Trivia: Before he started acting, Mark Wahlberg was best known as Marky Mark, the pants-dropping rapper who attained fame and notoriety with his group the Funky Bunch. In the tradition of Will Smith and Ice Cube, Wahlberg has made a successful transition from music to film, garnering particular early praise for his role in Boogie Nights.Born June 5, 1971, in Dorchester, MA, Wahlberg had a troubled early life. One of nine children, he dropped out of school at 16 (he would later earn his GED) and committed a number of minor felonies. After working various odd jobs, Wahlberg briefly joined brother Donnie and his group New Kids on the Block before forming his own, Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch. The group had widespread popularity for a time, most notably with its 1992 hit single "Good Vibrations." However, it was Wahlberg himself who received the lion's share of attention, whether it was for the homophobia controversy that surrounded him for a time, or for the 1992 Calvin Klein ad campaign featuring him wearing nothing more than his underwear, Kate Moss, and an attitude. In 1993, Wahlberg turned his attentions to acting with a role in The Substitute. The film, co-starring a then-unknown Natasha Gregson Wagner, was a critical and commercial failure, but Wahlberg's next project, 1994's Renaissance Man, with Danny De Vito, gave him the positive notices that would increase with the release of his next film, The Basketball Diaries (1995). Although the film received mixed reviews, many critics praised Wahlberg's performance as Mickey, Leonardo Di Caprio's friend and fellow junkie. Following Diaries, Wahlberg appeared in Fear (1996) in the role of Reese Witherspoon's psychotic boyfriend.It was with the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights in 1997 that Wahlberg finally received across-the-board respect for his commanding yet unassuming performance as busboy-turned-porn-star Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler. The film was nominated for three Oscars and a slew of other awards by associations ranging from the British Academy to the New York Film Critics Circle to MTV. The positive attention landed Wahlberg on a wide range of magazine covers and gave him greater Hollywood pulling power. He had, as they say, arrived. Wahlberg's follow-up to Boogie Nights was 1998's The Big Hit, an action comedy that, particularly in the wake of Boogie Night's acclaim, proved to be a disappointment. This disappointment was hardly lessened by the relative critical and commercial shortcomings of Wahlberg's next film, The Corruptor (1999). An action flick that co-starred Chow Yun-Fat, The Corruptor showcased Wahlberg's familiar macho side and indicated that success in Hollywood is a strange and unpredictable thing. Though he gained positive notice for his role in David O. Russell' s unconventional war film Three Kings the same year, the film was only a moderate success, paving the way for an even more dramatic turn in the downbeat true story of the ill-fated Andrea Gail, The Perfect Storm, in 2000.The following year found Wahlberg filling some big shoes -- and receiving some hefty criticism as a result -- with his lead role in Tim Burton's much-anticipated remake of Planet of the Apes. Taking over the role that Charlton Heston made famous, Wahlberg found himself pursued onscreen by sinister simians, as well as offscreen by critics who decried the lack of depth that the actor brought to the role. Late that summer, Wahlberg came back down to Earth -- specifically to the everyday-Joe-rises-to-fame territory of Boogie Nights -- with Rock Star, the story of a tribute-band singer who gets a chance to sing for the band he idolizes. Though his noble attempt to fill the considerable shoes of Hollywood legend Cary Grant in the 2002 Charade remake The Truth About Charlie would be only slightly exceeded by his assumption of the role originally played by Michael Caine in the following year's remake of The Italian Job, Wahlberg would subsequently prove that there's nothing like the fresh breeze of an original script in director David O. Russell's existential 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees. Of course, Wahlberg was never one to let a crowd down, and after riling audiences alongside Tyrese Gibson and André Benjamin in the Detroit-based revenge flick Four Brothers, the athletic actor would take to the gridiron to tell the inspirational story of one football fan whose dreams of playing in the NFL actually came true in the 2006 sports drama Invincible. Also released in the fall of 2006, The Departed allowed Wahlberg to act opposite such heavy hitters as Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, and his old Basketball Diaries co-star Leonardo Di Caprio under the direction of Martin Scorsese. Not only did Wahlberg hold his own against the cast of critics' darlings, he landed the film's only acting Academy Award nod. In 2007, Wahlberg starred in the suspense actioner The Shooter, as well as in director Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones. Wahlberg starred as the leader of a ragtag group trying to survive amidst murderous plant life in M. Night Shyamalan's so-bad-it's-good The Happening (2008), and played the titular role of Max Payne, which was adapted from a video game of the same name. In 2010 the actor starred in the inspirational docudrama chronicling the life of brothers Micky and Dicky Ecklund as they take on the world of boxing. Wahlberg earned an Academy Award nomination for producing the film; that same year, he began producing a new show for HBO, Boardwalk Empire. Wahlberg had a huge hit in 2012 with Seth MacFarlane's Ted, and joined the Transformer franchise in Transformers: Age of Extinction in 2014. Wahlberg continued his steady work, starring and producing both Deepwater Horizon (which was nominated for two Oscars) and Patriots Day (about the Boston Marathon bombing) in 2016.

Trivia: A petite actress with olive skin and pixie features, Ukrainian-born Mila Kunis became a breakout teen star on the FOX sitcom That '70s Show, playing spoiled daddy's girl Jackie Burkhardt. The rare 15-year-old actress to be cast as a 15-year-old character, Kunis also demonstrated her maturity by mastering accent-free English only a few years after immigrating. Her command of slang and teen vocal mannerisms won her work even when her appearance was not being utilized, as she voiced another all-American teen on FOX's animated envelope-pusher, Family Guy.Milena Markovna Kunis was born on August 14, 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine, then moved with her parents to Los Angeles when she was seven years old. Kunis credits listening to the simple vocabulary of Bob Barker on The Price Is Right with helping her develop a speedy fluency in English. She enrolled in acting classes at the Beverly Hills Studio, where she was discovered performing in a showcase. She quickly began appearing in commercials. Kunis filled out her early resumé with such pit stops as Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997), Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), and the infamous WB ratings cellar-dweller Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher (1996). She also played a younger version of Angelina Jolie in the HBO movie Gia (1998). But it was her casting in Mark Brazill's That '70s Show that earned Kunis notice, as her petulant teen queen soon became a standout, able to range from endearing to grating. Her aggravated whining rung true enough to earn her a voice-over role on Family Guy, taking over for Lacey Chabert as Megan Griffin during the 2000 season. As the 2000's roled along, however, Kunis would seem to graduate to the ranks of adult actresses, rather than teen starlets, in seemingly the blink of an eye. Her comic turn in 2008's massively successful comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall kicked off Kunis' new style, followed quickly by roles as a femme fatale in 2008's Max Payne, a seductive grifter in 2009's Extract, and a post apocalyptic heroine in 2010's Book of Eli. 2010 would also find her playing opposite Natalie Portman's Oscar winning performance in Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller The Black Swan. Though her supporting role offered less opportunity to showcase her talents than her costar's did, Kunis was roundly praised for the skill and presence she brought to the production -- not to mention her commitment to transforming her body for her character, training for months in ballet -- all further cementing her reputation as a serious actress. Kunis would spend the next several years appearing in numerous projects, like Friends with Benefits, The Muppets, Ted, Oz the Great and Powerful and Jupiter Ascending, an epic space drama directed by the Wachowskis.

Trivia: Born December 17, 1974, in Los Angeles, Giovanni Ribisi began his career in network television, with recurring and guest roles on a number of shows, including The Wonder Years. As a teenager, he was typecast for several years as a dimwitted slacker in films and on television, with a memorable guest spot in an episode of The X-Files and a recurring role as Lisa Kudrow's brother on Friends. Ribisi was eventually able to break the grunge mold, first with a secondary role in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do! (1996) and then in Richard Linklater's SubUrbia (1997). It was his role in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) that caused many critics to dub him one of the leading actors of his generation, a status confirmed by his appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair with a number of fellow up-and-comers. Ribisi was given further opportunities to showcase his sleepy-eyed versatility in such films as 1999's The Mod Squad and The Other Sister. If Ribisi's best roles had been unfairly weighed down by an overabundance of commendable but little seen roles in the previous years, all this would change as the young actor began to focus increasingly on roles that were not only high quality, but high profile as well. His role in the high stakes 2000 drama The Boiler Room may have went largely unseen in theaters, but healthy word of mouth combined with an impressive cast of up and comers found the film an enduring shelf life on cable and DVD. After burning rubber in the fast and furious Nicolas Cage action thriller Gone in Sixty Seconds, Ribisi's memorable performance in director Sam Raimi's southern gothic flavored chiller The Gift preceded a touching turn in the affecting made-for-television drama Shot in the Heart. Ribisi's subsequent role as a conflicted police officer in the 2002 drama Heaven may have been a well-intended commentary on the state of crime and terrorism, but audiences largel dismissed the effort as pretentious tripe and the actor took a brief turn into blockbuster territory with Basic before a turn as an aloof, celebrity obsessed photogapher in director Sophia Coppola's art-house hit Lost in Translation. If his turn as a celebrity who turns convention in its head by stalking a fan in I Love Your Work didn't strike home with viewers, an appearance in the same year's Cold Mountain offered him the chance to flex his dramatic skills alongside an impressive cast that included Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. Of course Ribisi never was one to be predictable with his choice of roles, and following the romantic comedy Love's Brother he essayed a supporting role in the 2004 sci-fi thriller Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow. A handful of largely forgettable roles followed, and on the heels of recurring television roles in My Name is Earn and Entourage, Ribisi dove back into sci-fi with a role as villainous Chief Administrator Parker Selfridge in James Cameron's phenominally successful Avatar. And if Ribisi's performace in that film failed to make your skin crawl, his turn as a psychotic, heavily-tattooed drug dealer in the fast paced 2012 action thriller Contraband was sure to do the trick. He continued his villainous run as a stalker in the surprise hit film Ted (2012). Ribisi later re-teamed with his Ted director, Seth MacFarlane, in 2014's A Million Ways to Die in the West. He also appeared in the Oscar-nominated film Selma that same year.

Trivia: A television personality most familiar to viewers for his stint as the host of the E! network's satirical pop-culture commentary The Soup (updated and reworked from the channel's original Talk Soup), Joel McHale grew up in the Seattle area and attended the University of Washington as a theater major, where he earned his master's in drama. After relocating to Los Angeles, McHale signed for guest roles and bit parts on series including Will & Grace and Oliver Beene, then landed a small role as Mr. Jacks in the Sam Raimi feature Spider-Man 2, followed by parts in Catherine Hardwicke's Lords of Dogtown and the sketch comedy outing The Onion Movie. On the side, McHale also emceed a series of Burger King commercials. He culled his broadest fan base on The Soup, however, distinguishing himself with sharp sarcasm and a quick wit. He had a breakthrough when he was cast as the lead in the cult hit sitcom Community on NBC, and he continued to act in projects such as The Informant!, Spy Kids: All the Time In the World, and 2012's Ted.

Trivia: Founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade with comedians Matt Besser, Amy Poehler and Ian Roberts. They met while studying at the ImprovOlympics Theater in Chicago. Cowrote and starred in the 2003 movie Martin & Orloff. Hosts a sports podcast called Bear Down, about the Chicago Bears.

Trivia: Took classes at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia after graduating high school.Studied communications for 2 years at La Salle University.Made her television debut in the 2004 episode "Breath of Life" of the CBS series The District.Is known for playing Tami-Lynn in the comedy films Ted and Ted 2.Earned her first producing credit on the 2018 horror drama Along Came the Devil, in which she also starred.

Trivia: Taught acting at the University of Massachusetts. Co-founded the No Theatre Company. Made his New York debut in the No Theatre Company's 1978 production of The Elephant Man. Made his professional debut in an understudy role in the 1980 world premiere of Arthur Miller's "The American Clock". Received the 1993 Michael Landon Humanitarian Award for his work with the Down Syndrome Congress.

Trivia: Squared-jawed beefcake Patrick Warburton leapt into pop culture consciousness as David Puddy, Elaine's on-again, off-again boyfriend on the hit sitcom Seinfeld in 1995, and has since then steadily found his deadpan talents in ever-greater demand. With his squinty eyes and hard-boiled detective's voice, Warburton has become a humorous personality who can generate giggles with almost no effort, whether onscreen or in voice-overs.Warburton was born on November 14, 1964, in Paterson, NJ, and raised in Southern California, a son of little-known television actress Barbara Lord. The future Bugle Boy model studied marine biology at Orange Coast College, where he met his wife, Cathi, before dropping out to pursue modeling and acting at age 19. In his first screen appearance, the 17th century slave film Dragonard (1987), Warburton was subject to what is thought to be the longest onscreen flogging on film, a 100-lash scene that consumes nearly four minutes of screen time. He also appeared in the sequel, Master of Dragonard Hill (1989), before turning his attention to television.Warburton had guest spots on such shows as Murphy Brown, Designing Women, and Quantum Leap before scoring a recurring role on the short-lived Dave Barry sitcom Dave's World in 1993. But it was not until he appeared in the 1995 episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Fusilli Jerry" that Warburton really started to attract attention. As Puddy, Jerry's lunkhead mechanic who spits out dialogue in macho spurts, notably the catchphrase affirmation "Yeah that's right," Warburton quickly became a popular semi-regular, involved in a running joke about his frequent breakups and reconciliations with Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). He stayed with the show until it finished in 1998, and provided the voice for Superman in a series of commercials starring Seinfeld.Warburton had another recurring role as unscrupulous businessman Johnny Johnson on News Radio in 1999, then contributed his memorable voice to characters on the animated shows Family Guy, Hercules, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. By this time the big screen was really beckoning, as Warburton flexed his comic talents as a bodyguard in Scream 3 (2000), then toned them down as an American astronomer in Australia in The Dish (2000). His voice was again called upon, this time by Disney, for the role of a sorceress' thug assistant in The Emperor's New Groove (2000). Going zanier than on Seinfeld, Warburton signed on as the star of the Fox sitcom The Tick, about a muscle-bound but dimwitted superhero in a blue costume, which premiered in the fall of 2001. High-profile projects in 2002 would include a role in the delayed ensemble farce Big Trouble and as Agent T alongside Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black 2.Warburton became an in demand voice actor working on a variety of projects including TV series like The Venture Brothers and Family Guy, as well as movies such as Home on the Range, Chicken Little, The Wild, and Bee Movie. In 2007 he started on a successful run with the sitcom Rules of Engagement, and in 2012 he appeared in Seth McFarland's directorial debut, Ted.

Trivia: Tom Skerritt is probably the best-known actor whose name is never remembered. A rugged "outdoors" type, Skerritt briefly attended Wayne State University and UCLA before making his film bow in War Hunt (1962). His subsequent film and TV roles were sizeable, but so adept was Skerritt at immersing himself in his character that he seemed to have no tangible, recurrent personality of his own. Billed second as "Duke" in the original M*A*S*H* (1970), Skerritt did his usual finely-honed job, but audiences of the time preferred the demonstrative, mannered acting technique of Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall; significantly, Skerritt's character was not carried over into the even more unsubtle M*A*S*H TV series. Finally, in 1980, Skerritt began to attain a following with his authoritative performance in Alien. Since that time, there's been no stopping him. He posed in a popular series of "Guess?" Jeans ads, appeared as a 1987-88 regular on "Cheers," starred in 1992's A River Runs Through It (directed by his long-ago War Hunt costar Robert Redford), and won a 1994 Emmy for his work on the TV series "Picket Fences."Skerritt would continue to work at a remarkable pace, usually appearing in several projects a year. From 1999's family drama The Other Sister to 2003's war thriller Tears of the Sun, the actor could be spotted by fans of seemingly every area of film throughout the 90's and 2000's. In 2006, he took a recurring role in the hit primetime drama Brothers and Sisters, and in 2008 he signed on for the redneck comedy Beer for my Horses. He went on to appear in Whiteout, Multiple Sarcasms, and he made a cameo as himself in the R rated talking teddy bear movie Ted.

Trivia: Best known for her roles as the outrageous Mrs. Swan on MADtv and devoted wife Lois on the hit Fox series Family Guy, comedic female talent Alex Borstein has been keeping busy on screens both large and small ever since appearing in a handful of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in the mid-'90s. Born in Highland Park, Chicago, and raised in the nearby suburb of Deerfield, Borstein moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1980 and eventually enrolled in San Francisco State University. It was there that the aspiring comic began trying her talent at improvisational theater, and shortly after graduation she would begin performing at the ACME Comedy Theatre. Small roles in The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and a short-lived spin-off were quick to follow, with her stint on MADtv beginning in 1997. While many fans cited her as a highlight of MADtv thanks to her outlandish characters and quick wit, Borstein was also eager to launch a film career and could frequently be seen in features such as Showtime, Bad Santa, and Catwoman. With a distinctive voice that seemed to lend itself well to animated performances, Borstein was cast as levelheaded housewife Lois on Family Guy in 1999. It was around this time that she also continued her small-screen trajectory with a handful appearances on the wildly popular family drama Gilmore Girls.In 2005, Borstein took a turn for the dramatic in the monochromatic period drama Good Night, and Good Luck, with subsequent television roles on Drawn Together and Robot Chicken serving well to balance out the seriousness of the critically acclaimed Edward R. Murrow drama. The following year, Borstein brought her popular stage show to viewers across the nation with the release of Drop Dead Gorgeous (In a Down to Earth Bombshell Sort of Way) on home video. In 2007, Borstein was paired with Good Night, and Good Luck star Jeff Daniels once again in the tense crime thriller The Lookout. As the years rolled on, Borstein would continue to remain a force on screen, appearing in movies like Killers, Dinner for Schmucks, and Ted.

Trivia: Her Dutch ancestry more than evident via her traditional Flemish look, fair-haired Canadian-born actress Laura Vandervoort seemed poised to scale untold heights when she took her dramatic bow in the early 2000s (at age 16). Initially, Vandervoort landed bit parts in direct-to-video outings such as Alley Cats Strike! (2000), Mom's Got a Date With a Vampire (2000), and Troubled Waters (2006), but she quickly signed for a lead, as Kara (aka Supergirl) in the seventh season of the series Smallville. Vandervoort next landed a very small part in the 2007 theatrical release The Lookout, written and directed by Out of Sight scribe Scott Frank. In the years to come, Smith would remain active on screen, appearing in movies like Ted and on the SyFy werewolf series Bitten.

Trivia: Actor Robert Wu began his career in the late '90s, and built up his resumé by working steadily through the new millennium, appearing in low-profile films like Kung Phooey! and Painted Angels. After appearing in the Courteney Cox Arquette thriller November in 2004, Wu did some television work on shows like The Shield before signing on for Nanking, Bill Guttentag's documentary about the 1937 massacre of the Chinese city.

Trivia: Charlotte, NC, native Jessica Stroup graduated to acting by way of fashion modeling (much of it print-oriented); a veteran of Edge Management and Los Angeles' Osbrink Agency, Stroup did advertisements for such brands as Velveeta, Honda, and Dentine (whose executives promptly enlisted her as the "Dentine Ice Girl") and struck a memorably alluring pose in Glamour magazine. From such heights, it was only a short leap to the big screen and to telemovies; as an ingenue, Stroup followed the path of many an ascendant actress by eking out a screen presence in grisly fright-fests. Early projects included Pray for Morning (2006), The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007), and Prom Night (2008). She was cast in the 90210 reboot in 2008 and the next year she appeared in the thriller Homecoming.

Trivia: Family Guy writer/producer/star Mike Henry first met series creator Seth MacFarlane while appearing alongside the funnyman in the student films of his brother Patrick Henry (who was at the time a classmate of MacFarlane's at the Rhode Island School of Design) and was involved with the animated Fox hit from the onset. In addition to his work as a behind-the-scenes talent and vocal contributor on Family Guy (on which he voices the character Cleveland Brown), Richmond, VA, native Henry has also helped to create the Internet video series "Kicked in the Nuts" and made vocal contributions to Robot Chicken and the MacFarlane-created series American Dad. He'd continue to act in and on MacFarlane productions like The Cleveland Show, which he would also help write and produce.