Ruben Studdard

While best known as "The Velvet Teddy Bear" who won the 2003 season of "American Idol," which helped launch his singing career, Ruben Studdard parlayed that success into various guest appearances on television series. During the mid-'00s, he could be seen in the episode of the sitcom "8 Simple Rules," ''C.J.'s Real Dad,'' as the seemingly-unlikely biological father of C.J. Barnes, played by David Spade (Studdard's character would turn out to be a pizza deliveryman). Meanwhile, in the sitcom "Life on a Stick," which aired on the same network as "American Idol" in 2005, he guest-starred in one episode as a worker selling fish. That same year, Studdard was in an episode of the comedy "All of Us" directed by Debbie Allen, entitled ''Baby Got (Flash) Back,'' in which he portrayed the grown-up version of the young character Robert James Jr. in a fantasy sequence. He also got a chance to show off his acting chops on the big screen; his brief appearance as himself in '04's "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" arguably represented the high point of the film. Studdard closed out the decade with a small role in "Lifted," a drama about an aspiring rapper set in his hometown of Alabama.