Career: In 1989, Romano won a talent contest run by a local radio station, which landed him a manager. He made his TV debut that year in The Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search. Appearances on The MTV Comedy Half-Hour and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson helped boost his profile. Guest roles in animated sitcom Dr Katz, Professional Therapist, proved he could act. He won a regular role in NewsRadio in 1996, but turned it down to launch Everybody Loves Raymond. It proved a wise move. The show ran for nine years, was hugely popular and made Romano a major US star. He's since appeared in the movie Welcome to Mooseport and lent his voice to animated film Ice Age and its sequels. He was last seen in the comedy drama Men of a Certain Age and the sitcom Parenthood.

Career: One of Leguizamo's early acting roles was a small part in Casualties of War (1989). More movies followed, including Die Hard 2 (1990), Super Mario Bros (1993), Carlito's Way (1993), To Wong Foo (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Summer of Sam (1999) and Moulin Rouge (2001). More recently, he has starred in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Kick-Ass 2 (2013), The Counselor (2013), Ride Along (2014) and Chef (2014).

Career: That resulting concert film No Cure for Cancer made him an instant star in Hollywood. He made a series of guest appearances on Jonathan Ross's show Saturday Zoo in 1993 and was snapped up for a series of movies cashing in on his wise-talking image. However, Demolition Man and Hostile Hostages failed to turn him into a superstar. In 1999, he played the New York cop trying to catch Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair remake. While researching that part, he was so inspired by the cop he hung around with, he created TV series The Job. He co-produced and helped write the Johnny Depp movie Blow, and also provided voiceovers for the films A Bug's Life and Ice Age. He's a driving force behind The Leary Firefighters Foundation after his first cousin and a childhood friend were killed tackling a fire in his hometown. He played veteran firefighter Tommy Gavin in American drama Rescue Me from 2004 to 2011. Issues dealt with in the series included post 9/11 trauma, and the final episode aired fours days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Career: The success of American Pie led to Scott being cast in a number of youth-orientated movies, including Road Trip (2000) and Dude, Where's My Car? (2000). He went on to have success with Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Bulletproof Monk (2003), The Rundown (2003) and Role Models (2008) but a lot of his movies have underperformed at the box office, including The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Mr Woodcock (2007), Southland Tales (2007) and Cop Out (2010). Throughout his career ups and downs, he has returned to the role that originally made him famous, playing Stifler in American Pie 2 (2001), American Wedding (2003) and American Reunion (2012).

Career: Her debut album, All Hail the Queen, was released in 1989 when she was 19. After she issued her fourth hip-hop album, Order in the Court, she began to sing soul music and jazz standards. She released her first soul/jazz album, The Dana Owens Album, in 2004. She returned to hip-hop in 2008 on the record All Hail the Queen II. Away from music, she began acting in the 1990s in American sitcom Living Single. She went on to have supporting roles in the films House Party 2 (1991), Jungle Fever (1991), Juice (1992), Set It Off (1996), Living Out Loud (1998) and The Bone Collector (1999) and had her own talk show from 1999 to 2001. She gained mainstream success in Chicago (2002), Bringing Down the House (2003) and Hairspray (2007). More recently, she returned to TV with The Queen Latifah Show.

Career: A hard-working performer, Leno began as a stand-up comedian in Los Angeles nightclubs and bars. He was prepared to appear anywhere, no matter how short the performance might be, and ended up working more than 300 nights a year. During the mid-1970s he began appearing on TV, eventually taking over from Joan Rivers as a permanent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. When the latter retired in 1992, Leno took over, beating rival David Letterman to the job.