These guys and gals may be all over Hollywood - big screen, small screen, behind the camera, in front of it, possibly on the side of it - but they all come from the same place: the University of Pennsylvania.
Aaron Karo
Aaron Karo graduated from Wharton in 2001, and he's been trading on his Penn days ever since! His "Ruminations on College Life" began as an e-mail to his friends when he was a freshman. It soon blossomed into an e-mail-based column about life as a frat boy (he was a member of the old ZBT), which begat contributions to College Humor, two books and a stand-up career chronicling how one can maintain frat status as a 20-something. In other words, he may be an up-and-coming star with a sitcom development deal and a stint as a talking head on I Love the '90s, but he's still that guy who loves his keg stands.
Becki Newton
Becki Newton currently stars as scheming secretary Amanda on Ugly Betty. But if you ever have any questions about Napoleon or World War I, better ask the real-life Newton, who graduated from Penn in 2000 with a degree in European History. After guest turns on shows like American Dreams and Law & Order: SVU (hey, hey, Alumni Network!), Newton got her first starring role on the ABC telenovela last year.
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks is not just Beth (aka that crazy sex girl) from The 40 Year Old Virgin. She's also J.D.'s baby mama on Scrubs! Seriously though, Banks is a 1996 magna cum laude graduate of Penn, back when she was known as Liz Mitchell. Her next big project is Spiderman 3, where she reprises the role of secretary Betty Brant. And of course, a return to Scrubs to explain why she lied to J.D. about having a miscarriage. Which better come soon, Scrubs.
Candice Bergen
Before she tried to blow up bitching beauty queens in Miss Congeniality, before she got the best of a vice president with her role on Murphy Brown (don't attack a fictional single mom, Dan Quayle, until you learn to spell potato), Candice Bergen was Penn's Homecoming Queen in 1964. She essentially failed out after two years, but as she has said, an 8 a.m. art class is way too early. And at least she had those acting chops - she was a member of the Pennsylvania Players - to fall back on.
Dick Wolf
Dick Wolf would be a noteworthy graduate of Penn if he made just one show with an eerie chiming sound effect. Instead, he made three, well four, shows ... but let's focus on the ones NBC didn't unjustly cancel. The creator of the insanely successful Law & Order series became a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity while he was at Penn in the late '60s, when he quite possibly came up with the idea for the show after a really crazy Handcuffs and Handles party.
