Trivia: An actor whose hulking presence belies his ability to slip quietly into an astonishing variety of roles, Vincent D'Onofrio is one of Hollywood's most unpredictable and compelling performers. Throughout his career, D'Onofrio has played a diverse range of characters, from Full Metal Jacket's fatally unhinged army recruit to a wholly convincing Orson Welles in Ed Wood to a bisexual porn star in The Velocity of Gary.Born in Brooklyn, NY, on June 30, 1959, D'Onofrio was raised in the diverse locales of Hawaii, Colorado, and Miami's Hialeah section. His career as an actor began on the stage, with study under Sonia Moore of New York's American Stanislavsky Theatre and Sharon Chatten at the Actors Studio. D'Onofrio's early years in the theater were filled with an obligatory helping of obscurity and miniscule paychecks (so miniscule that he worked for a time as a bouncer to help pay the bills). His fortunes began to shift in 1984, when he joined the American Stanislavsky Theatre as a performer. There, he appeared in such well-regarded productions as Of Mice and Men and David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and also made his Broadway debut in Open Admissions.D'Onofrio debuted onscreen in the straight-to-oblivion 1983 comedy The First Turn-On!, but it was not until his haunting portrayal of Pvt. Pyle (a role for which the actor gained 70 pounds) four years later in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket that he earned much-deserved notice for his work. Defying easy categorization, D'Onofrio next appeared in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza (1988), slimming down to his normal weight and giving a convincing portrayal as Lili Taylor's lovestruck boyfriend.Having thus given audiences a glimpse of his remarkable versatility, D'Onofrio spent the next few years making his presence felt in such films as JFK (1991), in which he played assassination witness Bill Newman; The Player (1992), which cast him in the pivotal role of ill-fated screenwriter David Kahane; and Nancy Savoca's Household Saints (1993), which, through a particularly odd feat of casting, had him playing the father of Lili Taylor. Although D'Onofrio worked at a prolific pace, it was not until he portrayed Conan the Barbarian author Robert E. Howard in the 1996 The Whole Wide World that he really had his screen breakthrough. A low-key romantic drama about the relationship between Howard and a schoolteacher (Renée Zellweger), the film allowed D'Onofrio to take center stage, rather than lend support to better-known co-stars. Critics roundly applauded his performance, but although the actor kept working steadily, he was by no means a Hollywood fixture. Eschewing the limelight, he turned in particularly memorable performances in Feeling Minnesota (1996) as Cameron Diaz's cuckolded fiancé and in the 1997 blockbuster Men in Black, which cast him as the film's resident bad guy.D'Onofrio had long since become an established actor by the 2000's, and he would remain a solid force on screen in such films as The Cell, Happy Accidents, Steal This Movie, andThumbsucker. D'Onofrio would also find just as much notoriety on the small screen, most notably as Detective Robert Goren on the phenomenally successful Law & Order spin-off Criminal Intent, and even step behind the camera, penning, helming and starring in the drama Mall.

Trivia: Born and raised in the Boston area, Erbe left her hometown to study drama at New York University. After making her TV debut as Lynn Redgrave's daughter on the short-lived TV sitcom Chicken Soup (1989), she returned to New York and was cast in the acclaimed 1990 Broadway production of The Grapes of Wrath. Erbe soon scored her first major film credit as Richard Dreyfuss' daughter in the Bill Murray comedy What About Bob? (1991) and alternated stage work as a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Atlantic Theatre Company with TV and films throughout the 1990s, most notably in Rich in Love (1992), George Wallace (1997), Kiss of Death (1995), The Addiction, (1995), and Stir of Echoes. Erbe also earned major acclaim on the HBO series Oz. As the 2000's unfolded for the actress, she found continued success in TV, playing the role of Detective Alexandra Eames on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Trivia: Character actor Jamey Sheridan has had a prolific acting career in theater, television, and film productions. Born in California to a family of actors, he made it to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination in 1987 for his performance in the revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. After several TV movie appearances, he landed a reoccurring role as lawyer Jack Shannon on Shannon's Deal, which ran for one season in 1990. His later television roles include Dr. John Sutton on Chicago Hope (from 1995-1996) and Captain Deakins on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (since 2001). Sheridan started his film career in the late '80s with small roles, and by the '90s he was playing the token family man, a role he would continue in both film and television. He was also capable of playing villains, as he did in the 1994 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. Other interesting roles include Marty Stouffer in Wild America and the psychotic neighbor in Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story. After a long history of performing Shakespeare on the stage, Sheridan appeared in Campbell Scott's production of Hamlet in 2000 as well as the Hamlet-inspired modern noir film Let the Devil Wear Black in 1999. He's also given fine supporting performances in The Ice Storm, Cradle Will Rock, Life as a House, and numerous TV movies. In teh early 2000s Sheriden frequently alternated between film and television, though it was his role on the popular detective series Law and Order: Criminal Intent that offered him the most exposure. It was during his five year run on that show that he was diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a nerve disorder that temporarily causes partial facial paralysis, and the writers ultimately incorporated that condition into the show. In 2011 Sheridan joined the cast of the Showtime drama Homeland, which centered on a Marine sergeant and war hero who returns home to the U.S. after eight years missing in Iraq, only to be pursued by a CIA officer who's convinced he's been turned into a terrosit by Al-Qaeda.Sheridan and his wife, actress Colette Kilroy, have two children.

Trivia: Although he had been appearing in both film and television productions since the mid-'80s, it took nearly two decades for actor Courtney B. Vance to finally receive recognition. The Detroit native was bitten by the acting bug while a student at Harvard, and though he had originally intended to study history, he felt the lure of the stage and was soon appearing in productions at Harvard before eventually joining the Boston Shakespeare Company. After graduation, Vance continued his acting career at the Yale School of Drama, and it was there that he first gained notice for his role opposite James Earl Jones in the August Wilson drama Fences. In 1987, Vance made his film debut in the war drama Hamburger Hill, and though he remained true to his stage roots in the ensuing years, screen roles kept rolling in. The actor climbed the credits throughout the 1990s with a series of supporting roles in The Hunt for Red October (1990), Beyond the Law (1992), and The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993). 1995 proved something of a breakthrough year for the rising star, with roles in Panther, Dangerous Minds, and The Last Supper offering him more screen time than ever. In 1996, Vance held his own as a minister opposite Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston in The Preacher's Wife. Drawing from his own faith -- which had recently been reawakened by the suicide of his father -- for the role, Vance also had memorable performances in Cookie's Fortune in 1999 and Space Cowboys the following year. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the dramatic miniseries Parting the Waters (2000) and made another solid impression on television viewers the next year with a role in the popular series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.Vance would stick with the series for five years, concurrently appearing on the long-running medical drama ER. By the time he had finished his run on both programs, he was on to the science fictions series Flash Forward from 2009-2010, before signing on to appear alongside Michael Biehn in the post-apocalyptic horror flick The Divide in 2011.

Trivia: Independent film star Aleksa Palladino began her career in a starring role, at the age of 15, in Lisa Krueger's debut feature Manny & Lo (1996). Palladino played Lo, the pregnant runaway sister of Manny (Scarlett Johansson). For the next couple of years, she continued getting starring roles in small indie films including Red Dirt, Wrestling With Alligators, and The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. Making a brief move to made-for-TV movies, she starred in the USA Network original movie The Huntress as a 19-year-old girl avenging her father's death. Eventually, she accepted a couple of supporting roles for two downbeat dramas in 2001, Todd Solondz's Storytelling and Tanya Wexler's Ball in the House. Over the coming years, Palladino would find particular success with the period series Boardwalk Empire.

Trivia: Born in Hackettstown, NJ, but raised in Springfield, OR, actor Eric Millegan cut his teeth on the boards in a Eugene Opera production of Amahl and the Night Visitors back in 1981 and never looked back. Later, after appearing in such subsequent Eugene Opera productions as La Boheme and Madame Butterfly, the rising stage star set out to try his luck on the New York stage and landed a role in the Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. While it was on the stage that the Interlochen Arts Camp alumnus and University of Michigan graduate received the lion's share of his acting experience, by the early 2000s he was looking to branch out and began appearing on screens both large and small. Early television roles on 100 Centre Street, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Curb Your Enthusiasm found his popularity growing at an impressive rate, with parts in the films On_Line and The Phobic serving well to establish his indie film credibility. In 2005 Millegan joined the cast of Fox television's forensics crime series Bones as geeky grad assistant Zack Addy.

Trivia: British character actor Richard Warner appeared onscreen from the '60s, he often played small-town cops.

Trivia: A veteran stage actor from Syracuse, NY, gray-haired Dan Mason played Roger Chillingworth in an early 1917 screen version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Onscreen with Edison from at least 1913, Mason (born Grassman) specialized in playing ascetic types and his career lasted until 1927.

Trivia: Hailed by Interview Magazine as one of the "14 to Be" emerging creative women back in October 2004, Independent Spirit Award nominee Elizabeth Reaser has proven to be one of the most promising onscreen talents of her generation thanks to memorable roles in the independent drama Sweet Land and the hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy. The Bloomfield, MI, native worked a series of odd jobs before graduating from high school and enrolling in Oakland University -- eventually realizing that her only hope for escaping the Midwest and accomplishing her goal of becoming an actress was convincing her parents to let her study drama at Juilliard. Much to her surprise, Reaser's parents were entirely supportive of her decision, and the aspiring actress was soon enrolled in one of the most prestigious drama programs in the country. In May 1999, Reaser graduated from Juilliard with her M.F.A. and went about the formidable task of procuring an agent. A supporting role in the long-running daytime drama Guiding Light proved just the break Reaser needed to get her foot in the door, with stage roles in a La Jolla Playhouse revival of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth and a New York Classic Stage Company production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (in which she appeared opposite David Strathairn and Barbara Garrick) following in quick succession. Shortly thereafter, the rising star madeher London debut as the kept girlfriend of a Lower East Side addict in a critically acclaimed production of Adam Rapp's intense play Blackbird. Despite Reaser's notable stage presence, however, it was her roles in film and television that truly served to solidify her career as an actress. One the heels of supporting roles in such high-profile releases as Thirteen Conversations About One Thing and Stay, Reaser scaled back to surprising effect with her Independent Spirit Award-nominated performance as a lovelorn immigrant in director Ali Selim's 2005 period drama Sweet Land. Later that same year, Reaser shared the screen with Diane Keaton and Sarah Jessica Parker in The Family Stone. Back on the small screen, a recurring role as a pregnant mother suffering from amnesia following an intense ferry accident in Grey's Anatomy found Reaser anchoring one of the show's most memorable storylines.

Trivia: Since his impressive debut in Nick Gomez's gritty, independent drama Laws of Gravity, leading actor Adam Trese has become a respected player in American independent cinema. He has been acting since early childhood; he made his professional debut with a bit part in a production of Othello in New York's 1979 Shakespeare Festival. The production starred Raul Julia and Christopher Walken. Trese is a graduate of State University of New York at Purchase, where his classmates included actress Parker Posey. He has also attended the competitive Actors Training Program. The darkly handsome Trese next appeared opposite Christine Lahti in a Lifetime cable network film, The Good Fight, a fact-based drama about a married couple who take on a tobacco company. He showed a facility for comedy in Alan Taylor's Palookaville (1995). He reteamed with Gomez to play a vengeful convict in Illtown (1996). In addition to his feature film work, Trese has also occasionally appeared on television shows, such as Law & Order, N.Y.P.D. Blue (on which he had a recurring role as Kim Delaney's younger brother), and on an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street directed by Gomez.

Trivia: Frequently mislabeled as a performance artist, Eric Bogosian is a writer and an actor known for his comedic monologues and social commentary. Born on the East Coast and educated in the Midwest, he wrote and performed numerous one-man shows around New York during the late '70s and early '80s. After doing shows in art spaces like The Kitchen, he eventually had his solo work Fun House committed to video. The 1987 production was taped in front of a live audience. During this time he had also started acting in other people's projects, including Robert Altman's made-for-TV movie The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. The next year, he teamed with Oliver Stone for the film version of his off-Broadway show Talk Radio, starring himself as D.J. Barry Champlain. As a cinematic expansion of his original monologue, the film earned Bogosian a Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival and a nomination at the Independent Spirit awards. His next big one-man show, Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, was also made into a film, published in book form, and released on CD by Capitol. During the early '90s, he appeared as a television guest star on Law & Order and The Larry Sanders Show, and continued to publish his writing. In 1994, he finished work on the play Suburbia, which was later adapted to film by director Richard Linklater. As an actor, he had supporting roles in Dolores Claiborne, Under Siege 2, and Deconstructing Harry, followed by numerous cameos and vocal appearances. After finishing the play Griller, he went back to solo shows with Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, which was committed to film by InDigEnt. After Simon & Schuster published his novel Mall, he appeared in several TV movies and feature films, including the CBS miniseries Blonde, Atom Egoyan's Ararat, and the summer blockbuster Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.