Trivia: New York City native Rachel True longed to be an actress from her youngest years, watching the performances of her stepmother, renowned stage actress Verona Barnes. True's own first break came when she was cast for several episodes of The Cosby Show in 1991, as a friend of Theo's. She would later score recurring television roles on Beverly Hills 90210, The Drew Carey Show, Once and Again, and HBO's Dream On.In 1993, True moved to Los Angeles, which kick-started her film career. Her first notable appearance was opposite Chris Rock in the rap parody CB4 (1993). She next starred alongside Alyssa Milano in Embrace of the Vampire (1994), then stayed with the occult theme for the more widely seen witch flick The Craft (1996). True plays the most underwritten of four young Wiccan worshipers (opposite Fairuza Balk, Robin Tunney, and Neve Campbell), one of several roles she has taken that was originally written for a white actress. She and Campbell became best friends as a result of working together on the project.True ventured into indie filmmaking with Gregg Araki's Nowhere, the third installment in his "teen apocalypse trilogy," in which she won some acclaim for her portrayal of Mel, a sexually confused central cog of Araki's dystopian soap opera. She returned briefly to more commercial fare with Half Baked (1998), in which she plays Dave Chappelle's love interest and one of the few non-stoned characters. Since then it's been back to lesser-seen films -- most notably as a veteran rave girl in Greg Harrison's Groove (2000) -- as well as her television work.

Trivia: Actress Essence Atkins began appearing onscreen in the late '80s, with small appearances on shows like Saved By the Bell and The Cosby Show. She would go on to land a series of starring roles on short-lived series throughout the '90s like Under One Roof and Smart Guy before finding lasting success with a starring role on the comedy series Half and Half, which she stayed with from 2002 to 2006. After the show ended its run, Atkins made a number of appearances in movies like Love for Sale and Dance Flick.

Trivia: A Broadway actress by training, Valarie Pettiford earned a Tony nomination for her role in the principal cast of the musical Fosse. She would also earn critical acclaim for roles in shows like Chicago, but most viewers would become acquainted with Pettiford for her film at TV work. Beginning with appearances on shows like Another World and Walker, Texas Ranger, Pettiford spent the '90s building up her résumé. In 2002, she was cast in the recurring role of Gayle Noland on the crime drama The District. Around the same time, she took on the role of Big Dee Thorn on the comedy series Half and Half, which she'd stay with for the next four years. In 2008, she began a professional relationship with Tyler Perry, playing Sandra on the sitcom House of Payne, and playing weary wife Harriet in Perry's 2010 dramedy Why Did I Get Married Too?

Trivia: An inimitable comedian (and comedic actor) who billed himself as "America's favorite gaysian sweetheart," Alec Mapa (pronounced moppa) indeed played off of his Asian American identity and open homosexuality, to such a degree that they became veritable cornerstones of his shtick, as well as his spate of role choices. Mapa grew up in San Francisco during the 1970s, raised in a conservative, Catholic Filipino family but surrounded by bohemian lifestyles and multiculturalism that influenced and shaped him. He formally broke into show business with a role in an ABC After School Special and small turns in Alan Alda's seriocomedy A New Life (1988) and James Bridges' urban addiction drama Bright Lights, Big City (1988). The actor scored his broadest acclaim, however, in 1991, with a lead role as the transvestite opera star Song Liling, in the Broadway production of David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly. In the years that followed, Mapa moved into television and enjoyed guest bits on series including NYPD Blue, Friends, Roseanne, and Seinfeld. With many subsequent roles (including assignments as series regulars), Mapa aggressively strove to break new ground and open new doors in small-screen depictions of gay culture and lifestyles, and won broad acclaim and support in the LGBT community for doing so. Key assignments in this vein included a role as gay, plutonic best friend of homosexual writer Jason Bateman on the short-lived CBS sitcom Some of My Best Friends (2001), a multiseason turn as the gossip-driven executive assistant Adam Benet on the UPN sitcom Half & Half (2003); and, even more visibly, a portrayal of Vern, Gaby's gay best friend, on the series blockbuster Desperate Housewives. Additional features in which Mapa costarred included Connie and Carla (2004), Tru Loved (2007), and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008).

Trivia: A former counselor of abused children from Minneapolis, MN, Louie Anderson has found great success as a standup comedian, author, provider of cartoon voices, and actor. Born in St. Paul as one of 11 children, Anderson began his performing career in late 1978 in a small Minneapolis comedy club in answer to a dare from a co-worker at the children's home where he worked. People responded well to his act and Anderson felt he'd found his true vocation. After winning the St. Louis Comedy Competition in 1981, Anderson became a gag writer for Henny Youngman and then moved to Los Angeles to try to launch his own career by getting a contract with one of the major television networks, but success did not come quickly to the portly, blond comedian and he returned to Minneapolis where friends and cohorts helped him finance a comedy special. Showtime bought and aired the show which became a hit and the highest-rated program on the network for a month. This led Anderson to take to the talk show circuit and also won him a coveted spot on Comic Relief. Anderson also began working as an actor on such television series as Remington Steele and Grace Under Fire. He began a career as a character actor in feature films in Cloak and Dagger (1984). Since he became a star, Anderson has gone on to make several more cable television specials. Originally, his humor was centered upon his obesity, but in time, he began to focus more on his childhood and the experiences he'd had growing up with an alcoholic father and many siblings. But though he often joked about it in public, he was haunted by painful incidents from his youth and, following his father's death, he began keeping a sort of diary comprised of letters to his dad. One of these was published in People magazine. Tremendous reader response led to his penning the best-selling Dear Dad -- Letters From an Adult Child. In 1993, he penned a second, more upbeat tome that reflected an upturn in his personal life, Good-bye Jumbo, Hello Cruel World. In 1994, he and Matt O'Callghan created the animated Fox series Life With Louie. For Anderson, it was his second stint as a voice artist; his first was with the animated feature film Bebe's Kids earlier that year. Life With Louie has since garnered high critical praise that culminated in his winning a daytime Emmy in May 1997.

Trivia: While attending Lawrence University, she studied theater in London for a term.Studied Shakespearean Acting with Campbell Scott and the London's A.C.T.O.R.Her Funny or Die short Dogster was inspired by TV series Dexter and a neighbor who didn't clean up her dog's mess.Shirley Chicken, Lover's dog, makes a cameo at the end of Dogster.