Trivia: Native Texan James Roday learned to take chances early on, studying at the Experimental Theatre Wing at New York University, and co-founding the Red Dog Squadron theater company in Los Angeles. In addition to starring in numerous stage productions like Twelfth Night and A Respectable Wedding, Roday found a place on-screen, appearing in projects like 1999's Coming Soon and 2001's Thank Heaven. In 2003, Roday was cast alongside Alicia Silverstone in the comedy series Miss Match, which lasted for 13 episodes. TV would prove to be a good fit for the actor, and he'd soon follow up the role with an even bigger break, starring in the USA crime comedy series Psych starting in 2006. The show would prove to be a hit, and Roday would stick with the series over the coming years, even while appearing in other projects, like 2009's Gamer.

Trivia: Although his screen appearances, particularly that of his role as aide to the president on the TV series The West Wing, have earned him career success, Dule Hill's real love of the spotlight relates more closely to his love of tap dancing than of performing in other genres. Born in Orange, NJ, on May 3, 1974, and raised in Sayreville, NJ, Hill began dancing at the age of three. His Jamaican parents enrolled him in dance school as a young child, and he branched out into film and theater by the time he finished high school. After gaining attention as an actor for appearing in a Corn Pops commercial, as a high school senior, he played the role of Harlem in his first feature film, Sugar Hill, in 1993. That same year, he also had a small part in the TV movie Hallelujah, and on the series City Kids. His childhood theater experience would prove beneficial, as he chose to leave college before the end of his third year to perform Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk on Broadway.In 1997, he played the young Donald in the drama The Ditchdigger's Daughters, which explored the complex themes of race in America, as well as fatherhood. He appeared in the made-for-TV murder mystery Color of Justice, also relevant to racial issues, that year also. Switching to a more light-hearted genre, he played Preston in the teen romantic comedy She's All That, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook, in 1999.His recurring role on The West Wing, the drama series about political life in the White House, rounded off his widespread attention, along with his role in 2000's Men of Honor, the war drama starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. Having appeared with the ranks of several established Hollywood stars, Hill's dramatic talent grew increasingly apparent. In 2002, he appeared in a supporting role in Holes, a fantasy comedy-drama for tweens. The film aslo stars Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, and Patricia Arquette. Hill returned to television in 2006 for the USA Network's Psych a detective show in which he played Burton Guster, the straightman sidekick to James Roday's psychic detective, Shawn Spencer. The popular show ran for 6 seasons and continued to air new episodes in 2012.

Trivia: Born on September 7th, 1954, to actress Jeanne Cooper, Corbin Bernsen graduated from UCLA, boasting a BA degree in theatre arts and an MFA in playwrighting. From age 20 onward, Bernsen managed to find work in LA-based movies and TV productions. Things didn't immediately break for him when he moved to New York in the 1980s, so he took carpentry and modelling jobs until landing the part of Kenny Graham in the ABC daytime drama Ryan's Hope. Bernsen achieved celebrity status with his regular role as Arnie Becker in the TV series LA Law (1987-94). The best of his most recent films has been Major League (1990), in which he plays an investment-conscious baseball player. Corbin Bernsen remained more or less in this line of work with his role as an athlete-turned-sportcaster in the 1995 sitcom Whole New Ballgame. In more recent years, Berenger could be seen in a bevy of television series' including Psych, General Hospital, Boston Legal, and The West Wing. He worked with Steve Martin in The Big Year, director David Frankel's comedy based on a book of the same name. The actor also found success in the film 25 Hill, an inspirational drama following a New York fire chief (Bernson) who lost his son in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Trivia: Began studying theater at the age of 12 at the Seattle Children's Theater. Was Washington State Debate Champion in Dramatic Interpretation for two years. Worked as a hot-tar roofer between college semesters. Received the Jack Nicholson and James A. Doolittle Awards while attending USC for achievements in acting.

Trivia: Worked as a youth TV host on Louisville's WDRB Fox 41 Kid's Club at the age of ten. Made her debut TV appearance at the age of 17, in an episode of Unhappily Ever After. Starred as Juliet O'Hara in Psyche between 2006 and 2014, reprising her role for the 2017 movie. In 2011, starred in James Roday's Los Angeles production of Greedy. Co-founded the animal rescue organization Tiger Frances Foundation.

Trivia: Was raised in Chicago. Helped found Chicago's Roadworks Theatre Ensemble. Best known for her role as Chief Vick on the USA drama Psych.

Trivia: While Anthony Anderson got his start in stand-up, his wide range of genre-spanning credits as a producer and actor in light comedy, pointed satires, food-based reality shows and gritty episodic dramas display his versatility and cross-audience appeal. But even though it's not immediately apparent how the points on his resume connect in one straight line, all of his work harkens back to core values of family, togetherness, responsibility, fairness, justice, and doing right in a sometimes complicated world.Born August 15, 1970, Anderson was one of four kids raised by his mother and stepfather (the man he considered his "only father I knew or cared about") in Compton, Los Angeles, California. While their neighborhood could be rough, his no-nonsense stepfather, who owned three clothing stores, instilled a respect for paternal responsibility and entrepreneurship in Anderson. While Anderson remembers seeing a teenage Dr. Dre perform at Compton's most important hip-hop venue Skateland, U.S.A., his most formative memory of a performer was watching his mother rehearse for an amateur production of A Raisin in the Sun at Compton Community College. Even though both he and his mother agree that she was a terrible actress, the impression of her becoming someone else on stage solidified his ambitions.His ambitions stoked, young Anderson seized every opportunity to perform, whether it was singing at church, competing in spelling bees, or appearing in a commercial at the age of five. After successfully auditioning for Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, he won the top prize in the NAACP's Act-So awards and gained entrance to Howard University's drama program with an audition tape that included monologues from Shakespeare and "The Great White Hope". (Anderson's stepfather, always the pragmatist, took extraordinary measures to push Anderson out of the nest after college by not only insisting he pay rent if he wanted to live at home, but also by padlocking the TV cabinet and freezer, installing a pay phone in the house, and razzing Anderson with Lassie reruns: "That dog's an actor. Where are you acting?")Too-strange-to-be-fiction family lore like that formed the basis of Anderson's stand-up comedy routines that he performed briefly under the name "Tasty Tony" while picking up small roles in TV and movies until 1999, when he landed roles both in the Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy comedy Life, and Barry Levinson's cinematic memoir Liberty Heights. A slew of roles in a wide range of genres followed for the next few years, culminating in recurring roles on Treme as actor-waiter Derek Watson, on The Shield as Antwon Mitchell, the drug boss turned community leader who still keeps one foot in the thug life, and on Law & Order as conservative lawman Detective Kevin Bernard, a role for which he earned four consecutive NAACP Image Award nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. Anderson's other great passion, for food and cooking, has led to many hosting gigs on shows like Carnival Cravings with Anthony Anderson, Eating America with Anthony Anderson, the web series Anthony Eats America, and his recurring seat at the judge's table on Iron Chef America. While his everyday diet is "vegan-ish" as a way of regulating his type 2 diabetes, he's so devoted to the kitchen arts that he takes weekend classes at famed culinary academy Le Cordon Bleu's Los Angeles outpost. While his first forays into producing the sitcoms All About the Andersons and Matumbo Goldberg (both about domestic life from an African-American perspective) ended after one season, conversations with his screenwriter friend Kenya Barris about their experiences raising their children in affluent, majority-white communities that are so unlike the neighborhoods they grew up in inspired the duo to create and produce black-ish. Taking a page from unflinching sitcoms of the '70s like All In The Family and Good Times that mixed light humor with frank confrontation of social ills, Barris and Anderson folded incidents from their own lives into the show's scripts - such as the time Anderson's teenage son wanted a bar mitzvah party like all his Jewish friends, prompting Anderson to instead offer his son a hip-hop themed "bro mitzvah." Anderson received an Emmy nomination for his role as beleaguered patriarch Andre Johnson in 2015.

Trivia: Actress Lolita Davidovich made her flamboyant film debut by playing the notorious Louisiana stripper Blaze Starr who became the mistress of Governor Earl Long in Blaze (1988). With her voluptuous body (much of which was faked for the film--something Davidovich is not embarrassed to admit), bright red hair, and lively acting style, she accurately captured the qualities that made the real Blaze a living legend. Born of Yugoslavian parents, Davidovich was raised speaking Serbo-Croatian. When she was 10, her parents divorced and she stayed with her mother. Davidovich was determined to become an actress, and as a young woman moved to Chicago to take classes. There she found some stage work under the name Lolita David. She gradually began getting bit parts in feature films like Adventures In Babysitting (1987). It took six months of fiercely competitive auditioning to land the part of Blaze. A wide variety of subsequent roles have allowed her to spread her wings and demonstrate her considerable abilities. She co-starred with acting legends Lynn Redgrave and Ian McKellan for Gods and Monsters (1998), a showbiz drama that took home an Oscar for Best Screenplay. In 2004, Davidovich made several appearances on The L Word, a primetime drama from Showtime that focuses on gay and lesbian issues. Though a far cry from Gods and Monsters, Davidovich co-starred in September Dawn (2007) and Cinema Verite in 2011.

Trivia: The son of a wealthy office-supplies dealer, American actor Maxwell Gail Jr. excelled in high-school sports, spending his senior year as an exchange student in Germany. Upon earning collegiate degrees from both Williams University and University of Michigan, he became a teacher in Detroit's inner city, partially to ensure himself a draft deferment. Frustrated at trying to communicate with his sullen poverty-level students, Gail chucked it all to head for San Francisco, where he worked as a guidance counselor. Again, the frustrations of the job got to him, compelling Gail to seek employment as a cocktail-lounge pianist. Trying out for a play on a whim in 1970, Gail finally found his life's calling. He spent the early '70s haunting the casting offices, accepting small TV roles as heavies and bullies. A guest spot as a tough lug on the 1974 sitcom Friends and Lovers caught the attention of producer Danny Arnold, who cast Gail as Detective Stanley "Wojo" Wojohowicz on the new comedy series Barney Miller. Gail played "Wojo" until the series' cancellation in 1980, at which point he re-entered the guest-star pool. Since that time Max Gail Jr. has been seen as a reporter on the short-lived 1983 adventure series Whiz Kids, and as the father of Dweezil Zappa and Moon Unit Zappa on the even shorter-lived 1990 sitcom Normal Life.

Trivia: Is the son of former Olympic wrestler Derek James, and followed in his father's footsteps by joining the wrestling team in high school. Began acting at age 10, when his mother's casting-agent friend started getting him some work as an extra and a body double. Described himself as being similar to his character Jack on The Killing. Received the 2013 Young Hollywood Award for Male Breakthrough Performance for his role as Duncan in The Way, Way Back. Has one blue eye and one green eye.

Trivia: Relatively unknown character actor Kurt Fuller has made a fairly consistent acting career in television and films since the late '80s, mostly playing authority figures. One of his earliest film appearances was as the head television executive in the Hulk Hogan movie No Holds Barred. Mostly working in comedies and dramas, he has also been in action thrillers (Eve of Destruction) and family-oriented adventures (Bingo). He has a lengthy list of television guest star credits, including L.A. Law, Ally McBeal, and The West Wing. In the '90s, he had starring roles in a few short-lived TV series like Capitol News, Timecop, and That's My Bush. After playing Kirk Douglas' son in the comedy Diamonds, he played the adult foil in the teen comedies The New Guy, Scary Movie, and Porn 'n Chicken. In 2002, he played Hogan's Heroes castmember Werner Klemperer in Paul Schrader's Auto Focus; the following year he appeared with Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler in Anger Management. He had a small part in the Oscar winning biopic Ray, as well as the Will Smith hit The Pursuit of Happyness. He played The Dean in 2009's Van Wilder: Freshman Year, and two years later he was part of the ensemble in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.

Trivia: Born October 4, 1979 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the doe-eyed, fine-boned Rachael Leigh Cook has invited frequent comparisons with the young Audrey Hepburn. The actress began her career at the age of ten as a model, and then broke into acting in 1995 with her role as Mary-Ann Spier in The Baby-Sitters Club. Her next memorable appearance was in The House of Yes (1997), where she played the young Parker Posey. Coincidentally, Freddie Prinze Jr., with whom she would later co-star in She's All That, was also in the film, although they had no scenes together.After The House of Yes, Cook acted in a few forgettable films, the exception being Living Out Loud (1998), in which she played the young Holly Hunter. It was her next film, 1999's She's All That, that garnered her significant attention. As Laney Boggs, Cook went from geek to chic under the tutelage of the most popular boy in school (Prinze Jr.). As the film was essentially billed as an update of My Fair Lady (1964), the comparisons between Cook and Audrey Hepburn seemed particularly apt. Only time will tell if these comparisons extend beyond physical appearance to career trajectory. Taking to the stage (on the screen at least) with her turn in the live adaptation of Josie and the Pussycats, audiences would soon find the attractive actress travelling back in time to the old west in Texas Rangers. An attempt to revive the western from celluloid oblivion, the film documented the true story of the founding of the Texas Rangers and found Cook cast alongside popular actors James Van Der Beek and Oded Fehr. Cook continued to work steadily through the early 2000s, including a recurring role on the show Las Vegas in 2005 and a supporting role in the film Nancy Drew (2007). She also did a stint on prime time drama Psych, in which she played Abigail Lytar, elementary school teacher and ex-girlfriend of the leading character Shawn Spencer (James Roday). In 2012, Cook took on a starring role, opposite Eric McCormack, in the TNT crime drama Perception, playing FBI agent Kate Moretti, which ran for three seasons.

Trivia: American actress Cybill Shepherd's pre-acting career included a runner-up stint in the Miss Teenage America pageant and seemingly thousands of modelling gigs, most prominently for Cover Girl makeup. She was spotted adorning a magazine cover by film director Peter Bogdanovich, who selected her to play a small town heartbreaker in his prestigious 1971 film The Last Picture Show. Shepherd was praised for her cinematic debut, though the reviews devoted more space to her diving-board striptease than her delivery of lines. Except for a part as Charles Grodin's dream girl in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Shepherd did most of her subsequent early film work for Bogdanovich, once her lover as well as her mentor. Reviewers were barely tolerant of her performance in Daisy Miller (1974) -- and with the next Bogdanovich-directed appearance in At Long Last Love (1975) the gloves were off, her career had hit a hard spot. But she recovered, at least professionally, and did quite well for herself in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1975). The "Peter Bogdanovich's Girlfriend" onus took years to suppress; it was still being bandied about when she appeared in her first (short-lived) TV series "The Yellow Rose" (1983). But with her starring role in the popular detective/comedy weekly "Moonlighting" (1985), Shepherd made up for lost time and attained star status without any association with her onetime "Svengali." Shepherd and co-star Bruce Willis played the reluctant partners in a failing detective agency, but the plotlines were secondary to the banter and witticisms between the stars -- not to mention the winks at the audience and "in" jokes that let the folks at home know that the characters knew that they were just acting on TV. An instant success, "Moonlighting" was plagued with production problems almost from the outset. Shepherd and Willis made no secret of their distaste for one another, and both behaved rather boorishly to those around them. Firings and tantrums were almost everyday occurences on the set, and this, plus the problem of turning out a quality script each week, caused the series to fall woefully behind in schedule. Soon it became a media event if "Moonlighting" ran something other than a repeat. In 1987, Shepherd became pregnant with twins, which forced a speedup in production and some wildly convoluted (and often tasteless) scripts to accomodate the actress' condition. Power struggles continued between Shepherd and producer Glenn Caron (and the people who replaced Caron); "Moonlighting" was cancelled in 1989. Since that time, Shepherd has signed an endorsement contract with L'Oreal cosmetics, while continuing to appear in films and TV movies of variable quality (including Texasville, the best-forgotten sequel to The Last Picture Show). Besides becoming a favored and most entertaining guest on the talk-show circuit, Shepherd later returned to television in the Emmy-winning CBS sitcom Cybill. In 2003 Shepherd appeared as Martha Stewart in the NBC biopic Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart, and two years later she reprised the role in the made-for-television sequel Martha Behind Bars. For two years beginning in 2007 Stewart played the mother of her real-life daughter Clementine Ford's character on The L Word, and in 2010 she was bestowed the GLAAD Golden Gate Award for her efforts in increasing the LGBT community's visibility in the media. Meanwhile, appearances on such television series' as Psyche, Hot in Cleveland, and The Client List served well to keep her career going strong.

Trivia: A distinctly alluring English actress of Indian descent (whose parents emigrated to Britain in the '60s), Parminder K. Nagra received her international breakthrough role as Jesminder "Jess" Bhamra, the lead character of Gurinder Chadha's delightful teenage soccer comedy Bend It Like Beckham (2002). That movie's status as an instant cult hit lifted Nagra sky-high and brought her legions of U.S. fans. She could soon be seen again in stateside cinemas in a warmly received supporting performance as Areida in the adolescent fantasy Ella Enchanted (2004), starring Anne Hathaway. Nagra's next major role was her multi-season portrayal of Dr. Neela Rasgotra (starting in season ten) on the blockbuster prime-time medical drama ER -- a role she would continue to play until the series ended its 15 year run in 2009. Three years later, Nagra was back on the small screen opposite Sam Neil and Lost's Jorge Garcia in the enigmatic FOX drama Alcatraz.

Trivia: American actress Kristy Swanson has been in films since 1986's Deadly Friend, but cemented her reputation on TV with recurring roles in Knot's Landing (1987) and Nightingales (1988). Her forte has been the portrayal of young ladies with prom-queen looks and room-temperature I.Q.s. Among her leading roles in films have been the title characters in Mannequin 2 (1991) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). The failure of the highly touted Buffy has resulted in a number of negligible career moves for Kristy Swanson, most recently the role of a Beverly Hills princess accidentally kidnapped by fugitive Charlie Sheen in the doomed-from-the-start The Chase (1994).

Trivia: The handsome blonde actor Cary Elwes (pronounced El-Ways) was born in London to a portrait painter and an interior designer. He moved to the U.S. to study at Sarah Lawrence College, but made his film debut in the U.K. with the coming-of-age drama Another Country (1984), co-starring alongside fellow handsome young actors Rupert Everett and Colin Firth. He soon started a pattern of appearing in historical dramas and other period pieces, first with Lady Jane (1985), opposite Helena Bonham Carter, and then as the lead role in Maschenka (1986), based on the book by Vladimir Nabokov. However, he didn't make his international film breakthrough until 1987 with Rob Reiner's classic adventure fairy tale The Princess Bride. He seemed to possess a timeless quality essential for the role of Westley, the sensitive-yet-daring farm boy who becomes the swashbuckling Dred Pirate Roberts and gallantly fights for his love. Continuing with historical films, he capably handled a Southern accent for the Civil War drama Glory and then tried a one-time stint as associate producer for the little-seen drama Leather Jackets. Next, he made a successful jump to broad comedy with lead roles in Hot Shots! (1991) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Switching to darker themes, he played Lord Arthur Holmwood in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and Alicia Silverstone's object of obsession in The Crush (1993). The following year, he briefly returned to adventures for The Jungle Book before moving on to playing authority figures in the thrillers Twister and Kiss the Girls. In the late '90s, he voiced cartoons and appeared in a few made-for-TV movies and miniseries until 1999, when he transformed his usually slender frame for the role of portly producer John Houseman (Orson Welles' colleague) in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock. He continued portraying cinematic legends in his next few films, including the German cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner in Shadow of the Vampire and pioneering producer Thomas H. Ince in The Cat's Meow. In 2001,he played a reoccurring role on The X-Files as FBI Assistant Brad Follmer and returned to romantic comedy adventures as Prince Regent Edgar in Ella Enchanted (2003).He was the lead in the infamous 2004 slasher movie Saw, and had a lead part in the 2006 National Lampoon comedy Pucked. In 2007 he appeared in the ill-fated Lindsay Lohan movie Georgia Rule. He came back for Saw: The Final Chapter in 2010. 2011 turned out to be a busy year for Elwes with parts in the comedy No Strings Attached, the Spielberg-directed The Adventures of Tintin, and the ensemble romantic comedy New Year's Eve.