born 31 October 1970

Arnaud Berthier, Toulouse, France, animator

Craig Kelly, Lytham Saint Annes, England, actor

Elizabeth McCarthy, Toronto, Ontario, extra

Emily Gumpel, New York, New York, film editor

Farah Kay, Watermaal-Bosvoorde, Belgium, actress

Jeffry O’Brien, Colorado Springs, Colorado, actor

Malin Sofia Katerina Berggren, Gothenburg, Sweden, enigmatic Ace of Base lead singer Linn Berggren

Mark Maxham, Annapolis, Maryland, sports TV assistant director

Mark Ullod, birthplace unspecified, Spanish actor/musician

Nicky Wu, Taipei, Taiwan, actor/boy band member

Nolan North, New Haven, Connecticut, video game voice talent

Patrizia Barretto, Elizabeth, New Jersey, actress

Peter Werner, Portland, Oregon, drunken miner

Rogers Stevens, West Point, Mississippi, guitarist

Terry Alderton, Rochford, England, comedian

Zernul R. Shackelford, Chicago, Illinois, composer

Based upon this list, I’d have to conclude that before she (maybe) went crazy, Today’s Winner fronted the most globally recognizable musical act ever to make it out of their hometown. Of the others I have heard of, Jens Lenkman has a strong hipster following, and is okay; The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, on the other hand, is terrible: take my word for it.

born 30 October 1970

Ben Bailey, Bowling Green, Kentucky, cash cabby

Christopher Lehr, South Bend, Indiana, writer/batboy

Daniel Bacon, Southampton, England, actor

David Padrusch, Queens, New York, documentarian

David Quirk, Ada, Oklahoma, extra

Florin Kevorkian, Bucharest, Romania, casting director

Mark Hamilton, Bangor, Northern Ireland, medical doctor

Mark and Michael Polish, El Centro, California, writers/directors

Nia Long, Brooklyn, New York, actress

Tory Belleci, Monterey, California, model builder/mythbuster

Ulrich Rassy, Munich, West Germany, composer

You’ve got to hand it to Today’s Winner. Sure, his show is rigged, and most of the questions are way too easy too often. But he does have to drive the car, be funny, and keep the quiz show moving. Deservedly, he is the answer to the trivia question, “Who is the reigning Daytime Emmy holder for Outstanding Game Show Host?”

born 29 October 1970

Allen Wolf, Dayton, Ohio, writer/director

Cannon Smith, Nashville, Tennessee, TV producer

Christopher Wiehl, Yakima, Washington, actor

Dilip Shankar, New Delhi, India, casting director/producer

Edwin van der Sar, Voorhout, The Netherlands, soccer goalkeeper

Greg Young, Springfield, Missouri, short filmmaker

Henrique Vera-Villanueva, Caracas, Venezuela, animator

Jason Cienkus, Harvey, Illinois, music supervisor

Jason Smiley, Burlington, Vermont, short filmmaker

Joe Caniano, Queens, New York, actor

Manfred Andrej Hagbeck, Welkom, South Africa, cinematographer

Marquez Pope, Nashville, Tenessee, NFL football player

Michael Broome, New Rochelle, New York, video editor

Michael Daingerfield, Toronto, Ontario, actor

Phillip Cocu, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, soccer player

T.J. Moore, Bridgeton, New Jersey, short filmmaker

Today’s Winner, as a teenager, worked as a producer for Richard Bey, the least dynamic daytime talk show host of the early nineties, and a man I once witnessed walking down a Manhattan street wearing bike shorts and a fanny pack. This places him in the top two of embarrassing (for the star) Spot-A-Star moments I have had on the streets of Manhattan, the other being Al Franken riding a lady Schwinn up West End Avenue, wearing a helmet with protruding tiny rearview mirrors.

born 28 October 1970

Anthony Bonsante, Shakopee, Minnesota, fighter/K-Mart supervisor

Ayad Akhtar, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, actor/writer

Chris Halper, Tinley Park, Illinois, assistant director/cousin of Ken Wahl

Christian Skolmen, birthplace unspecified, Norwegian actor

Cornelius Schultze-Kraft, irgendwo im Schwarzwald (somewhere in the Black Forest), West Germany, cinematographer

Darrin Brown, Toronto, Ontario, actor/assistant director

Elena Fernández, Oviedo, Spain, actress

Gail Lynn, state of Michigan, producer

Greg Eagles, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, video game voice talent

Itai Lev, Kfar Saba, Israel, writer/director

Korey Cauchon, Whittier, California, visual effects supervisor

Leonor Silviera, Lisbon, Portugal, actress

Stefan Knoesel, Bremen, West Germany, writer

Tina-Desiree Berg, Los Angeles, California, actress

Watt Key, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, writer

Yashoda Wimaladharma, birthplace unspecified, Sri Lankan actress

Yildiz Kaplan, Istanbul, Turkey, actress

I guess the mystery man from the Black Forest has to take the prize today.

born 27 October 1970

Chris Diani, Temple, Texas, theater person

Cynthia Silver, Burlingame, California, stage actress

David Rowe, Panorama City, California, camerman/compositor/technical support engineer

Deborah D. Gagnon, birthplace unspecified, American porn star Autumn Blaze

Eisuke Tsuda, Tokyo, Japan, actor

Heydi Núñez Gómez, Santo Domingo, The Domincan Republic, Germany-based model

Hugues Peysson, Orange, France, documentarian

James Aidan, Brooklyn, New York, voiceover talent

James Logan, Dallas, Texas, stuntman

Machteld Timmermans, Hasselt, Belgium, actress

Nancy Anka, Buenos Aires, Argentina, niece of Paul Anka

Rick Wiessenhaan, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, special effects coordinator

Shannon Archuleta, Santa Rosa, California, tattoo artist

Tarcy Su, Taipei, Taiwan, singer/actress

Twiggy Bossuyt, Oudenaarde, Belgium, actress

I want to thank Today’s Winner for reminding me that there’s a movie where the top three billed performers are John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, and Udo Kier.

born 26 October 1970

Bert Emanuel, Kansas City, Missouri, NFL football player

Dian Bachar, Denver, Colorado, actor

Erika Shima, Tokyo, Japan, animation voice talent

Jessie Armstead, Dallas, Texas, NFL football player

Karl Gerhardt, Reno, Nevada, actor

Lisa Ryder, Edmonton, Alberta, actress

Mark Dana Headen, Greensboro, North Carolina, extra

Raveena Tandon, Bombay, India, actress

Richard Griffin, Providence, Rhode Island, low-budge horror writer/director

Ryûji Harada, Tokyo, Japan, actor

Travis Ware, Atlanta, Georgia, writer

Trevor White, Vancouver, British Columbia, actor

Tony Carrera, birthplace unspecified, French porn star

I will have to look more closely into Today’s Winner’s career at some point. To the director who brought the world such titles as Splatter Disco, The Disco Exorcist, Creature From The Hillbilly Lagoon, and – horrors!! – Dysfunctional Book Club, attention must be paid.

born 25 October 1970

Adam Goldberg, Santa Monica, California, actor

Adam Pascal, The Bronx, New York, actor

Chely Wright, Wellsville, Kansas, country singer

Damon Claussen, Burbank, California, reality TV editor

Ed Robertson, Scarborough, Ontario, musician

Geneviève Appleton, Scarborough, Ontario, documentarian

Hongisto, birthplace unspecified, Finnish musician

J.A. Adande, Los Angeles, California, sportswriter

Juan Carlos Carrasco, Mexico City, writer/director/cinematographer

Lira Angel, Oakland, California, actress

Michi Barall, Toronto, Ontario, actress

Today’s Winner, it’s pretty clear, is going to ripen into one of the main – if not the main – go-to Middle Aged Jewish Guys of 20-teen and 20-twenties movies and television. More than most, he looks born to be over forty. The adventure begins today.

born 24 October 1970

Chad Knight, Sacramento, California, actor

Corey Klemow, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, actor

Gabriella Mariani, Bălţi, Soviet Union, Moldovan actress

Jackie Debatin, Alhambra, Illinois, actress

Jarkko Martikainen, Greifswald, East Germany, Finnish musician

Karim Sabaheddine, Casablanca, Morocco, porn star Zensa Raggi

Michael Brody, Woodstock, New York, producer

Nicholas Simard, Chibougamau, Quebec, actor

Raúl Esparza, Wilmington, Delaware, stage actor

Renato Rossini, Lima, Peru, actor

Stephen Crowe, Christchurch, New Zealand, video game graphic artist

Thomas Mikusz, Vienna, Austria, actor

Wei-ming Ying, Taipei, Taiwan, musician

Today’s Winner takes it on the basis of his stage work; his filmography to date is actually quite skimpy. But he’s a superstar to my mother and frequent denizens of Broadway like her.

born 23 October 1970

check back

shortly

born 22 October 1970

Aleksandr Demidov, Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union, Russian actor

Amy Redford, birthplace unspecified, daughter of Robert Redford

Coque Malla, Madrid, Spain, singer/actor

Craig Fong, Carnavon, Australia, actor

David Rodwin, New Rochelle, New York, writers’ assistant

Jason Moore, Fayetteville, Arkansas, stage and TV director

Matías Camisani, Buenos Aires, Argentina, actor

I’m giving the nod to Today’s Winner in support of his countryman, the Wikileaks guy.

born 21 October 1970

Aza Declercq, birthplace unspecified, Belgian actress

Cody Flynn Alexander, Lubbock, Texas, production assistant

Corey Nakatani, Covina, California, jockey

Damon Whitaker, county of Los Angeles, California, brother of Forest Whitaker

John Morales, Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas keyholder

Louis Koo, Zhongshan, China, actor

Raisa Vattulainen, birthplace unspecified, Finnish actress

Rob Pierce, Fairfield, Iowa, Marine

Sean Morelli, Lebanon, Oregon, actor

It’s really amazing that Today’s Winner, one of the top west coast horse riders of the past twenty years, is the son of a man who was held in an internment camp at the Santa Anita Racetrack during the Second World War, for no more serious crime than being born Japanese.

born 20 October 1970

Artemis Antoine, Long Beach, California, porn star/dominatrix’s daughter

Colin O’Herlihy, Los Angeles, California, extra

Frank Hills, Mount Clemens, Michigan, actor

Heather Harlan, Richmond, Virginia, actress

J. Robinson Wheeler, Pasadena, California, short filmmaker

Joe Petcka, Clintonville, Wisconsin, actor/cat killer

Maurizio Gabriele Graziano Casula, La Spezia, Italy, short filmmaker

Michelle Perez Maglalang, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, nativist daughter of immigrants/rightwing spokeshussy/Oberlin graduate Michelle Malkin

Nikky Smedley, unspecified birthplace in England, Teletubby Laa-Laa

Patrick Murphy, birthplace unspecified, Irish singer

Salvadore Chavito Guerrero III, El Paso, Texas, professional wrestler

Ted Deiker, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, production supervisor

Yoshihiro Yamakazi, Urayasu, Japan, professional wrestler Tiger Mask

This group seems to include some especially odious individuals, I gotta say. Rather than honor any of them specifically, I’d rather share with you, apropos of nothing except the general welfare of humanity, the following link, a well-written summary of a Prince aftershow that took place in the city of Paris early one morning this past summer. That seems like a better thing for you, my valued reader, to be contemplating than any of the works the folks born today have had to offer (though one of them did work on a picture with the marginally hilarious title Emotional Backgammon).

born 19 October 1970

Andy Comeau, New Boston, New Hampshire, actor

Chris Kattan, Los Angeles, California, “Saturday Night Live” castoff

Emma Jesson, birthplace unspecified, English meteorologist

Karina Alejandra Mazzocco, Buenos Aires, Argentina, actress

Karsten Kastelan, Warstein, West Germany, publicist

Ken McGaugh, Newport, Arkansas, visual effects supervisor

Marcelo Melingo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, actor

Mariana Garza, Monterrey, Mexico, actress/child singer

Mario Rade, Osijek, Yugoslavia, Croatian actor

Pertti Eero Olavi Salovaara, Raahe, Finland, radio host/politician

Sang-min Park, birthplace unspecified, South Korean actor

Umoja Butler, San Jose, California, bouncer

Vince Del Tito, birthplace unspecified, Australian child singer/dancer

I feel bad for Today’s Winner. He’s been kicking around TV in a number of decent roles for the last decade or so, most notably to me as the psychiatrist’s schizoid younger brother on “Huff”. He seemed to me, in fact, to be perched on the cusp of character actor stardom.

But lately I’ve been seeing him do a number of non-speaking roles in beer commercials. I’m sure the money’s okay, but what a weird step down and sideways careerwise. Everybody has a hungry monkey in a cage somewhere that needs feeding, I guess.

born 18 October 1970

Andreas Knop, Radeberg, East Germany, TV writer

David and Marc Recha, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, actor and writer/director, respectively

Doug Mirabelli, Kingman, Arizona, major league catcher

Giovanni de Pietro, Palermo, Italy, industry taker-by-storm Gianni Palermo

Mike Starink, Arnheim, The Netherlands, actor

Philip Rogan, Dublin, Ireland, photographer

Steve Akerman, Los Angeles, California, short filmmaker

Steve Parlavecchio, Jersey City, New Jersey, actor

It’s been a while since I allowed myself to be charmed by a hyperbolic and shoddily composed mini-biography. But every once in a while, my resistance buckles. So here’s to Today’s Winner; may he continue to overcome any and all obstacles that may intervene in the next forty years of his turbulent existence.

born 17 October 1970

Ageeth Telleman, Alkmaar, The Netherlands, politician

Alain Boghossian, Digne, France, soccer player

Andreas Kyprianou, Hamilton, Ontario, writer

David Corey Offill, Commerce, Texas, producer Bryce C. Campbell

Eva Dorrepaal, Leiden, The Netherlands, actress

Isaiah Carey, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, local TV newscaster

John Mabry, Wilmington, Delaware, major league baseball player

Jonathan Skinner, Saint Charles, Missouri, Jehovah’s Witness

Karl Hirsch, Phoenix, Arizona, short filmmaker

Mahtab Karamati, Tehran, Iran, actress

Melissa Marie Thomas, Los Angeles, California, casting director

Olaf Held, Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany, short filmmaker

Rob Harshbarger, Sandusky, Ohio, transportation provider

Shauna O’Brien, Pasco, Washington, porn star

Today’s Winner hails from a city which has been reported to possess the lowest birth rate in the entire world. That’s got to count for something, right?

born 16 October 1970

Adrian Murrell, Fayetteville, North Carolina, NFL football player

Anna Nolan, birthplace unspecified, UK “Big Brother” contestant

Caroline Héroux, Montreal, Quebec, writer/producer

Marco Rossi, Queens, New York, porn star

Hairy Mary, birthplace unspecified, presumably hirsute porn star

Mehmet Scholl, Karlsruhe, West Germany, soccer player

Stewart Shields, Huntsville, Alabama, TV line producer

Tom Williams, Sydney, Australia, Australian “Dancing With The Stars” contestant

Tommi Olavi Raitolehto, Helsinki, Finland, actor

Meekly and indifferently, I nominate Today’s Winner for his contributions to German-Turkish amity.

born 15 October 1970

Biljana Srbljanovic, Stockholm, Sweden, Serbian writer/politician

Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, Washington, D.C., R&B singer Ginuwine

Geir Henning Hopland, Bergen, Norway, short filmmaker

Jeffrey Lund, Baltimore, Maryland, digital effects artist

Jenna Byrne, New York, New York, actress

Kevin Kliesch, Teaneck, New Jersey, orchestrator

Luísa Costa Gomes, Lisbon, Portugal, script supervisor

Manuel Jesús Rodríguez Rodríguez, Rincón de la Victoria, Spain, musician El Koala

Skylor Capri, Irvine, California, porn star

Tara Carnes, birthplace unspecified, American actress

Timothy Joseph Ripley (died 22 June 2001), Santa Barbara, California, porn star Leo Masters

Zak Orth, Libertyville, Illinois, actor

Zeb Atlas, Portland, Oregon, self-styled fitness model/erotic film star/bodybuilder

The first three names on the roster today are our co-winners.

The first, for her unwelcome Scrabble slate of a last name, and for her pugilistic public stances in Serbian culture. And for being an accomplished playwright, and kind of a looker (for a writer) to boot.

The second, for being a C-list 90s celebrity, with one of the more awesome celebrity-derived given names I have ever encountered. Way to go Mr. and Mrs. Lumpkin!

The third, for the charming photograph that accompanies his main IMDb profile page.