Before They Were Heroes: A Look at the Past Movie and Television Roles of the Stars of Heroes

Since it premiered in September of last year, Heroes has fast become one of the most watched television shows of recent past. The show follows people with the gift of extraordinary powers and abilities such as time travel, invincibility, mind reading, shape shifting and precognitive abilities just to name a few. They soon discover that their roles in life may be bigger than they could have ever perceived, and that their powers are for a bigger purpose; saving the world.

So the other day I got to thinking, what were the cast of Heroes doing before the show? Were they actors looking for their big breaks? I did some research and dug up a bit of the past on each of the shows stars, and what they have done leading up to their success on Heroes.

Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet) - Mr. Coleman's first major role was way back in 1981 where he portrayed the character of Jake Kositchek on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. The following year he joined the cast of Dynasty where he portrayed Steven Carrington, one of the first gay characters on television. He has also had numerous guest appearances on television shows such as; CSI, Without A Trace, Entourage and Nip/Tuck.

Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet) - Hayden started in show business very early, first appearing in a commercial for Playskool when she was just 11 months old. She then went on to soap operas just as her namesake father in Heroes did, playing the role of Lizzie Spaulding on the show Guiding light where she portrayed a young girl in a battle with leukemia. She has also done voice acting work for the video games Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II in which she voiced the role of Kairi.

Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins) - Prior to playing an escaped criminal on Heroes, Leonard was playing recurring role of Forrest Gates on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also played the antagonist Sean Taylor in the movie Drumline.

Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura) - Blessed with an IQ of 180, Masi was featured on an 1987 cover of Time Magazine in an issue titled "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids" when he was just 12 years old. He since then has worked with Industrial Light & Magic as a programmer, where he still works part-time today. He has also been a guest on many television shows such as; Scrubs, Dharma & Greg, Gilmore Girls, and The Jamie Kennedy Experiment just to name a few.

Santiago Cabrera (Issac Mendez) - The son of a Chilean diplomat, Santiago speaks four languages. He then went on to play small roles in London on the television shows "Battles of Britain", "Judge John Deed" and "As If".

Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) - Being lifelong friends with producer J.J. Abrams has certainly helped Greg's career through the years, most notably being the roles of Sean Blumberg on Felicity and Eric Weiss on Alias. He also appeared in Mission: Impossible III playing a small role.

Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli) - Had a role in Top Gun when he was 19, which the director specific wrote for him after being impressed by his audition. He then had a few minor movie roles, and eventually starred in the 1987 vampire movie Near Dark. Then in 1996 he broke into television starring in a short lived show called Profit.

Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) - Milo started off with small television roles on such shows as; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Then from 2001 to 2003 he played the role of intellectual bad boy Jess Mariano on the television show Gilmore Girls.

Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders) - Noah is an avid musician and has been playing the piano since he was 18 months old. He started performing at venues when he was 4 years old, and has toured with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. In 2001 he made his debut on television with roles and appearances on 48 Hours, Grey's Anatomy, The Tonight Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America and CSI: Miami.

Ali Larter (Niki/Jessica Sanders) - Became a model with Ford Models when she was 13, she broke into television in 1997 with spots on Chicago Sons, Just Shoot Me, Dawson's Creek and Chicago Hope. She made her film debut in 1999 with roles in the films Varsity Blues and House On Haunted Hill.

Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh) - Originally he wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps and become a physician, attending Tufts University as a pre-med student. He then took an "Intro to Acting" class while he was there which made him change paths. Among the television shows he appear on include; Ellen, Guiding Light, Ultimate Force, Numb3rs and Grey's Anatomy. He has also appeared in theatrical productions of several plays and had roles in the films Little India and Orient Express.

Zachary Quinto (Sylar) - Made his television debut on the short lived series The Others in 2000, and has appeared also on Charmed, Six Feet Under, CSI and Touched By An Angel. Landed a recurring role in 2004 on the hit show 24 as computer genius Adam Kaufman. Played a flamboyantly gay Persian-American and best friend to Tori Spelling on her show So NoTORIous in 2006.