Jersey Shore is an American reality television series that premiered on MTV on December 3, 2009 in the United States. The series follows the lives of eight housemates spending their summer at the Jersey Shore in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Season 2 followed the cast escaping the cold northeast winter to Miami Beach, with Season 3 returning to the Jersey Shore. The fourth season, filmed in Italy, premiered on August 4, 2011. MTV confirmed in June 2011 that Season 5 will return to Seaside Heights.

The show debuted amid large amounts of controversy regarding the use of the words "Guido/Guidette," portrayals of Italian-American stereotypes, and scrutiny from locals because the cast members were not residents of the area.

Dubbed a cultural phenomenon, the series has garnered record ratings for MTV, making it the network's most viewed series telecast ever. The series' cast has also been credited with introducing unique lexicon and phrases into American popular culture.

The University of Chicago and the University of Oklahoma are among the educational institutions that have had classes or conferences about the show. In 2010, the cast of Jersey Shore was named on Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People list, and the series has since been exported to dozens of countries worldwide.

Vincent "Vinny" Guadagnino (born November 11, 1987) is an American reality television personality and actor. He is a cast member on MTV's Jersey Shore.

Guadagnino was born and raised in Staten Island, New York, and comes from a traditional Italian-American family. His mother was born in Sicily, and his family's farm is visited during an episode in Jersey Shore's fourth season.

Guadagnino graduated from the City University of New York, Staten Island with a 3.9 GPA and was a political aide for a New York State Assemblyman.

After the success of Jersey Shore, Guadagnino has dedicated his extra time to taking acting classes and honing his craft. A self-described natural entertainer, Guadagnino’s interest in acting is focused on comedy. He recently guest-starred on MTV’s scripted comedy series The Hard Times of RJ Berger playing the role of RJ’s cousin, and was also featured in an episode of 90210 which aired November 8, 2011. Guadagnino has expressed interest in continuing to appear on 90210 in a recurring role. He appeared in another 90210 episode entitled "O Holly Night" in his recurring role.

Paul DelVecchio (born July 5, 1980), publicly known as DJ Pauly D or simply Pauly D, is an American television personality and disc jockey. He is best known for being a housemate on MTV's reality show Jersey Shore. In August 2011, he announced a pending three-album deal with 50 Cent's G-Unit Records & G-Note Records. This deal was later confirmed by 50 Cent on December 1, 2011. He is also the first of the Jersey Shore cast to get his own spin-off show, The Pauly D Project.

DelVecchio was born on July 5, 1980 and raised in the Providence, Rhode Island area, and in Johnston, Rhode Island. He attended Johnston High School. He began his career as a local DJ under the moniker Pauly D. One of his professional idols is the late DJ AM.

DelVecchio was cast in 2009 for Jersey Shore. He has stated that his being chosen for Jersey Shore had nothing to do with his music, but that they instead sent him a Myspace message after liking his look. After he sent them his number, "The casting directors called me from LA and they said they wanted to send down a camera crew to Rhode Island to film a day in my life. They filmed me at the gym, filmed me tanning and filmed me going to the club. Six months later they said I got on the show. I never really auditioned."

Marilyn Milian, (born May 1, 1961, in Astoria, New York), is a former Florida state circuit court judge and currently presides over the American television program The People's Court. She is the first female judge to preside over the long-running show and the second longest-running judge overall.

Born to Cuban parents, Milian is fluent in Spanish. She and her family moved to Miami when she was eight years old. She graduated from St. Brendan High School. Milian earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Miami, graduating summa cum laude, with a 4.0 grade point average. She then attended Georgetown University Law Center, earning her J.D., cum laude, at age 23. She spent a year working at Harvard Law School, where she served as director of training for the Guatemala Project. She was responsible for training the Guatemalan trial judiciary, defense and prosecution bar in investigatory and trial techniques.

Milian worked as an assistant state attorney for the Dade County State Attorney's Office. She was appointed to the position by Janet Reno, who was then the state attorney for the county. In 1999, Florida governor Jeb Bush appointed Milian to the Miami Circuit Court, where she served in the Criminal Division. Prior to that, she spent five years in the Miami County Court in the Domestic Violence Court, Criminal and Civil divisions. In 2001, she replaced Jerry Sheindlin as judge of The People's Court, and became the first Hispanic judge on any television court show. At some point, according to her in one of the episodes of The People's Court, she also taught law at the University of Miami.

Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (born September 27, 1982), better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Young Turk. Hot Boys debuted with Get It How U Live! that year. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the group's major selling album Guerrilla Warfare, released in 1999. Also in 1999, Lil Wayne released his Platinum debut album Tha Block Is Hot, selling over one million copies in the U.S.

Although his next two albums Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002) were not as successful (only reaching Gold status), Lil Wayne reached higher popularity in 2004 with Tha Carter, which included the single "Go D.J." Wayne also appeared on the Destiny's Child top ten single "Soldier" that year. In 2005, the sequel to Tha Carter, Tha Carter II, was released. In 2006 and 2007, Lil Wayne released several mixtapes and appeared on several popular rap and R&B singles. His most successful album, Tha Carter III, was released in 2008 and sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. its first week of release. It included the number-one single "Lollipop" featuring Static Major. It also includes the singles "A Milli" and "Got Money" featuring T-Pain and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.