John David Cullum, known as JD Cullum (born March 1, 1966), is an American actor who made his film debut in the CBS Afternoon Playhouse Special Revenge of the Nerds in 1983, playing a jock.

Cullum was born in New York City, the son of John Cullum, noted Broadway actor, and Emily Frankel, a novelist, playwright, choreographer, and dancer. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he is a longstanding member of the Antaeus Theater Company.

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962) is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond yobbish English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel from 1997 to 2004. Since then, he has gone on to play other science fiction roles, such as the alien supervillain Brainiac on the Superman-inspired series Smallville, the omnisexual time traveller Captain John Hart in British science-fiction show Torchwood and terrorist Barnabas Greeley in Syfy's Caprica. Marsters appeared in a supporting role in the 2007 movie P.S. I Love You and as the main antagonist, Piccolo, in the 2009 fantasy adventure film Dragonball Evolution.

Marsters was born in Greenville, California, the son of a former minister and social worker. He grew up with his brother, Paul, and sister, Susan, in Modesto, California. Dreaming about becoming an actor since he played Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh in fourth grade, Marsters joined the theater group at Grace M. Davis High School acting in many plays including musicals. After graduation in 1980, Marsters studied at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California. In 1982 he moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School, but left the program after two years.

Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1964) is an English actress.

Whalley was born in Salford, Lancashire but brought up in Stockport, Cheshire where she studied at the Braeside School of Speech and Drama, Marple.

Whalley first appeared as a child in How We Used To Live and bit parts in soap operas, especially Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Her early film roles include a non-speaking part as a groupie in Pink Floyd's The Wall; and as a young Beatles fan in Birth of the Beatles.

In the post-punk era, she flirted with the fringes of the Manchester New Wave scene and was briefly a member of a Stockport-based band called the Slowguns but left before the release of their two singles. Later, she was the lead singer of the pop group Cindy & The Saffrons; in 1982, at Abbey Road Studios they recorded the Shangri-Las song "Past, Present and Future" and the next year, "Terry" by Twinkle. The group split up soon thereafter.

In 1982 she played Ingrid Rothwell in A Kind of Loving, a well received Granada TV adaptation of Stan Barstow's three Vic Brown novels. Whalley acted in the film No Surrender (Dumbarton Films with Film Four) scripted by Alan Bleasdale, released in 1985, but the film was not successful.

Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is a British pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter, of Anglo-Burmese and Jewish extraction. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has been presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.

Cullum was born in Rochford, Essex. He was brought up in Hullavington, Wiltshire.

His mother, Yvonne, is a secretary of Anglo-Burmese origin, whose family settled in North England after Burma's independence; his father, John Cullum, worked in finance. His paternal grandfather was a British Army officer, while his paternal grandmother was a Jewish refugee from Prussia who sang in Berlin nightclubs.

Cullum was educated at Grittleton House School, an independent school in the village of Grittleton, near the market town of Chippenham in Wiltshire, followed by the sixth form of Sheldon School, a state comprehensive school in the same county. He then rejected a place at the University of Oxford to go on to study English Literature and Film Studies at the University of Reading, where he graduated with First Class Honours.