7 Questions With…

Not many people can come across as serious in a tight leopard-print dress. Especially not when they tend toward exuberance — really loud exuberance. But Mary Murphy, longtime judge on So You Think You Can Dance, glams up and shouts out. And if you doubt how serious she is, watch her observing hopefuls on the 16th season of FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, airing Mondays. A champion ballroom dancer, Murphy remains passionate about beautifully executed lifts and knows the moment a dancer’s concentration breaks. She’s also basking in the glory that dance has finally come into its own. […]

As Kenneth, the aide to JJ DiMeo (who has cerebral palsy), Cedric Yarbrough plays the sea of calm in an often-frenetic household on Speechless (airing Fridays on ABC). In person, the towering man gives off the same laid-back vibe. “He’s such a fun comic contrast in that family,” says Tim Doyle, a producer on Speechless. “He is a jovial, oddball presence, but he also has a prospective on it. And he has that wonderful gentle giant quality when dealing with [JJ]. He is just great. At an ABC event Yarbrough answered our “7 Questions.” What movie can you watch over […]

Of the many shows Mark-Paul Gosselaar has acted on over the last 32 years, the one that has the most fans stopping him remains Saved by the Bell. He smiles broadly that the 1989-92 series still touches people. “The thing I find odd is younger generations recognizing me from watching the show,” says Gosselaar, now 44. He’s since starred on NYPD Blue, Raising the Bar, Franklin & Bash and many others, including Pitch, which he loved and was “blindsided” when it was canceled. “As actors, you deal with a lot of heartbreak,” he says. “That job you auditioned for and […]

Richard Schiff may well be the face of exasperation. Maybe because even in rooms crammed with smart folks, one gets the feeling he is a bit more intelligent. As Dr. Aaron Glassman on The Good Doctor, ABC’s Monday night drama about a brilliant young doctor with savant syndrome, Schiff plays a physician, former hospital president and cancer patient. Schiff chatted about growing up in New York City, where he was an elite student. He attended a top public school, the Bronx High School of Science, but dropped out and later earned his degree. Always a math whiz, he put that […]

Lil Rel Howery was the life of the party. As a FOX fete quickly became a scene, with actors, publicists, executives and reporters crowding into a Los Angeles restaurant, the music grew loud, and the booze flowed. It felt a bit like a social hurricane, and at its eye was a compact man wearing a bright yellow leather jacket, sizable diamond studs in both ears and a necklace with an ankh (the Egyptian symbol for life). Lil Rel Howery, star of the FOX sitcom Rel had people swirling around him, slapping him on the back and whispering in his ear […]