Minnie Gentry (December 2, 1915 – May 11, 1993) was an American actress.

Gentry was born Minnie Lee Watson in Norfolk, Virginia, the daughter of Mincie and Taylor Watson. Her family moved to Cleveland during her childhood, where she began studying piano at the age of nine, at the Phyllis Wheatley School of Music. She began acting at the Friendly Inn Settlement and married Lloyd Gentry in 1932. Subsequently, she appeared in many plays at the African-American theater the Karamu House.

During the 1940s, Gentry performed in a number of Broadway productions and later appeared in several films, including School Daze, Def by Temptation, and Jungle Fever, as well as the television series All My Children and The Cosby Show.

Gentry's great-grandson is actor Terrence Howard.

Paul Anthony Pierce (born October 13, 1977), nicknamed The Truth, is an American professional basketball forward with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Pierce was a high school McDonald's All-American and earned First Team All-America honors in his junior year at Kansas. Pierce has been a starter every season since being selected by the Celtics with the 10th overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft. He is a ten-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA team selection, and also led Boston to the NBA Finals in 2008 and 2010, winning the 2008 NBA Finals. He was named the 2008 NBA Finals MVP in his first trip to the NBA Finals. Pierce also is one of only three Celtics, alongside Larry Bird and John Havlicek, who have scored over 20,000 points in their career with the Celtics alone. He holds the Celtics' record for most three-point field goals made. He also ranks third in team history in games played, second in points scored, seventh in total rebounds, fifth in total assists, and second in total steals. His nickname "The Truth" was given to him by Shaquille O'Neal on March 15, 2001.

Scott Simon (born March 16, 1952) is an American journalist and the host of Weekend Edition Saturday on National Public Radio.

Simon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of comedian Ernie Simon and actress Patricia Lyons, and brother to a sister who died at a young age. He grew up in major cities across the United States and Canada, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. After his father died, his mother married Ralph G. Newman, a former minor league baseball player and American Civil War scholar and author who ran the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop in Chicago.

Simon's first book, Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan, was published in the spring of 2000, and his second, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball, was published in 2002. Simon has written a book – Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption – about his family's experiences. He is also the author of two novels: Pretty Birds (2005) and Windy City: A Novel of Politics (2008).

Terrence Dashon Howard (born March 11, 1969) is an American actor and singer. Having his first major role in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus, Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of television and film roles between 2004 and 2006. His roles in movies includes Winnie, Ray, Lackawanna Blues, Crash, Four Brothers, Hustle & Flow, Get Rich or Die Tryin', Idlewild, August Rush and The Brave One. Howard co-starred in Iron Man and reprised the role in the video game adaption.

His debut album, Shine Through It, was released in September 2008.

Howard was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Cleveland, Ohio , the son of Anita Williams (née Hawkins) and Tyrone Howard. His maternal great-grandmother, Minnie Gentry, was a stage actress, as were his mother and uncles. Both of his parents were biracial, of African American and European American descent; he experienced racism throughout his childhood.^{[citation needed]} His father was involved in what has been termed the Santa Line Slaying, serving 11 months in prison on manslaughter charges after stabbing another man. At the age of 16, Howard emancipated himself from his parents and was put on welfare; at 18, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. He wanted to be a science teacher, though he had a low GPA in high school and was admitted to the Pratt Institute in New York only after convincing them to give him a special entrance exam. Howard did not complete his education, as he had joined his brother on an audition for The Cosby Show and was cast in the role. Though he did not obtain a degree, Howard claims to be an engineer. Howard had a principal role in a short-lived CBS sitcom, Tall Hopes.

Maria Muldaur (born September 12, 1943) is a folk-blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1974 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis," and continues to record albums in the folk traditions.

Muldaur was born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato in Greenwich Village, New York City, where she attended Hunter College High School.

Muldaur began her career in the early 1960s as Maria D'Amato, performing with John Sebastian, David Grisman, and Stefan Grossman as a member of the Even Dozen Jug Band. She then joined Jim Kweskin & His Jug Band as a featured vocalist and occasional violinist. During this time, she was part of the Greenwich Village scene that included Bob Dylan, and some of her recollections of the period, particularly with respect to Dylan, appear in Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary film, No Direction Home. She married fellow Jug Band member Geoff Muldaur, and after the Kweskin outfit broke up the two of them produced two albums. She began her solo career when their marriage ended in 1972, but retained her married name.