MILO VENTIMIGLIA

Milo Ventimiglia stars in Sci-Fi channel’s new ensemble drama series “Heroes” as Peter Petrelli, a male nurse and politician’s younger brother who is plagued by nightmares that he can fly.

Ventimiglia recently starred in Tom Fontana’s series “The Bedford Diaries,” which focused on a group of college students in a human sexuality class. He quickly garnered attention when he joined the casts of two critically acclaimed television dramas: “Gilmore Girls” as the quiet and complicated Jess and NBC’s “American Dreams” as a 1960s war radical. He was a recurring character on David E. Kelley’s drama “Boston Public” and he has appeared a number of times on worldwide hit “CSI: Las Vegas.”

Before joining “Gilmore Girls,” audiences became familiar with Ventimiglia when he starred in the Fox series “Opposite Sex,” which secured him a holding deal with Warner Bros. His other television credits include guest-starring roles on teen favourites such as “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”.

Switching effortlessly between the big and small screen, Ventimiglia’s passion for acting keeps him drawn to both studio and independent features. He recently completed work on the sixth installment of the “Rocky” series, playing Sylvester Stallone’s son in “Rocky Balboa.” He has also completed the political thriller “Intelligence” where he plays an investigative journalist hot on the heals of a ground breaking story. His other film credits include the new age horror story “Stay Alive,” the Wes Craven/Kevin Williamson thriller “Cursed,” the indie film “Dirty Deeds,” “Sheer Bliss” and “Massholes.” Additionally, he starred in the short films “Nice Guys Finish Last” and “Must Be the Music,” which debuted at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews.

He currently resides in Los Angeles and enjoys skateboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding. He also has a passion for restoring vintage muscle cars and is an excellent cook. His birthday is July 8.

ALI LARTER

Ali Larter plays a single mother who struggles to support her exceptionally gifted young son’s private school education and whose mirror image has a secret.

Larter starred in the successful first and second installments of the “Final Destination” franchise and opposite Reese Witherspoon in the hit film “Legally Blonde.” In addition, Larter enjoyed a successful run on the New York stage in “The Vagina Monologues.”

She had a two episode stint on “Dawson’s Creek” before making her feature film debut in the blockbuster hit “Varsity Blues.” Larter includes among her credits “A Lot Like Love,” “American Outlaws” starring opposite Colin Farrell, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” for writer/director/actor Kevin Smith, “The House on Haunted Hill,” a remake of the original Vincent Price horror classic with Taye Diggs and Geoffrey Rush, and “Drive Me Crazy.”

Larter will soon star opposite Milla Jovovich in “Resident Evil 3: Extinction” as Claire Redfield, a new character to the film series who appears in the video game “Resident Evil 2.” Larter’s other film credits include the independent film “Crazy” and the soon-to-be released “Marigold.”

A native of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Larter began modeling at the age of thirteen and traveled the world before moving to New York, where she currently resides. Her birthday is February 28.

HAYDEN PANETTIERE

Hayden Panettiere stars as Claire Bennet, a highschool cheerleader in Odessa, Texas, who learns through trial-and-error that her flesh is indestructible.

Most recently, Panettiere starred in the independent film “The Architect” opposite Anthony LaPaglia and Isabella Rosselini which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and “Mr. Gibb” for Kevin Spacey’s company, Triggerstreet. She co-stars in the upcoming romantic dramedy “Shanghai Kiss,” and will star as the lead in “Bring it On: All or Nothing,” the sequel to Universal’s box office hit.

Training rigorously and executing her own stunts, she dazzled audiences in her role as a competitive ice skater in “Ice Princess” and recorded “I Fly” for the film’s soundtrack. Her spitfire characters in both “Joe Somebody” as Tim Allen’s daughter and “Remember the Titans” with Denzel Washington helped to establish her as a unique talent. Her other film credits include “Raising Helen,” directed by Garry Marshall; “Message In a Bottle” with Kevin Costner; “Object of My Affection” with Jennifer Aniston; and “The Affair of the Necklace” with Hilary Swank. She also appeared in the hit show “Ally McBeal” as Ally’s daughter, Maddie Harrington.

Panettiere starred in the Lifetime original movie “Lies My Mother Told Me” opposite Joely Richardson and in The Disney Channel’s acclaimed “Tiger Cruise,” based on the true events of September 11th. Her HBO film, “Normal,” opposite Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson and directed by Jane Anderson, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

Panettiere’s voice is as recognizable as her face. She embodied the challenging leading role as a jockey in “Racing Stripes,” opposite the voices of Dustin Hoffman and Whoopi Goldberg. She also starred in Disney’s animated features “A Bug’s Life” as Princess Dot and “Dinosaurs” as Suri. Her work for “A Bug’s Life Read-A-Long” garnered her a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album, as well as a nomination for The Hollywood Reporter’s Young Star Award for Best Young Voiceover Talent. She has voiced a number of computer games, including “Kingdom Hearts” and “The Mark of Kri”.

Adding to her accomplishments, Panettiere has been named the new face of Neutrogena. She recently received Movieline’s Hollywood Life Magazine’s Young Hollywood Exciting New Face/ Female Award for 2005. She also has been spending time in the recording studio working on her own debut CD through Hollywood Records.

She is an ambassador, along wit h fellow ambassadors Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor, for the ICUN Wildlife Foundation, an organization that helps raise funds to support and save endangered species. As of late, she has joined forces with Pierce Brosnan to save the whales through the Whaleman Foundation.

Panettiere lives in New York with her parents and younger brother. Her birthday is on August 21.

GREG GRUNBERG

Greg Grunberg returns to our screens in SCI FI’s new drama series “Heroes” as Matt Parkman, a down-on-his-luck LAPD beat cop who is starting to hear the thoughts of others, which puts him on the trail of an elusive serial killer.

Grunberg is best known as the lovable Eric Weiss on “Alias,” where he spent four seasons thwarting the menacing plans of the world’s most dubious villains. Audiences first fell in love with Grunberg when he starred as Sean in four seasons on “Felicity.” He has appeared in multiple episode arcs on “NYPD Blue” and “Melrose Place” and has guest-starred on hit shows, such as “Diagnosis Murder,” “Murphy Brown,” “Vengeance Unlimited,” “Oh Baby,” “Rescue 77,” “Jersey,” “Players,” “Alright Already,” “Ned and Stacey” and “Relativity.”

In addition to his small screen success, Grunberg has emerged as a thriving film actor. His feature film credits include “Mission: Impossible 3,” directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Tom Cruise, “Malibu’s Most Wanted,” “Ladykillers,” “Hollow Man,” “Austin Powers: Goldmember,” “The Muse,” “BASEketball,” “Trigger Effect” and “Dinner & Driving.” Before his rise to fame, he worked for noted film producers Dino de Laurentiis and Joel Silver and co-wrote and voiced the lead character in a computer-animated pilot for HBO. Recently, he has also helped develop and starred in a few pilots, including “The Catch” with creator/executive producer J.J. Abrams and “Grand Union” for NBC.

A philanthropist by nature, Grunberg runs a charitable organization called “Hollywood Helping Hands,” which auctions off pieces of artwork that are finger-painted by celebrities to benefit the Pediatric Epilepsy Project at UCLA, since his eldest son suffers from pediatric epilepsy. He currently lives outside Los Angeles with his wife, Elizabeth, and their three young sons. His birthday is July 11.

SENDHIL RAMAMURTHY

Sendhil Ramamurthy joins new drama “Heroes” as Mohinder Suresh, a genetics professor at the University of Madras in India whose father’s disappearance leads him to uncover a secret theory – there are people with extraordinary abilities living among us.

Recently, Ramamurthy completed the feature film “Blind Guy Driving,” directed by James Keach. His other film credits include “Thanks to Gravity” opposite Sean Astin, “Orient Express” and “Little India.”

On the small screen, he starred in the series “Ultimate Force,” the television movie “My Sexiest Mistake” and the miniseries “In the Beginning.” He has also made guest appearances on “Numbers,” “The Evidence” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

In London’s West End, Ramamurthy starred in The Royal Shakespeare Company production of “A Servant to Two Masters,” directed by Tim Supple. In addition, he commanded the stage in the New York premiere of Tom Stoppard’s “Indian Ink” at the Soho Repertory Theatre and “East Is East,” directed by Scott Elliott, at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Ramamurthy is a graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Prior to drama school, he graduated from Tufts University in Boston. He was born in Chicago and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Currently, he lives in Los Angeles. His birthday is May 17.

MASI OKA

Hiro Nakamura

Masi Oka stars as Hiro Nakamura, a Tokyo nonconformist computer/anime enthusiast who develops a way to pierce the space-time continuum and move back in time through sheer will power.

No stranger to television, Oka has had recurring roles on NBC’s “Scrubs” as Franklyn and “Luis” as Deng Wu. He also guest-starred on “Without a Trace,” “Joey,” “Reba,” “The Loop,” “All of Us,” “Still Standing,” “Will & Grace,” “Yes, Dear” and “Gilmore Girls.”

His feature-film credits include memorable roles in “Along Came Polly,” “Austin Powers in Goldmember” and “House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim.”

With a background in improvisation, Oka has performed on the stages of Second City, ImprovOlympics, The Groundlings, and TheatreSports. His improvisational expertise has been showcased with guest appearances as various characters on “Punk'd,” “Reno 911” and “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment.”

After graduating from Brown University with degrees in mathematics and computer science and a theatre arts minor, Oka pursued an acting career while taking his first job at George Lucas’ Oscar-winning special effects house Industrial Light & Magic. Today, despite his successful career as an actor, he continues to provide ILM with technology for groundbreaking effects for more than 30 films, including “Pirates of the Carribean: Dean Man’s Chest”, “War of the Worlds”, and the three Star Wars prequels.

Incredibly, Masi has an IQ of 180 and was on the front cover of Time Magazine under the title of “Those Asian-American Whiz Kids”.

Oka was born in Tokyo, Japan, and moved to Los Angeles at age six, where he currently resides. He is fluent in Japanese and proficient in Spanish. His hobbies include Kendo (Japanese sword fighting), playing video games, watching and writing romantic comedies, playing the piano, and singing. His birthday is December 27.

SANTIAGO CABRERA

Santiago Cabrera plays Isaac Mendez, a heroin-addicted artist whose dark, violent and apocalyptic paintings are actual premonitions of future events.

Before becoming an actor, Cabrera originally planned on becoming a soccer player. He played soccer for three years on college scholarships in Chile and played semi-pro in London.

While training for three years at the Drama Centre London, Cabrera starred in numerous productions, including “The Last Days of Don Juan,” “The Strangeness of Others” and “Britannicus.” After graduating, his first role was “Montano” in Shakespeare’s “Othello” at the Northampton Theatre Royal and in London at The Greenwich Theatre.

Cabrera’s career break-through came when he was cast in the lead role of “Octavius” in ABC’s “Empire.” He will next be seen on screen starring opposite Brittany Murphy in “Love and Other Disasters,” as well as “Haven” opposite Orlando Bloom. The actor recently completed filming “Goal! 2: Living the Dream” and will star in the lead role in “Goal 3.”

Cabrera was born to a Chilean diplomat so he grew up all over the world, London, Romania, Toronto and Madrid. Although he considers Santiago, Chile, his hometown, he currently splits his time between London and Los Angeles. In addition to his native Spanish language, he is fluent in English, French and Italian. His birthday is May 5.

LEONARD ROBERTS

D.L. Hawkins

Leonard Roberts returns to television in SCI-FI’s new drama series “Heroes” as D.L. Hawkins, Niki Sander’s ex-lover and Micah’s father, who finds himself a fugitive from justice who continues to baffle authorities who twice have been unable to contain him.

Roberts is well known to television audiences for his role as Forrest Gates in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He starred in NBC’s miniseries “The ‘60s,” BET telefilms’ “Walking on Sunshine” and “Masquerade,” and Starz!’s “Joe and the Max” as boxer Joe Louis for director Steve James. His other television credits include recurring roles on “Providence” and the Chicago-based drama “Turks,” as well guest-starring appearances on “Bones,” “Smallville,” “Navy NCIS,” “Threat Matrix,” “CSI: Miami,” “24,” “Tru Calling,” “JAG,” “FreakyLinks,” “Due South” and Lifetime’s “Any Day Now.”

Roberts launched his film career in Chicago, appearing in small roles in “Love Jones” and Bill Duke’s gangster epic “Hoodlum,” before co-starring opposite Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s “He Got Game.” In the acclaimed film “Drumline,” he portrayed Sean, a rival high school marching band leader, opposite Nick Cannon.

Roberts began acting on stage in the Windy City, appearing in numerous productions with several of the city’s renowned theatre companies, including the Steppenwolf Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, the Shakespeare Repertory Theatre and the Northlight and Bailiwick Theatres.

The actor grew up in St. Louis and attended Chicago’s famed DePaul University Theatre School, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Currently, he resides in Santa Monica. His birthday is November 17.

ADRIAN PASDAR

Nathan Petrelli

Adrian Pasdar plays Nathan Petrelli, Peter’s (Milo Ventimiglia) over-achieving brother who is running for political office. He pretends that Peter is delusional with his fantasies of flight, but, in actuality, Nathan has a secret of his own.

On the small screen, Pasdar starred for two seasons on both “Judging Amy” and “Mysterious Ways.” He also held starring roles on “Profit” and Dick Wolf’s “Feds.” He recently recurred on the hit series “Desperate Housewives” as David Bradley, as well as on “Touched by an Angel” as Edward Tanner. Pasdar guest-starred on “The Twilight Zone,” “The Outer Limits” and “Great Performances”. Additionally, he starred in a variety of television movies, including Lifetime’s “Crossing the Line,” NBC’s “Mutiny” and “House of Frankenstein” and Showtime’s “Slave of Dreams,” as well as “The Perfect Getaway,” “Love in Another Town,” “Touched by Evil,” “The Pompatus of Love,” “Shadows of Desire,” “A Mother’s Gift,” “The Lost Capone” and “Big Time.”

Pasdar began his career in “Top Gun” when he was cast as Chipper alongside Tom Cruise, Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer. Since then, he has starred in films such as “Secondhand Lions” with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, Brian De Palma’s “Carlito’s Way,” opposite Al Pacino and Sean Penn, “Solarbabies” with Jami Gertz, Jason Patric and Lukas Haas, “Streets of Gold” with Wesley Snipes, “Near Dark” directed by Kathryn Bigelow and “Vital Signs,” starring Diane Lane.

Behind the scenes, Pasdar has written and directed a short film titled “Beyond Belief” and directed the feature film “Cement,” starring Chris Penn and Sherilyn Fenn.

Before becoming an actor, he excelled in football and attended the University of Florida on a football scholarship. After suffering an injury, he turned to acting and eventually studied at the famed Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. He became disillusioned with acting and twice turned away from it. However, his triumphant return sees him land one of the most sought after roles in television.

He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, but grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia. Pasdar currently resides in Los Angeles and New York with his wife, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, and their two children. His birthday is April 30.

TAWNY CYPRESS

Simone Deveaux

Tawny Cypress joins SCI-FI’s new ensemble drama series “Heroes” as Simone Deveaux, Isaac’s (Santiago Cabrera) beautiful girlfriend who enables his heroin addiction and whose wealthy father is dying.

Cypress has recurred in a variety of primetime and daytime series, including “Third Watch,” “Jonny Zero,” “100 Centre Street,” “All My Children” and “Guiding Light.” She has also guest starred on “NYPD Blue,” “Love Monkey” and Comedy Central’s “Stella.”

Her film credits include “Autumn in New York” with Richard Gere and Winona Ryder, “Party,” “Bella” and “Black and White.”

In addition, Cypress has appeared on stage in productions of “Drowning in Euphoria,” “The Session,” “The Tempest” and “Amadeus.”

She studied at Boston University, Westminster Choir College and Mason Gross at Rutgers University. She currently resides in New York City. She has one child and her birthday is August 8.

NOAH GRAY-CABEY

Ten-year-old Noah Gray-Cabey joins NBC’s new ensemble drama series “Heroes” as Micah Sanders, a young genius whose mother is an online stripper and whose father is serving life in prison.

Gray-Cabey was a series regular on ABC’s “My Wife & Kids,” playing the precocious Franklin. Recently, he guest-starred on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ghost Whisperer.” He also has a supporting role in M. Night Shyamalan’s highly anticipated film “Lady in the Water.”

A trained classical pianist by the age of three, Gray-Cabey is the youngest person ever to perform at the Sydney Opera Hall. He has performed across New England and Washington and traveled to Jamaica with the New England Ensemble. In 2001, he participated in fundraising concerts to benefit AIDS orphanages. After the events of September 11th, Gray-Cabey, with the help of his father, Shawn, and his mother, Whitney, organized a concert in Portland,
Maine, to raise money for Afghan children who were displaced by the Taliban’s civil unrest. As a result, “48 Hours” did a piece on Gray-Cabey’s altruistic nature and piano talents. Soon after, he was featured on “The Tonight Show,” “Dateline,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Good Morning America,” which led to his being cast on “My Wife & Kids.”

Gray-Cabey is determined to use his talents to make a real influence in the world. He has formed a foundation called “Action in Music” that broadens the horizons of inner city children by bringing them to Africa to visit AIDS victims. His birthday is November 16.