Trivia: Whether you view him as one of the most fearless filmmakers in modern cinema and television or simply one of the most sophomoric, there's no denying that Jackass director Jeff Tremaine has forever changed the way viewers respond to pain. Not the kind of pain involved with seeing a stuntman fly through a glass window either; we're talking genuine, throbbing, potentially paralyzing, compound fracture-induced blunt physical trauma. Of course, what are life's little setbacks if you're not able to laugh at them? As a one-time residing editor and art director for Big Brother magazine, Tremaine was well-versed in the art of pain thanks to a constant exposure to skateboarding mishaps. Approached by Big Brother writer Johnny Knoxville to publish an article in which the fearless journalist doused himself with pepper spray, zapped himself with a Taser, and took a .38 slug though a bulletproof vest, Tremaine had the foresight to ask his eager young contributor to videotape the proceedings for posterity. When the Big Brother video series hit the shelves and Knoxville's painful antics proved particularly appealing to skateboard fans who had grown numb to the familiar pavement-kissing wipeouts, the pair soon joined forces with filmmaker Spike Jonze and the East Coast CKY (Camp Kill Yourself) crew that included Ryan Dunn, Bam Margera, and Brandon DiCamillo to expand Knoxville's original concept into a television pilot. The resulting show, appropriately titled Jackass, was an immediate hit upon premiering in 2000, though after three seasons and numerous attempts by teenagers to replicate the dangerous (and sometimes nauseating) stunts, founding father Knoxville opted to cancel the series while it was still fairly fresh. Of course, Tremaine and company weren't anywhere near finished inflicting pain on themselves and their fellow cast members, and after upping the ante with the 2002 theatrical release Jackass: The Movie, the director would join Jackass regulars Steve-O and Chris Pontius for the outrageous nature show Wildboyz. Essentially Jackass-meets-National Geographic, Wildboyz took to the wilderness to see just how far Steve-O and Pontius could push mother nature before being either eaten by lions, trampled alive by elephants, or stung by some hideously venomous insect. Fortunately for fans, the show went on to become a moderate success, and in 2005 Tremaine and company were back at their old tricks to bring Jackass: Number Two to the big screen.

Trivia: A bald and frequently bespectacled screen presence whose "average Joe" appearance and keen talent allow him the unique ability to truly transform into the character at hand, Willie Garson may have won over Sex and the City viewers as protagonist Carrie's (Sarah Jessica Parker) endlessly loyal friend, but with over a decade of film and television appearances to his credit by that time, his success should certainly be labeled more "long-time coming" than "overnight sensation." Garson began training as an actor at New York's Actor's Institute in his early teens, and in the years following high school graduation he studied theater and psychology at Wesleyan University. It didn't take long for the talented stage and screen presence to find roles following his higher education, with guest appearances in such popular television shows as Family Ties, Mr. Belvedere, and Quantum Leap eventually leading to a supporting role in the well-received made-for-television feature The Deliberate Stranger. If his film roles throughout the majority of the '90s were generally of the thankless variety, Garson nevertheless grew increasingly active thanks to roles in such high-profile features as Groundhog Day, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, The Rock, and There's Something About Mary. A three-year stint in a supporting role in NYPD Blue showed Garson lending the series a decidedly human presence as Detective Simone's (Jimmy Smits) landlord. The stage-minded actor never forgot his roots, remaining constantly active with such New York-based theater companies as The Manhattan Theatre Club and The Roundabout Table. A long-time friend of actress Parker, Garson's friendship with the actress no doubt contributed to the easy rapport shared by the duo in the hit HBO series Sex and the City. With subsequent roles in Steven Spielberg's acclaimed sci-fi miniseries Taken, and in addition to such features as Freaky Friday proving that he was as much an "actor's actor" as a crowd-pleaser, Garson's post-Sex and the City career seemed as healthy as ever. He worked steadily in projects such as House of D, Fever Pitch, and in appeared in Jackass: Number Two. He returned to the small-screen as the lead in the series White Collar in 2009. In his increasingly non-existent spare time, Garson can be found reading to school children on a weekly basis as part of the Screen Actors Guild popular "Bookpals" program.

Trivia: Born in 1968 in Chicago, the Tamil-American writer/director Jay Chandrasekhar ignited his show-business career as the most active contributor to the five-member Broken Lizard sketch comedy team. Chandrasekhar -- a graduate of Lake Forest Academy -- attended Colgate University in the early '90s, where he met his contemporary Lizardians Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. The troupe initially christened itself "Charred Goosebeak," but quickly went with the name "Broken Lizard" instead. Club dates and, eventually, two feature films ensued, the 1996 Puddle Cruiser and the 2001 Super Troopers; Chandrasekhar took the director's chair for each. Rife with sight gags, scatological puns, double entendres, and slapstick, the movies (which premiered at Sundance) suggested influences by such laff-fests as the Police Academy series and the "Kentucky Fried Theater" films. Fox Searchlight picked up Super Troopers and it made indie box-office gold; a 2004 follow-up, the less successful slapstick/horror hybrid Broken Lizard's Club Dread, followed. At this point, Hollywood acknowledged Chandrasekhar's talent, not only by inviting him as a guest director to helm episodes of such hit series as Arrested Development, Undeclared, and Cracking Up, but via an invitation to direct the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard update, co-starring Jessica Simpson, Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Burt Reynolds, and, in supporting roles, additional members of the Broken Lizard team. The film revealed that Chandrasekhar had his hand on the audience's pulse -- unlike the director's prior motion pictures, it soared to number one across America (despite critical pans). Chandrasekhar then announced work on a fourth Broken Lizard vehicle, Beerfest, another wild comedy, about a couple of Americans who travel to Deutschland for the Oktoberfest. Chandrasekhar is married to the actress Susan Clarke; they have one child.

Trivia: Although he made his film debut in the acclaimed independent film Bottle Rocket, actor Luke Wilson, born on September 21st, 1971, initially got more recognition for his real-life role as Drew Barrymore's boyfriend than for his acting. Fortunately for Wilson, his onscreen talents outlasted his relationship with Barrymore, and he has enjoyed steady employment and increasing visibility through substantial roles in a number of films.A native Texan, Wilson was born in Dallas in 1971. The son of an advertising executive and a photographer, he was raised with two brothers, Owen and Andrew. The three would all go on to make their careers in film, with Wilson discovering his love of acting while a student at Occidental College. In 1993, the brothers Wilson collaborated with Wes Anderson to make Bottle Rocket, which was initially a 15-minute short. The gleefully optimistic story of three Texans who aspire to become successful thieves, Bottle Rocket premiered at the 1993 Sundance Festival, where it attracted the attention of director James L. Brooks. With Brooks' help, the short became a full-length feature film released in 1996. That same year, Wilson also appeared in the coming-of-age drama Telling Lies in America.After large roles in three 1998 comedies, Bongwater, Home Fries, and Best Men (the latter two co-starring Barrymore), Wilson went on to star in another three comedies the following year. The first, Dog Park, was a Canadian film directed by Kids in the Hall alum Bruce McCulloch and featured Wilson as one of a group of twenty-somethings undergoing the trials and tribulations of love. Blue Streak starred the actor as the sidekick of robber-turned-policeman Martin Lawrence, while Kill the Man (which premiered at the 1999 Sundance Festival) cast him as the owner of a small copy center competing with a large chain store across the street.Though he would stick closely to comedy through 2001 with roles in Charlie's Angels (2000) and Legally Blonde (2001), Wilson took a turn for the sinister in the thrillers Preston Tylk and Soul Survivors (both 2001), before reteaming with his brother Owen and Wes Anderson to give one of his most memorable performances as Richie, the suicidal tennis pro in The Royal Tenenbaums.In 2003, Wilson reprised two past roles, appearing in both Charlies Angels: Full Throttle and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. That same year, he also scored a hit as one of the stars of Todd Phillips' Old School. 2004 saw Wilson embark on The Wendell Baker Story, a film he stars in, co-directs with brother Andrew Wilson, and co-writes with brother Owen Wilson. Laced with supporting roles and cameos from such iconic friends as Harry Dean Stanton, Kris Kristofferson, and Eddie Griffin, this quirky low-budgeter made the festival rounds in 2005-6 and the responses were encouragingly supportive; Variety's Joe Leydon observed, "The co-directing Wilson siblings smartly refrain from pushing anything too hard or too often, making the unpredictable eruptions of straight-faced absurdity all the more effective. Luke Wilson is extremely engaging in lead role." Many praised the Wilson brothers' directorial and scriptwriting intuition and their willingness to take risky-yet-triumphant gambles onscreen.Wilson joined the cast of early 2006's box-office sleeper hit The Family Stone, a family drama with an ensemble that includes Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson and Sarah Jessica Parker; the remainder of the year sees Wilson appearing in a string of supporting roles in light and dark comedies. In a minor performance in May 2006's Hoot, Wilson plays Officer David Delinsky, who attempts to sabotage a plot by local children to blow up a pancake house. His appearance in July 2006's My Super Ex-Girlfriend marks director Ivan Reitman's return to the big screen since 2001's box-office disappointment Evolution; it stars Uma Thurman as a superhero who gets even with her ex-beau (Wilson) after he casts her aside. He also highlights summer 2006's Mini's First Time, a black comedy about an incestuous daughter and stepfather who have the mother committed to a mental hosiptal; co-stars include Jeff Goldblum and Carrie-Anne Moss. Idiocracy, directed by cult fave (and Beavis and Butthead creator) Mike Judge, has Wilson as a moron hurled a thousand years into the future by the U.S. Government, only to discover he is the most intelligent person on the planet.In the tradition of 8mm, 2007's jet-black paranoid thriller Vacancy will co-star Wilson and Sex and the City's Sarah Jessica Parker as husband-and-wife who check into a hotel and unwittingly become the targets of a snuff film, while, in that same year's semi-spoof Dallas (2007) (adapted from the early-eighties TV sensation and directed by Gurinder Chadha) Wilson will tentatively co-star as Bobby Ewing, alongside Jennifer Lopez as Sue Ellen, Shirley MacLaine as Miss Ellie, and John Travolta as the infamous J.R.. Wilson's additional film roles throughout 2007 include Barry Munday (an indie pic helmed by Chris d'Arienzo and adapted from Frank Hollon's novel Life is A Strange Place, about a chauvinist who wakes up and discovers his own emasculation); and Last Seduction helmer John Dahl's mafioso comedy You Kill Me. In 2010, Wilson appeared in the films Death at a Funeral and Middle Men.

Trivia: Athlete-turned-television celebrity Jason Taylor initially shot to fame on the basis of his professional football career, as a defensive end for the Miami Dolphins team. Though many regarded Taylor (during his high school years) as an unlikely candidate for the NFL, given his parents' decision to home school him, Taylor proved the naysayers wrong by catching the eye of Woodland Hills, PA, high-school football coach George Novak in 1990; Novak helped turn the blossoming athlete into one of the region's top football stars. Taylor hit the gridiron at the University of Akron, and in time was drafted by the Dolphins -- a team he led to two Pro Bowls through the end of 2003. In 2006, Taylor transitioned to movie roles by participating in the comedic shockumentary Jackass: Number Two, and two years later was tapped by ABC to perform opposite dance pro Edyta Sliwinska in the sixth season of the competitive reality series Dancing with the Stars.

Trivia: A former engineer, Mike Judge achieved animation renown for his dead-on idiot savant satire of American suburban teen culture in the MTV phenomenon Beavis and Butt-Head.Born in Ecuador and raised in Albuquerque, NM, Judge got a degree in physics at U.C. San Diego. Relocating to Texas, Judge worked as an engineer and also tried to forge a career as a musician, but found that animation was his preferred calling. After a Dallas animation festival, Judge's 1991 short Office Space was picked up by Comedy Central. His 1992 short Frog Baseball, featuring two sadistic teen cretins voiced by Judge, subsequently led to a 1993 MTV animated series revolving around the heavy metal-loving adolescents Beavis and Butthead.Anchored by the pair's witty critiques of music videos ("this blows, huh-huh-huh"), Beavis and Butt-Head attracted devout fans with its astutely low-brow take on the teen boy culture of raging hormones, loud music, fast food, and pyromania. Despite fierce criticism of its overt idiocy and a 1993 scandal involving its influence on a fire-setting viewer, Beavis and Butt-Head ran for several years, spawning lucrative merchandising and Judge's first big-screen feature, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996). Judge branched out into network TV in 1997 with Fox's popular, Emmy-nominated animated comedy series King of the Hill, featuring executive producer Judge as the voice of laconic Texas propane salesman and family man Hank Hill. Bringing his sweetly jaundiced view of American suburbia to live-action film, Judge expanded his early short into the full-length feature Office Space (1999). Humorously chronicling the myriad forms of office cubicle and chain-restaurant hell, with visually clever detours into the suburban white male affection for gangsta rap, Office Space wickedly celebrated one man's revolt against 1990s corporate culture and became a small hit. Despite his initial success with live action, Judge became somewhat dormant as a writer-director of feature films in the years following Office Space's initial release. Over the next decade, Judge continued his work with small-screen animation via King of the Hill, and made vocal contributions to the outrageously tasteless yet intelligent blockbuster South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). He nonetheless remained conspicuously absent from megaplexes for almost a decade, which made Office Space cultists increasingly impatient for a follow-up to that earlier hit. It eventually arrived in the form of 2006's Idiocracy -- a satirical sci-fi comedy produced for Fox Searchlight that Judge scripted along with Etan Cohen, whom he had previously worked with on Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill. In the film, the U.S. military recruits the "most average man in the Army" (Luke Wilson) to take part in a secret experiment in which he will be cryogenically frozen for one year. He wakes up 500 years later to find out that he was forgotten about when the base closed; now in the year 2505, he discovers that he is the most intelligent person on Earth, as society has been dumbed down to the point where a former porn star/wrestler is the President of the Unites States.In summer 2009, Judge released his next live-action feature film, Extract, starring Jason Bateman as the owner of a flavor-extract manufacturing company who struggles with his factory workers and dreams of selling off his business -- a reversal of the dynamic and setting of his previous workplace comedy Office Space, wherein cubicle drones dream of rebellion against their insufferable boss and corporate overlords. Extract also featured Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck, Gene Simmons, Kristen Wiig, among others. Shortly thereafter, Judge wrapped up his long-running King of the Hill series after completing its 13th season.