Favorite TV Actors
List activity
3.9K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
35 people
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Bryan Lee Cranston was born on March 7, 1956 in Hollywood, California, to Audrey Peggy Sell, a radio actress, and Joe Cranston, an actor and former amateur boxer. His maternal grandparents were German, and his father was of Irish, German, and Austrian-Jewish ancestry. He was raised in the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, and also stayed with his grandparents, living on their poultry farm in Yucaipa. Cranston's father walked out on the family when Cranston was eleven, and they did not see each other again until 11 years later, when Cranston and his brother decide to track down their father.
Cranston is known for his roles as Walter White on the AMC crime drama Breaking Bad (2008), Hal on the Fox situation comedy Malcolm in the Middle (2000), and Dr. Tim Whatley on five episodes of the NBC situation comedy Seinfeld (1989). For his role on "Breaking Bad", he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times (2008-2010, 2014), including three consecutive wins. After becoming one of the producers during the series' fourth and fifth seasons, he also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series twice.
In June 2014, Cranston won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Lyndon B. Johnson in the play "All the Way" on Broadway. He reprised the role of Lyndon Johnson in the television adaptation All the Way (2016), which earned him widespread praise by critics. For the biographical drama Trumbo (2015), he earned widespread acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Cranston also appeared in several acclaimed films, such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Drive (2011), Argo (2012) and Godzilla (2014). In 2019, he starred with Kevin Hart in the box office hit The Upside (2017).- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Aaron Paul was born Aaron Paul Sturtevant in Emmett, Idaho, to Darla (Haynes) and Robert Sturtevant, a retired Baptist minister. While growing up, Paul took part in church programs, and performed in plays.
He attended Centennial High School in Boise, Idaho. It was there, in eighth grade, that Aaron decided he wanted to become an actor. He joined the theatre department and became obsessed with the idea of acting for a living. After finishing school, Aaron moved to Los Angeles.
During the late '90's, he worked as an usher at the Universal Studios Movie Theatre in Hollywood. His television debut was in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), which was followed by an appearance in another Aaron Spelling series, Melrose Place (1992).
On the big screen, Aaron played the estranged son of Jeff Bridges in K-PAX (2001), and Tom Cruise's brother-in-law in Mission: Impossible III (2006).
After appearing in several roles on American television, his breakthrough role came as "Jesse Pinkman" in the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008). The character was only supposed to last for one season, but series creator Vince Gilligan changed his mind, due to Aaron's chemistry with Bryan Cranston. He has won three Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" for this role (2010, 2012 and 2014).- Actress
- Soundtrack
An actress on both stage and screen, Anna Gunn has portrayed a vast array of complex and powerful characters throughout her career.
Anna grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico after her parents, Sharon (Peters) and Clemens Gunn, Jr., transplanted the family from Cleveland, Ohio to the Southwest in the late seventies. She discovered acting in a drama class at the Santa Fe Preparatory School and was fortunate to study with two formidable teachers from the Actor's Studio as a teenager. She continued her education and training at Northwestern University's renowned theatre department, winning a coveted scholarship award in her junior year. During her time at Northwestern, Anna went abroad for a semester to study with the British American Drama Academy and had the marvelous opportunity to perform in the school's final project at the famed Royal Court Theatre in London.
Anna has moved between television, film, and theatre with much ease. In 2004, Anna landed her breakout television role, playing Martha Bullock on HBO's seminal show, Deadwood (2004) and later received a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble Cast in 2006. Anna's association with Deadwood (2004) creator David Milch began early on when she first worked with him on his hit drama NYPD Blue (1993), giving a memorable performance as Kimmy, a junkie longing to escape New York to swim with the dolphins. Anna made such an indelible impression on Milch, that almost nine years later she became the template for the pivotal and complex character of Martha. Another major recurring role for Anna was on David E. Kelley's The Practice (1997), delivering a notable turn as ADA Jean Ward opposite Dylan McDermott and Lara Flynn Boyle. Her extensive television credits also include starring roles in several made for TV movies and major guest starring appearances on such shows as Six Feet Under (2001), ER (1994), Boston Legal (2004), Law & Order (1990) and Seinfeld (1989).
Highlights of Anna's feature film work include the dark comedy, Nobody's Baby (2001), in which she starred with Gary Oldman and Mary Steenburgen; the film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. In 1998, she played opposite Jon Voight in Tony Scott's summer blockbuster, Enemy of the State (1998). Her first starring role was in 1995's independent thriller, Without Evidence (1995), along side Angelina Jolie. Anna was recently in Kevin Smith's Red State (2011). Her upcoming films include Little Red Wagon (2012) and Sassy Pants (2012), for which she received a nomination at the 2012 Milan Film Festival for Best Supporting Actress.
Anna is also a highly regarded and much sought after actress of the stage. In early 2009 she created the leading role of photojournalist Sarah Goodwin in Donald Margulies' world premiere production of Time Stands Still, directed by Daniel Sullivan at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. In 1999 she starred as Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Ahmanson Theatre helmed by the famed director Sir Peter Hall. In 1997, Anna was brought east to make her Broadway debut alongside Roger Rees in The Rehearsal at the Roundabout Theater. Before that she played on the LA circuit, including the 1995 American premiere of Hysteria directed by Phyllida Lloyd at the Mark Taper Forum. Before settling in Los Angeles, Anna built an impressive background performing on stage in Chicago. She received exceptional reviews in Uncommon Ground at the Northlight Theatre, and playing opposite Jeremy Piven in Keith Reddin's Peacekeeper at the American Blues Theatre. She even landed her first professional acting role, playing Lucy Lockit in the critically acclaimed production of The Beggar's Opera at the Court Theatre while still an undergraduate at Northwestern University. In late 2011, Anna immersed herself in the role of Marie Curie for Alan Alda's world premiere of Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie, directed by Daniel Sullivan at the Geffen Playhouse and received rave reviews.
She starring as Skyler White on AMC's Emmy award-winning series Breaking Bad (2008); a role that garnered Anna a 2012 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Emmy Nomination until she won in 2013-2014, a 2012 Best Supporting Actress nomination by the Broadcast Television Journalist Association for a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a 2012 & 2013 Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Ensemble Cast. The cast was also the recipient of the 2008 Peabody Award and won an AFI Award both in 2008 and 2011. The show was also nominated in 2013 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Golden Globe's as Best Television Drama until it won in 2014.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Dean Joseph Norris is an American actor. He is well known for playing DEA agent Hank Schrader on the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008-2013). He also portrayed town councilman James "Big Jim" Rennie on the CBS series Under the Dome (2013-2015) and played mob boss Clay "Uncle Daddy" Husser on the TNT series Claws. He reprises his role as Hank Schrader in the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul (2020). Throughout his career, Norris has acted in nearly 50 movies and more than 100 different TV shows.
Norris has appeared in films such as Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Hard to Kill (1990), Total Recall (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), The Firm (1993), Starship Troopers (1997), The Cell (2000), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Evan Almighty (2007), and Sons of Liberty (2015), and has more recently starred in films such as The Book of Henry (2017), Death Wish (2018), and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019).- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Robert John Odenkirk was born in Berwyn, Illinois, to Barbara (Baier) and Walter Odenkirk, who worked in printing. His ancestry includes German and Irish. He grew up in Naperville, IL, the second of seven children. He worked as a DJ for WIDB, his college radio station at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Three credits shy of graduation, he moved to Chicago. He began work there in local improv workshops. He also did open-mic stand-up comedy for several years. In Chicago, he became friends with Robert Smigel, who would later help him become a writer for Saturday Night Live (1975).
In 1987, Bob was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live (1975) and in 1989 he went on to win an Emmy for his writing work. He worked on the show from season 13 to 20 (1987-1995). However, he had trouble getting his work on the air, so he began work as a writer for Get a Life (1990) starring Chris Elliott. The show was quickly canceled, but he was soon hired as writer for The Dennis Miller Show (1992). On that show he made his acting debut and was noticed by Ben Stiller, who later hired him as a writer and actor for The Ben Stiller Show (1992). The show only lasted for 13 episodes, but Bob won another Emmy for his writing.
After The Ben Stiller Show (1992) was canceled, Bob made recurring appearances (1993-1998) on The Larry Sanders Show (1992) as Stevie Grant, Larry's hyperactive agent. He also wrote for Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) during 1993-94. During this time Bob hooked up with fellow The Ben Stiller Show (1992) writer David Cross, also a stand-up comedian. They started doing sketch-comedy shows together in Los Angeles. In 1995, they got their own show on HBO (Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995)). The show lasted for four seasons and 30 episodes.
After Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995) ended, Bob wrote Run Ronnie Run (2002) and directed three feature films (Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003), Let's Go to Prison (2006) and The Brothers Solomon (2007)), and appeared in . After 1998, he also made many guest appearances on TV shows like Just Shoot Me! (1997), 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), Ed (2000), Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), Less Than Perfect (2002), Arrested Development (2003), How I Met Your Mother (2005) and Weeds (2005). From 2009 to 2013, he appeared on 43 episodes of Breaking Bad (2008) as Saul Goodman, a shyster lawyer, and, starting in 2015, he reprised that role as the main character in Better Call Saul (2015).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Versatile veteran character actor Jonathan Banks was born in Washington, D.C. in 1947. While growing up he always had an interest in acting and stage work, so decided to pursue a career in entertainment. To this day he is a very accomplished stage actor. While acting in film, he usually plays sinister types or villains. He can be seen in Better Call Saul (2015) as Mike Ehrmantraut.- Music Department
- Actor
- Producer
Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to an Italian carpenter/stagehand father from Naples, Italy, and an African-American opera singer mother from Alabama. His parents, working in Europe at the time of his birth, settled in Manhattan by the time he was 6, and that's where he grew up.
Coming from a theatrical background, it was, perhaps, inevitable that young Giancarlo would appear on stage sooner or later, and he did, at age 8, appearing on Broadway as a slave child in "Maggie Flynn" in 1966.
More Broadway work followed through the 1960s and early '70s, followed by some small roles in movies. TV work followed in the 1980s, with increasingly significant parts in a string of high-profile series until he became well-established as a character player both on TV and in a number of movies.
He came very much to the public's attention playing Agent Mike Giardello in the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) in 1998 and since then has rarely been off our screens.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Clark Gregg is an American actor, writer and director from Boston who is known for portraying Phil Coulson in various Marvel movies, shows and video games. He also acted in Mr. Popper's Penguins, The West Wing, 500 Days of Summer, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Labor Day and Live by Night.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ming-Na ("enlightenment") was born on the island of Macau, forty miles from Hong Kong. Her mother, Lin Chan Wen, divorced her father when Ming-Na was only a toddler. She has an older brother named Jonathan. After the divorce, they moved to Hong Kong where her mother became a nurse. There her mother met Soo Lim Yee, a U.S. businessman. They soon married, and at four years, Ming-Na moved with her family to Queens, New York. Five years later, they transferred to Yee's hometown of Pittsburgh where his family runs the Chinatown Inn restaurant. Jonathan and half-brother, Leong, now manage this restaurant. Struggling to fit in at school, she changed her name to Maggie & Doris. She found a love for acting while appearing in a third grade Easter play, where she played a klutzy bunny. Her mother was not excited about her desire to pursue acting, She preferred that she go into medicine. Nonetheless, Ming-Na graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in theatre. She got her first acting job in 1988 on the soap As the World Turns (1956). Her big break came when she was cast in The Joy Luck Club (1993). When she needed a ride to the premiere of the film, her acting instructor sent one of his students, Eric Michael Zee. The two started dating in 1994 after Ming-Na moved permanently to Los Angeles and married in 1995, dropping her last name, Wen, at that time. She says she is now like Ann-Margret. Zee is a screenwriter and, with Ming-Na, manages At Last, a boy band.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Chloe Bennet is an American actress and singer. She is best known for ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013).
Bennet was born Chloe Wang in Chicago, Illinois. Her father is Han Chinese and her mother is Caucasian American.
At 15, she moved to China to pursue a singing career under her birth name, Chloe Wang. While in China, Bennet lived with her paternal grandmother in Beijing, and studied Mandarin. She performed as a singer and then moved to Los Angeles, California. Her first on-screen appearance was as a host for the short-lived TeenNick summer dance series The Nightlife.
While pursuing an acting career in Hollywood, she changed her professional name to "Chloe Bennet", after having trouble booking gigs with her last name. According to Bennet, using her father's first name rather than his last name avoids difficulties being cast as an ethnic Asian American while respecting her father.
From 2012-2013, she played a recurring supporting role in the ABC drama series Nashville as Hailey. In December 2012, she was cast as a series regular on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Elizabeth Henstridge grew up in the northern city of Sheffield in England. Having gained a first at the University of Birmingham in Drama and Theatre Arts, Elizabeth went on to train at the prestigious East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Essex. Having graduated she has landed leading roles in features, television and theatre. Most notably the much anticipated Brit flick, Tooting Broadway and the new Butcher Brothers' film, The Thompsons.- Iain De Caestecker is a Scottish actor. He went to Hillhead Primary School and successfully completed an HND in Acting and Performance at Langside College.
He played the lead in two high-profile BBC series - BAFTA-winning The Fades and Young James Herriot (both 2011). The latter earned him a nomination for a BAFTA Scotland for Best Actor/Actress - Television.
Psychological horror film In Fear premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. That same year, De Caestecker appeared in Filth and Not Another Happy Ending; the latter earned him his second BAFTA Scotland nomination, this time in the Best Actor/Actress - Film category.
He also appeared in the music video for Gabrielle Aplin's song "Please Don't Say You Love Me".
In 2013, De Caestecker landed the role of Leopold Fitz on the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). That same year, De Caestecker was cast in the lead role of Ryan Gosling's feature directorial debut Lost River (2014).
In 2018, De Caestecker co-starred in the J.J. Abrams-produced science fiction war film Overlord (2018). - Actress
- Producer
- Director
Mariska (Ma-rish-ka) Magdolna Hargitay was born on January 23, 1964, in Santa Monica, California. Her parents are Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield. She is the youngest of their three children. In June 1967, Mariska and her brothers Zoltan and Mickey Jr. were in the back seat of a car when it was involved in the fatal accident which killed her mother. The children escaped with minor injuries. Her father remarried a stewardess named Ellen, and they raised the three children and gave them a normal childhood. They also financially supported the children, since Jayne Mansfield's debt-ridden estate left no money for them.
Mariska majored in theater at UCLA. Her first motion picture feature was the cult favorite, Ghoulies (1984), where she gave a memorable performance as Donna. Unlike her mother Jayne, who had changed her name, her hair color, and did nude pictorials to become a star, Mariska took a very different approach on her journey to become a star. She rejected advice to change her name and appearance. And she refused to copy her mother's sexy image by turning down nude scenes in her next film Jocks (1986). She told casting directors that she was her own person when she held onto her dark locks and athletic figure, when they were expecting another blond, buxom Jayne Mansfield. Mariska continued with her acting classes and waited on tables, while she landed forgettable roles in short-lived television shows. She appeared a few times on the nighttime soap Falcon Crest (1981). She also appeared in the hit film Leaving Las Vegas (1995), credited as 'Hooker at the bar', and in the flop film Lake Placid (1999) as Myra Okubo. Her recurring role on the top-rated show ER (1994) in 1998 gave her career enough of a jolt to land her the starring role of Det. Olivia Benson in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), the first spin off from the excellent franchise of Law & Order (1990). The hour-long show deals with sex crimes and the detectives who solve these cases. Mariska played Olivia as a tough, compassionate detective, who did action scenes and her own stunt work. She reaped the rewards from the hit TV show, after struggling and studying her craft for fifteen years. She became the highest paid actress on television, and she won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for her performance. The show also changed her personal life, since she met her husband actor Peter Hermann on the set and married him on August 28, 2004. That same year, she appeared in the television movie Plain Truth (2004), in which she played attorney Ellie Harrison. Mariska became an activist, when fans of her show who were abused, would write to her, and she founded a non-profit organization called "Joyful Heart Foundation" to help "survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse."
Mariska gave birth to her son August in 2006. But that tremendous joy was soon followed by tremendous sadness when her beloved father Mickey died just two months later at the age of 80. Mariska and her husband Peter adopted two children, a girl named Amaya, and a boy named Andrew, within a span of few months in 2011.
Mariska speaks English, Hungarian, French, Spanish, and Italian, and her husband also speaks several languages, including his native language German. They divide their time between New York and Los Angeles.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Blessed with a piercing, blue-eyed glint, brawny looks, cocky "tough guy" stance and effortless charisma, TV's Christopher Meloni has grabbed audiences' attention, male and female alike, finding breakthrough small screen stardom playing both sides of the law. Audiences first were taken in by his sexually arresting portrayal of a sociopathic killer in the gripping prison drama Oz (1997) on cable TV. Although his small screen roots were in 90s situation comedy, the network powers-that-be wisely discovered his power and allure as a dramatic star and quickly handed him his own prime-time crime series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), as a not-quite-by-the-book crime detective. This one-two punch of "Oz" and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) put Meloni, who seems to grow sexier with age, on the map and well on top, where he remains today.
Christopher Peter Meloni was born on April 2, 1961, in Washington, D.C., the son of Cecile (Chagnon) and Charles Robert Meloni, an endocrinologist. Of Italian and French-Canadian parentage, he attended St. Stephen's School and played quarterback for his high school team. Developing an interest in acting rather early in life, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder following high school graduation. He initially majored in acting but wound up earning a degree in history in 1983. Acting won out in the long run, however, and Chris relocated to New York where he studied with acting guru Sanford Meisner at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse. Supplementing his income during these lean years by taking advantage of his powerful physique (as construction worker, bouncer, personal trainer), Meloni worked his way up the acting ladder via parts in commercials.
With a full head of hair in the early days, he broke into series TV in 1989, the first being the already-established cable football comedy 1st & Ten (1984). In this sitcom, which was HBO's very first back in 1984, Chris played ex-con quarterback Vito Del Greco (aka "Johnny Gunn"). The series' star Delta Burke had already left the cast by the time Chris came aboard in its final season. A second sitcom arrived almost immediately with the stereotypical Italian family sitcom The Fanelli Boys (1990) featuring Chris as dim-eyed, skirt-chasing Frankie Fanelli, one of the four "dees, dem and dos" sons of Brooklynite widow Theresa Fanelli (Ann Morgan Guilbert). Despite a strong, boisterous cast, the show was painfully obvious and met an early demise. True to nature, Chris gave voice and added to the fun as a cocky, mooching high school teen who knows the "how to's" of attracting pretty girl dinos in the animated prehistoric series Dinosaurs (1991).
He also made a manly mark in mini-movies with co-starring roles in such "women" dramas as In a Child's Name (1991) starring Valerie Bertinelli, Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story (1992), which top-lined Molly Ringwald, Without a Kiss Goodbye (1993) as the caring husband of Lisa Hartman, and the Connie Sellecca starrer A Dangerous Affair (1995). An interchangeable ability to convey both heartfelt sympathy and virile menace did not go by unnoticed. After minor parts on the big screen with Clean Slate (1994), Junior (1994) and 12 Monkeys (1995), Chris drew strong notices in the featured role of gangster Johnnie Marzzone in the classic neo-noir Bound (1996), which earned cult status for its sexually-charged lesbian sub-storyline.
A tough recurring part on NYPD Blue (1993), a typical mafia role in the mini-series The Last Don (1997) and another short-lived comedic series lead (Leaving L.A. (1997)) finally led to a big payoff in the brutal and brilliant cable series Oz (1997). Christopher's introduction to the Oz prison as bisexual psychopath Chris Keller was powerhouse casting and he drew immediate notice and critical applause into the show's second season. Unflinching in its blood-soaked presentation of life behind bars, Chris' raw animal magnetism was unparalleled on the show and his steamy, erotic couplings with another male prisoner on screen promoted him swiftly to gay icon status. Undaunted by the possible career-damaging effects that could occur, Chris' frank acceptance and acknowledgment was admirable indeed and his outright support of human rights causes earned him high marks.
The father of two (daughter Sophia Eva Pietra (born March 23, 2001), and son Dante Amadeo (born January 2, 2004), he has been married since 1995 to production designer 'Sherman Williams' (The Dark Backward (1991)). Chris' sudden burst of cable notoriety earned him his own prime time NBC series. With the veteran "Law & Order" program developing a sister spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Meloni raised the bar with his trenchant pairing with co-star Mariska Hargitay as partners of a special victims crime unit. Despite the show's reality-driven approach, Meloni and Hargitay's dynamite chemistry carried the show to a new level. Allowing their characters' more serious flaws to surface, Meloni, in particular, managed to convey Detective Stabler's private pain and personal turmoil with a raw poignancy. Both he and Hargitay have been honored with Emmy award nominations for their work here (she has won). Occasionally appearing on stage, Chris' theater credits include "The Rainmaker" (as Starbuck) (1998) and "Comers" (1998), both at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He earned standout reviews as Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge," which he performed at Dublin's Gate Theatre in 2005. In 2006 he joined the campy proceedings at an Actors' Fund of America Benefit of the soap opera spoof "Die, Mommie Die!" starring drag illusionist and "Oz" alumnus Charles Busch.
Going well over a decade's worth of service to the series that made him a household name, Meloni finally retired his TV detective in 2011. Throughout the show's run he continued to flaunt his humorous side, showing up on such parody shows as Mad TV (1995) and cracking up on the various night time TV haunts. On film he continues to shatter his dramatic image in such fare as The Souler Opposite (1998), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) and its sequel Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008). While he has not found outright stardom on the big screen (he has nominally played "other man" roles in such popular films as Runaway Bride (1999) and Nights in Rodanthe (2008)), Chris has more than proved his staying power since he left the popular series.
More recently, he moved forward as a writer/producer/director/star of the comedy film Dirty Movie (2011), which also has in its cast "L&O: SVU" co-star Diane Neal. In addition, Chris supplied the voice of DC Comics classic character Hal Jordan (aka Green Lantern) in the animated movie Green Lantern: First Flight (2009). He also has held regular roles on the series True Blood (2008) in 2012 and Surviving Jack (2014) as well as strong cinematic parts in the Superman film Man of Steel (2013) and in Small Time (2014).- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
The legendary gangsta hip-hop emcee Ice-T was born Tracy Marrow on February 16, 1958, in Newark, New Jersey. He moved to Los Angeles, California, to live with his paternal aunt after the death of his father while he was in the sixth grade; his mother had died earlier when he was in the third grade. His aunt lived in the South Los Angeles district of Crenshaw, colloquially referred to as South Central. He became immersed in the street life of the inner-city and eventually became a member of the West Side Rollin 30s Original Harlem Crips.
In 1979, Marrow joined the Army after leaving Crenshaw High School, but his 4-year hitch was enough for him, as he was a leader, not a follower. "I didn't like total submission to a leader other than myself," he said. After ETSing from the Army in 1983, he returned to South Central with the intention of becoming a hip-hop musician. More than music, his life got caught up in street life as as a jewel thief and as a pimp. (His nomme de guerre, Ice T, is an homage to the fabled pimp and raconteur Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck). He committed himself totally to his music after a 1985 car crash.
As a musician, Ice-T played a major role in the creation of the gangsta incarnation of hip-hop music and was a colossus of the West Coast hip-hop scene, despite his East Coast, greater New York, origins. Though his music displays a political consciousness, like the indictments of racism that were a hallmark of seminal hip-hop group Public Enemy, it also is nihilistic as befits a chronicler of street life. His most infamous song, the heavy metal "Cop Killer," was one of the major battle in the cultural wars of the 1990s, in which cultural conservatives enlisted the Moses of the right wing, Charlton Heston, to get Ice-T dropped from his then-label, Sire/Warner Bros.
The charismatic Ice-T has also achieved success as an actor in movies and on TV. He plays Detective Odafin Tutuola on the TV series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), which is ironic for someone famous for "Cop Killer" and his feud with the L.A.P.D. Ice-T currently resides in North Bergen, New Jersey, with his wife, Coco Austin.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to Manhattan to study acting with John Strasberg. He began writing and performing original theatre pieces with fellow actor/writer Mark Boone Junior. This led to his being cast in his first lead role in Parting Glances (1986). Since then, he has worked with many of the top filmmakers in Hollywood, including Quentin Tarantino, Jerry Bruckheimer, and The Coen Brothers. He is a highly respected actor.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Michael Corbett Shannon was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, the son of Geraldine Hine, a lawyer, and Donald Sutherlin Shannon, an accounting professor at DePaul University. His grandfather was entomologist Raymond Corbett Shannon.
Shannon began his professional stage career in Chicago. His first acting role was in "Winterset" at the Illinois Theatre Center. Over the next several years, he continued working on the stage with such companies as Steppenwolf, The Next Lab and the Red Orchid Theatre. He subsequently relocated to London for a year, and performed on stage in London's West End in such productions as "Woyzeck", "Killer Joe" and "Bug".
While in Chicago, Shannon also kept busy in front of movie and television cameras, most notably in the big screen project Chicago Cab (1997), based on the long-running stage play "Hellcab". Kangaroo Jack (2003) marked the third Jerry Bruckheimer production in which Shannon has appeared. He also appeared in Bad Boys II (2003), directed by Michael Bay and starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and in Grand Theft Parsons (2003), with Johnny Knoxville and Christina Applegate.
In addition, Shannon appeared in Pearl Harbor (2001), also directed by Bay. His other film credits also include Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile (2002); Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001) with Tom Cruise; Carl Franklin's High Crimes (2002) with Morgan Freeman; John Waters' Cecil B. Demented (2000), and Joel Schumacher's war drama Tigerland (2000).- Writer
- Actress
- Producer
Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in 1970 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, to Xenobia "Jeanne" (Xenakes), a brokerage employee, and Donald Henry Fey, who wrote grant proposals for universities. Her mother is Greek, born in Piraeus, while her father had German, Northern Irish, and English ancestry. Going by the name of Tina, Fey considered herself a "supernerd" during her high school and college years. She studied drama at the University of Virginia, and after graduating in 1992, she headed to Chicago, the ancestral home of American comedy. While working at a YMCA to support herself, she started Second City's first set of courses. After about nine months, a teacher told her to just skip ahead and audition for the more selective Second City Training Center. She failed but about eight weeks later, she re-auditioned and got into the year-long program. She ended up spending many years at The Second City in Chicago where many SNL cast members first started out. Then in 1995, Saturday Night Live (1975) came to The Second City's cast, including Fey's friend, Adam McKay, as a writer, searching for new talent. What they found was Tina Fey. When Adam was made Head writer, he suggested Fey should send a submission packet over the summer with six sketches, 10 pages each. Tina took the advice and sent them. After Lorne Michaels met her and saw her work she was offered a job a week later. She admitted that she was extremely nervous working in the legendary Studio 8H; being a foot shorter than everyone else, younger, and being one of the only female writers at the time. After a few years, Tina made history by becoming the first female head writer in the show's history. Tina also made her screen debut as a featured player during the 25th season by co-anchoring Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon. Since Tina and Jimmy have taken over Weekend Update it has been considered the best ever. This year she made it to full fledged star by becoming a regular cast member, though she is hardly on the show, besides Update. And during the past two summers, Tina and Rachel Dratch performed their two-woman show to critical acclaim in both Chicago (1999) and New York (2000) and made their Aspen Comedy Festival Debut. Tina is married to Jeff Richmond, a Second City director and lives in New York City.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Alec Baldwin is the oldest, and best-known, of the four Baldwin brothers in the acting business (the others are Stephen Baldwin, William Baldwin and Daniel Baldwin). Alexander Rae Baldwin III was born on April 3, 1958 in Massapequa, New York, the son of Carol Newcomb (Martineau) and Alexander Rae Baldwin Jr., a high school teacher and football coach at Massapequa High School. He is of Irish, as well as English, French, Scottish, and German, descent.
Alec Baldwin burst onto the TV scene in the early 1980s with appearances on several series, including The Doctors (1963) and Knots Landing (1979), before scoring feature film roles in Forever, Lulu (1986), Beetlejuice (1988), Working Girl (1988), Married to the Mob (1988) and Talk Radio (1988). In 1990, Baldwin appeared in the first on-screen adaptation of the "Jack Ryan" character created by mega-selling espionage author, Tom Clancy. The film, The Hunt for Red October (1990), was a box office and critical success, with Baldwin appearing alongside icy Sean Connery. Unfortunately, Baldwin fell out with Paramount Studios over future scripts for "Jack Ryan", and subsequent Ryan roles went to Harrison Ford.
Baldwin instead went to Broadway to perform "A Streetcar Named Desire", garnering a Tony nomination for his portrayal of "Stanley Kowalski" (he would reprise the role in a 1995 TV adaptation). Baldwin won over critics as a lowlife thief pursued by dogged cop Fred Ward in Miami Blues (1990), met his future wife Kim Basinger while filming the Neil Simon comedy, The Marrying Man (1991), starred in the film adaptation of the play, Prelude to a Kiss (1992) (in which he starred off-Broadway), and made an indelible ten-minute cameo as a hard-nosed real estate executive laying down the law in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). He also made a similar tour-de-force monologue in the thriller, Malice (1993), as a doctor defending his practices, in which he stated, "Let me tell you something: I am God".
Demand for Baldwin's talents in the 1990s saw more scripts swiftly come his way, and he starred alongside his then-wife, Kim Basinger, in a remake of the Steve McQueen action flick, The Getaway (1994), brought to life the famous comic strip character, The Shadow (1994), and starred as an assistant district attorney in the civil rights drama, Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). Baldwin's distinctive vocal talents then saw him voice US-aired episodes of the highly popular UK children's show, Thomas & Friends (1984), plus later voice-only contributions to other animated/children's shows, including Clerks (2000), Cats & Dogs (2001), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004).
In the early 2000s, Baldwin and Basinger endured an acrimonious break-up that quickly became tabloid fodder but, while his divorce was high-profile, Baldwin excelled in a number of lower-profile supporting roles in a variety of films, including State and Main (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), The Cooler (2003) (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), The Aviator (2004), Along Came Polly (2004) and The Departed (2006). As he was excelling as a consummate character actor, Baldwin found a second career in television comedy. Already known for his comedic turns hosting Saturday Night Live (1975), he essayed an extended guest role on Will & Grace (1998) in 2005 before taking on what would arguably become his most famous role, that of network executive "Jack Donaghy", opposite Tina Fey in the highly-acclaimed sitcom, 30 Rock (2006). The role brought Baldwin two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and an unprecedented six Screen Actors Guild Awards (not including cast wins).
Continuing to appear in films as 30 Rock (2006) wrapped up its final season, Baldwin was engaged in 2012 to wed Hilaria Baldwin (aka Hilaria Lynn Thomas); the couple married on June 30, 2012.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Kristen Schaal is an American actress, voice artist, writer, and comedian. She is best known for her roles as Mel on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, Louise Belcher on FOX animated comedy Bob's Burgers, and Mabel Pines on Gravity Falls. Other notable roles include her appearances as a commentator on The Daily Show, Amanda Simmons on The Hotwives of Orlando, Hazel Wassername on 30 Rock, Victoria Best on WordGirl, Trixie from the Toy Story franchise, and Anne on Wilfred. Since 2015, she has co-starred alongside Will Forte in the Fox comedy The Last Man on Earth, playing the role of Carol.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Dave Willis is an American writer, voice actor, and producer. A native of Texas, he got his start at Cartoon Network's Williams Street in 1995, where he would gain a writing jobs on Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1993) and its spin-off series Cartoon Planet (1995). Alongside fellow SGC2C writer Matt Maiellaro, Willis also co-created the series Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2000) for the network's Adult Swim block, in which he also voices the characters Meatwad and Carl Brutananadilewski. His other work includes co-creating the series Squidbillies (2005) and Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell (2013), in addition to voice acting roles in 12 oz. Mouse (2005), Archer (2009), and Ballmastrz 9009 (2018).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Dana Snyder is an actor, comedian, producer, writer and voice actor originally from Easton, PA. He is most known for voicing Master Shake in Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Alchemist in The Venture Bros, both on Adult Swim. He's voiced a megalomaniacal egg, an evil bunny, a galactic gangster somewhere far, far away, a mammoth who runs a fruit stand, several different aliens, a koala with narcolepsy, and two, count em' two different grandmas! He loves his job!- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Carey Means has been the voice of Frylock on the Adult Swim TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force (aka "Aqua TV Show Show"). His career also includes having been in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the Atlanta Opera Chorus. He has also performed on stage at the Georgia Renaissance festival as Sir Richard Do Good. Carey is also a classically trained Shakespearean actor who hails originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He has performed with Theatre of the Stars in such productions as South Pacific and with Actors Express in It's a Wonderful Town. His many talents include acting, voice overs, singing, and dancing. He is married to Leah Levin Means since 1/18/2019.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Jeremy Shada was born on 21 January 1997 in Boise, Idaho, USA. He is an actor, known for Julie and the Phantoms (2020), Adventure Time (2010) and Mr. Student Body President (2016). He has been married to Carolynn Rowland since 7 March 2020.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
John DiMaggio is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, and producer from Plainfield, New Jersey. He is best known for voicing Bender on Futurama, Jake the Dog on Adventure Time, King Zøg on Disenchantment, The Joker from Batman: Under the Red Hood and Jerry Jumbeaux Jr from Zootopia. He can also be seen in Better Call Saul, Mythic Quest, The Newsroom, Modern Family, The League, Historical Roasts on Netflix and The Little Fockers. John had his own comedy show on MTV named after his comedy duo called Red Johnny and the Round Guy, and did stand up at home and abroad in the 1990s, with the likes of Dave Chapelle, Jeff Ross, Dave Attell, Greer Barnes and Dane Cook. He has been married to actress Kate Miller since 2014. He resides in both New York and Los Angeles.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Tom Kenny grew up in East Syracuse, New York. When Tom was young he was into comic books, drawing funny pictures and collecting records. Tom turned to stand-up comedy in Boston and San Francisco. This led to appearances on every cable show spawned by the stand-up epidemic of the '80s and '90s as well as stints on The Dennis Miller Show (1992), The Pat Sajak Show (1989), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) and [error]. Tom was a regular on Fox TV's The Edge (1992) and spent a year as the host of NBC's Friday Night (1983). His mainstream television appearances include Brotherly Love (1995) and David Alan Grier's sitcom debacle, The Preston Episodes (1995). Tom supplies the voice for "Heffer" the cow on Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life (1993) and Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants (1999), as well as regular performances on The Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory (1996), Justice League (2001), The Powerpuff Girls (1998), and Johnny Bravo (1997). Tom joined the cast of Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995) where he met his future wife Jill Talley. Together they've teamed up on Comedy Central's The Mark Thomas Comedy Product (1996), the stage show "The Show With Two Heads", HBO's Not Necessarily the Election (1996), the The Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" video and Travis "Sing" video.- Actress
- Music Department
- Writer
Hynden Walch was born on February 1, 1971 in Davenport, Iowa. She is an actress and writer known primarily for her work in Adventure Time, Teen Titans, Groundhog Day, and Batman Assault on Arkham. She started her professional acting career on stage at age 11. At 16 she attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, majoring in voice. As a high school senior, she was awarded as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in drama. Hynden won the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Little Voice in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice on Broadway. In 2005 she graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a B.A. in American Literature and founded the Hillside Produce Cooperative, a free exchange of local, organically grown food, for which she was named runner up Citizen Entrepreneur of the Year by Global Green USA. Hynden has been married to Sean McDermott since 1999.- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Tara Strong began her acting career at the age of 13 in Toronto, Canada. She landed several TV, film, and musical theater roles as well as her first lead in an animated series as the title role of "Hello Kitty." After a short run at Toronto's Second City theater company, she moved to Los Angeles with an extensive resume that included her own sit-com and well over 20 animated series. Upon arriving in Hollywood, she quickly made her mark in several TV and Film projects, such as "Party of Five," "National Lampoon's Senior Trip," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," and more. She has an iconic voice-over career, including roles such as Bubbles in "The Powerpuff Girls," Timmy Turner in "The Fairly OddParents," Dil Pickles in "Rugrats," Raven in "Teen Titans," "Batgirl," "Family Guy," "Drawn Together," "Ben 10," Melody in "The Little Mermaid 2," "Spirited Away," etc. She is Miss Collins on Nickelodeon's "Big Time Rush" and the current voice of "Harley Quinn." She is Emmy nominated, a Shorty Award winner, Twilight Sparkle in "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and currently playing "Unikitty" in the new hit series. She appeared in the Hallmark Christmas movie, "A Very Merry Toy Store." She has 350,000 Twitter followers (@tarastrong) and has used her social media to raise several hundred thousand dollars for kids with cancer and animal rescue groups, as well as using her commanding voices for her anti-bullying platform. She lives in Los Angeles. From between 2000 and 2019 she was married to former actor and real estate agent Craig Strong. However, the couple went their separate ways in July 2019 and, eventually, they formally divorced in January 2022. They have two sons together.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
A Los Angeles native, Phil is a graduate of Harvard-Westlake School, Yale University and The Groundlings Theater and is perhaps best known as one of the original cast members of Mad TV (1995) and as Marvin in Pulp Fiction (1994).
In addition to numerous appearances on stages across the country, in films and on TV, he also starred in and produced the comedy web series Inside the Legend (2012). He has also been profiled for his extensive voice-over work, which includes regular roles on animated series as well as parts in video games like Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014) for which he won the NAVGTR Award for Best Supporting Actor.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Kevin Conroy was born on November 30, 1955 in Westbury, New York. At age 17, Kevin earned a full scholarship to attend Juilliard's drama division, where he studied under actor John Houseman. In 1978, after graduating from Juilliard, he toured with "The Acting Company", Houseman's acting group, and in 1979, he went on the national tour of "Deathtrap". In 1980, he was cast in the daytime soap opera Another World (1964). However, he soon missed the theatre, and so he became associated with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, where he performed in "Hamlet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". From 1980 to 1985, he acted in a variety of contemporary and classic theatre pieces, including the Broadway production of "Eastern Standard" and "Lolita". He is very respected in theatre circles for his interpretation of Shakespearean characters, and in 1984, he played the title role in "Hamlet" in the New York Shakespeare Festival. Kevin returned to television in the television movie Covenant (1985). He was a series regular on Ohara (1987) in 1987, and on Tour of Duty (1987) from 1987 to 1988, before starring in a series of television movies. He is best known for providing the title role in the animated Batman: The Animated Series (1992) series.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Pamela Adlon comes from an acting family and began her career in television in 1983. She has appeared in many popular TV shows, including as a voice actress in a number of animated TV series including, most famously, King of the Hill (1997) for which she won an Emmy for her role as Bobby Hill.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
For over fifteen years, Marc Maron has been writing and performing raw, honest and thought-provoking comedy for print, stage, radio and television. A legend in the stand-up community, he has appeared on HBO, Conan, Letterman, his two Comedy Central Presents specials and almost every show that allows comics to perform. His book based on his solo show, The Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant Messiah, is out of print and overpriced by vendors who think it might have some collectors value'. His three CDs, "Not Sold Out', 'Tickets Still Available' and 'Final Engagement' are comedy cult classics.
This year, Marc headlined an episode of John Oliver's NY Stand-Up Show and was ranked #7 in Comedy Central's annual Stand-Up Showdown. His podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" skyrocketed to #1 on the iTunes comedy charts and was ranked #3 Best Podcast of 2009 by iTunes Rewind. He also premiered 'Scorching the Earth,' a one-man show based on his two divorces and anger problem.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Louis C.K. was born on 12 September 1967 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Louie (2010), American Hustle (2013) and Horace and Pete (2016). He was previously married to Alix Bailey.- Actor
- Producer
His low-keyed intensity, deep-voiced somberness, pale skin, puffy-eyed baby face and crop of carrot-red hair are all obvious and intriguing trademarks of TV star David Caruso. A hugely popular item in the 1990s as a result of a smash crime series, he got way too caught up in all the hoopla surrounding him. Those working with him on the innovative cop series were not exactly unhappy when he decided to abandon ship after only one season in order to pursue movie star fame. Despite his own predictions, the show prospered quite well after the loss of his focal character...but it would be a major understatement to state that Caruso did not fare as well.
TV to film crossover fame is tricky and David did not have the right formula to pull it off. Bad judgment calls, bad publicity after his departure from his TV series, a couple of poor film vehicles, and virtual unemployment in its wake eventually led him back to the small screen again a somewhat humbler person. Not many are given a second chance but Caruso, the enigmatic talent that he is, found gold a second time as (again) a wan, brooding lead in a hip, unconventional cop series.
David Stephen Caruso was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, the son of Charles Caruso, a magazine and newspaper editor, and Joan, a librarian. The Irish Catholic youngster attended elementary and middle school at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and then Archbishop Molloy High School, both in Queens.
Following high school graduation in 1974, he toyed with some commercial work. A few years later he began to make a slight dent in films. He first appeared in Getting Wasted (1980) and Without Warning (1980), which led to a succession of secondary roles in such 80s movies as An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), First Blood (1982) (as a sheriff's deputy), Thief of Hearts (1984), Blue City (1986), China Girl (1987) and Twins (1988). But the break into full-fledged TV stardom proved elusive. It was argued that the thin and lanky actor was not handsome enough to become a leading man in film and didn't have the charisma credentials to carry a big movie.
Making his unbilled debut in a daytime episode of "Ryan's Hope", TV proved to be a more inviting medium and police stories seemed to be the name of the game for him. He had a strong recurring role as a gang leader on Hill Street Blues (1981) and showed to good advantage in the series Crime Story (1986). This sudden notoriety on police TV gave way to some even stronger stuff in streetwise film crimers such as King of New York (1990) as a cop gone bad, and Mad Dog and Glory (1993), in which he earned excellent marks as a cynical urban cop. But his star-making role came via TV and his portrayal of Detective John Kelly the critically-acclaimed series NYPD Blue (1993). Audience adoration was immediate.
His volatile but principled character on the gritty, boldly-written, unconventional show earned him impressive and sexy notices with a Golden Globe Award and Emmy nomination placed in his hands. Confident now that he could be a magnetic force in front of a movie camera, stories began to circulate that the instant fame had gone to his head, that he was moody, demanding and difficult on the set, and that he was quickly alienating not only his co-stars but the show's directors and writers.
Ready to prove all those naysayers wrong about his chances in film, Caruso made tabloid headlines when he announced his decision to leave the highly-rated show after only one season (and only four episodes into the second season) to pursue film stardom. Rumors also bounced around that he left following unresolved salary negotiations. For whatever reason, he wasted no time in scouting out movie vehicles for himself. Again, he focused on his specialty -- crime thrillers. The first, Kiss of Death (1995), in which he played a petty thief trying to go straight, did not go over well box-office-wise despite its good reviews, and the second, Jade (1995), in which he portrayed a homicide detective, was a grisly, unappetizing thriller that was given the thumbs down almost immediately. As a comeuppance for coming up short, he was nominated for the dubious "Razzie" award as the "Worst New Star" of those two films. With no movie releases at all in 1996, by the time Cold Around the Heart (1997) was released, in which he played a jewel thief who is betrayed by his sexy partner-in-crime (Kelly Lynch), the TV star had lost all of his movie star momentum.
In 1997, Caruso made an inauspicious return to the small screen as the placid title prosecutor Michael Hayes (1997), a law series, but it was a very short-lived experience. Audiences had become fickle and indifferent to his "heralded comeback". Finding a serious lack of offers, he returned to supporting others in films such as Russell Crowe in Proof of Life (2000), and copped a couple of leads for himself in such low-budgeted films as Session 9 (2001) and the Canadian film Black Point (2002).
But in 2002, he found TV magic once again behind a badge as Lt. Horatio Caine in the popular CSI spin-off series CSI: Miami (2002). Strongly anchoring the show, which focuses more on crime methodology and whodunnit twists than character development, Caruso has nevertheless earned cult fame for his slick demeanor and deliberately slow speech patterns, reminding one of William Shatner's heady, methodical approach to Captain Kirk. Known for his deep, dry tones and parade of droll one-liners, many of which include him slipping on his dark shades during mid-sentence, he has been the subject of many a late-nite parody and satire.
A difficult interviewee who has admitted to keeping his monumental ego in check since his return to TV, he has been little seen since the "Miami" series ended in 2012 after ten season. David has been married and divorced three times, which includes a brief 1980s union to actress Rachel Ticotin. He has a daughter, Greta, from that union. On the sly, Caruso was a co-owner of now long-defunct Steam, a clothing and furniture store in Miami, Florida. He and his current girlfriend (since 2005), Liza Marquez, have two children -- son Marquez Anthony and and daughter, Paloma Raquel.- Brett Patrick Dalton (born January 7, 1983) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Grant Ward in ABC's series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). Dalton graduated in 2001 from Westmont High School in Campbell, California, where he became interested in acting after auditioning for a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and where he was California Scholarship Federation President and Associated Student Body President. He played the lead in My Favorite Year. After studying at University of California, Berkeley for his undergraduate degree, Dalton received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in 2011. One of his Yale classmates was Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o.