14. Connie Britton
Sports/teen/family drama Friday Night Lights was a sorely unappreciated show during its five years on the air, picking up acclaim from critics and garnering a handful of awards without ever achieving mind-blowing ratings. It was given a dignified run, however, and provided a great story from start to finish, helmed by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as Eric and Tammi Taylor respectively. Chandler is now popping up here, there and everywhere, having appeared in Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Super 8 and one of last year's great-yet-mostly-unseen films, The Spectacular Now. Britton, meanwhile, has stayed in television, having secured lead roles in the first season of American Horror Story and the country music drama Nashville since 'Lights went off the air. In the same year that it premiered, however, she appeared in a non-lead role on 24, albeit a role that saw her interact with lead Jack Bauer. This was as Diane Huxley, the woman that Jack develops something of an attachment to after faking his own death at the end of season four, though she is soon forgotten when he is brought back into the world of counterterrorism.
13. Kal Penn
Lowbrow as they may be, it's hard to deny that the Harold and Kumar series of stoner films are solid comedies, and ones that somewhat surprisingly propelled their stars, John Cho and Kal Penn (previously known for bitparts in American Pie and Van Wilder, respectively), into more serious roles (Cho as Sulu in Star Trek and Penn as Kutner in House) In 2009, Penn joined the Obama administration, becoming part of the White House Office Of Public Engagement. This seemingly spelled the end of his acting career, giving that he was hastily written out of House to facilitate his new role, though he has subsequently put his political career on hold twice in order to film the third Harold and Kumar movie and a recurring part on How I Met Your Mother. Two years before beginning his political engagements, Penn showed up at the beginning of 24's sixth season, playing Ahmad Amar, a man who is working for terrorist mastermind Abu Fayed but is initially presumed to be the innocent son of a man falsely arrested on terrorist charges by his American neighbours.