Lisa Marie Diane Kudrow was born in Encino, California on July 30, 1963 to Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee, a physician specializing in headaches. Lisa Kudrow came belatedly to acting, having focused more on athletics and academics both in high school and in college. She attended Vassar where she earned a BS in Psychobiology while playing tennis on the school’s varsity team.

After graduating from college, she returned to the West Coast where she contemplated following in her father’s footsteps. In fact, she was working as a medical researcher when her brother’s best friend, the actor Jon Lovitz, suggested she consider showbiz and encouraged her to audition for the legendary improv comedy troupe “The Groundlings.”

The brainy beauty was accepted into the ensemble and proceeded to hone her skills until she started landing bit roles on TV shows like Cheers, Newhart and Coach. Her big break came in 1992 when she was hired to portray Ursula Buffay, a recurring character on Mad about You.

A couple of years later, she parlayed that success into the role she will probably forever be associated with, namely, that of Phoebe Buffay, on Friends. During that landmark series’ ten-year run, Lisa would win an Emmy and more nominations than any of her talented co-stars. Still, all three Friends’ female cast members would make history by signing contracts paying them a record million dollars each per episode.  Aforementioned, Mrs.  Kudrow won Emmy Awards for Friends but also for The Opposite of Sex, The Comeback and Web Therapy. 

Born in Chicago on July 13, 1942, Harrison Ford has Irish, German and Jewish roots. He was a late bloomer who only developed an interest in acting during his senior year of college. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked as carpenter for almost a decade while struggling trying to launch his showbiz career.

He was finally discovered in 1973 while installing cabinets in the home of George Lucas. The director cast him in American Graffiti, which in turn, led to his landing the iconic character Hans Solo in Star Wars, and the rest, as they say, is cinematic history.

Ford went on to play the title role in the Indiana Jones franchise, and to make memorable outings in such hit movies as The Fugitive, Witness, Air Force One, What Lies Beneath, Presumed Innocent, Blade Runner, Frantic, Apocalypse Now and Clear and Present Danger, to name a few. Here, the Oscar-nominated thespian (for Witness) talks about his latest outing opposite Chad Boseman as Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager Branch Rickey in 42, a biopic about Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in baseball.

Kam Williams: Hi Mr. Ford, thanks so much for the interview. I’m very honored to have this opportunity to speak with you.

Harrison Ford: That’s kind of you to say, Kam [Williams].

Gymnast Gabrielle Christina Victoria Douglas was born in Virginia Beach on December 31st, 1995. At the 2012 London Summer Olympics, she won gold medals in both the team and individual all-around competitions.

Gabby is the first African-American gymnast as well as the first woman of color of any nationality in Olympic history to become the Individual All-Around Champion. She is also the first American gymnast to win gold in both the gymnastic individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympic Games.

She was introduced to gymnastics by way of a cartwheel. Her older sister, Arielle, a former gymnast and competitive cheerleader, was determined to teach the toddler the sport she loved. Gabrielle immediately picked up her older sister’s love of the sport and soon taught herself how to do a one armed cartwheel.

Gabrielle vividly remembers flipping around the house and off the furniture from the age of four. After a couple years of poking and prodding, Arielle convinced their mother to allow her little sister to train at a local gym. Once formal training began, another two years was all it took for her to be crowned the State of Virginia’s Gymnastics Champion.

Mrs. Schultz penned about travel for many publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Oprah: The O Magazine, Condé Nast Traveller, Harper's Bazaar, Departures, Travel Weekly and Real Simple. She also wrote for guides like Frommer’s and Berlitz. Patricia Schultz is a popular speaker at travel shows, museums, associations, organizations in the U.S. and abroad. In more than 25 years of travel writing, Patricia Schultz’s passion and curiosity has not faded. In 2008, Patricia Schultz was chosen by Forbes among the 25 most influential women in travel.

Mrs. Schultz is the authoress of the #1 New York Times bestseller of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. It is a 2003 travel book published by Workman. A revised edition was published in November 2011. The updated version now lists circa 1,100 places to visit. The new edition is in color. In addition, an iPad app debuted in December 2011. Noteworthily, 1,000 Places is an avant-garde book. Since its first edition in 2003, it became possible to see the fax numbers, websites, e-mail addresses, among other information for tours, etc. Furthermore, the authoress went to 80% of the countries covered in her book. So, the information is far from being solely theoretical; it is also based on real and personal experiences. In this regard, the public really connected with that. The book covers chapters from the five continents and is well documented. This is what the media have to say about the new edition of Mrs. Schultz’s book: “The world’s bestselling travel book is back in a more informative, more experiential, more budget-friendly full-color edition. A #1 New York Times bestseller, 1,000 Places reinvented the idea of travel book as both wish list and practical guide.”  The books have sold over 4 million copies in the English language market alone, with twenty-five translations available around the world. Aforementioned, Mrs. Schultz is a veteran travel journalist with 25 years of experience under her belt. She also executive-produced a Travel Channel television show based on 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. This series started on March 29, 2007. The same year a follow-up edition of the book appeared. It was entitled 1,000 PLACES TO SEE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA BEFORE YOU DIE. Schultz also co-authored Made in Italy and wrote 1,000 Places to See Before You Die Traveler’s Journal among other travel books. 

Quvenzhané “Nazie“ Wallis was born on August 28, 2003 (the 60th anniversary of the Dr.  MLK's famous speech "I Have A Dream"), in Houma, Louisiana where she attends Honduras Elementary School. She is the daughter of Venjie and Qulyndreia Wallis.  Her siblings are Qunyquekya, Vejon and Venjie Jr.

Nazie loves reading, singing, dancing, acting and playing her iPod and Nintendo DS. She’s a big fan of China McClain, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, and her favorite sports are basketball, volleyball, dance and cheerleading.

On January 10th 2013, Wallis, a child prodigy became the youngest actress in the U.S. history to receive a nomination for an Oscar as Best Actress for the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2012 and won the Grand Jury Prize.  The film received the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for Best first Feature Film in France.  Wallis is currently working on Steve McQueen's upcoming film 12 Years a Slave with Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt. The movie is based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana.

When people see luminosity, for instance, they may think of Thomas Edison but it was his right-hand man, Louis Latimer, an African-American, who developed the filament for the light bulb, allowing it to function for more than three days. He also created the electric lamp, did trailblazing work in incandescent lighting, and diagrammed the telephone for Alexander Graham, among other things. The three-way automatic traffic signal was created in 1922 by Garrett Morgan, an African-American, who also invented the gas masks which saved multiple lives during wars. George Washington Carver revolutionized American agriculture through his work on crop rotation, replenishing nutrients in depleted soil, peanuts, soybeans, sweet potatoes and pecans. Jan Matzeliger created the shoe lasting machine that allowed the mass production of shoes. Dr. Charles Drew MD gave us blood plasma that saved hundreds of millions of lives, just to name a few. All four of these Black men were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for their innovations and inventions.

From the potato chip to the ironing board, from refrigeration systems to sound equipment like the microphone chip, many objects that we use daily were created by Blacks. This is what Keith Holmes’ book is all about as he provides a glance into the socioeconomic and political history of Blacks.

Hence, Black Inventors: Crafting Over 200 Years of Success identifies African, African- American and Caribbean inventors from over seventy countries and five continents. The researcher Keith C. Holmes uncovered over fifteen thousand innovations, inventions and trademarks by inventors of color spanning a period from 1769 - 2011. Holmes has crafted one of the first books which traces inventions by Black men and women in the world. Thus, the book exposes inventions, patents and labour-saving devices developed by Black inventors from many countries: the U.S. (including almost all 50 states), Belize, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Jamaica, etc. The readers will also learn about the contribution of the Native Americans which brings more originality to the book.