John Mahoney (20 June 1940) is an American actor, best known for playing Martin "Marty" Crane in the American sitcom Frasier on NBC. Born in England, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1959. He started his career on the stage in 1977, moving into film in 1980. He appeared in Frasier from its inception in 1993 until the final episode in 2004. He has also worked as a voice actor, and performed on Broadway and in Chicago theatre.

Mahoney, the seventh of eight children, was born in the seaside resort of Blackpool, Lancashire, England – the town to which his mother was evacuated as the Mahoneys' home city of Manchester was heavily bombed during the Second World War. He started school at St Joseph's College, Blackpool. After the war, the Mahoneys moved back to Manchester. Mahoney grew up in the Withington area of the city and discovered acting at the Stretford Children's Youth Theatre. His father, Reg, was a baker.

Mahoney moved to the United States as a young man when his older sister, Vera, a war-bride living in rural Illinois, agreed to sponsor him. He studied at Quincy University, Illinois, before joining the United States Army to speed up the U.S. citizenship process; he received citizenship in 1959. He lived in Macomb, Illinois, and taught English at Western Illinois University in the early 1970s, before settling in Forest Park, Illinois and later in Oak Park, Illinois. He served as editor of a medical journal through much of the decade.

Rondi Reed (born October 26, 1952; Dixon, Illinois) is an American stage actress, singer and performer.

Reed has been a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, Illinois, for 30 years, appearing in 51 productions with the company.

Reed graduated from Illinois State University in 1977.

She has starred on Broadway in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and The Grapes of Wrath, among others. Beginning July 13, 2005, she originated the role of Madame Morrible in the Chicago production of the musical Wicked. She departed the production May 8, 2007 and was replaced by Barbara Robertson. She then originated the role of Mattie Fae Aiken in the Broadway production of August: Osage County for which she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.

She later reprised her role of Madame Morrible in Wicked in Chicago, beginning June 27, 2008. Her second run ended November 18, 2008 and she was again replaced by Robertson. She then reprised her role as Mattie Fae Aiken in the London production of August: Osage Country before returning to Madame Morrible in the Broadway production of Wicked. She began performances March 17, 2009, replacing Jayne Houdyshell and bowed out as the evil headmistress on June 27, 2010, to star in the Australian production of August in Sydney. The limited engagement of the show ran from August 13-September 25, 2010. She is also a recurring guest star on the CBS's sitcom Mike & Molly, as Peggy Biggs, Mike's mother. She has currently starred in 15 episodes.

David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing the psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he won four Emmy Awards during the series' run.

Pierce, the youngest of four siblings, was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the son of Laura Marie (née Hughes) and George Hyde Pierce, an insurance agent and aspiring actor. He has three older siblings: Barbara, Nancy, and Thomas, and adapted his name as an adult.

As a child, Pierce became very interested in the piano and frequently played organ at the local Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs. He began acting while in high school, earning recognition as best Dramatic Arts student. In 1977, Pierce received the Yaddo Medal for character and scholarship and worked in theater while a counselor at Camp Kabeyun in New Hampshire. However, his love of music was still strong, so he decided to study classical piano at Yale University. However, Pierce soon grew bored with music history lessons and found that he wasn’t dedicated enough to practice the required number of hours to become a successful concert pianist. Instead, he graduated in 1981 with a double major in English and Theatre Arts.

John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Pointe Blank, The Thin Red Line, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, and 1408.

Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American Catholic family. His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. His father, Dick Cusack (1925–2003), was an actor, as are his siblings, Ann, Joan, Bill, and Susie. His father was also a documentary filmmaker, owned a film production company, and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan. Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in [his] belly".

Cusack gained fame in the mid-1980s after appearing in teen movies such as Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer, and Sixteen Candles. Cusack made a cameo in the 1988 music video for "Trip At The Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies. In 1989 he starred as Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.... His roles broadened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare such as the politically themed True Colors and the film noir thriller The Grifters. He was later offered the role of the title character of Fred in the film Drop Dead Fred, but dropped out due to a death in his family.

Ione Skye Lee ( /aɪˈoʊni/; born Ione Skye Leitch; September 4, 1970) is an English-born American actress who became a teen idol after the 1989 movie Say Anything.... In 2006 VH1 placed her at Number 84 on its "100 Greatest Teen Stars" list.

Skye was born Ione Skye Leitch in Hertfordshire, England, the daughter of folk singer/songwriter Donovan and model Enid Karl (née Stulberger). Her father is Scottish and her mother is an American from a Jewish family. She is the younger sister of Camp Freddy singer Donovan Leitch, who is married to former model Kirsty Hume. Skye was brought up in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Connecticut. She attended Immaculate Heart High School and Hollywood High School for the Performing Arts in 1987.

Skye's best-known performance was as Diane Court in the 1989 film Say Anything... She made her film debut in River's Edge in 1986, and played the title character in The Rachel Papers (1989). In 1992, she played the role of Eleanor Grey on the short-lived TV show Covington Cross and a supporting role in the Stephen La Rocque film Samantha. She also had a small but well-received part in the 2007 David Fincher film Zodiac, and appeared in the music video for the Harvey Danger song "Sad Sweetheart Of The Rodeo."