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: Pennsylvania native Gillian Jacobs learned her trade at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, where she competed in the Public's Shakespeare Monologue Contest. She subsequently studied at Juilliard, and began her professional career a few years later, with a role on the series The Book of Daniel. Though the show didn't last, Jacobs was soon busy with new projects, like 2007's Blackbird and 2008's Choke. Then, following an appearance on the series Royal Pains in 2009, Jacobs joined the cast of the comedy series Community, and signed on to appear in a number of films including Watching TV with the Red Chinese and The Box. In 2012 she had a small part in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

Trivia: Was signed as a teen to Motown Records as part of the East Coast Family group, which included Boyz II Men. Brown performed on the mildly successful single "1-4-All-4-1" from the album The East Coast Family, Vol. 1. Moved to Los Angeles after college and landed her first big role appearing in the gospel play His Woman, His Wife. Secured her first television role---a two-episode appearance on Girlfriends---after sending a postcard to the show's casting director. Worked on Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh for four years, even though her character, Helen, was originally supposed to be a one-time role.

Trivia: Actor Danny Pudi began his career with guest appearances on TV's West Wing and ER. This led to a four-episode arc on Gilmore Girls in 2006, and another recurring role on Greek. Then in 2009, Pudi joined the cast of the comedy series Community, opposite Joel McHale and Chevy Chase. His role as Abed, a pop-culture obsessed misfit who can only relate to the world through movie and TV references, made him a breakout star from the show on which he played many scenes with Donald Glover.

Trivia: One of her first acting jobs was an episode of Hannah Montana. Worked as a clown at children's birthday parties before being cast as Trudy Campbell on Mad Men. In 2009, simultaneously appeared on Mad Men and on new comedy Community.

Trivia: Was born in Detroit but raised in Greensboro, NC; he is the son of Korean immigrants. During high school, he played violin and was elected to the student council. Graduated at 16 and earned Greensboro's Youth of the Year award. Won the Big Easy Laff Off comedy contest in New Orleans while completing his medical residency. Made his feature-film debut as Dr. Kuni in Judd Apatow's 2007 comedy Knocked Up. His wife, Tran, is also a physician, as well as a breast-cancer survivor.

Trivia: Is a member of the Groundlings improv company in Los Angeles. Is sometimes mistaken for the musician Moby. Got his big break playing the role of Dean Pelton in the sitcom Community. Cowrote the screenplay for the film The Descendants (2011).

Trivia: Jonathan Banks began his film career in the sort of roles described by character actor Frank Faylen as "sneezers." For example: if you sneezed, you'd miss Banks' microscopic part in 1980's Stir Crazy. He was more visible in such roles as the hitchhiker in the 1982 biopic Frances and Algren in the 1983 seriocomedy 48 Hours. On television, Jonathan Banks was cast as the scurrilous extraterrestrial Commander Kroll in Otherworld (1985) and as Frank McPike, Ken Wahl's choleric boss, in Wiseguy (1987). Banks would continue to appear in several more films over the coming years, like Dark Blue and Reign Over Me, as well as TV shows like Breaking Bad.

Trivia: British-born comedian John Oliver studied English at Christ's College, Cambridge, before pursuing a career as a stand-up comedian. He gained increasing success with his live act, eventually scoring a big break in 2006 when he became a writer and correspondent on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. He soon became a popular member of the news-parody show's cast, and explored other projects, as well, making his motion-picture debut in the 2008 comedy The Love Guru. In 2009, he was cast in the comedy series Community, alongside Chevy Chase and Joel McHale. In 2011 he voiced the part of Vanity Smurf in the family-friendly big-screen comedy The Smurfs, a role he reprised in later sequels. In 2014, he began hosting his own late-night talk show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, on HBO.

Trivia: Actress Paget Brewster got her first big break with a recurring role on Friends in 1997 playing Chandler's girlfriend Kathy. A regular stint on the most popular show on television was just the springboard that the actress needed to build up her resumé, and soon she was cast in the cult hit Andy Richter Controls the Universe and the Showtime series Huff. In 2006, she had a prominent role in the family comedy Unaccompanied Minors, and later that same year, she joined the cast of the series Criminal Minds. She has also, most notably, provided the voice of Birdgirl for the Adult Swim series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

Trivia: A Milwaukee native who, along with co-conspirator Rob Schrab, founded Internet-based entertainment website Channel 101, Dan Harmon and his partner burst onto the scene with the supremely bizarre Fox television pilot Heat Vision and Jack (one of the most widely circulated unaired television pilots ever produced) before pulling back from the entertainment industry to launch a website specifically devoted to encouraging creativity in independent filmmakers. Harmon chose to hone his writing skills early on before stepping into the director's chair to helm the animated comedy Computerman in 2003. It was around this time that Harmon and Schrab's Super Midnight Movie Show endeavor was beginning to draw attention among the young and hip Los Angeles filmmaking set, and after submissions became too much to handle for the overwhelmed pair, they quickly took the concept online with Channel 101. A freeform short-film showcase that strives to deliver the most outrageous and innovative comedy around, Channel 101 soon found the pair being courted by some of the biggest producers in Los Angeles. Shortly after taking the reigns for the Jack Black comedy short LaserFart, it was time once again to work with his longtime partner on a 2006 Comedy Central pilot for controversial comedian Sarah Silverman. Later that same year, the pair would find their dreams of success slowly coming into focus when Robert Zemeckis and Amblin Entertainment teamed to produce Monster House -- a computer animated tale of a malevolent suburban abode that Harmon and Schrab had penned eight years before. Though Monster House proved to be a moderate hit at the box office, Harmon's greatest success came with the creation of the NBC sitcom Community, which gained a loyal cult following during its four-year run beginning in 2009.

Trivia: In college he studied improvisation and comedy writing with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Was hired right out of college by Tina Fey as a writer on 30 Rock. Was nominated for a Writers Guild award for best comedy series for season three of 30 Rock. After leaving 30 Rock, he ended up winning the role of Troy on NBC's Community in 2009. A founding member of the Internet sketch comedy group DERRICK Comedy, he wrote and produced the group's first film, Mystery Team (2009). Has rapped under the name Childish Gambino and has released mix tapes. Started a Twitter campaign to audition for the role of Peter Parker in the 2012 reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. Received the Rising Comedy Star of the Year award in 2010 at Montreal's Just For Laughs Comedy Festival.

Trivia: Chevy Chase is often considered one of the most likeable comedic personalities of his generation, even though the immediate popularity he achieved following a single season on Saturday Night Live never translated into more than a couple hit movies, and none after the 1980s. The prematurely balding, intelligent, fast-talking Chase created a couple classic characters, notably Irwin M. Fletcher (aka Fletch) and Vacation's Clark Griswold, but his career is often thought of as plagued by misfires and missed opportunities, rather than touched by comic brilliance.Born on October 8, 1943, in New York City, Cornelius Crane Chase became known as "Chevy" when his grandmother nicknamed him after Chevy Chase, the wealthy Maryland community. The 6'4" future writer and actor was valedictorian of his high school class before attending Bard College, where he earned a B.A. in English. With a pre-celebrity resumé as varied as any (tennis pro, truck driver, bartender), Chase spent his twenties as a comedy writer for such outlets as the Smothers Brothers and National Lampoon, the latter of which eventually led to a lucrative franchise of Vacation movies. Chase's first stint as a performer was with the New York comedy video workshop Channel One, which evolved into the 1974 film Groove Tube. This afforded Chase the necessary exposure to be hired by Lorne Michaels for the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975.Initially hired on as a writer, Chase soon began appearing in front of the camera as the anchor of the popular Weekend Update segment of the ensemble variety show. With the catchphrase opening "Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," and aided by his bumbling impersonation of President Gerald Ford, the actor quickly assumed breakout status, earning Emmys for both his writing and acting. He left after a single season to pursue film opportunities, but did not really strike gold until Caddyshack (1980), in which he played a rich golf pro who oozed confidence and a dry sarcastic wit three steps ahead of anyone else. These would become Chase's trademarks.During the filming of his next project, Modern Problems (1981), Chase was nearly electrocuted when a gag involving landing lights attached to his body short-circuited. The experience sunk him into a deep depression. But he recovered his stride in 1983 with the release of National Lampoon's Vacation, the first of four in an eventual series of epic misadventures of the Griswold family (European Vacation [1985], Christmas Vacation [1989], Vegas Vacation [1997]). As daffy father Clark, Chase turned the film into a huge hit, harnessing a likable befuddlement that kept the series going even as the sequels were increasingly less well received and tiresomely slapstick.Chase's other big hit came in 1985, when he starred as the title character in Fletch, the film widely considered the actor's best and most complimentary of his sharp talent for wordplay. As an undercover newspaper reporter with a quick answer -- not to mention a goofy disguise -- for every situation, Chase created a classic comic hero with a genius for confusing his adversaries. He reprised the role in the lesser sequel Fletch Lives (1989).Chase achieved moderate success by pairing with other Saturday Night Live alums in the mixed-bag comedies Spies Like Us (1985) and Three Amigos! (1986); though these had dedicated fans, they didn't achieve the critical praise of Fletch or Vacation. Despite an all-star cast, Caddyshack II (1988) went nowhere, and by the beginning of the 1990s, Chase had slipped from his status as a reliable comedic performer. Such well-documented failures as Nothing But Trouble (1991) and Cops and Robbersons (1994) became his crosses to bear during a decade that also saw the colossal failure of his Fox comeback variety show, which was canceled two months after it premiered in 1993. Chase was also arrested for drunk driving in 1995, just one incident in a career sometimes checkered by drug and alcohol abuse. In later years, Chase has preferred family oriented films, starring in such features as Man of the House (1995) (opposite Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and the kiddie-on-holiday flick Snow Day (2000). This stance prompted Chase to turn down the comeback-worthy role that won Kevin Spacey an Oscar in American Beauty (1999); had he accepted, it might have resulted in a very different film. As Chase's work has shifted more to the supporting role variety, including Dirty Work (1998) and Orange County (2002), he has seemed more comfortable. A series of appearances in such innocuous comedies as Bad Meat, Goose on the Loose, and Doogal found Chase continuing to plateau, and in 2006 the former SNL heavyweight would take to the lab to help save the world in the children's superhero adventure Zoom. In 2009 Chase was cast as a casually racist and sexist member of the study group at the heart of NBC's sitcom Community, and that program gave him some of the best reviews he'd had in quite some time. He appeared in the 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, and in 2011's Stay Cool.

Trivia: The son of an itinerant piano tuner-father and a restaurateur-mother, Richard Erdman was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Colorado. Having taken drama lessons since his early childhood, Erdman was 15 when he was brought to Hollywood by his mother to be "discovered." It wasn't until he'd held down an interim job as a sports reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner that Erdman finally appeared in his first film, Warner Bros.' Janie (1944). Rapidly outgrowing juvenile roles, Erdman played character parts in Hollywood films like Stalag 17 (1953) and in such European productions as Four Days Leave (1950) and Face of Fire (1959). In 1961, Erdman co-starred on the short-lived sitcom The Tab Hunter Show, playing Tab's millionaire-playboy buddy, Peter Fairchild III. In 1973, Erdman made his big-screen directorial debut with The Brothers O'Toole. Since that time, Richard Erdman has kept busy as a voice-over actor, offering a wide range of vocal characterizations for dozens of TV cartoon series, as well as the 1994 animated feature film The Pagemaster.

Trivia: Began his acting career at the age of 10, appearing in TV advertisements for Toys "R" Us, Land Rover and ExxonMobile. Worked on Sesame Street. Won a Young Artist Award for his feature film debut in 2008 as Tran in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder. Performed all of his own stunts in the 2009 action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and toured with the extreme martial arts troupe Sideswipe Live in 2009 and 2010.

Trivia: A native of Pittsburgh, veteran supporting actress Twink Caplan was on-stage at the city's Playhouse beginning at age five. She studied ballet for many years and danced briefly with a Russian ballet troupe before radically switching gears to work as a go-go dancer. Caplan then worked with a major New York magazine, on the radio as an executive producer, and as a talk show host, becoming the first female radio personality in Pennsylvania. Caplan came to Southern California while working with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. Electing to stay, she soon found work as an actress. Caplan made her feature film debut in Underground Aces (1980). Her most notable subsequent roles include that of the outgoing redhead Rona in the first two Look Who's Talking features and her turn as lovelorn teacher Miss Geist in Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995), which Caplan also co-produced. Caplan and Heckerling have enjoyed a long professional partnership. Their collaboration began when Caplan, then a development executive at Columbia, co-produced Heckerling's television pilot Nineteen. In addition to Clueless, Caplan also produced Heckerling's film Loser (2000), and has taken supporting roles in several of her other films.

Trivia: Mention the name Steven Weber to any television fanatic, and odds are their eyes will soon gloss over with fond memories of the popular early-'90s sitcom Wings. Despite the popularity of his small-screen past, though, the handsome actor has gone on to prove his versatility in a number of features, both made-for-television and otherwise. Born in Queens, NY, to a nightclub singer and a comic manager, Weber discovered his love of acting around the age of three while appearing in a series of television commercials. He followed up a stint at New York's High School of the Performing Arts with an education at New York's prestigious State University at Purchase, and after working a series of odd jobs, Weber made his film debut in the 1984 Matt Dillon comedy The Flamingo Kid. A role on the enduring daytime soap opera As the World Turns introduced Weber to his first wife, Finn Carter, a few short years later. After appearing as a rock star in Los Angeles and as John F. Kennedy in The Kennedys of Massachusetts (both 1990), Weber was more than ready to take the lead in his own sitcom. Cast as the half-owner, along with brother Joe (Timothy Daly), of a Nantucket-based airline, Weber's charisma and comic talents went a long way in supporting the show over the course of its enduring eight-year run. Of course, Weber wasn't content to simply sit back and enjoy the success of Wings; in addition to the popular show, the actor turned up in supporting roles in numerous features including Single White Female (1992), Jeffrey (1995), and Leaving Las Vegas (also 1995). By the time the show came to an end in 1997, Weber had divorced Finn Carter and married actress Juliette Hohnen, and was ready to find out what else he had to offer to the worlds of film and television. Though a role in the made-for-television adaptation of The Shining failed to erase the memory of Jack Nicholson's terrifying interpretation of the role, Weber did prove memorable in Seinfeld creator Larry David's bitter-flavored comedy Sour Grapes (1998). The following few years would find Weber playing things relatively low-key onscreen; he returned to the small screen to moving effect with the 1999 made-for-television drama Love Letters. In 2000, Weber essayed a supporting role in director Mike Figgis' experimental comedy drama Timecode, and that same year he would return to sitcom territory with the short-lived Cursed. Though that particular effort may not have quite lived up to potential, Weber did gain positive notice for his role in the little-seen independent thriller Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes (2000). After appearing opposite Alan Alda in the made-for-television feature Clubland (2001), Weber joined the cast of the popular small-screen drama Once and Again later that same year.Weber's enduring appeal has led to a steady stream of recent television work, both as a guest star and in regular roles. After wrapping up on Once and Again, he appeared as Will's brother Sam on Will & Grace; chairman of the fictional NBS network on the surprisingly short-lived dramedy Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; a flirtatious co-worker romancing Sarah Walker (Rachel Griffths) during a stint on Brothers & Sisters; a regular role on another short-lived show, 2010's Happy Town; and a recurring role on 2 Broke Girls as Caroline's (Beth Behrs) jailed father, Martin Channing.

Trivia: Born in Alberta, Canada, in 1971, Nathan Fillion took his acting ambitions to the United States when he moved to New York in 1994 to portray Joey Buchanan on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. Having previously appeared in a single TV movie, Ordeal in the Arctic, Fillion's acting career had taken a backseat to his plans to be an English teacher. His three-year stint on the long-standing daytime TV staple, however, changed his focus in a big way. When his time on One Life to Live was up, the 27-year-old actor relocated to Los Angeles to assume a regular role on the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place. Shortly afterward, he made a memorable appearance as the "wrong Ryan" in Steven Spielberg's WWII epic Saving Private Ryan. He also made appearances on The Outer Limits, King of the Hill, Pasadena, and other projects. It was in 2002, however, that he assumed the role that would make his career. Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon selected Fillion to portray rugged captain Mal Reynolds for his new sci-fi/Western series Firefly. The show found a rabidly loyal cult fan base, as well as incomparable critical praise, but tragically, failed to find the wide audience that Fox had been hoping for. The show was canceled after only 11 episodes, but Fillion had reached a level of familiarity with the public that most actors never hope to achieve. He reprised the role of Mal in 2005 for the feature-film adaptation of Firefly, Serenity, to the delight of fans. In 2006, Fillion stayed on the cream of the fringe with the much anticipated horror film Slither. Starring alongside Elizabeth Banks, the actor stole the show with his humorous, low-key performance. For his next project, he signed on to act alongside Keri Russell in the romantic comedy Waitress. When the writer's strike hit, Fillion teamed with his old collaborator Joss Whedon to star in the direct-to-the-web musical miniseries Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. In 2009 he landed the title role on the ABC series Castle, and took a small role in the dark superhero comedy Super in 2010.