Leslie Uggams (born May 25, 1943, New York City) is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her work in Hallelujah, Baby! and the miniseries Roots. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Uggams was born in New York City. Her father was a singer and her mother was a dancer.She attended the Professional Children's School of New York and Juilliard.

Uggams started in show business as a child in 1950, playing the niece of Ethel Waters on Beulah. Uggams made her singing debut on the Lawrence Welk Show and was a regular on Sing Along with Mitch, starring record producer-conductor Mitch Miller.In 1960, she sang, off-screen, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" in the film Inherit the Wind. Uggams came to be recognized by TV audiences as an upcoming teen talent in 1954 on the NBC/CBS hit musical quiz show series "Name That Tune" (1953-9) along with child hitmaker Eddie Hodges.

Her records "One More Sunrise"(an English-language cover of Ivo Robic's "Morgen", 1959) and "House Built On Sand" made Billboard Magazine's charts.

Valerie Harper (born August 22, 1939) is an American actress, known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television show The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and for her starring roles on the sitcoms Rhoda (a spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and Valerie.

Harper was born at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, Rockland County, New York. Her Canadian-born mother, Iva (née McConnell), was a nurse, and her father, Howard Donald Harper, was a lighting salesman. Harper is of French and British ancestry, and was raised Roman Catholic, although at an early age she "quit" the church. The family moved every two years because of her father's promotions, living in South Orange, New Jersey. St. Andrews in Pasadena, California (where Harper attended the school St. Andrews); Monroe, Michigan, at age 10, where she attended St. Mary's Academy; then Ashland, Oregon "at [age] 11 to 13"; and then Jersey City, New Jersey from eighth grade through age 18. When her family returned to Oregon, Harper remained in the New York City area to study ballet. She has an older sister, Leah; a younger brother, Don (originally Merrill); and a half-sister, Virginia, from her father's second marriage. Harper based her future character Rhoda Morgenstern both on her Italian stepmother, Angela Basilico, and Penny Ann Green (née Joanna Greenberg from Brooklyn), with whom she danced in the Broadway musical Wildcat.

Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS (born 1 May 1946) is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive Skin. Her distinctive voice has been supplied for animated characters, film narration, and AOL's "You have email" notification in the UK. She has spoken out as a human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign, and is now considered a "national treasure" of Nepal because of her support. She is an advocate for a number of charities and animal welfare groups such as CIWF and Viva! She has won three BAFTA awards and a British Comedy Award.

Joanna Lamond Lumley was born on 1 May 1946 in Srinagar, in the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, which was then part of British India. Her parents were Major James Rutherford Lumley, who served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, and Beatrice Rose Weir. They married in 1941. After the independence of India in 1947, the Lumleys relocated back to their home country of England^{[citation needed]}; county Kent. The family also spent time in Malaya (now Malaysia). Lumley was educated at St Mary's Convent School in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, and afterwards attended the Lucie Clayton finishing school, after being turned down by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 16.

Rose Hemingway (née Sezniak or Szczesniak) is an American actress, performer and singer, known for performing in musical theatre productions.

She was born and raised in Philadelphia, with "strict Catholic" parents. Hemingway, the sixth child of nine total siblings, recalls growing up around musicals:

Hemingway attended an all-girls prep school just outside of Philadelphia, Mount Saint Joseph Academy. A gymnast, she performed in multiple amateur theatre roles at the local community center, including adaptations of Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She joined The Rainbow Company, a youth theatre company in Philadelphia, with whom she performed across the city. Hemingway said that she "was a member of that company for most of my high school years, and I think it was there that I realized that I really wanted to pursue it professionally."

Her first acting credit after graduating from The Catholic University of America was the lead role in the TheatreWorks national tour of Junie B. Jones, which also played off-Broadway in 2006.

Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performance as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les Misérables.

LuPone was born in Northport, New York, on Long Island, the daughter of Angela Louise (née Patti), a college library administrator, and Orlando Joseph LuPone, a school administrator. Her great-grand-aunt was the celebrated nineteenth-century opera singer Adelina Patti. Her brother Robert LuPone is an actor, dancer, and director who originated the role of Zach the choreographer in A Chorus Line. Her other brother William LuPone is a teacher. When they were young, they performed on Long Island as the LuPone Trio. She is of Italian/Abruzzese descent and a graduate of Northport High School, where she studied under the musical direction of voice coach Esther Scott.

LuPone was part of the first graduating class of Juilliard's Drama Division (1968-1972: Group 1), which also included actors Kevin Kline and David Ogden Stiers. She graduated from Juilliard in 1972 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.