Trivia: New York City native Rachel True longed to be an actress from her youngest years, watching the performances of her stepmother, renowned stage actress Verona Barnes. True's own first break came when she was cast for several episodes of The Cosby Show in 1991, as a friend of Theo's. She would later score recurring television roles on Beverly Hills 90210, The Drew Carey Show, Once and Again, and HBO's Dream On.In 1993, True moved to Los Angeles, which kick-started her film career. Her first notable appearance was opposite Chris Rock in the rap parody CB4 (1993). She next starred alongside Alyssa Milano in Embrace of the Vampire (1994), then stayed with the occult theme for the more widely seen witch flick The Craft (1996). True plays the most underwritten of four young Wiccan worshipers (opposite Fairuza Balk, Robin Tunney, and Neve Campbell), one of several roles she has taken that was originally written for a white actress. She and Campbell became best friends as a result of working together on the project.True ventured into indie filmmaking with Gregg Araki's Nowhere, the third installment in his "teen apocalypse trilogy," in which she won some acclaim for her portrayal of Mel, a sexually confused central cog of Araki's dystopian soap opera. She returned briefly to more commercial fare with Half Baked (1998), in which she plays Dave Chappelle's love interest and one of the few non-stoned characters. Since then it's been back to lesser-seen films -- most notably as a veteran rave girl in Greg Harrison's Groove (2000) -- as well as her television work.

Trivia: Actress Essence Atkins began appearing onscreen in the late '80s, with small appearances on shows like Saved By the Bell and The Cosby Show. She would go on to land a series of starring roles on short-lived series throughout the '90s like Under One Roof and Smart Guy before finding lasting success with a starring role on the comedy series Half and Half, which she stayed with from 2002 to 2006. After the show ended its run, Atkins made a number of appearances in movies like Love for Sale and Dance Flick.

Trivia: A Broadway actress by training, Valarie Pettiford earned a Tony nomination for her role in the principal cast of the musical Fosse. She would also earn critical acclaim for roles in shows like Chicago, but most viewers would become acquainted with Pettiford for her film at TV work. Beginning with appearances on shows like Another World and Walker, Texas Ranger, Pettiford spent the '90s building up her résumé. In 2002, she was cast in the recurring role of Gayle Noland on the crime drama The District. Around the same time, she took on the role of Big Dee Thorn on the comedy series Half and Half, which she'd stay with for the next four years. In 2008, she began a professional relationship with Tyler Perry, playing Sandra on the sitcom House of Payne, and playing weary wife Harriet in Perry's 2010 dramedy Why Did I Get Married Too?

Trivia: A native of Chicago, IL, Japanese-American actress Suzy Nakamura originally harbored desires and plans to be a professional dancer, but positive acting experiences in a number of Windy City theatrical productions, including Mame and H.M.S. Pinafore, prompted her to shift focus. During her third year of college, she impulsively decided to audition for the famed Second City comedy troupe in Chicago and was selected, which inspired her to drop out of school and tour around the country with that ensemble on a full-time basis. Nakamura took her next step by moving to Los Angeles and securing representation; numerous guest spots and recurring roles on series including The West Wing and Curb Your Enthusiasm followed, though the tyro actress also placed a heavy emphasis on big-screen roles, with deft supporting turns in projects including Mike Figgis' experimental drama Timecode (2000), director Gary David Goldberg's romantic comedy Must Love Dogs (2005), and Christopher Guest's mockumentary For Your Consideration (2006). Also in 2006, the producers of the offbeat sitcom Help Me Help You (starring Ted Danson and Jere Burns) tapped Nakamura to play Inger, a young woman grappling with major social dysfunction on the bumpy road to romance. Unfortunately, that program was canceled not long after it premiered; Nakamura followed it up with one of the lead roles in the comedic horror mockumentary American Zombie.

Trivia: Classically trained actress Rowena King received formal dramatic instruction in Great Britain, at the London Drama School. From there, King transitioned to ensemble work with the esteemed Royal Shakespeare Company and became a frequent presence on U.K. television, in series programs including Just a Gigolo, Tales of the South Seas, and Full Stretch. King's big-screen appearances officially commenced in the early '90s, and she displayed a predilection for choosing unique, dynamic, and challenging material -- evidenced, for example, by her film-stealing turn as Amelie in John Duigan's South Seas erotic melodrama Wide Sargasso Sea (1992) and a rare lead as Rachel Morris in Welsh director Julian Richards' harrowing pagan horror outing, Darklands (1997). Her collaboration with Kenneth Branagh, as an attendant in the director's controversial four-hour screen version of Hamlet (1996) drew on the actress' Shakespearean background but provided her with relatively little screen time. King enjoyed a period of increased television activity during the late '90s and early 2000s, which included parts in the series Wonderful You and Breaking News, then moved back into films with supporting work in such features as A Perfect Day (2006) and The Bucket List (2007).

Trivia: When heartthrob Antonio Sabato Jr. joined the cast of ABC's soap opera General Hospital in the spring of 1992, the show jumped from seventh to third in the daytime Nielsen Ratings. The relative newcomer inspired over 300 fan letters a week, appeared on the cover of TV Guide, and landed a coveted spot in People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People issue. He has since proven to be one of the hottest commodities to come out of daytime television, nabbing a series of prime-time roles, publishing a best-selling "beefcake" calendar, and modeling in the most successful Calvin Klein Underwear campaign in the company's history.A leap year baby, Sabato was born in Rome, Italy, on February 29, 1972. His father, Antonio Sabato Sr., a veteran Italian actor with credits in dozens of spaghetti Westerns and his mother, Yvonne, a real estate agent, moved Sabato and his sister to Beverly Hills in 1984. Knowing very little English, Sabato spent his time watching American television and taking ESL courses. He attended Beverly Hills High, where he took acting classes as a way to practice his new language and make friends. At 16, Sabato left school and temporarily moved to New York in an effort to experience life on his own.In 1989, after earning his G.E.D., Sabato decided to concentrate on acting. With his father's help, he secured a role in the 1990 Italian film Karate Rock. That same year, he appeared stateside as the topless hunk in Janet Jackson's video for "Love Will Never Do Without You." This led to Sabato's television debut as Jagger Cates, a good-hearted, hash-slinging boxer on General Hospital. For his performance in one of daytime's most memorable and brooding roles -- Jagger's moody leitmotif was Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" -- Sabato earned Soap Opera Digest Award nominations for Hottest Male and Outstanding Newcomer. Banking on his newfound fame, the actor began moonlighting in movies of the week, starring opposite Dallas' Linda Gray as a deadly Casanova in Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter? (1993) and Beverly Hills 90210's Shannon Dougherty as an escaped convict in Jailbreakers (1994).Sabato shocked fans when he abruptly left General Hospital in 1994 (though they did temporarily forgive him when he returned to the show for a brief cameo a year later). He subsequently joined the cast of NBC's Earth 2, a prime-time science fiction series about a group of humans who must flee Earth when it becomes uninhabitable. Developed by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and produced by Michael Dugan (Law & Order), Carol Flint (China Beach), and Mark Levin (The Wonder Years), the show had an impressive pedigree and was expected to be a smash hit. Yet, audiences did not buy into its futuristic premise, which featured Sabato as a rocket pilot; NBC canceled Earth 2 after only one season. Hesitant to commit himself to another series, Sabato signed on to appear as Amanda's (Heather Locklear) abusive ex-husband in six episodes of FOX's Melrose Place before starring in a succession of television films. In Her Hidden Truth (1995), he played a smitten cop who helps wrongfully convicted Kellie Martin clear her name. In If Looks Could Kill: From the Files of America's Most Wanted (1996), he portrayed real-life con artist and murderer John Hawkins. In Thrill (1996), he starred as an engineer who must put aside his fear of heights to rescue his daughter from a roller coaster that is rigged with a bomb.Meanwhile, fashion designer Calvin Klein saw If Looks Could Kill on television and personally requested to meet with Sabato. By the summer of 1996, the actor was the spokesperson for Calvin Klein Underwear, the company's first celebrity model since Mark Wahlberg four years earlier. During his tenure with Calvin Klein, Sabato appeared in a campaign photographed by Herb Ritts and on a 90-foot billboard in the middle of Times Square.In 1998, Sabato made his big-budget American debut opposite Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Bokeem Woodbine as a hired gun in The Big Hit. The following years saw Sabato headlining several low-profile television movies and independent films in the United States and Italy. He also guest starred on FOX's Ally McBeal and landed a recurring role on the WB's Charmed.Acting and modeling are not Sabato's only claims to fame. A fitness enthusiast, he published the best-selling exercise book No Excuses: Workout for Life in 1999. Sabato also owns his own production company, NAMTAB Productions (Batman spelled backwards), and is the celebrity spokesperson for the SAP United States Grand Prix Formula One race.