A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance or voice part of a well known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are small, many of them non-speaking ones, are either appearances in a work in which they hold some special significance or renowned people making uncredited appearances. Short appearances by celebrities, film directors, athletes or musicians are common. A crew member of the movie or show playing a minor role can be referred to as a cameo as well, such as Alfred Hitchcock's performed cameos. "cameo role" meant "a small character part that stands out from the other minor parts". The Oxford English Dictionary connects this with the meaning "a short literary sketch or portrait", based on the literal meaning of "cameo", a miniature carving on a gemstone. More "cameo" has come to refer to any short appearances, as a character, such as the examples below. Cameos are not credited because of their brevity, or a perceived mismatch between the celebrity's stature and the film or television series in which they are appearing.

Many are publicity stunts. Others are acknowledgments of an actor's contribution to an earlier work, as in the case of many film adaptations of television series, or of remakes of earlier films. Others honour celebrities known for work in a particular field; the best-known series of cameos was by Alfred Hitchcock, who made brief appearances in most of his films. Cameos occur in novels and other literary works. "Literary cameos" involve an established character from another work who makes a brief appearance to establish a shared universe setting, to make a point, or to offer homage. Balzac employed this practice, as in his Comédie humaine. Sometimes a cameo features a historical person who "drops in" on fictional characters in a historical novel, as when Benjamin Franklin shares a beer with Phillipe Charboneau in The Bastard by John Jakes. A cameo appearance can be made by the author of a work to put a sort of personal "signature" on a story. Vladimir Nabokov put himself in his novels, for instance as the minor character Vivian Darkbloom in Lolita.

Quentin Tarantino provides small roles in at least 10 of his movies. Peter Jackson has made brief cameos in all of his movies, except for his first feature-length film Bad Taste in which he plays a main character, as well as The Battle of the Five Armies, though a portrait of him appears in the film. For example, he plays a peasant eating a carrot in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Desolation of Smaug. All four were non-speaking "blink and you miss him" appearances, although in the Extended Release of The Return of the King, his character was given more screen time and his reprise of the carrot eating peasant in The Desolation of Smaug was featured in the foreground in reference to The Fellowship of the Ring - last seen twelve years earlier. Director Martin Scorsese appears in the background of his films as a bystander or an unseen character. In Who's That Knocking at My Door, he appears as one of the gangsters, he opens up his film The Color of Money with a monologue on the art of playing pool.

In addition, he appears with his wife and daughter as wealthy New Yorkers in Gangs of New York, he appears as a theatre-goer and is heard as a movie projectionist in The Aviator. In a same way, Roman Polanski appears as a hired hoodlum in his film Chinatown, slitting Jack Nicholson's nose with the blade of his clasp knife. Directors sometimes cast well-known lead actors with whom they have worked in the past in other films. Mike Todd's film Around the World in 80 Days was filled with cameo roles: John Gielgud as an English butler, Frank Sinatra playing piano in a saloon, others; the stars in cameo roles were pictured in oval insets in posters for the film, gave the term wide circulation outside the theatrical profession. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World, an "epic comedy" features cameos from nearly every popular American comedian alive at the time, including The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, a silent appearance by Buster Keaton and a voice-only cameo by Selma Diamond. Aaron Sorkin had cameos in some works he wrote: as a bar customer speaking about law in his debut film screenplay A Few Good Men, as an advertising executive in The Social Network and as a guest at the inauguration of President Matt Santos in the final episode of The West Wing.

Franco Nero, the actor who portrayed the Django character in the original 1966 film, appears in a bar scene of the Tarantino film Django Unchained. There, he asks Django to spell his name, which led to the famous promotional tagline for the film - "The'D' is silent". Franco's character responds "I know." Many cameos featured in Maverick, directed by Richard Donner. Among them, Danny Glover – Mel Gibson's co-star in the Lethal Weapon franchise directed by Donner – appears as the lead bank robber, he and Maverick share a scene where they look as if they knew each other, but shake it off. As Glover makes his escape with the money, he mutters "I'm too old for this shit", his character's catchphrase in the Lethal Weapon films. In addition, a strain of the main theme from Lethal Weapon plays in the score when Glover is revealed. Actress Margot Kidder made a cameo appearance in the same film as a robbed villager: she had starred as Lois Lane in Donner's Superman. Ben

Sandy Collins is a retired professional tennis player from the U. S. who played from the late 1970s until 1994. Collins is a native of California. Sandy went to Odessa College, where she played tennis for the Wranglers. After two seasons, she transferred to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, where she completed her college career. During her professional career, she won four doubles tournaments on the WTA tour. Collins spent the next 17 years on the pro tennis tour, beating Billie Jean King in her second year as well as Tracy Austin in the quarterfinals of the German Open. At different times in her career, Collins was ranked as high as 17th in the world in singles and doubles, she became the first tennis player to be endorsed by Oakley Sunglasses. After retirement, Collins coached for a time taking a job at Texas Tech University as the women's tennis assistant coach and named head coach in November 2002, she is the associate AD/event operations and sports administrator at Texas Tech University.

Sandy Collins at the Women's Tennis Association Sandy Collins at the International Tennis Federation Tennis Magazine 1982 Profile at Texas Tech athletics

The Gribovsky G-21 was a single engine cabin monoplane designed and built in the USSR in the mid-1930s. Intended for touring and civil utility rôles, only one was completed; the G-21 had much in common with that of the earlier G-15, a two-seat touring aircraft, with a two spar wing of similar construction and geometry and a monocoque fuselage. The G-15's side-by-side cockpit was replaced with an enclosed cabin able to seat three. Suggested rôles included that of air ambulance. Like the G-15 it had a plywood covered wing centre section, an integral part of the fuselage; the outer wing panels were ply covered from the leading edge back to the rear spar, with the rest fabric covered. In plan the wings were tapered on the trailing edges, ended in long, elliptical tips, its automatic leading edge slats were interconnected through the fuselage with a steel tube and its ailerons were slotted. The G-21 was powered by a five-cylinder 112 kW M-11Ye radial engine, installed with its cylinders projecting out of the smooth cowling for cooling and driving a two blade propeller.

Behind the engine the fuselage was smoothly ply covered. The front of the cabin was over the leading edge, with panelled glazing that extended aft to about three-quarters chord; the G-21's cabin roof line extended rearwards unbroken, tapering only to the tail, where a forward set, mid-fuselage mounted tailplane was braced on each side by a single strut to the fin-fuselage junction. The fin and unbalanced rudder had a curved profile; the G-21 had a tail skid undercarriage. The tail skid was faired, it made its first flight in 1936. Equipped with extra fuel tanks, it made several notable long distance flights. Data from Gunston, p.79General characteristics Capacity: Two/three Length: 7.0 m Wingspan: 11.0 m Wing area: 14.0 m2 Empty weight: 705 kg Gross weight: 980 kg Fuel capacity: 105 kg Powerplant: 1 × M-11Ye 5-cylinder radial, 110 kW Propellers: 2-bladedPerformance Maximum speed: 220 km/h Range: 500 km Service ceiling: 4,760 m Time to altitude: 5.6 min to 1,000 m Landing speed: 70 km/h