Lynn Ahrens (born October 1, 1948) is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway musical Ragtime and was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for the animated Twentieth Century Fox film "Anastasia." She is a mainstay writer for ABC-TV's "Schoolhouse Rock."

Ahrens was born in New York City, graduated from Neptune High School on the Jersey shore, and graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Journalism and English. She is Jewish. She began a career in advertising as a copywriter but was invited to work on a children's television show, and began writing songs for "Schoolhouse Rock". She subsequently worked as a freelance composer and singer of commercial music, and wrote and produced shows for children's television. She began writing for the musical theater in 1982.

Ahrens met Stephen Flaherty at the BMI Workshop in 1982 and they started working together the following year. Their first musical together was Lucky Stiff, which premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in April 1988. Their next musical was Once on This Island, which premiered on Broadway in 1990 and which was nominated for eight Tony Awards. My Favorite Year opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in Lincoln Center in October 1992 but ran for only 36 performances.

Stephen Flaherty (born September 18, 1960) is an American composer of musical theatre. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/bookwriter Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals Once on This Island, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards, Seussical , which was nominated for the Grammy Award and Ragtime, which was nominated for twelve Tony Awards and won Best Original Score. Flaherty was also nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards with Lynn Ahrens for his songs and song score for the animated film musical Anastasia.

Flaherty was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began studying piano at the age of seven. When he was twelve he knew he wanted to write musicals and by age fourteen he had already composed his first musical score. He attended South Hills Catholic High School in Pittsburgh and later studied musical composition and piano at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1982. He did additional graduate studies in Musical Theater at New York University.

Brian Stokes Mitchell (born October 31, 1957) is an American stage, film and television actor. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the early 1990s. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate.

Mitchell was born in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of four children of George Mitchell, an electronics engineer, and his wife Lillian, a school administrator. Mitchell grew up at various U.S. military bases overseas, where his father was a civilian engineer for the U.S. Navy. As a teenager, he lived in San Diego, California, where he began acting in school musicals.

Mitchell's Broadway credits include Mail (1988), an all-black revival of George and Ira Gershwin's Oh, Kay! (1990), Jelly's Last Jam (1992) based on the works of jazz artist Jelly Roll Morton, Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993), Ragtime (1998), the 1999 revival of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, King Hedley II (2001) and Man of La Mancha (2002). He appeared in the City Center Encores! productions of Jule Styne's Do Re Mi (1999), Bob Merrill's Carnival! (2002), and Kismet (2006), and in the title role in the 2002 Kennedy Center revival of Sweeney Todd, part of Stephen Sondheim's 70th birthday celebration.

Brian Alexander Stokes (born September 7, 1979 in Montclair, California) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. He has previously played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, New York Mets and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Stokes graduated Jurupa Valley High School and played college ball at Riverside Community College in California.

On October 2, 1998, Stokes was first signed as an amateur free agent by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He spent his first professional season with the Princeton Devil Rays in 1999. While with Princeton, he led the Appalachian League in games finished with 35. He pitched for Charleston (Single-A) in 2000, allowing one home run in 70.1 innings pitched. Stokes pitched his first complete game at Mudville on June 23, 2001, but lost the game. He played for Bakersfield during the 2002 season, leading the team in wins (10) and strikeouts (154). He threw his first professional shutout on July 14 against San Jose. Stokes started ten games for Orlando (Double-A) before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2003, resulting in his missing the entire 2004 season. In 2005, Stokes pitched for both Visalia (Single-A) and Montgomery (Double-A). A hamstring injury sidelined him for the month of July. He was recalled from Durham (Triple-A) on September 2, 2005. Stokes made his major league debut on September 3, 2006. In 2007, Brian's 59 appearances were fourth among American League rookies.