Anne Heche
That mysterious air hovering over Anne Heche like a storm cloud has always been part of her appeal, along with, of course, a sly, impish grin that manages to ooze out a certain simmering sexiness. Her offscreen life aside, hers is a natural acting ability that may or may not stem from her, well, unique and well-publicized personality. Either way, Heche is often able to pull off a wide range of roles with relative ease, whether it's playing a political manipulator with Dustin Hoffman in Wag the Dog or a feuding castaway with Harrison Ford in Six Days Seven Nights. Heche, 37, finally has a project all her own with ABC's Men in Trees, and time to snuggle into a character. (Did you catch her on Everwood? Nice warm-up.) She plays an author specializing in romance techniques and the gender wars who finds herself stranded in man-crowded Alaska after a book signing. What makes Heche a natural is that she's natural, starting with her delicate features and coy little smile. It's disarming enough to make you forget who she is in that particular moment. Like magic.

Tia Mowry
Tia Mowry's initial calling card of notoriety was, to be gentle, a gimmick. Mowry has a sister, Tamera, born two minutes before her, and the two were a cute-as-kittens tag team on Sister, Sister, the adolescent sitcom that ran for a number of years, first on ABC and then on the WB. She doesn't need a gimmick anymore. In the CW's The Game, a comedy about women and the professional football players they fawn over, Mowry, 28, plays an ambitious med-school student and sports novice who just happens to be in love with her college beau, now a third-string wide receiver on a professional football team. Unsure of how to proceed - love him too much and smother him, or give him too much space and lose him to a more vigilant suitor - she's clearly in over her head. That's never been a problem for Mowry: She retains much of the smoothness, timing, and likability that made her so appealing in Sister, Sister. And she still possesses that girl-next-door quality, but with a hint of a cerebral vibe. She conveys intelligent innocence with an emotional candor that can't possibly be taught.