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Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and author best known for her roles on the sitcom Maude (1972) and in horror films, especially those directed by John Carpenter, with whom she was once married. She was born on June 11, 1945 in Sacramento, California, the daughter of an executive for Mobil Oil Company. Early on in her career, she starred in Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Fog (1980) and Escape from New York (1981), all John Carpenter-related projects. She has collaborated with George A. Romero on occasion, such as Stephen King's anthology Creepshow (1982) and Two Evil Eyes (1990). Her work with other horror directors includes Wes Craven's superhero monster movie Swamp Thing (1982). During the 1990s, she became best known for providing the voice of Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series (1992). She was the original tough-girl Betty Rizzo in the first Broadway production of "Grease". She is the author of the memoir "There Are Worse Things I Can Do" (2006), and the comedy romance vampire novels "Vampyres of Hollywood" (2008), "Love Bites" (2010) and "Make Me Dead" (2015).

Blue-eyed brunette Meg Foster was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on May 10, 1948 to David and Nancy. She has four siblings and grew up in Rowayton, Connecticut. Foster studied acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse.

Foster's first role came about in 1969, when she appeared in an episode of NET Playhouse (1964). Throughout the '70s, she guest starred in numerous TV shows including Barnaby Jones (1973), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), and Hawaii Five-O (1968), and played Hester Prynne, a young woman who has an affair with a pastor, in the miniseries The Scarlet Letter (1979). Foster did not really come to attention until 1982, though, when she replaced Loretta Swit as Christine Cagney in Cagney & Lacey (1981); she herself was later replaced by Sharon Gless (CBS reportedly wanted a more "feminine" actress playing the role of the detective).

Foster began to appear in more movies throughout the late '80s, primarily Masters of the Universe (1987), in which she played the nefarious Evil-Lyn. Other notable films include the satirical science fiction flick They Live (1988), the horror sequel Stepfather II (1989), and the comedic martial arts movie Blind Fury (1989) (Terry O'Quinn also appeared in the latter two).

Foster continued to work prolifically throughout the '90s, mostly appearing in science fiction films. She also guest starred in many popular television shows such as Quantum Leap (1989), ER (1994), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Murder, She Wrote (1984), and Sliders (1995).

After appearing in a 2000 episode of Xena: Warrior Princess (1995), Foster took a decade-long break from the acting industry. She returned in 2011 with roles in indie flicks 25 Hill (2011) and Sebastian (2011), and had a villainous role as a revenge-seeking witch in Rob Zombie's '70s-esque horror movie The Lords of Salem (2012). Additionally, Foster appeared in the TV show The Originals (2013), as well as Pretty Little Liars (2010) and its short-lived spin-off Ravenswood (2013). She re-teamed with Rob Zombie in 2016 for his horror film 31 (2016), in which Foster plays a kidnapped carnival worker.

Foster has a son, Christopher, with Ron Starr. At one point, she was married to actor Stephen McHattie.

Perhaps best known for his chilling performance as "Candyman", the charismatic 6' 5" actor Tony Todd has consistently turned in compelling performances since his debut in the fantasy film Sleepwalk (1986). Born in Washington, D.C., Todd spent two years on a scholarship at the University of Connecticut, which, in turn, led to a scholarship from the renowned Eugene O'Neill National Theatre Institute. It proved to be the foundation for intense stints at the Hartman Conservatory in Stamford, Connecticut and the Trinity Square Repertory Theatre Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. Todd appeared in dozens of classical and many experimental plays, yet still managed to find time to teach playwriting to high school students in the Hartford public school system.

Todd's extensive credits exemplify his versatility. They include such film classics as The Rock (1996), The Crow (1994), Lean on Me (1989), Bird (1988), Night of the Living Dead (1990), Final Destination (2000), the multiple Academy Award winning Oliver Stone film Platoon (1986) and The Secret (2000), which was nominated and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Todd's recent films include the independent film Silence (2002) and Final Destination 2 (2003). He has had prominent guest starring roles in numerous critically-acclaimed television series, including recurring on Boston Public (2000), For the People (2002) and The District (2000), as well as NYPD Blue (1993), Smallville (2001), Law & Order (1990), Crossing Jordan (2001), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and The X Files (1993). Todd recurred on three incarnations of "Star Trek" and guest starred on Xena: Warrior Princess (1995) and episodes of CSI: Miami (2002) and Andromeda (2000). His television movies include starring roles in True Women (1997), Black Fox (1995), Butter (1998), Ivory Hunters (1990), Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (1999) and Control Factor (2003).

Todd's considerable theatre credits include the world premiere of award-winning playwright August Wilson's "King Hedley II", where he originated the title role in Pittsburgh, Seattle and Boston. Variety commented: "Todd's King Hedley dominates the stage. A sour-faced mix of rage and resolve, anger and vulnerability. Todd's Hedley was a memorable tour-de-force even on opening." He also received a coveted Helen Hayes nomination for his performance in Athol Fugard's "The Captain's Tiger at La Jolla, the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Kennedy Center. Other theatre credits include "Les Blancs", "Playboy of the West Indies", "Othello", "Zooman and the Sign", award-winning playwright Keith Glover's "Dark Paradise", "Aida" (on Broadway), and most recently, "Levee James" for the prestigious Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference and The New Dramatist Guild.

Nana Visitor was born on 26 July 1957 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Friday the 13th (2009) and Ted 2 (2015). She was previously married to Matthew Rimmer, Alexander Siddig and Nicholas Miscusi.

Andrew Jordt Robinson was born in New York City and attended the University of New Hampshire, later receiving his B.A. in English from the New School for Social Research in NYC. After graduation, he spent a year in England at the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Robinson performed a wide variety of theater, movie and television roles. These included the infamous Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry (1971), a stint on Ryan's Hope (1975), which earned him an Emmy nomination, and the title role in a TV movie about Liberace. He was chosen for the continuing guest role of "Elim Garak", the Cardassian tailor/spy on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), after first reading for the part of "Odo"! In the early 90s, Mr. Robinson helped found The Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles. In addition to acting in several of the company's productions, in 1995 and 1996 his direction of "Endgame" and "The Homecoming" at the Matrix earned him two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. This led to his TV directing debut on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), and Mr. Robinson has since gone on to direct episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (1995). 1997-1998 directorial projects at The Matrix were "Dangerous Corner" and "A Moon for the Misbegotten".

Fionnula Flanagan was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. From an early age she grew up speaking both English and Irish on a daily basis. Her parents weren't native Irish speakers but wanted Fionnula and her four siblings to learn the language. Her mother used to say, "A nation without a language is a nation without a soul". Fionnula has said she will be forever grateful to them for that. She was educated at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin and in Switzerland. She moved to Los Angeles in 1968 and lives with her husband, psychiatrist Dr. Garrett O'Connor, in Beverly Hills. Of her enormous body of work, including stage, television and film, she might be most well-known for James Joyce's Women (1985), in which she plays six different women who had a profound influence on James Joyce's life. Besides giving an award-winning performance, she also wrote, adapted and produced the piece for the stage, and subsequently as a feature film. She believes Joyce is the most important writer in the English language, most notably for "Ulysses", "Finnegan's Wake" and "The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man". When she was growing up she thought the much lauded author was a good friend of her parents, because they were always saying, "Joyce said this, Joyce said that". When she was finally old enough to read Joyce for herself, the characters were like old friends.

Dennis Christopher was born on 2 December 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor, known for Breaking Away (1979), Django Unchained (2012) and Fade to Black (1980).

Molly Hagan was born the seventh child of Jack and Betty Hagan in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the age of 4 the entire family moved to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. She grew up among cornfields and limestone quarries. Molly always wanted to be an actor. She toiled with her sister, Lucy Hagan, to create the best living room theatre a family could watch. But had her first real break as Glinda the good witch in "The Wizard of Oz" at St. Therese's Elementary School. After crushing it, doing the best Billie Burke she could, Molly went on to be kicked out of High School drama. She then attended Northwestern University.

René Murat Auberjonois was born on June 1, 1940 in New York City, to Princess Laure Louise Napoléone Eugénie Caroline (Murat), who was born in Paris, and Fernand Auberjonois, who was Swiss-born. René was born into an already artistic family, which included his grandfather, a well-known Swiss painter, and his father, a Pulitzer-nominated writer and Cold War-era foreign correspondent. The Auberjonois family moved to Paris shortly after World War II, and it was there that René made an important career decision at the age of six. When his school put on a musical performance for the parents, little René was given the honor of conducting his classmates in a rendition of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?". When the performance was over, René took a bow, and, knowing that he was not the real conductor, imagined that he had been acting. He decided then and there that he wanted to be an actor. After leaving Paris, the Auberjonois family moved into an Artist's Colony in upstate New York.

At an early age, René was surrounded by musicians, composers and actors. Among his neighbors were Helen Hayes, Burgess Meredith and John Houseman, who would later become an important mentor. Houseman gave René his first theater job at the age of 16, as an apprentice at a theater in Stratford, Connecticut. René would later teach at Juilliard under Houseman. René attended Carnegie-Mellon University and studied theater completely, not only learning about acting but about the entire process of producing a play. After graduating from CMU, René acted with various theater companies, including San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater and Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum. In 1969, he won a role in his first Broadway musical, "Coco" (with Katharine Hepburn), for which he won a Tony Award.

Throughout his life, René acted in a variety of theater productions, films and television presentations, including a rather famous stint as Clayton Endicott III on the comedy series Benson (1979), not to mention seven years on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) as Odo. René also performed dramatic readings of a variety of books on tape, and appeared in projects like The Patriot (2000), starring Mel Gibson, Sally Hemmings: An American Love Story (2000), and NBC's Frasier (1993) and ABC's The Practice (1997).

Raymond Cruz is perhaps best-known for his portrayal of the frighteningly lethal Tuco Salamanca in AMC's critically acclaimed show Breaking Bad (2008), a character he later reprised for the first two episodes of the spin-off Better Call Saul (2015). The role garnered him a Best Performance in a Television Series nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Cruz recently wrapped his sixth and final season of TNT's Major Crimes (2012) as Julio Sanchez, a detective within the Los Angeles Police Department's Major Crimes Division, a role which originated on TNT's The Closer (2005) and which offered Cruz a nomination of Best Supporting Actor from the Imagen Foundation Awards. Other TV work includes Cleveland Abduction (2015), the TV movie in which he starred as kidnapper Ariel Castro, a role he felt personally connected to having known the victims of his crime personally. Other TV work includes CSI: Miami (2002), Lauren (2012), White Collar (2009), and Los Americans (2011), among others. Cruz has appeared in numerous films, including the highly touted Collateral Damage (2002), Training Day (2001), and Alien: Resurrection (2000).

John Soursby Glover, Jr., is an American actor, known for a range of villainous roles in films and television, including Lionel Luthor on the Superman-inspired television series Smallville. In 1993 he co-starred in the dark comedy Ed and His Dead Mother with Steve Buscemi and Ned Beatty.Glover was born in Salisbury, Maryland, the son of Cade (née Mullins) and John Soursby Glover, Sr., a television salesman. Glover attended Wicomico High School and acted at Towson University. Glover began his career at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, and later studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse under Milton Katselas. Aside from his theatrical endeavors, Glover is also actively involved with the Alzheimer's Association. His inspiration for joining this cause was his own father's experience with Alzheimer's disease.

Rosalind Chao is best known for M*A*S*H, The Joy Luck Club (1993), Star Trek, What Dreams May Come, and most recently The Laundromat (2019), and Plus One (2019). She was born and raised in Orange County, California where her parents ran a Chinese restaurant and pancake house. Rosalind first began appearing in commercials and television after having been spotted as a small child at her family restaurant. She had also trained and appeared on stage from an early age in the Peking Opera and Chinese dance. She continues to act in the theater, most recently starring in 2018 the National Theatre of Great Britain in a new play The Great Wave. She has been married to Simon Templeman since 1989. They have two children.

Young was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She earned her BFA from Scripps College (in Claremont, California) and continued her acting education at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She is very active in stage as well as film and television. She has been in a number of Off Broadway productions and on celluloid, she is best-known for her roles in Pretty Woman (1990), Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), Spaceballs (1987), Melrose Place (1992), and various Star Trek series, to name a few. She is a lifetime member of The Actor's Studio. Dey is also a professional sculptor and in a number of galleries in North America. She began sculpting in 1977 at Scripps College, learning her craft under the tutelage of renowned sculptor Aldo Casanova. In Italy, she expanded her talents by working in Carrara marble with Italian artisans. In 2006, four of Dey's pieces were selected as Los Angeles County Museum's Special Projects and exhibited on the Art and Architecture Tour. This honor was again bestowed in 2012. In 2011, her work was selected by the National Sculpture Society to be featured online in their "LOVE" exhibition. She is many prominent global collections and museums.

Henry Gibson was born on 21 September 1935 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Before appearing in films and television series, he was a child star on the stage during the 1940s and during the late 1950s he was an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force. His screen debut came in 1963 when he was cast in the Jerry Lewis film The Nutty Professor (1963). He made two other small film appearances in the early 1960s in Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) and The Outlaws Is Coming (1964), in which he played a rather hip Indian named Charlie Horse. He made two memorable appearances on F-Troop as US Cavalry Private Leonard W Starr aka Wrongo Starr. His breakthrough came in 1968 when he was cast as a member of the regular cast of Laugh-In (1967). He stayed with the show until 1971, when he left and continued his career as a character actor. His best known film role was probably his performance in Nashville (1975). He played Haven Hamilton, a smarmy Country and Western singer. For this role he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and was awarded the National Film Critics Award for best supporting actor. Gibson's career carried on through the 1980s and 1990s when he appeared in many films, such as The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) and The 'Burbs (1989). He also provided voice-overs for many children's animated series like Smurfs (1981), Wuzzles (1985) and Galaxy High School (1986). His most recent appearance have been in the Paul Thomas Anderson drama Magnolia (1999) and the independent film The Year That Trembled (2002).

Son of character actor Robert Keith and stage actress Helena Shipman. He grew up on the road with his parents while they toured in plays. First appeared at age 3 in film Pied Piper Malone (1924) with his father. Began acting in radio programs and on stage before World War II. Joined the Marines and served as a machine gunner. Returned to Broadway stage after the war and branched out into television and film. Worked as an extra in several films before achieving speaking roles and subsequent stardom.

Tracy Middendorf was born on 26 January 1970 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), Mission: Impossible III (2006) and Scream: The TV Series (2015). She has been married to Franz Wisner since 2 January 2005. They have one child.

LeVar Burton was born on 16 February 1957 in Landstuhl, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). He has been married to Stephanie Cozart Burton since 3 October 1992. They have one child.

Craig Wasson was born on 15 March 1954 in Ontario, Oregon, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), Body Double (1984) and Four Friends (1981).

Kenneth Mars was an American actor and comedian. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). He also appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? (1972), and Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987), and Shadows and Fog (1991).

Erick Avari was born on April 13, 1952 in Darjeeling, India. His credits include leading roles in films from Kevin Reynolds' cult classic The Beast of War (1988) to commercial megahits such as Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), The Mummy (1999) and Planet of the Apes (2001). His comedic skills have landed him starring roles in the Adam Sandler remake Mr. Deeds (2002), For Love or Money (1993) and Woody Allen's only television film Don't Drink the Water (1994). He is also featured in Revelation (2002), The Glass House (2001) and has a starring role in Michael Meredith's Three Days of Rain (2002) and Dancing in Twilight (2007). His long theatrical background has garnered him critical acclaim for several roles at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre in New York City, including his portrayal of Vasquez in "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" and the Broadway hit, "The King and I".

Avari has had the pleasure of performing in some of the most prestigious regional theatres in the country, including The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Chicago's Goodman Theater and The Cleveland Playhouse, playing roles such as the King in "King Lear" and Joseph Smith in the Mabou Mines production of "The Morman Project". On television, in addition to his recurring role as Kasuf on Stargate SG-1 (1997), he has played notable roles on Heroes (2006), Cybill (1995), Cheers (1982), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Murder, She Wrote (1984), NYPD Blue (1993) and several made-for-television films.

Trained professionally at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, a graduate of Dartmouth College, a Ph.D. in Dramatic Literature from Indiana University and, during his teaching days, a tenured Associate Professor, Stephen Macht is one of the best-educated working actors in America, today.

Stephen Robert Macht was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Janette (Curlenjik) and Jerome Irving Macht. He is of Russian Jewish descent.

He starred as "Proctor" in "The Crucible", "Orsino" in "12th Night", and "Dunois" in "Saint Joan" at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, where he was scouted and signed by Universal Television to come to Hollywood to begin his film career. Since then, he has played leading men in plays and dozens of television movies and feature films from "Yoni Netanyahu" in Raid on Entebbe (1976) to "Warwick" in Stephen King's Graveyard Shift (1990), and from "Dan Lavetta" in The Immigrants (1978) to "David Keeler", Sharon Gless' love interest on Cagney & Lacey (1981). He has recurred on Boston Public (2000), Jack & Jill (1999) and Boomtown (2002). Soap Opera Digest nominated Stephen as "2007 Villain of the Year, for Trevor Lasing", on General Hospital (1963), a role he played through 2008.

Opposite Charlton Heston, Stephen played "King Henry VIII" in "A Man For All Seasons" at the Ahmansohn Theatre, and prosecutor "Challee" in "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He was "Henry II" in "Lion in Winter" at the Cleveland Playhouse and, most recently, "Lyman Felt" in Arthur Miller's "Ride Down Mt. Morgan" at the Will Geer Theatre in what Variety called "a juicy star turn, appropriate for a character defined as a recklessly sexual, splendidly hungry man".

Stephen taught at Smith College, was a tenured professor at Queens College in New York and has directed theatre and television in Los Angeles. Together with his wife, he is the father of actor Gabriel Macht, and of three other children, and also has eight grandchildren and counting. His greatest hobby and future plans are to provide a lot of entertainment for years to come. Through the years, Macht has participated in and supported various charitable causes, serving as an Honorary Board Member of the Parkinson's Resource Organization and its Master of Ceremonies for the past ten years. In 1981 and 1982, he was the original moderator of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation's JTV. He has been spokesman for the Jewish National Fund, M.C. for several Israeli Consulate functions and is a board member of The Center For Jewish Culture and Creativity under leadership of Ruth and John Rauch. In 2013 Stephen earned his M.A. in Jewish Studies at the Academy for the Jewish Religion, Ca. and is an ordained Chaplain. He officiates at weddings, baby namings, and funerals by private arrangement.

Mary Crosby was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant. She received her Actor's Equity card, at the age of four, and made her first professional appearances, in the company of her siblings, in her father's popular Christmas-season TV specials of the 60s and 70s. After graduating from high school at age 15, she entered the University of Texas at Austin, where she became a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. Ms. Crosby may be best-known for her role as "Kristin Shepard" on the now legendary television drama series, Dallas (1978). Ms. Crosby feature film credits include Henry Jaglom's Eating (1990), The Ice Pirates (1984), Tapeheads (1988), The Legend of Zorro (2005) and more recently, Jaglom's Queen of the Lot (2010), in which she played Peter Bogdanovich's wife. She followed that with Just 45 Minutes from Broadway (2012) and, most recently, The M Word (2014). Ms. Crosby has many stage credits to her name, including "The Seagull" ( Nina), "As You Like It", "Two Gentleman of Verona" and "Romeo and Juliet". Ms. Crosby's many television credits include the ABC miniseries, Hollywood Wives (1985), North and South (1986) and Stagecoach (1986), with Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Ms. Crosby resides on a ranch, outside of Los Angeles, with her family, husband Mark Brodka and their two sons.

Robert Foxworth was born on 1 November 1941 in Houston, Texas, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Transformers (2007) and Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). He has been married to Stacey Thomas since 2 August 1998. He was previously married to Elizabeth Montgomery and Marilyn McCormick.

Lawrence Monoson, a New York native is a veteran actor. Born on August 11, 1964, in Yonkers, Lawrence is easily known for his early film roles starting back in the early to mid 1980s. Monoson appeared in the film The Last American Virgin (1982), followed three years later with a role in the horror movie Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984). Going into the 1990s, Lawrence Monoson mostly found work throughout various television series, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), JAG (1995), Touched by an Angel (1994), ER (1994) and Prince Street (1997). As the 21st century arrived, Lawrence continued working mostly on the small screen, with work on Enterprise (2001), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000) and CSI: Miami (2002). He also co-starred in the direct-to-video sequel Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004). His work has been strongly focused in television where he added more episodic contributions in NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service (2003), Cold Case (2003), The Closer (2005) and CSI: NY (2004).

As an actor Tony Plana has performed in more than 70 feature films. Recent films include Pain & Gain with Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg directed by Michael Bay, Roman J. Israel, Esquire starring Denzel Washington directed by Dan Gilroy, and the soon to be released, Bombshell, directed by Jay Roach starring Charlize Theron, John Lithgow, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie and Wasp Network, directed by Olivier Assayas with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez.

His latest television projects include principal roles in Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino's The Young Pope with Jude Law and Diane Keaton for HBO, Jugar Con Fuego for Telemundo and the recently released Mayans MC on the FX Channel. Current recurring roles include the comedies One Day at a Time with Rita Moreno and Super Store with America Ferrera, as well as the dramas, The Affair with Anna Paquin. Start Up with Martin Freeman and Ron Perlman, The Punisher with Jon Bernthal, Madam Secretary, Lethal Weapon, Colony, Alpha House, Elementary, The Fosters, and The Blacklist.

Tony Plana also starred as Ignacio Suarez, the widowed father to America Ferrera's Ugly Betty, in ABC's landmark, groundbreaking hit series for which he received the 2006 Golden Satellite Award from the International Press Academy, an Imagen Award, and an Alma Award. Ugly Betty received the highest ratings and the most critical acclaim of any Latino-based show in the history of television, most notably 11 Emmy nominations and a Golden Glove Award for best comedy.

Previously, he also starred in Showtime's original series, Resurrection Boulevard, and was nominated for two Alma Awards for best actor. Resurrection Boulevard was the first series to be produced, written, directed and starring Latinos and awarded an Alma Award for the best television series of 2002.

Other feature film credits include JFK, Nixon, Salvador, An Officer and a Gentleman, Lone Star, Three Amigos, Born in East L.A., El Norte, 187, Primal Fear, Romero, One Good Cop, Havana, The Rookie, Silver Strand and Picking Up the Pieces with Woody Allen. He has also appeared in the action thriller Half Past Dead with Steven Segal; The Lost City, with Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, and Dustin Hoffman; and Disney's highly acclaimed GOAL, The Dream Begins.

He has produced and directed two feature film comedies, A Million to Juan with Paul Rodriguez and The Princess and the Barrio Boy, the first Latino family film to be produced by Showtime, starring academy award nominee Edward James Olmos and Maria Conchita Alonso. The film received two 2001 Alma Award nominations for Best Made for Television Movie and Best Ensemble Acting and won the 2001 Imagen Award for Best Made for Television Movie. Plana's television episodic debut was 2001's Resurrection Blvd.'s Saliendo, which garnered critical acclaim, receiving a GLAAD Award for best dramatic episode of the year and a SHINE Award nomination for sensitive portrayal of sexuality. He has directed several episodes of Nickelodeon's hit series, The Brothers Garcia, receiving a Humanitas Award nomination and winning the Imagen Award for its third season finale, Don't Judge a Book by its Cover. He also directed the season finale of Greetings from Tucson for the Warner Brothers Network and the Halloween episode of Desperate Housewives in its final season on ABC.

Plana was the Co-founder and served as Producing Artistic Director of the East LA Classic Theatre (ECT), a group comprised of multicultural, classically trained theatre professionals, for over 20 years. The EastLA Classic Theatre was dedicated to serving economically challenged communities through educational outreach programs for primary and secondary schools. As ECT's Producing Artistic Director, Plana defined its mission as 'educational' with a priority on creating access to classic dramatic literature for young minority audiences, emphasizing interpretations filtered through a multicultural, non-traditional perspective and presented with a contemporary, populist aesthetic. His provocative adaptations of classic Shakespearean plays were specifically conceived for students with little or no theatre going experience. He produced, directed and adapted these plays set against curriculum relevant historical backgrounds that served as catalysts for the investigation of personal and interpersonal psychology, race and cultural relations, socio-political issues and world history. Such as A zoot suit styled, musical Romeo & Juliet, was set during World War II with 1940's swing music and dance, featuring an East L.A. Latina Juliet and a West L.A. Anglo sailor Romeo struggling to define their love and identities in a wartime city sharply divided by racism, xenophobia, and economics and a Mariachi Musical production of Much Ado About Nothing set in early California.

Plana has continued to challenge the boundaries of teaching and learning language through an innovative approach called Language in Play (LIP). Working directly with language arts teachers, LIP utilizes the performing arts to impact literacy skills in academically at risk and bi-lingual students. Evolved collaboratively with educators over the last fifteen years, ECT's unique process of 'personalizing' language, through student play writing and play acting based on autobiographical experience, has proven more effective in achieving academic advancement and personal growth than established, traditional methods. It has consistently improved students' reading, writing and speaking skills resulting in higher attendance and lower drop-out rates, increased class participation and homework completion, as well as achieved better test scores, strengthened self-confidence and provided an engaging and meaningful school experience.

In 2005 he was honored as Educator of the Year by Loyola Marymount University's Department of Education. In 2008 he was awarded Loyola High School's Cahalan Award as a distinguished alumnus and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Imagen Foundation. In 2009 the HOLA organization honored him with the Raul Julia HOLA Founders Award for excellence. In 2010, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa selected him as worthy of one of the highest honors bestowed by the City of Los Angeles, The Dream of Los Angeles Award for his contributions to the media arts and education. He is the proud recipient of the 2013 ALMA Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council of La Raza, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers' Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016, and the 2018 Nosotros Lifetime Impact Golden Eagle Award. He is currently an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University School of Education.