Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 – March 2, 1894) was a lawyer and Confederate general in the American Civil War. He served under Stonewall Jackson and then Robert E. Lee for almost the entire war, rising from regimental command to lieutenant general and the command of an infantry corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. He was the Confederate commander in key battles of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, including a daring raid to the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The articles written by him for the Southern Historical Society in the 1870s established the Lost Cause point of view as a long-lasting literary and cultural phenomenon.

Early was born in Franklin County, Virginia, third of ten children of Ruth Hairston and Joab Early. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1837, ranked 18th of 50. During his tenure at the Academy he was engaged in a dispute with a fellow cadet named Lewis Addison Armistead. Armistead broke a mess plate over Early's head, an incident that prompted Armistead's resignation from the Academy. After graduating from the Academy, Early fought against the Seminole in Florida as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery regiment before resigning from the Army for the first time in 1838. He practiced law in the 1840s as a prosecutor for both Franklin and Floyd Counties in Virginia. He was noted for a case in Mississippi, where he beat the top lawyers in the state. His law practice was interrupted by the Mexican-American War, serving as a Major with the 1st Virginia Volunteers from 1847–1848. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1841–1843.

Nathan Fillion (pronounced /ˈfɪljən/, as in million; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian actor, currently starring as Richard Castle on the ABC series Castle. He is also known for his portrayal of the lead role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series Firefly and its feature film continuation, Serenity.

He has acted in traditionally distributed films like Slither and Trucker, Internet-distributed films like Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, voice-over work like the video games Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach, television soap operas and sitcoms, and in the theatre.

Fillion was born in Edmonton, Alberta, the younger son of Cookie and Bob Fillion, both of whom are retired English teachers. He has an older brother, Jeff, and attended Holy Trinity Catholic High School, Concordia University College of Alberta, and the University of Alberta, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society. According to Fillion, he is descended from Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early.

After working in several theatre, television and film productions, including Theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre and the improvised soap opera Die-Nasty, Fillion moved to New York City in 1994 where he acted in the soap opera One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan, for which he was nominated in 1996 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series. In 1997, he left the series to pursue other projects (but would return for a brief guest appearance in 2007).

Peter Early (June 20, 1773 – August 15, 1817) was an American lawyer, jurist and politician.

He was born near Madison, Virginia in 1773, the son of Joel Early and Lucy Smith. His cousin, Jubal Early, was the grandfather of Confederate General Jubal Anderson Early (1816–1894). Peter Early graduated from the Lexington Academy (current-day Washington and Lee University). He later graduated from Princeton College in 1792. His family moved to Wilkes County, Georgia that same year; however, Peter Early was studying law with Jared Ingersoll in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After finishing his legal studies, Early joined his family in Wilkes County, married Ann Adams Smith in 1793 and began his law practice in Washington, Georgia, in 1796.

Early was elected as a Representative from Georgia to the 8th United States Congress to serve the remainder of the term left vacant by the resignation of John Milledge, and he was reelected to the 9th Congress. During his congressional service, Early was one of the managers of the prosecution in the impeachment trials against John Pickering, New Hampshire United States District Court judge, in January 1804 and Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, in December of that same year. Early did not seek reelection in 1806 for the 10th Congress.

Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an American television weatherman as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays from 6am to 7am ET, one hour earlier than Today. He holds an expired American Meteorological Society Television Seal, #238. Writing with Dick Lochte, Roker began a series of murder mysteries in 2009 that feature Billy Blessing, a celebrity chef turned amateur detective. The second book in the series, The Midnight Show Murders (2010), was nominated for a 2011 Nero Award.

Roker was born in Queens, New York, the son of Isabel, of Jamaican descent, and Albert Lincoln Roker, Sr., a labor relations negotiator, bus driver and dispatcher of Bahamian descent. Roker initially wanted to be a cartoonist. He was raised Catholic (in the faith of his mother) and graduated from Xavier High School in Manhattan. He worked on several projects as a member of the school's Cartooning & Illustration Club. He attended the State University of New York at Oswego where he double-majored in graphic design and broadcasting/journalism. Roker is the cousin of the late actress Roxie Roker, who was most notable for her role on the sitcom The Jeffersons and the mother of popular rock musician Lenny Kravitz.

William "Willie" Geist (born May 3, 1975) is host of MSNBC's Way Too Early with Willie Geist, a co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and contributor to several NBC News programs. Geist also hosts a satirical video blog on MSNBC.com called Zeitgeist. Geist also is a frequent fill in for Matt Lauer on the Today Show.

Geist is the author of the New York Times bestselling book American Freak Show, released on October 12, 2010, and of Loaded! Become a Millionaire Overnight and Lose 20 Pounds in 2 Weeks or Your Money Back!, a satire of the popular self-help genre, released on May 10, 2011.

Geist was born in Evanston, Illinois, to author, columnist, and current CBS News correspondent Bill Geist and social worker Jody Geist.

He attended Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, where he was captain of the football and basketball teams. He later went on to graduate from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. While at Vanderbilt, he was an editor of the university’s official student newspaper, The Vanderbilt Hustler.