Hugh Laurie

James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE (born 11 June 1959) (/ˌhjuː ˈlɒri/), is an English actor, writer, director, musician, singer, comedian, and author. He first became known as one-half of the Fry and Laurie double act with his friend and comedy partner Stephen Fry, whom he joined in the cast of A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Blackadder, and Jeeves and Wooster in the 1980s and 1990s.

From 2004 to 2012, he played Dr. Gregory House, the protagonist of House, for which he received two Golden Globe awards and two Screen Actors Guild awards. Laurie was listed in the 2011 Guinness World Records as the most watched leading man on television and was one of the highest-paid actors in a television drama, earning £250,000 ($409,000) per episode in House.

Early life

Laurie was born in Oxford. The youngest of four children, he has an older brother named Charles Alexander Lyon Mundell Laurie and two older sisters named Susan and Janet. He had a strained relationship with his mother, Patricia (née Laidlaw). He notes that his mother "was Presbyterian by character, by mood" and that he was "a frustration to her... she didn't like me". His father, William George Ranald Mundell Laurie, was a doctor who also won an Olympic gold medal in the coxless pairs (rowing) at the 1948 London Games.

Omar Epps

Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. His film roles include Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball. His television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the medical drama series ER, J. Martin Bellamy in Resurrection and Dr. Eric Foreman on the Fox medical drama series House from 2004 to 2012.

Early life

Epps was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents divorced during his childhood and he was raised by his mother, Bonnie Maria Epps, an elementary school principal. He lived in several neighborhoods while growing up (Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and Flatbush). Before he started acting, he belonged to a rap group called Wolfpack which he formed with his cousin in 1991. He began writing poetry, short stories and songs at the age of ten and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Career

Early in Epps's career, he was most often cast in the roles of troubled teens and/or athletes. He made his feature film debut with rapper Tupac Shakur as the star of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson's directorial film debut Juice. The film is the violent and tragic story of four young men growing up in Harlem.

Robert Sean Leonard

Robert Lawrence Leonard (born February 28, 1969), better known by his stage name Robert Sean Leonard, is an American actor. He is known for playing Dr. James Wilson in the television series House (2004–2012) and Neil Perry in the film Dead Poets Society. Leonard won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in The Invention of Love in 2001. His other Broadway credits include Candida, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Breaking the Code, The Speed of Darkness, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Arcadia, The Music Man, Born Yesterday, and To Kill a Mockingbird. From 2013 to 2014, Leonard has a recurring role as Dr. Roger Kadar on the television series Falling Skies.

Early life

Leonard was born in Westwood, New Jersey, the son of Joyce Patricia (née Peterson), a nurse, and Robert Howard Leonard, a teacher of Spanish. He grew up in Ridgewood, where he attended Ridgewood High School before moving on to Fordham University and later Columbia University School of General Studies (GS).

Jesse Spencer

Jesse Gordon Spencer (born 12 February 1979) is an Australian actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Billy Kennedy on the Australian soap opera Neighbours (1994-2000, 2005), Dr. Robert Chase on the American medical drama House (2004-2012) and Lt. Matthew Casey on the American drama Chicago Fire (2012–present).

Early life

Spencer was born in Melbourne. His parents, Robyn and Rodney Spencer, are the founders of the Australians Against Further Immigration political party; they have run several times as candidates in federal and state elections for that party and for One Nation. Spencer stated in an interview that he did not want to talk about his parents' politics. Growing up, he supported AFL team Western Bulldogs whilst attending Canterbury Primary School, Malvern Central School, and the private Scotch College. While there, he auditioned for the long-running soap opera Neighbours. He completed his VCE and had gained a place at Monash University but deferred to pursue acting.

House (TV series)

House (also called House, M.D.) is an American television medical drama that originally ran on the Fox network for eight seasons, from November 16, 2004 to May 21, 2012. The show's main character is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a pain medication-dependent, unconventional, misanthropic medical genius who leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey. The show's premise originated with Paul Attanasio, while David Shore, who is credited as creator, was primarily responsible for the conception of the title character. The show's executive producers included Shore, Attanasio, Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, and film director Bryan Singer. It was filmed largely in Century City.