Topher Grace will as we all know be playing Venom in the upcoming Spider-man 3. He first got his big break on the sitcom "That 70's Show". Originally entitled, "Teenage Wasteland" of which the producers of, just happened to be attending a play called, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" when they discovered Topher playing Pseudolus.  They hired him for the show and the rest is history.

Topher Grace was born in 1978 in New York City as Christopher Grace. He grew up in Connecticut near Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane in "Superman Returns") and  Chloe Sevigny ("Big Love") who sometimes baby sat him.

Grace is given credit for creating a hit of "That 70's Show" with is portrayal of Eric Fordman. He is accredited for his ability to bring a sort of sophistated laughter to the show without use of slapstick. Well nobody is perfect. Personally, I prefer slapstick, but regardless he did show his ability to act which led to a few pretty successful movie roles and his eventual role as Eddie Brock Venom.

Topher Grace has been smart with his choice of roles leading up to the role of Eddie Brock, deciding to stay away from the typical forgettable teen movie. He's kept his personal life personal staying away from tabloids. To my mind that really shows some intelligence. I think if I were a movie star I'd go on vacations in some deep forests and wear a disguise.

With success in Hollywood movies, Topher eventually left "That 70's Show" before it reached it's final season. It was kind of reminiscent of when Richie Cunningham left Happy Days. Very sad, but you can't blame an actor for moving forward with their careers.

Tobey Maguire has been quoted as saying in reference to Topher's roles in Spider-man 3," The way it was written and the way Grace portrayed the character was just great because it's a lot of fun and there is definitely a rivalry and it gets scary and dangerous at some point, and I think the the dynamics of that relationship was really interesting and fun".

What's Topher's view of his work? Well he told Cinema Confidential, "I do think that I'm really honest about knowing that I'm really green. I'm really new to this. I really want to just work with the best people in the world, and I've been able to do that. Every time I feel like I come out with so much more, I'm more obsessive about who I work with than what I work on."
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Venom Character Facts

Venom originated from the Secret Wars. During this mega 1980's comic book event in the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man and the most of the Marvel Universe were taken to another planet by the Beyonder to battle the Marvel Comics villains.

During these wars, Spider-Man found a symbiote which became Spider-Man's new black costume. Not only did it have to ability to transform into street clothes but also came equipped with it's own webbing which meant no more changing web cartridges for Spider-Man.

Soon Spider-Man realized that the symbiote was trying to form permanent bonds to him and so he had to separate himself from the symbiote for good.

Enter Eddie Brock, reporter,  who had already harbored a grudge against Spider-Man for ruining his prize story. The symbiote became attracted to Brock because of their shared hatred for Spider-Man. Brock in his identity of Venom used the symbiote to attack and aide Spider-Man becoming a vigilante of sorts.

Brock sold the symbiote to Don Fortunato after he discovered he had cancer.

Angelo Fortunato, the Don's son, became the second Venom for a brief period of time. However, Angelo proved to be a weak host for the Symbiote, being humiliated in a battle with Spider-Man. The Symbiote abandoned Angelo mid-leap, and the subsequent fall killed him.

Macdonald "Mac" Gargan was a former private investigator hired by J. Jonah Jameson to, at first, discover the connection between Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Later, he was used as a test subject for a process that would endow him with the useful characteristics of a scorpion. The process enabled him to fight Spider-Man, as Jameson desired, but left him criminally insane. Lashing out at Jameson and others, the Scorpion would fight many characters, but ultimately be considered a low level villain. This changed when Gargan has traded his Scorpion costume for the symbiote.