.3.4.3.

Mo'Nique received a standing ovation when she stepped on stage for the first time in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, giving her confidence to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian. After numerous stand-up performances, she took a leap forward with one of the starring roles in The Parkers (1999).

Mo'Nique's huge international breakthrough came with her performance in the independent feature film Precious (2009), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and over 30 other major awards for best acting including the most important ones like the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, the New York Film Critics Circle Award, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award, the Independent Spirit Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the National Society of Film Critics Award, the BAFTA Film Award and Sundance Film Festival's Special Jury Prize.

Unique Cheri Mo'Nique is known for The Temp (2024), Candy 2 (2022) and Armstrong: Dark Secrets (2025).

Henrovee A-Nathaniel is known for Berlin 46 (2023), Fractured Trust (2025) and Soul Fiend.

Nicki Aycox lived a full artistic life since the age of nine, when she fell in love with the family piano and began playing music. By the time she had reached her preteens Nicki was performing Beethoven for audiences all around Oklahoma, until her family had a huge financial setback and was forced to sell her piano. Nicki said that this sad circumstance played a major role in her shift to the theater. Like a lot of kids her age she began performing in her high school theater, and also in drama competitions. She won state titles in different categories, and became very comfortable with being in front of an audience. She once said that she was on stage long before she ever actually sat in an audience. After high school graduation she attended the University of Oklahoma and began serious academic study. Soon, however, she found herself driving to California to enroll in the theater department at Long Beach State. While working two jobs and participating in the theater department, Nicki found little time to study and take a full class load. In her second year at Long Beach State Nicki was able to sign with a small agency in Hollywood, and thus began her career as a professional performer - a career which began relatively quickly compared to most. She was working small bit parts on several popular networks and shows within a year of making the move from Oklahoma to Los Angeles. In the beginning of her career Nicki acted opposite actor Stephen Rae in an HBO film called "Double Tap", as well as appearing in shows like "Third Rock from the Sun", NBC's "Providence", David Kelley's "Ally McBeal", and in the X-Files episode "Rush" in 1999. That role from the TV show led to a role in the second "X-Files" film "I Want to Believe" in 2008. In a time when an unspoken difference between "film" actors and "television" actors existed, Aycox did not allow this rule to apply to her.

Her work during these early years included guest spots on "CSI", and "Dark Angel", a recurring role n NBC's "ED" playing the wild and crazy sister of Julie Bowen. At some points Nicki would be pulling double duty playing roles on different shows. She played the sister of Katherine Morris on CBS's "Cold Case", while shooting the series "LAX" with Heather Locklear. By 2005, Aycox was made a series regular on shows such as FX's "Over There" created by Steven Bochco and Chris Gerolmo. She moved on from there to play a very memorable role as a psychotic serial killer in an episode of "Criminal Minds" titled "The Perfect Storm". The following year Nicki appeared in the Halle Berry film "Perfect Stranger". One of her most widely known roles was that of Meg Masters in "Supernatural".

In the years 2009-2013 Aycox enjoyed success as a series regular as Jamie Allen in the Bruckheimer series "Dark Blue". Next she was cast as Lisa Matthews in the Indie film "Lifted", directed by Oscar nominated director Lexi Alexander. Around this time she also awarded a best actress award by the Buffalo Niagara film festival for her portrayal as a German woman fighting to save her sanity in the World War II film "Christina". Her co-star, Stephen Lang, was also awarded for his role as Inspector Reinheart. Aycox spent her final years reclaiming her love of music, playing the guitar and singing for audiences, as well as continuing her acting career.

Aycox revealed on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with leukemia in March 2021. She passed away on November 16th, 2022.

Ne-Yo was born on 18 October 1982 in Camden, Arkansas, USA. He is a music artist and actor, known for Battle Los Angeles (2011), Red Tails (2012) and The Princess and the Frog (2009). He has been married to Crystal Smith since 20 February 2016. They have three children.

Patton Oswalt has been headlining at comedy clubs all over the United States since 1996, as well as appearing in his own standup specials on Comedy Central and HBO. He was chosen as Entertainment Weekly's "It" comedian in 2002. He is a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993). His other television credits include appearances on Seinfeld (1989) and NewsRadio (1995).

As a writer, Oswalt spent two seasons on Mad TV (1995) and has also written for the MTV Music Video Awards. He is currently writing screenplays and has appeared in the feature films Starsky & Hutch (2004), Man on the Moon (1999) and Magnolia (1999).

Ayo Sorrells is known for Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013), Supergirl (2015) and The Mentalist (2008).

Juan Díaz was born on 12 May 1976 in Spain. He is an actor and composer, known for Noviembre (2003), Sin tetas no hay paraíso (2008) and Sexy Killer: You'll Die for Her (2008).

María Castro was born on 30 November 1981 in Vigo, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. She is an actress, known for Vive cantando (2013), Sin tetas no hay paraíso (2008) and SMS, sin miedo a soñar (2006). She has been married to José Manuel Villalba since 15 September 2018. They have one child.

Lane Garrison is an American actor, writer from Dallas, Texas. After he graduated from J.J. Pearce High School (where Jessica Simpson also attended), he moved to Los Angeles. He was 18 and only had $400 to his name, but his love and passion for making movies paid off after years of perseverance when he landed the role of " Tweener" in the FOX hit TV series Prison Break. In addition to making movies and shooting TV shows as an actor, Lane is a successful screenwriter having sold three scripts he wrote on spec.

Jessica Polonsky is known for Tacoma FD (2019), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013) and Friends with Better Lives (2014).

Laura McCreary was born on 22 April 1972 in Houston, Texas, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for American Dad! (2005), Young Rock (2021) and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012).

Matthew Nodella is known for Northern Exposure (1990), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013) and Happy Endings (2011).

Lauren German was born on November 29, 1978 in Huntington Beach, California. German attended the prominent Actor's Studio and attended USC. Lauren also trained as a dancer at the Orange County High School of the Arts (a.k.a. OCHSA).

She made her film debut in Down to You (2000). She starred, opposite Shane West and Mandy Moore, in the 2001 sleeper hit, A Walk to Remember (2002).

She's also known as Agent "Lori Weston" in the television series. Hawaii Five-0 (2010), "Beth" in the 2007 film, Hostel: Part II (2007), and "Eva" in 2011 film, The Divide (2011). She starred in the NBC drama, Chicago Fire (2012), as Leslie Shay, from 2012 to 2014. From 2016 to 2021, she starred in all 93 episodes of Lucifer (2016) as LAPD homicide detective Chloe Decker.

Schlitze's actual birth date and name remain unknown. Schlitze suffered from the condition microcephaly and mental retardation, commonly referred to as a "pinhead". It is also rumored that he had a sister, who also was a microcephalic. He was exhibited by Barnum as Maggie, the last of the Aztecs. Because the Mayans and other Meso-American cultures bound the heads of their elite to give them a cone shape, it is easy to see how Schlitze and the so-called Aztec children got their show names. For most of his career, Schlitze was dressed and exhibited as a girl, mainly because dresses simplified his bathroom needs.

Schlitze was placed in an institution after 30 years in the sideshow business, where his health began to decline sharply. Mr. Sam Alexander, a Canadian promoter, took Schlitze back on the road, where he remained on the sideshow circuit until he died at age 70 in 1971.

Paxton Booth began his professional acting career at the age of 2 ½. He has since appeared in dozens of national commercials and landed several guest star roles on popular television shows, including the Emmy Award-winning sitcom "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," ABC's "The Real O'Neals," "Teachers," "Another Period" and the anthology web series "The Romanoffs." He was also a judge on the unscripted ABC series "The Toy Box." Paxton is in production, set to play series regular "Ollie Wrather" on Disney Channel's Coop and Cami Ask The World.

Vishesh Chachra is an American actor and producer. In the midst of a successful business career, Vishesh dropped everything to pursue his lifelong passion in film and television. He appeared as Bentley Avagyan in season 5 of NBC's Magnum PI (2024) and as Dr Sanjiv Chakraborty on the CBS sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola (2019-2023). He has appeared in *VICE (2018), Cobra Kai (2019), Superintelligence (2020), For the People (2019), Silicon Valley (2018), The Gifted (2018), Life in Pieces (2017), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2017), Hawaii Five-0 (2016), Criminal Minds (2016), and Days of our Lives (2015) among many others. In 2025, he will join the cast of an upcoming hit network show. Vishesh was educated in engineering and finance at Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt. He studies acting with Aaron Speiser and comedy at Actors Comedy Studio.

*ACADEMY AWARD® Winner

Joe Lo Truglio was born in Ozone Park, Queens and was raised in Margate, Florida. He is the son of Helen (Lynch) and Joseph Lo Truglio, and is of Italian and Irish descent. His childhood revolved around collecting Mad magazines, shooting horror movies on a Super 8, fishing in his backyard canal, and drawing homemade comics. He graduated Coconut Creek High School in 1988, where he was a member of Thespian troupe 2617, and there, along with classmate Russell Scherker, in category Duo Scene at Thespian VII district competition at Santaluces High School, snagged the coveted "Critic's Choice". The scene performed: the screwball, banter-laden opening scene of "Say Goodnight, Gracie".

He attended NYU Film school where he met his future colleagues and co-founded the cult sketch group, "The State". Also during this time, he indulged in "Jagger-Induced, Midnight Sidewalk-Stencil Missions". After a short run on MTV, he and his cohorts were pistol-whipped by the realities of network television.

After The State's hiatus in 1996, he hunkered down in Hell's Kitchen and immersed himself in commercial, video-game, and TV episodic work. He found a local watering hole, played poker, and trash-talked LA, where, ironically, he would move to 10 years later.

Around the millennium, with "Wet Hot American Summer" and "The Station Agent", independent film work came back into the fray. It was all coming full-circle, the only missing element being a Super 8 camera. Now, he balances writing and producing web series and firebranding its originality over mainstream media with bike rides and matinées. He relishes jumping back and forth between studio and indie flicks. Guinness and Jameson is still his favorite buddy-comedy.

Cortney Carrillo is known for Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013), Grand Crew (2021) and Ghosts (2021).

Jaffar Mahmood is known for The Great (2020), The Residence (2025) and Reboot (2022).

Timothy Omundson was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on July 29, 1969, the youngest of four children. He grew up in Seattle, Washington, where his family moved when he was one. His father is a former railroad man and his mother was a teacher. Tim started to study theatre at the age of 12 at the Seattle Children's Theater, and interned at theaters throughout high school. With acting as his main focus, he spent the summer of his junior year in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and he was a Washington State Debate Champion in Dramatic Interpretation for two years. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from USC and received the Jack Nicholson Award and the James A. Doolittle Award for outstanding achievements in acting. Shortly after graduation, he got his first professional job as a guest shot on Seinfeld (1989). Next was the recurring role of Dr. Joshua Levin on SeaQuest 2032 (1993). Tim lives in the Hollywood Hills with his wife, Allison, and their dogs, Betty and Sally.

Nisha Ganatra is a Golden Globe winner and an Emmy nominee for her work as the Director/Producer of "Transparent." Recently she directed THE HIGH NOTE for Working Title and Focus Features, starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Ice Cube, June Diane Raphael, Dakota Johnson, and Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Ganatra's previous film LATE NIGHT, starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, premiered at Sundance. It sold to Amazon in a record-breaking deal and garnered the highest streaming numbers of the year.

Her acclaimed debut feature CHUTNEY POPCORN, with Jill Hennessy and Sakina Jaffrey, won audience awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, Newport Film Festival, Outfest Los Angeles, and many more. Her sophomore feature COSMOPOLITAN, starring Carol Kane and Roshan Seth, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

In television, Ganatra directed Liz Sarnoff's pilot, "Highland," and sold a drama project to ABC and a comedy pilot to NBC, with Amy Poehler producing. She was the Co-Executive Producer/Director for "Better Things" with Pamela Adlon and the Co-Executive Producer/Director on "You Me Her." She also created CODE ACADEMY for the ITVS/PBS series "FutureStates." Ganatra has directed episodes of "Girls," "Dear White People," "Future Man," "Mr. Robot," "Shameless," "Married," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," "Last Man on Earth," "Love," and "Black Monday."

Dax Randall Shepard was born in 1975 in Milford, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, to Laura (LaBo), who worked at GM, and Dave Robert Shepard, Sr., a car salesman. His mother is of French-Canadian and Belgian descent. With both his parents working in the automotive industry, Dax's first love was cars.

Shepard graduated from Walled Lake Central High School in 1993, and moved to California in 1995. He graduated magna cum laude from UCLA with a B.A. in Anthropology. While attending UCLA he trained at The Groundlings Theater for improv and sketch comedy. After eight years of auditioning, Dax booked Punk'd, his first paid acting role.

Shepard is married to actress Kristen Bell, with whom he has two children.

Perry Andelin Blake grew up in Los Angeles, the grandson of a noted Hollywood scenic artist and painter. After graduating from Harvard University with a Master degree in architecture, he moved back to L.A. to work for the legendary architect Frank Gehry. He practiced architecture for a number of years then began designing sets for commercials for companies such as Coke and Nike, as well as the famous 'Got Milk' campaign. After working on the Oscar nominated short 'Birch Street Gym', Blake designed his first feature, Billy Madison. This began a long collaboration with Adam Sandler that includes early favorites such as Happy Gilmore and the Wedding Singer through later films like Click and Just Go with It. He has recently designed many films for Netflix including Sandler's Hustle, and both Murder Mystery 1 & 2. He also directed the Dana Carvey kid's comedy Master of Disguise, as well as the Second Unit on many of his films. He is a member of The ADG, the DGA and the Academy of Arts and Sciences. His films have grossed over 3 billion dollars.

Ethan Suplee has established himself over the past few decades as an actor of considerable talent and accomplishment. His diverse and eclectic resume ranges from hilarious roles in such comedies as Mallrats (1995) and Without a Paddle (2004) to hauntingly dramatic performances in intense features such as American History X (1998), Blow (2001) and Cold Mountain (2003). His breakthrough performance as a young football player in Disney's Remember the Titans (2000) with Denzel Washington garnered him critical acclaim and led to another role opposite Washington in director Nick Cassavetes' thriller, John Q (2002).

Born in New York and raised in Los Angeles, Suplee is the son of actors Deborah Deeble and Bill Suplee. He landed his first role, at the age of 16, on the popular television series, Boy Meets World (1993). He had a recurring role as the reluctant bully "Frankie" for three seasons. Most recently for television, he made a powerful guest-starring appearance on NBC's Third Watch (1999) as a disturbed young man who filmed a video journal about his obsession with a girl.

He made his feature film debut in 1995 (alongside My Name Is Earl (2005) co-star Jason Lee) in writer/director Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995), where he played the memorable "Willam Black", a young man determined to crack the mystery behind the mall's magic eye poster. Smith went on to cast Suplee in Chasing Amy (1997) and as the voice of "Norman the Golgothan" in Dogma (1999). More recent comedy credits include "Without A Paddle" with Seth Green and Matthew Lillard, director Todd Phillips Road Trip (2000) and Evolution (2001) for director Ivan Reitman.

Suplee showcased his impressive acting chops with a powerful and compelling performance in 1998 in director Tony Kaye's "American History X". He played a carelessly violent racist skinhead who tries to convince his friend (Edward Norton) to "come back to his roots" in their gang of white supremacists.

His role of high school football lineman "Louie" in Disney's "Remember the Titans" exposed Suplee to a larger audience, and he was singled out by many critics as a fresh and welcome screen presence, with the Hollywood Reporter calling his performance "scene-stealing."

With Ted Demme's 1970s drug-cartel drama "Blow," Suplee continued to raise his profile, playing "Tuna", the best friend of Johnny Depp's newly turned drug dealer "George Jung".

More recently, Suplee played a pivotal role of a young soldier in Miramax and Anthony Minghella's period piece "Cold Mountain," with Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. He also co-starred with Ashton Kutcher in New Line's The Butterfly Effect (2004).

Suplee co-stars opposite Jason Lee in NBC and Twentieth Century-Fox TV's half-hour comedy, "My Name is Earl." He plays "Randy", the brother of Lee's "Earl" who, following an epiphany, embarks on a mission to right all the wrongs he has inflicted on people.

For the big screen, Suplee will next be seen starring in Art School Confidential (2006) for director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World (2001)), and he recently completed work for director Darren Aronofsky on Warner Bros.' The Fountain (2006) with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.

In his spare time, Suplee enjoys reading, cooking and playing chess. He has also recently starting taking Muay Thai kick-boxing classes three times a week. Muay Thai is a form of martial arts boxing using full contact sparring, kicks, punches, kick blocks and shadow boxing learned under professional instruction.