended in 2013 and Carpenter next appeared in the horror film The Devil's Hand. She appeared in the short-lived series Limitless in 2015.

Trivia: A veteran character actor whose work has shown he's as comfortable with comedy as drama, Frankie Faison was born in Newport News, VA, in 1949. Faison developed the acting bug while in grade school after appearing in a school play, and after high school he was a theater student at both Illinois Wesleyan University and New York University. Faison began pursuing a career in the theater, and appeared in a number of acclaimed off-Broadway productions, including Athol Fugard's Playland, the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of Before It Hits Home, and an adaptation of King Lear at the NYSF Delacorte Theater. Faison made his film debut in 1981 with a small role in Ragtime, and Faison soon began supplementing his stage work with small parts in motion pictures and guest shots on television. An inkling of what was to come for Faison appeared in 1986, when he was cast in a small role as a cop in Manhunter, an adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon, in which Brian Cox played the murderous Hannibal Lector. In 1987, Faison appeared on Broadway in August Wilson's drama Fences, opposite James Earl Jones; Faison's performance earned him a Tony award nomination. In 1988, Faison scored a showy comic role in the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America, and a year later he was one of the "corner men" in Spike Lee's acclaimed and controversial Do the Right Thing. In 1990, Faison scored the male lead in a short-lived sitcom, True Colors, and in 1991 he appeared in another adaptation of a Thomas Harris novel when he was cast as Barney Matthews, the big but gentle male nurse in The Silence of the Lambs. Faison continued to win supporting roles in a variety of notable films, including City of Hope, Sommersby, Mother Night, I Love Trouble, Albino Alligator, Where the Money Is, and The Thomas Crown Affair, and he had a leading role in the well-regarded police drama Prey; sadly, the show fared poorly in the ratings and didn't survive its first season. Faison revived his role as Barney Matthews in 2001's box-office blockbuster Hannibal, making him the only actor to appear in all three films about the famous cannibal. ~ Mark Deming