Hayden Leslie Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989 in Palisades, Rockland County, New York. She is the daughter of Alan L. “Skip” Panettiere, a fire department lieutenant and Lesley R. Vogel, a former soap opera actress.

Panettiere attended South Orangetown Middle School in New York. She was educated at home from the 9th grade through high school. Currently Panettiere has postponed higher education in favor of pursuing her acting career.

Panettiere first appeared on screen at eleven months old. She starred in commercials as a baby. As a child Panettiere began acting in daytime television. She held roles on the soap opera One Life to Live and Guiding Light. Panettiere’s most prominent role was that of Claire Bennet in the NBC series Heroes. The show ran from 2006 to 2010.

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Robert William “Bobby” Flay was born on December 10, 1964 in New York City. His parents are Bill and Dorothy Flay. Flay dropped out of high school at age 15.

Flay worked many restaurant jobs as a young man. One of his jobs was making salads at Joe Allen Restaurant in New York’s Theatre District. Flay’s boss recognized his natural ability and paid his tuition to attend the French Culinary Institute. Flay received a degree in culinary arts in 1984.

After culinary school, he started working for several restaurants. The stressful business moved Flay around a lot. Flay held several executive chef potions in several establishments. Flay took the position of executive chef at Mesa Grill in 1991. This career move was pivotal for Flay. It lead to many of his profitable successes.

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Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on February 23, 1994 in Conyers, Georgia. She is better known as Dakota Fanning. Fanning is the daughter of Steve J., an electronics salesman, and Joy Fanning. Fanning attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California.

Fanning first acting job was at the age of five. She starred in a Tide commercial. Fanning’s first notable job was a guest role on NBC’s drama ER. Fanning’s career skyrocket in 2001. Fanning starred opposite Sean Penn in the movie I Am Sam. The film is a story of a mentally challenged man who fights for the custody of his daughter.

Fanning’s performance as Penn’s daughter earned her a Screen Actor’s Guild nomination. At the age of seven she became the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

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Mitchel David “Mitch” Albom was born on May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey. Albom attended high schools in Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia. One of his schools included Akiba Hebrew Academy in Lower Merion. Albom attended Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Albom went on to graduate school and earned Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Albom then received a MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

Albom worked his way through graduate school with a few minor writing jobs. He wrote for the Queens Tribune, a weekly newspaper. Albom even he wrote for local supermarket circulars. Eventually he took a part-time job with SPORT magazine, which began his interest in sports writing. Albom freelanced as a sports writer for multiple publications such as Sports Illustrated, GEO, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Albom earned his first full-time position in 1983. He was hired as a full-time feature writer for The Fort Lauderdale News Sun Sentinel. Eventually he became a columnist. In 1985 Albom won the Associated Press Sports Editors award for best Sports News Story. This lead to Albom’s promotion to lead sports columnist for The Detroit Free Press. In 1989 Albom branched out from sports writing. He was asked to write a non-sports column. The column ran on Sundays in the “Comment” section. It dealt with American life and values. Eventually Albom’s column was syndicated across the country.

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Jeffrey Jacob “J. J.” Abrams was born June 27, 1966 in New York. Abrams was raised in Los Angeles. His parents are television producer Gerald W. Abrams, and executive producer Carol Abrams. Abrams’ first job in the movie business was at age sixteen. He wrote music for Don Dohler’s film Nightbeast.

Abrams attended Sarah Lawrence College. During Abrams’ senior year at college he wrote a film treatment. That treatment was purchased by Touchstone Pictures and became Abrams’ first production. Taking Care of Business was released in 1990. One year later Abrams produced Regarding Henry.

Abrams had success very early in his career. His projects were often very successful. In 1998 Abrams co-produced the box office hit Armageddon. Still in 1998, Abrams made his first attempt at television production with Felicity, which ran for four seasons on The WB Network. Abrams founded his own production company called Bad Robot. With Bad Robot, Abrams created and executive-produced ABC’s Alias. He also co-created and executive produced Lost.

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Rhonda Byrne was born on March 12, 1951. She is a native Australian television writer and producer. Byrne is best known her book and film, The Secret. Byrne began her career as a radio producer before moving into television production.

Many of her shows won industry awards and were screened in major countries outside Australia. Byrne has served as producer for Sensing Murder, a television series in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Byrne has also worked on the Australian TV series World’s Greatest Commercials and Marry Me.

In 2006 Byrne released the DVD and the book The Secret. The self help concepts that are presented are based upon William Walker Atkinson’s prior works and school of thought. By the spring of 2007 Byrne had sold nearly 4 million copies of the book and over 2 million copies of the DVD.

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Paula Deen was born on January 19, 1947 in Albany, Georgia. She attended Albany High School, and married not long after. In 1989 she divorced Jimmy Deen, to whom she had been married since 1965. Deen took her cooking experience and began a catering service in Savannah, Georgia. Deen began by making sandwiches and other meals and her sons Jamie and Bobby delivered the food.

The business was called The Bag Lady. It was successful and soon outgrew her kitchen. On January 8, 1996, Deen opened her first restaurant, The Lady & Sons, in Savannah. The southern style menu was very well received. Deen’s restaurant was very popular and she soon opened a second establishment. The “Paula Deen Buffet” at Harrah’s Tunica Casino in Tunica, Mississippi opened in 2008.

Deen has released several cookbooks. In 1997 Deen published The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking and The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking 2. The books were very successful and she has released two more since.

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Dan Brown was born June 22, 1964 in Exeter, New Hampshire. Brown grew up on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy. There his father, Richard G. Brown, was a teacher of mathematics, and wrote textbooks.

Brown graduated from Phillips Exeter and then attended Amherst College. At Amherst Brown was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. Brown spent the 1985 school year abroad in Seville, Spain. He enrolled in an art history course at the University of Seville during that semester. Brown graduated from Amherst in 1986. After graduation Brown dabbled with a musical career.

He formed his own record company called Dalliance. In 1990 Brown released a CD entitled Perspective. In 1991 Brown moved to Hollywood to pursue his music career. To support himself, he taught classes at Beverly Hills Preparatory School.
Brown released two albums in the early 1990’s. The albums did not accumulate much success.

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Jeffrey Marshall “Jeff” Foxworthy was born on September 6, 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the son of Jimmy Abstance and Carole Linda Foxworthy. Foxworthy attended Hapeville High School. He went on to attend Georgia Tech in Atlanta, but did not graduate. Foxworthy spent five years working at IMB, where his father worked, in mainframe computer maintenance.

In 1984 Foxworthy entered and won the Great Southeastern Laugh-Off at Atlanta’s Punchline Comedy Club. That was the springboard to launch Foxworthy’s extensive comedy career. As a stand-up comedian, Foxworthy was well received. He became known for his “you might be a redneck…” one-liners. Foxworthy published his first book titled, You might Be a Redneck If…, in 1989. In 1990 Foxworthy received the award for “Best Stand-Up Comic” at the American Comedy Awards. By 1993 he released his first comedy album. You Might Be a Redneck If… sold over three million copies and turned the catchphrase into a fad.

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Herman Cain is a businessman, politician, and radio host who is a candidate for the Republican nomination. He is the CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and was the chairman of the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansaas City. He currently serves as a minister at the Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, Georgia. EDUinReview will now take a look at his education background.

Cain was born on December 13, 1945, in Memphis Tennessee. His parents are Lenora and Luther Cain, Jr. In 1967, Cain graduated from Morehouse College, where he studied mathematics. Four years later, he earned a Master of Science degree from Purdue University, where he studied computer science. Cain earned his master’s degree while he was working as a full-time ballistics employee for the U.S. Department of the Navy. Cain has received eight honorary degrees from Creighton, Johnson & Wales, Morehouse College, University of Nebraska, New York City Technical College, Purdue, Suffolk University, and Tougaloo College.

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