Trivia: The son of African American director/writer Melvin Van Peebles, Mario van Peebles made his acting bow in a small role in his dad's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971). At the time, Van Peebles had no burning desire to become a performer, choosing instead to study economics at Columbia University. He wavered between a financial and an acting career before becoming a full-time actor with the 1984 film Cotton Club. In 1988, Van Peebles starred in a conformist TV comedy adventure series, Sonny Spoon, playing a glib private eye with a predilection for elaborate disguises; this brief series afforded him his first opportunity to direct. Three years later he made his film directing debut with New Jack City, a film widely praised by some as being a truthful, no-nonsense dissection of inner-city life, and widely derided by others as merely a slick outgrowth of the "blaxploitation" flicks of the 1970s. Van Peebles played a major role in New Jack City, as he would in his subsequent Posse (1993), a revisionist western about a Utopian all-black community. Van Peebles' next directorial endeavor was Panthers (1995), a recounting of the Black Panther Movement that came under fire from several of the real-life activists depicted in the film despite the fact that Van Peebles steadfastly defended it as historically accurate. In addition to making and starring in his own films, Van Peebles occasionally appears in the films of others. He had a starring role in Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge (1986) and for his performance earned an NAACP Image Award. On television, Van Peebles has starred in a number of prestigious productions, including The Emperor Jones for PBS and The Pool Hall opposite James Earl Jones. For this latter role, Van Peebles was nominated for a Cable ACE award. For his work in Children of the Night he received a Bronze Halo Award. He has also directed episodes of television series, notably those of producer Steven J. Cannell. For directing the ABC After School Special: Malcolm Takes a Shot, he received a nomination for a Directors Guild Award. In the late '90s, Van Peebles joined a growing trend and starred in an elaborate CD-Rom game for Sony called Solo in which he played an android superhero with a human learning capacity.

Trivia: With sleek, well-muscled good looks that easily lend themselves to romantic leading roles or parts that call for running, jumping, and handling firearms, Wesley Snipes became one of the most popular Hollywood stars of the 1990s. First coming to prominence with roles in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues and Jungle Fever, Snipes went on to prove himself as an actor who could appeal to audiences as a man that women want and men want to be.Born in Orlando, FL, on July 31, 1962, Snipes grew up in the Bronx. He developed an early interest in acting and attended Manhattan's High School for the Performing Arts. His mother moved him back to Florida before he could graduate, but after finishing up high school in Florida, Snipes attended the State University of New York-Purchase and began pursuing an acting career. It was while performing in a competition that he was discovered by an agent, and a short time later he made his film debut in the Goldie Hawn vehicle Wildcats (1986). Although he appeared in a few more films during the 1980s, it was Snipes' turn as a street tough who menaces Michael Jackson in the Martin Scorsese-directed video for "Bad" that caught the eye of director Lee. He was so impressed with the actor's performance that he cast him in his 1990 Mo' Better Blues as a flamboyant saxophonist opposite Denzel Washington. That role, coupled with the exposure that Snipes had received for his performance as a talented but undisciplined baseball player in the previous year's Major League, succeeded in giving the actor a tentative plot on the Hollywood map. With his starring role in Lee's 1991 Jungle Fever, Snipes won critical praise and increased his audience exposure, and his career duly took off.That same year, Snipes further demonstrated his flexibility with disparate roles in New Jack City, in which he played a volatile drug lord, and The Waterdance, in which he starred as a former wild man repenting for his ways in a hospital's paraplegic ward. Both performances earned strong reviews, and the following year Snipes found himself as the lead in his first big-budget action flick, Passenger 57. The film, which featured the actor as an ex-cop with an attitude who takes on an airplane hijacker, proved to be a hit. Snipes' other film that year, the comedy White Men Can't Jump, was also successful, allowing the actor to enter the arena of full-fledged movie star. After a few more action stints in such films as Rising Sun (1993), which featured him opposite Sean Connery, Snipes went in a different direction with an uncredited role in Waiting to Exhale (1995). The same year he completely bucked his macho, action-figure persona with his portrayal of a flamboyant drag queen in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Snipes continued to focus on less testosterone-saturated projects after a turn as a baseball player in The Fan (1996), starring as an adulterous director in Mike Figgis' One Night Stand (1997) -- for which he won a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival -- and as Alfre Woodard's handsome cousin in Down in the Delta in 1998. That same year, Snipes returned to the action genre, playing a pumped-up vampire slayer in Blade and a wrongfully accused man on the run from the law in the sequel to The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals. The former would prove to be a massive cult hit and one of his biggest box-office successes to date. And while the new millenium would see most of Snipes' films relegated to straight-to-video releases, a pair of Blade sequels in 2002 and 2004 helped the actor remain a presence at the multiplexes.Sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion in 2008, Snipes began serving his term in 2010.

Trivia: Often cited as the founding father of gangsta rap, Ice-T has also crafted a successful film career from his hardened street persona. Despite the fact that his early roles stuck closely to his public image as a thuggish West Coast pimp, T has since proved both his versatility and his sense of humor by appearing as everything from a mutant kangaroo (Tank Girl [1995]) to, in a surprisingly effective about-face, a police officer (New Jack City [1991]). Born Tracy Marrow in Newark, NJ, in 1958 and later adapting his better-known persona as a tribute to pimp-turned-author Iceberg Slim, T was sent at age 12 to live in Califorina with an aunt after his father died of a heart attack (his mother had died four year earlier, also of a heart attack). Ice-T soon began to develop an obsession with rap music, and after serving a two-year stint in the Army, he began recording and appeared in the films Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (both 1984). Following a near death auto accident in 1986, T devoted his life to music and released his debut album, Rhyme Pays, the following year. T gained positive accolades for his first major film role in 1991's New Jack City, in which he played a dedicated police officer, and the irony was not lost on fans the following year when he caused a stir with a song entitled "Cop Killer." After sticking close to the streets in Ricochet (1991), Trespass (1992), and Surviving the Game (1994), T took a sci-fi detour with Tank Girl and Johnny Mnemonic (both 1995). Generally appearing in straight-to-video schlock from the mid-'90s on, Ice-T could be seen as a naval pilot in Stealth Fighter (1999) and stealing a magic flute from a vengeful green meanie in Leprechaun in the Hood (2000). Though his appearances in such films grew nearly too frequent to count, T occasionally appeared in such theatrical releases as 3000 Miles to Graceland and Abel Ferrara's 'R Xmas (both 2001). After offering curious insight into the life of a pimp in the documentary Pimps Up, Ho's Down, T continued to expound on the life of a hustler in Pimpin' 101 (2003). He also took on a recurring role on the Law & Order spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and later joined the cast as a regular in the show's second season, soon becoming a popular fixture on prime time TV. T would also enjoy success on the reality circuit, starring in the candid reality show Ice Loves Coco with his wife, Nicole "Coco" Austin.

Trivia: Even by the unexacting standard of Hollywood's 1980s "brat pack," actor Judd Nelson seemed wildly undisciplined and self-indulgent on screen. One tends to conclude that Nelson (a former philosophy student and the son of a Maine politician) has played his screen characters as written: he was, after all, very well trained by famed drama coach Stella Adler, and came up from the exacting ranks of summer stock. Among his earliest screen assignments -- all in his watershed year of 1985 -- including the dope-smoking detentionee in The Breakfast Club, Kevin Costner's parachute-jumping fraternity pal in Fandango, and Ally Sheedy's philandering live-in boyfriend in St. Elmo's Fire. Always seeming to be on the verge of punching someone out, Nelson was well cast as a mercurial killer in 1989's Relentless. Like many brat-packers, Judd Nelson spent the 1990s transitioning into his career as an adult, but he hit his stride by 1996, when he joined the cast of the hit sitcom Suddenly Susan. In the years to come, Nelson would remain a consistent force on screen, appearing in movies like Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Grizzley Flats.

Trivia: South Carolina-born African American comedian Chris Rock grew up in Brooklyn and projected a marked aptitude for comedy early in life. Rock traveled the New York club circuit during his adolescence, so aggressively and persistently that he established himself as a seasoned veteran by his late teens. He happened to be performing at the New York Comedy Strip c. 1984, when his break arrived in the form of an audience visit by one Eddie Murphy. Deeply impressed with the then eighteen-year-old rising star, Murphy cast him in his forthcoming Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), as a parking valet. It hardly constituted a breakout performance, but the role and newfound connection with Eddie Murphy helped Rock land a couple of small supporting roles, and eventually a spot on NBC's hallowed Saturday Night Live, from 1990-93. During his SNL stint, Rock also periodically guest-starred in fellow comedian Keenan Ivory Wayans' African American sketch comedy series In Living Color. In 1991, Rock broke from comedy in favor of a more dramatic role, and his performance as a surprisingly innocent crack addict-cum-informant in Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City attracted a substantial amount of favorable attention; Roger Ebert praised Rock as "effortlessly authentic and convincing."One could argue with some foundation that the role in New Jack City is indicative of Rock's driving force (i.e., the politics of modern society and race within the contextual framework of American culture). Although Rock employs comedic delivery, many of his favorite topics are quite grave, and Rock's ability to confront these issues, cloaked in ribald humor, helped launch his career during the late '90s. While his 1993 screenwriting debut, on Tamra Davis's CB4: The Movie, received lukewarm reviews at best, Rock established himself as a household name after his scathing HBO comedy special Bring the Pain (1996) earned him two Emmy awards and a significantly larger fan base. The same year, he received a third Emmy for his work as a writer and correspondent for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Then, in 1997, the successes of Rock's stand-up, his contributions to Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, his film roleass, and his work on Bring the Pain collectively inspired HBO to sign Rock for a sketch comedy series, The Chris Rock Show, that ran from 1997 to 2000. The program borrowed the formats of Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, yet it upped the vulgarity, volatility, and presence of hot-button contemporary issues - in addition to the intelligence. In addition to Rock, the program featured a cast of up-and-coming African American comics, such as Wanda Sykes and Mario Joyner. The program ran to sensational reviews. Rock's film career expanded throughout the late '90s, and the young comic won particular notice for his role as a hot-headed law enforcement agent in 1998's Lethal Weapon 4 opposite Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, and later for Kevin Smith's irreverent Dogma(1999), as a bitter apostle of Jesus. He also published a book titled Rock This! with much success. Though Dogma received mixed reviews, in 1999 Rock mounted his second HBO comedy special, Bigger & Blacker, which found the comedian addressing topics from gun control to Bill Clinton and proper parenting techniques. In late 2000, Rock played an obnoxious hitman equipped with an incredibly inventive string of obscenities in Neil La Bute's controversial black comedy Nurse Betty, alongside Renee Zellweger and Morgan Freeman.In 2001, Rock put his screenwriting abilities to the test in Down to Earth, a remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, and again in Pootie Tang, a feature spin-off of one of the characters from The Chris Rock Show. In 2001, Rock voiced one of the characters in Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and another in Osmosis Jones, and rejoined Kevin Smith for a cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. In 2002, Rock was one of several comedians featured in Christian Charles' documentary Comedian, and in the same year starred opposite Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins as a CIA spy in the Joel Schumacher-directed action comedy dud Bad Company. Rock then directed, co-wrote and starred in 2003's Head of State as an unlikely presidential candidate for the Democratic party.Head of State divided critics; most felt nonplussed, or espoused mixed feelings, such as The Los Angeles Times's Manohla Dargis, who mused, " Rock can't set up a decent-looking shot, and… doesn't care about niceties such as character development… but…nonetheless wrings biting humor from serious issues with the… ferocity [of]… Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce." After Head, Rock's big screen activity diminished just a bit; he voiced Marty the Zebra in the CG-animated, family-oriented features Madagascar (2005) and Madagascar 2 (2008), but his most frequent turn during this period arrived in the form of a new semiautobiographical sitcom on UPN, Everybody Hates Chris, that debuted in September 2005. As written and produced by Rock, it cast Tyler James Williams as a younger version of the comedian, during the early '80s, who lives in the steel-tough area of Bedford-Stuyvesant and is bused, each day, to a school full of Italian Americans. As narrated by Rock, this sweet, gentle, nostalgic and witty program caught everyone off guard and drew outstanding ratings during late 2005 "TV Sweeps"; New York Times correspondent Alessandra Stanley was certainly not alone when she praised it as "charming" and compared it favorably to The Cosby Show - high praise, indeed.In 2007, Rock returned to cinemas, posing a quadruple threat (writer/producer/ director/star) with the adults-only sex comedy I Think I Love My Wife. In that picture (a remake of Eric Rohmer's Chloe in the Afternoon!) Rock plays Richard Cooper, a suburban investment banker saddled with a wife and two kids, who finds it increasingly difficult to avoid delving into a rich world of sexual fantasies, and then to avoid an imminent affair with a gorgeous "old friend" (Kerry Washington) seeking career advice. I Think I Love My Wife took its stateside bow in mid-March 2007, to reviews as mixed as anything in Rock's prior career; most critics either loved or hated it; a few responded ambivalently. Rock took on a supporting role in 2012's What to Expect When You're Expecting, and voiced the character of Marty the Zebra in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted the same year. He resprised his role in Grown Ups 2 in 2013. In 2014, he wrote, directed and starred in Top Five.

Trivia: Challenging traditional stereotypes for Asian-American actors, Russell Wong has earned a reputation as a sexy, charismatic leading man whose good looks are matched by his skills as a performer. The sixth of seven children, Russell Wong was born on March 1, 1963, in Troy, NY; his family moved to Albany when he was a baby, where his father ran a restaurant. When Wong was seven years of age, his parents divorced, and he moved with his mother to California, settling near Yosemite. In 1981, Wong graduated from Mariposa County High School, and that fall enrolled at Santa Monica City College. Wong supported himself as a photographer and as a dancer (appearing in rock videos with David Bowie, Donna Summer, and Janet Jackson, among others) before scoring his first screen roles in 1985, appearing in a Hong Kong musical called Ge wu sheng ping (aka Musical Dancer) and in a screen adaptation of James Clavell's best-seller Tai-Pan. A number of undistinguished television and film roles followed, but Wong began breaking into better roles in 1989, when he made a memorable guest appearance on the drama series 21 Jump Street and won a leading role in Wayne Wang's acclaimed independent romantic comedy Eat a Bowl of Tea. Supporting roles in China Cry and New Jack City were to follow, and Wong found himself working with Wayne Wang again when he was cast in a meaty role in the film adaptation of Amy Tan's best-selling novel The Joy Luck Club. Wong finally scored a high-profile breakthrough role in 1994, when he was cast in the leading role in the made-for-TV movie Vanishing Son, in which he played a Chinese political activist exiled in America. The show was popular enough to spawn three sequels, and was later spun off into a syndicated TV series. After Vanishing Son ran its course, Wong moved on to more big-screen work, including major roles in Prophesy II, The Tracker, and Romeo Must Die, as well as the made-for-TV epic The Lost Empire. Russell Wong is also the brother of Michael Wong, a fellow thespian active in both Hong Kong and the United States.

Trivia: A lovely and gifted actress, Michael Michele has won acclaim for her portrayals of strong and capable women on television as well as in feature films. Born in Evansville, IN, on August 30, 1966, she, like practically everyone in the Hoosier State, grew up a big basketball fan. Michele played roundball in high school (with her team making the state championships) and participated in volleyball and track. In time, she developed a passion for acting which overwhelmed her enthusiasm for sports (although she remained a committed runner and was known to shoot baskets for relaxation between takes shooting films or television shows), and she moved to the East Coast to concentrate on her career in the late '80s. In 1989, after a few minor TV roles and parts in commercials, Michele's big break appeared to have arrived in the form of a showy supporting role in Eddie Murphy's film Harlem Nights; the actress was fired during the shooting, however, and she later filed a sexual harassment suit against Murphy, which was settled out of court. Michele rebounding in 1991 when she was cast in Mario Van Peebles's gritty urban drama New Jack City; a year later, she was a regular on the short-lived TV series Dangerous Curves. Her performance in the mini-series Trade Winds proved more memorable, and led to recurring roles on New York Undercover and Central Park West. After appearances in a handful of feature films, Michele scored another major TV role in the series Homicide: Life on the Street in 1998. She turned in her badge a year later to step up to the top-rated medical drama ER, where, between 1999 and 2001, she appeared as Dr. Cleo Finch. Michele's well-regarded work on that series boosted her stock in the film industry, and, in 2003, she appeared in two major motion pictures: How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and Dark Blue. An avid jazz fan, Michele became active in mentoring underprivileged children when not busy with her work.

Trivia: Pittsburgh native Bill Nunn's prolific career earned him such a long list of roles, it's hard to believe the actor didn't set foot onscreen until he was 35 years old. The Morehouse College graduate had a degree in English and his career sights had always been set on writing. It wasn't until a fellow Morehouse graduate, Spike Lee, offered him a role in his 1988 film School Daze that Nunn decided to try his hand at professional acting. His power onscreen was undeniable, and so was his natural acting ability. He appeared in Lee's next film, the groundbreaking Do the Right Thing, and his iconic role as Radio Raheem cemented him as a career actor. Memorable parts soon followed in 1990's Cadillac Man and 1991's controversial Mario Van Peebles film New Jack City. Critics and audiences were amazed that Nunn hadn't been learning the craft all his life, as he proved to be a bankable actor with the capacity to be both moving and funny. Nunn loved his work, too; he would continue to participate in multiple projects a year, amassing a resumé 50 roles long over the course of 20 years. Nunn's kind but steady gaze earned him a reputation for playing police officers, but from the political satire Canadian Bacon to the comic-book hero Spider-man movies, He appeared in the TV movie version of Raisin in the Sun in 2008 and made his last on-screen appearance as a series regular in the USA series Sirens. Nunn died in 2016, at age 63.

Trivia: Character actor Bill Cobbs began his acting career relatively late in life after working odd jobs in Cleveland, OH. At the age of 36, he moved to New York and joined the Negro Ensemble Company, making his Broadway debut in First Breeze of Summer. His film career started in the late '70s with small film roles and guest appearances on television. In the early '80s, he worked on several performances for the NBC Live Theatre series and a PBS anthology with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Usually cast as the token old black man dispensing words of wisdom, Cobbs' weathered-yet-honest looks got him several guest spots on TV shows from Good Times to The West Wing. He did end up with a few reoccurring roles on sitcoms like The Slap Maxwell Story, The Gregory Hines Show, and The Michael Richards Show. He even had a part in The Others, the NBC sci-fi drama answer to The X-Files. Perhaps his most memorable television appearance is his role as Regina Taylor's father on I'll Fly Away as well as in the TV movie version I'll Fly Away: Then and Now. Throughout his film career, he has built a long list of credits playing kindly fathers, grandfathers, and even Moses (in The Hudsucker Proxy). He was Whitney Houston's manager in The Bodyguard, an old man in New Jack City, and Grandpa Booker in The People Under the Stairs. Though he appears in nearly all genres of Hollywood films, he occasionally gets meatier roles in made-for-TV dramas like Carolina Skeletons, Nightjohn, and Always Outnumbered. In 2002, he played wisened elders in Sunshine State, Enough, and Sweet Deadly Dreams.

Trivia: Started performing with the New York City Opera's Children's Chorus when she was 11, and remained a member for five years. Nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special for 2002 made-for-TV drama Our America. Penned a book of prose and poetry titled Shine, and has also had writing published in Essence magazine. Broadway appearances include roles in the musical Sarafina! and the play Mule Bone.

Trivia: Commanding African American actor Thalmus Rasulala launched his film career in such blaxploitationers of the 1960s and 1970s as Cool Breeze, Blacula, Bucktown and Friday Foster. He was prominently cast in the Emmy-winning made-for-TV feature The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, played Omro in the 1977 miniseries Roots, and was one of the nine stars of the 1981 multipart drama The Sophisticated Gents. Rasulala's series-TV manifest included the occasional role of Mabel King's ex-husband on What's Happening!! (1976-79), and a substantial run on the daytime drama One Life to Live. In the 1991 TV movie Above the Law, Rasulala played a character named Crowder, which happened to be his given name. Thalmus Rasulala died of heart failure and leukemia at the age of 51; his last film, Mom and Dad Save the World (1992), was released posthumously.

Trivia: Aprea is a supporting actor, onscreen from Bullitt (1968); he married Cherie Latimer.

Trivia: A self-styled renaissance man, Fab 5 Freddy arguably qualifies as one of the most colorful figures in rap music history and certainly one of the most diverse, juggling successful stints as not merely a rapper, but a Hollywood scriptwriter, thespian, graffiti artist, painter (with his work displayed in prestigious galleries) and MTV host. Through it all, Freddy exhibited an infectious zeal and enthusiasm that lifted him above the pack.Born Fred Braithwaite in 1959, in the tough-as-nails Bed Stuy section of New York, Freddy began his career as a graffiti artist, with the imprimaturs "Fred Fab 5" and "Bull 99." The work quickly netted such popularity that it gained iconic stature in Manhattan and seemed to predestine Freddy for a successful and lucrative career as a painter. Following suit, he graduated from high school in the late '70s and enrolled at Medgar Evans College as an art major, turning to the pop art of Andy Warhol as a stylistic inspiration and touchstone. That marked a prescient move: within the next few years, Freddy found his way into the exclusive avant-garde of early-'80s New York, alongside Warhol, Deborah Harry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and others, even turning up in Edo Bertoglio's long-lost feature film about that community, Downtown 81. Freddy broke into these cliques courtesy of his friendship with music journalist Glenn O'Brien (frequently appearing on O'Brien's local access talk show and operating camera on it). As time rolled on, however, Freddy became increasingly interested in various then-nascent aspects of black culture, such as rap, breakdancing, and hip-hop. That led him to star in the 1983 film Wild Style and produce the soundtrack, as well. By the late '80s, Freddy began producing rap videos for artists including Queen Latifah, KRS-One, and Shabba Ranks, and accepted the gifted young MTV producer Ted Demme's invitation to host Yo! MTV Raps, an assignment that established his image as one of the godfathers of the hip-hop scene (as did his publication of a dictionary of hip-hop slang). Freddy subsequently moved into features as a producer (New Jack City, 1991), occasional actor, and documentary contributor. Projects in which he participated include Juice (1992), Who's the Man? (1993), Just For Kicks (2005), and The Universe of Keith Haring (2007).

Trivia: One of the most prominent members of the hardcore rap/hip-hop ensemble Public Enemy (and arguably its most colorful contributor), Flavor Flav (born William Drayton in 1959) joined his bandmates in breaking new ground within the said musical genres. Public Enemy's ability to rewrite the rules of rap as a vehicle for the expression of urban social concerns (and angst), coupled with innovative soundscapes unlike anything heard up through that time, arguably turned it into the most influential rap or hip-hop group to emerge during the mid- to late '80s. Throughout it all, Flav provided the comic edge to offset the sobriety and gravity of band member Chuck D's lyrics. Flav's outrageous appearance did much to impart this -- he typically sported a massive number of rings on each hand, wore a giant clock on a chain around his neck, and had all of his front teeth encased in solid gold, into which were engraved the letters of his stage name. For the majority of his career, Flav remained with Enemy, only issuing a debut solo record in 2006 (an early 1999 effort, It's About Time, went unreleased). He began to branch out into film roles as early as 1990, with a small role in Spike Lee's jazz-flavored musical drama Mo' Better Blues, then followed it up with a similar role in New Jack City and cameos as his inimitable self in CB4: The Movie (1993) and Who's the Man? (1993). In an unforgettable stint, Flav participated alongside Charo, Dave Coulier, and others in season three of VH1's The Surreal Life (2004). During that season, Flav and statuesque Scandinavian model-turned-actress Brigitte Nielsen struck up a now-famous on-camera love affair, which prompted the network to initiate a spin-off reality series for the mordantly unhappy couple, entitled Strange Love; episodes typically featured the lovers screaming at each other incessantly and the program ended after only one season. Flav, however, signed for a follow-up MTV reality series, devoted exclusively to himself and his pursuit of lifelong love. Entitled The Flavor of Love, it debuted in 2006. Meanwhile, the performer heightened his emphasis on non-musical comedy via participation in the Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav (2007). In 2008, Flav took on a regular role as Calvester Hill on the My Network TV sitcom Under One Roof.

Trivia: Moved with her family from the suburbs of Chicago to Los Angeles during her senior year of high school. Published self-help books The Little Book of Big Lies and 30-Days to A More Fabulous You. Her play, The Circle, premiered at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles in 2011. Is a licensed spiritual practitioner, trained hypno-therapist, life coach and founder of The Inner Fitness Project.

Trivia: Gerald Levert, son of the O'Jays vocalist Eddie Levert and an immensely talented rhythm and blues singer in his own right, first launched himself onto the charts in the mid-'80s, as a member (alongside his brother, Sean Levert, and a childhood buddy, Marc Gordon) of the R&B trio LeVert. That ensemble signed with the indie Tempre label around 1986, and issued the single "I'm Still," which encouraged Atlantic Records to sign the men as a group the following year. Levert went solo on the East West label in 1991, promoting a hot, raw, and suggestive style, and a number of critically acclaimed LPs followed, including Private Line (1991), Father and Son (1995), Groove On (1995), Love and Consequences (1998), The G Spot (2002), and Do I Speak for the World (2004).Levert made a scant few contributions to film soundtracks, including Coming to America (1988) and New Jack City (1991). He also appears in a documentary about the Funk Brothers, Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002). Gerald Levert died of unspecified causes, in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, on November 10, 2006. He was only 40 years old.