Trivia: Born in a musically talented family.Grew up in Gary, Indiana.The first African American MFA graduate at Rutgers University.Recorded his lessons for his theater students at Rutgers University while working on the set of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, often in costume.Plays jazz piano.

Trivia: Born in Milwaukee, actress Salome Jens made some of her earliest appearances at that city's Swan Theatre (later known as the Milwaukee Rep). Trained at Northwestern and the Actors Studio, Jens worked as a secretary before her New York stage debut in 1956, thereafter accumulating impressive credits both on and off Broadway. Her first film appearance was in 1961's Angel Baby, which also served to introduce Burt Reynolds to moviegoers. Jens' most famous screen appearance was as Norma Marcus, the lover of "born again" Rock Hudson, in the 1966 sci-fier Seconds. The first of Salome Jens' two husbands was actor Ralph Meeker.

Trivia: Though she has several features and TV movies to her credit, Terry Farrell has thrived primarily as an actress on series television. Born Theresa Lee Farrell Grussendorf in Cedar Rapids, IA, Farrell moved to New York City to become a model. During her several years as a cover girl, she also studied acting and landed her first major role as an actress by playing a model on the short-lived TV series Paper Dolls (1984). While she continued her acting studies, Farrell had a small role in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School (1986) and appeared in the TV movies Beverly Hills Madam (1986) and The Deliberate Stranger (1986), a well-received docudrama on serial killer Ted Bundy. After she starred in the horror sequel Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), Farrell attracted a following as Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1998). During her five years on Deep Space Nine, Farrell also appeared in the TV adaptation of Danielle Steel's Star (1993), the B-action movie Red Sun Rising (1994), and the TV thriller Reasons of the Heart (1996). After Deep Space Nine ended, the actress stayed with TV, signing on to play Reggie, the beautiful diner worker and occasionally sharp-tongued foil to Ted Danson's grumpy doctor on the CBS sitcom Becker (1998).

Trivia: Colm Meaney is no stranger to the run down Barrytown district of Dublin depicted in The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van, having grown up near the much mythologized neighborhood. The Dublin native began his acting career at the age of 14, eventually receiving formal training at Dublin's prestigious Abbey Theatre School of Acting and going on to join the Irish National Theatre Company. Meaney eventually graduated to the English stage, working in various London theaters, and then began to audition for television work, mainly landing bit parts in such TV shows as the cop drama Z Cars.Meaney moved to the U.S. in 1982, continuing to work mainly on the stage, but gradually made the transition into television and film playing small parts and guest roles on a variety of series. He was part of the cast of One Life to Live from 1986 to 1987, playing Patrick London, and then was hired for a bit part on Encounter at Farpoint, the pilot for the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. He was hired again for another part and then given the role of Chief Miles Edward O'Brien, and quickly went from being a bit player to an important member of the ensemble cast. The character was transferred to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the pilot for that series, and Meaney became a staple member of the show's cast.During his tenure on both Star Trek series, Meaney's motion picture career began to take off, as the bit parts he was given gradually became more substantial. Meaney made his greatest impact in smaller films like the so-called Barrytown Trilogy -- The Commitments (1991), in which he played the father of one of the band members; The Snapper (1993), in which he portrayed Dessie, who finds himself out of a job and suddenly a grandfather; and The Van (1996), which cast him as Larry, a layabout who manages to have a grand idea one day that results in his and a friend Bimbo starting a business out of a derelict vending van. Meaney was also notable in 1996's The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain: his Morgan the Goat, a randy Welsh pub owner with a flair for smart remarks, was an appropriate foil for the naive Englishman played by Hugh Grant. Meaney has continued to divide his time between the U.K. and the U.S., making particularly notable appearances in Paul Quinn's This Is My Father (1998), which cast him as the swishy son of an old gypsy woman; Lodge Kerrigan's Claire Dolan, in which he played a high-class pimp; Ted Demme's Monument Avenue (1998), which featured him as the bullying leader of a Boston gang; and Chapter Zero (2000), an independent comedy that cast Meaney as the cross-dressing father of a struggling writer.He continued to work steadily well into the 21st century in a variety of projects including Bitter Harvest, Intermission, Layer Cake, and Turning Green. He played soccer coach Don Revie in the sports drama The Damned United before playing the father of a strung-out rockstar in the comedy Get Him to the Greek. He appeared in Robert Redford's historical drama The Conspirator, as well as the period drama Bel Ami.

Trivia: A versatile performer born into the lap of show business -- her parents were Gypsy stage choreographer Robert Tucker and ballet instructor Nenette Charisse, and her aunt (by marriage) acclaimed dancer Cyd Charisse -- Nana Visitor grew up on the west side of Manhattan, not far from Broadway. Visitor followed her parents' lead by formally training as a ballet dancer from the age of seven, then segued into tap dance, and in virtually no time seemed destined for the stages of the Great White Way, an accomplishment secured by late adolescence. Visitor's stage credits include My One and Only, Gypsy, 42nd Street, and The Ladies' Room; by the mid-'80s she began signing for on-camera appearances as well, often though not always in telemovies and series roles. Her best-known parts include a regular role as Major Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for the series' entire seven-season run and a recurring part during the first season of James Cameron's Dark Angel as the nefarious Dr. Elizabeth Renfro (aka Madame X). Visitor then went on to star as Roxie Hart in a revival of the stage musical Chicago before again taking a regular TV role. This time, Visitor played Jean Ritter on the horse-racing teen drama Wildfire.

Trivia: African-American actor Michael Dorn received much of his on-the-job training as a semi-regular on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives. In the prime-time hours, Dorn was seen as Officer Turner during the final two seasons (1980-1982) of the weekly cop series CHiPs. He went on to a flurry of supporting-cast activity in such theatrical features as The Jagged Edge (1985). Then, in 1987, Michael Dorn donned mounds of facial makeup for what was to be his signature role: the U.S.S. Enterprise's Klingon officer Lt. Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994).

Trivia: Born to an English mother and Sudanese father. Uncle Sadiq Al Mahdi was a two-time Prime Minister of Sudan (in the 1960s and '80s). Was bitten by the acting bug as a teenager, when he played Puck in a high-school production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Initially aspired to be a director, and has directed plays as well as two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Interests include wine collecting, role-playing games, gardening and home projects.

Trivia: Trained at Manhattan's New School and London's LAMDA, Andrew Robinson made his off-Broadway bow in the 1967 satire MacBird. Within four years, Robinson was eliciting hisses and screams from moviegoers in the role of "Scorpio," the giggling serial killer in Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry (1971). While this assignment could very well have typecast Robinson for life (he's certainly played more than his share of slimy villains since), the actor has been careful to accept as many sympathetic roles--doctors, police officers and the like--as his schedule allows. A prolific TV guest star, he has played Sgt. Stark in the 1979 miniseries From Here to Eternity, John F. Kennedy in a 1986 Twilight Zone episode, Elim Garak in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1992 ), and the title role in the 1988 biopic Liberace. In 1984, Andrew Robinson won the Los Angeles Drama Circle Award for his stage performance in In the Belly of the Beast, which also served as his Broadway debut.

Trivia: Comedy writer-actor, onscreen from the '80s. She was often teamed with Griff Rhys Jones.

Trivia: As the son of legendary Hollywood director William Wellman, Sr. -- the man responsible for the first Best Picture winner, Wings (1927) -- and actress Dorothy Coonan, actor William Wellman Jr. followed in the footsteps of his show-business family and maintained a nearly constant presence in films and television over the decades. He began his career by focusing largely on action-oriented genre fare, such as the Western Darby's Rangers (1958) and the war drama Lafayette Escadrille (1958, both directed by his father), the Lewis Milestone-helmed combat film Pork Chop Hill (1959), and the premier Billy Jack installment, Born Losers (1967). The Trial of Billy Jack marked his reunion with director-star Tom Laughlin. In the late '70s and early '80s, Wellman became involved with Mark IV Pictures, an evangelical Christian production outfit best known for its Thief in the Night film series (on the book of Revelation); he acted in the 1981 series installment Image of the Beast, and appeared in and scripted the 1983 installment Prodigal Planet. Wellman also became active in television; his small-screen assignments include work in the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (1982) and James A. Michener's Space (1985) as well as the 1994 telemovie Lies of the Heart: The Story of Laurie Kellogg.