Michael Anthony Richards is an American actor, writer, television producer, and comedian best known for his work on the television sitcom Seinfeld. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, first entering the national spotlight when he was featured on Billy Crystal's first cable TV special. He went on to become a series regular on ABC's Fridays. He made numerous guest appearances on a variety of television shows, such as Cheers. His film credits include So I Married an Axe Murderer, Airheads, Young Doctors in Love, Problem Child, Coneheads, UHF, and Trial and Error, one of his few starring roles.
Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the title character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a police procedural series, but also exhibits comic and dramatic tones in its exploration of the main characters' personal lives. The series was produced by Mandeville Films and Touchstone Television in association with Universal Network Television.
In a motion picture, television program or video game, the opening credits or opening titles are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There may or may not be accompanying music. When opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their own, the correct term is a title sequence.
Héctor Elizondo is an American character actor. He is known for playing Phillip Watters in the television series Chicago Hope (1994–2000) and Ed Alzate in the television series Last Man Standing (2011–2021). His film roles include The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), American Gigolo (1980), Leviathan (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Runaway Bride (1999), The Princess Diaries (2001), and Valentine's Day (2010).
Steven Jay Blum is an American voice actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, his most-known roles include Spike Spiegel from the anime series Cowboy Bebop, Garazeb Orrelios from the animated series Star Wars Rebels, Wolverine from various Marvel projects, and Sub-Zero from the video game franchise Mortal Kombat. Blum has hundreds of credits in various video games, anime, cartoons, films, and various other forms of animated entertainment, and he also received a Guinness World Record in 2012 for having the most video game voice acting credits.
Makoto Iwamatsu was a Japanese-American actor, credited in almost all of his acting roles as Mako.
Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, directors, producers, and other crew members.
Daniel G. Hedaya is an American actor. He established himself as a supporting actor, often playing sleazy villains or wisecracking supporting characters. He has had supporting roles in films such as True Confessions (1981), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Tightrope, Blood Simple, Commando (1985), Wise Guys (1986), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), The Addams Family (1991), Rookie of the Year (1993), Boiling Point (1993), Clueless (1995), The First Wives Club, Daylight, Marvin's Room, Alien Resurrection (1997), A Civil Action, A Night at the Roxbury, The Hurricane, Dick, Shaft, The Crew, Swimfan (2002), Robots, and Strangers with Candy.
Melora Hardin is an American actress and singer, known for her roles as Jan Levinson on NBC's The Office and Trudy Monk on USA Network's Monk, and Tammy Cashman on Amazon Prime Video's Transparent, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Hardin stars as magazine editor-in-chief Jacqueline Carlyle on the Freeform comedy-drama The Bold Type, which aired from June 2017 to June 2021.
Fred Tatasciore is an American voice actor who has provided voices in animated and live action films, television shows, and video games. Notable characters he has voiced include Yosemite Sam, Taz, Gossamer, and the Hulk.
Stanley Kamel was an American actor, best known for his role as Dr. Charles Kroger on the American television series Monk.
In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other performing group. In music, such an outside performer is often referred to as a guest artist. In performance art, the terms guest role or guest star are also common, the latter term specifically indicating the guest appearance of a celebrity. The latter is often also credited as special guest star or special musical guest star by some production companies.
The first season of Monk originally aired in the United States on USA Network from July 12 to October 18, 2002, which consisted of 13 episodes. Tony Shalhoub, Bitty Schram, Ted Levine, and Jason Gray-Stanford were introduced as portraying the main characters. Tony Shalhoub portrayed Adrian Monk, the title character, an OCD homicide detective from San Francisco, who was removed from the force after the murder of his wife. A DVD of the season was released on June 15, 2003.