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Jennifer Love Hewitt was born in Waco, Texas, to Patricia Mae (Shipp), a speech-language pathologist, and Herbert Daniel Hewitt, a medical technician. She has English, Italian, French, Scottish, and German ancestry. She got her first name from her older brother Todd Daniel Hewitt (b. November 8, 1970), who picked the name after a little blonde girl on whom he'd had a crush. Her mother selected Jennifer's middle name, Love (which she goes by offstage), from her best college friend. Her parents separated when she was six months old and her mother raised her in Killeen, Texas.

Hewitt made her official performing debut at age 3 when she sang at a livestock show. At age 5, she was taking tap, jazz, and ballet lessons, which led to her joining the Texas Show Team, who toured the Soviet Union and Europe. When she was 10 her family moved to Los Angeles with encouragement from talent scouts, while Todd stayed behind to finish high school in Texas Jennifer quickly found commercial work and a role on Disney's Kids Incorporated (1984) in 1989. She went through a series of television flops before finally hitting it big on Party of Five (1994) in 1995.

Steve Martin was born on August 14, 1945 in Waco, Texas, USA as Stephen Glenn Martin to Mary Lee (née Stewart; 1913-2002) and Glenn Vernon Martin (1914-1997), a real estate salesman and aspiring actor. He was raised in Inglewood and Garden Grove in California. In 1960, he got a job at the Magic shop of Disney's Fantasyland, and while there he learned magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals. At Santa Ana College, he took classes in drama and English poetry. He also took part in comedies and other productions at the Bird Cage Theatre, and joined a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm. He attended California State University as a philosophy major, but in 1967 transferred to UCLA as a theatre major.

His writing career began on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), winning him an Emmy Award. Between 1967 and 1973, he also wrote for many other shows, including The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969) and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (1971). He also appeared on talk shows and comedy shows in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1972, he first appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), doing stand-up several times each year, and even guest hosting a few years later. In 1976, he served for the first time as guest-host on Saturday Night Live (1975). By 2016, he has guest-hosted 15 times, which is one less than Alec Baldwin's record, and also appeared 12 other times on SNL.

In 1977, he released his first comedy album, a platinum selling "Let's Get Small". He followed it with "A Wild and Crazy Guy" (1978), which sold more than a million copies. Both albums went on to win Grammys for Best Comedy Recording. This is when he performed in arenas in front of tens of thousands of people, and begun his movie career, which was always his goal. His first major role was in the short film, The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977), which he also wrote. His star value was established in The Jerk (1979), which was co-written by Martin, and directed by Carl Reiner. The film earned more than $100 million on a $4 million budget. He also starred in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), and All of Me (1984), all directed by Reiner. To avoid being typecast as a comedian, he wanted do more dramatic roles, starring in Pennies from Heaven (1981), a film remake of Dennis Potter's 1978 series. Unfortunately, it was a financial failure.

He also starred in John Landis's Three Amigos! (1986), co-written by himself, opposite Martin Short and Chevy Chase. That year, he also appeared in the musical horror comedy, Little Shop of Horrors (1986) opposite Rick Moranis. Next year, he starred in Roxanne (1987), co-written by himself, and in John Hughes' Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), opposite John Candy. His other films include Parenthood (1989) and My Blue Heaven (1990), both opposite Moranis. In 1991, he wrote and starred in L.A. Story (1991), about a weatherman who searches meaning in his life and love in Los Angeles. It also starred his then-wife, Victoria Tennant. Same year, Father of the Bride (1991) was so successful that a 1995 sequel followed.

During the 1990s, he continued to play more dramatic roles, in Grand Canyon (1991), playing a traumatized movie producer, in Leap of Faith (1992), playing a fake faith healer, in A Simple Twist of Fate (1994), playing a betrayed man adopting a baby, and in David Mamet's thriller The Spanish Prisoner (1997). Other, more comedic roles include in HouseSitter (1992) and The Out-of-Towners (1999), opposite Goldie Hawn, in Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts (1994), and in Bowfinger (1999), written by himself and co-starring Eddie Murphy. After Bowfinger, he starred in Bringing Down the House (2003) and Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), both earning more than $130 million. He wrote and starred in Shopgirl (2005), and appeared in the sequel of Cheaper by the Dozen. After them, he appeared in The Pink Panther (2006) and The Pink Panther 2 (2009), which he both co-wrote, as Inspector Clouseau.

He continues to do movies, more recently appearing in The Big Year (2011), Home (2015), and Love the Coopers (2015). Besides aforementioned, he has been an avid art collector since 1968, written plays, written for The New Yorker, written a well-received memoir (Born Standing Up), written a novel (An Object of Beauty; 2010), hosted the Academy Awards three times, released a Grammy award winning music album (The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo; 2009), and another album (Love Has Come For You; 2013) with Edie Brickell. Since 2007, he has been married to Anne Stringfield, with whom he has a daughter.

Samuel French was born on 26 January 1980 in Waco, Texas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Fear the Walking Dead (2015) and Texas Rising (2015). He was married to Melinda. He died on 9 May 2025 in Waco, Texas, USA.

Born in Waco, Texas, Peri Gilpin grew up in Dallas, where her family encouraged her acting abilities. After studying at the Dallas Theater Center, she pursued acting at the University of Texas at Austin and then at London's British-American Academy. She appeared in guest roles on such popular situation comedies as Designing Women (1986), Cheers (1982) and Wings (1990), where she worked with the late producer, Roz Doyle, the namesake of her character on Frasier (1993).

Ashlee Nicolle Simpson was born on October 3, 1984 in Waco, Texas, to Tina Simpson (née Drew) and Joe Simpson, who is a psychologist and Baptist youth minister. Ashlee started dancing at the age of 4 and by the time she was 11 enjoyed the status of being the youngest person ever admitted to the prestigious School of American Ballet. By 14, Ashlee was dancing professionally on the road with her older sister, pop singer Jessica Simpson. Ashlee spent 1999-2001 on tour supporting her sibling and garnering her own fan base.

She appeared on the big screen in the film The Hot Chick (2002) alongside Rob Schneider, and has made television appearances, including a guest-starring role on Malcolm in the Middle (2000). She has also appeared alongside her sister on Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1993), The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996), The View (1997), The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) and a Disney Christmas show and concert special. She trained with renowned acting coach Janet Alhanti. Ashlee enjoys spending her free time vintage shopping, writing and recording music and hanging out with friends. Her work includes two well-received CDs, "Autobiography" and "I Am Me."

Barbara Beaird was born on 18 June 1948 in Waco, Texas, USA. She is an actress, known for One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960) and The Man in the Net (1959).

Matt was born in Waco, Texas and raised in the Oklahoma City area. His reckless teen years culminated with him spending his twentieth birthday in state prison over a series of group brawls. Exactly a year after his release, at the end a long day of high rise window washing, he found himself involved in a road rage incident in which his coworker was murdered directly in front of him. Matt then made his way to Hollywood where he graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and went on to be a member of their theater company ('06).. He supported his early years bouncing and working as an autism behavioral therapist. Matt rowed a rowboat across the Pacific Ocean for a world record in 2014.

Brian Brown was born on 15 March 1963 in Waco, Texas, USA. He is an actor, known for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), Iron Man (2008) and Cowboys & Aliens (2011).

Slender, strikingly beautiful strawberry blonde Anne Gwynne arrived in Hollywood a typical starry-eyed model looking to for top stardom. Not quite achieving her goal, she did become one of Universal Studio's favorite and revered cover girls while earning notoriety as one of cinema's finest screamers in 40's "B" horror films. She was able to extend her talents to include adventure stories, westerns, film noir and musical comedies before retiring in 1959.

The hazel-eyed beauty was born Marguerite Gwynne Trice in Waco, Texas, on December 18, 1918, the daughter of Pearl (née Guinn) and Jefferson Benjamin Trice, a clothing manufacturer. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when she was still a child. Following high school graduation, she studied drama at Stephens College. Accompanying her father to Los Angeles, she stayed and found work in a number of local community productions. She also supplemented her income as a swimsuit model for Catalina. A Universal studio talent agent happened to catch her in one of her theatre endeavors and the 20-year-old was tested and signed up in 1939.

Appearing in a few starlet bit parts as chorus girls or nurse types, Anne quickly earned her first female lead that same year with the western Oklahoma Frontier (1939) opposite cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown and continued on as a gorgeous co-star/second lead for such handsome leading men as Richard Arlen in Man from Montreal (1939); Robert Stack in Men of Texas (1942); she is best remembered, however, as a decorative lure for the monstrous antics of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney Jr., among others, in such movie chillers as Black Friday (1940), The Black Cat (1941), The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942), Weird Woman (1944), House of Frankenstein (1944) and Murder in the Blue Room (1944).

Anne certainly had the looks and talent but not the luck, seldom rising above second-string film fare. She nevertheless proved quite popular with the servicemen as a WWII wall pin-up and, as with many other lovely actresses, found TV and commercials to be viable mediums for her as her film career waned. She, in fact, co-starred in TV's first filmed series, the noirish crime series Public Prosecutor (1947) as D.A. John Howard's legal secretary and guested on such action-filled 50's programs as "Ramar of the Jungle," "Death Valley Days" and "Northwest Passage."

Later sporadic appearances on film included The Blazing Sun (1950), Call of the Klondike (1950) and Breakdown (1952), the last-mentioned effort executive produced by her husband Max M. Gilford. She returned to the horror film fold once more as the star of the quickly dismissed, "poverty row" cult programmer Teenage Monster (1957). Here Anne plays a caring mother whose home is hit by a meteor. This results in the death of her husband and the monstrous mutation of her son. She tries to shield her boy from outside forces to save him. After a decade of retirement, Anne returned to make a brief, matronly appearance in the film Adam at Six A.M. (1970).

Married to Gilford in 1945, the pair had two children. Daughter/actress Gwynne Gilford is married to actor Robert Pine. Her grandson is actor Chris Pine. Anne's health began to deteriorate in the '90s; a widow by this time, she was moved to the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, where she died of complications from a stroke on March 31, 2003.

Willie Mellina was born in Waco, TX. Best known for his role as George Washington in the Trilogy WASHINGTON'S ARMOR. He started singing, dancing, and acting at the age of 20. He has performed professionally onstage with several Broadway Stars such as Tony Yazbeck and was directed by Billy Porter, Tony Award Winner of Kinky Boots.

He has studied all classical and contemporary styles of Dance. Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop. Vocal Training in Classical Italian, Musical Theater, Pop, Country, Rock. Acting Training includes Stanislavsky, Meisner, Shakespearean, Scene Study, Improvisation, and Film Acting. Graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor Degree in Film and Musical Theater. Studied Stage Movement, Voice and Diction, Dialect Training.

Stunt Work, Fight Choreography, Horseback Riding (English, Western). Walk on hands and basic Gymnastics. Ability to play all sports at a high level. Basketball, Baseball, Football, Soccer, Track and Field.

Randy Bennett was born in Waco, Texas, USA. He is known for The Brave Little Toaster (1987), Evil Dead II (1987) and At Close Range (1986).

Raised in Kingsport, Tennessee. Attended Sullivan South High School. Graduated in 1997. Received his BS degree from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City in 2002. Received his MFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2005. Son of David and Sue Cox. Brother are David, Brad, Mitch, Aaron.

James Nelson Harrell, born in Waco, Texas to Margaret Teny and Jefferson Whitfield Harrell, Chair of the Baylor University Mathematics Department, graduated from Waco High School and Baylor University. He held a Master's Degree in Drama from Trinity University. He studied acting at the original Baylor Theater with Paul Baker in the 1930's and in 1940 was invited to join Michael Chekhov's Acting Studio in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Jim toured the East Coast with that company and was playing Twelfth Night when the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, and most plays closed. Jim served in the United States Army for four years in a tank company, in Headquarters Eighth Service Command, in Special Services, and in Occupied Japan. James Harrell, also known as "little Jimmy Harrell from Waco, Texas", appeared in over 75 film productions; feature films and television. James taught acting at the Dallas Theater Center and had leading roles in numerous productions, including 'Anse Bundren' in Journey to Jefferson, which toured Paris, Belgium and Germany. He also taught stage and film acting at Southwest Texas State University for 24 years, retiring in 1994 as an Associate Professor.

Corinne Griffith was a popular star of the silent movies. She started her film career at Vitagraph in 1916 and later moved to First National, where she became one of that studio's biggest stars. At the height of her popularity she was known as the "Orchid Lady of the Screen." Black Oxen (1923) was one of her most popular films. In 1925 she made Déclassé (1925), which featured a young extra named Clark Gable.

Corinne received an Academy Award nomination for her work in The Divine Lady (1928), but sound did not embrace her in the same way that the silent films had. Music was a popular device used in many early sound movies, but she quickly proved that she was not cut out to be a singer, and the fact that her acting style remained rooted in the wooden pre-sound days didn't help matters. Her last Hollywood film was released in 1930. After appearing in an English film in 1932, she retired. She appeared in one final film, Paradise Alley (1962), a low-budget Hugo Haas potboiler.

Tom Monroe was born on 2 September 1919 in Waco, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Two Lost Worlds (1951), Death Valley Days (1952) and Serpent Island (1954). He died on 2 December 1993 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Michael J. Fisher was born in Waco, Texas, USA. He is an actor, known for Remember the Titans (2000), The Blind Side (2009) and Moneyball (2011).

J.D. Hinton was born on 12 June 1950 in Waco, Texas, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Galaxina (1980), Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and Jessie (1984).

It's hard to be very specific about any dates or events early in the life of Texas Guinan. She loved publicity and frequently improvised facts about herself when she felt they made better stories than the truth. She was born in Waco, Texas, but likely not on a ranch as she often claimed. She was active in vaudeville and theater, and was in many movies (often as the gun-toting hero in silent westerns, more than a match for any man). In the prohibition era, Tex's talents for entertainment and self-promotion came together for a successful career as the owner and hostess in night clubs and speakeasies, where she made certain everyone had a good time.

Rich Emberlin is a 35-year law enforcement veteran born in Texas who served most notably with the Dallas Police Department's elite units, including Dallas SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) and the Criminal Intelligence Unit-Dignitary Protection Squad. He was also assigned to the Office of the Chief of Police as a liaison to the Department of Defense, where he facilitated training exercises for the U.S. Military Special Operations Community to include Naval Special Warfare (SEALs) and the Army's (CAG) Combat Action Group -DELTA. Rich is also a veteran television personality and subject matter expert, most recently serving as an in-studio analyst on the A&E documentary series, Live PD.

Rich joined the Dallas Police Department in September 1987, eventually becoming an Entry Team Leader for Dallas SWAT in 1996. During his 15 years in SWAT, Rich participated in thousands of missions, including counter-terrorist operations, hostage rescues, barricaded suspect situations, arrest and search warrant executions, and more. These operations formed the basis for Dallas SWAT, the popular A&E Networks reality series that aired from 2006-2007. Rich starred as a primary cast member as the cameras followed his personal and professional life over the course of three seasons. He also was a co-host of A&E's Live PD with Dan Abrams in 2016. Recently he hosted a pilot for Discovery + entitled Alien Endgame. Most recently appeared in Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace.

In 2011, Rich was assigned to the Criminal Intelligence Unit-Dignitary Protection Squad. He conducted liaison operations with the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Marshals, FBI, State Department, and Dept. of Defense to protect to American presidents, foreign heads of state, members of the U.S. Senate and Congress, Supreme Court Justices, and state governors. This unit also investigated protest groups, incidents of significant public disorder, and threats against government officials and police officers. Early in his career, Rich held positions as a field training officer in the Patrol Division and undercover detective in the Homeland Security/Special Investigations Division, Narcotics Unit.

Rich retired from the Dallas Police Dept. in October 2016 with over 120 commendations and departmental awards. He remains active in the industry as a law enforcement instructor and president of 540 Solutions, a corporate executive protection and tactical training firm. Rich has been an adjunct instructor for the Safariland Group for over 10 years and previously also served as a law enforcement consultant and instructor for Craft International, a training company founded by the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, author of American Sniper. He continues to serve his community in the Dallas Police Reserves and as a reserve deputy for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department. Rich holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, emphasis in Personnel Management and Organizational Behavior, from the University of North Texas.

Tina Simpson was born on 18 January 1960 in Waco, Texas, USA. She was previously married to Joe Simpson.

Parnell McNamara was born on 29 April 1946 in Waco, Texas, USA.

Tommy Abbott was born on 4 November 1934 in Waco, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for West Side Story (1961), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and That's Dancing! (1985). He died on 8 April 1987 in New York City, New York, USA.

Gerry Matthews was born in 1931 in Waco, Texas, USA. He is an actor, known for Highway Patrol (1955), Play of the Week (1959) and Naked City (1958).

Pam Matteson was born on 23 September 1953 in Waco, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (1989), Punchline (1988) and Million Dollar Mystery (1987). She was married to Tim Biddle. She died in June 2015 in the USA.

Stewart Scott was born in Waco, Texas, USA. He is an actor, known for The 12 Days of Christmas Eve (2022), Stranded in Paradise (2014) and Snow Bride (2013).