Trivia: The career of funny girl Mo'Nique began in her early twenties, when she took to the improv comedy stage on a dare from her brother. The impulsive decision met with success, and she began to pursue a career in standup comedy, eventually performing on such renowned shows as Def Comedy Jam, Showtime at the Apollo, and Snaps. Mo'Nique's big break came in 1999, when she landed her own sitcom, starring on UPN's The Parkers as a single mom attending college alongside her daughter. She was 32 years old, and the days when she was working at the phone company in her hometown of Baltimore were about to seem very far away. The critical and commercial success of The Parkers led to a slew of awards and movie roles, including Two Can Play That Game, Baby Boy, Half Past Dead, Shadowboxer, Domino, and Soul Plane. Despite having her pick of scripted roles, Mo'Nique was still itching to get back to her standup roots. She joined Adele Givens, Sommore, and Laura Hayes for a hugely successful comedy tour called The Queens of Comedy, which was captured on film and released by Paramount Home Entertainment and the Showtime network in 2002. Never shying away from her status as a full-figured woman, Mo'Nique has used her notoriety and her famously sarcastic wit in order to advocate for voluptuous women everywhere. Her funny and empowering book Skinny Women Are Evil became a best-seller in 2003, and she soon afterward began working with the Oxygen network on a beauty pageant for full-figured women called F.A.T. Chance -- an acronym for "fabulous and thick." She also starred in the movie Phat Girlz in 2006, playing a struggling fashion designer looking for love and success in a world of "hot bodies." Later that same year, the large-and-in-charge star could be seen onscreen with the Broken Lizard comedy troupe in the alcohol-chugging chuckler Beerfest. In 2009, she began hosting her own talk show on BET, The Mo'Nique Show.It was Mo'Nique's harrowing turn as an abusive mother in Precious, however, that made people aware of the full range of her talents. Her blistering portrayal won her the Best Supporting Actress award from a great many critics groups, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press. She went on to win the Oscar in that category as well.

Trivia: The spunky and pretty (if unconventional) supporting actress Jenna von Oÿ won the hearts of younger Gen-X viewers -- particularly girly girls -- with her role as Six LeMeure, the ever-present, capped pal of Blossom Russo (Mayim Bialik) on the popular sitcom Blossom (1991-1995). The actress' career far predates that series, however; a connate performer, she first hit the stage at age five, as Molly the orphan in a local rendition of Annie -- and virtually walked away with the production. Taking this as a cue, von Oÿ's parents began shuttling their eager pint-sized daughter off to casting auditions, and within two years, she landed a commercial for Northern bathroom tissue...then a miniseries...then soaps. By 1989, the then-11-year-old actress scored her first huge break: as the young version of Susanne, a childhood friend of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July. (According to the press, Stone originally selected von Oÿ for another role, but the actress's father forbade it because it required some "indecent" behavior onscreen.) Blossom producers launched their series in January 1991, and scored favorable ratings up through the program's penultimate season. Several years later -- after Blossom wrapped -- von Oÿ shifted gears somewhat, voicing Stacey in the Disney animated picture A Goofy Movie and its 2000 sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie. The actress found a second incarnation of Blossom by playing Stevie, best friend of main character Nikki Parker (Mo'nique) on the UPN sitcom The Parkers (1999-2004). In a dramatic change of pace, (von Oÿ) also played Shelby Blake, a sorority pledge who dies by falling from a clock tower during a pledge, in the 1997 made-for-television feature Dying to Belong.

Trivia: Vivacious actress Vivica A. Fox has been attracting attention for performances that mix equal parts sass and class since making her 1989 screen debut in Born on the Fourth of July. A native of Indianapolis, where she was born July 30, 1964, Fox got her start on television with a stint on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. After making her debut as a hooker in Oliver Stone's aforementioned Born on the Fourth of July, the actress continued to do much of her work on television while appearing in the occasional film. She first attracted notice as Will Smith's girlfriend in the blockbuster Independence Day (1996); her dynamic turn earned her -- together with Smith -- the MTV Award for Best Kiss that year. Fox subsequently appeared in a diverse array of films, ranging from the acclaimed black ensemble romantic drama Soul Food (1997), which cast her as one of three sisters (the other two were played by Vanessa L. Williams and Nia Long), to Batman & Robin (1997), in which she played femme fatale Ms. B. Haven, to Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), which featured her in a critically lauded portrayal of one of the three wives of singer Frankie Lymon.Fox's profile declined somewhat in the new millenium, although an appearance in the battle-of-the-sexes comedy Two Can Play That Game caught the attention of Quentin Tarantino, who was casting his long-gestating fourth feature, Kill Bill. As the first victim of hired killer Uma Thurman, Fox brought a little blaxploitation-era sass to the role, making for a memorable, suburban-kitchen battle scene.In addition to her flourishing film work, Fox continued to work on the small screen, most notably as Dr. Lillian Price on Steven Bochco's predominately African American hospital drama City of Angels. 2005's one-season-only reality show The Starlet offered Fox the opportunity to pass on her actorly wisdom -- alongside head judge Faye Dunaway -- to a group of young hopefuls. The following year, she could be seen hoofing it up as a contestant on the astronomically popular ABC competition Dancing With the Stars. Though she worked steadily throughout the 2000s and continues to be active in the film industry, Fox has yet so far been unable to achieve the success she enjoyed in earlier years.

Trivia: Left Syracuse University after three years. Was the longest-running original cast member of Mad TV, known for her impressions of Oprah Winfrey and Whitney Houston. Has done several Sierra Mist commercials with Nicole Sullivan and Michael Ian Black. Is a mentor in Create Now!, a program that uses arts to help troubled kids.