Trivia: A uniquely gifted and versatile actor possessing the distinct ability to immerse himself in a role so convincingly that he becomes almost unrecognizable -- from a quality obsessed restaurateur (Big Night, 1996) to a master criminal bent on world domination (Spy Kids, 2001) -- one can always count on Tony Shalhoub to deliver a memorable performance no matter how small his role may be.Well-known to television audiences for his extended stint as a self-deprecating cabbie on the long-running series Wings, Shalhoub made the often-painful transition from television to film with a grace seldom seen. Born on October 9th, 1953 in Green Bay, WI, Shalhoub developed his passion for theater at the youthful age of six when he volunteered via his sister to play an extra in a high-school production of The King and I. Shalhoub was hooked. After earning his master's degree from the Yale Drama School and spending four seasons at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, Shalhoub packed his bags for New York where he began a luminous career on Broadway. Broadway brought Shalhoub success not only in his career, but in his personal life as well: he was nominated for a Tony for his role in Conversations With My Father and he met his future wife, actress Brooke Adams, while acting in The Heidi Chronicles. It was not long after his Broadway success that Shalhoub made his feature debut, as a doctor in the 1990 AIDS drama Longtime Companion.Shalhoub's film career has been a testament to his range and a compliment to his abilities. Though prone to comedy, his dramatic roles have gained him just as much, if not more, recognition than his comedic roles. Winning the Best Supporting Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics for his well-researched role in Big Night (1996), Shalhoub expanded his dramatic film repertoire with roles in A Civil Action and The Siege (both 1998), while always maintaining his knack for humor (1997's Men in Black). Shalhoub's role as the ultra-mellow "anti-Scottie" in the Star Trek send-up Galaxy Quest (1999) proved that his comic persona was indeed still as sharp as ever. Sticking in the sci-fi/fantasy mold for his roles in Imposter and Spy Kids (both 2001), Shalhoub once again proved that he could do 180-degree character turnarounds with ease.Though Shalhoub would stay in sci-fi mode for his role in Men in Black 2, he would return to solid ground with his role as an obsessive-compulsive detective in the well-received television pilot Monk (2002). Directed by Galaxy Quest helmer Dean Parisot, the pilot for Monk successfully paved the way for the curiously innovative USA series to follow and found the actor warmly re-embracing the medium that had propelled him to stardom. As Monk's popularity continued to grow, Shaloub found success on the big screen in the role of a gifted psychologist for The Great New Wonderful (2005), and voiced the lovable Luigi in Cars (2006) and Cars 2 (2011). In 2007, he worked alongside John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson for the supernatural horror film 1408.

Trivia: Appeared in TV commercials while still in high school. Traylor is her mother's maiden name. Worked at a greeting-card company after graduating from college. Made her sitcom debut in 1996 on Boston Common. Replaced Bitty Schram on Monk in 2005, playing the detective's peppy sidekick, Natalie.

Trivia: Striking terror deep in the hearts and subconsciousness of filmgoers worldwide with his chilling portrayal of aspiring transsexual serial killer James "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in director Jonathan Demme's acclaimed thriller The Silence of the Lambs, Steppenwolf Theater alumnus Ted Levine may not have received the star status some may have expected would follow the role, but he can consistently be counted on to turn in a lively performance, no matter how small his part may be.Born in Cleveland, OH, Levine received his M.F.A. in acting from the University of Chicago before making frequent appearances in such 1980s made-for-television efforts as Michael Mann's Crime Story (1986) and his feature debut in 1987's Ironweed. Taking small roles in such features as Betrayed (1988) and Next of Kin (1989) before his big break in Silence, Levine, curiously, stuck mostly to television following his portrayal of Buffalo Bill, not taking another featured role until his turn as a cop on the trail of a carnivorous industrial speed iron in The Mangler (1995). Appearing in Georgia and Michael Mann's acclaimed Heat the same year, Levine began to gain more prominent roles in the following years before taking to the seas with Patrick Stewart in Moby Dick (1998). Though he received critical acclaim for his role in the controversial television series Wonderland (2000), the show aired a meager two episodes (though four were produced) before being pulled due to outcry over its portrayal of the mental health system and its inhabitants. Bouncing back to the big screen, fans found that Levine could still be counted on to turn in absorbing performances in such features as Evolution and The Fast and the Furious (both 2001). Over the next several years, Levine would remain extremely active, appearing in films like The Manchuriuan Candidate, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Hills Have Eyes, and Shutter Island, as well as on TV series like Monk and Luck.

Trivia: Initially aspired to become a basketball player but opted to pursue acting instead. Did a great deal of voice work at the start of his career, including playing Donatello for the animated series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. Auditioned for a guest spot in the Monk pilot but was cast in the regular role of Lieutenant Randy Disher instead. Sang backup vocals on Russell Crowe's album Gaslight after costarring with him in 1999's Mystery, Alaska and 2001's A Beautiful Mind.

Trivia: Spent her early childhood in Houston and England (where she attended the American School in England). Won a 2004 Young Artist Award (Supporting Actress) for her first professional role, a girl orphaned by a terrorist attack in Italy, in the HBO film My House in Umbria. Has studied ballet and enjoys sailing on Long Island Sound.

Trivia: An actor of seemingly boundless range, New York-born Hector Elizondo began his career as a dancer. His initial training was at the Ballet Arts school of Carnegie Hall, from which he moved on to the Actors Studio. After several years' stage work, Elizondo made an inauspicious movie debut as "The Inspector" in the low-budget sex film The Vixens (1969). He was shown to better advantage in his next film, Hal Ashby's The Landlord (1970), which he followed up with strong character parts in such Manhattan-based productions as The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) and Thieves (1977). With Young Doctors in Love (1982), Elizondo began his long association with director Garry Marshall, who has since cast the actor in all of his films, in roles both sizable (Matt Dillon's dad in The Flamingo Kid [1984], the cafe owner in Frankie and Johnny [1991]), and microscopic (Overboard [1987]). Elizondo's screen roles have run the gamut from scrungy garbage scow captains to elegant concierges (Pretty Woman). In addition, he has been a regular on several mediocre television series: Popi, Freebie and the Bean, Casablanca (in the old Claude Rains role of Inspector Renault), a.k.a. Pablo, Foley Square, and Down and Out in Beverly Hills, In 1994, Elizondo took on a co-starring role as a demanding chief of surgery on the popular TV medical drama Chicago Hope. Other non-Marshall highlights in his filmography include Tortilla Soup, Overboard, Necessary Roughness, and Music Within.

Trivia: Actor Eric McCormack was born in Toronto, Canada, on April 18, 1963. As a teenager, McCormack had developed an interest in acting (inspired in part by his father, who had once pursued a career as a thespian), and after graduating from high school, he enrolled in Toronto's Ryerson Theater School. McCormack left Ryerson in 1985, several months before graduation, in order to accept a position with the well-respected Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Over the course of five seasons with the Stratford company, McCormack rose from bit parts to major roles in productions such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry V, and he developed a reputation as one of Canada's most promising stage actors. In 1991, McCormack scored his first screen role in a remake of the classic dinosaur saga The Lost World, and in 1992, he was cast on a syndicated TV series, Street Justice, as Detective Carl Weathers. Moving to Vancouver that same year, McCormack stayed busy over the next several years with a variety of television projects shot in Canada (including recurring roles in two series, Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years and Townies) and occasional feature films (most notably Holy Man and Free Enterprise). In 1998, McCormack got his big break when he was cast as Will Truman, a gay lawyer, on the situation comedy series Will and Grace. Well received by critics, Will and Grace slowly grew into a ratings winner, eventually garnering a multitude of industry awards. McCormack's work on the show earned him Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series every year from 2000-2003; he also received several Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series and brought the award home in 2001.Over the coming decade, McCormack would appear in a number of acclaimed TV series, including The New Adventures of Old Christine and Perception.

Trivia: One of the top character actors of his era, John Turturro is a fixture of the contemporary American independent filmmaking landscape. Born February 28, 1957, in Brooklyn, NY, Turturro became fascinated by movies during childhood, and after graduating from college he won a scholarship to study at the prestigious Yale School of Drama. He first gained notice in regional theater and off-Broadway, earning an Obie Award for his starring role in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. He made his film debut in Martin Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece Raging Bull but did not reappear onscreen prior to 1984's The Exterminator 2. That same year, he debuted on Broadway in Death of a Salesman.Small roles in diverse fare including Susan Seidelman's 1985 comedy Desperately Seeking Susan, Scorsese's 1986 drama The Color of Money, and Woody Allen's masterful Hannah and Her Sisters kept Turturro busy throughout much of the decade, but his breakthrough performance did not arrive until Spike Lee cast him as a bigoted pizzeria worker in 1989's Do the Right Thing. A scene-stealing turn in the Coen brothers' 1990 gangland drama Miller's Crossing followed, and in 1991 the Coens cast him as the titular Barton Fink, a performance which garnered Best Actor honors at the Cannes Film Festival. Subsequent lead roles were infrequent, although in 1992 he wrote, directed, and starred in Mac, a little-seen indie feature that won him a Golden Camera award for Best First Feature at the 1992 Cannes Festival. Supporting turns in acclaimed offerings including Quiz Show, Clockers, and Grace of My Heart (in which he expertly portrayed a Phil Spector-like music producer) followed before Turturro's next starring role, in Tom DiCillo's whimsical 1996 comedy Box of Moonlight. In 1998, the actor again collaborated with both Lee and the Coen brothers, working with the former on He Got Game and the latter on The Big Lebowski. Also in 1998, Turturro wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Illuminata, a comedy set against the backdrop of a struggling, turn-of-the-century New York theater company. The following year, he again took on the New York theater, appearing in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock, an exploration of the relationship between art and politics set in 1930s New York.He remained an in-demand character actor, as well as an occasional director into the next century, starting the 2000s with a leading role in the chess drama The Luzhin Defence, reteaming with the Coen brothers for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and working with Adam Sandler on Mr. Deeds. In 2004 he worked for Spike Lee yet again in She Hate Me. In 2005 he wrote, directed, and acted in the blue-collar musical Romance & Cigarettes. He appeared in The Good Shepherd in 2006, and the next year he appeared in the sci-fi blockbuster Transformers. In 2008 he joined up with Lee yet again to play a soldier in his World War II film Miracle At. St. Anna, and teamed with Sandler again for You Don't Mess With the Zohan. The next year he appeared in the remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and the Transformers sequel. He would return to that franchise for the third film in 2011, and that same year he would join the Pixar family voicing Lightnin' McQueen's rival in Cars 2.

Trivia: Left his home in the Midwest to perform with The Young Americans when he was 17. His post-college jobs included performing as a Kid of the Kingdom at Disneyland; a page at Paramount Studios; butler at the Playboy Mansion; and assistant for Cathy Rigby. His one-man show, Happy Hour, a comedy about his family life, won the Jury Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 1999. Was a writer and performer with The Groundlings comedy group. Volunteers with Stars for Stripes, an organization that entertains U.S. troops in the Middle East.

Trivia: Actress Sharon Lawrence began acting professionally in the early '90s and quickly began amassing an impressive résumé, largely built from numerous TV guest appearances on shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Star Trek: Voyager. In 1993, Lawrence was cast as ADA Sylvia Costas on the hit police drama NYPD Blue. She stuck with the show until 1999, and subsequently moved to another series, with a supporting role on Ladies Man. When that series ended its run in 2001, the actress costarred on the series Wolf Lake and acted in a number of other projects, like 2004's Little Black Book, before landing another string of starring TV roles, on Hidden Palms, Line, Monk, and Privileged. Lawrence has also explored a career on Broadway, with roles in Cabaret and Chicago.

Trivia: While he rose to fame as a talk show sidekick, Andy Richter has since developed a reputation as a talented and likable comic actor with roles on a number of feature films and television series. Born in Grand Rapids, MI, in 1966, Andy Richter spent most of his childhood in Yorkville, IL. After graduating from high school (where he was voted Prom King in his senior year), Richter attended the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign; he later studied film and video production at Columbia College. Richter began pursuing a career as a performer in Chicago, where he studied improvisational theater with Del Close and worked with a number of improv comedy groups, including the Annoyance Theater, ImprovOlympia, and Comedy Underground. Richter's first notable success as a performer came in 1992 when he landed the role of Mike Brady in the off-Broadway stage success The Real Live Brady Bunch, a stage adaptation of the perennially popular TV sitcom; Richter was a member of the original New York cast, and moved with the show to Los Angeles later that year. While in L.A., Richter scored his first film role, a small but showy part in the Chris Elliott-vehicle Cabin Boy, but his biggest stroke of luck came when he was hired as a writer for a new talk show being hosted by former Simpsons and Late Night With David Letterman writer Conan O'Brien. Richter and O'Brien soon discovered they had a natural comic rapport, and by the time Late Night With Conan O'Brien debuted in the fall of 1993, Richter had become O'Brien's on-air sidekick, exchanging banter with the host and participating in a variety of comic sketches. The show's five-airings-a-week schedule kept Richter busy, but also allowed him to develop a strong fan following of his own, and he occasionally found time for outside projects, including appearing in an off-Broadway play written by David Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, Incident at Cobbler's Knob. In the summer of 1999, Richter announced he would be leaving Late Night in May of 2000 to devote himself to other projects, and he soon began appearing in a variety of film roles, among them one of Richard Gere's hunting buddies in Dr. T and the Women, Eugene in Dr. Dolittle 2, and Father Harris in Scary Movie 2; he also made occasional guest spots on television series, including Just Shoot Me. In 2002, he headlined the quirky cult sitcom Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which was prematurely axed. Two years later, he went on to helm another unsuccessful sitcom, Quintuplets, which also ended after failing to gain an audience. He then stuck to being a guest star on established shows like Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle, Monk, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. He also kept busy on the silver screen by taking small roles in a number of offbeat comedies including Elf (2003), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), and Semi-Pro (2008). Another attempt to headline a sitcom, Andy Barker, P.I., managed to charm critics but didn't have staying power and lasted only seven episodes in 2007. He maintained career momentum with guest starring TV roles and a number of small parts in movies. He also did well behind the scenes, voicing a character in the animated features Madagascar (2005)and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), which led to more voice work in the Nickelodeon animated series Penguins of Madagascar and Mighty B. In 2009, he returned to Conan O'Brien's side when The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien launched on NBC. The gig ended when NBC infamously returned The Tonight Show to Jay Leno, and Richter quickly joined O'Brien's subsequent Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television stand-up tour.In his private life, Richter married actress Sarah Thyre -- who played Marcia alongside Richter in The Real Live Brady Bunch -- in 1994; the couple has one son. Richter also has the distinction of being one of the highest-scoring celebrity contestants in the history of the popular game show Jeopardy, winning over 29,000 dollars for charity.

Trivia: Though he would remain one of the comedy world's best-kept secrets through the later half of the 1990s, improvisational comic-turned-actor David Koechner, (born August 24, 1962) later made a successful transition from SNL and Late Night With Conan O'Brien funnyman to supporting feature player roles when word of his talent spread, thanks to stellar supporting parts in such wide-release films as A Guy Thing and Anchorman. The Tipton, MO, native studied political science at the University of Missouri, with a subsequent career in the family business (manufacturing turkey coops) narrowly averted by a post-college move to Chicago. It was there that Koechner attempted to master his comic skills under the tutelage of improv master Del Close, with further studies at the Windy City's ImprovOlympic cementing the skills of the up-and-coming talent. A subsequent stint at Chicago's Second City Theater led to Koechner's lucky break when he was whisked away by SNL creator Lorne Michaels to become a player in the long-running weekly comedy mainstay. Though he would remain with SNL for merely one season, Koechner continued to impress on the small screen as a performer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the 1996-1997 season. As his reputation continued to grow due to appearances on such popular shows as Mad About You and Dharma & Greg, Koechner also made an impression in features thanks to small but memorable roles in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Man on the Moon, and My Boss's Daughter. Though he would continue to work in minor capacity on the small screen, Koechner seemed to be focusing on features at this point in his career, with a turn as a chauvinistic sportscaster in the 2004 Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman offering what was perhaps his most substantial feature performance to date. Koechner played a tobacco lobbyist in 2005's media satire Thankyou for Smoking, and reunited with Will Ferrell to for a supporting role in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby in 2006. In 2008 he joined the cast of Get Smart, the big-screen adaptation of Mel Brooks' popular 1960s-era comedy series, and proved himself no stranger to camp in Final Destination 5 (2011) and Piranha 3DD (2012).

Trivia: Best known as Carlos Solis, the unapologetically macho (and unwittingly cuckolded) husband of suburbanite Gabrielle Solis (firecracker Eva Longoria) on the American series phenomenon Desperate Housewives, Texas-born actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira rode the crest of that role from obscurity to national recognition. A graduate of San Antonio's famed Robert E. Lee High School, Chavira reportedly pursued drama at an early age as a clever way to meet women, but in the process discovered a love of the acting craft. The direct descendant of migrant workers, Chavira lost his mother to breast and ovarian cancer before his 16th birthday, and reportedly also used acting as a way to cope psychologically with his family situation. After graduation, the actor earned his undergraduate degree from Incarnate Word College and (after taking some time off) his MFA from the University of California San Diego's esteemed professional actor training program, in 2000. Though Desperate Housewives represented Chavira's breakthrough, he also made guest appearances on such series as NYPD Blue, 24, and JAG, and was a recurring cast member on such series as The Division and Six Feet Under, though he would also stick with Desperate Housewives for season after season.

Trivia: Known to countless Office fans as the uptight accountant, Angela Kinsey would surprise many with the warm, sunny personality she has offscreen. Born June 25th, 1971, in Texas, Kinsey's family relocated to Indonesia when she was two, and they lived in the country until she was 14, making her fluent in Indonesian. Kinsey went on to attend Baylor University before interning for Late Night with Conan O'Brien and attending classes with Improv Olympic and The Groundlings. She worked in commercials and in various areas of the corporate world to pay her bills, sometimes landing roles on episodes of popular TV shows, until 2005 when she auditioned for the role of Pam Beesly on The Office. Producers liked Kinsey, but they felt she had a feistiness to her that would make her better in the role of Angela Martin. She returned, auditioned for the part, and became a member of the cast. The show became a huge success, and Kinsey worked on other projects in her off time, appearing in co-star John Krasinski's romantic comedy License to Wed in 2007.

Trivia: He may have gotten his start in standup comedy by a fluke, but don't be fooled by his early good fortune -- funnyman Howie Mandel is certainly the real deal. From the stage to the screen, and virtually every medium in between, Mandel has not only proven adept at playing the clown, but with his enduring role on the popular 1980s television drama St. Elsewhere, straight and affecting drama as well. It was during a business trip to Los Angeles in 1979 that the Toronto native, goaded on by friends while watching the comics at The Comedy Store's amateur night, first took the stage to surprising effect. The wild card that evening turned out to be a producer who just happened to be in the crowd, and Mandel was immediately hired for an appearance on the popular comedy game show Make Me Laugh. He subsequently performed on television talk shows and opened for such luminaries as Diana Ross, and it wasn't long before he was approached to appear on the fledgling television drama St. Elsewhere. Cast as dedicated Dr. Wayne Fiscus, Mandel remained with the show that launched his career for the entire duration of its six-season run, gaining legions of fans and even a few Emmy nominations. Though Mandel remained loyal to St. Elsewhere for the entirety of its television run, a series of side jobs provided his career with the momentum to succeed after the series was canceled in 1988. Mandel permanently ingrained himself in the pop-culture lexicon as the voice of Gizmo in the 1984 hit Gremlins and as a multitude of characters on the popular cartoon Muppet Babies. He cracked up audiences with a rollicking appearance on Comic Relief in 1986, and he could frequently be spotted on-stage sporting a blown up rubber glove over the top half of his head and slaying audiences with his hilarious baby voice. Although Mandel would try his hand at features with both Walk Like a Man (1987) and Little Monsters (1989), neither film proved the powerhouse hit needed to launch a feature career, and he returned to television to great success in the early '90s. Mandel's love of children dictated most of his career choices in the 1990s, and in the first year of the decade he utilized his popular series of voices for the enduring children's television series Bobby's World (which ultimately went off of the air in 1998). In 1992, Mandel headlined the short-lived small-screen series Howie, and after a series of appearances in both features and made-for-television movies, he hosted both Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies and The Howie Mandel Show. Though none of his personal shows proved quite as successful or endearing as Bobby's World, Mandel remained in the public eye as both a popular comic and as the creator of a series of children's CD-ROMs that aimed to both educate and entertain. In the year 2000, Mandel once again turned his attention to features, and appearances in Tribulation (2000), Hansel & Gretel (2002), and Pinocchio 3000 (2003) proved that the popular funnyman had lost none of his onscreen talent. Outside of his work in the entertainment industry, the color-blind verminophobic spends much of his time with his wife and three children. Over the coming decade, Mandel would enjoy hosting duties of extremely successful shows like Deal or No Deal and America's Got Talent.

Trivia: Born December 1st, 1970, former Saturday Night Live cast member Sarah Silverman made her film debut in the 1997 Who's the Caboose. She then had a supporting role as a friend of Mary in Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly's 1998 comedy smash There's Something About Mary. Following a part in Chris O'Donnell's The Bachelor, which also starred Renee Zelwegger, Brooke Shields, and James Cromwell, Silverman secured a deal with Columbia Tri-Star to create a vehicle for herself based on her one-woman show, Susan Plays Cheese. She received further exposure on various TV talk shows, as well as in the pages of Esquire Magazine's "breasts" issue and a fashion layout in Mirabella. She appeared in the comedies Screwed and Heartbreakers, and had a memorable role as the driven girlfriend in Richard Linklater's School of Rock. 2005 was a stellar year for Silverman on the big screen. In addition to writing and starring in Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, she was widely considered to have one of the very best appearances in the documentary The Aristocrats. She followed that up the next year with a part in Todd Phillips' School for Scoundrels. From 2007 to 2009, Silverman played herself in The Sarah Silverman Program, and edgy sitcom that earned the comedienne a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award. Despite a devoted fan following, Comedy Central cancelled the show after three seasons. In 2008, Silverman appeared semi-regularly on Jimmy Kimmel Live for a series of raunchy sketches involving Matt Damon, and made several appearances on the USA Network's television series Monk. After making a cameo as herself in The Muppets in 2011, Silverman went a different direction by taking on a dramatic role in Take This Waltz, a film following a married couple whose relationship begins to crumble when one half of the pair forms an emotional bond with a neighbor. She next logged a series of voice roles, including Vanellope, a glitchy video game character in Disney's Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and a recurring role on Bob's Burgers. In 2014, she appeared in A Million Ways to Die in the West and began a guest arc on Masters of Sex.

Trivia: The daughter of actors, Brooke Adams was once praised by the press for her supremely flexible countenance -- with expressions and demeanors to accommodate virtually any emotion or situation. Adams attended New York's High School of Performing Arts and the Institute of American Ballet, and took private acting lessons from Lee Strasberg. At age six, she made her Broadway debut in the 1954 revival of Finian's Rainbow. Eleven years later, she was cast as Burl Ives' teenaged daughter in the extremely short-lived TV sitcom O.K. Crackerby (1965-1966) on ABC.Adams then kept a low professional profile until making her adult off-Broadway bow in 1974, appearing in yet another revival, The Petrified Forest. A great future was predicted for Brooke when she starred as Abby, the romantic bone of contention between Richard Gere and Sam Shepard in Terrence Malick's critically acclaimed 1978 film, Days of Heaven. That same year, she played Elizabeth Driscoll (the Dana Wynter role) in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, opposite Donald Sutherland, and in 1979 she was Sean Connery's ethereal leading lady in the Richard Lester-directed Cuba. Any one of those three roles could have spelled superstardom for Brooke -- had she really wanted to be a superstar. Instead, she deliberately avoided the trappings of celebritydom, preferring to measure her achievements by her own standards rather than Hollywood's. And, if that meant accepting "small" but artistically rewarding theatrical projects or teaching acting classics to emotionally disturbed children, rather than accepting a role in the latest Spielberg or Scorsese blockbuster, so be it. Brooke Adams' more notable credits during the mid- to late '80s and '90s included guest appearances on TV's Moonlighting (as single mother and David Addison Lamaze partner Terri Knowles), a role in the Broadway production The Heidi Chronicles, the narration duties for the 1994 miniseries The Fire This Time, and the role of Ione Skye's hardscrabble mother in the Allison Anders-directed Gas Food Lodging (1992). These represented high points, however, and more often than not, Adams found herself relegated to parts unworthy of her, such as the unevenly received 1985 adaptation of Kevin Wade's play Key Exchange (in which she reprised her stage role) and the histrionic TV movies Lace (1984) and Lace II (1985).In subsequent years, Adams made a greater splash on television, with guest appearances on such series programs as Wings, Monk (both opposite husband Tony Shalhoub), and Touched by an Angel. She also returned to the big screen for supporting roles in several projects, including the 1995 Baby-Sitters Club and the 2007 Griffin Dunne-directed romantic comedy The Accidental Husband.

Trivia: Fans of American actress Melora Hardin who associate her exclusively with her characterization of Jan Levinson-Gould -- Michael Scott's stone-faced manager and sometimes lover, on the smash NBC series The Office -- may be surprised and delighted to discover several exciting facts about the history of her career. First, her work stretches back many decades, into her primary school years, encompassing everything from Disney movies to prime-time series dramas of the '80s, '90s, and 2000s to commercials to acclaimed feature films; she directs and edits films as well. Second, Hardin moonlights as an accomplished and gifted singer/songwriter -- a nightclub chanteuse known for sultry cabaret-style numbers, who has issued a number of acclaimed albums of her own material, including Meloradrama and Purr. And finally, this comedian's wit extends far beyond her crack-comic onscreen timing. A parodist who loves to play with her own image, Hardin runs her own website, with a series of funny-sexy (yet inexplicit) cheesecake photos that serve as throwbacks to the peek-a-boo erotica days of the mid-'50s while subtly parodying and calling attention to those setups.Given both of her parents' long tenures in film and television (her father is character actor Jerry Hardin and her mother is acting coach Diane Hill Hardin), drama came preternaturally for Hardin, and she commenced work as a child star at age six. One of her earliest assignments involved plugging Peak Toothpaste on a television commercial; she later joined the ensemble cast of a live-action children's program on NBC (circa 1977, at age ten) called Cliffwood Avenue Kids, which (as late-Gen X television babies may recall) typically aired during early weekday evenings after The Flintstones. A series of failed pilots ensued for Hardin, beginning with the late-'70s drama Thunder and encompassing over a dozen others over the next two decades.Hardin debuted cinematically at age 11, with a high-profile role in the goofball Disney comedy The North Avenue Irregulars, opposite Susan Clark and Cloris Leachman and directed by Hogan's Heroes vet Bruce Bilson. She followed this up with many additional roles in A- and B-list features throughout the '80s and '90s, but while her work shone, the films themselves often failed to catch fire; her resumé includes such forgettable fare as Iron Eagle (1985) and Soul Man (1986). A number of pictures, however, marked happy exceptions: Hardin contributed a small onscreen singing role to the fine Disney period adventure The Rocketeer (1991), and several of her songs highlighted the film's soundtrack. She also appeared in Clint Eastwood's enormously underrated, oft-humorous 1997 crime thriller Absolute Power (as Christy Sullivan, the homicide victim of Gene Hackman's lecherous president), and made a solid contribution to the satire Thank You for Smoking, opposite Aaron Eckhart.Hardin fared particularly well on television, with single- and dual-episode appearances over the years in such dramas as Little House on the Prairie, Quincy, M.E., and Murder, She Wrote. The Office, of course, represented a watershed moment for Hardin. Adapted skillfully by Greg Daniels from the British series of the same name by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the NBC sitcom follows the colorful employees of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company's Scranton branch -- led by one Michael Scott (Steve Carell), a sweet-natured but desperately lonely and outrageously uncouth manager. Low-key, iconoclastic, and unconventional, the program eschewed a laugh track and underplayed (to the nth degree) every one of its gags, relying on a bevy of character eccentricities to procure laughs. The episodes had Hardin (as Michael's manager) typically playing straight man to Carell's goofball, and saw the unlikeliest of employer-employee romances blossoming between them over the course of the first two seasons. Thanks to an extraordinary cast and crew, The Office instantly shot up to qualify as one of NBC's highest rated new series after its March 2005 debut; many proclaimed it as the funniest American sitcom since Seinfeld.Meanwhile, Hardin continued to hone her craft in other arenas. She first helmed the regional theatrical production of friend Adria Tennor's one-woman show Strip Search. Tagged as "Love and a 12-Foot Pole," and authored by and starring Tennor, this colorful yet surprisingly touching seriocomedy recounts the tale of a woman who undertakes a journey of self-discovery and ultimately finds her dying passion in strip dancing classes. Hardin then directed and edited an independent film entitled You that husband Gildart Jackson scripted. The motion picture stars Jackson and both of Hardin's parents, as well as Joely Fisher and The Office's Kate Flannery.In 2006, Hardin returned to big-screen work, signing with Fox Atomic and Tapestry Films to co-star in the Tom Brady-directed sports comedy The Comebacks. The film relays the story of a football coach (David Koechner) commissioned to whip a down-and-out football team into shape. In 2007, she joined the cast of The Dukes, which follows a group of down-and-out musicians attempting an ill-fated heist.

Trivia: Of Irish and Scottish descent.Grew up in a Catholic home.A member of Clan Wallace and descendant of Scottish patriot William Wallace.His ancestor, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was one of the signers of The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.An experienced acting coach, has developed his own camera acting classes curriculum, and has taught and given seminars at many universities, including California State University Dominguez Hills, Richland College in Richland, Texas, and Concordia University in Montreal.

Trivia: Raised in Woodland Hills, CA, and the son of a hearing aid specialist who worked in geriatrics and a full-time housewife, Garrett began performing stand-up at various Los Angeles Comedy Clubs upon graduation from high school. Spending six weeks at UCLA before his fateful appearance on the Tonight Show, the young comedian later felt the wrath of that show's grudge after telling a joke that the talent booker had warned him against. Garrett has since never been invited back. Nevertheless he continued on strongly, opening for Frank Sinatra and soon finding roles in such popular television shows as Roseanne, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Seinfeld, and perhaps most famously, Everybody Loves Raymond. Offering his voice to numerous animated features since his breakout in the early '80s, Garrett voice acted in family films like Casper (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Ratatouille, Tarzan II, Garfield, Tangled, and Finding Nemo. Garrett has also appeared in several movies, like Music and Lyrics, The Pacifier, and Night at the Museum.

Trivia: Supporting actress Bitty Schram had the small but memorable role of Evelyn, the baseball-playing single mother who makes the mistake of crying in front of manager Tom Hanks during a baseball game in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992). A native of New Jersey and a graduate of the University of Maryland, Schram would appear in numerous feature films over the years, but is perhaps best known for the role of handler Sharona Fleming on the TV series Monk.

Trivia: An offbeat character actor whose stark features lent him to effective portrayals of villains and seedy figures, Stanley Kamel grew up in New Jersey and attended Boston University, where he received formalized dramatic training under the aegis of noted instructor Sanford Meisner. Kamel began his acting career with roles in off-Broadway productions during the early '70s, and quickly landed his first major on-camera role, as Eric Peters, on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. His subsequent work over the following three decades consisted largely of recurring roles and guest parts in prime-time series including Cagney & Lacey, Hunter, Melrose Place, and -- most visibly -- the Tony Shalhoub sitcom Monk, as the lead character's shrink, Dr. Charles Kroger.