Actors

CONTENT:

A former cast member of the Emmy Award-winning series The Tracey Ullman Show, Dan Castellaneta was honored with Emmy Awards in 1992 and 1993 as the voice of Homer Simpson and many others on The Simpsons.

His voice-over talent has given life to Genie in the successful animated television series Aladdin, based on the blockbuster hit movie, as well as the second sequel, Return of Jaffar.

Castellaneta has appeared as a regular on the ABC series Sibs and has made guest appearances on numerous television shows such as LA Law, NYPD Blue, Wings, Murphy Brown, Friends, Cybill, The Drew Carey Show, Alf, Love and War, The George Carlin Show and Married with Children. His television films include the Emmy Award-winning Hand in the Glove and the remake of Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.

On stage, Castellaneta performed for four years with the famous Chicago Improvisational group The Second City. Classical stage credits include Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth. In 1991, he played the offbeat underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar in American Splendor in Los Angeles. In 1992 and 1993 he performed with his wife, Deb Lacusta, in Deb and Dan's Show at different clubs in Santa Monica. He won a Drama League Award for his performance in Tom and Jerry as part of the Met Theater's 1994 One Act Festival.

His feature film work includes Nothing in Common, K9, War of the Roses, The Client, Space Jam, Forget Paris, Family Bloom, starring Penelope Ann Miller, and My Giant, starring Billy Crystal.

Dan's characters include...

Homer Simpson
Krusty the Clown
Grampa Simpson
Barney Gumble (the barfly)
Itchy (the mouse)
Mayor Quimby
Groundskeeper Willy
Scott Christian
Hans Moleman
Arnie Pie
Sideshow Mel

Julie Kavner starred in Nora Ephron's 1992 feature film This Is Your Life, and co-starred with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams in the 1990 film Awakenings.

Kavner received four Emmy Award nominations for her work on FOX's multi-Emmy Award-winning series The Tracey Ullman Show (1987-1990). In her supporting role as Brenda Morgenstern in the situation comedy Rhoda, she also received four Emmy Award nominations, winning the coveted Emmy in 1987. She received yet another Emmy Award nomination for her starring role in the daytime special The Girl Who Couldn't Lose in 1975.

She has appeared in numerous Woody Allen movies including New York Stories: Oedipus Wrecks, Radio Days, Hannah and Her Sisters, Alice and Shadows and Fog, as well as the features Surrender, National Lampoon Goes to the Movies, and Bad Medicine. Additional television credits include co-starring roles in the television films No Other Love with Richard Thomas, Katherine with Sissy Spacek and Revenge of the Stepford Wives with Sharon Gless.

Kavner received two American Comedy Awards in 1989 for Funniest Supporting Female for her work on The Tracey Ullman Show and New York Stories. On stage, she has played under Burt Reynolds' direction in Two for the Seesaw with Martin Sheen at Reynolds' Dinner Theater in Jupiter, Florida. In Canada she starred in It Had to Be You, written by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna.

A native of Los Angeles, Kavner studied Theater Arts and graduated with honors from San Diego State University. She divides her time between New York and Los Angeles. Her hobbies include swimming, running and playing the flute.

Julie's characters include...

Marge Simpson
Patty
Selma
Grandma Bouvier

Hank Azaria starred in the blockbuster film Godzilla and co-starred opposite Billy Bob Thornton in Homegrown, a black comedy about a group of pot plantation workers. He recently starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke in FOX's modern-day adaptation of Great Expectations; was the voice of Bartok, the comical bat, opposite the voice of Meg Ryan in FOX's animated feature Anastasia; and received critical acclaim as Agador Spartacus, the scene-stealing Guatemalan houseboy opposite Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in Mike Nichols' The Birdcage.

He also appeared in Michael Mann's action thriller Heat with Al Pacino, and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of television producer Al Freedman in Robert Redford's Academy Award-nominated Quiz Show. Additional film credits include Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack, New Lines' Now and Then produced by Demi Moore, and Gary Marshall's blockbuster comedy Pretty Woman.

He appeared most recently in Tim Robbins' film, Cradle Will Rock. Azaria is also known for his recurring role as Nat the dog walke" on the hit series Mad About You. The character as Murray's dog walker began as just a fun thing to do for one episode of the show with friends on the production team. The response was so incredible that "Nat" has become a favorite character of the show's viewers and critics alike.

Trained at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Azaria played the role of Hamlet in a production of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead at Columbia University. He continued his theater studies at Tufts University, where he appeared in productions of plays such as Uncle Vanva, The Merchant of Venice, The Ballad of the Sad Café and The Dumb Waiter. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where he studied under the direction of Roy London. Experimenting in improv and sketch comedy, he became a favorite at the local comedy clubs, and co-wrote An Evening on Thin Ice, which was presented at Theatre-Theater. Azaria also won a Drama League Award for his critically acclaimed performance in the play Conspicuous Consumption.

Hank's characters include...

Moe
Apu
Police Chief Wiggum Lou
Dr. Nick Riviera
Carl Smith
Professor Frink
Akira
Jailbird

Harry Shearer, a Los Angeles native, began acting at the age of seven at the suggestion of his piano teacher-turned-agent. He made his film debut in the classic Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and had a small role in the first CinemaScope movie The Robe. When the last days of network radio made way for the early days of live TV, the young thespian appeared often on The Jack Benny Show, as well as on GE Theatre and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also played the role of Eddie Haskell in the pilot episode of Leave It to Beaver.

Shearer gained national recognition as one of the creators and stars of This Is Spinal Tap, when he portrayed heavy metal bass player Derek Smalls in the mock rockumentary. Shearer also was a writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live for two seasons. His on-screen performances as a NASA recruitment offical in The Right Stuff showed that he can support a convincing establishment persona as well. His other film work includes Oscar, The Fisher King and Pure Luck.

Shearer recently acted in two major films: The Truman Show, with Jim Carrey, and Godzilla. In addition to his big screen performances, Shearer's skills as actor, director and writer have been showcased in film, cable television, network television, radio and personal appearances. His television work has included Martin Mull's Portrait of a White Marriage, HBO Comedy Hour Live: The Magic of Live, Fernwood 2 Night, Ellen, Murphy Brown, LA Law, Chicago Hope, ER, The Visitor, and The News Hole, for which he won his second CableACE Award for Best Game Show in 1995. Shearer recently reunited with Michael McKean and David I. Lander for the 25th Anniversary Reunion of the classic comedy group, The Credibility Gap, at HBO's Annual Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.

Shearer co-wrote, with Tom Leopold and Peter Matz, a new theatrical production entitled J. Edgar!, a dark musical comedy about one of the most powerful men in 20th Century America. Also, Harry recorded a two-CD compilation, O.J. on Trial: The Early Years and O.J. on Trial: That Endless Summer, containing selected excerpts from his nationally syndicated radio show, entitled Le Show. Le Show has become a critics' favorite public radio show since its inception 15 years ago, and is also available on the Internet weekly at www.harryshearer.com.

Harry's characters include...

Montgomery Burns
Smithers
Principal Skinner
Dr. Marvin Monroe
Otto (the school bus driver)
Reverend Lovejoy
Ned Flanders
Dr. Julius Hibbert
Kent Brockman
Dr. Pryor
Eddie
Herman
Mr. Largo
Jasper
McBain
Lenny
Dave Sutton
Scratchy (the cat)
Jebediah Springfield

Emmy Award-winning actress and voice-over artist Nancy Cartwright has been making waves in the entertainment industry since the age of 12.

Throughout her youth she performed on the stage, touring the U.S. After graduating from high school, a scholarship to Ohio University led her to a summer job at a radio station and, eventually, to commercial work. As her career took off, Cartwright moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at UCLA. She began studying with Daws Butler, the legendary voice of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and others. She soon landed a string of roles including characters in the animated Richie Rich and stage performances in The Transgressor and Comedy Cabaret with Jonathan Winters.

Her television appearances include Not My Kid, Rules of Marriage, Deadly Lessons, Fame, Miss Rose White, Empty Nest, Cheers, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Baywatch Nights. On the big screen, Cartwright's credits include Twilight Zone: The Movie, Flesh and Blood, Undercover and The Great O'Grady.

Never one to sit in the wings, Cartwright developed her one-woman show, In Search of Fellini, which premiered in Los Angeles before embarking on a nationwide collegiate tour. Born October 25 in Kettering, Ohio, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Nancy's characters include...

Bart Simpson
Nelson
Rod & Todd Flanders
Kearney
Mrs. Wiggum

Yeardley Smith was born in Paris, France, where her father was a correspondent with UPI. By the time she was two, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where she grew up.

Yeardley began her career when she was 14 years old, at a local dinner theater outside of Washington, D.C., where she played "Tinkerbell" in an unauthorized musical adaptation of Peter Pan. Upon graduating from high school, she performed in a play at New Playwright's Theater in Washington, D.C., earning rave reviews for her part in a new musical comedy revue that paved the way to Arena Stage, where she appeared in Tom Stoppard's On The Razzle and Moliere's The Imaginary Valid.

The following year Yeardley moved to New York where she understudied the role of Debbie in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close. She took over the role two months into the Broadway run and played the part for eight months. During that time, she also did her first two movies: Heaven Help Us and The Legend of Billie Jean.

Yeardley moved to Los Angeles in 1986, "did a dreadful pilot and a good play," and won the part of Lisa Simpson on The Tracey Ullman Show.

Other television credits include guest appearances on Dharma & Greg, Murphy Brown, Empty Nest, Tales from the Dark Side, Mama's Family, Louie and three years as "Louise Fitzer" on FOX's Herman's Head. Other film credits include Jingle All the Way, City Slickers, Maximum Overdrive and Silence Like Glass.

Yeardley lives in Los Angeles with her two cats, Betsey and Clementine. Her favorite colors are blue and "Lisa Simpson." She loves to cook, hates to vacuum, paints, writes, and has been known to play the piano as long as nobody's around.