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Kirstie Louise Alley was an American actress. Her breakout role was as Rebecca Howe in the NBC sitcom Cheers (1987-1993), receiving an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe in 1991 for the role. From 1997 to 2000, she starred in the sitcom Veronica's Closet, earning additional Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

Scott Kellerman Foley (born July 15, 1972) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. Foley is known for roles in television shows such as The Unit, Felicity and Scandal, and in films such as Scream 3. He has also guest starred in series including Dawson's Creek, House, Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy.

Ellie Kemper, born Elizabeth Claire Kemper on May 2, 1980, is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best-known for her role as "Erin Hannon" in the NBC series The Office (2005), as well as her supporting roles in the films Bridesmaids (2011) and 21 Jump Street (2012)). She plays the title role in the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015), for which she has received critical acclaim. In the summer of 2015, she joined NBC News as a temporary co-host on NBC's morning news program, The Today (1952) Show.

Natasha Rothwell was born on 18 October 1980 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Saturday Night Live (1975), The Characters (2016) and Insecure (2016).

Heidi Gardner is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She has been a cast member on Saturday Night Live since 2017, beginning in season 43. Gardner was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up with an older brother, Justin. Growing up, Gardner worked part-time at the Tivoli Theater, where she did everything "from selling tickets to making popcorn." She later credited the theater as "setting the tone in her life." Gardner was not interested in acting as a child, only performing on stage as a flutist for the school band and doing comedy sketches in school talent shows. Gardner graduated from the all-girls Catholic high school Notre Dame DE Sion in 2001.

Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows, including Medic (1954), Cheyenne (1955) and Sugarfoot (1957). His first film role was in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), quickly followed by Giant (1956) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Hopper actually became good friends with James Dean and was shattered when Dean was killed in a car crash in September 1955.

Hopper portrayed a young Napoléon Bonaparte (!) in the star-spangled The Story of Mankind (1957) and regularly appeared on screen throughout the 1960s, often in rather undemanding parts, usually as a villain in westerns such as True Grit (1969) and Hang 'Em High (1968). However, in early 1969, Hopper, fellow actor Peter Fonda and writer Terry Southern, wrote a counterculture road movie script and managed to scrape together $400,000 in financial backing. Hopper directed the low-budget film, titled Easy Rider (1969), starring Fonda, Hopper and a young Jack Nicholson. The film was a phenomenal box-office success, appealing to the anti-establishment youth culture of the times. It changed the Hollywood landscape almost overnight and major studios all jumped onto the anti-establishment bandwagon, pumping out low-budget films about rebellious hippies, bikers, draft dodgers and pot smokers. However, Hopper's next directorial effort, The Last Movie (1971), was a critical and financial failure, and he has admitted that during the 1970s he was seriously abusing various substances, both legal and illegal, which led to a downturn in the quality of his work. He appeared in a sparse collection of European-produced films over the next eight years, before cropping up in a memorable performance as a pot-smoking photographer alongside Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979). He also received acclaim for his work in both acting and direction for Out of the Blue (1980).

With these two notable efforts, the beginning of the 1980s saw a renaissance of interest by Hollywood in the talents of Dennis Hopper and exorcising the demons of drugs and alcohol via a rehabilitation program meant a return to invigorating and provoking performances. He was superb in Rumble Fish (1983), co-starred in the tepid spy thriller The Osterman Weekend (1983), played a groovy school teacher in My Science Project (1985), was a despicable and deranged drug dealer in River's Edge (1986) and, most memorably, electrified audiences as foul-mouthed Frank Booth in the eerie and erotic David Lynch film Blue Velvet (1986). Interestingly, the offbeat Hopper was selected in the early 1980s to provide the voice of "The StoryTeller" in the animated series of "Rabbit Ears" children's films based upon the works of Hans Christian Andersen!

Hopper returned to film direction in the late 1980s and was at the helm of the controversial gang film Colors (1988), which was well received by both critics and audiences. He was back in front of the cameras for roles in Super Mario Bros. (1993), got on the wrong side of gangster Christopher Walken in True Romance (1993), led police officer Keanu Reeves and bus passenger Sandra Bullock on a deadly ride in Speed (1994) and challenged gill-man Kevin Costner for world supremacy in Waterworld (1995). The enigmatic Hopper continued to remain busy through the 1990s and into the new century with performances in All the Way (2003), The Keeper (2004) and Land of the Dead (2005).

As well as his acting/directing talents, Hopper was a skilled photographer and painter, having had his works displayed in galleries in both the United States and overseas. He was additionally a dedicated and knowledgeable collector of modern art and had one of the most extensive collections in the United States. Dennis died of prostate cancer on May 29, 2010, less than two weeks after his 74th birthday.

One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on 28 March 1946. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina, but she was bitten by acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona to James Earl Jones' Othello on Broadway. She made her film debut in 1980, but did not make a name for herself until her performance as Emma, a prostitute during the 1930s Depression, in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Allen was so impressed by Wiest's acting ability that he has directed her on four more occasions since. Under Allen's direction, Wiest won a well deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her brilliant performance as the neurotic, wannabe actress Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She followed her Academy Award success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988) before stealing the show from the likes of Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood (1989).

Playing Helen Buckman, the divorced mother of two difficult teenagers, Wiest was both touching and hilarious, and received her second Oscar nomination. Arguably her most beloved role came as Peg Boggs, the kindly Avon Lady who discovers the titular Edward Scissorhands (1990). Wiest returned to Woody Allen for Bullets Over Broadway (1994), a superb comedy film set in 1920s New York, winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her magnificent portrayal of Helen Sinclair, a boozy, glamorous and neurotic star of the stage, who could made the words "Don't speak!" the funniest sentence ever captured on film. Recently enjoying great success with witchy roles in the comedy film Practical Magic (1998) and the television miniseries The 10th Kingdom (2000), Dianne Wiest lives in New York City with her two adopted daughters, Emily and Lily.

Wendy Moniz, of Portuguese and Irish descent, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. An American actress best known for her roles as Louisa Archer in The Guardian (2001-2004), Rachel McCabe in Nash Bridges (200-2001), and Dinah Marler in Guiding Light (1995-1999), she has been married to Frank Grillo, her former Guiding Light costar, since October 28, 2000. She has two boys Liam (b. August 2004) and Rio Grillo (b. January 2008) and a stepson Remy (b. January 1997) from Frank Grillo's first marriage. She was previously married to David Birsner. Moniz has worked regularly in television since her debut in 1995, appearing in 15 series and over 50 commercials.

Katherine McNamara, named one of Vanity Fair's "Breakout Bunch," is a sought after accomplished actor, dancer, singer/songwriter. She is most recently known as the titular lead role of "Abby Walker" in Walker: Independence (2022), the prequel to CW's Walker (2021). In 2023, Katherine was nominated for the Critics Choice Association's Super Award for Best Actress in an Action Series. Before she went West, she was cast as "MIa Smoak Queen" as the beloved badass daughter of "Felicity Smoak" and "Oliver Queen" (a true amalgamation of her parents - tough, smart, and takes no shit) and was to follow in her father's footsteps to become the next "Green Arrow" in "Green Arrow and the Canaries." Kat masterfully created the daughter, Mia, a tough street fighter, in the CW series Arrow (2012) with Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards.

Katherine has amassed a large audience from her leading roles of Abby, Mia, and "Clary Fray" in the Freeform series, Shadowhunters (2016) ; a book-to-screen adaptation of the bestselling "The Mortal Instruments." Katherine received many nominations and awards for her portrayal of Clary including winning the The E! People's Choice Awards (2018) for Top Female Television Actress as well as two Teen Choice Award wins for Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/ Sci-fi and Choice Ship with Dominic Sherwood Kat was nominated twice for other Teen Choice Awards and won the The E! People's Choice Awards (2018) with Shadowhunters (2016) for Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy Show. The series premiered to stellar ratings, being the #1 series debut in more than two years, and helped launch the re-brand of the channel alongside fan favorite Pretty Little Liars (2010). In 2015, McNamara closed out a lightning year, portraying another fierce female role as 'Sonya' in the second installment of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) trilogy, Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) alongside Dylan O'Brien and Kaya Scodelario.

McNamara began her professional career on Broadway, at the age of 13, as the principle character "Fredrika Armfeldt" in Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music", starring opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury. She was fortunate to continue on as "Fredrika" with the second ALNM Broadway cast of Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch. Her other theater roles include "Esther Jane" in the per-Broadway world premiere of "A Christmas Story, the Musical!", as well as "To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Crucible", "Inherit the Wind", "Annie", "The Secret Garden" and "Galileo". She has also been cast in a number of Equity workshops/readings, including "Little Dancer" and "Pan" (aka "Fly") with Laura Osnes, which was created by the "In the Heights" creative team - Jeffrey Seller, Alex Lacamoire, and Andy Blankenbuehler.

McNamara's love for acting stretches beyond the stage, with credits in television and film productions. Television credits include Katherine's portrayal of Julie Lawry, the erratic Tinkerbell of the apocalypse in Stephen King 's newest adaptation of The Stand (2020) directed by Josh Boone starring Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgård, and James Marsden. Additional television credits include 30 Rock (2006), Glee (2009), Happy Together (2018), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Drop Dead Diva (2009), Love, Classified (2022) , Late Show with David Letterman (1993), Good Morning America (1975) and PBS's Sondheim! The Birthday Concert (2010) . McNamara starred in Disney Channel's Girl Vs. Monster (2012) with Olivia Holt which attracted more than 5 million viewers and had recurring roles on Jessie (2011) as "Bryn Breitbart" and on Kickin' It (2011) as the mean girl from Swathmore Academy, "Claire". She filmed the much anticipated Disney pilot, Madison High (2012), where she portrayed "Cherri O'Keefe", resident fashionista and creator of Madison High's popular gossip blog. She can also be seen in the highly acclaimed Freeform series, The Fosters (2013).

McNamara made her big screen debut film in Warner Brothers picture New Year's Eve (2011), where she portrays "Lily Bowman". Besides the Maze Runner series, Kat also starred in Universal's R.L.Stein's film R.L. Stine's Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls (2015) opposite Dove Cameron as well as the independent bullying film, Contest (2013) with Kenton Duty . The film dives into the dark world of high school bullying and found a home on Cartoon Network as part of their anti-bullying initiative. Other film projects include Katherine starring as "Becky Thatcher" in the re-make of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2014), alongside Joel Courtney and Jake T. Austin, which was released in 2013, Disney's family-friendly Little Savages (2016), A Sort of Homecoming (2015) opposite Laura Marano, Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? (2016) with Cloris Leachman, Natural Selection (2016) with Anthony Michael Hall, A Wife's Nightmare (2014) with Jennifer Beals and Indiscretion (2016) with Mira Sorvino, Christopher Backus and Cary Elwes. She recently finished filming a cameo in the new Charlie Day comedy, Fool's Paradise (2023).

Besides working on music, McNamara wants to expand her creative repertoire to include producing and directing. Katherine is also an advocate for education. At the age of 14, McNamara graduated with top honors from high school and then quickly graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Business (emphasis in Finance) from Drexel University's Le Bow School of Business at the age of 17. She is now pursuing a Master of Science in Literature at Johns Hopkins University as part of their Advanced Academics Graduate Degree program.

McNamara is an award winning dancer and has a passion for all forms including ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, waltz and even hula. She was a member of the Actors Equity Young Performers Committee and is a reader for the Blank Theater's New Play Development Reading Committee and recurring performer in their Living Room Series. Katherine is committed to giving back to the community as well. She is an ambassador for Girl Up, the United Nation's girl empowerment organization, a spokesperson for Stomp Out Bullying, an avid supporter of the MS Society, a member of the Lollipop Theater Network, a lifetime Girl Scout and a volunteer for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. She also supports Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Rob Riggle, Eric Stonestreet, David Koechner and Heidi Gardner 's Big Slick charity benefiting Kansas City Children's Hospital, and Michelle Obama 's Global Girls' Alliance, an organization that helps young women around the world achieved their potential. She currently resides in Los Angeles and her hometown is Kansas City, Missouri.

Donald Frank Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 29, 1964. His childhood found him moving from city to city with his family: mother Bettye (née North), a teacher; father Donald Frank Cheadle Sr., a clinical psychologist; sister Cindy; and brother Colin. After graduating from high school in Denver, Colorado, Cheadle attended and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a bachelor¹s degree in fine arts. Encouraged by his college friends, he attended a variety of auditions and landed a recurring role on the hit series Fame (1982), which led to feature film roles in Dennis Hopper's Colors (1988) and John Irvin's Hamburger Hill (1987).

Early in his career, Cheadle was named Best Supporting Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics for his breakout performance opposite Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). His subsequent film credits include Traitor (2008), an international thriller that he produced, starring opposite Guy Pearce; Kasi Lemmons's Talk to Me (2007), with Chiwetel Ejiofor; the 2006 Oscar-winning Best Picture, Crash (2004), which Cheadle also produced; Hotel Rwanda (2004), for which his performance garnered Oscar, Golden Globe, Broadcast Film Critics and Screen Actors Guild award nominations for Best Actor; Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney; Mike Binder's Reign Over Me (2007) with Adam Sandler; the Academy Award-winning Traffic (2000) and Out of Sight (1998), with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, both films also directed by Soderbergh; Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed Boogie Nights (1997) with Julianne Moore and Mark Wahlberg; Bulworth (1998), directed by and starring Warren Beatty; Swordfish (2001), with John Travolta and Halle Berry; Mission to Mars (2000) with Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise; John Singleton's Rosewood (1997), for which Cheadle earned an NAACP Image Award nomination; Brett Ratner's The Family Man (2000), starring Nicolas Cage; and the independent features Manic (2001) and Things Behind the Sun (2001).

Cheadle was honored by the CineVegas Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival and received ShoWest's Male Star of the Year award. He is also well-recognized for his television work, including his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in HBO's The Rat Pack (1998), for which he received a Golden Globe Award and a Best Supporting Actor Emmy nomination. That same year, he also received an Emmy nomination for his starring role in HBO's adaptation of the best-selling novel A Lesson Before Dying (1999), opposite Cicely Tyson and Mekhi Phifer.

He also starred for HBO in Eriq La Salle's Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996). Cheadle's TV series credits include his two-year stint in David E. Kelley's acclaimed series Picket Fences (1992), a guest-starring role on ER (1994) (earning yet another Emmy nomination) and a regular role on The Golden Palace (1992) He also starred in the live television broadcast of Fail Safe (2000) opposite George Clooney, James Cromwell, Brian Dennehy, Richard Dreyfuss, and Harvey Keitel. He also co-executive produced the TV version of Crash (2008).

His most recent big-screen appearances have been in Antoine Fuqua's ensemble crime thriller Brooklyn's Finest (2009) and Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), another mainstream breakthrough where he played Lt. Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, replacing Terrence Howard from the first film. The Guard (2011), an art-house hit directed by John Michael McDonagh and co-starring Brendan Gleeson, followed.

Cheadle stars in House of Lies (2012) on Showtime. Late in 2012, he was seen in Flight (2012), Robert Zemeckis's return to live-action filmmaking. In 2013, he reprised his role as Rhodey in Iron Man 3 (2013). Among his projects in development is a movie based on the life of jazz legend Miles Davis.

A talented musician who plays saxophone, writes music and sings, he is also an accomplished stage actor and director and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Spoken Word Album for his narration/dramatization of the Walter Mosley novel 'Fear Itself.'

Other notable off-stage achievements include the 2007 BET Humanitarian Award for the cause of the people of Darfur and Rwanda, and sharing the Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome with George Clooney for their work in Darfur.

Annette Bening was born on May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her family moved to California when she was young, and she grew up there. She graduated from San Francisco State University and began her acting career with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, eventually moving to New York where she acted on the stage (including a Tony-award nomination in 1987 for her work in the Broadway play "Coastal Disturbances") and got her first film roles, in a few TV movies.

As is so often the case, her first big-screen role was in a forgettable movie, this one The Great Outdoors (1988), in which she had little screen time. However, her next work onscreen was in Milos Forman's Valmont (1989), a film adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' "Les Liaisons Dangereuses". Unfortunately, de Laclos' story had also just served as the source of a more Hollywoodized and successful movie version, Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which had been released the previous year, and Foreman's treatment went little noticed. Bening's career turned an important corner the following year when she co-starred with Anjelica Huston and John Cusack in Stephen Frears's powerful, entertaining screen adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel The Grifters (1990), and her artful turn as a con artist gained her the first of several Academy award nominations. On the strength of this performance Warren Beatty cast Bening as Virginia Hill, Bugsy Siegel's fiery actress moll, in his Bugsy (1991), the story of Siegel's founding of Las Vegas. Although the movie itself did not fare well, it resulted in a relationship with Beatty which led to Bening's pregnancy and then her marriage to Beatty in 1992 - it was the second marriage for Bening, who had been separated from her first husband since 1986 but did not finalize her divorce until 1991. The couple then collaborated on the extravagant flop Love Affair (1994), though the next year her career rebounded with her turn as Queen Elizabeth in the highly-regarded 1995 production of Richard III (1995). Notable performances have since included an obsessive, pushy real estate agent in American Beauty (1999), and as the eponymous character in István Szabó's screen adaptation of the W. Somerset Maugham novel Being Julia (2004) - both were duly noted by the Academy, with Oscar nominations.

Bening has great poise and screen presence and, at her best, can turn in a very strong performance. Although her resume often features long stretches of mediocre productions before the next good part turns up, when it does, it proves worth the wait. Bening has four children with Beatty.

Hala Finley was born on 18 May 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She is an actress, known for Venom: The Last Dance (2024), Paradise Highway (2022) and Hypnotic (2023).

Emily Wickersham was born on April 26, 1984 in Kansas, USA as Emily Kaiser Wickersham. She is an actress, known for Gone (2012), I Am Number Four (2011), Remember Me (2010) and NCIS. She was married to musician and domestic violence lawyer Blake Hanley from November 23, 2010 until December 2018.

Johnny Yong Bosch (born John Jay Bosch) was born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Garland, Texas. While growing up, he had taken an interest in martial arts after having seen the works of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, winning several martial arts competitions as a result. After being informed about the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993) by his martial arts teacher, Bosch subsequently joined the show's second season as Adam Park (replacing Walter Jones, who had played the character in season 1), and reprised the role in both films based on the franchise as well as Power Rangers Zeo (1996) and Power Rangers Turbo (1997)

His main claim to fame, however, arrived in the form of his voice acting career in anime and video games, when he landed the role of Kaneda in a redub of Akira (1988) that was recorded by Pioneer in 2001, with Cam Clarke having previously voiced the character in the 1988 Streamline dub. This ultimately lead to further roles in more anime series and games in the years that followed, including Vash the Stampede in Trigun (1998), Renton Thurston in Eureka Seven (2005), Genma Shiranui and Sasori in the Naruto franchise, Yu Narukami in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (2008), and, most notably, Ichigo Kurosaki in the Bleach franchise. Among Bosch's later roles include Sabo in One Piece (1999) from 2020 onward, Toji Suzuhara in Netflix's 2019 redub of Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), and Ryogi in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (2017), among others.

Christopher Walton Cooper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Mary Ann (Walton), a homemaker, and Charles Sherwood Cooper, a cattleman and internist who served as a doctor in the US Air Force. His parents were from Texas, where Cooper was raised.

Educated at the University of Missouri school of drama, Cooper appeared on Broadway in "Of the Fields Lately (1980)", and off-Broadway in "The Ballad of Soapy Smith (1983)" and "A Different Moon (1983)". He debuted in films in the John Sayles movie Matewan (1987). Although his performance was well received, the picture was not successful. Other films he has appeared in include Guilty by Suspicion (1991), Money Train (1995) and A Time to Kill (1996). On television, Cooper has been featured in the mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989) and Return to Lonesome Dove (1993), as July Johnson. He has also appeared in a number of television movies. In 1996, he starred in his third John Sayles movie, Lone Star (1996), where he plays Sam Deeds, the sheriff whose lawman father becomes a posthumous suspect in a murder investigation.

Cooper married actress/producer/scriptwriter Marianne Leone on July 8, 1983. They have one child, a son Jesse, who died on January 3, 2005 at the age of 17, of natural causes related to cerebral palsy. Jesse Cooper inspired his mother to author the script for the film "Conquistadora." It relates the true story of Mary Somoza, the mother of twins with cerebral palsy, who fought the educational system to provide the best education possible for her children.

Beautiful, buxom and shapely knockout Monique Gabrielle added an ample, alluring and invigorating dose of smoldering sex appeal to a bunch of enjoyably down'n'dirty horror and exploitation pictures made throughout the 80s and 90s.

The 5' 6" natural brunette was born Katherine Gonzalez on July 30, 1962 in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Denver, Colorado. Gabrielle made her acting debut at age five portraying an angel in a church Christmas play. She started modeling while still in high school, entered her first beauty pageant at age 17 (she won the title of Miss American Legion and went on to participate in several other pageants, modeling competitions and nightclub contests), and moved to California in 1980 right after she graduated from high school.

Monique was the December 1982 Penthouse Pet of the Month. She had small roles in the mainstream features Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Night Shift (1982), Young Doctors in Love (1982), Flashdance (1983), Hard to Hold (1984) and Fear of a Black Hat (1993). Gabrielle achieved her greatest enduring popularity as the enticing young woman who tries to seduce Tom Hanks in the uproariously raucous'n'raunchy Bachelor Party (1984) Her most memorable roles include a pathetic junkie snitch in the terrifically trashy babes-behind-bars classic Chained Heat (1983), the titular brazen and uninhibited sexual adventuress in the steamy Emmanuelle 5 (1987), a sweet princess and her evil twin in Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987), a nude model in the funny sketch comedy Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), a gutsy lady cop in Silk 2 (1989), feisty security chief Miss Poinsettia in the amusingly campy The Return of Swamp Thing (1989), and the nerdy, repressed Megan in the delightfully dippy Evil Toons (1992).

Gabrielle did guest spots on the TV shows Dream On (1990), Hardball (1989), and Hunter (1984). She was the onetime girlfriend of low-budget straight-to-video picture director Jim Wynorski; she popped up in a handful of his movies in both minor and more substantial parts alike. Monique cheerfully poked fun at her own B-flick queen persona in the entertainingly silly Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991).

Monique Gabrielle married adult film director Tony Angove in 2003. She moved to South Florida and ran a production company called Monique's Purrfect Productions.

Blue-eyed, red-haired American character actress, often seen as resolute, strong-willed women. Though born in Kansas, Barbara Babcock spent much of her early childhood in Japan, where her father, U.S. Army Major General Conrad Stanton Babcock Jr., was posted (he was also a noted equestrian, who competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics). Her mother was Chilean-born Jadwiga Florence Noskowiak (1903-2000), a former stage actress and singer.

Babcock attended universities in Lausanne and Milan and later graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She initially interviewed for a job with the State Department, aiming at a diplomatic career. When this fell through, she turned to acting, debuting on screen in 1956. From the early 60s, Babcock made guest appearances in numerous television series. She ultimately became best known for her Emmy Award-winning performance as the over-amorous Grace Gardner in NBC's Hill Street Blues (1981) and as pioneer newspaper editor Dorothy Jennings in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993) (a regular role, lasting from 1993 to 1998).

Babcock featured several times on Star Trek (1966), though it was more often her voice that was utilized for assorted alien background characters. She also played a member of the 'underground' in episodes of Hogan's Heroes (1965) and Pam Ewing's fashion boss in Dallas (1978). Babcock was one of the leads in Alan Alda's sitcom The Four Seasons (1984), about four middle-aged couples who vacation together four times annually, once per season. In this, she played the orthopedist wife of Allan Arbus (of M*A*S*H (1972) fame). Babcock subsequently starred in her own right as a demure attorney, counterpoint to Jerry Orbach's vociferous, seedy 'old school' gumshoe, in the short-lived CBS mystery drama The Law and Harry McGraw (1987). One might also remember her as one of the (ill-fated) residents of Salem's Lot (1979) and as a repeat guest star on Mannix (1967) and (alternating between murder victim and villainess of the week) in Murder, She Wrote (1984).

Her occasional forays to the big screen tended to be in smaller supporting roles, first up as an Apache kidnap victim in the Glenn Ford western Day of the Evil Gun (1968). More recently in maternal roles, she portrayed an Irish immigrant, the mother of Nicole Kidman's character, in Ron Howard's big budget western Far and Away (1992). Her last motion picture appearance was as the wife of test pilot and would-be-astronaut Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) in Space Cowboys (2000).

Barbara Babcock retired from acting in 2004, the year she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In her private life, she has had a lifelong interest in travel and exploration and has dabbled in writing. She is known as an avid crusader for animal rights.

Edward Asner was born of Russian Jewish parentage in Kansas City, to Morris David Asner (founder and owner of the Kansas City-based Asner Iron & Metal Company) and his wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Seliger). After attending college, Ed worked various jobs, including in a steel mill, as a door-to-door salesman and on an assembly line for General Motors. Between 1947 and 1949, he attended the University of Chicago. The onset of the Korean War saw him drafted into the U.S. Army Signals Corps and posted to France where he was primarily assigned clerical tasks. Upon demobilization, Asner joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago but soon progressed to New York. In 1955, he appeared off-Broadway in the leading role of the beggar king Jonathan Peachum in Brecht's Threepenny Opera. Five years later, he made his debut on the Great White Way in the courtroom drama Face of a Hero, co-starring alongside Jack Lemmon. He also began regular TV work in anthology drama.

From the early '60s, Asner, now based in California, earned his living as a busy supporting actor. His many noted guest appearances included turns in Route 66 (1960), The Untouchables (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) (sinister dictator-in-exile Brynov), The Invaders (1967) (twice -- as aliens) and How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (1998) (one of a couple of ghostly residents in a haunted mansion). Heavy-set and distinctively gravelly-voiced, Asner established his reputation as tough, robust and uncompromising (though, on occasion, good-hearted) authority figures. Excellent at conveying menace, he was memorably cast as the brutish patriarch Axel Jordache in Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and as the slave ship's morally conflicted master, Captain Thomas Davies, in Roots (1977), which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award in 1977. The immensely prolific Asner (417 IMDB screen credits!) would receive seven Emmys in total (from 21 nominations), all Primetime, and become the only actor to win in both the comedy and drama category for the same role. That was also the part which made Asner a household name: the gruff, snarky newspaper editor Lou Grant (1977). Grant began as a mainstay on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), a 30-minute sitcom.

When the character was promoted to West Coast editor of The Los Angeles Tribune, Asner went on to star in his own much acclaimed drama series. Despite consistently high ratings, the show was axed after five seasons amid rumours of disharmony between the star and producers, possibly due to the former's outspoken political views. Indeed, Asner has been a controversial figure as an activist and campaigner, engaged in a variety of humanitarian and political issues. A self-proclaimed liberal Democrat, he published a book in 2017, amusingly titled "The Grouchy Historian: An Old-Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs."

Between 1981 and 1985, Asner served twice as President of the Screen Actors Guild, during which time he was critical of former SAG President Ronald Reagan -- then the president of a greater concern -- for his Central American policy. In 1996, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and in 2002 received the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award. In addition to appearing on screen and stage, he performed extensive work for radio, video games and animated TV series. He voiced the lead character Carl Fredricksen in Pixar's Oscar-winning production of Up (2009), starred as Santa in Elf (2003), and played Nicholas Drago in The Games Maker (2014). Ed passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 91 on August 29, 2021.

Kari Wahlgren is an American actress from Kansas. She is most well-known for voicing Kitana and Mileena from Mortal Kombat, Starfire from Injustice 2, Velma Green the Spider Queen from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Kagami Hiiragi from Lucky Star, Willow Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, Haruko Haruhara from FLCL, Razor from Aliens in the Attic and Tigress from Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

A talented character actor known for his military roles, Ronald Lee Ermey was in the United States Marine Corps for 11 years. He rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, and later was bestowed the honorary rank of Gunnery Sergeant by the Marine Corps, after he served 14 months in Vietnam and later did two tours in Okinawa, Japan. After injuries forced him to retire from the Corps, he moved to the Phillipines, enrolling in the University of Manila, where he studied Criminology and Drama. He appeared in several Filipino films before being cast as a helicopter pilot in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979). Due to his Vietnam experiences, Coppola also utilized him as a technical adviser. He got a featured role in Sidney J. Furie's The Boys in Company C (1978), playing a drill instructor. Ermey worked with Furie again in Purple Hearts (1984).

However, his most famous (or infamous) role came as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. He did win the best supporting actor award from The Boston Society of Film Critics. Since then, he has appeared in numerous character roles in such films as Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Se7en (1995) and Dead Man Walking (1995). However, Ermey prefers comedy to drama, and has a comedic role in Saving Silverman (2001).

Cassandra Peterson was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She began her career at age 17 as the youngest showgirl in Las Vegas history in the show "Vive Les Girls" at the Dunes Hotel. After receiving advice from "The King" himself, Elvis Presley, she traveled to Europe where she pursued a career as a singer and actor. She worked in several Italian films, including Federico Fellini's Fellini's Roma (1972) and performed throughout Europe as lead singer of an Italian rock band.

Upon returning to the United States, she toured the country as star of her own musical-comedy show, "Mama's Boys." She eventually settled in Hollywood, where she spent four and a half years with L.A.'s foremost improvisational comedy group, The Groundlings. In 1981, she auditioned for the role of horror hostess on a local Los Angeles television station. Her show, Elvira's Movie Macabre (1981), and her newly created character, Elvira, became an overnight sensation.

Cassandra has used Elvira's celebrity status to bring attention to many worthy causes and organizations over the years, including her well-known work for animal welfare and raising money and awareness for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In addition to co-writing and performing in both the local L.A. and nationally syndicated television versions of "Movie Macabre," she co-wrote, produced and starred in two feature films, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) and Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001). In 2010, she returned to syndicated television in a reboot of her original series, Elvira's Movie Macabre (2010). She returned in 2014 in a similar show format for Hulu's 13 Nights of Elvira. Her latest endeavors include producing, writing and starring in Elvira's 40th Anniversary, Very Scary, Very Special, Special - a 2021 four-hour special streaming on Shudder, and Dr. Elvira, a Halloween promotional mini-series for Netflix.

Cassandra Peterson has spent over four decades solidifying the Elvira brand that has become synonymous with Halloween and the horror genre.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is an American YouTuber. He is credited with pioneering a genre of YouTube videos that centers on expensive stunts. His YouTube channel reached 300 million subscribers in July 10th 2024, making him the most-subscribed on the platform. Donaldson won Creator of the Year award three times at the Streamy Awards in 2020, 2021, and 2022; he also won the Favorite Male Creator award at the 2022 Kids' Choice Awards.

This attractive, happy go lucky blonde actress, educated at the University of Kansas and a former ballet soloist, first broke into both TV and cinema screens in the mid 1970s and through her appearances in several well remembered horror and sci-fi films, and Dee quickly gained a cult following among the fantasy film fans. Poor Dee always seemed to be on the wrong side of some malevolent person or evil creature....she was pursued by a clan of cannibal killers in The Hills Have Eyes (1977), terrorized by a pack of werewolves in the superb The Howling (1981), got a break from the horror, as a sympathetic mom in the mega sci-fi hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and nearly ends up lunch for a rabid St. Bernard in the heart stopping Cujo (1983).

In the early 1980s, Wallace-Stone actually shared the screen several times with her then husband Christopher Stone before his unfortunate, early demise from a heart attack in October, 1995.

However, typecasting Dee Wallace-Stone as a horror heroine does not do her justice, as unlike some other scream queens whose careers quickly faded, Dee has gone on to have a very busy and varied acting career, appearing in over 90 feature films to date! Her All-American looks and easy going demeanor has seen Dee often cast as a typical suburban mother, a sympathetic friend, or a trusted ally. Fans warm to her endearing smile and natural warmth, and Dee continues to find herself in constant demand in front of the camera, plus she has her own much visited website.

Lois Smith was born on 3 November 1930 in Topeka, Kansas, USA. She is an actress, known for Minority Report (2002), Lady Bird (2017) and Twister (1996). She was previously married to Wesley Dale Smith.

Born in Overland Park, Kansas, Sarah moved to Mission Viejo, California, when she was 10 years old. In 1994, she secured her first role, as a series regular on Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1993). She then gained attention for her recurring role as "Madison Kellner" on the critically-acclaimed Warner Bros. series, Everwood (2002). She went on to star in Dr. Vegas (2004), for CBS from 2004-2006. Followed by ABC's What About Brian (2006), from 2006-2007. Sarah is perhaps best known for her lovable portrayal of "Ellie Bartowski" on NBC's long-running series, Chuck (2007). In 2014, Lancaster can be seen, alongside Robert Downey Jr., in The Judge (2014), for Warner Bros. Lancaster resides in Los Angeles with her husband, attorney Matt Jacobs, and their son, Oliver Jacobs.